Firefly, a fast-growing in-car and car-top mobility media company and a Google Ventures-backed startup, will collaborate with Hyundai in promoting its vehicles—including EVs—to rideshare fleets and drivers across key US cities. The vehicles will be ready to have Firefly’s in-car and on-car screens installed, generating advertising revenue to subsidize the... Read more →

Aurora Innovation has launched Aurora Driver Beta 2.0, the second release of its integrated hardware and autonomy system. This release powers Aurora’s next-generation truck fleet and its recently unveiled Toyota Sienna test fleet. It also debuts new capabilities and critical improvements to prepare the Aurora Driver for commercial launch, including:... Read more →

bp and Uber Technologies announced a new global strategic convenience delivery partnership, extending their existing local arrangements to reach more consumers across the world. Together, the partners will offer a range of convenience products, including fresh and prepared ranges, from select retail locations. bp is the first convenience retailer to... Read more →

The Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF)—a £500-million investment fund to deliver low-carbon, sustainable projects and infrastructure in London—is providing capital to Vehicle-as-a-Service provider Breathe, supported by fintech Zeti’s pay-per-mile platform ZERO, for the deployment of 100 Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles to private hire drivers, including Uber, in... Read more →

Aurora Innovation unveiled its test fleet of its autonomous custom-designed Toyota Sienna vehicles featuring Toyota’s Vehicle Control Interface (VCI) and “Sienna Autono-MaaS” (S-AM) platform. The Toyota S-AM will serve as the backbone platform for the expected launch of Aurora Connect, its autonomous ride-hailing product. Aurora has worked with Toyota Motor... Read more →

Curb, a ride-hailing app for licensed taxi and for-hire rides in North America, announced the execution of a strategic partnership agreement with Uber that will enable Curb-connected drivers to receive trip requests from Uber users. The integration will provide wider transportation options for riders and more trips for drivers as... Read more →

ANA Holdings and Joby Aviation are forming a partnership that will see Japan’s largest airline join with Joby to bring aerial ridesharing services to Japan. Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) also joined the partnership, with the intention of exploring opportunities such as ground-based transportation. Joby’s all-electric aircraft performing a flight test... Read more →

A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that ride-sharing spending by consumers globally will exceed $937 billion by 2026, comparable to 50 times the combined annual revenue of Transport for London, New York City’s MTA, and the Beijing Metro in 2021. This spend represents an increase from $147 billion in... Read more →

Aurora shared the first look of the Toyota Sienna hybrid powered by the Aurora Driver, designed for a convenient and comfortable ride-hailing experience. This represents a significant milestone in Aurora’s path to commercializing Aurora-powered Toyota vehicles designed specifically for ride-hailing. This modified Toyota Sienna is Toyota’s first mass-produced “Sienna Autono-MaaS”... Read more →

Mobilize will unveil Limo, a 4.67m four-door fully-electric sedan, specifically designed for for taxi/private hire (PHV) drivers and fleet, at Munich IAA Mobility 2021. Available solely on subscription, the offer will include packages and à la carte mobility solutions. Mobilize Limo is the result of the joint venture created by... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved the US’ first standard to transition ride-hailing fleets to zero-emission vehicles by 2030. The Clean Miles Standard (CMS) (earlier post) sets electrification and greenhouse gas emission targets for transportation network companies (TNCs)—e.g., Uber and Lyft. The goals of the CMS are to:... Read more →

Commercial electric vehicle company Arrival is partnering with Uber to develop an affordable, purpose-built electric vehicle (EV) for ride-hailing drivers. The Arrival Car is expected to enter production in Q3 2023. Arrival went public in March; the Arrival Car is the realization of the Small Vehicle Platform (SVP) referenced in... Read more →

Strategy Analytics’ Automotive Connected Mobility service released its H1 2021 Global Ride-Hailing Market Update and its associated Global Ride-Hailing Forecast, tracking more than 140 unique operators across 119 different countries. Although 2020 was tough for ride-hailing operators everywhere, with a decline of 18% in worldwide total revenue (gross bookings) across... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) will conduct a public hearing on 20 May to consider approving for adoption of the proposed Clean Miles Standard—the first proposed regulation to address environmental requirements for ride-hailing services specifically. (Earlier post.) California’s Clean Miles Standard and Incentive Program of 2018 (SB 1014) directs... Read more →

