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Hello readers: Welcome to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.
Welp, somehow we’re in the final month of the year. The pace of news has slowed a skosh allowing me to take a breath — or at least think about doing that — and reflect on what occurred this year and what it means for 2022. Later this month, we’ll have some recaps of the year and outlooks for what is coming next. Have some thoughts? Share them with me and I might just include them here. Give me your predictions on micromobility, EVs, in-car tech, autonomous vehicles and evtols.
As always, you can email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions or tips. You also can send a direct message to me at Twitter — @kirstenkorosec.
The Miami City Commission has thankfully voted to reinstate its e-scooter pilot program, which it had briefly shut down due to safety concerns. They probably read my rant last week and were convinced, nbd. Anyway, e-scooters will be coming back to Miami on January 15, but with strict new safety measures in place, including riders being required to wear helmets and ride at 10 miles per hour on sidewalks, no side-by-side riding and only two operators can be on a block at a time. Do I smell an impending turf war?
Segway, every shared micromobility operator’s favorite scooter manufacturer, is dipping its toes into sidewalk delivery robots. Actually, it’s more like a whole foot. The company is partnering with robotics company Coco to provide the robotic base for the startup’s newest vehicles. Segway will build 1,000 bots for Coco to be launched in the first quarter of 2022.
Luna, the computer vision company that’s trialing its tech with e-scooter company Voi to keep riders off sidewalks, created a demo for a low-cost, app-based solution for operators that want riders to verify parking compliance. It basically asks for an ‘AI parking selfie’ so the algorithm can detect if the scooter is in a respectable location or not. This tech isn’t all that new, but as cities are getting more strict about sidewalk riding and parking, this could be a good, cheap solution for many operators.
Gogoro and belt drive tech company Gates, have partnered up to co-develop “Flo Drive,” a two-wheel vehicle drivetrain system based on Gates Carbon Drive that will be exclusively available to vehicle makers within the Powered by Gogoro Network. The tech was displayed on the Gogoro Viva Mix Smartscooter at ECMA 2021 in Milan last week.
The Equitable Commute Project hosted an e-bike distribution and training event at the HOPE Program offices in the Bronx. The plan is to equip 5,000 frontline workers with e-bikes that have been subsidized and subject to accessible financing solutions. Vendors at the event included Van Moof, The Hub NYC, Zoomo, Rad Power and Ridepanda.
Urtopia, an e-bike company from China, debuted with what reporter James Crew calls “the most technology advanced model you’ll see this year.” The bike has a 250W hub motor with three levels of ride assist, an estimated 30- to 80-mile range, an integrated dot-matrix display, fingerprint reader, GPS, 4G, mmWave sensors for vehicle detection, an integrated alarm and so much more. And it’s pretty easy on the eyes, with a sleek aesthetic designed by Mathis Heller who has worked with BMW and Ikea in the past. The bike is available for pre-order via Indiegogo atfirst electric scooter (the moped-looking kind, not a kick-scooter) at around \)"> 480. Look out, Ola, Bounce is comin’ for you! The Infinity E1 features a swappable battery and some serious shock absorbers and front suspension system that can hopefully withstand Indian roads.
Never thought I’d see Tesla on my micromobility roundup, yet here we are. The company, which is keeping us on the edge of our seats waiting for its Cybertruck, will be selling a mini Cyberquad for kids in the next two to four weeks. It’ll cost
73 billion. Troubles since then have pushed its market cap down to about \)"> 115 million Series B round led by Tiger Global with participation from Menlo Ventures, as well as investment from Flexport and angel investors Michael Ovitz and Opendoor CEO Eric Wu, and brought the startup’s total funding amount to added two more major automakers to its investor sheet: Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis, both of which plan to co-develop batteries in separate joint collaboration agreements.
JOKR, an instant grocery delivery startup based in New York and operating in the Americas, took in \)"> 260 million in a Series B, just five months after raising
Nubrakes, an on-demand mobile auto maintenance company, has raised a
Phoenix Motor has become the latest EV related company to head to the public markets. The company, which is being spun ouot of SPI Energy, has filed for a $150 million IPO. The company says it designs, assembles and integrates electric drive systems and light and medium duty electric vehicles and markets and sells electric vehicle chargers for the commercial and residential markets. One of its many subsidiaries is EdisonFuture Inc.
