Lyft follows Uber with good results, EV making is tough, flying cars seems easier.

Lyft obviously lost money in Q2, but beat analysts expectations (so did DoorDash) and is opening a new advertising unit to help boost profits; SWVL raises and falls; Tada increases rider fees (so did Meituan and Hello); UK gov will not expand e-scooter trials to new areas; Marti, Turkey micromobility, to SPAC (yes, that can still happen); Gorillas continues to shrink; Baidu expands robotaxi operations; VW’s new flying taxi; Arrival pauses bus and car production and Lucid reduces production forecast; Ola Electric car to launch tomorrow; and more on this week of #movingpeople. Let’s start. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedRide-hailing / DRT 🚙🚌

Lyft’s Q2 results were strong, bringing in $990M in revenue, better than analysts predicted. The company is still losing - $377.2M in Q2 - but adjusted-EBITDA looks good and with $1.8bn in the bank, there is a significant runway. In terms of e-scooter micromobility, Lyft is likely to rely on its partnership with Spin, rather than develop its own capabilities. The full story on TechCrunch. Also, Lyft is opening a new media & advertising unit, which will offer and advance rooftop ads, in-car tablet messaging, bike docking station displays and Lyft Skins on the app. 

SWVL announced $20M in a deal to issue stock to an institutional investor at $1.65 per share. Consequently, the stock fell by 16%, eventually reaching a low of $1.5, bouncing back to $1.58 end-of-trade Thursday, 

Tada, Singapore ride-hailing, increases its rider fee. The company is also working on shortening cash out time for drivers, down to 12 hours from 24 hours, to benefit drivers. In Singapore, Grab leads with ±50% market share, with Gojek (±18%), Comordelgro (±15%), Tada (±%11) and lastly Ryde (%6) following.  

Grab acquires motorcycle taxi firm MOVE IT, Grab plans to expand MOVE IT’s operations across the Philippines. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFREE NOW awarded a three year extension by the TfL (London). Revel expands NYC operation zone. WeShare, a VW subsidiary based in Hamburg, is expanding its e-car operations. UFODrive, an EV rental startup, launches in San Francisco. This is the European company’s first US city, after launching 16 cities across Europe, with additional US cities to open soon. Bolt to start in Glasgow. 

Columbian taxis offer poor service and are filled with crime; Uber entered Bogota in 2013 and reached 88,000 drivers and 2 million users by the end of 2019. Columbian taxis are regulated (medallions) and were then protected by the government - Uber Colombia was accused of unfair competition, customer deviation, and anti-competitive conduct - and left in February 2020. The author thinks it's bad.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMicromobility 🚲🛴

McKinsey on how the pandemic reshaped micromobility investments. Money is still flowing into the industry; Europe is expanding its share of the global investments; E-kickscooters remain the most prevalent vehicle type; and institutional investors continue to dominate the market. 

The UK government will not expand the e-scooter trial zones during their planned extension,  until 31 May 2024. That means that trial extensions will only be possible in the 31 zones active today. Government is concerned about safety and wider implications of micromobility usage. 

In China, bike-sharing services Meituan and Hello are raising prices. Together with DiDi these are the three biggest bike-sharing firms in China. ATOM Mobility is launching a venture building programme to help build local mobility businesses. Amsterdammers, 75% of them, don’t like high-speed e-bikes as they are concerned with safety.  

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDelivery 🍽🧺

Deliveroo H1 results show £147M losses. Revenues rose 12% YoY and monthly active customers rose by 4% in H1, but pre-tax losses widened by 54% because of the soaring cost of delivery riders and staff, while gross transaction value per order fell by 4%. Revenue growth in Q2, when the economic slowdown started, has been slower, at 2%. Also, Deliveroo is exiting the Netherlands. 

DoorDash’s share rose after the company posted its Q2 results (beating analysts expectations). Revenue rose 30% to $1.6 billion in Q2, 23% more orders YoY. 

Marti, Turkey’s leading micromobility operator, to go public via SPAC. Marti will use funds to expand in its home and only market. 

Foodpanda launched an on-demand parcel delivery service for consumers in Singapore, following the prior launch of ‘Pandango’ for business in 2020. Haat, an Israel delivery application, is planning to expand its operations in Morocco as part of its strategy to expand across the MENA region and beyond Israeli markets. Wendy’s and Reef are slashing the number of restaurants they plan to open together by 2025, from an initial estimate of 700 announced last year to between 100 and 150 units, concentrating primarily in the U.K. and Canada. Gorillas closes warehouses in Germany, almost entirely withdrawing from the Ruhr region. Gopuff is rolling out ‘Instant Cash Out’, enabling drivers to immediately transfer their earnings to a bank account. Glovo teams with Vromo, software for restaurant food delivery. 

A high-level look at the delivery market. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAutonomous 🤖

Yandex plans to transfer the development of unmanned taxis and delivery robots to Israel. This move will require a name change, roovvy.ai, avride.ai and avnear.ai are all on the table. Source code is to stay in Russia.  

Baidu to operate fully driverless commercial robotaxi in Wuhan and Chongqing, without a human safety driver. As with other similar autonomous operations, the zone of operations is limited, driving hours are only through the day and zones are not densely populated, with large roads. Baidu plans to expand its ride-hailing service to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030. 

Waymo designed new features to improve AV access for passengers with disabilities. These includes rider’s initials rooftop display, turn-by-turn navigation to guide the rider on the most appropriate path to their awaiting robotaxi and direction by sound. 

AECOM and Navya launches automated shuttle pilot in Minnesota. Udelv, maker of autonomous delivery vehicles, provides services for nonprofit organizations. Argo AI assembles panel of outside experts to oversee safety of its autonomous vehicles.

Tesla’s self-driving technology fails to detect children in the road, group claims. The group run test of mannequin children vs. 25mph Tesla cars - the mannequins lost. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFlying cars 🚁☁️

Volkswagen Group China reveals autonomous flying taxi. The vehicle  is likely to offer transport for four people and their luggage over a distance of 124 miles, and will target affluent Chinese customers prepared to pay for VIP air shuttles.

Archer Aviation receives $10M pre-delivery payment from United Airlines for a 100 eVTOLs. Joby expands partnership with US DoD. AutoFlight’s (China) eVTOL successfully completes test flight. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedManufacturers 🛺⚡️

Arrival pauses electric bus and (Uber) car projects in cost-cutting drive, slashing cost by a third. The bus trials were supposed to start soon with First Bus, after the vehicle received WVTA approval, while the car project was still in the making. Arrival will focus on making vans, having a 20,000 unit order from UPS. . 

Lucid Motors reduces its yearly production goal to 6 to 7 thousand, from an initial 20K estimation. The company cites problems with supply chain and a lack of parts and raw materials as main causes for the reduced production. 

Chalo will purchase over 5,000 buses from Switch Mobility over the course of three years. Nikola acquires battery supplier Romeo for $144M. Tesla’s Cybertruck is going to be more expensive than originally planned. Makes sense. First Ola Electric car to launch on August 15th, Indian independence day. River, a Bangalore-based startup that builds electric two-wheelers, announced an $11 million Series A fundraise. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIn other news 📰

In India, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) launches digital wallet ‘Chalo Pay’ for commuters. Riders will now be able to pay with their smartphone, even if there is no connectivity, with NFC or QR capabilities. 

From Israel: Nexar acquires Veniam, to improve efficiency of data transfer. This is Nexar’s 1st acquisition, good luck. The $4bn deal for lidar sensors and perception software Innoviz made was with… VW. Aleph, digital advertising ecosystem in emerging countries. and Moovit, enter into a partnership. Aleph will represent Moovit in México, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru.