Join us on Thursday as Curbivore presents an LA TechWeek happy hour for the brightest minds from the worlds of mobility, delivery, urbanism, foodtech, and govtech in Culver City. If you're a founder, funder, builder, policymaker, or just a tinkerer trying to improve how people and goods move about our cities — this is the event for you!
When’s the last time you pulled up to a gas station and the pump didn’t work? While that’s a very rare occasion indeed, it’s sadly all too frequent an occurrence in the world of electric vehicle charging. And if people aren’t confident they can power up their cars, they’re not going to want to switch from gas-powered vehicles.
Kameale C. Terry saw first hand just how many of those reliability problems were relatively easy to solve, and so she started ChargerHelp! to partner with charging networks nationwide to help them get their uptime stats into acceptable territory. She joined me to “nerd out” about EV charging hardware, workforce development and scaling a labor-intensive business.
Plus, Greg and I pontificate about exactly what sort of vaporware Tesla might reveal at tonight’s “We, Robot” event on the WB backlot, and get into the weeds with all the latest developments from Amazon, Uber, Waymo, DoorDash, camera-based bus lane enforcement and more. Listen in!
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
10,000 and counting! Thanks to all you loyal curb nerds for your continued subscription to this humble newsletter. It’s kind of amazing that there are over 10,000 people out there that really just need that much more snark when it comes to getting your vital mobility, delivery and urbanism news. Have a friend that shares our common affliction? Please recommend this newsletter to them!
Back to go for Gogoro: Horace Luke, the erstwhile CEO of Taiwan’s Gogoro, has been cleared of earlier accusations that his company had defrauded the government of subsidy dollars. Gogoro’s championed two important ideas — that electric mopeds can look cool, and that swappable batteries are a viable business model — so it’s great for the whole ecosystem to see them back on their feet.
LA approves bus lane enforcement: LA City Council voted to make sure bus lanes are actually just for busses. LA Metro buses will now be equipped with cameras, powered by Hayden AI, that automatically ticket anyone illegally parked in the bus lanes. Enforcement is expected to bring in $5 million in new revenue, which would ideally be plowed right into painting more bus lanes. Hayden also has contracts with NYC and Alameda County.
Curb stats: Populus has a new report out — the 2024 State of Curbs & Parking — that’s chockablock with interesting statistics. Did you know that although over 90% of cities currently charge for on-street parking, only 29% can adjust parking rates without going through a lengthy legal process? Or that 70% of cities have started to digitize their curb inventories?
A different, more delicious stat: While NYC has a 10,000 person backlog for new vending licenses, those lucky enough to snag one can expect to pay up to $120K in first year expenses, before even shelling out for those Hebrew National hot dogs…
EV sales back up? A lot of electrification naysayers have been awfully loud as of late, with EV sales starting to slow down (never mind that in many cases, ICE vehicle sales have slowed even more.) Lucid Motors is bucking that trend, with the upmarket EV maker having sold more cars in the first three quarters of the year than it did in all of 2023. Now imagine how many they could sell if their cheapest model wasn’t $70k!
A few good links: The CitiesFirst podcast chats with Sandra Witzel and Alex Carroll. Thanks daddy Biden — Feds vow to replace all lead pipes nationwide. Infinite Machine co-founders rally in support of NYC congestion pricing. ChainFest evidently reminds attendees that most fast food, however nostalgic, is pretty gross tasting. Amazon loses more Just Walk Out execs. Uber unveils new green initiatives at GoGet Zero.
See you next week at the happy hour!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew
Share this post