Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.06.08
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

Utilization data shows most AVs are empty about half the time, similar to other ridehailing networks (link). 'In total, about 40% of the miles traveled by a Lyft or Uber driver are deadhead miles, suggesting there’s little difference in congestion whether there’s a human behind the wheel or not.' A few months back I talked about one aspect of a potentialy AV lollygagging method, which I call 'pauking' (link).

While most every ebike brand failed, Lectric survived and is now expanding with more brands (link). 'Each brand has its own product engineering and development, branding, marketing, and customer service teams. Conlow takes this separation a step further, noting he even wants the brands to compete with each other.'

How AVs will pay for parking automatically (link).

The most renegade bike in America isn't a Harley, it's an ambiguously legal e-moto (link). I hope there's a whiteboard project room somewhere at Harley where they're asking the question: 'will today's 14 yr old ebike Chads grow up to be 55 yr old Harley Gregs?'

Mexico is building its own national EV brand, Olinia (link). ‘⁠A prototype of Olinia’s cargo model, which resembles a small pickup truck, will be unveiled in July. Sales are expected to begin in the summer of 2027. The passenger vehicle is expected to sell for about 150,000 pesos, or roughly $8,600.’

The Harley vs Indian motorcycle fight we didn't expect, using the modern day tools of social media astroturfing and political tribalism (link). Via Weans. 'The bizarre storm began on Wednesday, when mixed martial arts fighter Sean Strickland posted that he was ditching Harley-Davidson motorcycles for the, in his view, substantially less woke Indian Motorcycle.'

Audio: I chatted with Nick Perloff-Giles of CoMotion for their podcast (link). Video: Thwarting driver monitoring systems using the head of a Ken doll (link). Video: BYD electric motor teardown (link). Video: NVIDIA GTC talk: Physics-informed AI foundational models define robots at the edge, by Ash Saxena of Torque AGI (link). Video: Chris Harris drives the Mustang GTD (link). Via Diego.

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Uber's investment in AV startup Nuro is reportedly close to $500M (link).

Charging startup InCharge raises $46M (link). Led by S2G Investments.

Motor and actuator startup Westmag raises $11M (link). Led by A16Z.

Cox Automotive completes acquisition of Fullpath marketing firm (link).

Bidirectional Energy selected for Vermont EV charging pilot (link).

German supplier Rheinmetall sells its auto business, becomes 100% focused on defense (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Ford: Shannon Blakely joins as Chief Brand Officer (link).

Johnson Controls: Irene Esteves joins board (link).

Knight-Swift Transportation: David Vander Ploeg appointed as Chairman; succeeds Kevin Knight who resigns from board (link).

Alaska Air Group: Michael Sievert joins board (link).

Deere & Co: Dimitri Stockton to leave board (link).

Norfolk Southern: Brian Barr promoted to COO, was Chief Mechanical Officer (link).

Verra Mobility: David Roberts departs as CEO and from board; Jon Keyser named interim President and CEO (link).

Curated Jobs:

View over new 1115 active job listings from companies like Chargepoint (link), Also (link) and Kodiak (link) on MobilityJobs. Post your own jobs for free.

Head of Growth at Skyryse in El Segundo, CA USA (link).

Designer - Alias Modeler at River in Bangalore, India (link).

New Stuff:

Speedys is 'AAA for ebikes' in the Seattle area (link). Via Nick P. '90-minute rescue anywhere in the greater Seattle area.'

Researchers release largest publicly available dataset of real-world vehicle collision data featuring Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) telemetry (link). Via Chris T.

Uber to put 500 data-collection vehicles on the road this year (link). From an analyst friend: 'Kind of like they are building their own AV infrastructure?'

Stellantis's Ram brand was momentarily selling shirts last week that had (what one imagines is) AI-created imagery; the truck was a Toyota Tacoma (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application for an augmented reality overlay on front windshield (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Business class airline ticket revenue nearly equals economy class revenue on a typical transatlantic widebody flight (link). Via McKinsey.

The fastest selling cars in the US, ranked by days supply: Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Corolla Cross (link). Via Caredge.

The average annual cost of insuring an EV is $3,159, about 42% higher ($941 annually) than insuring a gas-powered car ($2,218) (link). Via Insurify. 'The insurance cost gap shrinks to 18% when comparing newer EV models and newer gas-powered cars.'

28% of all new cars sold globally are expected to be EVs in 2026 (link). Via Canary / IEA.

Thank you:

Thank you to Paula Bejarano (link), John Casesa (link), Tapan Kataria (link), Sunil Nagaraj (link) and Rohit Sharma (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Bidirectional Energy (link), Meter Feeder (link), River (link), Skyryse (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

In the garage I feel safe (R. Cuomo),

Reilly Brennan