Play It Like A Tech Co., Rivian Opens Up Its Van Orders, Cityscoot In Bankruptcy, Cruise's Problems Continue - MOBILITY BRIEF_ ??????? - November 10th

Good Friday everybody, it's time for your weekly Mobility Brief! ???

On the menu this week

HIGHLIGHT - ?? Play It Like A Tech Co: An History of Failure From Auto Legacies

Will history repeat itself, or has the lesson been learned? Not a year goes by without a legacy carmaker claiming it’s turning into a digital tech company. Yet, most of their moves ultimately turns into disarray: whether it’s an in-house initiative or a start-up acquisition, it always seems a bit like mixing oil and water. With an eventful week on this matter, a little throwback to some illustrations of this trend.

雷诺 officially launched this Wednesday their EV and software pureplayer called Ampere . Does it ring you any bell? If the split of a carmaker in an EV pure player and an ICE-legacy entity is quite unseen, the digital tech side reminds us of Volkswagen Group’s software division, CARIAD. Launched under the helm of Herbert Diess, the turmoil surrounding the company precipitated its downfall in the German carmaker hierarchy and jeopardized VW brand’s EV offensives. With quality issues and multiple delays, CARIAD solutions have been struggling to convince both the group’s customers and the brand themselves, ultimately pushing them into the arms of their arch enemy, Google, as Porsche confirmed last week turning to the Mountain View company to provide their next infotainment OS. However, Renault is not copy-pasting the same strategy, as the company is rather willing to weave its web onto the EV market by providing a thorough digital experiences through partnerships (also including Google), while focusing its in-house efforts into differentiation drivers. But that won’t exempt them from the same pitfalls as CARIAD’s issues seem to stem from the strategy execution rather than the strategy itself, as ambitious as it is.

Digital tech in cars is no new topic. Electronics have made their way into our cars decades ago, and even connectivity, touchscreens and ADAS introduction in our cars have preceded the birth of the new wave of neo-manufacturers like Tesla. Yet, they couldn’t fathom how to take advantage of this situation. Is it the start-up mindset that makes the difference? Well, we can’t blame for trying, as manufacturers have quickly set offices in the Silicon Valley in the hope to catch a whiff of this holy spirit. Yet, we can’t say it brought them many success.

So what is the problem for legacies? Maybe it’s their hardware-centric mindset, which puts the car itself at the center of their timelines, seeing software as a component of a car rather than a product itself, and mostly ignoring its offboard dependencies with an IS often considered as a cost centre instead of an opportunity vector. Hence it’s no surprises to see similar recipes from car manufacturing applied to their digital projects: a software time-to-market linked with car releases (car-centric), always including outdated legacy products into new IS systems instead of decoupling to enhance the experience on newer products (cost-killer mindset), thorough quality control even for non-core software products delaying their time-to-market (safety focus), an outsourcing culture from consulting to coding that prevents any accountability and continuity, etc… Even the safety culture is not leveraged where it should be: Cruise, the General Motors-owned start-up, has been under the spotlight the wrong way by withdrawing damning evidences to public authorities in a crash with a pedestrian, and knowingly keeping their vehicles running while having troubles recognizing both children and road construction holes. A behaviour which was most expected from the likes of the Big Tech instead of legacy carmakers. The price to pay from the increasing pressure on them while their wallets are shrinking under the hammer of the EV transition?

Anyway, don’t get us wrong: we just shared our thoughts, and it may be obvious ones and things already said and heard. It’s far from an easy topic. Looking through the European prism, it’s even harder as you suffer from the lack of big tech benchmark companies on the Old Continent compared to what China and the US can produce. So it’s no surprise to see Renault and Stellantis recruit profiles from Amazon (Ned Curic, Stellantis CTO) or Microsoft (Henry Bzeih, Software & Systems at Ampere) to lead their way on this twisted path. But as China Auto advances by leaps, is it relevant to keep looking to the West for inspiration?

Are we in the wrong? Do you agree? Share us your thoughts in the comments or even by DM for more discretion! We’re genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts!

?? This Week In The Mobility World

???Appointments (& resignations)

• Henry Bzeih is joining 雷诺 as the new Head of Software and Systems for the newly formed Ampere . A former Microsoft, Ford and Kia employee, we wish him the best of luck in this new challenge for the diamond brand.

???Micromobility News

• French moped-sharing pioneer Cityscoot is in cessation of payment as it is currently looking for new investors to help it carry on with its fleet renewal. A required procedure for the French company, as this renewal is quite crucial: still unprofitable and with a revenue falling by €15M in 2022, renewing its fleet would be an opportunity to decrease its operation costs by 70% according to the company. As part of the 3 companies granted a permit from the city of Paris, Cityscoot testifies that shared mobility tenders are no guarantees of success for the selected operators.

