The LA Auto Show returns Nov 22-Dec 1st, with things first kicking off today with AutoMobility LA 2024, the premier, global automotive press and industry event!
Featuring global and North American vehicle debuts, a full conference agenda from AMLA’s main stage, and a wealth of unmatched networking opportunities with thousands of automotive executives, media professionals, thought leaders, and influencers from around the world, this is the can’t-miss event of the year.
Curbivore subscribers get free admission (regularly $249) when they register with code CURBIVORE2024LA
MOBILITY FROM LATAM TO JAPAN…
Tatiana Peralta Quirós has had quite the impressive career: educated at both MIT and Harvard, thoughtful research with the likes of Gensler and the World Bank, and then going on to advise the President of Costa Rica on urban mobility and technology, a push to modernize LatAm’s automotive giant’s Grupo Purdy Motor as Chief Innovation Officer and then launching Kinto in Costa Rica, helping drive Toyota towards new mobility in emerging markets. Today she serves as a Partner at MobilityVC, where it’s been an absolute delight to serve alongside her on a few very interesting autotech projects.
In today’s wide-ranging interview — starting around 15:20 — she shares all she knows about mobility in Latin America and worldwide, offers some advice for others looking to jump start their own transportation careers, and conducts a general master class in automotive knowledge. Before that, Greg and I riff on our incoming transportation czar, Uber Eats’ top cravings, new IPO news, the surge in grocery delivery and so much more. Listen in above, or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
Meet your new reality TV star turned DOT Secretary! The incoming administration announced its choice for Secretary of the Department of Transportation: Sean Duffy. Duffy is currently a Fox Business talking head that’s promised to concentrate on “eliminating DEI for pilots and air traffic controllers,” but before that he really showed his transportation bonafides by starring on MTV’s Road Rules. Earlier rumors for the position had teased names like Lyft’s Derek Kan or Uber’s Emil Michael, but come on — those folks are way too qualified!
Boston’s big curb RFI: “The City of Boston is looking to solicit information, advice, and best practices from industry experts, including but not limited to the private vendor community, to enable the City to develop a potential future solicitation for curbside management solutions and services.” You’ve got until 11/27 to apply.
Dallas’ little parking update: The Big D is also looking to rethink its curbs and parking, as the city council mulls updates to the parking codes, and rolling out some transportation demand management.
Some recent good studies with mixed findings: NYC’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services and USDOT’s Volpe Center find that the use of intelligent speed assistance tech can reduce municipal speeding by 64%. Meanwhile a Volpe and MassDOT study finds that blind zones in heavy duty vehicles are getting worse, endangering other street users. (H/T Alex Epstein.)
Engage boosters: Here’s an interesting new spin on delivery. SoCal-based Inversion has raised $44M from Spark Capital and Adjacent for cargo delivery from space. Tailored for medical supplies, military cargo or emergency recovery materials, the idea is that the goods sit in orbit for years, before being shot back down to their final destination. Big ‘Gundo Bro energy!
Congestion pricing comes for Bangkok? NYC might not be the only megacity looking to price its roads to cut down on congestion and pollution. The government of Thailand is considering adding congestion prices to Bangkok, where 17 million regional residents are served by infamously poor public transport. An earlier study had mulled fees from 50 baht ($1.44) to 120 baht, with the revenue going towards subsidizing transit fares.
IP-Tur-O: You know I’ll come pumping out updates every quarter that my baby Turo updates its S-1… At the profitable car sharer / renter, net revenue for the first nine months of the year climbed 8.6% to $722M, while GBV ticked up 7.2% to $1.98 billion. Not quite SaaS-ey growth, but pretty good when you consider that these days Hertz and Avis are going in reverse.
New acronym alert! Roland Berger has an interesting briefing on the auto market in 2040. Say goodbye to CASE (connected, autonomous, shared, electric) and hello to PACE (polarized, automated, connected, electrified.)
A few good links: A post-mortem on Gig Car Share. Mitsubishi pumps $25M into battery swapper Ample. Flipturn raises $11M for EV fleet management from CRV and Accel. Cruise pays $500k fine for submitting a false report related to its 2023 crash. Rising rents found to reduce transit ridership (note the study was done in SoCal, where transit usage is particularly concentrated among the working poor.) Paris replacing parking spaces with trees (back in American can we at least start by replacing our dead street trees with new, live trees?) CitiesFirs podcast featuring documentarian Ross Douglas.
MEET CURBIVORE’S 2025 LAUNCH PARTNERS
In case you missed it, we recently announced our Curbivore 2025 Launch Partners. We’re bringing together the top startups, corporate innovators, powerful regulators, thoughtful investors and influential media that drive our sector forward, April 10th and 11th in Downtown LA. Super early bird tickets are available, and we’re still looking for a few interesting speakers. Get to know some of our Launch Partners in more details:
Uber Eats is an on-demand app and website that helps bring millions of people around the world the things they want, at the tap of a button. We partner with over one million restaurants and merchants in more than 11,000 cities across six continents. From specialty local favorites to national brand names, groceries to household essentials and more, Uber Eats has what you want when you want it.
Itselectric solves the largest barrier cities face in the deployment of public EV charging. They overcome city electrical grid limitations by using energy from buildings to power publicly accessible curbside chargers. In return, they share revenue with the property owners.
CurbIQ is a curbside management software tool that helps cities better understand not only their parking, but all of their curbside restrictions. Our flexible software solution helps cities, residents, and the general public better understand their parking options, restrictions, and the mobility options around them. CurbIQ consists of a variety of tools that provide curbside data collection, visualization, management, and analysis, which together provide considerable transparency, flexibility, and efficiency to the entire parking process for municipalities and the general public.
See you next week!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew
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