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Top Story: Uber Targets Delivery Hero

Uber is trying to take over Delivery Hero. A €11.5 billion takeover offer was rejected by Delivery Hero and Uber is considering upping that offer. Last week Uber increased its stake in the company from 7% to 19.5% + 5.6% in options - an increase of its stake to over 30% triggers a mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders.

Current top shareholders include:

Delivery Hero also holds 87% of Woowa Brothers -  which operate Baemin, a top South Korean delivery service. Last week it was reported that Uber was considering Baemin’s acquisition, together with Naver, a South Korean online platform. 

This  is an ongoing story. To be continued.

Top Story: Waymo Scale On Temporary Hold

Waymo pauses freeway (highway) rides and its Atlanta operations to improve performance around construction zones and flooded roadways; this follows a full fleet (3,791 vehicles) recall earlier the month. 

The past few weeks saw:

Waymo also experiencing challenges in London. In Brent*, the Green Party, which just won the local borough election, is asking the Mayor to pause autonomous vehicle trials, on safety, congestion and potential job loss grounds. It doesn’t help that Waymo keeps driving into dead end streets and making a lot of noise at 4am while trying to reverse. Video here. Also people are starting to attack Waymos. 

* In a nutshell, London comprises 32 boroughs / local authorities, plus The City of London, which is a separate governing district, bringing the total to 33 separate entities. Brent is one of those, located in West/North-West London with a population of 353,000 (of the roughly 9 million in the city, or ±4%).  

I had the honour of interviewing on the new season of NECTURE Conversations, a season dedicated to scaling autonomy "Across the First Million". Christian Adelsberger and I spoke about: 

-> Waymo as an experience (not a tech) company

-> Urban microhubs key for autonomous fleet management

-> how Uber commands all of the autonomous value chain and what (breadcrumbs) that leaves to others

Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕

Rapido raises $240M at a $3 billion valuation, in a round led by Prosus. Funds will be used to to increase footprint in high-growth markets, strengthen driver network, and invest in technology and platform efficiency. Rapido, which originated from motorbike and rickshaw budget rides, is expanding into car-based ride-hailing and into food delivery via the Ownly brand. 

Bliq received approval to operate its vehicles on public roads in Estonia without a driver behind the wheel. This is a European 1st, as Verne still uses safety drivers. Bliq’s current product combines an AI based Level 2 driving system with remote human supervision to operate commercial services. 

Nuro received approval to test its Lucid Gravity SUVs without a human safety driver on public roads at speeds up to 45 mph (56km/h). And Nuro expands to Germany, establishing its European hub, which includes engineering, operations, and partner engagement.

In Korea, Hyundai signed an MOU with the government and autonomy startups Autonomous A2Z and Ride Flux to develop and operate 200 autonomous vehicles based on the Ioniq 5 platform. 42dot will analyse data to improve its autonomy development. Korea is keen not to fall behind the US and China in the AV race. 

On paper (& PR), the Verne autonomous deployment uses 10 vehicles, operating from 7am to 9pm daily, with safety drivers that hardly intervene, serving 300 riders via the Verne app, getting very high ratings, with a fixed promotional-price-per-ride of €1.99. According to Marek Vanzura, only ±3 cars are active at any time, with safety drivers conscious of people taking photos. The Verne original vehicles, ±60 already built, were designed for Mobileye sensors, and when Mobileye failed to deliver, are now awaiting redesign for Pony.ai tech.  

Stellantis and Wavye partner on hands-off, eyes-on (aka L2++) tech; vehicles to launch with the technology in 2028. Also Wayve signs an MOU with the UK’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to accelerate the commercialisation of self-driving technology.

May Mobility and ECARX agree on a strategic framework agreement, which sees ECARX supply May Mobility with central computing platforms and sensor suites, in a deal worth circa $750M.  

Tesla FSD approved in Lithuania, the 2nd European country after the Netherlands. Expected next: Belgium, Greece and Ireland. Tesla reveals information on robotaxi crashes, 17 in total since launching in June 2025, two involving remote driving operators. Uber driver falls asleep (video) while in FSD mode, passenger records. This is a reminder of the gap between Tesla’s FSD daily usage (high) and robotaxi capabilities (low). 

What people in San Francisco think of autonomous vehicles: 42% think AVs are “a good thing”, 39% a mix of good & bad, 18% bad. If you are progressive or conservative without a college degree, your chances are likely to dislike AVs. 

