Here are 10 of the biggest startups that shut down as part of an industry-wide "mass extinction event"
Over 3,000 startups have shut down this year as venture capital funding continues to be hard to come by. Over 3,000 startups shut down in 2023 after a drastic pullback in venture capital funding.Christian Charisius/Getty ImagesAbout 3,200 startups failed this year, according to PitchBook data.The shutdowns come as VCs continue to be careful with funding amid economic uncertainty.Business Insider has compiled a list of some of the notable startup shutdowns in 2023.The startup "mass extinction event" has been well underway.After abundant venture capital funding in 2021 and parts of 2022, startups have experienced a cash crunch for the past 18 months due to a significant funding pullback. Funding remains more difficult to come by, resulting in startups doing multiple rounds of layoffs to cut back expenses.But for many startups, budget cuts haven't been enough: more than 3,200 startups, which collectively raised $27 billion, closed up shop this year, The New York Times reported, citing data from PitchBook.Startups could once raise funding rounds while "largely ignoring the underlying economics of their businesses," Sri Chandrasekar, a managing partner at Point72 Ventures, previously told Business Insider. But they're now under more pressure from investors to improve their unit economics.It's already too late for many companies, and they have begun to fail. VCs predict that this will continue in 2024.But the shutdown numbers alone don't paint the overall bleak picture of the startup industry. Some were forced to sell at a major discount or are actively seeking a buyer, while others filed for bankruptcy. The pace of startup shutdowns is so fast that even other startups are trying to capitalize. Some are finding success by offering wind-down services to their industry peers, like SimpleClosure, an AI startup that helps other companies shut down correctly.Here are 10 of the biggest startups — based on their valuation or how much they fundraised — that shut down in 2023. Our list is organized chronologically, beginning with the one that shut down most recently.Hyperloop OneHyperloop One cofounder Shervin Pishevar. Thomson ReutersHyperloop One, a transportation startup that was working to build a hyperloop transit system in the US, championed by Elon Musk, raised $450 million from investors including Richard Branson, Khosla Ventures, and David Sacks, according to PitchBook data.Founded in 2014, Hyperloop One shut down in December, Bloomberg reported, after running into financial difficulties and pivoting away from passenger travel in recent years.Olive AIOlive AI founder and CEO Sean Lane. OliveOnce valued at $4 billion, Olive AI — the buzzy healthcare startup that sold revenue cycle automation tools — shut down in November, 11 years after it was founded. The startup had raised more than $800 million from investors, including General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT, Drive Capital, and Khosla Ventures, according to PitchBook data.But less than six weeks after Olive AI folded, founder Sean Lane has already announced his next venture: a security-focused web browser called Ghostdog.ConvoyConvoy founder and CEO Dan LewisConvoyBacked by Jeff Bezos, Mark Benioff, Greylock, and other tech all-stars, shipping logistics startup Convoy went from boom to bust in October after raising more than $1 billion from investors, according to PitchBook data. The startup was founded in 2015 and operated a digital freight network connecting shippers and carriers.The former unicorn's tech platform was acquired in November by industry peer Flexport.Zeus Living Zeus Living's cofounders, CTO Joe Wong, COO Srini Panguluri, and CEO Kulveer Taggar.Zeus LivingProptech startup Zeus Living told landlords in November that it had begun to wind down operations after financial struggles, The Information reported. Founded in 2011, the startup raised over $160 million, according to PitchBook data, and was backed by investors including Airbnb, GV, and Initialized Capital.RecurNFTNurPhotoNFT startup Recur announced it was shutting down in August after being valued at $333 million, according to PitchBook data. The startup, which hosted branded NFTs from companies such as Nickelodeon and Hello Kitty, was founded in 2021 and is one of many startups that have bit the dust thanks to the enduring crypto winter.ZumeZume cofounder & CEO Julia Collins.Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunchFounded in 2015, robot pizza delivery startup Zume raised more than $500 million from investors including SoftBank's Vision Fund and AME Cloud Ventures. But while it sought to revolutionize the pizza-building process, Zume was plagued with tech issues. A pivot was unsuccessful, and the startup shut down in June, The Information reported.IRL IRL's app. IRLIRL abruptly shut down in late June after an investigation by its board of directors revealed that its supposed 20 million active monthly users were actually automated or from bots, The Information reported. The startup had raised $200 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund, Founders Fund and Kleiner Perkins, among other investors, and was valued at over $1 billion. The startup's founders are now suing its investors, claiming that they intentionally foiled the company with the information from the board's investigation, Techcrunch reported.WyreCrypto payments startup Wyre announced it was shutting down in June. GettyCrypto payments startup Wyre announced in June that it was winding down its business operations after almost 10 years due to "difficult market conditions."It has been a difficult year for crypto startups in the aftermath of FTX's downfall, and investors are no longer writing lavish checks to companies building in the space. For Wyre, the startup raised over $50 million in funding, according to PitchBook. They were set to be acquired by payments startup Bolt — which, according to reports, recently came under the scrutiny of the US Securities and Exchange Commission — for a reported $1.5 billion in early 2022. But Bolt dropped the deal later that year.Bitwise IndustriesTech startup Bitwise