Porsche Ventures took an undisclosed minority stake in 1Komma5°, a five-month-old German startup aiming to offer households everything needed for a carbon neutral home, including energy storage, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and solar.
Upway, a French startup that is building a...
Hello readers: Welcome to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.
Welp, somehow we’re in the final month of the year. The pace of news has slowed a skosh allowing me to take a breath — or at least think about doing that — and reflect on what occurred this year and what it means for 2022. Later this month, we’ll have some recaps of the year and outlooks for what is coming next. Have some thoughts? Share them with me and I might just include them here. Give me your predictions on micromobility, EVs, in-car tech, autonomous vehicles and evtols.
As always, you can email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions or tips. You also can send a direct message to me at Twitter — @kirstenkorosec.
Micromobbin’
The Miami City Commission has thankfully voted to reinstate its e-scooter pilot program, which it had briefly shut down due to safety concerns. They probably read my rant last week and were convinced, nbd. Anyway, e-scooters will be coming back to Miami on January 15, but with strict new safety measures in place, including riders being required to wear helmets and ride at 10 miles per hour on sidewalks, no side-by-side riding and only two operators can be on a block at a time. Do I smell an impending turf war?
Segway, every shared micromobility operator’s favorite scooter manufacturer, is dipping its toes into sidewalk delivery robots. Actually, it’s more like a whole foot. The company is partnering with robotics company Coco to provide the robotic base for the startup’s newest vehicles. Segway will build 1,000 bots for Coco to be launched in the first quarter of 2022.
Luna, the computer vision company that’s trialing its tech with e-scooter company Voi to keep riders off sidewalks, created a demo for a low-cost, app-based solution for operators that want riders to verify parking compliance. It basically asks for an ‘AI parking selfie’ so the algorithm can detect if the scooter is in a respectable location or not. This tech isn’t all that new, but as cities are getting more strict about sidewalk riding and parking, this could be a good, cheap solution for many operators.
Gogoro and belt drive tech company Gates, have partnered up to co-develop “Flo Drive,” a two-wheel vehicle drivetrain system based on Gates Carbon Drive that will be exclusively available to vehicle makers within the Powered by Gogoro Network. The tech was displayed on the Gogoro Viva Mix Smartscooter at ECMA 2021 in Milan last week.
The Equitable Commute Project hosted an e-bike distribution and training event at the HOPE Program offices in the Bronx. The plan is to equip 5,000 frontline workers with e-bikes that have been subsidized and subject to accessible financing solutions. Vendors at the event included Van Moof, The Hub NYC, Zoomo, Rad Power and Ridepanda.
Urtopia, an e-bike company from China, debuted with what reporter James Crew calls “the most technology advanced model you’ll see this year.” The bike has a 250W hub motor with three levels of ride assist, an estimated 30- to 80-mile range, an integrated dot-matrix display, fingerprint reader, GPS, 4G, mmWave sensors for vehicle detection, an integrated alarm and so much more. And it’s pretty easy on the eyes, with a sleek aesthetic designed by Mathis Heller who has worked with BMW and Ikea in the past. The bike is available for pre-order via Indiegogo at
Never thought I’d see Tesla on my micromobility roundup, yet here we are. The company, which is keeping us on the edge of our seats waiting for its Cybertruck, will be selling a mini Cyberquad for kids in the next two to four weeks. It’ll cost
Nubrakes, an on-demand mobile auto maintenance company, has raised a
Phoenix Motor has become the latest EV related company to head to the public markets. The company, which is being spun ouot of SPI Energy, has filed for a $150 million IPO. The company says it designs, assembles and integrates electric drive systems and light and medium duty electric vehicles and markets and sells electric vehicle chargers for the commercial and residential markets. One of its many subsidiaries is EdisonFuture Inc.
Porsche Ventures took an undisclosed minority stake in 1Komma5°, a five-month-old German startup aiming to offer households everything needed for a carbon neutral home, including energy storage, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and solar.
Upway, a French startup that is building a...