Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.04.27
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

China's evolving industrial policy: let's put AI everywhere (link). Like truffle fries before it, AI does seem to be in a number of places we didn't expect and in a few where we didn't ask. This mostly feels like a one-way door.

Tesla FSD subscribers with old hardware won't get 'self driving' after all (link). 'Approximately 4 million Tesla vehicles operate on the HW3 platform, meaning that a significant chunk of Tesla owners — including customers that paid for the feature when they bought their cars — are now locked out of being able to use unsupervised FSD, which has been something Musk has been hyping for years, unless they upgrade their car or their car’s hardware.' Logical followup: is there a Hardware 5 (HW5) at some point? Mark Twain followup: 'Faith is believing what you know ain't so.'

China's next phase of EV growth in country: the exurbs (link). 'EVs account for 1/2 of all vehicle sales in China and already outsell petrol cars in most of the so-called first- and second-tier cities, which include megalopolises such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen. But in lower-tier cities, which account for about 80% of the country’s urban center, fewer than 40% of cars are electric.'

What if AVs paid for parking automatically when they stopped, parked or pauked? (link). A collaboration between Meter Feeder and Mapless.

'Triple parity' = the new term to describe EV ability to match gasoline cars on range, price and charging time (link). 'EVs accounted for a quarter of new car sales globally in 2025 and the pace of growth has continued into the first quarter of 2026.'

How does GPS timing work? 1 nanosecond of signal travel = 0.3 meters (link).

On a price-per-mile basis, L4 AV rides are more expensive for Waymo and Uber robotaxi, less expensive for Uber and Lyft (link). For the period March-April 2026 vs November-December 2025.

Video: sessions from the 2026 Ride AI conference (link), including my discussion with Ro Gupta of Woven Capital, Regina Savage of Morgan Stanley and Ken Ken Gawrelski of Wells Fargo (link). Video: scaled trunk thumpers (link). Via TO. Video: Astrobotic fires Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) (link). Via Weans. Video: Jason Cammisa’s final look back at the Tesla Model S, which Tesla never stopped developing (link).

The fastest cop in NYC: 547 speeding tickets, apparently with full immunity (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Porsche divests Bugatti (link). 'Porsche AG has agreed to sell its 45% stake in supercar brand Bugatti Rimac, fully exiting the joint venture that houses the iconic brand. Under the terms of the deal, Porsche will also divest its 20.6% stake in Rimac Group, marking a complete exit from its investment in the Croatian electric hypercar maker.' I asked a few friends about this and most agree that Bugatti is stronger now. Alex Roy wrote to me in his typical understated kind of way: 'Decades from now, failing to make Mate Rimac CEO of the entire VW group will be seen as one of the greatest strategic errors in business history.'

Chinese OEM Chery and technology company Meituan, known for its food delivery app, are teaming up to focus on nuclear fusion (link).

Lyft acquires ridehailing platform Gett's UK business (link).

Chinese EV truck startup Deepway raises $310M (link). Led by Stone Venture.

Israeli auto retail CRM startup Fullpath acquired by Cox Automotive for $500M (link). Exit value reporting from Ynet (link).

German night train startup Nox Mobility raises $2M (link). Led by IBB Ventures.

Chinese AV delivery startup Zelos targets $600M IPO (link).

AV-only class 8 truck startup Humble raises $24M (link). Led by Eclipse.

Automated flight software startup Reliable Robotics raises $160M (link). Led by Nimble Partners.

Assets of closed tractor startup Monarch acquired by Caterpillar (link).

Canadian mobility pod startup A&K Robotics raises $8M for airport AV shuttles (link). Led by BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and New York’s Vantage Futures.

Logistics AI platform Loop raises $95M (link). Led by Valor.

Agriculture autonomy startup Agtonomy raises strategic round from Kubota (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Wheels Up Experience: Erik Snell rejoins board; Daniel Janki, Timothy Armstrong to leave board (link).

SES AI: Ray Liu named CFO; succeeds Jing Nealis (link).

Joby Aviation: Didier Papadapoulos resigns as Divisional President, Aircraft OEM (link).

Curated Jobs:

MobilityJobs remains unfatigued. View over new 1000 active job listings from companies like Avride (link), Drone Deploy (link) and Lotus (link).

AI Kernel Engineer at Quadric in Burlingame, California, United States (link). See all active jobs at Quadric (link).

Customer Success Manager at Carvis, remote (link). See all active jobs at Carvis (link).

New Stuff:

'Quiet airports' cut down on otherwise useless public address announcements (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent shows automatic lane change from eye gaze direction (link).

Zoox's patent application shows traffic light validation through 'supportive vote' (link). Another fascinating traffic light bit of IP that shows how complex it is just to understand which traffic light an AV should be taking signals.

Statistics / Projections:

Diesel prices up more than gasoline: 'Since the war began on Feb. 28, the average price of a gallon of diesel has gone up about 45%, while a gallon of regular gasoline has risen about 35%' (link). Via NYT / Energy Information Administration. 'The Energy Information Administration, a federal research agency, expects average diesel prices to peak at more than $5.80 a gallon this month. Gasoline, the agency said, would average $4.30 a gallon.'

BEV sales rise in Europe: 'BEV registrations rose 29.4% from a year ago to almost 560,000 in the ​quarter and were up 51.3% at over 240,000 in March alone ​in 15 European markets' (link). Via Reuters / E-Mobility ⁠Europe / New Automotive.

Tesla's California sales fall 24% in the first quarter 2026 versus the same period in 2025 (link). Via Electrek / California New Car Dealers Association’s (CNCDA).

Boeing delivered more planes than its European rival Airbus in a quarter for the first time since 2023 (link). Via FT.

Indian consumer willingness to pay for ADAS features varies between 96953 Indian rupees (INR) ($1117.02 USD) to 205971 INR ($2373.05 USD) for market segments with varied purchasing power (link). Via Transport Policy.

Car loan borrowers have 40% more negative equity than 5 years ago (link). Via WSJ / Edmunds. 'About 30% of borrowers in the first quarter who traded in a car to buy a new one had negative equity, whereby they owe more on their loan than their car is worth, according to car-shopping website Edmunds. Those borrowers owed about $7,200 on average before getting a new loan, a 42% jump compared with the same period five years prior.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Jit Bhattacharya (link), Jamie Gull (link), Gernot Leinenbach (link) and Alex Nesic (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Carvis (link), Joby Aviation (link), Meter Feeder (link), Quadric (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

I am rooting for the machines (Claude Shannon),

Reilly Brennan