Along for the Ride #238

greetings from portland / chicago!

Heya friends, happy Friday!

I have been tardy in my newsletter writing due to some summer travel to two cities I’ve never been to before: portland and chicago! I had high hopes of writing at nauseam about how much I love portland and the oregon coast, but alas, this newsletter is once again a series of bullet point lists (however, there are lots of cute oregon pics and a lil blurb in bits and bobs!).

I’m also wading through all the emotions that come with grief and the passing of time. This week marks the one year anniversary of my friend Hansel’s accident and passing (newsletter story time here). I can’t go on a walk through the park or bike into work without a rush of emotion: the gratitude I have for knowing them, and the deep injustice of losing them too soon. Today I’m sending anybody reading this who is grappling with similar feelings a big hug. May the world be gentle on us all.

Alright, time for some bullet-pointed sass:

• In San Francisco, a person was apprehended and charged for slashing tires of AVs around town (SF Gate), and Waymo is suing two vandals for hundreds of thousands of dollars… (Wired)

• Kentucky now allows AVs to operate on public roads, but the State still needs to develop regulations (GovTech)

• Shenzen plans to introduce 20 autonomous buses 👀 (Global Times)

• Canadian PM unviels $30B 10-year investment plan for public transit (CBC)

Image Credit: Waymo

• Alphabet invests another $5B in Waymo (Quartz)

  • Burning money must be fun as this is considered “consistent with recent annual investment levels” by Google CEO Sundar Pichai

  • Related: Waymo has started to test its Zeekr vehicle on San Francisco city streets (Tech Crunch)

• Cruise is done licking their wounds, and announced plans to return to service this year and start charging for rides in 2025 (Bloomberg, NYTs)

  • Meanwhile the company cancelled plans for their shared, electric shuttle (“the Origin”) and incurred a $583 million charge last quarter for the cancellation (Extreme Tech)

• Yandex’s AV unit rebrands as “Avride” (Forbes)

• Pony.ai and WeRide say they’re ready to go public (Technode)

• Why choose active travel over driving? (Journal of Transportation Geography)

  • This study is super interesting and centres around Wuhan, China which often gets overlooked in western planning schools…!

• China struggles to find balance between embracing new tech while losing traditional jobs (SCMP)

  • Note: I very much so disagree with the sentiment of this article, but sometimes good to read how the other side thinks? lol

• How Baidu is leaving western car markers like Tesla in the dust (The Economist)

• How the current state of autonomous driving technology is making people worse drivers (TechRadar)

• Elon Musk understands cars, but he doesn’t understand people (Bloomberg)

the oregon coast, biketown (!), portland river rides, hikes, sunsets, pasta vibes

• Portland is fantastic. I was there on the eve of Biketown launching scooters (!), and got to help test them before they hit the streets. Friends (kbaby & love, real names!) showed me all the hot spots: breweries in old train carriages, Ladd’s Addition (to stop and smell the roses of course), and all the neighbourhood modal filters my heart desired. It really blew me away. I followed up my city adventure with a trip to the coast, and gaped the entire time at the beauty of the oregon coast. 20/10 recommend to a friend.

• I have *so* many feelings about the US election, and for the first time in a long time it feels like hope? There’s plenty more I would love to see be different (including, but not limited to, the candidates take on Gaza, the US electoral system), but part of me feels less dreadful about the whole ordeal? I am also clinging to the possibility that Mayor Pete could be a VP nominee (can you imagine having a train daddy that close to the oval office!). I know it likely won’t be him, but a girl can dream (of buses, high speed rail, electrification projects, and bike lanes).

• Today I’m in Chicago and about to bike down the lakefront trail before jumping in the lake because I can!! A multimodal dream. Divvy pics incoming.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

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