Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.09.21
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

Joby completes the first fully autonomous flight across the U.S. (link). 'The aircraft covered 3,199 miles with zero control inputs from onboard safety pilot, including autonomous taxi, takeoff, cruise, and landing, supervised remotely from up to 2,323 miles away.'

Europe’s growing demand for EV batteries is outpacing the supply of retired packs available for recycling, leaving material supplies short of the EU's own targets (link). Paradoxically, the successful repurposing of EV batteries for stationary storage also reduces recycled-material availability (by about 25%), creating the tradeoff between extending battery life and recovering metals for new batteries.

Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had ‘ghost gun’ (link). AV passengers may confuse being alone with being private, chapter 347.

China's rocket achievements threaten US space superiority (link). 'LandSpace, a Chinese commercial launch company, successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket...Washington would do well to treat this as a commercial and strategic challenge before Chinese providers capture substantial overseas market share. Washington can help preserve U.S. leadership by continuing to foster a more competitive domestic launch industry and helping American satellite providers reach overseas markets where Chinese companies may be able to offer lower prices or state-backed financing.'

California gig drivers secure collective bargaining power with new union (link). Via Mark F. If bargaining increases the cost of human-driven rides, oddly this could make AV economics even more attractive, earlier. But organized drivers could also strengthen political pressure over how AVs roll out.

NASA in talks for Boeing's Starliner to handle new missions (link). 'The talks suggest NASA remains committed to maintaining ​Boeing as a second US crew transportation provider alongside SpaceX, despite Starliner's troubled crewed test mission two years ago.'

GM backtracks decision, will bring back Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to vehicle infotainment (link). This was an unforced error back in 2023. From an FoT reader and GM employee: 'at least we didn't make the mistake of continuing to make this mistake.'

Where is the learner's permit for AI driving? (link). 'The car is no longer finished at the factory.'

VW's Mission Efficiency EV concept achieves an astounding 9 miles per kWH (link). In contrast, the most efficient EV for sale in the US right now achieves 5 miles per kWh (link).

Video: 'racing is the art of making good tradeoffs' (link). Via Diego. Video: Having fun with a garage door trolley (link). Video: 'nobody sells this Land Cruiser part anymore, so I 3D printed it' (link). Via Karl L.

Behold NYC's 'stripe hog' (link). 'The Stripe Hog, which is manufactured by Hog Technologies in Stuart, Fla., has been used around the country — including by contractors working for New York City agencies — to remove markings for traffic lanes, crosswalks and construction on roads and highways...the Stripe Hog sucks up water and debris like an industrial anteater.'

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Ann Arbor AV startup May Mobility plans public offering via SPAC with Atlas Credit Partners (link). 'The transaction with ACP Holdings Acquisition Corp. implies a $1.4 billion pro forma enterprise value and could provide the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based AV startup with up to $337 million in gross proceeds.'

Drone startup Zipline reportedly raising $1B on $20B valuation (link).

Canada will keeps its airports, but wants private enterprises to run them (link).

Tunneling startup The Boring Company raises $3B (link). Led by the United Arab Emirates.

Logistics startup Overroute raises $5.5M (link). Led by Up Partners.

Lucid, Bolt team up to deploy 25,000 robotaxis across Europe (link).

Einride and Lidl launch cab-less AV truck on German roads (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Wayve: Elisa de Martel named CFO; was formerly at Waymo (link).

Volvo Cars: current Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer will succeed Hakan Samuelsson as CEO next year (link).

Curated Jobs:

View over new 1322 active job listings from companies, including Lucid Motors (link) and Scout Motors (link).

Chief of Staff to the Chief Technology Officer at Woven by Toyota (link).

Manager, Maintenance Programs at JetZero in Greensboro, NC or Long Beach, CA (link).

New Stuff:

Running list of the humans in space right now (link). Via Dharmesh G.

Researchers build fine tuning for end-to-end models (link). Via HS.

Taking at look at Apple's updates for CarPlay on iOS27 (link).

California is now the first state to add a real digital signature to driver's license barcodes, allowing anyone to verify their authenticity (link). Other states like New York and Virginia also use signatures, but they don't share public keys, so their verification is impossible.

How SpaceX streamlined the Raptor engine (link).

No more hiding Detroit's return to the defense industry: GM Defense delivers first Patriot Missile parts to Lockheed (link).

Waymo to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Singapore in 2028 (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application for an automate forklift (link).

Statistics / Projections:

A used car priced between $10,000 and $15,000 today is almost 9 years old on average and has 98,000 miles on it -- some 4 years older and has nearly 40,000 more miles than it did in Q2 2019 (link). Via Edmunds.

Everything high-priced in American consumer life is downstream from diesel prices (link). Via CNBC. 'Diesel fuel is considered to be the U.S. economy’s “single most universal tangible input” and that means what starts with truckers and railroads will ultimately hit consumers if record prices persist...(diesel) hit an all-time high of $6.31 per gallon on Wednesday.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Kunal Khattar (link) and Brandon Minor (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

JetZero (link), May Mobility (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

'In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act' (Orwell)

Reilly Brennan