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Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕
Waymo will part ways with Uber in Austin and Atlanta, and will deploy its own rider booking platform, when the existing Uber contract ends in May 2028. A similar breakup between the two companies happened in Phoenix earlier this year. My take: it was a marriage of convenience to begin with; Uber needed Waymo to deploy robotaxis, and Waymo needed to rely on Uber’s revenue generating and operational experience. With both sides expected to battle over top-line rider demand, a divorce was written in advance, and is in no way a surprise.
Shashua, Mobileye’s founder & CEO, quits
Mobileye’s founder & CEO of 27 years, Amnon Shashua, is stepping down as CEO of the company. "I am originally a scientist and an entrepreneur… doing both things at the same time, ongoing management and technological leadership, turned out to be too much of a burden." Shashua will remain until the Board finds a replacement, and might stay as Chair of the Board. Might.
Is Shashua’s departure good or bad for the company?
Shashua is a very busy individual. In addition to being CEO of Mobileye, he is the founder/CEO of DoubleAI, an AI startup with investors such as Bessemer, Pitango and Nvidia; the Chairman & founder of Mentee Robotics, which he sold to Mobileye for $900M; the “founder and controlling shareholder” of ONE ZERO Digital Bank; and a university lecturer. Until recently he was also the Chairman at AI21, an AI startup, which is now experiencing difficulties. Bottom line: Mobileye should benefit from a dedicated CEO.
Nevertheless, markets reacted negatively. News was made public before trade began on Thursday; Mobileye’s share price went from circa $8.75 (end of trade Wednesday) to a low of $7.1, and then rebounded to $8.05 per share when trade closed Friday.
The change in stock price is linked to three Mobileye developments this week:
Mobileye's earning call was strong, exceeding analyst’s revenue ($508M vs. $482.2M) and adjusted earning per share ($0.19 vs. $0.06) expectations, with the company raising its full year 2026 guidance (+4-7% vs. 2025). Profitability has improved, largely thanks to an Israeli R&D incentive. It wasn’t all good - the company forecasted 5% to 6% revenue drop for the third quarter. Overall good news, with a bit of sourness for Q3.
Moovit announced layoff of 30% of the workforce, 60 people, as the business restructured around its emerging robotaxi strategy. Again a mix; investors often respond positively to cost reductions, although the scale of the layoffs could also indicate pressure on the business.
We now wait to learn who will replace Shashua as Mobileye’s CEO.
BlaBlaCar, which last week announced expansion into 20 new markets with its intercity car-pooling solution, this week announced it is selling its commuter business (“BlaBlaCar Daily”) to carpooling platform Karos. This move will allow BlaBlaCar to focus on expanding its core solution, and create a French market commuter monopoly for Karos.
Tesla’s growth in cumulative paid robotaxi miles have declined by roughly 36% in Q2. Also in the Q2 earnings call, Musk mentioned that, to launch Cybercabs, the company needs to “accumulate driving data that is specific to the Cybercab”; which is an unusual statement, as up to now the official line was that the 10 million Tesla customers' cars are collecting relevant data. Also Tesla expands driverless Robotaxi service to Orlando. France won’t approve Tesla ‘FSD’ yet, wants EU-wide sign-off first.
Of the Delivery Hero markets recently acquired (pending) by Uber, watch out for the Korean market. Uber has been trying to win Kakao Mobility’s ride-hailing monopoly (95% market share) for years; it now acquired local Baemin, the #1 player in the market. Expect a new ride-hailing war once the acquisition goes through.
Waymo starts the next phase of testing in Charlotte. The company completed mapping (it took five months) and is now letting the cars drive by themselves while Waymo employees are still behind the wheel.
Hong Kong ramps up autonomous pilots, issuing seven pilot licences involving 63 autonomous vehicles as of June this year. The intention is to approve commercial robotaxi service and award operating licenses by November, with the licensing process to start in August.
Baidu signs MOU to deploy in Kazakhstan. SAIC Mobility starts purpose-built Robotaxi project, targets 2027 debut. China goes back to issuing robotaxi licences after a long freeze, since the Baidu Wuhan back in April. Momenta obtains Shenzhen road testing license.
Bolt adopts MapUp solution, allowing drivers transparency on toll road charges. This follows successful pilots in Malaysia and Portugal. MapUp's TollTally SDK allows accurate toll road pricing and reimbursement, while reducing fare disputes.
Toyota and Uber partner to expand access to hybrid and battery-electric vehicles for Uber drivers and fleet partners across Europe. Uber cuts 10% of its customer service (aka community operations) jobs, as AI takes over. Uber, Lyft win court block on NYC law requiring notice before firing drivers.
Ride-hailing and airports are a Win-Win, for both a major source of revenues. Airports generate tens of millions in annual fees; Uber in 2023, for example, generated 15% of its Mobility Gross Bookings from trips that either started or were completed at an airport.”
#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 🚍🚌
Tier IV, developer of autonomous driving software, lists on the Tokyo stock exchange; market cap is circa $390M. The company will use the proceeding to fund further development.
