The Station - The coming IPO wave and Einride's founder on autonomy, EVs and ethics

Sunday, November 28, 2021 • By Kirsten Korosec

Hello readers: Welcome to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.

As we wrap up this extended Thanksgiving holiday, I want to extend my thanks and express gratitude to all our loyal readers. You’re an engaged bunch and I always look forward to your emails (even the critical ones). Keep it up!

As always, you can email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions or tips. You also can send a direct message to me at Twitter — @kirstenkorosec.

Micromobbin'

You know what really grinds my gears? When a city that has been piloting dockless e-scooters for three years decides to shut it down abruptly. Miami, once the home to the most electric scooters in the U.S., decided to do just that on November 19. City commissioners voted to end the pilot, telling companies like Bird, Lime, Lyft, Spin and Helbiz to come collect their vehicles before they’re impounded.

About a week after the announcement, Mayor Francis X. Suarez appeared to be giving the matter some thought, saying there’s room for discussion on the matter; Suarez didn’t elaborate further. Despite the fact that micromobility in Miami was helping address last-mile transit issues and brought the city $2.4 million in revenue that was used to fund new bike lanes, opponents of the pilot say scooters are far too unsafe, particularly when they’re on the sidewalks. And there’s the rub.

At this point, almost all the major micromobility companies are piloting some form of scooter ADAS system that’s geared to keep riders off sidewalks — I’m pretty sure Spin was even piloting its system with Drover AI in Miami. Other cities watching the drama play out in Miami might decide to follow suit. That’s possibly spurring micromobility companies to work on ways to scale their computer vision or hyper-accurate location detection technologies so that they have a bargaining chip for staying on the streets. That might mean goodbye to the smaller companies that don’t have the resources for such advanced tech, and hello to more consolidation!

While this kind of tech may be just what antsy elected city officials feel like they need to accept micromobility as a safe and viable transit option, something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. It looks like laziness and poor allocation of resources on the city’s part to make Miami streets safer for non-car forms of mobility.

Here’s what Mayor Suarez said about ending the scooter pilot in Miami:

“I’ve conferred with our City Commissioners to address Commissioner (Alex) Diaz de la Portilla’s well-placed apprehensions over the existing pilot program and as with every decision we make, solutions are not exempt from their own tradeoffs–we cannot sacrifice the safety of our residents for the sake of mobility … Being a Miami that works for everyone means being a Miami where residents have access to not just effective transportation but also safe transportation.”

If the mayor is concerned about safety, he and the city might consider the 3,000-pound metal beasts that are also on the road. After all, we mustn’t sacrifice the safety of our residents for the sake of mobility.

Meanwhile, the city of Paris, which has been a leader in micromobility is dealing with safety another way. The city announced that scooter sharing services should restrict the maximum top speed to 10km / h (that’s 6.2mph). That decision comes following a number of pedestrian injuries that involved a scooter, TechCrunch’s Romain Dillet reports.

In other news …

Streetlogic, an e-bike collision warning system startup, has sprung up to address this safety issue. Because cities keep failing residents who would like a greener, cleaner and less stuck-in-traffic way to commute, startups are forming to help make riding much safer. Streetlogic came out of stealth with a $2.1M pre-seed raise and is accepting reservations for its computer vision-based safety system, which it expects to deliver to customers by the end of 2022.

Roman Bysko, co-founder and CEO of Meredot, a mobility infrastructure company, contributed to TC this week, offering insights as to how the micromobility industry might be able to actually turn a profit and then secure more investments. The key? Standardizing charging infrastructure.

Cowboy, an e-bike manufacturer from Brussels, has launched its newest e-bike series, the C4 and C4 ST, integrated with Spark Connected’s wireless charging technology. The solution has allowed Cowboy to develop its cockpit, which is integrated into the stem and features a built-in mount to securely hold and charge the rider’s smartphone.

Swedish e-motorbike company Cake unveiled its Cake :work line of electric motorcycles at the EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show. They also showed off a variety of accessories that can be used to mount work tools, as well as batteries that can provide off-grid power for tools and devices.

Kalashnikov, the Russian arms maker, may be getting involved in the electric vehicle space. New patent images that were leaked show a five-door, four-wheeler as well as an open-sided three-wheeler design from the company.

