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.
Top Story: Uber Acquires Delivery Hero 🌍
This has been covered extensively everywhere, so let’s stick to the highlights:
Delivery Hero equity value: €13 billion (/$14.8 billion)
Price per share = €41.5; the previous offer, at €33 per share, was turned down by Delivery Hero shareholders. That's a 25% difference.
This deal has Uber enter or grow in 50 markets - literally across the globe. Take a look at the list of countries 👇
For anti-competition reasons, Uber can’t buy Delivery Hero everywhere. This is where SSW Partners, a US investment firm, comes in: they acquire the remaining 14 markets for $1.6 billion.
SSW Partners aren’t buying to keep - we’ll soon (?) know which of the delivery / mobility existing players takes over these markets.
Uber is now present in 99 markets, with an annual gross booking of $236 billion (2025 figures). It now offers both mobility & delivery services in 58 markets, up from 34.
To put those numbers in proportions; Lyft, including Freenow for at least H2/25, saw 2025 gross booking of $18.5 billion. Bolt €4.2 billion.
Uber commits to keeping the HQ in Germany and protecting employees, until at least 2029.
Keep in mind: this isn’t a closed deal yet; but while there are legal works and regulatory approvals to be had, in all likelihood this deal will be completed. Closing expected H2/2027.
Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕
Uber is promoting a hybrid-model regulatory vision, one that protects its human-driven business model whilst ride-hailing goes through the autonomous transition phase; and very much conflicts with Waymo’s interests. For example, in Washington DC, Uber is lobbying for a regulatory regime that would require robotaxis to operate on a ride-hailing network that also uses human drivers.
Javi Correoso, Uber’s Head of Federal Affairs and U.S. South Public Affairs: “Hybrid model means that consumers should have the ability to access both… they should be able to choose… I would go a step further: I think it should be part of the regulatory framework for the industry.”
In New Jersey, a lobbyist representing Uber shared a draft that suggested that for a period of three years, any platform offering driverless ride-hailing services would require human drivers to serve 85% of its rides.
Back to D.C. - the city’s council members are holding a hearing on a proposed bill that would allow driverless cars in the city. A vote isn’t expected before the fall, but it is clear that Waymo is keen on launching in the city - just think about all these government officials getting into a Waymo. And most likely ALMOST ONLY a Waymo, as Tesla and Uber aren’t ready with enough vehicles yet.
San Francisco - the Mayor wants state regulators to make sure Waymo is obstructing traffic in “...how autonomous vehicles operate during major incidents, planned or not”. This follows the July 4 gridlock event, when multiple Waymos ran out of battery and remained stranded.
In Miami, Tesla launched unsupervised (no safety driver) robotaxis in the city. On the first day there were two Model Y robotaxis available, with a few more added the following days. It appears that Tesla has big plans for Miami - a lot with dozens of Cybercabs is located near the Miami International airport. For now those vehicles aren’t a part of the Miami robotaxi fleet. See this excellent ride experience video:
Transport is messy and complex. No matter how well your car drives autonomously, the real challenge is managing real life scenarios, such as this:
People fall asleep, spill drinks, vomit, and require emergency medical assistance. They leave vehicles and forget to close the doors. To manage these (and more), operators rely on internal or 3rd party operations, and on municipal resources. In the first 9 months of the Waymo services, Austin police recorded 99 cases of ‘sleepers’, i.e. passengers who fell asleep in the car and could not be awoken, raising suspicion of a medical emergency. That's one case every roughly 3 days. Three of those indeed required medical attention.
These emergency calls, once handled by the driver, are adding work on emergency services and adding costs to daily operation. Companies are responding by implementing fines and adding product features, such as ‘emergency button’. As long as humans, and not humanoids, are the passengers - this isn’t fully solvable.
In Turkey:
Marti, shared two-wheeled electric vehicles and ride-hailing, partners with Tensor, autonomous vehicles, to launch robotaxis across Turkey.
