Movements | May 8th, 2020
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Micromobility
Sales of personal electric scooters doubled in France between 2018 and 2019. | Adrien Lelievre
Amid layoffs and cost cutting, Lyft is ceasing scooter service is Austin, Oakland, and San Jose. | KXAN
China’s Hellobike launches a new shared ‘smart’ eBike model with voice navigation. | eBike Tips
Interview with Bird’s GM of France, where he hints at future safety features including inflatable helmets and an in-app storefront for helmets. | Facebook
System that limits eBike speeds will be tested on Dutch roads. | The Verge
Brisbane city council is encouraging health workers to travel by shared scooters. | The Mandarin
Product Launches & Updates
Tier announced a “Monthly Pass”, where public transit monthly or yearly ticket holders in Norway or Germany can get up to 40 free scooter unlocks for the month of May. Regular per minute pricing still applies. | Tier
Lyft is testing a new “Wait & Save” feature for riders. | Movements
Sixt App is now allowing users to book taxis with partitions or film between riders and drivers. | Roger Lanctot
Curbflow launched ‘virtual curbFlow’ that gives drivers “real-time insight into curb availability and provides retailers, restaurants, and CREs with unprecedented visibility into what’s happening at their curbs”. | Curbflow
Share Now is testing monthly passes that save its carshare subscribers anywhere from 25% to 50% off per minute rates. | ShareNow
Apple adds COVID testing sites to Maps. | TechCrunch
Ridehailing, Carsharing, & Delivery
Dallas based Alto ridehailing selected the RideOS platform for its rideshare and food delivery business. Alto recently expanded to food delivery with the Alto Market.“both companies are already in discussions with several autonomous providers to supplement Alto’s existing driver network with driverless vehicles.” | RideOS
Europe’s Delivery Hero nearly doubled food and grocery delivery orders during lockdown. “Now it looks like the Berlin-based firm may also be seeing long-term benefits as lockdowns mean than new types of customers are willing to try online delivery services.” | Bloomberg
Didi claims to have 30% ridehail marketshare in Latin America. | SCMP
Instacart swings to first profit as pandemic fuels surge in grocery delivery. “Instacart sold about $700 million worth of groceries per week in the first two weeks of April, up 450% on sales in December.” | The Infromation
Beating up on UberEats is easy, but building it definitely isn’t. | Andy Bowie
Our new normal will only accelerate the transition to car subscriptions. | Maniv Mobility
UPS drivers are travelling 10% further and making 15% more stops. | WSJ
Investment & Deals
From Grab’s CEO: Note to investors on addressing the challenges of COVID-19. | Anthony Tan
Ninja Van raises $279m from Grab and others. | Bloomberg
Otonomo raises a $46m Series C to continue growing their vehicle data platform. | Otonomo
Nexar raises $52m for their connected vehicle computer vision platform. | Fortune
Uber invests $170m into Lime, sells them their JUMP unit. | The Verge
Cities & Policy
Who’s left riding public transit? Transit app surveyed 25,000 riders… “Only 9% of Transit riders have a car, while another 6% have access to one if they need to drive. For the remaining 85%, public transit is their go-to method of transportation.” | Transit app
What COVID-19 teaches us about how to fix freeways. “The simple but seemingly amazing fact is that the I-5 freeway is carrying more vehicles, faster, now at the peak hour than it did prior to Covid-19 travel restrictions. “ | City Observatory
Seattle is permanently closing 20 miles of street space to cars. | Seattle Times
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