Did Apple nix a major bike-related announcement?

September 18, 2019

This week, the first micromobility startup reaches 100M rides, investment activity is slowing, and NATCO releases new scooter guidelines, but first…

Feast Your Eyes

It’s here.

The final agenda for Berlin—featuring a full lineup of presenters and schedules—has arrived. Suffice it to say, we are giddy about this event. Just look at the speakers and topics, and you’ll see why.

In Berlin on October 1, we are convening the largest-ever conference devoted to the unbundling of the car and the future of urban mobility. Attending this event will offer choices between different main stage programming, networking opportunities, and hands-on vehicle demos.

If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet, we still have some available. Passes are over €100 off from now until Sunday, September 22.

Airwaves

On the latest episode of the podcast, Oliver Bruce sits down with Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures, to discuss the firm’s micromobility bets (including Bird) and how the funding landscape for shared scooters is changing.

Listen here—and don’t miss Martin’s panel on capital for micromobility at #MME.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Apple’s annual HQ summit ended 20 minutes earlier than usual this year, prompting speculation that the company had planned to unveil Apple Tag—a Tile-like device that could have huge potential for tracking and unlocking bikes—and then scrapped the announcement at the last minute. | Forbes

  • Paris is planning to offer people €500 in subsidies to buy an ebike in 2020. Related: a public transit strike in the French capital is driving people to use the city’s new cycleways in greater numbers than ever before. | DW

  • Lime hit 100 million trips worldwide and it did it almost twice as fast as Uber. Related: Lime president Joe Kraus will talk about the journey to this milestone and what comes next at #MME. | Lime

  • Ola, India’s largest ride-hailing company, has launched on-demand, motorized two-wheeler service in 150 cities. | TechCrunch

  • Mercedes-Benz quietly launched its first electric scooter at the Frankfurt Motor Show. | The Verge

  • At an event in Georgia, the microautonomous startup Tortoise demonstrated its automated repositioning technology for the first time. Related: Tortoise co-founder Dmitry Shevelenko will share his vision for robotics and micromobility at #MME. | Dmitry Shevelenko

  • Another week, another reminder that the U.S.-China trade war is hitting the bicycle industry especially hard. | CNBC

  • … meanwhile, anti-dumping measures have all but banned Chinese ebikes from the EU market. Imports are down 91% since last year. | Bike Europe

  • Bay Area company Karmic has launched Oslo, a sleek scooter/pedelec hybrid that took almost two years to develop, on Kickstarter. Oslo has a 480Wh battery and 20 miles of range.| The Verge

  • Indian bike-sharing startup Yulu is working with Delhi Metro to deploy its electric microvehicles at metro stations across the capital. | Economic Times

  • In addition to Atlanta, Jump is also removing its ebike fleet from San Diego. | Streetsblog

  • The always-insightful David Zipper asks a question that has confounded many of us over the last few years, “Why do city dwellers love to hate scooters?”| Citylab

  • NATCO has updated its guidelines for scooters. “The guide recommends flexible permitting structures, including incentive-based performance clauses around issues like shifting trips or increasing options for underserved communities. The guide also says city streets should be redesigned ‘to fully realize the potential of shared micromobility’ and give users a safe space to ride. That includes a recommendation that cities direct permit fees to infrastructure projects.” | Smart Cities Dive 

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