Uber +AV, -€290M, -P2P & +⚡, Waymo 100K, Wheels $1 and H1 EV sales +12.4%

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility".  

Uber Autonomous 🚗🤖

The gap between ride-hailing and autonomous vehicles is narrowing, with Uber accelerating the adoption of autonomous ride-hailing by partnering with Wayve and Cruise, alongside its existing partnership with Waymo.

With Cruise, Uber signed a multi-year partnership to bring Cruise’s robotaxis to the Uber ride-hailing platform in 2025. This is also a clear indication of when Cruise is set to redeploy its autonomous services. Today Cruise is running manned operations in Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, which are expected to be the cities the joint service will be launched in. 

Uber is also investing in Wayve, adding an undisclosed sum to the recent $1.05 billion series C funding announced by Wayve in May. The partnership will see Uber and Wayve working with OEMs to integrate Wayve’s L2+/L3 ADAS capabilities, as well as utilising Wayve’s L4 vehicles,  whenever those become available.

Uber is facing competition from Waymo, Zoox (Amazon), WeRide and Tesla - the latter plans to announce its own robotaxi plans in October - and these steps are put in place to assure Uber is ready for the switch to autonomous with ample supply. 

Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Uber is stepping up efforts in South Korea, while local monopoly (>90% market share) Kakao Mobility is under government investigations and leadership changes. Uber currently operates a joint venture with SK Group, a large local business conglomerate, branded Uber Taxi. 

Also in South Korea, recent government regulation on pay has unintentionally caused drivers to leave the profession. 

Waymo offers parents peace of mind. It is a breach of the terms of service to have children ride by themselves, yet parents in San Francisco are using the service more and more. Now Waymo is considering a teen subscription program, pricing the service at circa $150-$250 for 16 monthly rides, or roughly $12.5 per ride. Also, Uber adding parent booking to Uber Teens; parents can now book for their kids from their own account. 

Moia and the AMAG Group partner to offer ride-pooling in Switzerland. At first, the service will include a human-driven electric vehicle, and with time the companies expect to introduce autonomous services. Note that AMAG has a stake in Holo, an autonomous implementation company. This will be Moia’s first foray outside of Germany. In Hamburg, Moia is getting ready to introduce autonomous operation in 2025. 

The Dutch Data Protection Authority fines Uber in the sum €290 million ($324M) for sending drivers’ data to the US whilst not holding up to GDPR safeguarding rules. The initial complaint came from France, but the procedure was held in the Netherlands, as it is Uber’s EU HQ. Uber to appeal the decision. 

There is a ride-hailing prank war between South Africa and Nigeria. People from one country are booking rides via Bolt and Uber in the other, only to cancel them later on. This is translating into financial loss for drivers on each side, causing lost ride revenue and also triggering surge prices. Bolt has responded by limiting inter-country booking and deleting accounts. 

How did it all start? The current rivalry between people from both countries started because of… a beauty queen by the name of Chidimma Adetshina, who first competed in the Miss South Africa pageant, only to withdraw from the competition due to online abuse originating from her also being from a Nigerian heritage. Adetshina then went on to win the Miss Nigeria pageant, and will now represent Nigeria (not South Africa) in the Miss Universe pageant in November. This is not a joke.

Ride-hailing in Japan, by Azarel Chamorro: based on an online survey, GO is the market leader, followed by DiDi, Uber and S.Ride. Tokyo constitutes 80% of the ride-hailing market. Also in Tokyo, 26% of rides are by apps, with street hailing and taxi stops contributing 60% of all rides. The remainder, 14%, is phone bookings.  

Lyft launches a rider verification program, starting in nine markets. Riders that are verified will experience better pickup and ETA times than those who choose not to complete the verification. Uber has implemented a similar program earlier this year. Lyft is rolling out Pet Rides, allowing riders to travel with their pets for a $4 fee, which will all go to the driver. Uber already has a similar feature. 

DiDi’s Q2 report brings the company into profitability, with a net profit of circa $196M (1.4 billion yuan), which is 2.7% of revenue. Most of the company's business is in China, with significant presence also in Brazil (99) and Mexico. Also DiDi to become 2nd-largest shareholder of AutoAi, intelligent cockpits-related software and hardware, in the process merging its own smart driving and cockpit unit into AutoAi. 

UK VAT wars continue - a recent court ruling found that drivers, not operators, are liable for VAT, relieving companies such as Veezu and other operators across the UK (exc. London and Plymouth) from VAT liability. Uber is expected to appeal, in a case which is likely to reach the supreme court.   

