Tesla ‘autopilot’ safety debate intensifies, Lucid ($8bn) & GoPuff ($300M) looking for funding and mobility wars in Pakistan.

Bykea expanding into ride-hailing, Drife web3 ride-hailing in India, Uber safer, Grab losing >half a billion $ in Q2, Kakao expands into Europe, Apple leaves Didi, FlixBus voting initiative in Italy, Micromobility landscape report, GoPuff leaves Spain and looks to borrow $300M, GrubHub partners with Bank of America, How dangerous is Tesla, Buffet into autonomous, Waymo without safety drivers, Bird in the MaaS alliance, Lucid looking to raise $8bn, Otonomo down, and buttons. All this and more, in the 99th edition of #movingpeople. 

Ride-hailing, car sharing & DRT 🚙🚌

Bykea is expanding into car-hailing in Pakistan, addressing price-sensitive clients, with rider fare-setting and older, low quality cars. A long good read on Pakistan’s vehicle-hailing past and present tells the story of Uber, Careem, InDriver and Bykea, on rickshaws, bikes and cars. Bykea has 1.7M active monthly customers in rickshaws and bikes, and the move to cars is attributed to (1) better economics due to the increase in fares & decrease in driver incentives which is a step all ride-hailing companies are performing in order to reach profitability; (2) recession brings more upper middle class into ride-hailing; and (3) as an answer to InDriver’s entrance into bike-hailing. 

Kakao Mobility to expand ride-hailing business into Europe. The South Korean player wants to expand to 22 European markets, starting with Germany. The company is partnering with Splyt, to offer Bolt demand via its app. 

Uber is adding safety features to ride-hailing. Partnering with ADT, Uber is enabling contact to emergency services, issue reporting etc. and is extending the 911 feature to 60% of US markets. Now riders have the option to contact a live agent at all times. This follows similar moves by Lyft and DoorDash. Those measures didn’t help Lyft, as it is now sued for not protecting drivers and passengers. 

Grab reports higher than anticipated losses: net loss for Q2 was $547M (vs. $768 YoY) on $321M revenues. Revenue, both ride-hailing (37%) and delivery (X3) are up, but not enough to move the company to black. Grab to close ‘dark-stores’ operations in Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. 

Drife, a web3 ride-hailing app, is expanding its presence in the Indian market. Launched in November 2021, the app has more than 10,000 drivers and 100,000 riders signed to the platform, with (only) 7,000 rides a week. In case that, like me, you’re wondering what web3 is in ride-hailing, know that it means an app based on Ethereum blockchain with its own cryptocurrency. Drive has a different business model, charging a monthly subscription fee, with no ride-related commissions. A base fare is set according to vehicle type and distance, but both riders and drivers can create offers on top of that. Drife’s expansion plans are based on the franchise model. 

Apple quits board of Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi. Apple invested $1bn in the company, and got a seat on the board, back in 2019 after Didi bought Uber’s operation in the country for… $1bn. Indonesian government postpones motorcycle taxi rate hike. Inflation in July was 4.94%, a 7-year high, and the move comes to both help struggling passengers and to halt inflation. Uber in a new attempt to enter Victoria and Kelowna (Canada). Careem partners with Hyundai MOBIS to provide captains with aftersale services discounts. Via goes hybrid in West Sacramento. Via surpasses 1M rides in Jersey City. Electric and accessible SWVL DRT in Erftstadt. ioki expands in Offenbach. FlixBus Italy initiative to reimburse people travelling to vote, in an effort to increase voter turnout ahead of the coming elections. . 

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

Mobility landscape report featuring more than 1,000 organisations. 

Micromobility’s big opportunity is commercial, not consumer. While being written by a GM at Zoomo, a commercial e-bike operator (where you sit is where you stand), I totally agree.  Mapping micromobility’s progress in MENA, led by Fenix, Tier and Lime. 

Bird becomes first micro-mobility partner to join the MaaS Alliance. Sweden is even tougher on scooters, banning riding on sidewalks and placing parking restrictions. Today there are 9,243 scooters in Stockholm, down from 23,000 in October 2021, when the city started to enforce caps. Beryl’s rides clock over two million kilometres in Norwich (UK), riding bikes and e-scooters. Bird expands to new U.S. cities. Bolt to launch electric bike service in Kilkenny. 

