Amazon takes us behind the scenes in the design process for its next generation last-mile electric delivery vehicle. In the new video, Amazon Director of Last-Mile Fleets Ross Rachey highlights the massive opportunity and the obligation Amazon feels to improve the sustainability of its operations. “We’re trying to build the most sustainable transportation fleet in the world,” Rachey said.
Some of the largest corporations in America have joined the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, an organization started by the non-profit Ceres to support greater commercial EV adoption. DHL, Amazon, AT&T, Clif Bar, Consumers Energy, Direct Energy, Genentech, IKEA North America, LeasePlan, Lime, and Siemens are Alliance members.
When we think about the need for the world to go electric, we generally think about the need for people — individual humans — to go electric. However, more than half of the vehicles on US roads are vehicles from corporate fleets, according to Ceres, a nonprofit investor coalition representing $11 trillion that is focused on sustainability matters.
Big tech has entered the oil business. Well, not all of big tech, because we do have Tesla out there trying to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, however, are a bit different. They are talking the talk, but when it comes to the oil and gas industry, they are eager to work with companies to find easier ways to extract oil.
Burning fossil fuels is a negative sum game. The waste products are slowly killing us all. What to do? Start by controlling your own carbon footprint. Together we can make a difference.
Rivian has not even begun building pre-production versions of its RiT electric truck and R1S electric SUV, but it raised almost $3 billion in 2019, capped by its most recent funding round that added $1.3 billion to the company’s coffers. This latest round was led by T. Rowe Price, which is also a major investor in Tesla.
New York City is unveiling a new plan to allow pedal-electric delivery bikes to park in tow zone areas or on sidewalks and to use the city’s 1,400 miles of dedicated bike lanes in order to reduce carbon emissions and congestion.
The increase in CPU cycles to advance machine learning has been accompanied by advances in efficiencies of computer technology and lower carbon electricity, but it’s worth paying attention to. It’s only going to increase.
I came across a very interesting statistic the other day from the IEA’s Renewables 2018 report. The statistic is that 50% of total energy consumption globally is used for the production of heat for our homes, industry, and other applications.
As self-driving cars move closer and closer to reality, one particular market stands to benefit — autonomous taxis (aka robotaxis). Tasha Keeny from Ark Invest recently evaluated the players who’d likely benefit from this massive market opportunity. Keeney writes, “Autonomous vehicles will transform personal mobility … reap[ing] the benefits of a new market which promises to ramp from essentially $0 now to $10 trillion in global gross annual revenues by 2030.”
