Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.04.20
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable

Rivian pushes to expand its software unit sales offering to other OEMs (link). Rivian is building an 'unbundled bundle' strategy (vehicles, s/w, robots, micromobility, robotaxi -- some in house, some JV, some completely spun out entities) across a complex time series. Is this the correct blend of the colonel's 11 herbs and spices -- perhaps the modern OEM/Tier 1 combo -- or a consultant's Next Steps slide gone rogue?

Tesla looks to game-ify how drivers are using FSD ADAS with 'streaks' feature (link).

Most vehicle GPS logs are wide open and unprotected (link). Via Weans. ‘By parsing the GNSS logs, we reconstructed the full life of the vehicle from its production in a factory in China, through its operational life in the United Kingdom, to its final dismantling in Poland. Every movement and stop along the way is captured in the logs, giving a complete picture of the vehicle's journey.’

China's Hesai LiDAR claims its units can now sense color, a longstanding limitation of traditional LiDAR (link).

The Pentagon reportedly turns to GM and Ford for help building weapons (link). Is it 1942 all over again?

Auditory warnings in ADAS are better than no warning, but the benefits are greater with distance greater than 400 meters (link). Via Tom H.

Why are 28% of Japan's passenger miles taken by train? A system of exceptional decisions (link). 'Railway companies invested heavily in real estate businesses, often funding lines through selling land for housing around new stations. Liberal spatial policy meant that such development happened easily, even as it enabled dense development in urban cores where radial rail lines converged.'

How to decipher your airline confirmation number (link).

Video: drone flyover above Lucid Motors's assembly facility in Arizona (link); photos of flyover of Waymo's facility nearby (link). Video: are NBA franchises going global due to a future assisted by supersonic air travel? (link). Video: A humanoid 'winning' a half marathon in Beijing (link); note all the cooling required, it would remind you of a pre-war Bentley needing oil at every stop to finish Le Mans (link). Video: Tecfase makes faces from chopped up roadway videos (link). Via Weans.

M&A / Deals / Changes:

EV pickup truck startup Slate raises $650M (link). Led by TWG Global.

Uber commits $10B to robotaxi investments as it modifies its 'asset light' strategy (link). 'Uber’s investments mark a striking reversal for a company synonymous with the gig economy model that emerged from Silicon Valley more than a decade ago. The group upended the taxi industry by pioneering an asset-light approach that relied on drivers using their own vehicles to ferry passengers.'

United and American won't merge, despite some rumors last week (link).

Funding for AVs has gone up 3x in the last four months vs the period for all of 2025 (link).

Rivian and Redwood Materials announced they have deployed a 10 megawatt-hour second-life battery energy storage system in Normal, Illinois (link). This was done using more than 100 repurposed Rivian EV packs.

Drone and chip startup Hyfix raises $15M (link). Led by Craft Ventures and Catapult Ventures. 'Hyfix is designing a custom system-on-a-chip that consolidates four things modern drones currently stitch together from multiple vendors. Flight control, GNSS positioning, secure communications, and onboard compute.'

Lucid to raise an additional $1.05B in new offering; Uber to increase its investment (link).

UK AV startup Wayve raises $60M extension from three chipmakers: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Arm and Qualcomm (link).

Mobileye seeks buyer for its Moovit unit in strategy reset (link). 'Intel bought Moovit for US$915 million, but Moovit posted US$39 million in 2025 revenue and a US$11 million net loss.'

German software platform Synera raises $40M (link). Led by Revaia.

Sony and Honda's Afeela car might be cancelled, but the joint venture will continue around future projects (link).

Uber acquires an additional stake in Delivery Hero through $318M purchase (link).

Battery component startup Sepion raises $10M (link). Led by Fine Structure Ventures.

School bus platform startup Zum raises $100M (link). Led by TPG.

Microsoft, Stellantis to co-develop over 100 AI tools for automotive use (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Motional: Philipp Michel joins as Senior Vice President of Autonomy & AI (link).

Ford: Doug Field, who held simultaneous titles as Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer, is departing (link). More on re-organization (link).

Hagerty: Henrik Bjornstad joins board, succeeds Michael Heaton (link).

ChargePoint: Natella Novruzova promoted to Chief Account Officer, continues as Controller (link).

Lucid: Silvio Napoli named CEO (link).

Curated Jobs:

MobilityJobs servers know no rest with over 1,119 jobs, from companies like Scout (link), Humble (link), BYD (link) and dozens more.

Head of External Communications at Skyryse in El Segundo, CA (link).

Technical Trainer - Service (HQ) at River in Bangalore, India (link).

New Stuff:

Tesla launches robotaxi service in parts of Dallas and Houston (link).

BYD pushes to become first Chinese member of Europe’s car lobby (link).

Serve Robotics places apology ad on bus stop through which it crashed (link).

Honda's new made-in-China EV is a first for the country (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Rivian's patent application shows EV component analysis using audio sensors (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Gas prices in the US have risen 49% since the beginning of 2026, but the administration feels that 'they're not that high' (link). Via CNBC.

The rise of mega dealers: The top 150 dealers sold 27% of all retail and fleet new vehicles in 2025, up from 24.3% in 2021 and 21.2% in 2015 (link). Via CNBC / Automotive News.

Californians took more than 1.2M rides in commercial self-driving cars in December, a 500% increase in 19 months (link). Via SFG / California Public Utilities Commission.

Investments by US public pension plans to defense-focused private equity funds rose more than 2x between 2022 and 2025, while commitments to private equity overall fell 2% over the same period (link). Via FT / Dakota Marketplace.

Thank you:

Thank you to Michael Molitor (link), Neha Palmer (link) and Latif Peracha (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

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

Trying to look good limits me (Sagmeister),

Reilly Brennan