Softbank dives into scooters

Plus, what a Biden presidency means for micromobility, Peloton is worth about as much as Ford, and Mexico guarantees the right to safe mobility.

November 10, 2020

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small electric vehicles, like bikes and scooters. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our webinars or events.

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Our next guest are…

Teeth-rattling rides. Geofencing frustrations. Sidewalk clutter. While micromobility has huge potential to improve quality of life in cities, we can all admit it probably won’t get far unless the rider experience gets better.

Fortunately emerging designs and technologies—including VR, AI, sensors, sidewalk detection, and gamification—promise to fundamentally reshape user behavior, and in doing so, make scootering and biking more manageable for cities and more profitable for companies.

Join Oliver Bruce at 1pm Pacific / 4pm Eastern on November 19th for a lively discussion about the big breakthroughs that are coming in tech and design, and how they could transform micromobility as we know it, featuring:

  • David Hyman, CEO, Unagi

  • Alex Sutton, Head of Technology, Synapse

  • Kelly Custer, Founder and Design Director, Knack Design Studio

  • Eugene Kwak, Head of Bike and Scooter Hardware, Lyft

Join us by registering for free below.

What you need to know this week

  • Softbank has made its first investment in the shared scooter space, backing Berlin-based Tier to the tune of $250M. The new funds catapult Tier’s valuation to just under $1B, allowing it to overtake Lime to become the second-most valuable scooter company after Bird.

  • Wall Street thinks workout fever is fading. Several bike- and exercise-related stocks fell yesterday, including Peloton, after Pfizer announced encouraging results from its coronavirus vaccine trial.

  • It’s crazy but, up until this dip, Peloton was actually worth more than Ford. If only there were a technology that combined the experiential joy of cycling with the car’s power to transport things…

  • Joe Biden beat Donald Trump to become the next president of the United States last week. While transportation was not a defining issue of the 2020 election, in a symbolic victory for urbanists, Biden was the first presidential nominee in history to acknowledge micromobility as a solution to climate change. The reason no previous nominee had ever spoken about micromobility is simple. At the time of the last election in 2016, the scooter boom hadn’t begun and the concept of micromobility hardly existed. Point being: A whole lot can change in four years.

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  • Beyond micromobility, here is a look at what a Biden-Harris administration could mean for transportation more broadly (tl;dr the ticket ran on boosting transit and cycling, but many of their proposed policies would reinforce car dependency)

  • Lastly, several big names are being floated to lead the Department Transportation under Biden, including LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. The president-elect is also considering elevating climate czar into a cabinet position.

  • Ghost kitchen startup and parking disruptor Reef has raised $700M in a round led by Mubadala Capital.

  • Lithuanian e-scooter manufacturer Unicorn is adding an extra step to the baseboard of its scooters to hold packages, groceries, and even passengers.

  • Fedex is using e-cargo bikes to make deliveries in London.

  • The pros and cons of universal charging stations versus universal battery swap.

  • An avalanche of new single-speed models is driving the price of electric bicycles down into the $1000 range.

  • A new ITF study finds that cycling gets safer when more people do it. Vancouver and Auckland, the two cities in the report that saw bike trips increase the most in recent years, also experienced the largest decline in cyclist deaths.

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  • Scooters may have played a small part in mobilizing America’s highest-turnout election in 120 years. Bird says its ridership was up by as much as 390% in some places as voters took advantage of its free Roll to the Polls program.

  • British ebike retailer Pure Electric is expanding to France.

  • Mexico ratified a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to safe mobility.

  • Last piece of election news (sorry global readers). Climate expert Daryl Young suggests that longtime train commuter Joe Biden ought to have an Amtrak One.

Pod people

Amir-Haleem-954063cb0557497daba10a4c83469fd7.jpg

“Our goal is not just to create a big coverage network, it’s to democratize the ability to build connected products,” Amir Haleem, CEO, Helium

Why is Oliver Bruce talking to the head of a crypto-powered teleco project on a mobility podcast? Just listen.

Jobs to be done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post new career openings in hopes of connecting our readers with professional opportunities in the burgeoning world of new mobility. Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to view fresh listings every week.