• Can you be a sports car brand and not have your own electric bike? Well, Alpine corrected that mistake with a partnership with the French bike manufacturer Lapierre to deliver the GLP III SE electric mountain bike. Behind this enigmatic name is hiding an e-bike inspired by color language from the A110 R and a limited edition of its Bosch motor including a Race mode. Hurry, there will only be 300 of them!

???Factories Updates

• Renault announced on Thursday the signing of an agreement between its Korean subsidiary Renault Korea Co.,LTD (????? ????) (RKM) and Polestar , to produce the Polestar 4 at the Busan site in the second half of 2025 for the domestic market and for export to North America

???Tech Updates

• Following the recent ban in California for its driverless operations, Cruise has started laying off workers involved in the related operations. For the moment, no figures have been released.
• A legacy-owned AV start-up making the headlines for its reckless safety policy while Tesla is releasing a driver attention and drowsiness monitoring system??? Are we in the upside-down??? Don’t worry, there’s always a simple explanation: Tesla released the Model 3 Highland, and who says new model says you need to comply with the latest rules. Hence Tesla is deploying this system in Europe, where the GSR (General Safety Regulation) declared mandatory the Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning (DDAW) for each new model since 2022. Phewww, what a relief!
• Polestar 4 will be the first car to have Mobileye Chauffeur with 3 EyeQ6 processors and Luminar LiDAR.

• According to Reuters , the European Court of Justice ruled that Scania must share vehicle data with independent repair shops and parts distributors. This ruling could boost the aftermarket for commercial vehicle parts and services, which is worth billions of euros.

?? EV Updates

• NACS Update: another one! Lucid will adopt the NACS in North America beginning in 2025. Its CEO Peter Rawlinson was once reluctant to adopt Tesla's charging standard, but has now changed his mind. Tesla CEO Elon Musk praised Lucid's decision on X, with his characteristic humor (”That must have been a bitter pill to swallow ??”). Lucid has also announced that its latest OTA update will enable Lucid Air owners to charge most other EVs simply by connecting a new cable to the Lucid Air's charge port, the feature name is RangeXchange .

• Another milestone for Euro 7 as the European Parliament has just voted on the rules for the next major vehicle pollution standard. What will change with this standard? Hm, not much, it will simply make the current Euro 6 limits more widespread.

???New Car Reveals

• The Polestar 5 was unveiled in its production version this week at the Polestar Day in Los Angeles. The final version will not be officially launched until 2025. Polestar is partnering with StoreDot to develop ultra-fast charging batteries that can add 160 km of range in just 5min, without causing battery degradation.

• Rivian is now able to sell its commercial vans to other customers besides Amazon, and has increased its production forecast for 2023 (52k to 54k) as part of its strategy to achieve profitability. These vehicles are only available in North America, and the prices you see below are for fleets. Ouch.

???Investment/Financial Updates

• On Wednesday, 雷诺 announced the entry into force of the new Alliance agreement. Its voting rights on Nissan's Board of Directors will be reduced from 43.4% to 15%. This marks the end of an asymmetrical marriage that lasted 24 years.
• Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has increased its stake in Aston Martin to 20.5%, following the disappointing results and outlook. Saudi Arabia is now the second-largest shareholder, ahead of Geely boss but still behind Lawrence Stroll, who keeps control of the ship, even in the storm…

?? Bookmark Of The Week

Cruise Knew Its Self-Driving Cars Had Problems Recognizing Children - And Kept Them On The Streets - The Intercept

Link

“Several months ago, Vogt became choked up when talking about a 4-year-old girl who had recently been?killed ?in San Francisco. A 71-year-old woman had taken what local residents?described ?as a low-visibility right turn, striking a stroller and killing the child. “It barely made the news,” Vogt?told ?the New York Times. “Sorry. I get emotional.” Vogt offered that self-driving cars would make for safer streets.

Behind the scenes, meanwhile, Cruise was grappling with its own safety issues around hitting kids with cars. […] The materials note results from simulated tests in which a Cruise vehicle is in the vicinity of a small child. “Based on the simulation results, we can’t rule out that a fully autonomous vehicle might have struck the child,” reads one assessment. In another test drive, a Cruise vehicle successfully detected a toddler-sized dummy but still struck it with its side mirror at 28 miles per hour.”

@ Sam Biddle ( The Intercept )

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