Movements | May 14th, 2019
Issue #47 — Brought to you by Michal Naka and Adam Feldman. Join thousands of others who receive this analysis and curation of emerging mobility news in their inbox every week — subscribe now.
Micromobility
The Micromobility Europe conference is bringing the top minds in (micro)mobility to Berlin on Oct. 1 for a full day of programming that will cover all the BHAGs of 21st-century transport, from car-free cities to autonomous bikes. Tickets are currently €595 ($670), but Movements subscribers can claim a 20% discount by clicking here and using the special code. See you in Berlin!
Bird announced the Bird One, its newest electric scooter model which will be available in its shared fleet and for direct consumer purchase. This is the company’s second custom designed scooter in 6 months after the launch of the BirdZero last October.| Bird
The World Resource Institute provides a deep dive on 4 scooter safety studies including LA, Portland, and Austin. “Recent studies in the USA found that riding a scooter does carry some risks. However, they generally indicate that scooters are no more dangerous in terms of risk of serious injury or death than other modes of transport.” | WRI
Three eras of micromobility: cultural contrasts. “What micromobility has done, at least, in its short existence, is throw light on our invisible assumptions about transportation. On car dependency. On parking subsidies. On vast over-service of automobility. On bundling of trips in one big metal box.” | Micromobility.io
New Products & Launches
Lyft is testing car rentals in San Francisco. “ Potential renters will able to claim up to $20 in Lyft credit for rides to the company’s rental lot in the Mission, and can request additional accessories like bike racks and tire chains at no additional cost.” | Engadget
Uber partners with Yulu to launch micromobility options in the Uber app in India. “Yulu is a dockless, lithium-powered scooter focusing on the sub-5 km first- and last-mile connectivity.” | Techcrunch
Grab launched a scooter subscription service for it’s delivery partners in Singapore. “We have seen an increasing number of food delivery service partners who utilize e-scooters as their primary mode of transport.” | Tech in Asia
Apple announced support for Apple Pay NFC stickers and one of the launch partners is Bird. Just walk up to a device and tap your iPhone to pay and unlock. | 9to5Mac
Spin teases it’s rebrand at Coachella. Related: Spin co-founder hints at the company working on its own hardware. | Spin
Turo partners with Smartcar to bring wireless unlocking to users. | CNET
Uber is testing a new pin feature for improved airport pickups in Portland. | Techcrunch
Ridehailing
If the cost per mile of operating an AV-based ridehailing service is actually higher than driving your own car, as new research suggests, and road pricing spreads, ridehail companies are going to find it increasingly difficult to turn a profit. Pooling may provide an answer: “Indeed, in a subsidy-free world car-pooling of all sorts would increase. On a once congestion-clogged highway in Northern Virginia, for example, the number of cars with multiple occupants has risen by 15% since the introduction in 2017 of tolls that vary with the level of congestion.” | The Economist
Uber is the ridehailing platform of choice for startup companies. | Brex
Uber is in talks with Nuro for autonomous food delivery. | The Information
Investments & Deals
Gett raises $200 million as it marches to IPO in 2020. The CEO denies they are looking to sell its US ridehailing business Juno and even hints it may expand outside of NYC: “It’s the only player in the US that might become national while remaining financially disciplined.” | Techcrunch
Cities & Policy
Seattle is going to have a scooter pilot… sometime in the future. Related: The scooter announcement that wasn’t: “If Seattle did require scooter companies to completely indemnify the city from liability for scooter injuries, it would be the first city in the nation to do so — none of the 100-plus US cities where scooters are legal has adopted such a sweeping requirement”. | GeekWire
“It may be a messy few years of acclimation, but the proliferation of tiny vehicles could turn the gridlocked, car-centric, and deeply unfair city built by Robert Moses into a thriving, accessible, and much safer metropolis.” | NYC Streetsblog
In partnership with CTA, the owner of an office park in suburban Chicago is subsidizing Lyft rides to and from nearby commuter rail stations in order to make it easier for employees to get there without relying on cars. | Chicago Tribune
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