Shows
Ride AIRivian, Tesla, Waymo, Uber... This Week in Autonomy News with Sophia TungYouTuber, writer, and coder Sophia Tung recaps the week's most important AV news, including Waymo’s big Bay Area expansion, multiple Tesla controversies, Travis Kalanick’s robotaxi regrets, Rivian’s hands-free driving debut, and more. This week’s episode is shorter than usual, but hopefully it serves as a good introduction to Sophia and her point of view on AI mobility. She’ll be podcasting more with us in the future. As a reminder, the first Ride AI summit is taking place on April 2 at Neuehouse in Hollywood, California. We already have an amazing group of speaker...
2025-03-1912 minRide AIRivian, Tesla, Waymo, Uber... This Week in Autonomy News with Sophia TungYouTuber, writer, and coder Sophia Tung recaps the week's most important AV news, including Waymo’s big Bay Area expansion, multiple Tesla controversies, Travis Kalanick’s robotaxi regrets, Rivian’s hands-free driving debut, and more. This week’s episode is shorter than usual, but hopefully it serves as a good introduction to Sophia and her point of view on AI mobility. She’ll be podcasting more with us in the future. As a reminder, the first Ride AI summit is taking place on April 2 at Neuehouse in Hollywood, California. We already have an amazing group of speaker...
2025-03-1912 min
AI SummerSophia Tung on riding a self-driving taxi in ChinaTim and Dean chat with Sophia Tung, an entrepreneur, engineer, and now YouTuber, about her recent experience in a Chinese self-driving taxi from Apollo Go, a subsidiary of Baidu. Apollo Go is a bit like China’s Waymo, but Sophia found the experience of riding in an Apollo Go taxi to be far worse than riding in a Waymo. We talk about her experience in China as well as the broader implications: is China just a few years behind American AV companies, or is there a deeper problem? This is a public episode. If you would li...
2025-02-051h 03
Ride AI149: Building profitable shared Micromobility in the emerging world - With Alper Oktem of MartiThis week Oliver interviews Alper Oktem, CEO and founder of Marti, which as far as we can tell, is the largest Micromobility operator in Turkey. Oliver has long wanted to cover the Turkish Micromobility market, because it is such a large country, and they are proportionately so underserved.
Turkey is proportionately underserved with transport options in the cities – Istanbul is considered one of the most congested cities in the world. This was a great conversation and Alper is a real go-getter in the Micromobility space.
This was a great conversation, especially around funding and the impor...
2022-09-1547 minRide AI148: Talking Cities, Tranformation and Micromobility with Rocky Mountain Institute's Julia Thayne DemordauntThis week Oliver interviews Julia Thayne Demordaunt, Principal of Urban Transformation at the Rocky Mountain Institute. Oliver is a massive fan of RMI - they’ve been advocated for market based climate solutions for years and have some of the most in depth research on the pathways required to help us meet our climate goals. Julia is leading the research at RMI about the potential for micro to contribute. She came onboard as one of the hosts for the Micromobiltiy Europe show and the team had an absolute blast meeting her and talking about her work. In this conversation th...
2022-09-0852 minRide AI147: Not Just Bikes: Why Many Cities Suck (But Dutch Cities Don't) With Jason SlaughterThis week we share another interview from Micromobility Europe - This time it is the timeless interview of Jason Slaughter, creator of the largest urban planning YouTube Channel - Not Just Bikes being interviewed by Julia Thayne DeMourdant from the Rocky Mountain Institute, about why many cities suck, but Dutch cities don’t.
Our host Oliver has often joked that if you spend enough time talking about Micromobility, you end up falling backwards into discussions about urbanism, space allocation and what makes for great cities. Jason nails why that is in this interview, and being in the Net...
2022-09-0122 minRide AI146: A micromobility performing car - Marcus Li from EliThis week Oliver is joined by Marcus Li the founder of Eli who are building a lightweight electric vehicle similar to a Smart car but a bit smaller and selling into the European and American markets. This is possibly one of the most interesting interviews Oliver has done with an early stage founder of a hardware company – They get really into the nitty-gritty details of how Marcus has funded the company to date and the challenges and opportunities that exist in the space.
They also discuss the Chinese micro electric car industry to date which is an are...
2022-08-2549 minRide AI145: A family focused micromobility offering - the wonderful story of Whee! with founder Kari Anne Solfjeld EidThis week Oliver interviews Kari Anne Solfjeld Eid from Whee!
Whee is a cargo bike subscription service based in Oslo Norway. Kari Anne won this years inaugural Micromobility accelerate pitch competition that we had at the Micromobility Europe conference in June. She was selected by a group of judges as the best presenter on the day for a new Micromobility service or product. The judges noted her quirky style but also a really solid business under it.
One thing not covered in this episode was Kari Anne's low cost of acquisition and very low levels of...
2022-08-1842 minRide AI144: Azeem Azhar and Horace Dediu on Future of CitiesThis podcast was first published on our sister podcast, Infinite Block
This week we're releasing a talk from our recent Micromobility Europe Conference, with Horace interviewing Azeem Azhar.
Azeem is one of the great thinkers in the space of smart cities, the importance of exponential technologies like Micromobility and how they relate to governance and the social contract.
You may recall that we interviewed him earlier this year. Both Horace and Azeem are big fans of each other and at the recent conference they got to sit down and really...
2022-08-1134 minRide AI143: The incredible economics of Last Mile Micromobility Delivery with Adam Barmby, founder of EAVThis week Oliver interviews Adam Barmby from EAV, the electric cargo bike manufacturer based in the UK.
When Amazon launched their 'micromobility hub' in the UK recently, an EAV bike was the pictured bike used in promotional material for the announcement.
Micromobility for freight hasn’t been discussed a lot on the podcast, and it was really exciting to unpack the implications of Micromobility and see how it conforms to the thesis that Horace and Oliver have been weighing out of the last couple of years.
It is especially exciting to hear that EA...
2022-08-0542 min
Ride AI142: Lawrence Leuschner - The Tale of TIERThis week is the release one of the episodes from recorded at the recent Micromobility Europe conference in Amsterdam in early June.
This episode is the story of TIER with Lawrence Leucshner, and interviewed by Julia Thayne DeMordaunt from The Rocky Mountain Institute.
TIER is now the worlds largest micromobility operator. Lawrence was a guest on the podcast very early on, back in episode 37, in August 2019. A lot has happened since then, and it really is a fascinating take with Lawrence this episode.
Specifically they tackle:
- How Tier started out with much less money than their competitors
- The...
2022-07-2826 min
Ride AI141: How tilting unlocks micromobility for the mainstream - the story of Nimbus with CEO Lihang NongThis week Oliver is excited to share an interview with Lihang Nong, CEO and founder of Nimbus. Nimbus recently went public with their vehicle, the Nimbus One, in a Techcrunch article.
Oliver has been talking to Lihang for years and was excited to be able to interview him and bring a bit more of the story for you. We think what Nimbus is building is really really important - as you’ll hear hear, in an era of climate change, high costs of travel and urbanisation, we need lightweight electric vehicles more than ever, and what Nimbus is proposing solves a l...
2022-07-1440 min
Ride AI141. How tilting unlocks micromobility for the mainstream - The story of Nimbus with CEO Lihang NongThis week we share an interview with Lihang Nong, CEO and founder of Nimbus. Nimbus recently went public with their vehicle, the Nimbus One, in a Techcrunch article. Oliver has been talking to Lihang for years and was excited to be able to interview him and bring a bit more of the story for you.
2022-07-1340 min
Ride AI140: What is Micromobility and why does it matter? (2022 edition) with Horace DediuThis week Horace and Oliver were together in person for the first time in nearly two and a half years as they got ready for the Micromobility Europe conference. One of the things that they love to do every so often is to revisit the Micromobilty thesis.
They want this to be the episode you share with everyone who is perhaps interested in what all the fuss is about. If you’re a first time listener, Horace Dediu is the creator of the term Micromobility, and this podcast was where he and Oliver first started talking about it.
They’ve now...
2022-06-291h 23
Ride AI139: Designing iconic ebikes - Job Stehmann, Chief Product Officer at VanmoofThis week Oliver speaks with Job Stehmann from Vanmoof. Job is the chief of product design and technology at Vanmoof and responsible for bringing you the beautiful bikes that they produce.
Specifically they tackle:
- Vanmoof’s new bikes, the A5 and the S5 and the innovations that they have on them.
- The wider context of Micromobility and design, and what works.
- Job's journey with Vanmoof from where it was when he arrived (around the start of ebikes) to now, and how that journey has been for him
- Vanmoofs pivot to proper integration of a phone/app an...
2022-06-0735 min
Ride AI138: RAMPing heavy micromobility with Mark Frohnmayer of ArcimotoThis week Oliver interviews Mark Frohnmayer, CEO of Arcimoto. Mark has been on the podcast before on episodes 111 and 46, and this time they discuss the latest progress with the vehicles they’re building, like the FUV and where they’ve got to with future vehicles like the Mean Lean Machine. They get into the revisions to the platform they’ve made for manufacturing with one of Oliver’s industry favourites, Sandy Munro, as well as the various variants that they’ve developing.
Specifically, they tackle:
- The latest on Arcimoto production and the development of the FUV platform.
- The journey th...
2022-05-2936 min
Ride AI137: The interplay between technology, politics and the social contract with Laura Fox, GM of Citi BikeThis week Oliver interviews Laura Fox, General Manager of the Citi Bike bike sharing service in New York, and Senior Director of Lyft Bikes. This podcast was also released on our sister podcast project, Infinite Block.
Laura has a very deep background and thinking about the future of cities, not only in an operational sense - running a Micromobility firm, before that working for Sidewalk Labs for Google and working with former world bank urban economist, with whom she edited one of Oliver's favourite books on urban economics “Order Without Design.”
In this episode, Laura talks with Oliver about the impl...
2022-05-1849 min
Ride AI136: Building Cities for people, not cars - the story of Culdesac with founder Ryan JohnsonThis week Oliver interviews with Ryan Johnson, CEO and founder of Culdesac. This was first released over on the Infinite Block, our sister podcast looking at the intersection of urbanism, technology and the social contract (more on that below).
Ryan is building the first Micromobility-focused real estate development in the US, with the goal of eventually building the US’s first car free city.
The majority of people want to live in walkable/bikeable neighborhoods, yet only 8% do. Culdesac are developing a system for building real estate that will bring that to the masses, and with it, put micromobility at the...
2022-05-0935 min
Ride AI135: A full stack electric motorbike and battery swapping solution in Rwanda! - AmpersandThis week Oliver interviews Josh Whale, the founder/CEO of Ampersand, based in Rwanda. This is a story that we've wanted to bring our listeners for more than two years - ever since we first heard that there was a team trying to build their own full stack motorbike and battery swapping hardware and software in one of the world's most underserved mobility markets. We're excited that it shows the adoption of micromobility in markets purely on the basis of its economic merits, and helps develop low-carbon pathways to mobility market growth.
Specifically they talk about:
- How Josh, a...
2022-05-0142 min
Ride AI134: Navigating the regulatory traps of innovation with Bradley TuskBradley Tusk is a political fixer-turned-venture capitalist who specializes in working with startups like Bird, Coinbase, Eaze, FanDuel, and Wheel to break through in highly regulated markets. He was formerly the campaign manager of Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 NYC mayoral bid, the Deputy Governor of Illinois, and the first political advisor at Uber. In addition to his firms, Tusk Strategies and Tusk Ventures, Bradley is currently exploring mobile voting technology and blockchain solutions to help fix political polarization.
Specifically they tackle:
- Bradley’s most prominent experience of rapidly changing technology squaring with cities, their governance and their citizens was Uber. Bradl...
2022-04-1257 min
Ride AI133: The tale of Cowboy with founder Tanguy GorettiThis week, Oliver interviews Tanguy Goretti, one of the founders of Cowboy, who just raised a $80m series C to fuel their expansion into the US. Tanguy debuted the C4 in the US at Micromobility America back in September, and this is the first chance that Oliver has had to sit down with him to talk through about the latest bikes and what funding will unlock for them. It’s a great conversation.
Specifically they unpack:
- The history for Tanguy’s involvement in Micromobility and the formation of the company
- What problem they were trying to solve when they...
2022-03-1736 min
Ride AI132: The story of Gogoro and Battery Swapping with CEO and founder Horace LukeThis week we’re releasing the interview of Rebecca Bellan from Techcrunch interviewing Gogoro CEO and cofounder Horace Luke at our recent Micromobility World event. Horace is an OG of Micromobility and very similar to our Horace Dediu in that he came from mobile as well, and then sought to apply the advancements in tech to transport.
Gogoro aspires to build a battery swapping infrastructure that will power millions of micromobility users from Berlin to Hangzhou everyday. Rebecca gets the inside story of the Taiwanese battery-swapping company in a depth hasn't been captured before—and conveniently, right on the eve of t...
2022-03-0350 min
Ride AI131: The story of Bird with CEO Travis VanderZanden and Horace DediuThis week we release the interview that Horace did with Bird CEO/founder Travis VanderZanden at Micromobility World conference from January 2022. It was his first public appearance since Bird went public late last year and it is an instantly iconic exchange between two of the industry’s most important figures - Travis who catalyzed dockless electric scooters at Bird in California back in 2017 and Horace who coined the term micromobility. Travis and Horace discuss mega trends in micromobility and why, in their view, the industry still hasn’t produced a bike or scooter as impactful as the iPhone.
Specifically they dig...
2022-02-2537 min
Ride AI130: Revisiting the Exploding demand for Delivery Worker Micromobility with Mina Nada of ZoomoThis week Oliver interviews Mina Nada, CEO of Zoomo (formerly Bolt Bikes, featured on episode 66), about their business leasing ebikes to delivery gig workers like UberEATS/Deliveroo/DoorDash in the UK, US and Australia. The business has massively expanded in the last 18 months, and Mina has managed to drive a lot of that growth remotely while he’s been locked down in Australia. It’s an awesome story - don’t miss it.
Specifically, they dig into:
- for the uninitiated, a brief background on the story of Bolt Bikes and now Zoomo, and why electric bikes are compelling for delive...
2022-02-0241 min
Ride AI129: A Modicum of Transport with Horace DediuThis week Oliver joins Horace to talk about his latest blogpost about his new transport metric - A Modicum of Transport. Developing new metrics is in some ways a provocation to remap how we thinks of new things, and change the framework for how the incumbents are viewed. This is no different. Like the horsepower before it, or the byte or Monthly Active User, we are trying to develop new nomenclature, metrics and ratios that sit around this phenomenon called Micromobility. They discuss the name, and would love your feedback on the concept, especially if there’s a name that yo...
2021-12-2849 min
Ride AI128: What COP26 Missed with Horace DediuThis week Oliver interviews Horace about his latest research on climate and micromobility, and his reflections on the recent COP26 meeting in Glasgow. Specifically, they dig into why micromobility wasn’t more prominently featured in the potential solutions provided by groups like the IEA, and how that matches up to the disruptive innovation framework.
