Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.10.12
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

Tesla drops ‘Full Self-Driving’ brand name in Europe after regulator pushback; now 'Assisted Driving' (link). The lack of proper communication / language frameworks for ADAS in the US has been an embarrassment for a decade. Contrast that with the USDA's food labeling standards, which are regulated with the seriousness of an application, approval, and review process. Specific labels are given tight boundary controls ('Arroz con pollo must contain at least 15% cooked chicken meat'). But if you want to brand your car's systems as Auto-magic-pilot-drive-yourself, there is little today that the US Department of Transportation or Federal Trade Commission will do to prevent you. Language drives expectations, which establishes our relationship with technology.

Customer demand for off-network restaurants drives a new grey market for food delivery on Facebook Marketplace (link).

China’s delivery AVs are expanding into the night shift (link). Via Tony F. Since Shenzhen opened designated routes to nighttime AV deliveries in March, Neolix’s overnight service has grown to 437 routes. 'In March, Shenzhen opened access for nighttime deliveries by driverless vehicles, giving over its streets to an experiment that could unlock a new wave of growth for China’s autonomous transport and robotics industries.' Didn't realize Neolix's size until reading this: 'Beijing-based Neolix has built the world’s largest autonomous fleet, operating 27,000 vehicles across 300 cities in 15 countries, nearly five times the combined size of Waymo and Baidu’s robotaxi operations. This year, the company expects its domestic fleet to grow to 50,000 vehicles. Next year, it wants to add another 100,000, according to Yu.'

Honda’s board learned about major investments after executives had already approved them (link). 'Honda overhauled its governance structure in 2021, transferring greater decision-making authority to executive officers while establishing three committees, each with a majority of outside directors, to strengthen oversight. The changes were announced shortly before Toshihiro Mibe took over as chief executive that year and embarked on an ambitious push into EVs. Kokubu said the structure meant major investment decisions were often presented to the board only after they had been made, leaving directors with limited opportunities to scrutinize the reasoning behind them.'

EU to cap Chinese hybrid car imports at 350,000 per year (link). Michael Pettis: 'This may seem like a victory, but the problem is a systemic one, and not sectoral. Because this agreement does not in any way address either China's demand imbalance or the overall role of the EU in absorbing that imbalance, it won't have much effect on overall EU manufacturing. All that will happen is a shift in the locus of net manufacturing imports from China, so that EU producers of hybrids will be better off, but at the expense of other EU manufacturers.' (link)

Americans can buy 'red dye' diesel legally, but downstream fuel retails warn caution (link). 'We do not expect most reputable diesel retailers and fuel marketers to do this. First, the tax is still owed, so there’s limited upside...the logistical challenges outweigh any visible upside: Residual dye lingers in tanks and fuel systems.'

The emerging space debris market: 16,810 active satellites in orbit, plus roughly 3000 dead ones (link). 'For now, avoiding debris is much cheaper than removing it. From December 2025 to May 2026, Starlink satellites performed 207,152 collision-avoidance maneuvers, about 40 per satellite per year.'

Inside Xona, who will launch a commercial alternative to GPS in the coming month (link). 'Pulsar will offer centimeter-level precision for geolocation, instead of the meter-level precision provided by GPS, and its signal is strong enough to be detected inside buildings and in urban environments.'

US DoT grants safety exemption for AV trucks (link). Via Dan G. The 5-year period exempts Aurora and others from rules that ‌require drivers to place warning devices around a stopped truck.

Video: slo-mo tracked truck jump (link). Video: Harry Metcalfe on the Jaguar 01 (link). Video: inside Tim Allen's Burbank garage (link).

'One weekend in late August 1996, I wrote a 2D physics simulation which later became the basis of the vehicle system in the eventually popular game Grand Theft Auto' (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Waymo raises $5B in debt (link). Led by PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street.

Automated rail startup Parallel raises $100M (link). Led by AVP.

Detroit hardware supply chain startup Bloom raises $3.6M (link). Led by Snak.

Dealership automation software startup Flai raises $27M (link). Led by Base10.

Australian energy firm Ampol acquires Evie charging network for $225M (link).

CH Robinson to acquire RXO in $5.8B deal (link). Analysis of the importance of this deal from FreightWaves (link): 'C.H. Robinson's proposed $5.8 billion acquisition of RXO is priced at roughly 42 times EBITDA — a steep premium in an industry where comparable companies typically trade between 8 and 13 times EBITDA — and the deal's credibility rests almost entirely on a pledge to deliver $300 million in cost savings within two years. The transaction, which still requires regulatory clearance and an RXO shareholder vote, would give the combined entity approximately 20% of the brokered freight market.'

Uber acquires ezCater for $2.3B (link).

Honda and Nissan partner with Applied Intuition for vehicle software platforms (link).

WeRide, Uber and AVOMO receive Spain's first national operating permit for level 4 autonomous passenger vehicles (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

AutoZone: Claire McDonough to leave board (link).

Vontier: Kathryn Rowen resigns as Chief Transformation & Operations Officer (link).

Firefly Aerospace: Thomas Zurbuchen to depart board; Rick Ambrose to join board (link).

Goodyear: existing board member Joe Hinrichs elected board chair (link).

Curated Jobs:

View over new 1333 active job listings from companies, including Torc Robotics (link) and XPeng (link).

Director of Product at May Mobility, remote (link).

New Stuff:

Six levels not enough: researchers propose additional A-E classification for automated driving within SAE's existing structure (link). The paper points to how a campus delivery pod and a robotaxi can both be 'Level 4' despite vastly different capabilities.

Railpass allows you to 'stare out the window of an endless train ride' (link). Via John D.

Flypath is an open-source drone mission planning tool (link). Via Nathan F.

Patents & Patent Applications:

Ford's patent application for 'beach mode' knows if vehicle is on a shoreline and if the tide is coming in (link). 'You may have to move the vehicle by 4PM as tides may approach soon.'

Statistics / Projections:

Car repair costs have risen 60% since 2019, nearly twice the rate of inflation (link, link to Fed data). Via Yahoo / St. Louis Fed.

Paid indulgences: New speed cameras in Malibu, California detect more than 100,000 violations on PCH in 9 days (link). Via ABC7.

Nio reaches 500 swap stations in Guangdong, with over 17 million swaps completed (link). Via CNEV.

A new cross-country record for FSD was set last week; new time of 45 hours, 37 minutes with zero interventions (link). Alex Roy: 'FSD Cannonball Run times are falling, and will continue to fall. Eventually an FSD vehicle will break the human driven ICE record.'

Peak ICE age: Gasoline cars fall below 50% of global new car sales for the first time (link). Via Nikkei / Mobility Global.

Thank you:

Thank you to Anoop Choong (link), Amy Neale (link) and Pearl Percy (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

May Mobility (link), Xona Space Systems (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

‘Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure’ (Neil Postman)

Reilly Brennan