Freenow combats high cancellation rates by hotels; partners with Qrago, a German paratransit operator; in Stuttgart, partners with Taxi-Auto-Zentrale (TAZ) to complete rides booked via the Freenow app utilising the TAZ fleet and faces criticism from other taxi industry players; and launches steps to improve service at Dublin airport. 

Uber hires Rebecca Tinucci, the ex-Tesla Director of charging infrastructure, to be the new “Global Head of Sustainability”. Tinucci will lead Uber’s worldwide efforts to transition its fleet to EVs. 

Roger French on Aylesbury’s DRT and on Surrey Connect titled - “it's as if we don't exist”. DRT scheme in Malaysia expands. 

Uber drivers in Cancun can operate at the airport, court decides. Uber Black back in India. Ola reintroduces Ola Share, its pooling service, after a four years pause which started with the pandemic; the service targets budget conscious riders. Grab adds 1,000 electric cars to its Indonesian fleet. Ouno, a premium London-based ride-hailing player, partners with the O2 Arena to offer Chauffeur services. Nagara Meter Auto is a new ride-hailing player in Bengaluru, offering fare certainty (metered). In Singapore, ride-hail drivers are seeing decreased earnings, attributing it to lower fares deriving from market competition; Grab (±%50 market share) says the drop in earnings is seasonal, and not representative. 

Driven People is a new platform for recruiting drivers in the UK, moving the coach and trucking industry from analog to digital. 

Young Mobility Network is a new initiative dedicated to advancing the future of mobility by connecting the next generation of professionals. Originating in Germany, it is launching in London. Tomorrow/Tuesday, Sept 3, 2024, 6-8pm is the pre-launch event. Register here to participate. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Uber Carshare is shutting down, due to “increasing costs and operational challenges associated with insurance, thefts, and vehicle repairs”. In December 2022 Uber acquired Car Next Door, an Australian P2P car-share player, for $105M, and integrated the activity into newly developed Uber Carshare, which was active in Australia and North America. Uber will shift its focus to partner with scaled car rental companies through Uber Rent.

In Latvia, Carguru acquired OX Drive and became the largest electric car sharing service provider in Latvia, adding 200 Tesla and Audi EVs from OX Drive. 

Greenmobility published its H1/24 report - key takeaways: focus on Denmark only completed, guidance to achieving profitability in 2024, after losing circa $3.6M in H1. The company aims to “become the first profitable European shared electric vehicles company”, which, true or not, is a sentence which says a lot about the state of the industry. And Arthur Burnin analyses Greenmobility’s 2023 report - average of 2.8 rides per day, €11 per ride, €920 revenue per car per month - and also many staff and high software costs. 

Mevo is launching subscription cars. The New Zealand company currently operates a per minute/hour/day rental services, and will now offer cars on a monthly basis. 

In Switzerland, there are over 9,000 car-share vehicles across the country, and station-based car sharing has an (outstanding) per capita ratio of at least 4.4 vehicles per 10,000 inhabitants.

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Beam Mobility, operating in Australia and New Zealand, has deployed ‘phantom’ (unreported) e-scooters to dodge fees and boost profits. By not reporting those scooters, Beam dodged per-vehicle fees and breached the vehicle cap imposed by local authorities. Auckland has terminated Beam’s licence to operate in the city. This is an evolving story. 

Wheels, by micromobility.com (Helbiz), was acquired by Singapore-based Overseas Moped Investment and Holding, for $1 (one dollar). Wheels, founded in 2019, raised $97M and was acquired by (then) Helbiz for $1.62M. For the first nine months in 2022, Wheels had a revenue of $5M and a net loss of $20.9M. 

More of Lime’s entry into Japan - the company now has 200 scooters in Tokyo. Entering Japan was a long process, which saw Lime set up 40 charging ports and modify its e-scooters: adding turn signals, installing slower 6 kilometre-per-hour riding modes, shortening the handlebar length and re-positioning bells.

Voi plans to add 20,000 e-bikes to London, adding to existing players Lime, Human Forest and the Sandander (Boris) bike scheme. The company is currently in talks with London’s boroughs. Remember Voi is very unhappy with the state of its scooters in the city, and recently threatened to leave London. Operating e-bikes is a different, and better, business model. 

