Movements | July 9th, 2018
Issue #6! brought to you by Michal Naka and Adam Feldman.
Big News
Lyft acquires Motivate. As Michal put it the other day, Motivate represents 80% of all US bikeshare trips in 2017. But more importantly, Lyft has acquired access to over 2,370 valuable stations near transit and commerce in cities like NYC, SF, PDX, BOS, DC and CHI . I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them turn these into Mobility Hubs along the lines of their efforts in Baltimore and in their SFMTA scooter permit application. Also of note, Motivate comes along with a number of exclusive contracts to operate in cities.| Amir Efrati
Uber is in acquisition talks with Middle East ridehailing firm Careem | Bloomberg
Uber participated in Lime’s recent funding round and plans to make its scooters available through their app | Bloomberg
Product Launches and Updates
Citymapper starts marketing some of their floating transportation options alongside their multimodal routing capabilities. “With fixed transport it’s been ‘when’, i.e. “when is the bus coming?”. Now it’s ‘where’, i.e. “where is the nearest kick scooter/cycle/moped?” | Citymapper
Volvo unveils mobility brand ‘M’, with a target release in Sweden and the US by Spring 2019. Interesting to note that CEO Bodil Erikkson claims to have given up her own car and rely soley on mobility services for the last year | Automotive World
VW will launch an all-electric carsharing service next year in Germany with plans to expand to other cities in Europe, North America, and Asia in 2020. Eventually, the service will include other modes such as scooters. | TechCrunch
The MTA releases an updated mobile web app | MTA
Micromobility
Mobike announced it’s refunding all user deposits and is launching eBikes in China and beyond | China Daily
What type of scooters does Bird use? | The Rideshare Guy
Tesla’s head of engineering, Doug Field, is leaving the company. Field was the CTO of Segway from ’99 to ’08. Will we see him re-emerge in the micromobility space? | The Verge
Will scooters suffer from the trade war? Note: we have noticed that multiple operators use import codes that aren’t on the tariff list | Axios
The European scooter space is heating up:
Troty launches 50 scooters in Brussels with 2500 subscribers| Brussels Times
Spanish startup UFO is gearing up to launch dockless scooters in Barcelona | Economia
Scoot may have the edge in the San Francisco scooter permit contest and is looking to raise $30 million. Acquisition target by Uber or Lyft?| The Information
LA Dockless Rules: ‘Operator shall not display third party advertising on its vehicles.’ | LA City
Lime hits 1 million rides in Seattle over the past 12 months | Lime
TNCs
Uber and Lyft continue to take a big bite out of night parking and valet servics in Southern California | LA Times
Behind the scenes interview with the Head of Uber Eats Jason Droege. Mobility is so much more than just ‘rides’. | Turner Novak
Uber and Lyft held talks to acquire group ride app Skedaddle| Axios
Singapore regulators threaten to unwind Uber-Grab merger | CNN
Lyft was allegedly having acquisition talks with Spanish ridehailing firm Cabify, who has a presence in Spain, Portugal and LATAM. Note: Cabify denies it | Techcrunch
Cities
NYCDOT selects 5 companies to participate in its dockless, electric bikeshare pilot this summer: Lime, Jump, Pace, Ofo, and Motivate. | NY Times
Millennials are happiest in cities. “The results confirm earlier findings of urban malaise: Americans in general are happiest in smaller cities and rural areas. However, the advantage of rural living is declining — rural Americans are becoming less happy relative to urbanites.” | Study
Vancouver, BC continues to lead North America in alternative transportation investment, with approving a plan for a regional 186 mile (300km) bike highway network| Daily Hive
Portland launches an application process for an e-scooter pilot program | PBOT
China
WeChat Pay now allows for contactless payment for 16 toll stations in Guangdong. Vehicle owners register their plate number and license with the app and they’re ready to go | Lionel Sim
The founder of Kuaidi Dache (which merged to become Didi) is starting a blockhain based ridehailing company with the goal of having a marketplace controlled by drivers who contribute to the platform, a tokenized economy and governable public chains | China Money Network
Modular electric vehicle company Open Motors has its eyes set on China for manufacturing and investments. This makes sense given that China is skipping the whole ‘everyone owns a car’ phase | Tech Node