Issue [#98]  -  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.

If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends 🤜🤛

Micromobility

• Peter Flax shares some thoughts on local bike shops pushback on ‘Direct-to-Consumer’ (DTC) eBike brands: “While the conventional bike market is largely controlled by 3 or 4 brands, the e-bike space is a Wild West. No one is close to dominance. Consumers are definitely buying DTC because they feel that what they want is often not at their (or any) shop.” | Peter Flax

• An excellent analysis on eBike brand VanMoof’s go-to-market strategy. | Stephen Lambe

• A look at how Skip and Scale.AI built image classification models to determine scooter parking compliance. | Scale

• Electric vehicle maker Fuell teases new eBike concepts as the industry quickly develops. | Elektrek

  

• How Uber turned JUMP into a pile of garbage | Vice

• Tortoise, an autonomous scooter company, partners with Swifmile, a charging dock system, to automatically reposition and charge fleets of scooters. | TechCrunch

• The Superpedestrian story: from the Copenhagen Wheel to shared e-scooters. | Superpedestrian

• France bans eBike maker VanMoof’s TV ad for creating 'climate of fear' about cars. | The Guardian

• Bolt enters the eBike space with a launch in Paris. | Techcrunch

Product Launches & Updates

• Coord is partnering with Aspen, Nashville, Omaha, and West Palm Beach to develop and pilot Smart Zone programs for curb space management: “Instead of relying on memory and interpreting regulation signs, Smart Zones let delivery drivers use the mobile devices they already use every day to find nearby available loading zones, place a hold, and pay for time in them”.  | Coord

• Radar launches Last Mile, a complete end to end solution for ordering ahead and customer arrival tracking based on their location and trip tracking SDKs. | Radar

• iOS 14 has some cool new mobility related features: Carkey enables your iPhone to act as a digital key for vehicles and the next generation of Apple Maps includes cycling directions and EV routing. | Macrumors

• China completes the launches for its Beidou geospatial positioning system | CNBC

• Bird launches its Frequent Flyer loyalty program in Germany with 3 reward levels. | Bird

• Citymapper is launching in 12 new US cities and plans to be in 100 cities by the end of the year. | Citymapper

• Spin is testing weekly eBike rentals targeted at delivery workers in Washington DC. | Spin

• French eBike startup Zoov announced an ultralight weight and modular charging station where the eBikes create a shared power connection. | Zoov

• Tranzito and Spin partner to bring a ‘mobility hub’ concept to life at a Caltrain station in San Francisco. The hub features charging, discounted helmet sales, and a valet. | Spin

Investment & Deals

• Uber offers to buy Postmates. | NYTimes

• Amazon is buying AV startup Zoox. | The Information

• Wise Systems raises a $15m Series B to optimize delivery dispatch and coordination. | Forbes

• Belgian MaaS startup Skipr secures a $7m Series A. | Tech EU

Cities & Policy

• California DOT is drafting centralized GTFS guidelines for all California transit agencies. Feed fragmentation and inconsistency, awesome to see a state agency doing this | David Zipper

• Andrew Salzberg is starting a newsletter on decarbonizing transportation. He’s awesome. You should check it out

• E-bikes are coming to NYC, legally. Finally! | Streetsblog

We would love to hear your thoughts. Give feedback.