Waze plots ride-sharing expansion. Where trucking jobs will be lost. Ford's sleepy engineers.
Electrified
Hi there,
We dove into the CB Insights database this week to crunch the numbers on funding to private electric vehicles companies through full-year 2016 and the first weeks of 2017:
After an uneven decade, both EV deals and dollar investment bounced back in a big way last year, cresting $2B thanks to Chinese mega-rounds and cautious optimism returning to the space.
At its current pace, 2017 would need to see a few outsized funding rounds of its own to match 2016, but deals are on track for a fresh high while total financing would still top $1B.
Behind these impressive top-line figures, the recent uptick in seed deal share is another indicator of private investors dipping their toes back into the field.
For more on everything EVs, check out next week’s webinar on the state of Electric Vehicle tech. If you can’t attend but still would like the full slide deck and recording, sign up and we’ll send you all the materials after the webinar.
Where trucking jobs will be lost
Axios built a nifty interactive to visualize the impact of trucking automation on US counties heavily dependent on truck-industry employment:
Not surprisingly, the concentration of trucking jobs is heaviest in heartland counties, many of which have already borne the brunt of automation-driven job losses to date (check out the full article in the blurb below). Though timeframes are uncertain, the risk of exacerbating rising economic inequality will nevertheless require a concerted response from industry players, government, and beyond.
Of course, the benefits are clear from a business standpoint, as companies from self-driving startups to e-commerce giants and logistics providers target the ubiquitous cost driver of trucking. For more on trucking & logistics, check out our list of 12 trucking tech startups to watch and our supply chain & logistics briefing.
