Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2026.01.26
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital

Notable:

Below I've listed four notable Tesla milestones from the last week. They are independently interesting, but taken together represent a certain gathering of momentum. In some ways, 2026 feels like 2016 all over again.

Tesla's robotaxis have started unsupervised rides in Austin, Texas (link). Via Ed. Related: are the supervisors in a trailing vehicle? (link).

Tesla will no longer offer its Autopilot ADAS; instead, consumers will be pushed toward its $99/mo FSD subscription (link). Via Katie H. Consumers who were used to Autopilot in earlier cars (which was essentially Autosteer and traffic-aware cruise control) will cry foul, but at a company level this is a necessary counter to their own innovator's dilemma. And it will help Musk move toward his revenue goals.

Alex Roy, Warren Ahner and Paul Pham drive a Tesla from LA to New York using FSD with no interventions; the first ever Cannonball Run of this type (link). Roy has become the Chuck Yeager of automated vehicle testing and record making.

Insurance provider Lemonade will cut rates by 1/2 for Teslas using FSD (link). 'The new offering cuts per-mile rates for FSD-engaged driving by approximately 50%, reflecting what the data shows to be significantly reduced risk during autonomous operation. Lemonade expects further reductions as Tesla releases FSD software updates, which are anticipated to make the cars even safer over time...The product will begin rolling out in Arizona on January 26 and in Oregon a month later.'

FTC finalizes order settling allegations that GM collected and sold geolocation data without consumer consent (link). Via Marco. 'The final order approved by the Commission imposes a 5-year ban on GM disclosing consumers’ geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies. This fencing-in relief is appropriate given GM’s egregious betrayal of consumers’ trust.'

French automaker Renault launches large-scale drone defense project (link). The company will build their own version of the Iranian Shahed drone launcher system (link).

Video: Unpacking the change in strategy for Canada on Chinese EVs (link). Video: The rise and fall of Bird scooters (link). Video: Tesla robotaxis appear to have new sensor cleaning system (link). Video: putting googly eyes on Citi Bike chargers (link). Video: aggro Piaggio Ape (link). Via TO. Video: Yarbo autonomous snow blower in action (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Auto retail AI platform startup Mia Labs raises $20M (link). Led by Permanent Capital Ventures.

Eaton considers sale or spin out of its $5B vehicle unit (link). 'Deliberations over a separation of the vehicle unit, which makes products including controls and transmissions systems, are ongoing and there’s no certainty Eaton will move ahead with the plan.'

$71B Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern deal sent back for changes from regulators (link).

Drone startup Zipline raises $600M, hits $7.6B valuation (link). Led by Valor Equity Partners.

Vehicle networking startup Ethernova raises $90M (link). Led by Maverick Silicon.

Honda shuts down joint fuel-cell production with GM (link).

Maritime hybrid and EV startup Fleetzero raises $43M (link). Led by Obvious Ventures.

Home electrification startup Jetson raises $50M (link). Led by Eclipse.

Board & Executive Changes:

Mitsubishi Motors: Keisuke Kishiura named President and COO (link).

Ola Electric: Deepak Rastogi named CFO after Harish Abichandani departs (link).

FordDirect: Tracy Noonan Fred named COO (link).

Ryder System: Follin Smith retires from board (link).

TrueCar: Take-private transaction completed by Scott Painter. Board members Diego Rodriguez, Barbara Carbone, Jantoon Reigersman, Brendan Harrington, and Faye Iosotaluno depart (link).

Curated Jobs:

Forward Deployed Engineer-Solution Architect at Edge Case Research in Pittsburgh, PA, USA (link).

Marketing Lead, F1 on Apple TV at Apple in Culver City, CA (link).

Hiring? Post a job (link). If you're a startup, use code 'Trucks' for free standard listings.

Hunting? View all 260 postings on the MobilityJobs job board (link).

New Stuff:

Honda's new evolved 'H Mark' style logo (link).

Waymo probed by National Transportation Safety Board over illegal school bus behavior (link).

In New Jersey, riding an ebike now requires passing a licensing test (link).

Serve Robotics looks to expand its delivery bots to San Francisco (link).

You can opt out of Stellantis pop-ups, but not from inside the car (link). A (likely future) canonical case study on how to deteriorate a brand.

A giant isometric pixel-art map of New York City (link).

Zoox robotaxi strikes parked car, injuring pedestrian (link).

China lux: EREV minivan with 745 mi range (link). Via Ryan.

Waymo opens AV rides to the public in Miami, FL (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application for vehicle-to-vehicle charging (link).

Statistics / Projections:

BYD's goal: 1.3M vehicle sales outside of China in 2026 (link). Via Bloomberg.

Despite ending of federal credits, sales of zero-emission vehicles in California grew to over 2.5M in 2025 (link). Via Electrek. 'Since the end of 2019, cumulative ZEV sales in the state have jumped more than 300%.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Brian Bordley (link), Donna Ehart (link), Raghav Gupta (link), Ro Gupta (link), Kristina Kennedy (link), Liam Krut (link) and Joshua Posamentier (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Edge Case Research (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness (M. McLuhan),

Reilly Brennan