49: Hardware Standards, Cybertruck and The Autonomy Boondoggle

Today, Horace and Oliver talk about the newly released SAE Micromobility Standards, the Cybertruck announcement and Horace’s latest thoughts on the boondoggle of autonomy. Specifically, they dig into: - Why the new SAE Micromobility standards matter, what they’re competing against and why definitions like this default to lowest common denominators. - The Cybertruck announcement, including discussion about what appears to be a new type of body manufacturing, and the implications of the radical design. Plus, Horace admits to liking it, even if he doesn’t think that the entire category of trucks should exist. - We dig into why Horace believes that autonomy for cars is such a boondoggle, and the implications for wider mobility technology investment and talent. If you’re interested in hearing Horace and Oliver talk in more detail about these issues on exclusive calls plus get discounts on the Micromobility Conference, swag and more, sign up to Triple M here: https://micromobility.io/triple-m Show notes: - SAE Micromobility Standards [https://www.sae.org/news/press-room/2019/11/sae-international-publishes-industry’s-first-standard-for-classification-and-definition-of-powered-micromobility-vehicles] - Cybertruck Coefficient of Drag modelling [https://electrek.co/2019/11/25/tesla-cybertruck-aerodynamics-cfd-rendering/] - Scooter supply chains with Michal Naka and Stephen Lambe [https://medium.com/mimomusings/on-the-origin-of-scooters-76f6a28d49d] Thanks also to this week’s sponsor Twilio IoT. Shared micromobility is a deceptively hard business. Keep losing your connections to those vehicles and soon you’ll be out of business. That’s where Twilio IoT comes in - providing SIMs and a cellular connectivity platform to seamlessly connect in 180+ countries. Twilio helps companies like Lime, Skip, Spin and Beam to cost effectively scale faster, deploy further, and optimize their supply chain. Twilio is also the leader for SMS and phone verification APIs to reduce fraud and improve user experience. Are you looking for the right global cellular connectivity partner to scale with? Twilio is offering free SIMs and test credit to Micromobility Podcast listeners for a limited time. Visit here to find out more - https://bit.ly/2XPctKC.