Specifically they get into:
- His new research and modelling into the climate action opportunity that micromobility presents
- The new IEA report and it’s reliance on new technology that they haven’t identified, and why Horace believes it will come from micromobility (link to summar...
2021-12-1444 min
Ride AI127: Talking about the Vanmoof V and proprietary supply chains with Ties CarlierIn today’s episode, Oliver interviews Ties Carlier, the co-CEO and cofounder of Vanmoof to talk about the new Vanmoof V, which is one of the most beautiful ebikes at Micromobility Industries have ever seen and is due to drop next year. It’s a lot faster and more powerful than anything they’ve done before, and this was a great chat about that design decision and why Ties thinks we need to get more creative and lateral in how we think about what micromobility vehicles can do and should be regulated. Ties is based in Taiwan, which manufactures most of the...
2021-11-3044 min
Ride AI126: The Global Moped Sharing Report 2021 update with Enrico Howe and Alex Gmelin of INVERSThis week Oliver interviews Enrico Howe and Alex Gmelin from Invers (@Inversmobility) about the 2021 Global Moped Sharing Report. Oliver interviewed Enrico on the show in episode 52 for the 2019 version and it was great to have him back and get an update two years later on about the state of moped sharing globally. It included some incredible and crazy stats – the mopeds sharing industry has transitioned to electric at a dizzying pace in the last two years. We’re looking forward to hearing commentary about it on Twitter - please drop us a line at @MicromobilityCo, @oliverbruce and @asymco.
Specifically they dig...
2021-11-1943 min
Ride AI125: The future of shared micromobility with Ben Bear, CEO of SpinThis week we’re releasing another interview from the Micromobility America conference. Laura Bliss from Bloomberg interviews Ben Bear, CEO of Spin (and guest on MM episode 73), about where sharing is going next after a COVID 19 put the brakes on it. Spin is one of the more interesting companies with the relatively crowded shared Micromobility field being owned by Ford, and pursuing a slow and steady strategy focussed around things like charging infrastructure. It’s a great discussion.
Specifically they dig into:
- The challenges that COVID-19 has posed to the industry
- What of the big problems - regulatory, unit...
2021-11-1216 min
Ride AI124: Dance: an ebike built for subscription with CEO Eric Quidenus-WahlforssThis week Oliver interviews Eric Qwidwenus-Wahlforss, Founder and CEO of Dance. When we first heard that the founders of SoundCloud had got into electric bikes we wondered how does the world of software paralleled across to the world of hardware and electric bikes. But Eric puts up a convincing argument and Dance has made a splash with their launch. This is a great conversation about the nature of how the industry has changed over time and how the business model of micromobility parallels to a lot of other subscription Internet businesses.
Specifically, they dig into:
* The backstory to Dance, including...
2021-11-0834 min
Ride AI123: Andrew Yang and the future of politics, transport and micromobilityThis week we’re releasing the first of the content from the recent Micromobility America conference. In this interview, Lauren Goode from Wired interviews Andrew Yang who was one of the headline speakers.
Lauren and Andrew talk about Forward, his new American political party, before moving on to talk about role of micromobility in the future of transport. It’s a great conversation and we in the team really appreciate it when politicians have such progressive takes and are willing to embrace technology in transport like this.
Specifically they dig into:
- Andrew’s new political party, Forward, and why its im...
2021-10-3032 min
Ride AI122: The urbanist-micromobility conversation with Gabe KleinThis week Oliver interviews one of his heroes in the urbanist space, Gabe Klein. Gabe has successfully managed to successfully operate in both the private and public sectors, as one of the first execs at Zipcar, helping form the company that became Car2Go and then was appointed head of DOT in both Washington DC and Chicago. He has a great grounding in the space and understands what works and what doesn’t in cities giving him great perspective of what micromobility offers to the cities and urban transport conversation. It was a wonderful conversation - more like a catch up...
2021-10-1356 min
Ride AI121: Micromobility in the Middle East and Asia Jaideep Dhanoa of Fenix (ex Circ and Grab)This week Oliver interviews Jaideep Dhanoa, Founder and CEO of Fenix, about his experience within the micromobility industry across Asia and the Middle East. Jaideep is an absolute OG of the space. They talk about his experiences with the Chinese bikeshare boom while at Grab, his move back to the Middle East with Circ and now his efforts with Fenix. They talk Turkey which is a market that hasn’t been on the radar till now, but could well become the next Paris or Seoul. It's a great conversation and they really hope you enjoy as much as they did.
Spe...
2021-10-0445 min
Ride AI120: The Mobility Disruption Framework with Olaf SakkersHey team, this week Oliver interviews Olaf Sakkers about his new book, Mobility Disruption Framework. Olaf is one of the General Partners at Redblue Capital, a new mobility venture investment firm that he founded. Prior to this, he was at Maniv Mobility for 6 years with Michael Granoff, a friend of Micromobility Industries and a previous guest on the podcast. This is one of our favourite episodes. Olaf’s work feels seminal, which is always a good place to start from. It covers a lot of the same ideas covered on this podcast all in one, coherent and cogent framework, and he...
2021-09-151h 01
Ride AI119: Battery Systems and Business Models with Horace DediuThis week Oliver interviews Horace about his recent thoughts on the impact of lithium ion batteries on power tools and how the market and products have developed. He also spawns a new framework: batteries we carry, batteries that carry us and batteries that carry themselves. It’s Horace at his best - riffing and letting his brain do what it does.
In the meantime, make sure that you get your tickets for Micromobility America, the world’s largest summit devoted to small electric vehicles. It returns to the SF Bay Area on September 23, 2021 for an immersive, in-person gathering. The team are h...
2021-09-0442 min
Ride AI118: China’s automobility, micromobility and more with Michael Dunne from Zozogo/Winning in AsiaToday Oliver interviews Michael Dunne, founder of Zozogo, former VP of JD Power in China, GM of General Motors Indonesia and host of the Winning in Asia podcast which covers the auto sector in China. Mike has a huge depth of experience in China, which is an area that the team haven’t covered as much as we’d like on this show. The conversation gave rise to a lot of discussions about the lay of the land in the Chinese auto sector, the role of the Chinese auto sector in Micromobility and how micromobility will need to change to see...
2021-08-2353 min
Ride AI117: The most micro of micromobility - the Onewheel founder, Kyle DoerksenToday Oliver interviews Kyle Doerksen, founder/CEO of Onewheel, about the companies journey. Kyle has been in the space since the very beginning and epitomises the builder mentality - having tinkered with lots of components back in the late 2000’s to build his first prototypes. They also talk a lot about funding and manufacturing as OneWheel has taken quite a different approach to others in the space in the USA. This video is also up as a Youtube video, complete with images of the vehicle as well.
Specifically, they dig into:
* The origins of Onewheel/Kyle’s background and motivation for...
2021-08-0439 min
Ride AI116: Lessons from the first Micromobility IPO with Erdem Ovacik, CEO of Donkey RepublicToday, Oliver interviews Erdem Ovacik, CEO of Donkey Republic, the first shared micromobility player to go public globally. Donkey Republic is listed on the Nasdaq First North exchange in the Nordics. It’s a great discussion about how the market has evolved, and why they see increasingly tight cooperation with governments being the next phase of shared market developments.
Specifically, they dig into:
- the backstory of Donkey, including where the name came from and the development of the bikeshare market in Europe
- Donkey’s unique approach of being both an operator and SaaS business and the economics of the va...
2021-07-0939 min
Ride AI115: The Premier Foldable Electric Bikes - Richard Thorpe, CEO of GoCycleThis week Oliver interviews Richard Thorpe, CEO of Gocycle. Gocycle are the world’s premier electric folding bike manufacturer, and Richard has been at the game longer than most, starting to work on the project back in the early 2000’s. In this episode, they dig into the history of the company, why folding matters in a multimodal future, and the importance of vehicle weight.
Specifically:
- Richard’s background at Mclaren and how that informed his view on weight
- The challenge of building an electric bike company in the 2000s
- What matters for consumers, and how that informs how th...
2021-06-1548 min
Ride AI114: Disrupting Telco Infrastructure with Amir Haleem, CEO of Helium and Horace DediuThis week, Oliver and Horace interview Amir Haleem, CEO of Helium, about the rise of distributed telco infrastructure. This was originally recorded for the Critical Path, but given that Amir has been a guest on the podcast in the past and there’s a direct link between what they’re building and low cost connectivity for micromobility, we wanted to share here as well.
If you’re interested in Helium and wondering how it sits within the telecommunication industry business model, this is a great episode.
Specifically they dig into:
- The Helium model for telco and what problem they were t...
2021-06-0656 min
Ride AI113: The low-end Chinese EV explosion with Lavender Au and Nat BullardThis week we’re releasing an audio version of the recent Micromobility Membership webinar on low end micromobility that Oliver did with reporter Lavender Au and Nat Bullard, Head of Content at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. They discuss Lavender’s lauded RestofWorld article on low end micromobility in China. In lieu of full-size cars, Chinese commuters are flocking to tiny alternatives that look and perform more like golf carts or rickshaws than Teslas. In 2019, these low-cost, low-speed vehicles actually outsold traditional electric cars by 2 to 1.
It’s a great discussion about how the sector these lightweight electric vehicles in China have em...
2021-05-2850 min
Ride AI112: How Micromobility Can Save The WorldIn celebration of Earth Day 2021, Oliver interviews Horace about his latest project - looking at the carbon emissions in the transport sector and modelling the pathways for the current options. You can probably imagine where they get to, but they don’t want to spoil the show.
This is still a work in progress, and they are putting this out as a primer so that folks may understand the narrative arc, and the background/context of why Horace is looking at this.
Specifically they look at:
- The math of emissions, and why transport is hard
- The lifecycles of ve...
2021-04-231h 16
Ride AI111: Making Micromobility Heavy with Mark Frohnmayer of ArcimotoBetween COVID work stoppages, a massive stock surge, a strategic tech acquisition, partnering with legendary automotive engineer Sandy Munro, and the general fits and starts of pre-production, Arcimoto, maker of semi-enclosed electric three-wheelers, has had an eventful year. This week Oliver interviews their CEO, Mark Frohnmayer, to shed light on the company’s manufacturing progress and long-term ambitions—and why he believes heavy micromobility is vital to the future of electric vehicles.
This is the audio version of the video from the Micromobility Show on Youtube. Check out the link to the video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTzO...
2021-04-2144 min
Ride AI110: The first shared micromobility company on the Nasdaq - Salvatore Palella from HelbizThis week Oliver brings you an exclusive interview with Salvatore Palella, CEO of Helbiz, which is about to list on the NASDAQ as the first shared micromobility player to go public globally. It’s a fascinating conversation about the current state of the market, how valuations are reached in the SPAC space, and what possibilities are enabled for micromobility by the public markets.
Specifically, they dig into:
- Salvatore’s background, including as one of the youngest professional football club owners in Europe.
- The origin story through to the current state of Helbiz, including where they started, how they oper...
2021-04-0940 min
Ride AI109: How camera-based positioning changes micromobility with Jameson Detweiler from FantasmoThis week, Oliver interviews Jameson Dietweiler, CEO of Fantasmo.
Fantasmo has been around since 2014 to build maps for machines, and has been working specifically on micromobility since the earliest days in 2017. With the recent announcement that they’ve partnered with Tier to roll out an innovative phone based parking verification technology Oliver was excited to have a chance to bring them on the show. They use camera based positioning to better locate vehicles like scooters and ebikes in cities where often GPS is an insufficeint technology to provide highly accurate location data.
They talk about the pivots that the company ha...
2021-04-0639 min
Ride AI108: The Magic of Operational Optimization - More Rides, More Money with Joseph Brennan of ZobaThis week, Oliver interview Joseph Brennan, co-founder of Zoba, an analytics company working on optimizing micromobility operations. It’s a pretty nerdy topic, but the topline is that their clients have seen up to 74% more rides per scooter simply from operational tweaks that Joseph and the team have suggested. As micromobility operations get more sophisticated and cities get stricter on operators and rule enforcement, services like what Zoba offers will become even more important.
This was originally published as a video on our Youtube channel. Check it out here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ipNkpCEN4.
Specifically, they dig in...
2021-03-2942 min
Ride AI107: Unpacking a Scooter Like No Other - Carson Brown, Co-Founder of TAUR ScootersWe're excited to bring you this interview with Carson Brown, co-founder of TAUR Scooters who are building one of the best designed and coolest looking scooters we've seen on the market. With their team based in London, it’s an excellent discussion about the role of design in micro, and why these new vehicles reflect the culture and environment that they’re designed in. We really hope that you enjoy it.
This was originally a Youtube video for Micromobility Industries - if you’re keen to check that out, check out the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elwybg1V...
2021-03-2045 min
Ride AI106: The Trillion Dollar QuestionThis week, Oliver interviews Horace about the ‘Trillion Dollar Question’. With Arcimoto (who we’ve covered on episode 46) hitting a $1b market cap, and the recent article from RestofWorld covering the rise of low end Chinese micro-EV’s, we wanted to circle back to the question of what will heavy micromobility - those vehicles in the 50-500kg category - look like and why could they be where we find the defining vehicles of our time.
Specifically we cover:
- A quick summary of Horace’s research into carbon emission modelling for micromobility (more to come on this soon!)
- How Horace...
2021-03-1646 min
Ride AI105: Benedict Evans and Horace Dediu discuss MicromobilityThis week, we release the first of the many incredible sessions from the 2021 Micromobility World conference, wherein Benedict Evans and Horace Dediu discussed the disruptive potential of micromobility. It was an incredible conversation between two people who clearly have a lot of time and are excited by each others ideas. We hope you enjoy it!
Specifically they dig into:
- Why Benedicts background as a historian makes him a great analyst.
- The micromobiltiy disruption thesis - low end, the asymmetric nature of unbundling trips (market for vehicles vs. market for miles), the role of fun/enjoyment, speed of interaction
...
2021-02-0647 min
Ride AI104: Apple C(ar)mputer - why Apple should be thinking micromobility, not automobilityOn this episode, Horace joins Oliver on the show to talk about what an entry by Apple into the mobility market would look like, and why a car is perhaps the wrong form factor to be looking at. They talk through the growth prospects for micromobility, and why Apple’s entry into the market would be a meaningful contribution to the world of mobility.
This is on the back of Horace’s post ‘Apple Computer’ published on the Micromobility Industries blog recently. Check it out here: https://micromobility.io/blog/2021/1/11/apple-computer
Specifically they dig into:
- The parts of the upcoming...
2021-01-2458 min
Ride AI103: The world's largest micromobility market with Alan Jiang, founder of BeamFun fact: Seoul, South Korea is the largest market for shared scooters globally, and Beam is one of the largest players there.
This week, Oliver interviews Alan Jiang, founder of Beam, the largest shared Micromobility operator in Asia-Pacific. Asia is one of the hotspots for micromobility given its home to the majority of the world’s population experiencing the growth, density and ensuing urban congestion where micromobility really thrives. We’re very excited to cover more of it in 2021. Alan has a great view over the market and it's nuances.
Speciflcally they dig into:
- Alan’s background at Uber and th...