Horace Dediu, the father of the term ‘micromobility,’ has come up with a new way of measuring vehicle performance, one that relies less on horsepower and torque and instead makes more sense for the micromobility world. A Modicum of Transport, or MOT, is defined as 1MOT = 0.1kWh/kgkm (or 10kWh/100kg*km). Plural is “MOTz.” It’s the nominal energy cost of transporting one person one kilometer.

— Rebecca Bellan

Deal of the week

The big deal of the week is about the future. And we love projections here at the TechCrunch transportation desk.

Bank of America Corp. predicts that a global push towards electrification has triggered a wave of IPOs in the EV sector that could raise about $100 billion through the end of 2023, Bloomberg reported. This won’t just be electric vehicles. Instead, this will run the EV gamut, including batteries and charging infrastructure.

The Rivian IPO, which was the largest public debut of 2021, raised $13.7 billion. Expect more IPOs, specifically spin offs that turn into publicly traded companies. 2022 should be an electrifying year for IPOs (ahem.)

Other deals that got my attention this week …

Arc, the electric boat startup that has yet to reach its one-year founding date, snagged more capital in a $30 million Series A round led by Greg Reichow, the former Tesla executive who is now a partner at Eclipse Ventures. Existing investors — Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital and Ramtin Naimi’s Abstract Ventures also joined. Reichow will also join Arc’s board. To date, Arc has raised $37 million, including earlier investment from the funds of Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Combs Enterprises.

DiviGas raised $3.6 million in a round led by the venture arm of MANN+HUMMEL (a global market leader in filtration and separations), Energy Revolution Ventures from the UK, Volta.VC from the US, and New York climate investor Albert Wenger. Divigas is developing polymeric membranes designed for purifying hydrogen and other gases.

General Motors acquired a 25% stake in Seattle-based electric boating company Pure Watercraft. GM’s move reflects a broadening interest in all things EV, including boats and other vehicles, and comes as part of the automaker’s commitment to invest $35 billion in electric and autonomous technology through 2025.

Ionity, an electric vehicle fast-charging charging network provider whose owners include Daimler AG and Volkswagen Group, has scored a €700 million ($783 million) investment from BlackRock Global and existing shareholders to expand its footprint across Europe.

NextCar, the fintech and insurtech vehicle subscription company founded by Scott Painter (founder of Fair, TrueCar, Carsdirect.com) and Georg Bauer, acquired the Autonomy brand and IP library from Micro Focus. Terms weren’t disclosed but we know that NextCar now owns the primary global domain, Autonomy.com, along with a family of country and subdomain extensions as well as trademark applications, awards, goodwill, and related IP. Autonomy was previously a Hewlett-Packard company that was later acquired by Micro Focus.

I guess that means NextCar is getting ready to make a play into autonomous vehicle technology, or at least own some of the branding around it.

Spinny, a Gurgaon-based online used car marketplace, raised more than $280 million in its Series E financing round, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The round, which is co-led by Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, values Spinny at over $1.75 billion post-money. This is the third funding round raised by Spinny this year.

Treepz. the Nigeria-based mobility-as-a-service platform formerly known as Plentywaka, acquired Ugabus, the Ugandan bus company that aggregates inter-city bus operators. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Onyeka Akumah, CEO and co-founder of Treepz, told TechCrunch that the acquisition was funded with a recent $1.5 million raise that acted as an extension to a previous seed round.

Volvo Cars Tech Fund invested $2 million into optics and imaging developer Spectralics, funds it will use to accelerate the development of its optical film that the company says could make cars safer and provide a better user experience.

Yababa, the Berlin-based same-day grocery delivery business that launched this summer, closed a $15.5 million seed round of funding to fuel planned rapid expansion within Germany and across Europe.

Policy corner

Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving and welcome back to Policy Corner. We have just a few policy details this week for you to mull while you enjoy your leftovers and prepare for the week ahead.

The National Institute on Standards and Technology, a non-regulatory government agency within the Department of Commerce, is seeking input on how to keep the U.S. maximally competitive on the global technological stage.