Industries was headquartered in Fresno, California.Shunyu Fan/Getty ImagesFresno, California-based startup Bitwise Industries was once considered a beacon of tech hope in the state's Central Valley. It offered workforce training to underserved communities, software services, and helped create coworking spaces to revitalize downtowns in smaller California cities like Fresno, Bakersfield, and Merced.But that all came to a halt after the startup furloughed and then laid off nearly 900 employees and subsequently filed for bankruptcy. Its founders are now accused of misleading investors while fundraising in 2022. The startup had raised over $100 million from investors like Kapor Capital, Arlan Hamilton's Backstage Capital, and big banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, according to PitchBook.MedlyMedly, which delivered prescriptions to users' doors, shut down in February. Medly PharmacyPharmacy startup Medly had once hoped to disrupt the space and take on giants like Walgreens and CVS. But in February, it permanently shut down, after declaring bankruptcy and selling off assets to Walgreens Business Insider previously reported.Medly had raised more than $300 million in venture funding from firms like Lerer Hippeau and Greycroft, according to PitchBook data.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
Hyperloop One Reportedly Goes Bust As Next-Gen High-Speed Transit Across US Fails
Hyperloop One Reportedly Goes Bust As Next-Gen High-Speed Transit Across US Fails A startup developing the next generation of sustainable high-speed transportation is shutting down, according to a new report. Once backed by Richard Branson's Virgin Group, Hyperloop One promised to create the next generation of sustainable high-speed transportation. However, the issue was that the startup made this promise in a period of easy money when interest rates were at the zero lower bound. A source informed Bloomberg that only a few Hyperloop One employees remain. They're tasked with selling the startup's assets, such as a test track near Las Vegas and heavy equipment. In 2022, the startup laid off 200 employees and closed its headquarters in Las Vegas. The remaining workers are set to be terminated on December 31. Even with money set aside from the Biden Administration's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the idea of a hyperloop system across the US never took off. "Virgin removed its branding after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people," according to Bloomberg. Dubai port operator DP World has a majority take in Hyperloop One. Another source said all intellectual property from Hyperloop One will be transferred to the DP. In April, Bloomberg obtained a document showing that Hyperloop One merged with a shell company, resulting in the shares being written down to zero. This allowed shareholders of the shell company to effectively take control of the Hyperloop One. Employees of the startup were told DP orchestrated the transaction, a source said. All it took was a period of high interest rates to squash the next generation of sustainable high-speed transportation. Tyler Durden Fri, 12/22/2023 - 11:00.....»»
The startup that attempted to bring Elon Musk"s futuristic hyperloop dream to life is shutting down
Hyperloop One is laying off most of its employees and selling its remaining assets, Bloomberg reported. A hyperloop segment at Hyperloop One's test site in Nevada.David Becker/Getty ImagesFuturistic transport startup Hyperloop One is shutting down, Bloomberg reported.The company was the most high-profile developer of hyperloops championed by Elon Musk.Musk previously said a hyperloop could cut travel times from LA to San Francisco to 30 minutes.Hyperloop One, the startup that sought to build the futuristic hyperloop transit system championed by Elon Musk, is shutting down, Bloomberg reported.The transport company is laying off most of its employees and selling its remaining assets, including a 1,500-foot-long test "loop" in the Nevada desert, anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg said.Hyperloop One had raised more than $450 million, PitchBook previously reported. The money would have gone towards its goal of building a network of vacuum tubes that used air pressure to propel pods carrying passengers and cargo to their destination at speeds of up to 760 miles an hour.Hyperloop One executives told The Verge in 2017 that they expected "working hyperloops around the world" by 2020.However, the startup has run into financial difficulties and pivoted away from passenger travel over the past few years. It will reportedly close its Los Angeles offices and shut down for good by the end of the year.It's a blow for advocates of Hyperloop technology, of which Elon Musk is by far the most famous.Elon Musk speaks at a competition to develop Hyperloop pods in 2017.Kate AllenThe Tesla CEO presented the idea of a Hyperloop in an "alpha paper." He previously described it as a cross between "a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table," and suggested it could allow commuters to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes.Musk set up the Boring Company to explore alternatives to public transport methods, although the tunneling firm has scaled back its ambitions in recent years.Plans to build hyperloop prototypes beneath Chicago, New York, and Washington DC all fizzled out, and so far the sum of Musk's ambitious plans is a 1.6-mile loop beneath the Las Vegas convention center where curious casino-goers can be shuttled through an underground tunnel in Tesla cars (and still occasionally get caught in traffic).The Boring Company plans to expand the Las Vegas loop to 69 stations. However, despite Musk tweeting last year that the firm was still planning to build a hyperloop, the initial prototype hyperloop that Musk built at SpaceX's Californian HQ has been turned into a parking lot.Hyperloop One did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
Hyperloop firm wooed by St. Louis to shut down, report says
The hyperloop firm that was wooed by St. Louis officials but chose to put its certification center in West Virginia is shutting down, according to a Bloomberg report......»»