2021-01-1646 min
Ride AI102: Micromobility Supply Chains, Distribution and Maintenance with Puneeth Meruva of Trucks VCToday on the show, Oliver interviews Puneeth Meruva, Associate at Trucks VC about their latest report: The Three Axes of Micromobility: Supply Chains, Distribution and Maintenance about the often unseen world of getting Micromobility into the hands of consumers. This is a topic that hasn’t received much coverage to date, so it was a fascinating conversation fully of nitty-gritty and relatively technical details about the opportunities for development and investment in the micromobility ecosystem.
Specifically they dig into:
- a recap of Trucks VC, their thesis and other portfolio companies in the Micromobility space
- Puneeths background and how he...
2021-01-0858 min
Ride AI101: Aiding the micromobility buyers journey with cofounders of RidepandaThis week Oliver interviews Chinmay Malaviya and Charlie Depman, cofounders of Ridepanda, about their efforts to build a better customer journey for purchasing owned micromobility. The platform is relatively new, but it hits on a very relevant need. Thanks to Reilly Brennan from Trucks VC for putting us onto them.
Specifically we dig into:
- Their backgrounds at Bird, Scoot and Lime and how that led them to starting this business.
- The core customer needs that they’re trying to solve
- The importance of trusted reviews and reliable servicing for customers
- What matters to customers, and why br...
2020-12-1757 min
Ride AI100: A retrospectiveThis week, Horace joins Oliver for the podcasts 100th episode, and they run through what’s happened in the last 2 and a half years, and wonder aloud what will happen in the next two.
Specifically they dig into:
- Horace’s early theses
- The emergence of scooters and why they proved to be so challenging to Horace’s ideas about what vehicles would be most popular
- The biggest mistake that Horace thinks he made in his early theories
- What Oliver considers the biggest barriers, and where he over and underestimated progress over the last 2 years
- Where they e...
2020-12-101h 08
Ride AI99: The biggest micromobility subscription service out there - Richard Burger, co-founder of SwapfietsThis week Oliver interviews Richard Burger, co-founder of Swapfiets, the largest bike subscription service in Europe. With more than 220,000 subscriptions and growing rapidly, it’s a great discussion on solving the job-to-be-done for biking/micromobility, as well as the challenges and opportunities of operating large service business at scale across 6 (soon to be 7) countries.
Specifically, they cover:
- The context of the existing bike ownership experience in the Netherlands that gave rise to paying 16 euros a month to rent a bike.
- The origins of Swapfiets, and the genius marketing decision to use a blue-front wheel to make the bike’s id...
2020-12-0442 min
Ride AI98: The rapid growth of Europe's Bolt with head of micromobility, Dmitri PivovarovThis week Oliver interviews Dmitri Pivovarov from Bolt Mobility, which is one of the largest ride hailing players in Europe, and has been quietly building a micromobility business which recently announced it was expanding to challenge Tier as the largest micromobility operator in Europe in 2021. Oliver uses this episode to dig into the interplay between ride hailing and micromobility, how Bolt has built the business, and get an update on the overall shared micrombobility market in Europe. It’s a great interview.
Specifically, they dig into:
- The history of Bolt Mobility, and it’s origins as Taxify
- Clarify that...
2020-11-2749 min
Ride AI97: The magic of children, and why disruption has less to do with competence than business modelsToday Oliver interviews Horace for a fun review of the parallels between the smartphone revolution and what we’re seeing play out with the growth of lightweight electric vehicles trips. It’s also a hilarious chance to hear Horace talk about how we think about fostering children as a species and ask why the same thinking isn’t applied to how we run organisations and products.
Specifically they dig into:
- The history of the smartphone industry, and why business model rather than competence dictated the fall of Nokia.
- Discuss the importance of understanding the framing of job-to-be-done and why th...
2020-11-201h 04
Ride AI96: Heavy-duty micromobility - the story of Ubco with CEO Timothy AllanThis week Oliver interviews a fellow kiwi, Timothy Allan, CEO of Ubco, about their heavy duty electric motorbikes. While the firm is small - they’ve sold a bit more than a thousand units across NZ, Europe and the US - it ticks a few interesting disruptive innovation boxes, mainly by meeting the customers core needs in very specific ways through improved reliability and then creating new jobs to be done in the form of silent transport and portable power packs that change the basis of competition against other ICE options.
Specifically, they dig into:
- The history of the Ubco...
2020-11-1351 min
Ride AI95: Why low-cost, low-bandwidth data will unlock micromobility's potential with Amir Haleem, CEO of HeliumThis week Oliver interviews Amir Haleem, the CEO of Helium, about Peoples Network, which promises ubiquitous coverage and data costs of $1/year to connect a Micromobility vehicle. Oliver has been incredibly excited about what they’re up to for a while, and so welcomed the opportunity to sit down and unpack what they’re doing and why it’s transformational.
Specifically, they dig into:
- The history of Helium and the importance of permissionless innovation.
- What is LoRaWan and why does it matter?
- Why does Helium use blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to make their back end system function, and wh...
2020-11-051h 01
Ride AI94: The potential and perils of the electric motorbike industry with COO of Damon Motorbikes, Derek DorresteynThis week Oliver interviews Derek Dorresteyn, COO of Damon Motorcycles. Derek previously worked at Boosted and was the CTO at Alta Motorbikes, one of the first electric motorbike manufacturers globally. They do a whistle stop tour of the electric motorbike space, including why it’s so hard, what we’ve collectively learnt and Dereks predictions on the space. Derek has been around the space for a long time and thinking about the challenges longer than most.
Specifically they dig into:
⁃ Derek’s history in motorbike racing and eventually setting up a machine shop business.
⁃ His early forays into electric motorbike after read...
2020-10-301h 02
Ride AI93: Reviewing the Origins of Micromobility As a Disruptive ForceHorace rejoins Oliver on the podcast to revisit the original reasons that Horace started looking at micromobility, and identified it as a disruptive innovation. It covers the context of the research that he was doing at the time, and why it meets the theoretical and anecdotal indicators that it’s going to change the way that we think about transport.
Specifically we dig into:
⁃ Horace’s research into the auto market, and why he didn’t think that the shared, electric autonomy that was all hype in 2014-16 was going to deliver on it’s disruptive potential.
⁃ Why only when asking quest...
2020-10-231h 09
Ride AI92: A Heavy Micromobility Update (plus, is Tesla actually disruptive?)This week Oliver is joined by Horace for an update and discussion on heavy micromobility, including a recent video interview of Sandy Munro, the automotive engineering guru, and Mark Frohnmayer, CEO of Arcimoto talking about their three wheeled electric auto-cycle [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC2Y6aA67Rk]. Mark has been a guest on the podcast in the past in episode 46 and Micromobility Industries are big fans of what they’re doing. Finally, they circle back on the age old question of whether Tesla is conforming to disruptive innovation theory.
Specifically, they dig into:
- How Arcimoto is co...
2020-10-0856 min
Ride AI91: The second mover advantage manifest: talking to Paul Steely White of LINK/SuperPedestrianToday Oliver interviews Paul Steely White, head of Policy at Link by Superpedestrian. We had Assaf Bidermaan, the CEO of Superpedestrian on last year to talk about their new scooter, but that was before they launched Link and recently won one of the Seattle scooter permits. The second mover advantage in this space continues to become clearer and it was great to dig into this. Paul has been around the micromobility/bike advocacy traps a long time first at Transportation Alternatives, then Bird and now Link, and like many others we’ve had on, is a bit of an OG of...
