Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.07.13
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

US NHTSA to AV developers: ‘an automated vehicle that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public’ (link). It seemed like this administration was green-lighting most AV momentum; most of my safety research friends praised this announcement.

Polestar CEO after US rebuke: this is the end of globalization, the beginning of regionalization (link). This is true for small brands, but big brands require a 'get you a man who can do both' quality that would make a harlequin blush. Remember that for all of GM's Americanness, it was one of Chinese AV firm Momenta's biggest shareholders when it went public last week. GM will likely end up making more money from Momenta than it ever lost on Cruise.

New NJ bill would ban Tesla’s camera-only Robotaxi (link). Count that day lost when politicians tell us which hardware they prefer. Picking LiDAR doesn't necessarily translate into success. Sensor primacy that merely confirms a belief is its own recklessness.

Researchers model how a city fleet of company-owned & personally-owned AVs could work (link). Chicago proper is used as a test case, with ridehailing data from Nov 2024 as the baseline. This suggests that centralized pricing and dispatch can serve almost all demand with relatively low personally-owned AVs needing to participate. A mixed fleet of 100 company-owned AVs plus access to a low % (about 1-4%) of 700 crowdsourced vehicles served nearly all demand in the modeling. The paper says that crowdsourcing personally-owned AVs becomes mostly unnecessary once the company fleet approaches 900 vehicles for this size population (2.7M people) and this demand curve. In basic napkin math, this means you need 1 company AV for about every 3000 people (for this particular demand, which is likely about 5% of passenger car trips in Chicago on that date). If you model AVs eating up 25% of all passenger car miles (as some optimistic equity researchers have done), that means 1 company AV for every 600 people.

'How Flock cameras wrongly tracked me for days over ‘stolen’ plates' (link). Via Weans. Here are all the locations of Flock cameras near you (link).

The cheapo mistake that turned 'DTN Airbags' into a killer (link). 'Eui Seok Kang lost control of his Chevrolet Malibu in torrential rain late one night in October 2023, spun sideways across two lanes of a Texas road and was struck by a pickup truck. When his air bag deployed, it tore apart his jaw. The air bag, it turned out, had been purchased on eBay and installed by the Texas dealership that sold him the used car. When he crashed, it sent metal shards flying into Kang’s face.'

As of last week, Europe began enforcing its rule that Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW) systems are mandatory in all new vehicles sold in the region (link). The cameras 'can monitor when drivers are distracted, drowsy, or otherwise inattentive, and alert them to stay focused.'

This week, a US Senate committee is expected to vote on bill to tighten US ban on Chinese vehicles (link).

Video: MIT & APFL researchers make a flapping robot that swims and flies like a diving bird (link). Audio: C&D's John Voelcker discusses Polestar's exit from the US market (link).

The new gaming chair is a second-row minivan seat (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Tire data startup Ridesense raises strategic round from Pirelli (link).

Used vehicle retail startup Bidbus raises $15M (link). Led by Ibex Investors.

Venus Aerospace raises $90M for a new kind of rocket engine (link). Led by Mercury Fund.

Joint venture between VW and Israeli firm for Iron Dome air-defense system blocked by shareholder (link). 'The Qatar Investment Authority, which owns more than 10% of the VW shares and 17% of the voting rights, blocked the proposal to create a joint venture with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems at the struggling factory in the western city of Osnabrueck, according to people familiar with the matter.'

Micron, Ford sign long-term memory supply deal (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

May Mobility: Balajee Kannan joins as Senior Vice President of Autonomy Core Engineering (link).

Ottometric: Axel Gerd joins board (link).

O’Reilly Automotive: Colin Yankee named Chief Supply Chain Officer (link).

Copart: Jane Pocock promoted to President, was CEO for United Kingdom (link).

Adient: Mark Oswald to depart as CFO (link).

Goodyear Tire & Rubber: Christina Zamarro departs as CFO; Scott Deakin appointed interim CFO (link).

Curated Jobs:

View over new 1300 active job listings from companies, including over 61 at Gatik (link).

Defense Business Development Lead at Skyryse in El Segundo, CA (link).

Customer Success Account Manager at Nexus Weather & Climate, remote (link).

New Stuff:

Charging network Ionna is on track to open 30,000 high-speed charging bays across the U.S. by 2030 (link).

'Mobility Mayor' is a simulation for figuring out the impact of AVs in a city (link). The policy sandbox lets you adjust rules to see how fares, service, and city income change in each location.

Positioning startup Xona unveils program to verify Pulsar-compatible devices (link). 'Xona unveiled the Pulsar Verified program July 9, which gives partners including Trimble, Septentrio, STMicroelectronics, Safran, StarNav and Keysight, a technical path to validate the compatibility of receivers and simulation equipment with the low-Earth orbit PNT constellation.'

VTOL startup Beta wraps first test flights in U.S. government’s pilot program (link).

ChargePoint, Optimus Energy plan to expand EV charging network in Southeast US (link).

Stellantis stuns with new small Fiat Topolino EV for US market at $13,995 price (link). 'Stellantis said the Topolino is capable of going 19 mph, with an electric range of up to 46 miles. A low-speed vehicle conversion kit can boost the top speed to 25 mph to make it street legal on roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less, according to the trans-Atlantic automaker.'

StreetComplete finds missing OpenStreetMap data in your vicinity and displays it on a map as quests (link).

Now known for its line of computer printers, in the 1950s Japan's Brother briefly entered the motorcycle market with their Darling model (link). Via James K.

Patents & Patent Applications:

Ford's patent application ties a subscription to a user, not a vehicle (link). This is interesting because it allows portability of a feature (eg ADAS or AV) into a different vehicle.

Statistics / Projections:

China's new cars: Chinese EVs on the road are on average just 1.8 years old, compared with 8.2 years for gasoline-powered cars (link). Via Bloomberg / China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Hejun Consulting.

Location and time are otherwise unreported safety metrics for comparing humans vs AVs (link). Via Waymo. 'For example, on surface streets human drivers in Memphis were involved in fatal crashes at a rate 8.4 times higher than drivers in Boston. Relying on a single national average to judge safety would be unfair in both cities — it overestimates the risk of driving in Boston by three times, while underestimating the hazards in Memphis by the same threefold margin...Risk doesn’t just change by the road type — it shifts by the hour. Our research shows that human fatal crash risk surges during late-night hours and weekends. Fatigue, darkness, and impaired driving completely change the safety landscape.'

Delta's adjusted fuel expense was up 77% from the same period last year (link). Via Bloomberg / Delta.

In Russia's new fuel crisis, Chinese EVs are like bao from heaven (link). Via Reuters. 'Moscow dealer sells 2-3 EVs per day vs 2-3 per month before.'

76.9% of all new passenger cars sold globally in 2031 will fulfill requirements for SAE Level 1–3 driving automation (link). Via Berg.

About 41% of all emergency room visits for e-bike injuries in 2024 and 2025 involved patients ages 10 to 19 (link). Via Axios / National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimates.

Thank you:

Thank you to Jon Goh (link) and Sunill Kumaar (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Gatik (link), May Mobility (link), Nexus Weather & Climate (link), Ottometric (link), Skyryse (link), Xona Space Systems (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

'Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.' (Peter Drucker)

Reilly Brennan