Understanding NVIDIA, BENTELER acquires ioki, Drone deliveries expand in the US and Singapore

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - a consultancy focused on Innovation, Growth and Autonomy in the Mobility industry.

Top Story: Understanding NVIDIA’s Role in Autonomy

NVIDIA is not ‘just’ a chip maker - it is (1) a developer of autonomous simulation tools - meaning teams around the world can use the Alpamayo product family to develop autonomous driving. And NVIDIA is not only simulation tools - but (2) an ADAS co-developer - launching soon with Mercedes in the US. 

1) During CES, NVIDIA announced the launch of Alpamayo, a group of open source AI models, simulation tools, and datasets for training autonomous vehicles (& physical robots). “Alpamayo brings reasoning to autonomous vehicles, allowing them to think through rare scenarios, drive safely in complex environments, and explain their driving decisions.” Note the word “explaining” - i.e. not a black box, but a feedback mechanism.

2) Mercedes is using NVIDIA’s full-stack DRIVE AV software to launch L2 ADAS in the US. “Nvidia’s team is clear about what that means behind the scenes: the driving, parking, and active safety software was built by Nvidia with Mercedes’ help, trained on Nvidia infrastructure, and then tested in the cloud and on-road through both companies’ processes” (Quartz - good long read).

What this means:

1) NVIDIA wants to be the ‘Android’ of ADAS. Competing with the likes of Mobileye or Applied Intuition in terms of ADAS product; and, in the future, with the likes of Waymo and Tesla in terms of AV software.  

2) Cars are just the start. Humanoid Robots are around the corner. 

Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕

Uber introduces the new Nuro-Lucid robotaxi. The partnership, announced July 2025, saw Uber investing in both Lucid and Nuro while committing to buy 20,000 vehicles. On-road testing began last month and a commercial launch is planned in San Francisco for later this year. See short video here.  

Applied Intuition expands self-driving to Europe - testing vehicles in Stuttgart and working with European OEMs. Applied offers OEMs a “white-box” solution, “enabling manufacturers to deploy ADAS and automated driving features while retaining control over brand experience and in-house capabilities”. This last bit, retaining control, is important, as OEMs try to differentiate themselves in the autonomous era. Applied is not new to working with OEMs, and has SDV and software partnership with the likes of Stellantis and TRATON. 

Let’s look at what some other OEMs and are doing in ADAS / Autonomy

Ford will bring Level 3 driver-assistance systems to market in 2028, allowing hands-off eyes-off in certain ODDs. Ford is developing the solution in-house, citing it would be cheaper and “have greater oversight over how the sensors are utilized and integrated into the vehicles”. The solution would first be implemented on the EV platform Ford is developing. The business model is still in the works; ADAS would not be a part of the vehicle price, but sold separately, available either/or a subscription or a purchasing model. 

Mobileye announces ADAS partnership with an undisclosed “major U.S.-based automaker”. GM is a likely candidate, but we still don’t know for sure. 

Hyundai reaffirms 42dot autonomous strategy. The Group’s Executive Chair visited the autonomous development site and rode an end-to-end autonomy Ioniq 6, committing investment up to 2030. When an autonomous Hyundai will hit the roads is not clear. 

Mercedes is introducing MB.DRIVE ASSIST PRO, its advanced L2++ ADAS system, in the US. The system is currently available in China. Note: responsibility rests with the driver, this is not full autonomy, rather a Tesla-like autonomy, i.e. supervised. The solution will cost $3,950 for three years, with annual and monthly plans to be announced soon. For comparison, Tesla’s FSD costs $8,000 one-time or $99 per month. As noted before, the ADAS is done in partnership with NVIDIA. 

David Moss, a Tesla owner and LiDAR salesman, completed a hands-off (zero disengagements) drive across the US, from Los Angeles (West) to South Carolina (East), a journey of 2,734 miles (4,400 km), which took 2 days and 20 hours. 

Ride AI did the math and estimated that there are 600,000 FSD owners in the US, of those 350k-550k are regular/high frequency users - or 0.2% of all US licensed drivers. 

Oxa receives £20M funding through convertible notes from bpVentures and IP Group. This is bridge financing; in its latest financial report, the company stressed the importance of raising additional funds. Oxa pivoted to logistics autonomy circa a year ago. 

Uber is interested in SpotHero, a parking company. An acquisition would allow Uber to offer reserved parking to its drivers, thus enhancing its proposal. The company, founded in 2011 and is live in over 400 US cities, is said to have been valued at $290M during its last raise, in 2019.  

CaoCao, a Geely company, acquires StarRides, premium ride-hailing, and Zhejiang Geely Business Travel Services (Geely Travel), corporate travel management, to boost its corporate mobility offer. StarRides acquisition also gives CaoCao international footprint, as the company is active in European and Asian markets.  

Grab partners with GAC to “improve in-vehicle experience for Grab driver-partners”. The partnership sees 20,000 specially designed electric vehicles offered to Grab’s drivers. To enhance experience and fit, Grab will integrate its app into GAC’s intelligent cockpit system. Grab will be responsible for the commercial offer to drivers. 

Waymo is rebranding its Zeekr vehicles - will now be named Ojai (pronounced “oh-hi”). When riders get into the vehicles, they will be greeted with “Oh Hi, (name)”. This is to do with the unawareness at best and perhaps negative perception of Chinese vehicles. 

Waymo receives OK to start autonomous testing with a driver at the wheel in Nevada. Waymo might be coming also to Oxford, not just London. Waymo has a testing centre in the city, but at this point says it has no plans to launch at Oxford. Much depends on the adoption of the (not published yet) DfT regulation, and which cities would want to move forward with it. 

Dubai RTA reveals phase 1 rollout of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis across 65 locations. WeRide summarises 2025 in a video. Pony.ai has 1,159 vehicles on its fleet. 

