Take a rickshaw down to electric avenue

+ mo’ money for makeshift mobility, and the first robodog rickshaw puller

Hello! Welcome to the first edition of Makeshift Mobility, my fortnightly newsletter about innovations in informal transportation. About a hundred other people signed up with you so we’ve got company!

Where should we start?

How about I tell you a bit more why I am so interested in all of this? (If you got my invitation to this newsletter by email, this first part is a replay.)

I grew up in Metro Manila, a metropolis pretty much defined by informal transit. I mostly got around via Manila’s unofficial (and much maligned) urban transport mascot: the iconic jeepney.

Philippine Jeepney by Robert Alejandro

I’ve ridden in autorickshaws in India, tuktuks in Bangkok, matatus in Kenya and Tanzania, and collectivos in Mexico.

Much later in my life, I had the privilege of leading an exploration on informal transport for Rockefeller Foundation. We looked at how makeshift mobility was serving and shaping cities all over the world. I even wrote a monograph on Catalyzing the New Mobility in Cities focused innovations in the sector.

(If you want a really good intro to the subject, start with Robert Cervero’s research. Here’s a good summary. I’ll discuss more about his global research in succeeding issues.)

What struck me then and what still strikes me now is this: informal transportation is a truly global phenomena and yet, it always seems to be treated as a local problem. Emphasis on “problem” rather than asset. Maybe we can change all that.

Anyway, so much has been happening it’s hard to know where to start.

For instance, this could be stale news to you but did you know that the 2nd largest fleet of e-vehicles in the world are the electric auto rickshaws of India?

Electrifying

Last August, NYT featured the overnight growth of e-rickshaws in India, and just like many things in the world’s largest democracy, the bloom is home-brewed:

Welcome to the front line of India’s electric vehicle revolution. It’s messy, improvised and driven by the people. The government and vehicle makers are now trying to gain some control over it.

Talk about makeshift.

Bloomberg estimated that there were 1.5 million e-rickshaws in India as of 2018, and the number was growing by about 11,000 a month. I know. Big, right?

So, of course, companies are seeing the opportunity. Big names have started manufacturing new electric, three-wheelers or rolling out swappable battery networks. And, not just for the passenger market.

In case you didn’t catch it, here’s a slick 30-second video of the world’s richest man driving an e-rickshaw. Amazon will deploy 10,000 of these babies to serve Prime delivery across the subcontinent. They say they will grow the fleet to 100,000 by the end of the decade. (What shade of greenwash did you order?)

There’s an app and venture cap for that

Electric or not, it probably isn’t news to you that auto and cycle rickshaw and motorcycle taxi services have been powered by apps for some time now.

It was easy enough to adapt the idea of smart phone ride-hails from cars to trikes and motorcycle taxis. There are several big players like Grab and GoJek in South East Asia, or Uber and Ola in South Asia. But many more are emerging.

—Late breaker: Grab and Gojek, each valued at north of $10B, seem to be in merger talks.

Egypt’s Halan just raised US $15M to grow its two-wheeled and three-wheeled services in Egypt and Sudan, and to expand into Ethiopia. Halan wants to be the “pan-African” ride-hail app but they have competition. GoJek is already in West and East Africa, SafeBoda came out Uganda, expanded in Kenya and is now in Nigeria, (which already has max.ng, ORide, and Gokada). Southern Africa has Uber, Bolt, and Yookoo.

These companies are raising funds from VCs and from banks. It’s obvious why.

Africa offers huge potential for motorcycle ride-hailing firms due to low personal car ownership, rapidly expanding populations and a lack of efficient mass transport systems in fast-growing cities that are clogged with cars.

In Latin America, ridehail and shared micro mobility services are being swallowed up by super apps, but I’m not sure they’ve penetrated the market for collectivos and caminionetas.

With money, of course, comes a push to improve services (or at least to have stronger branding) and this clearly has benefits for customers. Let’s hope it also benefits the drivers and operators.

I, Robot Rickshaw Puller

Let’s wrap up this week with this viral video of Adam Savage riding (and inventing) the first autonomous Spot robodog Rickshaw. (Spot robodog created by Boston Dynamics.)

Benjamin de la Pena @benjiedlp

The right way to do an autonomous rickshaw

youtu.beAdam Savage in a rickshaw pulled by a robotThank you for watching!! please subscribe my channel! Click here to subscribe buzztaTV→https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFn96WIQqZewv_rDzlLrPGw

The more I think about it, the more it feels like a vehicle pulled by a legged robot might be a better form factor for passenger AVs on city streets. It could be safer for pedestrians, and more adaptable.

Why does the 2-ton, 4-wheeled vehicle have to be the surface AV form factor?

What do you think?

That’s it for this week. Let me know if there’s something in particular you want to discuss. If this is interesting to you, then click that button below to have Makeshift Mobility show up in your inbox.

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I’m Benjie de la Pena, a transport geek and urban nerd. I live in Seattle with my wife, two kids, and two cats. I also think a lot about strategic design, institutional shifts, and innovation. I believe makeshift mobility could be the single greatest lever to decarbonize the urban transport sector -but only if we can organize. If I had my druthers, the world would have a international, inter-city think tank dedicated to improving informal transportation.