Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.06.22
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

Mobileye did the thing that everyone anticipated they'd eventually do: launch their own fleet of robotaxis (link). Can you be both a supplier and AV operator at the same time? Or, said differently, can you survive if you are one and not both? From my view, it's likely that all pure play AV players (ie Waymo) also become suppliers to personally-owned (dual mode) L4 vehicles.

The new AV proof point is becoming the strength and scale of your operations: Uber to launch AVs in Houston in 2027 with 50,000 square foot depot, vehicles with Lucid and Nuro (link); Waymo announces new operations partner in Canadian fleet firm Element (link). AVs look like technology businesses on the outside but are utilization-dependent just like hotels, chip fabs, factories, hospitals and the like. The limited real estate and zoning in a city makes utilization more difficult, which means securing available parking and charging becomes nearly as important as vehicle capabilities.

EU prepares tariffs on Chinese plug-in hybrids, attempting to close a big loophole (link). 'It became apparent as early as last summer that Chinese brands with a strong presence in Europe, including BYD and MG, were using a loophole to increase sales in the region. Rather than focusing solely on battery-electric vehicles, which are subject to the EU’s additional anti-subsidy tariffs, they increasingly shifted towards plug-in hybrids. PHEVs are subject only to the standard 10% import duty and are exempt from the additional tariffs. The impact of this strategy is reflected in the market data: in May 2026, BYD announced that it had become Germany’s best-selling PHEV brand for the first time, recording 4,290 new registrations.'

America’s intractable air traffic problem: 3M daily passengers, 44,000 flights and a shortfall of 3800 air traffic controllers (link).

Waymo issues network-wide recall for its vehicles due to highway construction zone problems (link). The only reliable way to know how many robots are in an AV fleet is a global recall notice; for Waymo right now it's 3871.

Consumer Reports finds different prices for the same rides on Uber and Lyft (link). 'Camille opens her Uber app on a Wednesday evening and looks for an UberX ride between two towns near Florida's Gulf Coast. The price is listed at $94.96. It has no promotion or discount. Chuck opens his Uber app at the same time and looks at the same Florida route as Camille. His undiscounted fare is $65.95. Same route. Same day. Same time. Different prices.'

TrophyLab is 'like an open source version of Jane's Military Journal' (link). Ukrainians gathering downed Russian technologies have disassembled these weapons and vehicles to create this ongoing database.

How Japan's railways stayed one even after splitting apart (link). Via Diego. 'Tens of thousands of vehicles across Japan carry this JR mark and often interoperate on each other’s routes, yet they’re run by independent systems. And the mark has remained unchanged for nearly 40 years, giving off the air of a stable institution.'

Video: JR Hildebrand set the Pikes Peak production car record at 9:30:104 in a Corvette ZR1X this weekend (link). Video: SlamFest is like driving into the Knight Rider van but we're in Slinger, WI (link). Via Randy. Video: Harry Metcalfe on the Ferrari Luce -- he does an aero walkthrough here I haven't seen anyone else do until now (link). Via DR.

Inside the infamous Ferris Bueller Ferrari crash scene (link). 'We want the car to go out through one of the windows that we will make out of movie glass. We just would need to remove one of your windows and secure it and then put it back when we’re done. And we’ve got to get the best people in Chicago that do high-rise building glass and everything.'

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Japan's ridehailing app Go raises $553M in IPO, the biggest in the country this year (link). 'The company said it would use the funds for robotaxi research and development.'

Hyundai to buy SoftBank’s remaining 9.5% Boston Dynamics stake for $325M (link).

Honda announces QuantumScape partnership for its solid-state battery research (link).

Turkey clears Uber's acquisition of Getir delivery business (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Progressive: Lori Niederst promoted to Chief Personal Lines Officer, continues as lead of CRM business; succeeds Patrick Callahan (link).

Alaska Airlines Group: Shane Tackett promoted to President; continues as CFO (link).

Visteon: Gary Hicok joins board (link).

UPS: Eva Boratto resigns from board (link).

Curated Jobs:

View over new 1141 active job listings from companies like Manna (link), Moia (link) and iSee (link) on MobilityJobs. Post your own jobs for free.

Director / Sr Program Manager, AI Accelerator at Quadric in Burlingame, CA USA (link).

Director, Commercial Operations at Motional in Las Vegas, NV USA (link).

New Stuff:

Hackney app is a side-by-side price / arrival checker for Uber, Lyft and Waymo (link). Via Heidi S.

Researchers built a synthetic world-generation engine that creates rare, safety-critical driving scenarios for training AV policies (link).

Tesla driver using Autopilot crashes into home, killing a woman, officials say (link).

Slate's simple EV truck will probably cost exactly $24,950, based on some exposed website code found by a fan (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Lucid's next vehicle, a small crossover named Cosmos, revealed in patent drawing (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Geely's Zeekr brand says its global deliveries rose 93% year on year (link). Via TechinAsia.

In a fuel-saving effort, commercial truck drivers in the US drove 4% slower in April compared to the start of the year (link). Via WSJ / Inrix.

Thank you:

Thank you to Rodolfo Elias Dieck (link), Tu Le (link) and Till Rintelmann (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Motional (link), Quadric (link). View the full Trucks portfolio (link).

'I love mankind. It's people I can't stand' (Charles Schulz),

Reilly Brennan