Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.08.10
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

A pedestrian is killed in Dallas after being struck first by a human-driven SUV, then thrown into the path of an autonomous Waymo (link). This seems like it closely resembles the crash and fatality that brought down Cruise in October 2023 when a San Francisco pedestrian was first hit by a human-piloted vehicle then thrown into the path of the AV.

Remarkable DARPA Lift results: 1) Avidrone (3.84:1 payload-to-aircraft-weight ratio using a 29.3-pound drone (link), 2) MIT's MTech (achieved 4.04:1 but not for a full distance run) (link), 3) Xtreme Aerial Concepts (3.45:1; 54.9 lb drone) (link). Other favorites of mine in the group were Skyweaver (link) and Burl (link).

Headlights are getting brighter, but they still aren't bright enough (link). In the US, vehicle low-beam headlights are federally limited to a max brightness of 3,000 lumens, but individual states can impose stricter limits (California limits to 2,513 lumens). 'According to 2019 to 2023 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data, 46,154 fatalities on US roads were due to crashes at night and in non-lit areas. 446 were due to glare impeding the driver’s vision.'

Pressured by Tesla, European regulators keep 'Full Self-Driving' safety data secret (link).

Tariffs or not, Waymo's fleet is expanding on the back of Chinese Zeekr vehicles (link). 'Since 2024, Zeekr has shipped more than 3,200 units of its CM1e, its Chinese market name, through the Port of Los Angeles, including over 2,600 so far this year, based on Bills of Lading data compiled by research firm ImportGenius. While Waymo isn’t identified as the recipient, Zeekr doesn’t have any other U.S. partner. If they were imported at the CM1e’s Chinese market price of $39,000, tariffs would drive the cost up to nearly $89,000, excluding the cost of Waymo’s autonomous driving hardware that likely exceeds $10,000.'

BMW plays Spider-Man movie ads inside vehicles within 70 global markets (link). Whatever Sony paid to BMW was not worth this brand destruction for the German carmaker, but on the other hand if you have to do the math on this kind of thing your brand is already in the hands of the Beelzebubs.

Bloomberg: the Iran War should be the end of the Jones Act (link). 'The Jones Act requires vessels carrying cargo between American ports to be built, owned, flagged and predominantly crewed by Americans, driving up prices for consumers and harming US producers and workers. The waiver from the Jones Act has resulted in more domestic fuel shipments and helped restrain fuel prices, and Congress should consider repealing or relaxing the act to benefit Americans.'

What becomes of the small space startup economy if SpaceX won't offer 'rideshare' launches after 2028? (link).

The 'Parking Sticker of Shame' is back in New York City (link).

Video: Ukraine has released footage of forests in Kharkiv's Vovchansk district smothered in fibre-optic cable left behind by Russian FPV drones (link). Video: Dr Marco Pavone of NVIDIA introduces the Alpamayo 2 Super (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Indian two-wheeler startup River raises $120M (link). Led by Elev8 Venture Partners and Claypond Capital (link).

AV infrastructure startup Moove raises $250M (link). Led by Mubadala (link).

Atoms and Joby Aviation form strategic partnership to build America's vertiport network (link).

Insurance startup HDVI acquired by Federated Mutual (link).

Aviation startup Beta Technologies raises $1B from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (link).

Owner of bike maker Raleigh files for insolvency (link). 'Accell, based in the Netherlands, bought Raleigh for $100m in 2012 but said on Wednesday it had exhausted all the available options and was no longer able to meet its financial obligations.'

Uber's AV bet: $10B over the 'coming years' to get to 120,000 AVs on the network (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Quadric: Lucia Greenblatt joins as CFO (link).

Atoms: Gautam Gupta named CFO (link).

ConocoPhillips: Andy O’Brien promoted to CEO, joins board; succeeds Ryan Lance who is promoted to Executive Chairman (link).

Volkswagen: Marco Schubert named CEO of Volkswagen of America, replacing Kjell Gruner (link).

CNH Industrial: Eric Shuman promoted to CTO; succeeds Jay Schroeder (link).

Curated Jobs:

View over new 1371 active job listings from companies, including Chargepoint (link), Lime (link) and SeaFar (link).

Senior Technical Program Manager at Motional in Boston, Massachusetts, United States or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA (link).

Guidance, Navigation and Control Engineer at Skyryse in El Segundo, CA USA (link).

New Stuff:

Ford's new electric truck is named the Fathom and will start under $30k (link).

'Stowaway' lets you ride along anything in the sky (link). Via Steve B. 'The site loads, you give it your location, it shows you the objects above you right now (planes, satellites), and you can choose to 'stowaway' on the craft and see the world from that height and movement vector.'

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application shows autonomous mobile robot conveyor system (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Used EV retail prices are up 7% year to date (link). Via CNBC / Recurrent.

Grayscale colors like white, black, gray and silver make up 80.4% of the car market, up from 47.3% in 1996 (link). Via USA Today / iseecars.

Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer’s (link). Via The Conversation / BMJ. 'After adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity and education, roughly 1 in 100 taxi and ambulance drivers died of Alzheimer’s, compared with 1 in 60 people overall...The hippocampus is important for spatial memory and navigation and is one of the first brain regions to atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease. This study investigates deaths from Alzheimer’s disease amongst people with occupations that demand frequent spatial and navigational processing.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Komal Choong (link), Jeremy Diamond (link) and Keith Yonkers (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Joby Aviation (link), Motional (link), Quadric (link), River (link), Skyryse (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

'Some men never recover from their education' (Oliver St. John Gogarty)

Reilly Brennan