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

GoPuff is looking to borrow up to $300 million in a revolving credit line.The company intended to go public this year, but market conditions make it (virtually) impossible. GoPuff pulls out of Spain, to which it entered after completing the acquisition of UK Dija last year, in order to focus on the UK market. The future of GoPuff’s operations in France is unsure. Gopuff hires guards to rein in delivery workers after complaints on loud talking, smoking and double parking near dark stores. 

GrubHub partners with Bank of America, to allow its cardholders to receive its Grubhub+ membership service free for a year. GrubHub did a similar deal with Amazon just two months ago, losing on subscription revenue for increased market share and orders (/commissions). GrubHub market share in the US is circa 13%, placing it 3rd in the market after DoorDash (±59%) and UberEats (±24%). 

Instacart launches ‘Big & Bulky’ fulfilment solution for retailers; customers can now order furniture and electronics on top of grocery items and household goods. Zomato starts integration with Blinkit (which it acquired back in July) in Delhi as a pilot. Sequoia Capital sells 2% of its stake in Zomato, lowering total stake to 4.4%. Earlier this month, Uber sold its 7.8% stake for circa $390M. Gorillas adds product ranges to its own-label selection. Deliveroo joins ‘Dubai Can’ initiative to reduce usage of single-use plastic bottles. Flink and Getir continue closing in Amsterdam. DoorDash data breach. Hackers were able to steal personal and partial payment details for a “small percentage” of DoorDash’s customers. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIs Tesla dangerous? ☠️🚙

Ralph Nader urges regulators to recall Tesla’s ‘manslaughtering’ full self-driving (FSD) vehicles, calling it “one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades”. What is this all about? Lately Tesla is promoting a feature called “Autopilot”, which the company is addressing as a FSD solution. BUT, that system is graded as ‘level 2’ only, meaning the driver must stay fully engaged in the operation of the vehicle. 

This isn’t just about keeping the language clean. The NHTSA is investigating 16 crashes in which Tesla vehicle owners using Autopilot crashed into stationary emergency vehicles. Also, NHTSA special Crash Investigations (SCI) has (up to July) 48 crashes on the agency’s list, 39 of which involved Tesla vehicles using Autopilot. Also, Tesla doesn’t like the new ad-campaign showing its cars on FSD running over child mannequins. 

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

Waymo is picking up riders in Phoenix, no safety driver in the vehicle. The service is now offered only to ‘vetted riders’. Waymo increases number of self-driving Daimler trucks in Texas to 60 vehicles. How Waymo keeps drivers safe from fatigue.

Cruise recalled and updated software in 80 self-driving vehicles after a June crash in San Francisco that left two people injured. Gatik, autonomous delivery, wins a new pilot program with Pitney Bowes, a logistics company, in Dallas. Padam pilots autonomous on-demand vehicles in Lyon with Keolis as part of the EU-funded AVENUE project. GM filed a patent application for a self-cleaning floor system that would be used in robotaxis.

Warren Buffett buys stake in Kodiak Robotics, a driverless truck startup. Financials are not shared, but Pilot, the Buffet-owned company completing the deal, will be the largest “strategic investor” (that probably means not the largest investor) and will get a seat on the board. Total funding up to now is $165M. Kodiak is operating autonomous trucks in Texas. 

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

Lucid is looking to raise $8bn on a ±$26bn market cap. The company is having production problems, cutting its own delivery forecasts again and again. So far the company raised $6.8bn, of that $5.7bn since the start of 2021. Rivian begins delivering its R1S electric SUV to customers. 

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

New £3.6bn London transport funding deal agreed. The deal, between the UK government and Transport for London (TfL), which brings total ‘bailout’ government (DfT) funding for TfL to £6bn, will allow the city to keep moving, after TfL’s suffered (and still is suffering) pandemic-related losses over the past two years. Otonomo, which SPACed at $1.26bn, is now worth $62M and is expected to perform massive layoffs. Buttons beat touchscreens in cars. 

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