HyperloopTT announces plans to go public — again
The Los Angeles hyperloop company aims to merge with a New York City SPAC......»»
Rival Airlines Team Up To Boost Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Sustainable aviation fuel is an expensive niche product. Companies that normally face off as competitors are now collaborating to change that. (To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter here.) From a quick look at climate headlines, it’s hard to miss that the global aviation industry poses a knotty problem. Today, jet planes contribute around 2% of global emissions—a share which is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. In response, activists have launched no-holds-barred campaigns to stop people from flying. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] With all the attention around just how damaging the industry is to the environment, it may come as a surprise that the technology already exists to dramatically cut those emissions. It’s called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The problem is that it’s two to four times as expensive as regular fuel. Because SAF is so expensive and bringing it to market is so complex, companies that normally face off as competitors are now collaborating to grow usage of the fuel. On Tuesday, United Airlines announced a doubling down in efforts to chip away at this problem. Eight new partners will join the company’s Sustainable Flight Fund, first launched in February, which invests in companies working to cut the industry’s carbon footprint. Significantly, the group now includes rival carriers JetBlue and Hawaiian Airlines as well as other companies in different places in the aviation value chain like Aramco Ventures (a maker of jet fuel) and the Boston Consulting Group (a big buyer of air travel). “We’re building a consortium of strategic companies around the world to change aviation, to decarbonize aviation,” says Michael Leskinen, president of United Airlines Ventures. “It’s going to take a consortium.” It’s a logic that companies, civil society, and even governments are increasingly pushing to accelerate the energy transition in some of the trickiest areas. Many of the technologies we need for a low-carbon economy already exist. Partnerships between companies—customers, competitors, and suppliers—help bring them to market much faster than they would otherwise. Read more: There Needs to Be a Climate Tax for Frequent Fliers Since the dawn of the jet age, airlines have relied on kerosene-based jet fuel to power planes. The fuel has a number of characteristics that make it desirable—from its viscosity to its cost—but it has one big disadvantage: it spews a lot of carbon. A single person’s emissions on a round trip flight from New York to London in business class can easily result in more than 3,000 pounds of carbon pollution, nearly equivalent to the annual emissions of the average person living in India. SAF, on the other hand, is an umbrella term for lower-carbon fuel alternatives. And it can come from a range of sources, including algae, agricultural residue, and even trash, like recycled cooking oil. SAF can also refer to power-to-liquid technology where renewable energy is used to make hydrogen which then is combined with carbon to make a sustainable jet fuel. Different types of SAF deliver different levels of emissions reduction. Indeed, research suggests that some crop-based fuel sources may deliver only limited emissions benefits when you consider indirect emissions from degrading land. At the other extreme, power-to-liquid technology could, in theory, make SAF a zero-carbon fuel source. But power-to-liquid SAF is not currently on the market at any scale and would require significant investment and development to become a reality. Other SAF sources fall at various points in between the extremes in terms of their emissions reduction potential. Crucially for the industry, all types of SAF are “drop in” fuels that can be used in the existing plane engines and with much of the existing infrastructure. Other low-carbon aviation solutions—think of electric airplanes—would require a costly re-outfitting of aviation infrastructure across the globe, among other challenges. There’s just one big problem: SAF costs far more than conventional jet fuel. Right now, available SAF costs two to four times as much as conventional jet fuel. And there simply isn’t enough of it produced to make a meaningful dent in airline emissions. Just 0.1% of aviation fuel today is a SAF product, according to data from the International Energy Agency. Any airline, fuel blender, or airport that jumps headlong into sustainable aviation fuel would raise the costs for customers and risk losing competitive advantage. That’s where efforts like the Sustainable Flight Fund aim to help. United’s announcement brings the size of the fund to $200 million, but Leskinen acknowledges that the dollar amount is less important than the nature of the collaboration. The investment partner companies meet regularly to discuss SAF companies in the pipeline, each bringing expertise from their area of the value chain. The collaboration also gives the other partners the opportunity to invest individually, which can quickly increase how much funding a given portfolio company receives. And, beyond equity investments, the consortium provides quick access to commercial agreements that help the new companies take off. In addition to investing in a business, United might, for example, agree to purchase its SAF, offering the company a reliable source of revenue as it looks for other investors. Many activists, however, take issue with SAF and brand it as a fig leaf for the industry’s giant environmental footprint. After all, the aviation industry will remain a significant source of carbon emissions for the next several decades even in the most optimistic scenarios. And, of course, United is marketing its sustainability commitments today—in its in-flight entertainment and on posters in the airport—even while SAF currently provides only a tiny fraction of its fuel. But that’s not to say the effort isn’t meaningful. Much discussion about innovation to tackle climate change centers around how to advance future, far-off technologies. In the case of aviation, think of hydrogen airplanes or perhaps even replacements to aviation like Elon Musk’s fantastical hyperloop. Partnerships aimed at actually deploying existing technologies can also represent an important innovation. And United’s fund is far from alone. The Clean Energy Buyers Association represents dozens of big companies looking to purchase clean energy and facilitates companies working together to make it easy. The First Movers Coalition connects companies that can make low-carbon products—think of steel and cement—with other companies willing to pay a small premium for them at first, thereby creating the demand to quickly grow the market. Leskinen insists that the effort to scale SAF “has to be for profit.” And, of course, any company participating in a private sector collaboration will ultimately aim to return profit to shareholders in some way. But, even still, the cross-competitor partnership is a reminder that the climate challenge demands doing things differently. “We cannot do it alone,” says Leskinen......»»
