Grab gets the largest single investment in Southeast Asia’s history & more
Welcome to our weekly edition of urban mobility news. Follow us for the most important updates in the world of technology and urban mobility — we post every Tuesday! This week we tracked stories about Grab, SoftBank, Didi, Greylock, Nauto, Daimler and Bosch, as well as Lyft. Enjoy the read!
Grab announces $2 billion investment from Didi and SoftBank
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and Japan’s SoftBank have made the largest single investment in the history in Southeast Asia. Grab, Singapore based and dominant on-demand transportation platform across Southeast Asia (with 95% market share for taxi hailing and 71% in private car hailing) says to want to use the investment to strengthen its leading position in the market and keep on working on its GrabPay payment solution.
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Greylock and Softbank leading a $159 million round in Nauto
As the leading investor in technology powering the future of urban mobility, SoftBank, alongside with Greylock, are leading a $159 million round in Nauto. The round is also backed by other existing investors such as GM Ventures, BMW iVentures and Toyota AI Ventures. Nauto’s technology is currently used to study situations when human drivers get distracted. This technology, however, could also be used to perfection self-driving vehicles, said SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and CEO.
“This data will help accelerate the development and adoption of safe, effective self-driving technology,” Masayoshi Son
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Daimler and Bosch to open automated Valet Parking in 2018
While other companies seem to be obsessed to win the race on delivering fully autonomous vehicles, Daimler and Bosch have partnered up to ease one of the most annoying parts of driving in today’s world: finding a spot for parking. The two companies have created an automated valet parking and users will be able to park and summon their car by the tap of a button on a mobile application. The automated valet parking will be available as of 2018 in Stuttgart, Germany.
#TacoTuesday x Lyft
And because it’s #TacoTuesday, we are happy to share with you that Lyft’s latest partnership is with Taco Bell! Users will be able to request a stop at Taco Bell by simply tapping a button on the application. So if you live in Orange County, get excited. Give TacoMode a go from the 27–29th of July and 3–5th of August. The service will only be available in the evenings from 9pm to 2am.
Read more about it here:
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