CoMotion LA 2025 kicks off tomorrow!
Dates to remember
- CoMotion LA ‘25 kicks off on Nov. 12: Register now and bring your colleagues, friends or plus-one for 50% off. Complimentary tickets available for public sector & media.
- CoMotion GLOBAL in Riyadh on Dec. 7-9: Register now and get your complimentary pass, limited spaces available. Senior public officials, accredited media, and other key stakeholders are invited to register here for a complimentary ticket. Registrations will be reviewed by our comittee.
Welcome to CoMotion NEWS, your weekly roundup of news and analysis of the mobility revolution. If this email was forwarded, you can sign up here for NEWS.
Obviously the BIG news this week is CoMotion LA, taking place Wednesday and Thursday in downtown Los Angeles at the Japanese American National Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art. If you’re in the area or can still make plans to get there, you can register to attend the gathering of the world’s greatest mobility innovators and thinkers!
Meanwhile, the EU approves a $345 billion high-speed rail plan to connect major cities by 2040 and sharply reduce short-haul air travel. Electric aviation sees major moves, with Beta raising $1 billion in its IPO and Archer buying Hawthorne Municipal Airport as Tokyo accelerates its own eVTOL rollout for 2030. Elon Musk pledges an April launch for the fully autonomous Cybercab, while Ford considers ending the F-150 Lightning amid weakening EV demand. Chinese automakers continue their rapid expansion in Britain, overtaking Korean and U.S. incumbents. Last but not least, a school consolidation plan threatens to upend one of America’s most walkable school districts.
What you need to know
The EU’s ambitious high-speed rail plan: The European Commission adopts a new rail plan that establishes a goal of connecting all major urban hubs with 200 kmh (125 mph) trains by 2040. If realized, many popular long-distance journeys would be cut in half, significantly reducing demand for air travel. The projected cost is $345 billion. That’s not cheap, but you can bet they’ll get a much better bang for their buck than California.
Beta flies high in NYSE debut: Electric aviation startup Beta raises $1 billion in an IPO that values the company at roughly $7.4 billion. The Amazon-backed company was founded in 2017 and has incurred major losses in recent years and is not nearly as close to commercialization as Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, America’s two leading eVTOL companies. But CEO Kyle Clark says he believes Beta will receive full FAA certification in the next 2.5 years.
Archer buys an airport: San Jose eVTOL startup Archer Aviation acquires Hawthorne Municipal Airport outside of Los Angeles for $126 million. The acquisition should support its role as the official air taxi provider of the 2028 Olympics.
Less than 24 hours to go!
Join us at CoMotion LA ‘25, ‘Unlocking the New Mobility Playbook’ featuring the OMF Summit Track, on Nov. 12-13.
This year’s ninth edition features mobility leaders including:
- Marcel Porras, Deputy Chief Innovation Officer, LA Metro
- Joanna M. Pinkerton, SVP - Digital Infrastructure Solutions, HNTB
- Rex Richardson, Mayor, City of Long Beach
- Bill Panos, Senior Vice President, LA28
- Dani Simons, VP, Communications & Public Affairs, Alstom
- Vishay Nihalani, Director of Product Management, Waymo
- Henry Greenidge, Head of Policy - Autonomy & Robotics, DoorDash Labs
- George Kivork, GM of Los Angeles, Archer Aviation
- Jackie Birdsall, Senior Principal Engineer, Toyota
The program has never been more timely with topics including: Mega Event Mobility, The Future of Sustainable Transportation, AV’s & Emerging Mobility Technologies, Digital Infrastructure, Funding & Investment in Mobility, Policy Innovation & Governance, Advanced Air Mobility, and Ports, Airports & Transportation Hubs. View the Agenda.
Act fast, register now and bring your colleagues, plus-one for 50% off.
Musk says the Cybercab is coming: Shortly after shareholders approve plans to make him the world’s first trillionaire, Elon Musk says Tesla will begin production on the Cybercab in April. Musks says the supposedly fully autonomous vehicle will not even be equipped with a steering wheel or pedals, a claim at odds with statements made by other Tesla execs.
Ford considers ditching the Lightning: It’s one of the top-selling electric trucks in the country, but the F-150 Lightning may not be selling well enough to justify continued production, especially given the elimination of the EV tax credit and other political headwinds.
Chinese cars invade Britain: Chinese automakers are storming Europe’s EV market and using the UK as their beachhead, with Britain accounting for 30% of all Chinese EV sales in Western Europe so far. Chinese vehicles now account for 13% of new vehicle sales in the UK –– putting them ahead of American (8%) and Korean (10.8%) vehicles and neck-and-neck with Japanese cars (13.9%).
Join the visionaries shaping transportation, technology, and urban innovation across every continent at CoMotion GLOBAL on Dec. 7-9 at the KAFD Conference Centre in Riyadh.
From global policymakers to urban innovators, these voices are shaping the next era of urban mobility — smarter, more sustainable, and more connected than ever before.
Latest confirmed speakers include:
- Majid Mufti, CEO, NEOM Investment Fund
- Diana Caiza, Mayor, Municipality of Ambato
- Dr. Nasiphi Moya, Executive Mayor City of Tshwane
- Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, CEO, ENSO
- Hashim Alfatayerji, Founder & CEO, Cararak Ventures
- Steve Adler, Former Mayor of Austin, Texas
Register now and get your complimentary pass, limited spaces available. Senior public officials, accredited media, and other key stakeholders are invited to register here for a complimentary ticket. Registrations will be reviewed by our comittee.
Tokyo plans for the air taxi future: The Japanese capital is gearing up to embrace commercial electric air taxis by 2030, backed by a public-private push involving eVTOL companies Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation and SkyDrive. The city’s “Flying Car Implementation Project” kicks off soon with demo flights over Tokyo Bay and the rivers, preparation of landing sites and regulatory groundwork to fast-track a full-blown eVTOL service.
The end of America’s most walkable school district: In the quiet, walkable suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, a school-board decision to consolidate and reroute its neighborhood pre-K program is threatening to dismantle one of the nation’s most celebrated “walking school districts.” The move may save money—but critics warn it risks erasing years of community-bonding, daily foot traffic, and child independence that walking to school had built.
What we’re reading
Self-driving cars’ cat problem: Writing for Politico, Calder McHugh highlights the case of KitKat, a San Francisco feline killed by a Waymo robotaxi that has become a poster child for anti-AV resistance. Despite strong evidence that Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are safer than human-driven ones, there remains strong skepticism among the public -– and among elected officials. In particular, the absence of a person in the driver’s seat who is held responsible for a mishap seems to irk people.
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