Tesla"s Cybertruck is finally starting production, 2 years behind schedule. Here are 6 other projects Elon Musk promised to deliver by now.
Tesla began production on its Cybertruck two years late. It joins robotaxis and fully autonomous Teslas in a list of uncompleted projects. Tesla's CybertruckFrederic J. Brown/AFP Tesla's Cybertruck is finally beginning production two years behind schedule. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been known to make lofty promises that go undelivered for years at a time. Among his unfinished projects are fully autonomous Teslas and the "everything" social media app X. It's safe to say Tesla CEO Elon Musk doesn't have the best track record when it comes to delivering on his promises — just this week, Tesla finally began production on its Cybertruck in Giga, Texas, four years after releasing its prototype and two years behind its planned production date. The entirely electric truck isn't the only thing Musk promised that was late or undelivered. Below are six other projects he has yet to bring to fruition. Fully self-driving TeslasIn 2016, Musk said that in two years, Tesla users should be able to use the car's "summon" feature — still in beta mode in 2023 — to have their car drive autonomously to them from anywhere connected by land. In 2017, Inverse reported, Musk expanded the promise, assuring buyers that it would be just two more years before self-driving Teslas could be used to travel cross-country while passengers sleep. Currently, Tesla's cars can use "autopilot," which the company defines as an "advanced driver assistance system." However, drivers still need to be "fully attentive," have their hands on the car's wheel, and be "prepared to take over at any moment," according to a Tesla article. Features like traffic and stop sign control are still in beta mode and also require driver attention to be safe, the article says. One million robotaxis On Tesla Autonomy Investor Day in 2019, Musk promised that Tesla would have over one million "robotaxis" on the road in 2020, reported CNBC. "I feel very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla next year," said Musk at the investor day, according to CNBC. "We won't have regulatory approval everywhere, but I am confident we will have at least regulatory approval somewhere, literally next year." His plans for ride sharing or "taxi" Teslas were first suggested in 2016 in his "Master Plan, Part Deux," in which he proposed autonomous Teslas could be rented out when their owners were not using them.Today, there is not yet a single robotaxi in use. Hyperloop systems Musk first introduced the idea of a hyperloop system that could move at up to 760 miles per hour in 2013, according to previous reporting from Insider.In 2017, he tweeted that he had "verbal govt approval" for a hyperloop connecting New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC — a track he said would take users from New York to DC in just 29 minutes. However, Insider previously reported, Musk's The Boring Company in 2021 removed plans for both a DC transit tunnel and a tunnel in Los Angeles from its website. In October 2022, The Verge reported the hyperloop Musk was building in Southern California had been replaced by parking spots for SpaceX employees. An 'everything' social media app, XIn late 2022, Musk tweeted that his purchase of Twitter was an "accelerant" to the creation of 'X,' the "everything app." In comments, he estimated Twitter would speed up X's production by three to five years. What exactly the "super app" might be remains unclear, though Musk has cited inspiration from WeChat and referenced plans to build the app on a blockchain system. He also pledges to emphasize free speech, battling fake users run by bots, and potentially a subscription model, like Twitter Blue — interesting goals for Musk, given that just days after he declared comedy "legal" on Twitter in November 2022, he suspended accounts using their free speech to make fun of him, according to reporting from Time.Musk also previously failed to get rid of bots on Twitter, instead blocking legitimate accounts and "huge" carriers using faulty content moderation toolsProduction plans for the app, though, remain nebulous. SpaceX taking CO2 out of the air to make rocket fuel In yet another Tweet, Musk wrote in 2021 that SpaceX was starting a program to convert CO2 from the atmosphere into usable rocket fuel. "Please join if interested," the Tweet continued. "Will also be important for Mars," read a subsequent Tweet. After his Tweet, however, there have not been any updates on the program, even though the technology is possible and being developed by researchers, including those at the University of Cincinnati. Production of 1,000 solar roofs per week Musk also said he would install solar panels much more rapidly after Tesla's 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, a solar installation company run by two of Musk's cousins, reported CNBC. "Spooling up production line rapidly," tweeted Musk in July of 2019. "Hoping to manufacture ~1000 solar roofs/week by end of this year." According to the same CNBC article, in its most productive year, 2022, Tesla only installed an average of 21 solar system installations per week. In the first, most productive quarter of 2022, peak installation only averaged 32 roofs per week, meaning that at its highest productivity, Tesla installed just 3.2% of Musk's goal. Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
Elon Musk"s Tesla tunnels are a "fake alternative" to solve traffic but if he made them for subways we"d all be better off, expert says
Elon Musk could reduce the cost of tunneling for subway systems. The only problem? He's not interested, Economist writer Daniel Knowles told Insider. Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an unveiling event for the Boring Company Hawthorne test tunnel in Hawthorne, south of Los Angeles, CaliforniaROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk envisions a world where tunnels solve all our car-centric woes. However, cars full of tunnels are not feasible because of a lack of space and high costs. A journalist argues that Musk could use The Boring Company to make public transportation cheaper. Elon Musk's years-long quest to solve traffic by getting cars underground might be a pipe dream, but there could be one good thing to come out of it: cheap tunnels.Daniel Knowles, a writer for the Economist and the author of "Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What To Do About It"— a book about how cars contribute to public health crises and fuel climate crisis released in March — argues that Musk could very well reduce the cost of tunneling for subways, which is a process that adds billions to subway development in this country.The problem, he argues, is that Musk is not interested in that. Instead, the CEO and billionaire has his own vision for improving transportation. This includes solving traffic by moving transportation underground through car tunnels or building a successful hyperloop. However, that ambitious transportation project that involves moving people nonstop across long distances in high-speed tubes has yet to succeed."He is a car executive and wants to sell cars, and believes in cars, and lives around cars," Knowles told Insider in an interview."I think he's as car-brained as anybody else," Knowles continued, referencing one of the key premises in his book, which is that America, and the world, is hooked on car culture.'I think public transport is painful'As recently as March, Musk's The Boring Company, a construction company dedicated to underground automotive transportation, has been touting tunnels to solve all the issues cars produce: noise, pollution, and never-ending traffic jams. And Musk has often been explicit that traditional public transportation options, like subways, would not be a part of his vision. He even once called a public transportation expert an idiot."I think public transport is painful. It sucks," Musk said at a Long Beach, California, Tesla event in 2017, while speaking about his preference for individualized transportation. "Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people that doesn't leave where you want it to leave, doesn't start where you want it to start, doesn't end where you want it to end? And it doesn't go all the time."Musk's complaints are not completely unfounded: Knowles' book shows how underinvestment in public transportation in the US has led to the system in use today, which is in decline as more people opt for cars.This contrasts to places like Tokyo, Japan, where, Knowles writes, car use is among the lowest in the world because, unlike other countries, owning a car in Japan means expensive fees, and in bustling cities like Tokyo, parking spots are rare. As a result, public transport planning is put to the forefront. This disdain for public transport that cities rely on and dislike of traffic formed the foundation upon which The Boring Company was founded. The tunnels that Musk would build would support both Teslas in tunnels and the hyperloop, whose development would be divided by multiple startups racing to complete the futuristic technology. "Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging ..." Musk tweeted in December of 2016, on the day the company was founded.—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2016 In 2018, Musk unveiled the first proof-of-concept Tesla tunnel under the streets of Hawthorne, a Los Angeles neighborhood. Musk said at the time that the drilling instruments his engineers fine-tuned were faster and cheaper than traditional drills. Some engineers, however, were not hopeful about Musk's plans."His machines that build tunnels look pretty standard. I've not seen anything from him that is different from what other people do except for the smaller diameter," Herbert Einstein, a tunneling expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Forbes in 2018. "This really looks like more a vehicle development, rather than tunnel development."But years later, the proof-of-concept became a reality: In 2021, The Boring Company opened its first car tunnel in Las Vegas, a 4,500-foot loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center.Failed plans and a traffic jamMonths later, a traffic jam ensued in the Las Vegas Convention Center loop after a Consumer Electronics Show convention."His thinking about 'How do we solve traffic' is really barmy. He's seeing it as an engineering problem but with the basic assumption that everybody will be in a car. I don't think it makes sense," Knowles said. "When you consider the amount of tunneling and the amount of space that would have to be occupied for everybody to be able to move around a dense city like New York or Los Angeles without ever having to get in a traffic jam — the maths don't make sense. It's impossible."The Boring Company has hit snags since its inception. Musk's grandiose plans have been slow to develop, and multiple loop projects in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Baltimore have been scrapped. In addition, the company has pulled out of contracts after promising other cities that it would solve their traffic issues.Critics have slammed the projects as "scams" meant to drive business toward Tesla.Knowles told Insider he's driven a Tesla before and said that he does think they are "kind of" cool cars (he'd "rather you drive a Tesla than a gasoline-powered F-250"), but he says it's just not possible to solve traffic with tunnels. And cars in tunnels will never be able to transport as many people as a subway train."I think I should have been even more cynical in my book, because I think a lot of what he did with a lot of his hyperloops and autonomy, some of this is literally an attempt to stop cities from investing in public transport directly by promising a kind of fake alternative," Knowles told Insider. There is evidence of this, too: A 2021 Insider investigation found that the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which had been considering an underground commuter train, was convinced by The Boring Company officials to accept a 2 1/2 mile car loop connecting the cities downtown to the beach. Despite the criticisms, Musk and his tunnel plans persist: The city of Las Vegas filed a proposal in March to expand the tunnel system by adding 65 miles to the underground commuting system. The Boring Company has also put its controversial hyperloop plans to the side."I'm all in favor of tunneling," Knowles said. "If you've got trains in the tunnels, I'm all for it."The Boring Company did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
