Movements | September 11th, 2020

Tele-operated scooters, used bike marketplace raises $12 million, and so much more!

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Micromobility

• German direct-to-consumer bike company, Canyon, teased a new covered eBike concept vehicle. | Canyon

• Tortoise shows off it’s new teleoperated “Tortoise Cart” delivery vehicle. The vehicle can carry 100+ pounds of delivery food and groceries in modular containers.  | Tortoise HQ

• Teleoperated scooters caught on camera repositioning in San Jose. | Complex

• Zoba details their approach to demand prediction and dynamic pricing for shared mobility services. | Zoba

Product Launches & Updates

• CurbFlow launches its new ‘virtual curbFlow’ product in Washington DC with its anchor customer DoorDash. This product provides delivery drivers and fleet operators with real time insights into curb availability in high density areas of town. The way it works is that curbFlow partners with local merchants and gives them a computer vision device (camera + embedded software) that monitors curb utilization. With making curbs legible to software systems, this could unlock a bunch of interesting use cases in transportation. | curbFlow

• Washington DC and Los Angeles public transit systems launch Apple Pay support. | 9to5mac

• Sixt launches a monthly car subscription service in the United States. | Fleet World

• Google Maps launches more sophisticated traffic predictions with dramatically improved real-time ETAs based on a collaboration with Deep Mind. | DeepMind

Ridehailing, Carsharing, & Delivery

• Uber will be requiring riders who previously received complaints, to verify if they are wearing a mask with a selfie. | Uber

• Curbside pickup is a lifeline for eateries. How long can it last? NACTO estimates 100 cities have created curbside pickup zones.  | Pew Trusts

• Mapping the global ridepooling market. “As of September 2020, more than 330 On-Demand Ridepooling projects have been initiated around the globe, of which over 200 are active today.” | Lukas Foljanty 

• An interesting thread on Chinese food delivery app algorithms: “Apparently the delivery platforms ask drivers to follow *walking* rather than driving directions, so drivers have no choice but to go against the traffic, run red lights, etc.” | Yiqin Fu

• Uber launches car rentals in the UK through a partnership with CarTrawler. | The Verge

Investment & Deals

• The Pro’s Closet, a used bike marketplace app, raised a $12 million Series A to expand its business in the USA. | Crunchbase

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