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Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕
Amazon-owned Zoox, one of the biggest autonomous operators in the US with a fleet of 105 vehicles, developer of vehicles without a steering wheel or pedals, is now joining Waymo in the race to commercialise autonomy. Zoox received temporary exemption from the NHTSA to be able to charge riders for its service. The company will begin with its Las Vegas service, while it works to receive state-level approvals in additional cities it operates. This is a very meaningful step - this is a world’s first ever for a vehicle without steering & pedals to be approved for scaled commercial operations on public roads.
The London Assembly is calling on ministers to hand full oversight of driverless taxi trials to Transport for London (TfL), amid concerns central government is overriding devolved powers. In simple English: local politicians and TfL officials are fed up with the central government deciding on autonomy for them and are entering a political fight to gain more control.
iCabbi for Sale
The most interesting deal on the table these days is the - alleged / rumoured - sale of iCabbi, the UK&I’s leading taxi dispatch system, with substantial international presence. Recap:
iCabbi is a part of Mobilize by Renault. But Renault, like many other OEMs, diversified away from mobility solutions. iCabbi, up to (& including) now, stayed within the group
iCabbi’s largest customer is/was Veezu, the UK’s #1 minicab (taxi) company, with over 16,000 drivers across the country.
Early June, Veezu announced a majority strategic investment in Cab9, a rival UK taxi dispatch platform, and iCabbi lost its biggest customer
Around that time, related or not, Renault put iCabbi for sale. My take is that iCabbi would have been put for sale regardless, but the Veezu-Cab9 expedited things
The leading candidate on the rumour exchange? Freenow by Lyft. Why:
Because Uber holds a competitive UK taxi dispatch, by the name of Autocab
Lyft has the funds to complete the deal
To be continued.
Autonomy is moving people all over the world. The AV summit events are there to make sense of where we’re at and what the future holds. And a bit of networking while at it. London, Munich and Prague, sign up to be a speaker and use the MOVINGPEOPLE10 when registering, for a 10% discount.
It’s been covered before, but worth mentioning again - Green SM is expanding into Europe. The company is differentiated by (a) using electric vehicles only and (b) ownership of the vehicles and employment of drivers. Denmark is the company’s first market.
Tesla might sell its China business ahead of a SpaceX merger. The bigger story in this sentence isn’t the China business, but the much anticipated merger.
Motional, a Hyundai-backed company, targets taking out the safety driver in its commercial operations on the Uber network in Las Vegas, by the end of 2026. It's worth noting that the Ioniq 5 is one of the most popular robotaxi vehicles; in the future, expect Hyundai to operate directly with demand partners, cutting out the AV-tech players in the value chain.
Momenta went public on July 8th and since received Germany-wide L4 testing approval and launched Robovan driverless logistics operations in Suzhou
CaoCao started robotaxi testing without a safety driver, in Hangzhou's Binjiang District.
In Washington, a proposed bill would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle operators. Legislation in process, to be continued.
All of Uber’s autonomous partnerships in one place. I counted 34, Waymo included.
Bliq, the remote-driving company, had an accident.
Bolt integrates ride-hailing into ChatGPT, live on all markets.
Waymo Corner
In Santa Monica, a judge orders Waymo to temporarily stop using two local charging stations during nighttime hours. The city filed a lawsuit after receiving multiple noise complaints from residents, and wasn’t able to reach a compromise with Waymo.
In Austin, Waymo racked up $10k in fines. These mostly have to do with parking ordinances, but also blocking access to infrastructure.
In Phoenix, Waymo is returning to freeways. The company intends to go back to freeways in all of its service areas, starting with Phoenix.
In South Korea, Waymo sets up a local subsidiary.
In San Francisco, a Waymo driving the wrong way and a different Waymo going into road construction.
#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business - a consultancy focused on Innovation, Growth and Autonomy in the Mobility industry.
Car Sharing/renting 🚗
Stellantis sells its entire shareholding in the Free2move car-sharing business to Mutares, a German private equity firm. Free2move operates in 14 cities across Europe and the US. The deal will allow Stellantis to focus on core activities.
Augustin Friedel maps how OEMs are moving away from shared mobility solutions:
Bolt Drive, Bolt’s car-sharing arm, launches in Poland with nearly 400 vehicles. Poland is one of the strongest European car-sharing markets, with Traficar the market leader.
Carbar is merging with Carasti. Both are car-subscription businesses and are looking to raise $10M to fund the merger and accelerate expansion. Together the two businesses have more than 3,000 vehicles in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Singapore.
BlaBlaCar arrives in Vietnam, its first of 20 new expansion markets.