The agency released a request for information earlier this week “seeking information about the public and private sector marketplace trends, supply chain risks, legislative, policy, and the future investment needs” on a wide range of tech. NIST is looking for responses from stakeholders including industry, science and the general public to inform a forthcoming document, “Study to Advance a More Productive Tech Economy.”

The agency is looking to hear feedback on the following areas: artificial intelligence, internet of things in manufacturing, quantum computing, blockchain technology, new and advanced materials, air and ground unmanned delivery services, internet of things and 3D printing.

The invitation for responses comes on the heels of a piece of legislation that was passed in 2020, the American Competitiveness of a More Productive Emerging Tech Economy (COMPETE) Act — and yes, it’s a mouthful. To me, this RFI is a sign of progress; government may move slow, but at least it is moving.

The Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, which counts Amazon, Uber, Lyft and DHL amongst its members, issued a public letter to officials in the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and General Services Administration calling for standards for the interoperability of public EV charging infrastructure. The group says that interoperable standards “are critical in enabling EV drivers to freely utilize public charge points while stimulating competition in the marketplace and growing the EV market as a whole.”

Interoperability could specifically allow fleets to transition more quickly to electric, the letter says, by allowing them greater charging flexibility and access to a greater number of routes.

“While many fleet vehicles are able to charge at home or at a fleet depot, public charging stations with open charging access located in key areas such as along highway corridors are necessary to help reduce range-anxiety among EV drivers and enable electrified long-distance travel,” the letter says. “Just as importantly, open charging standards significantly reduce the risk of technology obsolescence for fleet operators as they ensure forwards and backwards compatibility between EV models and charging infrastructure.”

— Aria Alamalhodaei

Notable reads and other tidbits

ADAS

Tim Stevens, editor in chief at CNET’s Roadshow, recommends not buying a Tesla Model Y in a review published Friday. Stevens writes the Tesla Model Y seems like the complete package and has a lot going for it. So why the do not buy recommendation? The vehicle’s active safety suite is fundamentally flawed, ruining the entire vehicle (among other problems). Specifically, Stevens points to the issue of phantom braking. Tl;dr: the Model Y is bad at detecting obstructions ahead and false positives — which means the car brakes suddenly and without warning — are a common occurrence.

Tesla has asked owners who are in the “Full Self-Driving Beta” program to allow it to use footage from inside and outside the vehicle, Electrek reported. (FSD does not mean these vehicles are self-driving; the driver must always stayed engaged and be ready to take over. ) This is notable because it marks the first time Tesla would link video footage with an owner’s vehicle, as opposed to anonymizing that footage.

Autonomous vehicles

Baidu received the approval for commercial operation of its autonomous car service in a special zone within Beijing. This means the company’s Apollo Go service, known as Luobo Kuaipao in China, can charge for rides in its robotaxis within a designated 60-square kilometer area (23 square miles) in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. The robotaxis will move between 600 pick-up and drop-off points in both commercial and residential areas between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily. Apollo Go will have 67 autonomous vehicles in the zone. Pony.ai also received approval to operate in the zone.

Einride founder Robert Falck talks to TechCrunch’s Rebecca Bellan about his moral obligation to electrify autonomous trucking, plus a lot more about his thoughts on the industry, Tesla, Ford and Rivian. (This is a TC+ article)

Electric vehicles

Mercedes launches the EQB, the second all-electric crossover in its EQ line.

Here’s our take on the 2022 Polestar 2 single motor variant. Tl;dr: it’s more affordable, appealing and repairable.

Speaking of Polestar, the company provided more details about the future of the Polestar Precept sedan — the concept vehicle turned production project. The Precept is now officially called Polestar 5 and will go into production in 2024.

Supply chain

Michael Maten, an EV policy strategist at General Motors, confirmed at an event this week that the automaker is looking to secure domestic sources of raw minerals to support its transition to electrification, E&E News reported. He called out federal permitting timelines as one area where the market’s capacity to meet growing demand could be stymied.

That GM is interested in more raw materials investment is not necessarily surprising; the automaker has already made one public investment in a lithium extraction project in California. It’s notable, if only as a landmark for how the automotive industry is changing in response to transportation electrification. Now, automakers are all about controlling the supply chain in a more vertically integrated way than ever before and that includes at the very beginning, with the raw materials.