Welcome to the third edition of the Autonomy Weekly Summer Special. To save you time during the holiday season we bring you headlines from the industry. Relax and enjoy the emissions-free ride. 

The Autonomy Weekly Summer Special is an Urban Mobility Weekly limited edition series featuring the latest news on mobility, in an all you need to know format.

Highlights of the Week

The London City Summit

After our highly successful Berlin City Summit in May 2022, the spotlight moves to the London City Summit, 12th of October in the Southbank Centre, overlooking the River Thames. We look forward to a unique mobility experience, focusing on Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). 

Autonomy’s London City Summit gathers local actors London & Partners and the UK’s Department of International Trade with mobility innovators Bosch, Bolt, Freenow and Buro Happold, among others. The Summit will focus on how London, as an old city, can prepare for AVs and how this contrasts with cities like Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia which are new cities purpose-built for new technologies.   

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs)

• Forecasts show that the AV industry will be worth $400 billion by 2025 as advanced economies adopt the technology. However, the question remains: how do we insure driverless vehicles given the complications of liability?  

The UK government has passed a bill outlining regulations for insuring AVs; it’s worth noting that insurance could be void if the software is not updated.

• Progress on driverless vehicles has been slower than expected. However, their smaller counterparts, delivery robots, are on the fast-track to mainstream adoption. Restaurants stand to gain from delivery bots, which have the added advantage of being small enough to use pavements as well as roads. 
• Tesla’s next Full Self-Driving Beta update (10.13) includes many improvements over the last version, such as better-decision making for unprotected left turns, improved lane positioning and better animal detection.
• Sony is developing self-driving sensors that require 70% less electricity; every watt counts when range is an issue.
• Singapore has long been Southeast Asia’s hub for AVs. However, there are some hurdles in adopting driverless vehicles in a nation with such high car ownership costs. 
• Self-driving tech startup Yunchuang Zhixing has completed pre-A round financing totalling tens of millions of yuan. The round was led by NIO Capital and followed by Xinghang Venture Capital and Yongzhi Investment.
• May Mobility has secured $111 million in funding to develop Toyota’s next generation  commercial AV platform with driverless shuttles.

Active Mobility

• Vektor Partners has announced a €125 million pot earmarked for innovations in mobility products that support an “autonomous, shared, electric, and sustainable future”.
• Pomovec Holdings and Batribike announced this week that the Danish electric bike battery specialist will fully acquire the UK bike brand.
• Sven Bauer, the CEO and founder of BMZ has claimed battery cell shortages will continue into 2023. “The future is based on a battery,” he declared.
• Last week, the Lecco declaration was signed by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology and European Network of Independent Living. You can check out the 4 principles here.
• Swytch reveals the first pocket-sized electric battery for a DIY e-bike conversion kit.

Mass Transit

• Istanbul has recently raised the cost of its mass transit passes by 100%, causing  outrage among commuters; it was only three months ago since the last steep rise.
• Germany is facing calls to extend the €9 a month public transport deal beyond its August expiration. 
• Bristol’s new mass transit system is likely to face delays, with costs mounting to £4 billion.

Smart Mobility Cities

• Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, is testing the waters of self-driving buses by introducing a pilot on a 1.8km pre-mapped route, lowering speed limits to improve safety.
• Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib wants to, “…motivate people to abandon their cars” by offering them “…more comfortable, cheap and fast public transport.“
• The Netherlands is building on its solid cycling reputation; Government plans to spend tens of millions of Euro in nudging more citizens into biking to work. Plans include better parking facilities and cycling support for children of low-income families.

Green Fleets

• Charge Amp has launched ‘green charging’, a feature which enables customers to only charge their vehicles solar power.
• Berlin authorities are installing the first 200 street lamps, which can charge EVs. 

Shared Mobility

• Dott reports a rise in ridership across Europe.
• Lime is adopting new features on their vehicles to prevent drunk-riding, cut down on dangerous riding and reduce crashes. Lime’s “operation corridor” is a world first, allowing their fleet to travel between Nogent (Val-de-Marne) and Paris. 
• Liverpool’s city bike rental scheme will be scrapped and replaced by a new initiative run by Voi.
• Bolt is introducing mandatory alcohol tests for riding their e-scooters.
• The heat wave has disrupted commutes across Paris; fortunately Navigo holders within Paris can ride Zoov bikes for 30 minutes a day for free.
• CoMotion, the Irish multimodal mobility operator, has chosen Vaimoo as their strategic partner for the extension of its micromobility offer with e-bikes. The fleets will service the City of Shannon.
• Splyt and TIER Mobility partner to integrate sustainable mobility into global superapps.Q
• MOVs, a Swedish operator, is targeting new European markets after raising up to €4.2 million.

Urban Logistics

• Amazon will partner with Texas A&M University to pilot its delivery drone programme at College Station in Texas.
• Syrius Robotics, a logistics AMR firm secures 10s of millions of Yuan from Harvest Capital.
• Google maps is testing Hybrid and EV-Specific navigation directions to help solve range anxiety for EV drivers. 

Visual Capitalist released a great infographic explaining the differences between lithium ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. It’s worth noting that the International Energy Agency estimates that the auto industry will require 30 times more minerals per year to meet global climate targets.

That’s all for this week, if you want to keep these weekly updates, you can subscribe here.