Micromobility 🚲🛴
Brussels halts shared e-scooters and bikes, effective September 1st. The reason for this immediate ban is, well, pretty stupid. Stay with me:
December 2023: Brussels holds a micromobility tender, choosing Bolt, Dott & Voi to operate e-scooters AND e-bikes. Lime, which was not awarded, sues, arguing the selection process was rushed and unlawful
June 2026: Brussels decides to ban e-scooters (only) from January 2027. Brussels’ plan is to allow the existing players, Bolt & Dott to continue e-scooters operations until natural expiry in December 2026, while retaining e-bikes (Bolt, Dott & Voi) under a future licensing arrangement.
July 2026: Belgium’s high administrative court, the Council of State, gives final judgement on Lime's ongoing lawsuit. We’re 2.5 years in, yes? Good luck the legal system caught up.
And the court finds Lime - right. That means that the license given back in 2023 are unlawful, and therefore all Bolt, Dott & Voi e-scooters and e-bikes permits are void
Note that this does NOT include Villo!, which is the city fixed station e-bike service. Different tender.
We’re 5 months to go on the tender period, so the government asks the court to allow the operators to complete the period. The court says NO.
The result: both e-scooters AND e-bikes have to be immediately shut down, i.e. September 1st. Transport in Brussels is disrupted, officials have to rush the next e-bikes tender.
What an administrative **** show.
One year of shared mobility results from Seville, by the SUT Lab:
90,000 Bolt e-bike trips over the course of a year (Dec. 24 - Dec.25) were analysed
Average e-bike trip was 2.6 kilometres and 16 minutes long (almost 10 km/h on average)
Men, visitors and younger users were identified as overrepresented riders
Tourists and locals ride similar distances, though tourists ride slower and for longer durations with trips more focused in the city centre and scenic areas.
The data was also used to identify critical safety hotspots, based on user behaviour (such as hard stops) and to identify traffic bottlenecks. Seville plans to use those insights when planning future transportation routes and infrastructure.
Beryl expands in the UK. Nextbike wins Pamplona tender; will roll-out 500 new e-bikes in 2027. ALSO (by Rivian) to begin deliveries to customers next week.
The Young Mobility Network (YMN) is a global community connecting and empowering the next generation of mobility professionals.
On September 2nd, the YMN is hosting a UK London Bike Tour in partnership with Brompton Bike Hire and ITS UK. If you're a student, young professional or simply interested in a relaxed group ride in London followed by networking at a local pub - this is for you.
Delivery - bikes to cars, bots & drones 🍽🧺
DoorDash is building its own drone delivery aircraft - the DoorDash Air. The timing for the unveiling: DoorDash received certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to legally operate a commercial drone delivery. This doesn’t mean we’ll see those drones in the grocery queue just yet, testing and beyond-visual-line-of-sight are still needed. In parallel with developing its own drone operation, DoorDash is maintaining its partnerships with Wing and Flytrex. DoorDash’s strategy is unique - developing its own hardware. Remember, back in September 2025 DoorDash unveiled the Dot, a multi-use delivery bot.
Nash is a logistics optimisation platform. This week the company announced partnership with Flytrex, drone delivery, and with Autolane for autonomous deliveries using a Tesla. Avride partners with Chartwells, one of the largest campus dining providers in the US. Uber Eats welcomes new regional grocery partners across the US.
Rapido integrates delivery brand Ownly into the main ride-hailing app. This indicates maturity - the app and delivery service are ready to be integrated into the main demand channel.
GoLemon, Nigerian delivery startup, shuts down after failing to raise. Founded in 2024, GoLemon did everything in-house: bought directly from farmers & manufacturers; managed their own warehouses; built their own software; and managed delivery. The goal: to serve planned household shopping; big baskets bought on a schedule.
AV Freight, Industrial & Logistics 🚛🚜
Aurora signs Value Truck and Charger Logistics as customers for its new platform. Routes served are between Dallas & Laredo and between Fort Worth & Phoenix.
I love meeting new people and learning about innovation in mobility. Let’s get-to-know / catch up.
In other news 📰
The Boring Company is reportedly raising $4 billion in funding at a $20 billion valuation. The company was valued $5.7 billion in 2022.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, has purchased a 5% stake in Lucid Motors, doing so then Lucid's market cap was “less than $2 billion”.
Terminal, telematics, raises $20M to expand fleet data platform.
Omio raises $10M to support expansion into Japan.
Scuter, developer of three-wheeled shared electric vehicles, raises €3.5M. The company aims to use autonomy to correct parking and bring vehicles back/to customers.
Mirai Share is 10 years old and profitable. Happy birthday!
People 🧑🤝🧑
Gerd Overbeck is the new Sales Director Software UKI | NL | PL | CZ | FI | NO | SE @ Siemens Mobility.
Offer Grembek is the new Head of Safety, Pronto | Atoms Transport @ Atoms.
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.