2020-10-0152 min
Ride AI90: Micromobility's Sweetspot - talking Electric Rickshaws in India with ThreeWheelsUnited CEO, Cedrick TandongIn one of his favourite interviews to date, Oliver interviews Cedrick Tandong, CEO of ThreeWheelsUnited, a electric rickshaw or tuktuk financing and operations company based in Bangalore, India. With over 3000 tuktuks on the road, partnerships with the largest local manufacturers, Uber partnership and more, Cedrick and the team have found the sweet spot for Micromobility in what is a fascinating local niche.
Specifically they dig into:
* What is ThreeWheelsUnited and the multiple sides of the business - vehicle supply, financing, tech platform for payments and operations.
* Cedricks background and how he ended up going from Cameroon to France to India.
...
2020-09-1655 min
Ride AI89: The fascinating, undiscovered world of the GBFS micromobility data formatsMicromobility data standards are the rails new micromobility juggernauts will be built on.
In this episode, Oliver interviews Sam Herr, Executive Director of North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA), and Heidi Gennin, Shared Mobility Product Manager at Mobility Data, about the Generalized Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS) data format.
Admittedly, it sounds dry, and yet, it’s a fascinating episode, with Heidi and Sam doing a great job explaining both what it is and why something as simple as a data format can supercharge the development of non-car transportation in our cities.
Specifically they dig into:
- What is a Data format an...
2020-09-1048 min
Ride AI88: Revisiting High-End Shared Micromobility - The Bond Model with CEO, Raoul StöckleExciting episode today with Oliver interviewing Raoul Stöckle, CEO of Bond. Horace and Oliver originally interviewed Corinne Vogel, their COO on as one of the first interviews in 2018 when the company was Smide, but with the recent announcement of a partnership with FreeNow and launches in a number of new cities in Europe, it was time to have them on again to discuss how their approach of high end shared Micromobility is going and why it’s different.
Specifically:
- The Bond model of high end Micromobility and why they chose that strategy
- How and why they decided to...
2020-09-0351 min
Ride AI87: Talking subscriptions and premium brands with David Hyman, CEO of Unagi ScootersThis week Oliver interviews David Hyman, CEO of Unagi Scooters about their new subscription service, Unagi All Access, as well as a wider discussion about the state of owned micromobility and the vehicles therein. It’s a great conversation - David’s got a great perspective on the industry, backed up with studies commissioned from the Haas Business School about the opportunity for scooters beyond just renting them via shared schemes like Lime and Bird. Hope you enjoy!
Specifically, they dig into:
- A quick review of Unagi scooters and their history as a premium ‘iPhone of scooters’ brand
- Why Unag...
2020-08-2750 min
Ride AI86: Measuring Micromobility and Talking HypercarsThis week Horace returns with Oliver for a great discussion about why what we measure in micromobility, and transport in general, matters so much. They also dig into the recent announcement of the T50 supercar from Gordon Murray, and explain why they, two micromobiltiy nerds, got so excited about a preposterously expensive car.
Specifically they dig into:
- The history of the rise and fall of infrastructures
- Why what we measure about transport - be it track length, unit sales, passenger kilometres or trips - determine how we think about planning, infrastructure spending, and all of these second order...
2020-08-201h 00
Ride AI85: The Dott Model - talking European micromobility with co-founders Maxim Romain and Henri MoissinacThis week Oliver interviews Henri Moissinac and Maxim Romain, co-founders of Dott. Dott are interesting - they’ve done things differently since they launched, kept their head down and stayed relatively unknown in wider micromobility circles. That is until they won the tender for Paris and Lyon recently, and asserted themselves as a player to really be taken seriously in the Pan-European micromobility landscape.
In this interview they talk about:
- The origins of Dott, and Roman and Henri’s history together at Ofo
- The landscape to date for both funding and city tenders, and why Dott’s slow and st...
2020-08-1347 min
Ride AI84: Designing cities for Micromobility with Skye Duncan, Global Designing Cities Initiative at NACTOThis week Oliver interviews Skye Duncan, a fellow Kiwi who has gone on to lead the Global Designing Cities Initiative at the National Association of City Transportation Officials. Skye is a wealth of knowledge about how infrastructure and space allocation decisions get made on streets around the world, and how micromobility can impacts those habitats to achieve transport outcomes. It was a great conversation - they both really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too.
Specifically they dig into:
* Skye’s background and journey from New Zealand, via Columbia and working with Mayor Bloomberg to heading the Global Designing Ci...
2020-08-061h 01
Ride AI83: The War On Cars - Talking with Doug GordonThis week we releasing a recent conversation between Oliver and Doug Gordon from the popular War on Cars podcast that we did as a Micromobility Membership (TripleM) webinar. Philosophically aligned, Oliver and Doug talk about COVID, urbanism and the intersection of infrastructure and technology. This was a fun conversation.
Specifically they dig into:
- What we’re seeing globally and in NYC in response to the COVID epidemic.
- How much (or not) COVID is an opportunity to further the micromobility agenda, both with local and national level programmes for infrastructure
- Oliver reveals some of the details of the re...
2020-07-3057 min
Ride AI82: The biggest bikeshare in America - talking with Laura Fox, Lyft's General Manager for Citi Bike in New YorkThis week Oliver interviews Laura Fox, Lyft's General Manager for Citi Bike in New York. Laura has an incredible background with stints in Qatar, working on Mexico cities planning regulations, time at Sidewalk Labs, and as editor for one of the best books on urban planning and economics we’ve found, Order by Design by Alain Bertaud, all of which is discussed, before digging in to the nitty gritty details of Citibike in NYC.
This was a great episode - Laura is an amazing thinker and you’ll get a lot out of listening to her.
Specifically we dig into:
- an...
2020-07-231h 07
Ride AI81: Markets for Trust - why blockchains matter with Horace Dediu and Anders BrownworthSomething a bit different this week. Horace and Oliver host Anders Brownworth, co-host of the Critical Path, to talk about crypto, blockchains and markets for trust. Anders’ background working in telecom, finance and then crypto (developing USDC and now working at the Federal Reserve) give him a unique perspective. As Horace, Oliver and he break down what programmable trust can mean for markets, government and society.
This came out of a discussion following a Micromobility podcast recording talking about Apple was functioning as an arbiter of trust with all its new key and payment building blocks, and how ‘trust’ carries a mark...
2020-07-161h 15
Ride AI80: Decarbonizing Transport with Andrew Salzberg, Loeb Fellow and former Head of Transportation Policy at UberThis week Oliver interviews Andrew Salzberg, former head of Transportation Policy at Uber, and now a Loeb Fellow at Harvard about his work in radically decarbonising transport. Oliver worked with Andrew at Uber, and he’s been thinking about the intersection between climate, transportation and technology longer than most. It’s a great conversation touching on the challenge ahead and opportunities that abound.
Specifically, they dig into:
- his work at TfL, the World Bank and Uber and then now, focussing on decarbonising transport.
- the challenges and opportunities for decarbonising the transport sector, and where Micromobility might be able to h...
2020-07-0958 min
Ride AI79: The agile incumbent: talking e-bikes with Ian Kenny and Chris Yu of SpecializedThis week, Oliver interviews Chris Yu, Chief Product & Innovation Officer and Ian Kenny, global marketing for the Turbo e-bike brand at Specialized. They talk about how incumbent bike manufacturers are thinking of electrification, how that’s changing how the company is thinking about the job-to-be-done for their customers and what role companies like Specialized can play in the discussion to push Micromobility forward.
Specifically, they dig into:
- what differentiates the Specialized brand in terms of positioning, company ownership structure and customer type.
- how their full stack approach, paired with their scale, compares to the rest of the bike in...
2020-07-021h 02
Ride AI78: Products vs Platforms: the end of the Segway and the start of Apple in MicromobilityThis week Horace joins Oliver to talk about the news that Segway has ended production of the PT and the new announcements from Apple and how they pertain to Micromobility. They also trial a news segment at the beginning of the show.
Specifically they dig into:
- What didn’t work about the Segway, and comparable failures in history
- The risks of over engineering products without feedback or specifically only asking for feedback from B2B customers when trying to build a general appeal product.
- The innovations required to take the promise of the Segway to what we se...
2020-06-251h 04
Ride AI77: Talking the future of Mobility-As-A-Service with Jake Sion, COO of TransitThis week Oliver interviews Jake Sion, COO of Transit. We talk micromobility, mobility as a service and the interplay between the two as well as the wider mobility landscape and how software can infuse intelligence into it. After last weeks’ discussion on Adwords, Google maps and mobility, it’s a topical discussion.
Specifically, they cover:
- Transit - what they do, services they integrate with, number of cities, and who they consider their customers.
- How Jake sees the landscape for mobility as a service developing
- The Transit UI starts with the question ’where are you going?’. They talk through t...
2020-06-1849 min
Ride AI76: Ebikes, Maps and Adword DystopiaThis week Horace joins Oliver for a discussion about ebikes and the state of micromobility, including which potential other potential players might want to get into the industry. This leads to a discussion about the job-to-be-done of maps, and Horace’s dystopian warning that they will end up as the browser of the mobile era.
Specifically they dig into:
- How e-bike sales have been doing during COVID
- The current structure of the industry for standard bikes and ebikes, including where the margins are
- How this mom-and-pop style industry parallels the early days of the PC industry
- A...
2020-06-121h 02
Ride AI75: A trip down memory lane with Jump founder, Ryan RzepeckiThis week we share a recent TripleM webinar where Oliver interviews Ryan Rzepecki. Ryan was the founder of Jump which sold to Uber and as of a few weeks ago, was sold to Lime. Ryan is a wealth of knowledge and understands this space inside and out. It’s a great discussion.
Specifically, they dig into:
- The Social Bike / Jump journey story including how it started, pivoted and what Ryan learnt along the way
- The behind the scenes story - the highlights, lowlights and things people were not so privy to.
- A discussion of why design was so...
2020-06-051h 06
Ride AI74: Vanmoof Again! - Talking S3/X3 with CEO Taco CarlierToday Oliver interviews Taco Carlier, CEO of Vanmoof, about the recently released S3/X3 bikes and the company’s recent venture fundraise. They’re one of the largest and fastest growing urban bike manufacturers globally, and this was a great discussion about the state of the industry in these tough COVID times.
Specifically they dig into:
- A summary of Vanmoof for those that haven't had a chance to listen to the last podcast, including their brand and design strategy, as well as basic facts about the company.
- How they’re looking at COVID, including a discussion about sales, supply...
2020-05-2858 min
Ride AI73: A Slow and Steady Approach to Micromobility - Ben Bear from SpinThis week Oliver interviews Ben Bear, Chief Business Officer at Spin, the micromobility company backed by Ford and which operate in 65 markets across the US. They dig into their service and how they’re different from others in the industry. It’s a great discussion - Spin really come across as a the tortoise in an industry of hares. With micromobility adoption being a long term prospect their focus on sustainability for what will inevitably be a decades long play is an interesting counter to others in the industry.
Specifically:
* Spin’s approach in COVID-19
* The difference that Spin has in mark...
2020-05-2240 min
Ride AI72: Micromobility, pricing, politics and Friedrich HayekHorace and Oliver have a great discussion on the philosophical underpinnings of price signals going back to Freidrich Hayek and how price works to coordinate activity in society. They discuss how micromobility suffers from market manipulation for its infrastructure and manufacturing and how road space allocation is currently misaligned to how it’s valued as real estate.
It’s Horace at his best - philosophical, paring theory to reality, and giving us all new frameworks to think about how the world works and will change.
Specifically, they dig into:
- The concept of using price signals to allocate resources in soci...
2020-05-1452 min
Ride AI71: Recode's Kara Swisher being interviewed by Felix Salmon on post-car travel/micromobilityOn this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, we publish an episode from the recent Micromobility Membership call where we had Axios Reporter Felix Salmon interview Kara Swisher, Editor at Recode about her pledge to go car-free for a year, and her thoughts about the development of the micromobility space. It’s a great discussion.
Specifically, they dig into:
- Her choice to get rid of a car, and how that’s gone over the last year.
- The challenges of using Micromobility with a young child, and what options she’s considering
- ‘I like to write about directional stuff and I th...
2020-05-0858 min
Ride AI70: Micromobility operations with industry veteran Tarani Duncan - ex-Citibike, Jump and MapboxThis week, Oliver interviews micromobility industry veteran Tarani Duncan about her journey and views on the development of the micromobility industry. She’s a fount of knowledge, and this was a really fun discussion on the history of the space.
Specifically we dig into:
- Her childhood and study in New Orleans, and how that led her to studying transport
- Her early days in operations fixing the early NYC Citibike system
- Joining the team at Social Bicycles, which became Jump, including a discussion about social incentives and the acquisition by Uber.
- Her experience at Mapbox building routing so...
2020-04-3054 min
Ride AI69: The largest micromobility manufacturer in the world - Tony Ho of Segway/NinebotThis week Oliver interviews Tony Ho, VP of Global Business Development for Segway/Ninebot. As the largest Micromobility hardware player globally across a whole heap of different verticals, Tony has a unique perspective on the space and how it’s developing. He’s a Clayton Christensen disciple as well - having studied at Harvard under him, so we get to unpack the theory against the practice of disruptive innovation and why Tony is excited about this space. It’s a great discussion.
Specifically, we dig into:
- Segway’s wide range of products, and how it conforms to our thesis that mic...
2020-04-2447 min
Ride AI68: The connection between antifragility, disuptive innovation and micromobilityThis week Horace joins Oliver to talk about the work of Nassim Taleb - namely, antifragility and asymmetric risk - and what connections there are to disruptive innovation theory and Micromobility. Oliver has wanted to record this episode for a while and it doesn’t disappoint.
Specifically we dig into:
- Taleb’s work and background, explaining concepts such as Black Swans, antifragility, Fat Tony, Skin in the Game, Extremistan vs Mediocristan and intellectual-yet-idiots
- The attraction and danger of polemical thinking
- The importance of understanding if you’re dealing with bounded or unbounded risk probabilities
- How traditional MBA ed...
2020-04-161h 01
Ride AI67: Micromobility Infrastructure - challenges and opportunities with The Transportist, Professor David LevinsonThis week Oliver interviews David Levinson, professor at the University of Sydney and popular blogger at transportist.org. David is not new to the world of talking about transport and disruptive innovation, having joined Horace on Asymcar many years ago. He brings a tempered view to the benefits and challenges of micromobility, including around infrastructure and the decision making timeframes that it typically has.
Specifically, we dig into:
- David’s background and research into toll roads, travel behaviour and urban form.
- Whether David considers micromobilty a substantial new innovation in transport.
- Constraints around deployment of larger vehicle fl...
2020-04-1058 min
Ride AI66: Exploding demand for Delivery Worker Micromobility - Mina Nada of Bolt BikesThis week Oliver interviews Mina Nada, CEO of Bolt Bikes, about their business leasing ebikes to delivery gig workers like UberEATS/Deliveroo/DoorDash in the UK, US and Australia. Given everything happening right now with COVID19 and the explosion in delivery based meal consumptions, this is a great interview.
Specifically, we dig into:
- Mina’s background at Bain, Deliveroo and Mobike, and how that prepared him for Bolt Bikes.
- The unit economics of their business, including 6 month paybacks, 3 year cycles and 66% residual value for depreciated bikes.
- How most markets are still allowing takeaway and delivery during COVID19 lock...
2020-04-0247 min
Ride AI65: Viral Nature: thinking about the impact of coronavirus on micromobility with HoraceThis week, Horace joins Oliver for a discussion about the impact of COVID19 on the world of micromobility, as well as taking questions from Twitter.
Specifically, we cover:
- Horace discusses the work of Nassim Taleb on anti fragility and tail risks, and how that applies to micromobility’s low-end disruption
- Why financial stress, shorter distances being travelled in quarantine areas and the low-cost nature of micromobility position it to do well in the face of this crisis.
- Examining this pandemic in the face of historical challenges like WW2 and earlier pandemics
- The impacts and opportunities faced by...
2020-03-2656 min
Ride AI64: Getting to a Better Place with mobility - Michael Granoff from Maniv MobilityThis week, Oliver interviews Michael Granoff, partner at Maniv Mobility, an early stage investment firm specialising in transport technologies including micromobility. Michael has been around the mobility space a long time, and we had a great discussion about the boom and bust nature of new transport tech.
Specifically, we talk about:
- Michael’s background, his journey through energy security and getting into electrification of mobility, involvement with Better Place, and subsequent founding of Maniv Mobility
- How his thesis has changed over time from electric, to autonomous to micromobility
- Discussion about their existing investments, including Phantom Auto, Bolt Bik...
2020-03-1936 min
Ride AI63: Escalators, Elevators and Stairs, and the Job-to-be-done of micromobilityThis week Horace joins Oliver to riff on a recent mental model for thinking about the job to be done of micromobility, involving escalators, elevators and stairs. It’s Horace at his best - conceptual, funny, insightful as always.
Specifically we cover:
- Which customers pick escalators vs elevators vs stairs, and what insight that might provide to the job to be done of micromobility.
- The importance of ‘earning’ an experience
- Why Horace thinks that customers who climb escalators are the best customers.
- The importance of escalators in the architecture that they enabled.
- How the impact of regul...
2020-03-1255 min
Ride AI62: The latest on the war over micromobility data - a conversation with David ZipperThis week Oliver interviews journalist David Zipper again (following his appearance on Episode 32) about the latest in the war over mobility data that is being played out between cities and shared micromobility operators.
David Zipper is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government, where he examines the interplay between urban policy and new mobility technologies.
From 2013 to 2017 David was the Managing Director for Smart Cities and Mobility at 1776, a global entrepreneurial hub with over 1,300 member startups and is still a Partner in the 1776 Seed Fund and consults with startups including Optibus...
2020-03-0938 min
Ride AI61: Scooter parking - a missing part of the puzzle with Colin Roche from SwiftmileThis week Oliver interviews Colin Roche from Swiftmile. Shared scooters cluttering up the streets is one of these things that have largely been discounted in the hype of the recent explosion of these new vehicles. The Swiftmile team build scooter parking infrastructure and in this episode with Colin, Oliver’s initial skepticism is assuaged as he learns of the importance of the work that they’re doing in the ecosystem. This conversation really enlightening, and I really hope that you do to.
Specifically we dig into:
- the history of Swiftmile and how they got into making ‘the gas stations of the...
2020-02-2835 min
Ride AI60: How does micromobility conform to disruptive innovation theory?This week we have a timely episode with Horace being interviewed by Katie Zandbergen on The Disruptive Voice - a podcast produced by The Forum for Growth & Innovation at Harvard business School a few days after the passing of Clay Christensen.
Horace strikes a reflective tone - it’s a great episode that goes into the core of why micromobility is really disruptive assessed against the theory that Clay proposed. For those who are more into the theoretical, this is a wonderful episode.
Specifically, they cover:
- The impact that Clay had on how Horace viewed the world.
- How Ho...
2020-02-2047 min
Ride AI59: Backing the best in micromobility - a conversation with Kevin Talbot, GP of Relay VenturesThis week, Oliver interviews Kevin Talbot (@Talbot), a General Partner at Relay Ventures, a VC firm based between the Bay Area and Toronto, who are investors in Bird, Populus and Bird Canada, among others. It is a great interview with Kevin about how they’re thinking about micromobility investments and the wider context of venture capital in this Softbank dominated world.
Specifically, we dig into:
- how you got into VC/joined Relay Ventures
- His thesis at the firm and why they're interested in micromobility.
- How they work with their portfolio companies, including former podcast guests Regina Clewlow fr...
2020-02-1343 min
Ride AI58: Micromobility from the beginning - a conversation with Sanjay Dastoor, CEO of Skip and co-founder of Boosted BoardsThis week Oliver interviews Sanjay Dastoor, one of the founders of Boosted Boards and subsequently Skip, who operate a shared scooter service in DC. Sanjay has been around this space longer than pretty much anyone, and has a wealth of insight and experience that were a joy to unpack.
Unfortunately, the audio cut a little for Sanjay right at the beginning but we kick off right where it picks up.
Specifically we cover:
- Sanjay's journey as a Micromobility OG starting Boosted Boards and then on to Skip - his original motivations, how your thinking has evolved, and lessons learned...
2020-02-061h 00
Ride AI57: The Trough of Disillusionment - unpacking hype, adoption and fundingThis week, Horace joins Oliver on the podcast to talk about hype cycles, capital formation and transport funding patterns historically, and what we can learn from them about the micromobility space now.
Specifically:
The parallels between the hype cycles for MP3 players, the internet and personal computers vs. micromobility.
The perils of ‘being early’ in large scale technology adoptions.
The history of funding for the auto, railway and canal sectors transport systems, and parallels to micromobility and the infrastructure required.
Why pioneers for traditional transport innovations largely end up with arrows in their back.
Why we’re unlikely to see large scal...
2020-01-3046 min
Ride AI56: Building the Largest Micromobility Player in the World, with Joe Kraus, President of LimeThis week, Oliver interviews Joe Kraus, President of Lime.
Lime are the largest players in the shared micromobility space globally, and this episode has been a long time coming. It was awesome to get Joe on to talk about their history and plans, the state of the industry and business model, regulation, the challenge of climate change and where micromobility can assist. Joe is an awesome guest, and in a world of hype, keeps a very level head about the potential of this space.
This episode is well suited to investors, operators and regulators interested in hearing about why the...
2020-01-2245 min
Ride AI55: At the intersection of regulation and new mobility with Emily Castor Warren of Lime, Lyft and moreThis week, Oliver interviews Emily Castor Warren, one of the first employees at Lyft and then Lime in the policy space. We have an amazing conversation about the history of rideshare and micromobility, especially as it pertains to regulation, and where operators are getting it right and wrong. Emily is currently working with Fontinalis, a VC firm investing the future of mobility. She has some of the deepest experience in the weeds with regulating new mobility, and yet at the same time able to see the massive wider vision of possibility for this. It’s a great interview.
Specifically we di...
2020-01-1447 min
Ride AI54: Unpacking the Impact of Intelligent Micromobility with Superpedestrian CEO, Assaf BidermanIn today’s episode Oliver interviews Assaf Biderman, CEO of [SuperPedestrian](https://superpedestrian.com/), about his background founding the MIT Senseable Cities Lab and then Superpedestrian. Assaf has been thinking about micromobility longer than most anyone we’ve had on the podcast - this was a fun and very illuminating interview.
This conversation convinced Oliver that the ‘intelligence’ that can be infused into micromobility devices has far deeper implications than first thought, especially for driving down operational costs and improving vehicle longevity.
Specifically we dig into:
- The context for why micromobility is such a boon compared to the other transpor...
2020-01-0754 min