No timeline or number of vehicles
2nd Tier autonomous tech company
And Tripy Mobility, Turkish micromobility (e-bikes) operator, partners with CalmCar Global, Chinese autonomous driving technology company, to launch in Turkey.
Micromobility player turns to car autonomy
2nd Tier autonomous tech company (I never heard this company before)
At this stage and based the tech maturity of both companies, these partnerships are more market signals then they are an immediate action plan.
Lyft partners with Curb, ride-hailing platform for licensed taxis, to have New York City taxis available on the Lyft network. A similar partnership between the two companies exists in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Bolt rolls out self-service kiosks at the largest mall in Bucharest, Romania. Uber ends seven-year London EV driver funding scheme with final lump-sum payment offer.
Bliq, remote driven taxi service, approved for use in Finland, safety driver included. Bliq is already present in Estonia, where regulation allows driverless remote driving, in a 1:1 ratio.
Abu Dhabi opens control room to monitor autonomous vehicles and now has dedicated license plates for autonomous vehicles.
#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 🚍🚌
MOIA opens its Hamburg autonomous on-demand service to the public. Tech by Mobileye. A few asterisks:
“Select, preregistered Hamburg residents” only
Up to 5 vehicles covering 4 square miles (10 sq. km) at launch; expected to grow to 10 vehicles and 14 square miles (36 sq. km) later on
Safety driver included
Time flies - it has been two years since I took an autonomous MOIA ride while at UITP.
Barak Sas, June 2024
New Hyundai / Dot42 autonomous bus demo run launch at Yongin Severance Hospital.
Zoox issues software recall after a robotaxi got confused by heavy smoke - to their 105 vehicles. Note the size of the fleet.
Uklon launches “Travel Bus”, an international bus service offering direct cross-border routes. First routes will connect Kyiv to Warsaw and Odesa to Chisinau.
Last week I wrote about the role of the bus driver, in the context of autonomous vehicles; this week Gad’s Newsletter, an excellent newsletter taking on a different business analysis each week, wrote about the role of the Cashier, in the context of store self-checkout machines. These machines and the processes developed for their implementation did not deliver on their economical promises; the self-checkout machines should serve as a warning and a guide to how to do things right in the transition to autonomous buses.
Micromobility 🚲🛴
A deep dive into Lyft’s expansion via the Serveo acquisition:
Lyft Urban Solutions (LUS) is moving into direct operations in Europe, expanding on the position of a software & hardware supplier. Note that in the US, LUS is an operator.
LUS is becoming the dominant player in the Spanish market
And potentially growing throughout Europe, using its new vertically integrated position
The new Barcelona Bicing tender, due in the autumn, will see the public bike scheme fleet increase to 12,000, up 50% from 8,000. The service has 170,000 subscribers.
Germany is proposing new legislation that would make rental operators such as Lime and Bolt liable for damages caused by their vehicles.
AV Freight, Industrial & Logistics 🚛🚜
Zelostech moves to operational Integration at Singapore Changi Airport. CaoCao launched commercial operations for its Robovan autonomous delivery vehicles in Changsha. Neolix eyes Saudi expansion.
I love meeting new people and learning about innovation in mobility. Let’s get-to-know / catch up.
In other news 📰
Sell 22 million+ train tickets per year
Have 28,000 transport operators and travel sellers across the globe
BRINC Drones has closed a new $125M round, to provide 911 response drone on the roof of every police and fire station in America
I don’t know if the rumors about Lucid’s considered bankruptcy are true or not - but either way that’s not good news for the EV industry and not good news for Uber.
Autofleet 2026 Optimizers Awards - given to logistic, ride-hailing and car-sharing companies for, well, being good at fleet optimisation. See more in this link.
People 🧑🤝🧑
Eduardo Rojas is a new Advisor @ the Inspiration Mobility Group.
Ido Rosenblum is the new Senior Innovation and Business Development Manager @ EIT Hub Israel.
Jonas Wigger Genannt Lütke Lembeck is the new Head of Communications and Public Affairs @ HOLON.
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.
