As robotaxis race towards becoming a regular part of our mobility landscape, it at first looked like Lyft had no interest in joining the competition, instead letting deep pocked competitors like Waymo and Uber push ahead (while wisely avoiding the costly mistakes that took down others like Cruise and Argo AI.) But in the past year, the pink mustache has emerged as a serious AV contender, striking up meaningful partnerships with the likes of May Mobility, Mobileye, Nexar, Tensor, Benteler, Baidu and even Waymo itself. Lyft-branded robotaxis are now rolling around Midtown Atlanta, with more geographies set to come online shortly.
Stephen Hayes, Lyft’s VP of Autonomous, Fleets, and Driver Operations, has been leading that charge, alongside other weighty responsibilities like orchestrating the company’s fleet management platform for tens of thousands of vehicles, while trying to keep Lyft’s human drivers from sweating too much about the idea of mechanical competition. (Talk about a tricky job!)
Stephen and I chat all about that, Lyft’s evolution over the past decade and a half, the lessons learned from running Flexdrive and much more in a must-listen episode of the podcast. Plus, Zag’s Athena Browning and I get into all the latest mobility news: what to make of Q3 earnings, the boom in used bikes and top takeaways from Smart City Expo 2025.
PARTNER | Join Us at AutoMobility LA — Nov. 20
AutoMobility LA is back and better than ever: featuring futuristic vehicle reveals, insightful policy talks and so much more. Taking place in Downtown LA next Thursday, highlights of the event include a talk with California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin (submit your questions for him here,) panels featuring top execs from Lucid Motors, LACI, Arc Boats, Zoox, and Kodiak Robotics, plus big announcements from Kia, Hyundai, VW, Scout and many more.
Curbivorians can save 50% on tickets with code CURB50.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
It’s an honor just to be nominated! I’d like to thank the Academy, I mean Zag Daily, for naming me to the 2025 list of 100 Mobility Changemakers, amongst far more deserving company. And the real kudos are to the tens of thousands of you that supposedly “enjoy” reading my unnecessarily snarky takes on mobility, delivery, tech and urbanism; we’re building a movement!
More money, more bikes, more cheap: Upway just closed on a $60 million Series C, led by A.P. Moller, with participation from Galvanize, Ora Global and Sequoia, as it scales to becoming a used bike behemoth. The multinational company now operates in nine countries, including six refurb centers, as it hits over 100k used e-bikes sold. Making used e-bikes an “asset class” like this has also been a tremendous boon for the bike leasing biz (Wombi, Lease A Bike, Ride Panda, etc) as this allows them to have a reliable channel (and known price) for their assets at the end of a subscription contract.
In less happy e-bike news: E-bike biggie Rad Power Bikes is in big trouble, with employees warned the company may go under by January if it can’t secure new funding. These guys road the affordable e-bike boom to the top, but have since been humbled by crashing demand, tariffs and an influx of undifferentiated competitors. I’ve recently heard from the former head of Rad’s largest competitor (without naming names, let’s just say they were heavy on an O&O retail model) that sales are down by about two thirds since they got gobbled up by a PE firm at the market’s peak…
But is that Waymo getting on “101” or “The 101”? Alphabet’s robotaxi service just gained a crucial new skill, with Waymo officially driving passengers on freeways across the SF Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles and metro Phoenix. It’s a staggered roll out; users need to opt-in, and then be accepted, but expect those training wheels to come off shortly. From a commuting standpoint, this will actually have a not-so-huge impact; these three regions actually have very limited freeway lane miles per capita — but it will have more practical implications as Waymo adds service to locales like Atlanta and Washington D.C.
Hopefully a harbinger of better things to come: Even without federal support, the EV logistics revolution continues apace, as fleet operators realize the advantages of less maintenance and better TCO. That esprit has led SoCal’s Harbinger Motors to raise a $160 million Series C, with cash coming from the likes of FedEx, Capricorn, THOR, Ridgeline, Maniv and more. Harbinger’s electric and hybrid step-van drivetrains can go up to 500 miles.
