Transportation Weekly: Polestar CEO speaks, Tesla terminology, and a tribute

Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch . This is the fourth edition of our newsletter, a weekly jaunt into the wonderful world of transportation and how we (and our packages) move. This week we chat with Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, dig into Lyft’s S-1, take note […]

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Polestar unveils its all-electric response to the Tesla Model 3

Volvo’s standalone electric performance brand Polestar introduced Wednesday its first all-electric vehicle — a five-door fastback that is gunning for the Tesla Model 3. In the past few years, every time an electric vehicle — concept, prototype, or production version — has been unveiled, the term “Tesla killer” has been tossed about regardless of whether […]

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Uber and Lyft race way ahead of car-sharing services

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Hailing a Lyft or Uber has become so normal those companies pretty much have become verbs, kind of like “googling.” But no one is asking, “Wanna Getaround to dinner?” It’s clear car-sharing hasn’t become as popular as ride-hailing, and it may stay that way.

Car-sharing, which involves renting someone else’s car or borrowing a car from a fleet, has some major roadblocks. It’s inherently difficult to get people who already have cars to take someone else’s vehicle. For car-less folks, renting a car means driving yourself — and parking, not drinking, staying focused, following traffic rules, and more.  Read more…

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China’s Didi pumps $1B into its rebranded driver services business

Didi Chuxing is going pedal to the metal for its automobile services business after it announced it will invest $1 billion into the division, which is also getting a rebrand. The Chinese ride-hailing firm had been tipped to spin out the business and raise $1.5 billion from investors ahead of an IPO, according to a recent Reuters […]

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Turo files lawsuit against Los Angeles in car-sharing battle at LAX

Peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace Turo has filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles Airport in a preemptive strike aimed at defending the ability of its users to rent out their personal cars at Los Angeles International Airport. Turo filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. Central District Court of California in Los Angeles. The […]

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Zipcar plans all-electric fleet of over 300 Volkswagens in London

Zipcar is rolling out a fleet of 300 Volkswagen e-Golfs in London this year — in what the company is touting as the largest rollout of electric cars in a single English city. Details from the company are still sketchy, but Zipcar said that the first electric vehicles will be available over the summer, with […]

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Car-sharing startup Turo raises additional $12 million

Peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace Turo has officially closed a $104 million Series D round. This comes following a $12 million investment from Sumitomo Corporation and American Express Ventures, on top of a $92 million raise earlier this year. “As a company that is intensely focused on enabling its customers to have unique travel experiences, American Express’ […]

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BMW and Daimler agree to merge mobility service businesses

It’s been hinted at, but Daimler and BMW are officially bringing together their mobility services business groups into one combined company, with a 50 percent stake owned by each automaker. That means tying up all their on-demand mobility offerings, including car share services Car2Go and DriveNow; ride-hailing like myTaxi, Chauffeur Privé and Clever Taxi; parking […]

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Nvidia’s Jensen Huang cautions patience in judging Uber AV engineers

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang faced a number of questions regarding Uber’s recent self-driving test vehicle accident, in which an SUV equipped with Uber’s autonomous technology struck and killed 49-year old Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona. Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters broke the news that Nvidia was suspending its own autonomous testing programs around the world. Huang […]

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