The incredible, Earth-saving electric bike is having a moment
While electric cars get all the hype, sales of electric bikes have been booming for years. That's a huge win for the planet. Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider.The clean-transportation revolution won't arrive by way of futuristic hyperloops, driverless taxi pods, or drones the size of minivans — not anytime soon, at least.And while electric cars get all the hype, a game-changing solution to getting around without warming the planet has flourished right under our noses. Electric bicycles of all shapes and sizes have whirred and zipped their way into the mainstream in recent years as the pandemic has supercharged an e-biking boom that was already well underway. And that's a great thing, because while replacing gas-burning cars with electric ones is key to heading off global warming, research has found Americans also need to drive less altogether to avoid climate catastrophe.The Earth-saving potential of e-bikesTransportation is the single biggest contributor to US greenhouse-gas emissions. And light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs, not semis and airplanes) make up the largest chunk of that. Gains in vehicle efficiency are being dragged down by rising sales of large SUVs and trucks, while practically no progress has been made in reducing the number of miles people drive, Carter Rubin, a transportation lead at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Insider. All that makes enticing people to step out of the driver's seat and onto a bike, bus, or sidewalk increasingly important for meeting climate goals."Cleaner cars are an important solution, but we can't just focus on cars," Katherine García, the director of the Clean Transportation for All Campaign at the Sierra Club, told Insider. "We need to make sure we are putting programs in place that really encourage people to take alternatives."E-bikes can help reduce car dependency, green advocates say.AventonE-bikes have loads of potential to pry Americans away from their beloved automobiles, advocates told Insider, especially since short trips could easily be made on two wheels instead. According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, more than half of all trips in the US are under 3 miles.A University of Oxford study found that swapping a car for a bike just once a day slashed an individual's transportation emissions by a whopping 67%. Another study found choosing an e-bike for 15% of one's miles traveled cut their transportation emissions by 12%.Fast, fun, and convenient, e-bikes are already helping people make that kind of shift in their daily lives. Victor Silva, a product manager in the suburbs of Washington, DC, bought a RadRunner Plus from Rad Power Bikes for $1,900 in the summer after realizing most of his car trips were only a few miles. Now he's hooked. He recently bought another e-bike and is looking to sell his and his wife's second car since it barely gets any use. He said he wasn't going to miss the insurance payments or traffic jams. "I'm trading an activity that I absolutely hate doing, which is getting stuck in traffic, with something that I actually like doing, which is getting some exercise and riding my bike," he told Insider. The E-bike maker Aventon has seen its sales explode since 2020.AventonAfter Wesley Cook and his wife sold their second car last year, they test-rode a pair of e-bikes from a local, Atlanta-based company called Edison Bicycles and never looked back. While they had never biked much before, they've slowly replaced daily errands like getting groceries or taking their son to school with e-bike rides.Cook, a software engineer, just made an addition to the couple's fleet — a cargo bike from Urban Arrow that has plenty of room for their son and their baby who's arriving later this year.The e-bike advantageThe power of e-bikes to alter peoples' habits and help save the planet is simple and maybe a little obvious. But it's important and worth spelling out nonetheless: By making biking easier, e-bikes encourage people to ride more. A little electrical assistance goes a long way toward helping people overcome the obstacles keeping them from biking, whether that's steep hills, a lengthy commute, physical limitations, or the mortifying thought of showing up somewhere with pit stains, John MacArthur, a professor at Portland State University who researches sustainable transportation, told Insider."A lot of those barriers can be broken down by putting a motor on a bike," he said.National surveys he's conducted have indicated that e-bikes motivate people to ride farther and more often — plus they broaden interest in cycling beyond the stereotypical spandex-clad white man.Lyft, which operates bike-sharing systems across the US, has noticed similar trends. It's seen ridership boom by more than 50% since 2020 and attributes much of that growth to e-bikes. In 2021, e-bikes made up just 20% of Lyft's New York City fleet but 40% of total rides and nearly two-thirds of journeys between boroughs, which typically involve a steep climb over a bridge. New form factors, including cargo models like the Tern GSD, have helped fuel e-bike demand.Tern BicyclesAs many people who have ridden an e-bike will tell you, they're just plain fun — and they can often get you places faster and with less hassle than a car or bus. They're that rare thing in life that's both good and good for you."They're kind of a rocket fuel for regular biking," Rubin, a daily e-biker, told Insider. Electric cars are important, too, but they're expensive and far off for a lot of drivers, MacArthur said. Just consider someone who recently bought a gas car and doesn't plan on trading it in for a decade. E-bikes, on the other hand, are an option that's right here, right now. The most popular electric vehicles in the US don't have a Tesla logoWhile electric cars get all the attention, e-bikes have for years been the best-selling electric vehicles in the US.Last year, Americans bought just over 800,000 electric cars, according to Kelley Blue Book, a record. E-bike imports (a good proxy for sales since most e-bikes aren't made in the US) numbered around 1.1 million, surging from 880,000 in 2021 and 437,000 the year before, according to an e-bike-industry trade group. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r.....»»