Dubai Taxi Company (DTC) acquires National Taxi (Abu Dhabi), meaning also that Bolt expands to Abu Dhabi piggybacking on DTC’s expansion. Bolt partners with Dongfeng Motor Group to roll out electric vehicles in South Africa. A fleet management company called Yugo Rides will operate the vehicles. The UK tax authority decision is that Bolt isn’t eligible for a £190M VAT exemption. The case, which refers to recent tax rules changes in the UK , is now in court. To be continued. 

InDrive partners with GoCab, vehicle financing, to unlock vehicle access across Morocco and Chile’s ride-hailing markets. At first, GoCab will finance 1,000 drivers, with the total number to reach 4,000 drivers. Yango is fined £100 million by the Dutch Data Protection Authority for allegedly sharing personal data of users in Norway and Finland with Russia. Yango is expected to appeal. Kakao Mobility eyes Nasdaq listing also keeping options open. Uklon expands in Uzbekistan. Freenow and Wallbox partner on taxi charging. 

Gridwise report shows premium rides are during ride-hailers growth: a mix of increased usage and higher margins. 

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

Autonomous Shuttles, DRT & Bus-Based Mobility 🚍🚌

Via Q1/26 financial report: 

FlixBus partners with Green Drive Mobility to launch electric intercity bus services in India - for now - only 4 buses.

Events to watch our for:

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Swapfiets, bike subscription, Netherlands, acquires Dance, bike subscription. Germany. 

Porsche closes ebike business, focusing on core activities. 

Nextbike rolls out ‘MyRadl’: a public bike sharing network with a fleet of 6,700 bikes and 1,000 stations connecting Munich with 36 surrounding towns, parishes and municipalities.

Voi relaunches in Copenhagen with 4,500 e-bikes and with 350 in Aberdeen. 

The UK is yet again holding back on E-scotter regulation. What started as a national trial in July 2020 has been extended again and again, currently to May 2028. In the meanwhile, use of E-scooters is only permitted under government-backed trials. Newcastle ends scooters in the city; Neuron will leave its last UK city.  E-bikes are also under scrutiny.

Delivery - bikes to cars, bots & drones 🍽🧺

Talabat - 85% owned by who if not Delivery Hero - reports strong Q1 results, grows GMV by 19% to $2.7 billion and revenue by 23% to $1 billion. Net income $87M.   

Amazon launches “Amazon now” - their 30-minute delivery service - across dozens of US cities. 3 and 1 hour delivery services already exists in multiple US cities.  

Deliveroo (DoorDash) releases features which allow ordering from 3 stores in one basket (multi-store ordering functionality) and the ability to add items from a nearby retailer to the restaurant order within a ten-minute checkout window.

Keeta to launch drone delivery in the UAE. 

AV Freight, Industrial & Logistics 🚛🚜

Einride starts a public road autonomous project in Ohio with EASE Logistics. Two Einride autonomous electric trucks will conduct daily operation on public and private roads between EASE Logistics warehouses. 

Also Einride moves toward Nasdaq listing (via SPAC at $1.35 valuation). 

I love meeting new people and learning about innovation in mobility. Let’s get-to-know / catch up.

In other news 📰

Expedia acquires CarTrawler, a car rental platform. This acquisition follows an earlier one in 2026 of tiqets, experience ticketing, as Expedia diversifies on its way to become a super-app. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but industry sources speculated the company would be worth north of $450M (€387M).

Circuit, electric microtransit solutions, raises $17M. 

Aboard, electric travel trailers, raises $13M. 

UFOFLEET acquires FleetMaster from Cox Automotive, terms of deal undisclosed. 

GBR is a threat to Trainline. 

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Chris Ashley is the new Head of Policy @ Road Haulage Association (RHA). 

Dan Cheng is the new Staff Technical Project Manager at Vammo. 

Julien Trost is the new General Manager New Services @ Upway. 

Lukas Schrader is the new Vice President, Vehicle Platform Engineering @ May Mobility. 

Minh Ta Tran is the new SEVP of FPT Automotive @ FPT Automotive. 

Mridul Nischal is the new AVP - Business Solutioning @ Drivn. 

Sílvia Coronado is the new Project Manager @ Drivania Chauffeurs.

Congrats and good luck!

Thank you for reading #movingpeople. If you like what you're reading, please share it with your friends and colleagues so they can benefit from it too.