Have we learned nothing? (Of course not!) Back in the go-go days of 2021, we saw dozens of early stage mobility companies go public via special purpose acquisition corporations. Whether it was Lilium or Arrival or Canoo or Nikola, they almost all crashed back to earth (and eventual bankruptcy) within a year or so. Well that amazing track record seems to have enticed autonomous trucking player Einride, which is looking to SPAC at a $1.8 billion valuation. That might clear it at most $219M in proceeds, a fraction of the cash it’s burned through over the past few years…
In other public market news… Serve Robotics released its Q3 results, showing revenue growing to $687,000. The company now has 1,000 robots deployed, with about 1/3 of those doing deliveries in a given day. Expansions to Ft. Lauderdale and Alexandria, VA are expected by year’s end.
The bots keep coming: Speaking of robotic expansions, Coco Robotics is enhancing its tie-up with DoorDash, launching its PDDs partnership in Miami. The new service will focus on DashMart, DD’s dark store brand for groceries and household items. Coco’s already handled 14k+ DashMart deliveries in LA and Chi-town.
What a wonderfully LA image: The billboard, the strip mall sign, the drunk palm tree, the LIGHTING! Let’s give it’s electric a very LA welcome as their curbside chargers roll into town.
East coast outdoor dining news: It’s been a while since we’ve talked about streeteries (or are they “streateries”?) but now two Northeastern cities are poised to rethink their sidewalk dining setups. NYC’s incoming mayor Mamdani is looking to reform Dining Out NYC, which has atrophied under the outgoing administration, while also improving street vending regulations. Open Plans just released an action plan for him that would look good in just about any town. But down in D.C., things may be going in the opposite direction, with a new fee structure that restaurateurs say is too onerous (including annual fees of at least $20 per square foot!)
Curbtech acquisitions: A week after Populus’ acquisition, another curb management player is getting gobbled up. Munich-based Cleverciti was just bought by ParkHelp, a maker of parking sensors and smart signage. Cleverciti’s municipal clients include Redwood City, Berlin, San Antonio and Dubai.
No wonder voters are mad…. Housing economist Kevin Erdmann lays bare just how bad our nationwide housing shortage is, and who it hurts the most. While rents in cities across the country have gone up for everyone, lower priced rentals (and thus, low income renters) have been hit the most, with some essentially tripling in the past decade.)
In local misgovernance: LA’s City Councilors took a brief break from being continuously indicted to come together on the what is evidently an incredibly urgent issue: opposing plans to build a privately-financed aerial gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium. Opponents claim this horrible zero-emissions non-automotive transit monstrosity would require replacing 160 trees from a “beloved" park — but the Times forgot to mention that this former brownfield has only been open as a park for about a decade, is regularly closed for private events and concerts and is soooo well cared for by its stewards that its main interface with the city is an unclaimed dirt patch that abuts a giant road with no crosswalks. Opposition to the gondola is really about fear that Frank McCourt will later try to redevelop the stadium parking lot with apartments, because it’s just so much better to leave it a giant asphalt pit, right?
A few good links: Rivian spins out industrial robotics upstart Mind Robotics. Holman launches robotics division to handle deployment and management. Tour London’s lovely low-traffic neighborhoods. I guess snowboarding is mobility… Uber adds integrated ski pass ticketing. Uber One adds Albertsons loyalty perks. New study maps 68,000 previously undiscovered Roman roads. How used car giant Tricolor Auto imploded. San Jose moves ahead with new transit funding measure. Honolulu transit ridership jumps after Skyline phase 2 opening. Toyota opens U.S. battery plant. Brussels’ car-free zone is now so popular that not even bicycles are welcome. TxDOT acknowledges state needs public transport, but says it’s too expensive a problem to solve. Tesla may start Cybercab production in Q2. Remote driving startup Vay raises up to $410 million from Grab. TfL plans wildly overpriced expansion of DLR towards Thamesmead. Riverside plans downtown-wide valet parking program. There’s always money in car storage: Metropolis raises $1.6 billion for parking tech. Rapid delivery down round: Gopuff raises $250M at $8.5B val. Deflation dings Chinese economy.
Don’t forget to score your Super Early Bird tickets to Curbivore!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew