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering have found that with an emissions-based incentive towards electrification, ridesourcing companies such as Uber and Lyft would electrify more and cut their emissions by amounts ranging from 10% in New York to 22% in Los Angeles. In LA alone, this represents a reduction... Read more →

Researchers at MIT report that the entrance of transportation network companies (TNCs)—specifically Uber and Lyft, which together have a 98% share of the market—in cities led to increased road congestion in terms of both intensity (by 0.9%) and duration (by 4.5%); an 8.9% decline in transit ridership; and an insignificant... Read more →

When ridesourcing companies Uber and Lyft show up in urban areas, vehicle registrations per capita increase by 0.7% on average, increasing even more in car-dependent cities, according to a new study led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. In an open-access paper in the journal iScience, the team estimates the... Read more →

Volkswagen and Uber have launched a pilot project for the utilization of electric vehicles within the sustainable ride hailing service “Uber Green”. The objective of the pilot project is to use a number of year-old e-Golf vehicles which may run into three digits. Volkswagen has already been using the e-Golf... Read more →

Uber is committing to become a fully zero-emission platform by 2040, with 100% of rides taking place in zero-emission vehicles, on public transit, or with micromobility. The company is also setting an earlier goal to have 100% of rides take place in electric vehicles (EVs) in US, Canadian, and European... Read more →

The Orange County (CA) Transportation Authority (OCTA) has a Tesla Model X SUV as its first all-electric vehicle in the OCTA Vanpool program. The Tesla X is provided by Green Commuter, one of three vanpool companies contracted by OCTA to provide vehicles to commuters in Orange County to help them... Read more →

Replacing a gasoline-powered ride-hailing vehicle with an electric vehicle can deliver three times the carbon benefits of a personally owned electric vehicle, according to a study by a University of California, Davis, researcher of Uber and Lyft data. The paper is published in the journal Nature Energy. Ride-hailing vehicles travel... Read more →

Electric cars are becoming an attractive business proposition for high-mileage vehicle operators such as ride-sharer Uber in key EU capitals such as Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Lisbon, a new study by research and campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) has found. Medium-sized battery-electric cars are on average 14% cheaper to... Read more →

Ridesharing company Lyft—in collaboration with Environmental Defense Fund—has commited to reach 100% electric vehicles on the Lyft platform by 2030. By working with drivers to transition to electric vehicles, we have the potential to avoid tens of millions of metric tons of GHG emissions to the atmosphere and to reduce... Read more →

A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) finds that the rising use of ride-hailing services is increasing carbon emissions, with ride-hailing trips producing nearly 70% greater emissions compared to the trips they are replacing. This significant increase in emissions comes in part from “deadheading”—the miles a driver... Read more →

Global consulting firm AlixPartners’ Global Autonomous Vehicle Report—based on a survey of more than 6,500 consumers across China, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States—found that consumers are willing to spend just an 8% to 24% premium for “hands-off-the-wheel” autonomy over today’s already-available technologies (lane-keeping assistance, automatic... Read more →

China-based ThunderSoft, an operating system technology provider, and Didi Chuxing announced a strategic collaboration focused on intelligent automotive operating system products and solutions for automotive manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers. This partnership is intended to accelerate the development of the Intelligent Connected Vehicle (ICV) by combining ThunderSoft’s OS technology and... Read more →

Didi Chuxing (DiDi), the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, will launch Latin America’s first shared electric vehicle (EV) fleet through its app in Mexico, as the company further invests in sustainable transportation innovations in the region. Launched in April 2018, DiDi Mexico offers its range of ride-hailing, taxi-hailing and food... Read more →

Nissan and Uber have signed a deal to support the introduction of 2,000 all-electric Nissan LEAFs for drivers who use the Uber app. The fleet of 40kWh Nissan LEAFs, which can travel up to 168 miles on a single charge and are manufactured in Sunderland, will be offered to drivers... Read more →