Musk floats possibility of hyperloop tunnel between Austin, San Antonio
Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a Twitter thread on Monday that floated the possibility of a hyperloop tunnel connecting the Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio......»»
Tesla falls 11% as Elon Musk sets focus on Twitter and Ford announces it will scale up production of electric F-150 amid huge demand
Musk has put up tens of billions of dollars worth of his Tesla stock as collateral to fund his acquisition of Twitter. Sam Mircovich/ReutersTesla stock fell 11% on Tuesday as investors grappled with Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and increased EV competition.Musk is using much of his Tesla stake as collateral to fund the $44 billion buyout of the social media platform.Meanwhile, Ford said it is experiencing strong demand for its F-150 Lightning and that it plans to produce 150,000 units in 2023.Tesla stock fell as much as 11% on Tuesday as investors digest Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and increased electric-vehicle competition from Ford.The decline came amid a broader sell-off in the stock market, with the Nasdaq 100 falling more than 3% as investors prepare for first-quarter earnings from mega-cap tech companies like Microsoft and Apple. Musk's purchase of Twitter likely means at least some of his attention will shift away from Tesla and towards improving the social media platform that he himself is an avid user of. Whether that attention shift will have any material impact on Tesla remains to be seen, but it's nothing new for Musk given his other ventures.He has been CEO of Tesla since 2008, but is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX and has material interests in The Boring Company and Neuralink, two early-stage startups tackling hyperloop transportation and brain-machine interface technologies, respectively.Given Musk's success in managing a number of different ventures at the same time, investors will likely give him the benefit of the doubt about his time management skills and that he can juggle another venture while running Tesla.But perhaps more concerning for Tesla investors is how Musk is funding his purchase of Twitter. Specifically, he has put up tens of billions of dollars worth of his Tesla stock as collateral to fund the acquisition.In the event that Tesla's stock price falls significantly, Musk may be forced to sell shares or put more of his Tesla stake up as collateral to avoid a margin call. That could put further downward pressure on Tesla's stock price if he is forced to sell.And while investors digest Musk's buyout of Twitter, Tesla is also facing increased competition in the EV space. Ford said that it is experiencing strong demand for its F-150 Lightning pickup truck, and that it expects to produce 150,000 units of the electric truck in 2023. Ford officially launched production of the pickup on Tuesday."We think this is as big a product as when the Model T came out for us," Ford CEO Jim Farley told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday. Ford has the chance to become the first automaker to execute and scale its production of an EV pickup truck. It's a big deal considering pickup trucks are consistently the best selling car in America.If successful, Ford will have effectively beaten Tesla to the punch in the EV pickup space, as Tesla once again delayed the launch of its Cybertruck to 2023 at the earliest. And how long it takes for Tesla to scale up the production of its Cybertruck remains an unknown. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
Elon Musk"s Boring Company says it will begin testing its Hyperloop, nearly 9 years after the futuristic transportation system was first proposed
In 2013, Elon Musk first revealed his vision for a transportation system that would reach speeds as high as 760 miles per hour. ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk said The Boring Co will attempt to build a functional Hyperloop in the "coming years." The billionaire first revealed his vision for the futuristic transportation system in 2013. The company said on Monday that it plans to begin full-scale testing "later this year." The Boring Company offered an update on its hyperloop ambitions, saying on Monday that it would begin testing for a full-scale version of the transportation system "later this year."The announcement came nearly 9 years after the tunnel-construction company's founder, Elon Musk, first revealed his vision for a futuristic transportation system that would move people through low-pressure tubes in pods that could reach speeds as high as 760 miles per hour.On Sunday, Musk said on Twitter that The Boring Company would "attempt to build a working Hyperloop" in the "coming years.""From a known physics standpoint, this is the fastest possible way of getting from one city center to another for distances less than ~2000 miles," Musk said.The Boring Company did not respond to a request for comment from Insider. Aside from acknowledging that it plans to begin testing within the year, the company did not provide any more details about the project.Over the past week, The Boring Company raised $675 million in a funding round led by Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital. The round valued the company at over $5.6 billion.The civil engineering company also added several new engineering roles this week, advertising jobs for workers that will specialize on the Hyperloop, including a role for a mechanical vacuum engineer.After Musk presented the idea of a hyperloop in a 2013 white paper, The Boring Company gradually scaled back its ambitions, moving instead to build networks of single-lane tunnels that Teslas could drive through.In 2021, The Boring Company opened its first tunnel to the public, a 1.7-mile network of tunnels under Las Vegas that used Teslas to transport people between destinations at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Las Vegas transportation system was used during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year to transport guests at a maximum speed of 40-miles per hour. It enjoyed relatively positive reviews from users.Hyperloop technology is still theoretical and faces multiple challenges, including what is likely to be an extensive environmental review that could take years.The system, as envisioned by Musk, would use vacuum technology as vehicles move faster in a low friction environment akin to outer space. In this idealized version of the technology, the Hyperloop would also operate as fast as about 7 miles per hour below the speed of sound. The richest man in the world is not the only person to envision a future where hyperloop technology could ease transportation headaches. His company's competitor, Virgin Hyperloop, completed its first passenger ride in its levitating transport system in 2020. The pod reached speeds faster than 100 miles per hour and took just 15 seconds to travel about a third of a mile at a test track in Nevada.Virgin Hyperloop and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies have said they plan to make the technology available to the public by 2030.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
Hypernope? MORPC turns to rail, BRT projects as hyperloop company sorts itself out
Virgin Hyperloop has shifted its focus to cargo-only – and with no means to pursue federal funding, MORPC puts more of its focus on bus rapid transit and the prospect of Amtrak through Columbus......»»
