Movements | July 10th, 2019
Movements | July 10th, 2019
Issue #55— 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.
The Micromobility Europe conference is bringing the top minds in (micro)mobility to Berlin on October 1 for a full day of programming that will cover all the BHAGs of 21st-century transport, from car-free cities to autonomous bikes. Movements subscribers can claim a 20% discount by clicking here and using the special code. See you in Berlin!
Micromobility
Fresh off a Series A, European scooter startup Dott is now offering free personal injury and third party liability insurance coverage on every ride. The company also announced it will be launching EU built eBikes: “This e-bike will be more comfortable, more durable and safer than anything you have seen so far.” Related: Here’s a video with an inside look into Dott’s warehouses. | Dott
Wind unveils its third generation electric scooter that features swappable batteries and IP67 waterproofing. | Techcrunch
Southeast Asian scooter startup Beam is rolling out its new ‘Saturn’ Segway Max scooter with swappable batteries. The company is also beginning to offer riders incentives to park in high demand areas. “If a Beam Saturn is parked appropriately and used by another rider in under 2 hours the original rider will get Beam credits.” | Scoop
Volkswagen releases a micromobility manifesto. “Those who live in the city are no longer necessarily dependent on the car. Alternative mobility solutions are in demand.” This is a big deal coming from a major auto OEM. | VW
Tour de France JUMP Bike. | JUMP
Ridehailing
Uber is looking to open up its platform components including routing and billing to 3rd parties. “We think of our platform as our own AWS to power our own businesses. Ultimately, we are thinking that this could extend, someday well into the future, and enable other business lines to be built on top of our platform by other third-party vendors as well." | Business Insider
A deep dive on Uber in Japan, where their Eats business is growing and they focus more on black cars and dispatch software for taxis. | Bloomberg
Lyft partners with First Transit to rollout wheelchair accessible vans on its platform in Los Angeles and San Francisco. | Lyft
Product Launches & Updates
Electric moped company GoGoro launches a vehicle sharing platform. Similar to Bird Platform, GoGoro offers the hardware and software to run an electric moped sharing fleet. | Techcrunch
Lime is testing a new feature that allows a single user to pay for a group of riders, without the need for the to have an account. | Android Police
Uber rolls out its new ‘Uber Comfort’ product with bigger, newer cars and a ‘no conversation’ option. | Venture Beat
New Funding & Investments
Dott announced a $34 million dollar Series A, bringing their total funding to $57m. | Techcrunch
Wind Mobility raises a $50 million Series A. | Pitchbook
Maniv Mobility raises a new $100 million fund. | Techcrunch
Related to all of the investments in the AV space, we’re likely to see huge spillover benefits in other areas for years to come. | Axios
Cities & Policy
A growing number of carshare users in Japan aren’t driving the vehicles. “One out of every eight users rented automobiles for purposes other than transportation.” | The Asahi Shimbun
Public transit agencies are increasingly experimenting with loyalty programs. | Wired
Some interesting lessons from Uber’s partnership with Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority in Florida, where the agency subsidized trips in designated zones. | TransitCenter
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