Integrating ridesharing with transit in poorly serviced suburban neighborhoods could be an effective way to get people out of their cars and boost ridership, according to the findings of a new study by researchers at the University of Waterloo. The researchers found that two-thirds of people who took advantage of... Read more →

Uber and Hyundai Motor Company announced a new partnership to develop Uber Air Taxis for a future aerial ride share network and unveiled a new full-scale aircraft concept at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Hyundai is the first automotive company to join the Uber Elevate initiative, bringing automotive-scale manufacturing capability... Read more →

A new report from Tractica forecasts that the global market for Mobility as a service (MaaS) to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.0% to become a $563.3 billion market by 2025, largely driven by ride-hailing applications. Tractica defines mobility as a service (MaaS) as technology-driven programs... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has released the 2018 Base-year Emissions Inventory Report, as required by Senate Bill 1014 (SB 1014, California Clean Miles Standard). (Earlier post.) SB 1014, enacted in 2018, directed CARB and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop and implement measures to reduce GHG emissions... Read more →

Daimler Mobility AG and Geely Technology Group, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding), unveiled the premium ride-hailing provider StarRides in China with inaugural services to begin in Hangzhou in December 2019. The ride-hailing joint venture will begin operating in Hangzhou, a city of more than 10 million... Read more →

Uber is adding more polluting car trips to already-clogged European cities such as London and Paris, new analysis by European NGOs suggests—contributing to air pollution and climate change and exploding the company’s sustainability claims. Data compiled by Euromonitor for European research and campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) shows a... Read more →

California has become the first state in the US to regulate the greenhouse gas produced by the surge in popularity of ridesharing. California Governor Brown signed SB 1014, a bill requiring transportation network companies (TNCs) to account for, and reduce, the greenhouse gas emissions of their operations. The explosive growth... Read more →

MOIA, the mobility startup from the Volkswagen Group (earlier post), is introducing its electric ride pooling concept van just one year after its inception. MOIA is presenting the electric van and its ride pooling ecosystem with the mission “One Million Cars off the Road” at TechCrunch in Berlin (4-5 December).... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Vans is entering the ride-sharing sector by setting up a joint venture with the US startup company Via. Daimler Mobility Services additionally joins in as a strategic investor in Via with a $50-million stake. For Daimler Mobility Services, Volker Mornhinweg will be joining Via’s board of directors. Unlike other... Read more →

smart has unveiled the smart vision EQ fortwo, embodying a new vision of urban mobility and individualized highly flexible, efficient local public transport: the autonomous concept vehicle picks up its passengers directly from their chosen location. The smart vision EQ fortwo is also a car in which all of the... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Columbia University surveyed more than 1,200 people in Austin, Texas, to examine how their habits changed after Uber and Lyft pulled drivers out of the city due to a local law change. In May 2016, Austin... Read more →

A new modeling study by a team from MIT CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) and Cornell suggests that using ride-sharing from companies like Uber and Lyft theoretically could reduce the number of taxis on the road in New York City by 75% without significantly impacting travel time. A... Read more →

The Financial Times reports that Uber will invest $500 million into a global mapping project in an effort to decrease its dependence on Google Maps and to prepare for autonomous driving. The FT cited “a person familiar with Uber’s plans” as the source. Uber has already hired Brian McClendon, formerly... Read more →

BMW i Ventures announced a strategic investment in Scoop Technologies, Inc., creators of the carpooling mobile application “Scoop”. Since launching in August 2015, Scoop commuters have taken more than 40,000 trips, offsetting nearly 500,000 in commute mileage for riders. Originally launched in Pleasanton, CA, Scoop now also operates commute trips... Read more →

Volkswagen has made a US$300-million strategic investment in Gett (formerly GetTaxi), a global provider of ride-hailing services. Present in more than 60 cities worldwide, Gett is one of the faster-growing ride-hailing providers sprouting up in the mobility-on-demand area. The partnership between Volkswagen Group and Gett is based on a joint... Read more →

Three emerging and converging factors—connectivity, autonomy and transport-as-a-service—will fundamentally change the automotive industry over the next few decades, according to Mike Abelson, GM’s VP of Strategy and Global Portfolio Planning. These three factors, said Abelson in a panel talk at the 2016 SAE World Congress in Detroit, are changing how... Read more →