Hi everyone, it’s John. I’m writing to you from LA this week, where I’m apartment hunting. Welcome back to returning subscribers and welcome to all the new subscribers. Urban Tech hit our first milestone this week: we broke 100 subscribers! 📈🎉
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A Long Thing: Optimism for Electric Vehicles and Scooters
Coronavirus has been a major hurricane for the transportation sector. Not only from a health perspective but also from a business perspective. Entering 2020, transportation was poised to continue to evolve in a lot of different ways. Many thought this would be the first year of a genuinely mass autonomous vehicle service. Electric vehicles (EVs) would continue to boom and take up a larger market share. Innovations would help jumpstart public transportation infrastructure. There are even rumors the White House has given some thought to an infrastructure week!! (I kid).
While some regions of transportation like autonomous vehicles, cruises, and public systems seem despairing, one area is continuing to keep me optimistic — electrification. This includes electrification of not only private vehicles, but also micromobility and public transportation electrification. Below is a graph showing EV deliveries over the last 10 years.
Plug-In stands for Pure Electric and Plug-in Hybrids, which are both included in the above chart. The trend continues to rise and certainly slowed because of Coronavirus but hopefully will increase exponentially this decade.
From Ben German in Axios on IEA’s recent Global 2020 Outlook:
Electric vehicles had a "banner year" in 2019 with worldwide sales topping 2 million, but they still represent just roughly 1% of cars on the road globally, per an International Energy Agency report released Monday. Yes, but: The coronavirus pandemic is creating sales headwinds this year, though electric vehicles are affected less than traditional cars. But even without that problem, electric vehicle growth remains far off the pace of what's needed in IEA's scenario consistent with the Paris climate deal. Under current and planned policies, the number of electric cars, trucks and buses worldwide grows to roughly 140 million in 2030. That's far below the 245 million in IEA's "sustainable development scenario."
It's safe to say there is a lot more potential in private sectors. Some news this week from Lyft showed the momentum in electrification: The company pledged an all-electric fleet by 2030. Let's see how long it takes Uber to make a similar target.
The key point that Lyft's CEO John Zimmer makes: "If other rideshare and delivery companies, automakers and rental car companies make this shift, it can be the catalyst for transforming transportation as a whole," Zimmer said.
Companies like Amazon and UPS are already investing considerable amounts in electrifying their fleets with hundreds of thousands of electric delivery trucks. The electric car company Arrival, which UPS invested in, also announced last week a new product: an electric transport bus designed to alleviate passenger worries post-corona virus. "Arrival says it’s partnering with governments and cities to build an “integrated public transport ecosystem that supports their net-zero emission goals”, which includes shared cars, taxis, buses, delivery robots and charging stations.
Then there's micromobility, a sector that has undoubtedly had its ups and downs. The industry is currently in a period of consolidation, but it appears winners are starting to become apparent as smaller players are getting out. The value props of micromobility are pretty strong. The bulk of trips, are short trips, less than 5 miles. See the graph below from Micromobility Industries for context. Another critical value proposition of increasing the share of micromobility trips is that parking for cars takes a massive share of value in real estate. As housing continues to rise in prices, this piece I believe will become increasingly important.
Superpedestrian just this week launched its shared scooter service under the LINK brand. The service will be rolling out in 5 cities over the next few months: Columbus, Salt Lake City, Asbury Park, Knoxville, Manhattan, and Provo. LINK's spokesperson told me the numbers are still a bit unsettled but will depend on the specific facts on the ground. This approach will hopefully be a change in strategy from flooding markets and streets with vehicles at launch.
Interestingly, Superpedestrian is taking a much more systematic approach to shared services. The company has been around since 2012, and its most well-known product is the Copenhagen Wheel. An auxiliary addition to turn a regular bike into an e-bike. Durability and unit economics have proven to be a massive obstacle for the scooter space, so if Superpedestrian and others can build better scooters and operate more efficiently, it’s not hard seeing demand for the services continue to rise.
A major challenge for Micromobility as an industry is continuing to work with regulators to make smart policies. Like the big news, that the NYC City Council will be voting today and is likely to finally create a pilot program for e-scooters.
I think the future of urban mobility is a mixture of services: micro-electric vehicles increasingly paired with better mass transportation for longer trips and ridesharing services. While 2020 and Coronavirus has certainly thrown the entire transportation sector for a loop, there are still major reasons to remain optimistic for electrification and the future.
A Medium Thing: Robots Making Air Travel Safer
Disclosure: In my day job as a communications consultant (for a few more weeks), I work with a robotics company called Fetch Robotics. To be fully transparent, I am a fan of their technology, business model, and think they are doing a lot of things right.