Rekola Bikesharing started operating in Tallinn with 200 bicycles. Baku, Azerbaijan, launches 1st bike-share service. Lyft adds Bird scooters in over 25 US cities. Lyft is already integrated with Spin scooters, which was acquired by Bird. Hop, Turkish micromobility player, reached one million trips within one year of launching in Greece. Bolt’s electric motorcycle category is now live in Kenya. Gogoro delays Indian expansion plans due to subsidy related regulatory uncertainty, but is running a pilot with Rapido. The company also announced it will launch in Nepal in October. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

Swiggy’s 1st day, back in 2014, had 0 orders. Only the next day did the 1st order come through. The company, which is now celebrating 10 years, has a market cap of $25 billion.  

Delivery Hero posts strong Q2/H1 results. Key takeaways: 

• GMV grew 7.4% to €11.89 billion YoY Q2; MENA posted 28% GMV growth; Asia GMV shrunk by 5% amid competition in South Korea. 

• Revenue grew 19.8% to €3.09 billion

• Adj. EBITDA of €240M, 1% of GMV

• Free-cash-flow break-even in H1 2024, expecting further FCF generation in H2/24

• Prepares to list its talabat business in Q4/24. The company will retain a majority stake. 

For more. 

Gatoes is a food delivery startup from the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region. It is a troubled region, which is also known for hilly & remote locations and for internet disruptions, and Gatoes product was designed to answer those challenges. Today the company delivers 1,600 orders per day to 45,000 monthly customers, and is planning expansion into North India while competing with Zomato and Swiggy.

Zomato launches Zomato For Enterprise - a platform to manage corporate food expenses, allowing employees to bill employers directly.  Zomato launches Order Scheduling - allowing customers to order 2 days in advance. The service is now piloted in seven selected cities with 13,000 locations. I don’t get this. 

Zomato shuts down Legends, its intercity food delivery service, allowing customers to order best-known dishes from famous restaurants, for lack of market fit. The service, launched in 2022, was paused in April and reinstated in July, and will now be discontinued. Long delivery times and high service costs contributed to the closure. 

Grubhub expands its Campus Dining program to 60 more colleges. Yango officially launches delivery service in Pakistan’s three largest cities. SkipTheDishes (100) and Just Eat (700) cut 800 jobs in Canada amid restructuring. In Kenya, Roam, electric mobility company, and Greenspoon, online retail store specialising in organic food, partner to launch a faster and more sustainable food delivery service. 

Walmart grounds DroneUp delivery drones in three states to focus on Dallas, in order to grow scale and develop a sustainable business model. A drone delivery today costs circa $30, and DroneUp wants that number to come down to $7, creating efficiencies with BVLOS permits and newer drone models. In the process, Walmart is shutting down 18 delivery hubs in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa. 

UK to test drones for delivery and inspection. The trials, overseen by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, include consumer deliveries, offshore windfarm inspections, policing and medical deliveries. Pyszne.pl is introducing drone deliveries in Poland. 

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Waymo reaches 100,000 paid trips per week. Doing the numbers: 100K rides a week with an average ride of $15 translates into $78M in revenue. With 700 vehicles, it means each vehicle does an average of 142 rides per week, or 20 per day. More vehicles and improved utilisation could generate hundreds of millions in revenue. Baidu counts 75,000 weekly rides. 

WeRide delays US IPO, saying it needs more time to complete the necessary IPO documents. Due to the delay, Beijing's approval for the deal has expired, which means the company will have to regain approval from the Chinese government. 

Tier IV will begin commercial operation of Japan's first Level 4 self-driving taxi service in November at Odaiba, Tokyo, together with taxi company Nihon Kotsu. For now with a safety driver included. Tier IV is also working with Isuzu and Mitsubishi to develop autonomous trucks. 

Waymo expands robotaxi service to Phoenix airport, offering a curbside service. This is important because (1) airports are busy, hectic places, which means the AV tech has improved to deal with the intensity of airports; and (2) re Uber, 15% of its mobility revenue in 2023 was from to/from airports, which means that the revenue potential is big. 

Gatik secures investment from Nippon. Funds will be used to expand middle mile logistics in North America. 

Oxa is live in California, operating with Beep. Zeekr gets approval to test Level 3 autonomous vehicles in Hangzhou, China. Cruise recalls nearly 1,200 robotaxis to close US probe over hard braking issues.  

Azeem Azhar changed his mind - and thinks autonomous cars are a close reality (I agree, and have also changed my mind in the past couple of months). Azhar links this to increasing Waymo and Baidu rides and the increase in number of cities (=number of willing regulators) deployed. 

