Movements | August 7th, 2019
Issue #58— Brought to you by Michal Naka and Adam Feldman. Join thousands of others who receive this analysis and curation of emerging mobility news in their inbox every week — subscribe now.
Micromobility
Bird announced the Bird Two with longer battery life, maintenance sensors, and anti-vandalism protections. | The Verge
Latin American micromobility startup Grow Mobility plans to invest $25 million in bringing scooter and bike manufacturing to Brazil. Their new facility will have a capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year. Grow aims to lower costs and reduce dependence on Chinese vehicle imports. | Contxto
Spin launches its rebrand and announces that it will be rolling out the new Segway MAX vehicles next month. | VentureBeat
Here’s a video interview with Usain Bolt and Bolt Mobility Co-CEO Sarah Hayne. Haynes says their forward facing platform scooters are designed from the ground up “for women, by women”. | Yahoo
Hardware innovation at the edge: a homemade cargo eBike that runs completely on solar power. | Twitter
European micromobility startup Voi has added over 600K new users, 9 new markets and did 3.3 million trips according to its quarterly ‘mission report’. | Fredrik Hjelm
How do hard vehicle caps effect scooter ridership? In Chicago where scooter operators are capped at 250 vehicles each, the number of users opening the Lime app has far exceeded the users taking trips. Trips tracked more closely with demand in Paris where Lime was able to expand its scooter fleet. | Curbed
Ridehailing & Carsharing
Some people see ‘Mobility-as-a-Service’ as the future, but they don’t talk about how challenging it is to integrate multiple mobility services into a single app. A moovel product designer shares a framework to help build a scalable and consistent user experience across different modes. | Steffen Schäfer
Uber is looking into grocery delivery in Europe. | Pymnts
The Denver Airport has scrapped plans to build two new parking garages thanks to Uber, Lyft, and public transit. Although the airport has experienced 20% passenger growth from 2015 to 2018, parking demand has fallen flat. | Denver Post
Some definitive numbers on the amount of traffic caused by Uber and Lyft. | CityLab
Deals & Investments
A former Airbnb product executive, raises a $1.5 million seed round to build a ridehailing company for seniors. | TechCrunch
Didi spun off its autonomous vehicle unit. | VentureBeat
Product Launches & Updates
Apple Maps for iOS 13 has some significant upgrades: a StreetView-like feature called Look Around, a redesigned navigation panel, Collections of favorite places, live location and ETA sharing, and real-time transit data. | MacStories
Cowboy launches “Easy Rider” theft and damage insurance for their direct-to-consumer eBike. | Cowboy
An update on Facebook’s machine learning tools for creating maps from satellite imagery. | Facebook
Cities & Policy
Washington DC hires a ‘Shared Micromobility Planner’ as it continues to install micromobility corrals for scooter parking and other dockless vehicles. DDOT
Why are eBike commuters the happiest? “1) A high degree of commuting control and ‘arrival-time reliability’; 2) Enjoyable levels of sensory stimulation; 3) The ‘feel better’ effects of moderate intensity exercise; and 4) Greater opportunities for social interaction.” | University of Auckland
Uber files a federal lawsuit against the City of Chicago over their exclusive bikeshare deal with Lyft. | Chicago Tribune