Last week, Fetch, Build with Robots, and the Albuquerque airport announced a new partnership for a disinfectant robot to make it safe for travelers during the pandemic. The robot uses a disinfectant that was originally designed for Anthrax. The robot is really the only solution that can disinfect 100,000 sqft spaces and above in a reasonable amount of time. UV takes much longer and can't get it to the same hospital-level disinfectant the robot can.
I am extremely hopeful the solution will prove useful for several other use cases, including commercial real estate, schools, and public spaces.
Fetch's model of Robots-as-a-Service, rather than a point solution really is a powerful thing. The company is also entirely on the cloud, which eases a lot of burdens for customers and makes the product genuinely flexible. I think VC Bryce Roberts gets it right here:
What I'm reading this week
Please note a ($) means the article is behind a paywall. I try to not include paywalled content, but sometimes I can’t help it.
TechCrunch: Rewarding civic pride and boosting the local economy?
“Akron is the first city to roll out services from an Israeli-based company called Colu. A startup backed by just over $20 million in financing from American and Israeli investors, the company has developed an app-based rewards service that cities can roll out to provide perks to users."
The rewards include discounts for stores and make it easier for businesses to market to consumers.
This news is interesting to me because it shows the shifting mindsets in local governments and leaders. Akron's Deputy Mayor for Integrated Development James Hardy drove the project. Leaders in local government are becoming younger and younger every year, and I have to think a big shift mindset is happening in how these leaders are thinking about innovation and cities.
CityLab: How the Coronavirus Recovery Is Changing Cities
"Bloomberg CityLab has compiled and illustrated some of the most noteworthy changes that are already happening in communities around the world. From temporarily widened sidewalks to larger patios for socially distanced restaurants, these changes will transform the urban streetscapes of at least some communities. And not all of the shifts will be by intentional design."
Personally, I enjoy the work CityLab does, and certainty it's had a big impact on how I think about cities. This piece is a perfect example of what they do well.
They hit on all the major trends including:
The home becoming the office, gym, school, and entertainment center.
The inflection of deliveries and essential workers to manage logistics.
The decrease in transit ridership at peak hours.
The Real Deal: “Change is happening”: Inside real estate tech’s race to diversify their boards ($)
The Real Deal explores the change within real estate tech to diversify boards of directors.
"Among public companies, women hold just 21.5 percent of board seats, according to Equilar, a governance-data firm. The number is far lower — between 7 percent and 9 percent — among private companies, where board seats tend to be limited to founders and backers."
"Of 47 US proptech firms that have raised $100M or more, 14 startups have at least one woman on the board. But six have done so since September 2019".
Vox: The lost neighborhood under New York's Central Park
The video team at Vox tells the story behind the neighborhood lost when Central Park was developed. It's name: Seneca Village.
Neighborhoods across the country like Seneca Village, predominately minority neighborhoods, have countless times been lost to development.
The Verge: Apple adding cycling directions and EV routing to Maps in iOS 14
"Apple has announced at this year’s WWDC that the company’s adding a long-awaited feature to its default Maps app when iOS 14 drops: cycling directions. But Apple is only launching in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Beijing, and it didn’t immediately say when it will expand into other parts of the world."
Note, these features have been available on other platforms like Google Maps — but it's good to see these hit Apple Maps platform.
CNBC: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on the future of travel and outlook
This interview with the CEO of Airbnb Brian Chesky is super exciting.
A few key points:
Airbnb is betting more and more on long term stays — almost 20% of stays are these type.
Leisure travel is shifting to shorter duration trips across more communities.
Airbnb's supply has increased since COVID started.
The company has dramatically reduced costs by cutting staff, real estate holdings, and marketing.
Forbes: Artificial Intelligence Real Estate Firm OJO Labs Raises $62.5 Million, Buys Home Listing Site
Austin-based OJO Labs finalized a $62.5 million round of funding. Wafra led the round and was joined by Breyer Capital, LiveOak Venture Partners, Royal Bank of Canada and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures. According to Crunchbase, OJO has raised a total of $134 million.
OJO leverages AI, including a digital advisor, and human analysis to ease the home-buying experience.
Simplicity in the home buying is the goal for a number of startups including Zillow, Opendoor, Compass and Knock. Interestingly, OJO isn’t tacking the problem from a supply side and is a service not an iBuyer.
Thanks for reading! Continue sharing tips with me at john@urbantechnews.net. If you have any LA recommendations for me while I’m here, send them my way. Definitely looking to explore some running routes and great views. Talk next week. ✌🏼
JT