FACTUAL, a European mobility consultancy, developed Lane Patrol, a software solution to assess the road safety performance and plan the cycling network through the simulation of forecasted scenarios. This innovative tool deploys the international standard #CycleRAP, and is live in >15 cities, such as Copenhagen, Skopje, Oxford, Abu Dhabi and Montevideo. 

The potential users of Lane Patrol tool are policymakers, but also bike sharing or kick sharing operators, insurance companies and mobility consultancies. If you would like to reach the next step in terms of road safety and comfort for active mobility users, DM myself or reach out to Marc Figuls. 

Flying cars 🚁

Archer delivers 1st Midnight aircraft to the US Air Force. Archer closes PIPE investment announced in Q2/24 earnings, with names such as United Airlines and Stellantis as investors. This brings Archer cash-in-hand to circa $600M. 

Lilium mulls over potential departure from Germany, relocating to France. The company is seeking up to €100M in government support from germany. An account of the Volocopter (non) journey to the Paris Olympics. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Global EV Sales Report H1/24 by EV Universe. An impressive collection of information, worth a read. Key takeaways:

• In H1/24, global EV sales grew by 12.4% YoY

• US grew by 7.4%, Europe by 1.6%, China 13.5% and RoW 40.1%

• EV market share from total light-duty vehicles sold = 12% (1 in 8.3 cars sold was electric)

Ford slows EV plans, delaying pickup and axing three-row SUV, to cut costs. "With pricing and margin compression, we've made the decision to adjust our product and technology roadmap and industrial footprint to meet our goal of reaching positive EBIT within the first 12 months of launch for all new models". For now, Ford will focus on hybrid solutions. 

Falling number of London taxi drivers leads to LEVC losing more than £100M in 2023. This trend is expected to continue, as the profession is less profitable than in the past. LEVC is held by Geely. 

Volt Mobility, commercial EV leasing, to purchase 3,000 EV cargo vans and trucks from Mullen Automotive. The deal is valued at $210M, and vehicles will be delivered in the next 16 months. 

BYD plans to end its cooperation with the Swedish Hedin Group as an importer in Germany and take over sales itself. Six dealer groups have been selected. 

Xpeng releases mass-market EV with basic driver-assist for less than $20,000, at half of Tesla’s Model 3 price in China. 

Rise Global BV is a new venture “dedicated to revolutionising urban mobility through innovative electric vehicles”. More here. 

Gig economy 💰

In Kenya, a price war between Uber, Bolt and local players Little and Faras, is making drivers set their own higher wages. Once arriving at the customer, drivers ask for an additional pay, and if not received, cancel the ride. This is an organised move, supported by drivers coordinating prices on walkie-talkie app Zello and printing and displaying fare guides in their cars. App companies responded by raising prices. 

In Delhi, auto rickshaws and taxis drivers are striking to protect against a fall in their earnings from Ola, Uber and other ride-hailing platforms. Lately, companies increased commissions while cutting back on incentives. In addition, the introduction of bike taxis and e-rickshaws on these platforms has hurt market share. The protests are said to have caused an impact of 40-50% on daily business. In Indonesia, motorcycle ride-hailing drivers strike to protest low pay, calling the government to step in. 

Gopuff partners with FUTURE Health to provide delivery partners with access to a premium healthcare membership. DoorDash is making it easier for drivers to appeal account deactivations.

In other news 📰

MaaF, or mobility as a feature, is a new(ish) concept. New as a concept, but not as in implementation. Think booking a ground transport via booking.com while booking travel or buying a train ticket to a London theatre show via the show’s webpage? That’s MaaF. 

Modaxo acquires Cammax, UK provider of self-service Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs), Parking Payment machines, and associated services. Fresh Bus, All-electric intercity bus startup, raises $10.5M. Rosh.Ai, an autonomy platform facilitating the development of AV prototypes, ADAS and AV test platforms, raises $1M. 

I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions. Interested in discussing mobility?

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Gary Stewart is a new Venture Partner with Level Up Ventures. 

Kingsley Dooley-Lewin is the new Talent Acquisition Manager @ FINN. 

Maayan Keren Zur is a new Venture Partner with Moonstone Venture Capital. 

Matthew Mould is the new Sales Director @ DrivenPeople. 

Michael Cawley joins Carbon13 as a new Domain Expert. 

Narendra Chilveri is the new Warehouse Operation Manager @ ZMC Group. 

Nino Caminhante joins Antai Ventures as the new Senior Venture Developer

Congrats and good luck!

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