Elon Musk says he splits his time between Tesla and SpaceX depending on the "crisis of the moment"
In the past, the CEO has said he's worked as many as 120 hours a week. "Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week," Elon Musk said at the time. Maja Hitij/Getty Images Elon Musk is CEO of four companies, but says he splits most of his time between Tesla and SpaceX. Musk said at The Wall Street Journal conference that his time is typically spent solving the "crisis of the moment." In the past, Musk has said he's worked as many as 120 hours a week between his various projects. Elon Musk said he's constantly juggling his work at Tesla and SpaceX.As the richest man in the world and the CEO of multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, Musk said he tries to split his time evenly between the two companies, but it depends on "the kind of crisis of the moment.""I triage the tasks and try to do the things that are most useful or where I'm most needed – it varies from one week to the next," he said on Monday at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit.Musk said that he works seven days a week and some "pretty crazy hours." Historically, the CEO has said he has worked up to 20 hours a day. In 2018, Musk said on the podcast Recode Decode that his work at Tesla and SpaceX sometimes drove him to sleep on his factory's floor and work over 120 hours a week. Though, the CEO said later that year that he scaled back to 80 to 90-hour work weeks."Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week," Musk said at the time.Most recently, Musk has had to focus his attention on a "crisis" at SpaceX. During The Wall Street Journal conference, Musk said that SpaceX's Starship spaceship has consumed a large portion of his time.In November, Musk said that SpaceX planned to launch Starship into orbit by January or February. On Monday, Musk expressed doubt as to whether Starship would be able to launch in 2022 at all."This absorbs more of my mental energy than probably any other single thing," he said. "It is so preposterously difficult, that there are times where I wonder whether we can actually do this."Musk expressed concern over SpaceX's progress with the engines for the Starship rocket last month. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Musk sent a company-wide email saying SpaceX faces a "risk of bankruptcy" if it cannot achieve a flight rate for its Starship rocket of at least once every two weeks in 2022. As a result, Musk and SpaceX employees worked over the holiday weekend to fix the engine-production issue.Tesla and SpaceX are not the only companies in which Musk is heavily involved. The billionaire is also the CEO of Neuralink, a company that is developing implantable brain chips, and The Boring Company, a tunnel-construction company.Much like Tesla and SpaceX, Musk's other two companies also have lofty goals. Musk has said that he plans for Neuralink to begin implanting chips in human brains within the next year. Similarly, The Boring Company is working on multiple hyperloop projects in Las Vegas and California. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»
How the 700 mph hyperloop concept could become the fastest way to travel
Elon Musk introduced the concept of the hyperloop in 2013. Here's where we are in hyperloop development. Countries in Europe and Asia are filled with high-speed bullet trains, bringing passengers between cities within 2.5 hou.....»»
Central Ohio advances in its quest to be hyperloop"s proving grounds
Central Ohio is vying for the first segment of track where Virgin Hyperloop One will test the safety of 500mph pods and hash out a regulatory framework, setting the standards for all the routes in the nation. The company told the region it's one of .....»»
Flying cars, hyperloops and the other 2020 tech predictions that didn’t pan out
Predicting the future is hard, even for the people with the most power to influence it. In 2013, Jeff Bezos said he expected Amazon.com Inc. would be delivering packages by drone in four to five... To view the full story, click the title link......»»
It"s official: Triangle puts itself in the running for Hyperloop
The Triangle is one step closer to the possibility of hyperloop......»»
ABJ"s most-read tech stories of 2019
Here are the five most-read tech stories published by Austin Business Journal in 2019. 1) Austin to Dallas in 17 minutes? Virgin Hyperloop brings back the hype: Few things excite ABJ readers like news that a hyperloop might be coming to Texas. Virg.....»»
Study touts benefits of hyperloop linking Pittsburgh & Cleveland
The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and the Los Angeles-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies will release a study Monday detailing the benefits and the costs of a hyperloop route connecting Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. Acc.....»»