DoorDash Co-Founder Stanley Tang & FDNY Commissioner Emeritus Laura Kavanagh Head to Curbivore
Meet the industry's boldest leaders - April 10 & 11 in Downtown LA
Wow, I’m delighted to say that this April’s Curbivore is shaping up to be our most impactful gathering yet — and this sneak peak of select speakers is sure to drive that point home!
Where else are you going to hear from a Co-Founder of DoorDash, meet with key policymakers like FDNY’s former Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, and learn from leaders at the level of Sweetgreen, Zoox, Serve Robotics, Zipcar, it’s electric, Coco, Trua, GetScale, indiGO Tech, Bloomberg and many more.
Check out more speakers here, and while we’re going to be announcing even more luminaries soon, I’d recommend you snag a ticket now because our early bird pricing is about to end.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
Small car, big impact: VW just teased its smallest EV yet, the ID.Every1, meant to hit a sub-$22k price point. It’s just 152.8 inches long, powered by Rivian’s software, and tops out at 81 MPH. Sounds like the perfect cars for cities, which is of course why it looks unlikely this model will head stateside. :-/
Other li’l cars: Chinese EV maker Zeekr shared its February 2025 numbers, moving 31,277 vehicles across its two brands. That’s nearly as many as Rivian made in the entirety of 2024 (and 3x the annual volume of Lucid,) suggesting that maybe there’s some merit to making non-gargantuan trucks. Speaking of… the interwoven supply chains behind America’s beloved SUVs makes it hard to say exactly how much tariffs will affect popular models.
Train games: The APTA has released its 2024 ridership numbers, showing public transit usage continuing to rebound across America. Among key agencies, NYCMTA rose 3.5% YoY, LA Metro grew 8%, Chicago’s CTA climbed 10.8%, the MBTA eked out 2.3% growth, WMATA surged 18% and SEPTA was up 14.8%. Meanwhile, Cleveland is planning to replace its fleet with new hybrid rail-cars from Siemens that can serve both its heavy and light rail lines. And South Florida’s Tri-Rail is in trouble if local counties don’t pony up more skrillah, with federal support drying up. Dallas’ DART also may have to seriously impair its service, thanks to Texan intransigence. California may buck the trend, thanks to a new bill: AB 939.
Still buildin’ - It may not be the go-go days of the mid-century, but Caltrans is still adding travel lanes to the Golden State’s freeway and highway network. A new report shows that between 2018 and 2023, the state added 553 new lane miles, with growth fastest in the Inland Empire.
Your daily dose of terror: New plans to shutter HUD field offices would not only violate the law, but also lead to severe shortcomings in the processing of mortgage insurance. And while the gov’t brain drain continues with the shuttering of tech-forward office 18F, Mark Cuban has offered to turn the old team into a new startup (yay? boo?) And Musk’s DOGE continues sew chaos in a way that will only increase costs in the long run, such by breaking the ability for federal agencies to pay by credit card.
The more things change, the more they stay the same… After the sun swallows the earth, we’ll still have personal injury attorneys, won’t we?
A few good links: Sequoia MP worries SPVs are overheated. Prosus (owner of iFood and now Just Eat Takeaway.com) issues meaty report on the future of gig work. Can Grubhub get its mojo back? NYC’s delivery micro-hub plan moves along. One year of intermittent progress on Measure HLA. Waymos hit Austin via Uber. New metros headed to Lagos. London banning cars from Oxford Street. Austin rents tumble 22% thanks to earlier home-building bonanza.
Get your Curbivore tickets!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew
