Ride AI

Sophia Tung and James Gross
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Jul 20, 2023 • 59min

Why did Vanmoof go under? SF city officials caught lying about traffic collision data, Vela 2 Giveaway and Eli Electric Interview with CEO Marcus Li

We are giving away a Vela 2. To enter to win, subscribe to our channel, comment below, and submit your email here: https://ridereview.com/giveaway/vela-2-giveway Vanmoof goes Poof. Cult ebike brand VanMoof has paused sales and some of its top execs are departing or taking lower roles. The company has yet to release an official statement on the abrupt changes, but sources say that they are trying to secure a bridge round to keep the business afloat. After several bouts of layoffs and lawsuits, US-based D2C ebike seller Rad Power has announced that it will be pulling out of the European market by 2024, opting to focus its efforts entirely on North America. Lectric might have overcome market share in the US…but RadPower does better with accessories and customer repair centers. A comeback in Shared? “We are aiming for sales of $100 million this year.” How Swing's franchise model allowed it to become one of the few profitable shared micromobility companies in the world, with over 100,000 vehicles in South Korea. By contrast, CEO Wayne Ting says Lime’s pathway to profitability involved investing in more durable, modular scooters as well as better technology for operational crews. Won tenders 90% of the time. Amsterdam’s city leaders say they want to see more shared cargo bikes, mopeds, and cars on the street in an effort to reduce car usage. The Truth and Lies About Driverless Cars in SF Garry Tan exposes some wild accusations against the city of San Francisco MTA that appear to be true! Launches Last month on Ride On! We talked to Chris Rey of Apollo Scooters about the fast and powerful Apollo Pro. The innovative new two-wheeler has since launched on Indiegogo, and is receiving rave reviews- check out some here Parkour! BMW just released their new CE 02 electric two-wheeler, which they say is neither an emotorbike or emoped - it's an “eParkourer.” Despite the confusing semantics, its performance capabilities are clear: the CE 02 tops out at respectable 59 mph and claims 55 miles of range. ​ The Brits at The Little Car Company typically deal in downsizing famous cars into small electric vehicles (see Bughatti Baby II). Now they’ve done something of the opposite, taking inspiration from the 1980s Tamiya Wild One RC car and turning the toy into a full-sized 37 horsepower electric dune buggy. The new Ago T ebike is now available from Tenways, which features a comfortable step-through frame as well as an Enviolo Stepless Shifting Hub, a cool feature which allows riders to shift gears while at a stand still. Eli Electric We have Marcus Li, CEO and Founder of Eli Electric Vehilces with us
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Jul 20, 2023 • 40min

192: Electrifying the workplace with Roman Meliska

This week we release another session from the recent Micromobility Europe conference - this one on Electrifying the Workplace - e-bikes as an employee benefit, hosted by none other than podcast superfan and overall mensch Roman Meliska. Roman was joined on stage by folks from the Walmart, the European Cycling Federation, Safran and Zenride to talk about how e-bike as an employee benefit works in different markets, what models exist to incentivise them, the players in the market, and the impact on employees and on the wider company. It’s a great session. Of course, if you like this material, you’ll love Micromobility America, which is coming up on October 19-20th in Richmond in the Bay Area. We’re expecting hundreds of the top thinkers and builders in the space. Please come and join us, and check it out! Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jul 13, 2023 • 33min

191: Ebike Revolution with Cannondale, Cowboy, Vanmoof, Ampler and Lekker

This is this week we are releasing another session from the recent Micromobility Europe which we had in June. This one is the ebike revolution which was hosted by Micah Toll from Electrek who is in our minds one of the best micromobility journalists out there. Please go and check his stuff out if you haven’t already. He was joined on stage by former guests of the podcast Taco Carlier from Vanmoof and Tanguy Goretti from Cowboy, as well as folks from ebike brands Lekker, Cannondale and Ampler which have coverage across Australia, Europe and the US. They talk a lot about the global market and what hasn’t hasn’t worked, especially in the owned bike space. We thought it was a really good discussion and we're stoked to be able to share it. If you like the session you also really like our Micromobility America, which is coming up on the 19th/20th in Richmond in the Bay Area. Come and join the top thinkers and builders in the micromobility space in North America and further afield. And with that, here’s Micah and the team! Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jul 6, 2023 • 48min

190: The exploding world of micromobility-first freight with Finmile CEO Rich Pleeth

This week Oliver managed to catch up with Rich Pleeth while he was passing through London. Rich is the founder of Finmile, a micromobility first freight company in London using four wheeler cargo e-bikes to deliver for companies such as HelloFresh and some very large global companies that unfortunately we can’t name but who Oliver was very impressed with. They are expanding very quickly and have a relevant and replicable model for a lot of cities around the world. We encourage you to particularly listen to the section where we talked about what the model offers in terms of labour and increasing the throughput of deliveries relative to existing encumbrance. It feels to us, very disruptive to the existing freight delivery incumbents. So! Enjoy! Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jun 29, 2023 • 29min

189: Global shared Scooter Operator CEO panel from Micromobility Europe

This week we release another episode from the recent Micromobility Europe event. This one is the shared scooter CEO’s talking about the state of their business which was a very popular session on the Friday. Ben Hubbard From Zag Daily had the leaders from some of the top operators from all over the globe on the stage – we had Henri Moissinac, Dott in Europe, Tomás Martin from Tembici in Latin America, San Kim from Swing in South Korea and Jaideep Dhanoa from Fenix in the Middle East. So! Quite a global coverage, and lots of really interesting parallels between all operators. We hope you enjoy this episode! Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jun 22, 2023 • 27min

188: Founder Roundtable: The Rise of Subscription from Micromobility Europe 2023

This week we are releasing a session from our recent Micromobility Europe show held in Amsterdam on June 8/9th. This one is the rise of the subscription panel that was hosted by Jon Woodruff from Twotone with some of the titans of the e-bike sharing world including Eric Quidwenus-Wahlforce, founder of Dance, Karianne Solfjed Eid, from Whee! and Richard Burger from Swapfiets (all of whom we've had on the podcasts) being joined by Teet Praks from Comodule. This was an excellent session covering the dynamics of this part of the industry, what's working and what's not and where these folks think that the industry is going. And with that, here's the panel! Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jun 16, 2023 • 1h 1min

187: Spatial computing and what it means for micromobility with Horace Dediu

This week we have been in Amsterdam at our Micromobility Europe conference and Oliver had the chance to sit down with Horace who had just flown in from seeing the Apple vision pro at the WWDC unveil. We have talked on the show for years about how augmented reality would benefit micromobility, and so we wanted to take this opportunity to unpack a little bit more about what he saw, the idea of special computing, and how it could impact how we think about Mobility. We had an amazing show – our biggest yet, with more than 60 startups pitching in our award series and the most incredible bike rave at the end through the streets of Amsterdam with DJ Dom Whiting. We’ll be sharing more content over the coming weeks but in the meantime, thank you to all who attended and hope that you had a blast. We certainly did. Specifically they dig into: - Horace’s experience of the Vision Pro and why Apple has chosen to make a ‘spatial computer’ - The implications for the general mobility market, and especially the difference between visions of the future based on autonomous or micromobility - Horace’s predictions for spatial computing And with that, here’s Horace. Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jun 8, 2023 • 38min

186: The story of premium two wheeler Cake Motorbikes with founder Stefan Ytterborn

This week Oliver interviewed Stefan Ytterborn, founder and CEO of Cake Motorcycles from Sweden. They’ve emerged as one of the worlds leading motorbike manufacturers, solidly occupying the premium end of the market with very Scandinavian designed versions of electric motorbikes, and a strong focus on both commuters as well as backcountry use cases. Oliver had a chance to ride some of these bikes around Santa Monica when he was doing the tour of Southern California and was really impressed with the pickup and handling of these bikes, especially for someone like him who’s new-ish to motorbikes. In this episode, we dig into the history and how they decided to get into this, as well as design, funding, and their recent deals with producers in both Asia and Mexico. We found this a super interesting episode and hope that you do too. Specifically they discuss: How Cake was founded How they have chosen to focus on design.  How Stefan Stefan has thought about manufacturing and fundraising to over the years.  The recent announcements from Mexico and China of the large volumes of bikes that have been contracted. And with that, here’s Stefan! We're in Amsterdam right now with the whole team for ⁠Micromobility Europe⁠, hosting the Startup Awards. We have over 60 companies presenting and vying for the top spot. So many amazing vehicles and people around. We're looking forward to sharing more of what we find in time. Also, Oliver is going to be at Eurobike in Frankfurt from the 21-24th of June so please ping him a message on Twitter if you’re going to be there too and want to meet up. Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our ⁠https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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Jun 1, 2023 • 54min

185: Subscription-as-a-Service - unpacking a new micromobility business model with Micro OG and Tempo founder Michael Keating

This week we release a discussion with Michael Keating that was recorded when Oliver was passing through San Francisco on the launch day of his new company Tempo. For those who are in the know, Michael Keating is an OG of the Micromobility space, having founded Scoot back in 2012, which was one of the first moped sharing companies before selling it to Bird. Tempo is Michael's latest venture and one we're very excited about, having followed the journey along for a while. We are honoured that he would share this with us on a busy launch day, as they were fielding calls from lots of other journalists, and we really enjoyed this conversation about not only the history of shared Micromobility, but also the current state of things and his efforts to accelerate getting Micromobility into the hands of millions. Specifically the discuss: - Who is Tempo, what do they do? - Why subscription and not sharing? - What makes Tempo different from other subscription micro businesses? We hope you enjoyed as much as we did, and if you are listening to this and would like to come and join us, get your tickets for Micromobility Europe – June 8th and 9th in Amsterdam. Horace will be there along with Oliver and the whole rest of the team and over 1000 thinkers and builders in the space of Micromobility. It will be an absolute blast. And with that here is Michael. Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.
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May 25, 2023 • 54min

184: The story of Onyx Motorbikes with founder Tim Seward and CEO James Khatiblou

We're really excited to share this episode with the team from Onyx Motorbikes who are based in Los Angeles. Oliver visited Onyx in Southern California in January as part of the So Cal Micromobility Tour. They are the winners of this years Rider's Choice Awards for Best Moped. It was great to hear about the story of how they got started and have manage to ship more than 5000 bikes – We have a deep respect for anybody who just manages to ship and get vehicles out. The build a real cult following and I am excited to see where they get to with the new bike range, which they discuss in this episode. Specifically they discuss: - Tims's background as a designer and his work at Bird - The initial design of the Onyx and their first fundraiser - Transitioning from a project to a company and James joining - Their expanding product line and what they are excited about  If you enjoy this conversation, you will also enjoy Micromobility both in Europe and America. We have Europe coming up on June 8 and 9th, and then we have America happening in the Bay Area on the 18th and 19th of October. We will of course be at both. Looking forward to hopefully having some more of you there along with more than 1000 people at both events talking about the latest in Micromobility and lightweight electric vehicles. And with that, here is Tim and James! Catch us on Twitter ⁠⁠@MicromobilityCo⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Horace⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Oliver⁠⁠ are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our https://micromobility.substack.com/⁠⁠ is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We’re also on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

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