Another week, another new Chinese autonomous driving company. Last week I reported on a Chinese company called CalmCar Global, which partnered in Turkey to launch robotaxis. This week it is MOGOX (according to the PR: “Chinese Autonomous Driving Giant”) who partnered with ComfortDelGro to launch autonomous buses.
MIRA operates a teledriven bus in Düsseldorf, running from the airport's railway station and its main terminal. Read about German regulation, the 5G connectivity required for the operations, and the service itself.
Imagry on the pilot trap. A good read on short-term funding, regulation fragmentation, lack of commercial commitment from cities, procurement cycles and more.
Car Sharing/renting 🚗
Upshift is a car share/subscription business, with a value proposition of getting the cars to & back the customer. Now Upshift is partnering with Autzu, autonomous infrastructure, to build the operating stack for personal autonomous car subscriptions.
Airbnb partners with CarTrawler for car rentals in the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, and Australia.
Thiago Soares Figueira shares his lessons from running Zity: chapter 1 deals with how to deploy 450 cars in 90 days, the importance of marketing, speed in accident & claim management and an own depot to increase operational efficiency.
Micromobility 🚲🛴
Voi Q2/26 financial report:
Net revenue up 47% YoY to €68.8M (€46.8M Q2/25); LTM up 41% to €210.3M (€149M previous year LTM)
Vehicle profit margin improved to 64.0% (60.4%); on an LTM margin is o 58.4%.
EBIT increased to €9.9M (€1.4M); on an LTM basis, EBIT decreased to -€2.0M (€2.4M)
Net Revenue per Vehicle and Day increased by 7% year over year; fleet grew 38%
The company has “no concrete plans nor set any timeline” for an IPO.
Italian scooter regulation mandates helmets (instated December 2024), identification plates (May 2026) and third-party liability insurance (July 2026), making it the strictest European country. While helmets are the riders’ responsibility, insurance falls on the operators. This is set to increase insurance costs by up to X16, leading to decreased scooter use.
Ireland clamps down on e-scooters after rise in serious injuries: will raise the minimum age for the use of electric scooters to 18 from 16, and require riders to be licensed and wear helmets.
Donkey Republic launches bike-sharing service in Helsinki. Initial roll-out of 700 vehicles. Fleetser, a second-hand market, has partnered with Dott. Veo rolling out 1,000 e-scooters across Salt Lake City, Utah. Bolt deployed in Liverpool airport, in a service targeting staff who live nearby.
Delivery - bikes to cars, bots & drones 🍽🧺
Tesco, Britain's biggest food retailer, to expand its rapid delivery reach by listing its products on Uber Eats and Deliveroo. This is on top of Tesco’s own Whoosh, grocery delivery in as little as 20 minutes, which reaches 70% of the UK population.
Momenta reportedly enters the robovan sector. Avride partners with Grubhub to deploy at Bowling Green State University. Swiggy’s Instamart launches LPG cylinder delivery in partnership with HPCL.
Archer reveals Halo - a cargo eVTOL - similar to the defense version the company unveiled a few days ago. We still know little about either version. Both cargo and defence make MUCH more sense than running a business based on airport air-taxis.
AV Freight, Industrial & Logistics 🚛🚜
Einride acquires EV charging startup Flipturn in an all-stock $38M deal. Flipturn, founded in 2022, builds an EV-charging software platform that can communicate with any EV charger over the OCPP. This allows Einride to integrate vertically along the value chain and expands US reach.
Aurora launches Driver 2 - its second-generation driverless trucks in the US. Hardware is set to last for 1 million miles; manufacturing partner Roush is targeting an annual production run-rate of 1,000 trucks by the end of 2026.
I love meeting new people and learning about innovation in mobility. Let’s get-to-know / catch up.
In other news 📰
Travis Kalanick’s robotics company, Atoms, raises $1.7 billion. This deal brings together industrial automation company Pronto and Kalanick’s own CloudKitchens. Uber joined the funding round. A lot of history between everyone involved in that deal.
Sheryl Sandberg leads a $10M investment in Self Inspection, AI-powered vehicle inspection service. This is a busy space, I personally know two companies in the mobile-phone space.
Milo Drive, Indian developer EV fleet software, raises $2.4M.
IMAX to develop immersive entertainment system for self-driving cars in China.
Everee, gig-economy payroll company, runs Q2/26 survey, highlights:
Gas prices are drivers' #1 concern (69%); thin margins already threaten gig-economy driver supply
Weekly (36%) or daily & instant payment (41%) is the norm, with an increasing number of drivers opting for daily/instant payments. Platforms are differentiating based on the cost and friction of daily/instant withdrawals.
Hoboken, New Jersey: robots are beginning to map the city to improve ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessibility.
People 🧑🤝🧑
Gideon Hod is the new Director of Product and Business Operations @ Turo.
Ha Oun Son is the new GM Asia-Pacific Region @ Archer.
Marc Zimmermann is the new Chief Product Officer Palveera @ Leon Mobility.
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.
