Audiocast 06: can EVs scale(?!), battery sponges & urban trends

In this episode we speak with Horace Dediu, the co-founder of Micromobility Industries and one of the earliest and most influential voices in the world of micromobility. A longtime Apple analyst, his insights into the adoption curve of products like the iPhone informed how he began to look at consumer interest in e-bikes and, later, e-scooters. Looking at the state of micromobility today we touch on flash points, like the near-collapse of one-time leaders like Bird and Lime. “What went wrong,” quickly morphs into “what is still likely to go right,” and Horace takes a generally positive long-term view of the role that micromobility will play in cities around the world. We debate the importance of America as a battleground for micromobility policy: Will progress elsewhere make up for America’s micromobility backwardness or is it critical to change America? This turns out to be a critical and contentious question.For more, please visit our homepage or newsletter.

During episode 6 of the Audiocast series we cover:🚧 What if EVs can’t scale?🧽  Battery sponges & 💧 Lens of scarcity🏘️ Urban trendsVisit us at red.blue and dig deeper at news.red.blue

This episode we speak with Lior Steinberg, an urban planner and co-founder of Humankind, an urban planning firm based in Rotterdam. Lior and his team work with local governments on refactoring urban space through projects like dedicated micromobility lanes and increased green space - all through the lens of making cities more “people-centric.” In our discussion he describes his process for measuring the impact infrastructure changes makes in daily life, centered around projects he’s contributed to in Rotterdam. He also gives us a sneak preview of his upcoming children’s book “The Car That Wanted To Be A Bike.”For more, please visit our homepage or newsletter.

In our second episode of the Expert series, RedBlue speaks with Brad Templeton, Chairman Emeritus of the EFF, the leading foundation protecting liberties and privacy in cyberspace. Brad was the founder and software architect of ClariNet Communications Corp., the world's first ever ".com" company. In the nineties, Brad became fascinated by self-driving cars, and went on to write a series of industry-leading essays, publish a robo-car blog, and consults for Google's AV team.We get asked all the time a set of questions about autonomous vehicles: When will they be here? Will people still drive when we have autonomous ridehailing? Will there be more or less cars in a world of robotaxis? Will autonomous trucking come before autonomous taxis? And of course: what about that trolley problem? Brad is probably the person in the world who has thought most about these questions and answers them very directly and clearly in this episode of the Expert Series podcast. Besides answering most of the big questions around autonomous vehicles, Brad explains why roads made of concrete are similar to the structure of the internet and we run through a scorecard of where various autonomous vehicle programs currently stand.For more, please visit our homepage or newsletter.

In our inaugural episode of the Expert series, RedBlue speaks with Alain Bertaud, Senior Fellow at New York University's Marron Institute of Urban Management. He is the author of  a book about markets and the practice of urban planning titled “Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities” published by MIT Press in December 2018. Bertaud previously held the position of principal urban planner at the World Bank. After retiring from the Bank in 1999, he worked as an independent consultant. Prior to joining the World Bank he worked as a resident urban planner in a number of cities around the world: Bangkok, San Salvador (El Salvador), Port au Prince (Haiti), Sana’a (Yemen), New York, Paris, Tlemcen (Algeria), and Chandigarh (India).In this conversation, we cover a number of different topics, including how innovation can be leveraged in the process of helping cities to grow, the importance of humility at certain times for open planners, the importance of looking at data and information in order to get city planning right, and also the importance of acting in order to achieve specific outcomes. Alain grounds these lessons in very concrete examples of how different cities operate and different things have played out over the length of his career.For more, please visit our homepage or newsletter.

During episode 5 of the Audiocast series we cover:🤖 We’re in the weird phase in AV deployments🔮 The future of private transit startups🚲 Micromobility vs cars in Europe (and beyond)Visit us at red.blue and dig deeper at news.red.blue

During episode 4 of the Audiocast series we cover:The NIMBY trend in mobilityChina’s  lead in battery technology for EVsVisit us at red.blue and dig deeper at news.red.blue

During episode 3 of the Audiocast series we cover:The software-defined cabinAmerican car obesityVisit us at red.blue and dig deeper at news.red.blue

During episode 2 of the Audiocast series we cover:Hype cycle: 15 min delivery editionBattery prices going the wrong way and other threats to scaling EVsAmerican roadways hit a new low - er, highVisit us at red.blue and dig deeper at news.red.blue

During episode 1 of the Audiocast series we cover:Blood on the trading floorUber & Lyft: tale of two companiesPassenger EV raceFleetificationVisit us at red.blue and read more at news.red.blue