The sweet song of an ebike | October 21, 2022

This week, Bird is exiting several markets around the world, Joyride announced Joyride Delivery and we take a look at how Amsterdam became the bicycle capital of the world.

Issue [#158] - Every week, we deliver analysis and curation of emerging mobility news - post a job listing here!

The LA Auto Show, and its mobility industry preview day - AutoMobility LA - is coming up, this November 17th to 27th! 2022 marks the 115th anniversary of the venerable show, where they’ll be displaying EVs, eVTOLs, future vehicles and much more. Be sure to check out their EV test track, featuring new vehicles from Kia, VinFast, Volkswagen, Porsche and more. Register now

Micromobility

Autonomous driving company Waymo has endorsed the League of American Bicyclists' technical guidelines regarding safe interactions between autonomous vehicles and cyclists / Argo AI

Electric vehicles are only the beginning, according to Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe / TechCrunch

"It sings that song. A subtle hum. A beautiful hum. It makes me want to ride and ride, ridiculous distances, nonsensical distances." Who knew that owning an e-bike would sound so poetic? Read this author's reflections on owning an e-bike in the heat of Japanese summer / Craigmod

David Zipper rails against the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's position that bigger cars are safer for teens / via @DavidZipper

Amsterdam's bicycle conquest: A tale of how a car-congested city became the bicycle capital of the world / Bloomberg

A regulatory filing reveals Bird is exiting several markets across the globe due to its struggles to build an economically viable business. Among the markets, it will be exiting are Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as several dozen other small to midsized markets across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa / TechCrunch

Product Launches & Updates

The new NIU KQi3 Max kick scooter offers exceptional performance, faster speeds, and fantastic value / PRNewswire

Delfast, a Ukrainian-American company that produces electric bikes, has unveiled the innovative new California Electric Bike, designed with a U-frame and with a range of about 125 miles / MoveElectric

VanMoof's new A5 and S5 e-bikes are harder to steal and more comfortable to ride / Engadget

Ridehailing, Carsharing & Delivery

Joyride announced Joyride Delivery this week, a software platform that makes it easy for micromobility operators to lease their vehicles to gig workers and track all activity using Joyride's backend dashboard. This includes inventory management, secure payments, and fleet analytics. This is a space that is currently headed up by Zoomo, but we've seen a number of smaller players like Zygg and others starting to emerge, and there is a lot of demand here / Joyride

Waymo's driverless robotaxi service comes to LA / TechCrunch

Lunchbox has launched Lunchbox 2.0, and they're unveiling a lot more behind the all-in-one product suite at our Lunchbox Keynote on October 27th / Lunchbox

FedEx is shutting down the development of its last-mile delivery robot, Roxo, to focus on "nearer-term opportunities." / The Verge

The Lyft app now allows users to search for, reserve, and pay for parking spaces across the United States. Lyft's parking reservation feature is made possible through a partnership with Chicago-based SpotHero, and it is available through both iOS and Android versions of its app / PCMag

Lyft is increasing the service fees its US riders pay by about $0.60 per ride to help pay for rising operating costs like insurance fees and background checks / Automotive News

In an attempt to drive more revenue, Uber officially launched its advertising division and Journey Ads, an in-app advertising experience. Advertisers will be able to place ads inside of Uber's ride-hailing apps, Uber Eats apps and in-vehicle digital advertisements, sponsored mail, and storefront ads. "First-party data" will be used for targeted advertising, according to the company / Gizmodo

Investment & Deals

Pure Electric, an electric scooter company based in the UK, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fund its expansion plans - and has raised almost £1.5 million so far / ZAGDaily

Irish mobility platform, CitySwift, has raised €5 million in its Series A funding round and has added Mobility-Intelligence-as-a-Service to its growing list of AAS platforms / Tech.eu

In a deal worth $240 million, Mullen Automotive acquired Electric Last Mile Solutions to make its first electric vehicle. Mullen will be able to build up to 50,000 EVs annually, accelerating the launch of the Mullen FIVE and Bollinger B1 and B2 retail vehicles / TechCrunch

In an effort to expand into new markets, Indian car rental company Zoomcar Inc is going public in the United States in a blank-check merger valued at $456 million, including debt / Reuters

Sondors, a Malibu-based electric bike and motorcycle manufacturer, filed for an IPO to raise up to $25 million / Sec

In a €1.5 billion deal, Mercedes will receive, on average, 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide each year from Rock Tech Lithium / Reuters

Cities & Policy

The White House announced Wednesday that the US Department of Energy will award $2.8 billion to boost battery manufacturing and mineral production domestically / The Verge

A mobility innovation district is being created in the Southwest quadrant of the District of Columbia to experiment with innovative transportation services such as on-demand shuttles and electrification hubs / SmartCities

California is leading the way by decriminalizing crossing the street after auto dealers, and drivers in Los Angeles invented jaywalking / Governing

In a Q&A with Vox, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discusses supply chain issues, range anxiety, and other challenges of the electric vehicle transition / Vox

New Products, Features and Data Points

Estonian startup Äike has launched a remote smart-unlocking system for e-scooters. When the user's phone is within range of the scooter, the Bluetooth feature automatically unlocks and locks the scooter / ZAGDaily

Automakers are betting that a series of built-in alerts will help save lives. But…could Audi's latest C-V2X Project be the answer to our problems with cyclist deaths? This author doesn't think so / Curbed

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