Issue #80 - 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.
This week, we’re trying something new - bullet points! Let us know if this is easier to read or a nuisance.
Micromobility
Lebron James teams up with Lyft to give bikeshare access to teenagers across the USA. “Safety is always first, and for the city to understand that bike lanes is very important for the kids’ safety,” he said. “For adults that want to ride, too. So this is very important.” | Lyft
The case for micromobility as public transit. | Alex Nesic
Micromobility winter: Latin America’s Grow is laying off 25% of its workforce and concentrating its efforts on most dense cities in the region. “One thing that is particularly clear is that micromobility is still at the early stages of its life and it is a challenging business that requires the right combination of scale and precise execution.” | Grow Blog
Why your next truck is a bike. | Alex Mitchell
Skip pledges to release quarterly sustainability reports on fleet spare part replacements and disposals. “A scooter that lasts a year but requires complete part replacement every 3 months may be even worse than a scooter that only lasts 3 months.” | Skip
Product Launches & Updates
Bird ES models were spotted for sale at Walmart. | Walmart
Super73 unveils its new R-series eBikes. | Electrek
Lime is testing some super cool sidewalk riding detection features. “For every ride in downtown San José, Lime will collect accelerometer and speed data. From this data, the vibration of the underlying riding surface (e.g. a road or a sidewalk) can be detected using a sophisticated statistical model (AI) that Lime designed. With this functionality, Lime is able to discern with up to 95% accuracy when a rider is riding on a sidewalk instead of the street.”
Ridehailing & Carsharing
Uber is testing a new feature that gives drivers the ability to set their fares. Under the new feature, drivers can set fares as high as five times the fare Uber sets on a ride. | The Rideshare Guy
Grab is launching a fleet of all electric vehicles at Jakarta’s airport as part of their partnership with Hyundai. | Jakarta Globe
What an Uber superapp could look like in India with micromobility, eats, payments, and more. | Krishna Murari
Nissan and Uber are partnering to provide 2,000 electric Leaf vehicles to drivers in London. | Renewable Energy Magazine
Investment & Deals
Bird acquires European scooter operator Circ and adds an additional $75 million to their Series D fundraising. | Techcrunch
Citymapper appears to be for sale. | Telegraph
Didi competitor ‘Dida’ is looking to raise $300 million in China before filing for an IPO in the USA. | TechNode
Uber has sold its Eats business in India to Zomato for a 9.99% share of the company. | Reuters
Cities & Policy
Washington DC plans to build 100 dockless bikeshare corrals across the city. Related: Senator Mike Lee was caught riding a Lime scooter on capitol hill. | wtop
Electric scooters are coming to the UK, legally. | The Times