Are Self-Driving Cars Coming to Manhattan? GM Cruise just leased 9,500 square feet space in Tribeca. One of downtown’s few street-level commercial spaces with a curb cut. LINK
Who Will Reap the Profits from Autonomous Taxi Revenues? “The platform providers should enjoy the widest margins, followed by lead generators” ? LINK
German cities have the green light to start banning diesel cars. LINK
Brussels has moved to make the city’s public transport and bike share system free if air pollution peaks for two consecutive days. This is to meet EU air quality directives. LINK
Automaker Nissan and tech firm DeNA will test out a self-driving taxi service in Japan. They will conduct a field test of the service, called Easy Ride, on March 5, in the Minatomirai district of Yokohama, along with a set route of about 4.5 kilometers. LINK
Toyota AI Ventures is co-leading an $11.5-million seed investment in May Mobility, an Ann Arbor-based startup that is developing self-driving shuttles for college campuses. BMW i Ventures is a co-investor. LINK
Volvo Launches a VC Fund LINK
BLOCKCHAIN:
- Porsche is currently testing blockchain applications directly in vehicles. LINK
- I recently came across an ICO for peer-to-peer car rental platform. LINK
Billionaire chairman of Chinese car maker Geely, invested about $9 billion buying a stake of almost 10% in Daimler, making him the biggest single shareholder in the owner of Mercedes Benz. Some analysts suggest Li wants to get his hands on Daimler’s clean energy technology. LINK
TESLA:
- Tesla launches a new ‘Workplace Charging’ program to supply free charging stations to businesses. LINK
- Sales of the Tesla Model S in Europe jumped 30 percent to 16,132 last year, according to JATO. Outselling BMW & Mercedes. The S class sales grew 3 percent to 13,359. The 7 series had sales of 11,735, down 13 percent. LINK
- VIDEO: Tesla Before Elon, The Untold Story LINK
The Next Big Thing in Getting Around Are ‘Transportation Network Intermediaries‘ “these networks of networks grow, they give consumers multiples of choices to get around, by price, by time, by experience and they level the playing field for small, boutique mobility service providers against the brand monsters, Uber and Didi.” ? LINK
A recent (yet to be peer-reviewed) study found that, after Uber enters new markets, the rates of ambulance rides typically go down, meaning fewer people call professionals in favor of the cheaper option. LINK