A Zoox is stuck in an intersection. 

DRT, Bus-Based Mobility & AV shuttles 🚍🚌

BENTELER Group, the company behind Holon, acquires ioki - to create “Europe’s first full-service autonomous mobility provider”. BENTELER brings financing and fleet operation expertise; Holon the autonomous shuttle OEM; ioki the dispatch, booking, and on-demand platform. 

What’s in it for BENTELER: 

1) Vertical control of the value chain

2) Immediate market access via ioki’s customer base

3) US expansion 

For my take on the acquisition:

Beep partners with Karsan & Adastec to launch two new services - in Orlando and for the World Cup in Atlanta. 

Simdle in 2025 - over 390,000 bookings and new customer launches. See here. Tees Flex DRT, available since 2020, to end and be replaced by two fixed route services. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Recap of M&A deals in shared micromobility. It shows the consolidation the industry experienced during the past two years. My forecast is for more consolidation: big multinational players, now reaching profitability, will acquire smaller regional companies to facilitate entrance into new geographies / verticals. 

HelloRide introduces ‘Private Collection’ - a premium take home long term use product. In simpler words - bike leasing. The launch is done jointly with foodpanda, with HelloRide targeting foodpanda's delivery workers. 

Bolt reports 8% increase in micromobility ridership in 2025. 

Global Micromobility Index by Ride Report (and by ‘global’: parts of the US and ANZ). Regardless, this is a cool report which allows a good drill down on the reported cities.  

Delivery - from bikes & cars to bots & drones 🍽🧺

Neolix unveiled the RoboVan X1 - designed as the “Final-Feet Courier” - seamless indoor/outdoor navigation and elevator delivery. With the introduction of the ‘final’ bot, Neolix can now offer a single autonomous system to manage deliveries from distribution centers through to the customer’s doorstep. 

In Europe, the company partnered with e-cargo bike provider Luxmea to launch a self-driving urban logistics ecosystem.

Grab launches drone food delivery pilot in Singapore, partnering with ST Engineering, the drone solution provider. Deliveries will arrive at a Grab location by the river (see picture), where it will be handled by Grab and ST Engineering employees, cross the river, and returned to a different delivery partner for the final mile. 

Wing & Walmart announce expansion to 150 additional stores in 2026, bringing total stores with drone delivery to over 270. 

Meanwhile in Ireland, Manna Drones is experiencing NIMBY challenges. Planning permissions for new sites are delayed due to noise concerns, aviation safety concerns and, naturally, wildlife impact. Bureaucracy at its best, I wouldn’t be surprised if Manna leaves for the US, or at least the Nordics. 

A true - or maybe not - backend engineer confession regarding DoorDash’s immoral (?) practices on how to pay drivers as little as possible by creating a ‘desperation score’ to fine-tune dynamic pricing & using tip behavior to lower base pay; and on how funds were collected from users to fight unions under an unassuming name - has circulated throughout Reddit. DoorDash responded with a detailed answer to all allegations, refuting all. The post has since been deleted, but you can see it here. 

I’ve seen worse.

AV Freight & Logistics 🚛🚜

Kodiak partners with Bosch to scale autonomous trucking. The partnership will allow turning any semi-truck into a driverless one, with Bosch supplying the needed hardware. No timeline or pipeline expected projects were given by the companies. 

SANY, Chinese heavy truck manufacturer, partners with Pony.ai to develop autonomous technology for its trucks. The companies are working on a 1+4 platoon scenario - the first truck is human driven; the four others follow driverless. 

ZYT, self driving tech and a spin-off from DJI, world’s largest drone builder, plans to move into heavy-duty lorries and unmanned logistics vehicles. The company is active today in the car ADAS space. 

In other news 📰

10 Mobility charts from McKinsey: people feel safer with remote driving (than autonomous); autonomous cost per mile; mobility funding (yes, it’s not good) - and more. 

Mobileye acquires Mentee Robotics for $900M. Mentee was founded by Amnon Shashua; if you don’t recognise the name - he also founded Mobileye. Intel, which still controls roughly 85% of Mobileye, approved the deal. Mentee will continue to operate as an independent unit within Mobileye and targets commercial sales of humanoid in 2028. This shows the strong linkage between autonomous cars and humanoids. 

Joby acquires new Ohio factory for $61.5M, its third manufacturing facility, targeting production of 4 aircrafts a month by 2027. The company expects the FAA certification process to be completed later this year. 

I love meeting new people and learning about mobility & delivery innovation. Let’s get-to-know.

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Anurag Mangla is the new Senior Consultant @ Rebel. 

Dong Hwan Min is the new Director of GTM Strategy @ Autonomous A2Z. 

Fabian Israel Brande is the new Research Fellow – Urban Mobility & Sustainability @ Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. 

Mahamat Younis is the new Program Officer @ West Midlands Combined Authority. 

Mark Stubbs is the new EV Charging Infrastructure Project & Deployment Manager – BYD Flash Charging (UK & Ireland) @ BYD UK. 

Paul Drummond is the new Settlement & Specialist Services Director, Transport & Mobility @ Worldline. 

Phillip Vereen, M.S is the new Senior Transportation Planner @ Town of Morrisville. 

Qian Li is the new Director of sales & marketing (Europe II area) @ Higer Bus Company.

Rav Babbra is the new Technical Program Manager @ Nexar.

Richard De Veer is the new Head of Sales Operations @ Bolt. 

Samoa Pfannenstiel is the new Head of Products - Fleet Management @ Deutsche Telekom. 

Sarish Kasat is the new Vice President, Partnerships - Central U.S. @ Via. 

Tal Avishai is the new Director of Business Development, Innovation & Legal Advisory @ Balilious Group.

Congrats and good luck!

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