Two years ago, automobiles and startups seemed to be two different things as the former is all about precision, testing and minute engineering, while startups are all about innovations, ideas and implementation, pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. Then came Tesla, the automobile startup, and redefined how people looked at automobile sector with its electric cars. Tesla is disrupted the segment, came out with the idea of self driving cars. Tesla proved to be the wakeup call for automobile sector and they realized that they will have to let go off their traditional ways. 
 
A tide of change was seen recently when a number of startups partnered with car makers. Leading automobile manufacturer like BMW, Ford, General Motors and Daimler etc have partnered with tech-startups. These startups are reshaping the automobile sector by devising driver monitoring systems, ride share with drivers with food on the go any many other things. 
 
"The traditional automakers are hardwired to think conventionally and hence find it difficult to be agile and responsive in today's digital and connected age,” says Hormazd Sorabjee, editor, Autocar India. 
 
This trend seemed to have hit Indian automobile sector too. Tata Motors is engaged with half a dozen startups and looking forward to partnering with another 20. It is already in partnership with a startup called Mobiliya which allows driver to add music to the main playlist. 
 
"There is so much opportunity in this space that auto companies cannot expect to cover it all internally or using their existing procedures. Therefore working with startups can help achieve a much faster market entry for innovations,” Tim Leverton, Head-Advanced and Product Engineering, Tata Motors, told ET. 
 
Mahindra has also invested into a startup called ScootNetwork, an urban mobility solutions provider based in San Francisco. Toyota Kirloskar has partnered with Ola and Uber. 
 
Vikram Kirloskar, vice-chairman of Toyota Kirloskar said that automobile makers have long-standing legacies in their research and development centres which sort of make it difficult for them to think out-of-the box. "They need fresh ideas and start-ups are a good place to hunt,” he said. 
 
Uber already has many self driving cars that have sensors and computer that can drive the car pretty good on autopilot. Driven by software, connectivity and the service (sharing) economy, hi-tech startups are willing to take big risks and finding the automobile industry promising as compared with other sectors, says Abdul Majeed, partner, automotive, PwC. 
 
According to a report by the research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance, future cities might run on on shared fleets of electric and auto-driving cars. 
 
Roland Folger, MD &amp; CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said that Daimler is playing a crucial role in return of the startup spirit, the same spirit on which the company was built 130 years ago. 
 
"Pactris, app was released as an in-house startup at Daimler together with the Smart Lab, which serves as the brand's thinktank for quick implementation of creative projects. On the one hand, we are strong in traditional values and on the other hand modern, flexible and ready for the challenges of digitization,” he said. 
 
 
Indian car makers are looking towards innovation rather than partnerships. Mahindra, for example, is looking in-house to kickstart a startup ecosystem. Mahindra’s Farm Equipment Sector has forayed into the equipment rental services with the launch of TRRINGO. 
 
“The disruption in the way consumers will access mobility in the future is already happening. The challenge for automakers is to not only react to this but leverage their significant strengths to innovate and meet future customer demands,” says Tata Motors' Leverton. 
(image: Indiatimes)

This is how auto makers and startups are teaming up to bring out biggest, innovative ideas

<ul><li>The market for <keyword id="8544022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="podcast-advertising">podcast advertising</keyword> is growing as Indians continue to rediscover their love for storytelling and long-form content, but in an audio form.</li><li>Year 2020 gave a huge boost to podcasts. The medium has found a loyal listener base, proving its immense growth potential.</li><li>We caught up with Gaana, Spotify and Aawaz.com to understand how marketers have been responding to podcast advertising, what are some of the new trends that we can expect to see this year and their plan to woo advertisers.</li></ul>The pandemic’s disruptive forces have accelerated digital marketing’s growth in India. Due to the lockdown, many big and small brands shifted their budgets to digital completely and started exploring new options within this virtual realm. And podcasts, a relatively new medium, has gained a lot of popularity in the last two years. Millennials and GenZ tune in to podcasts to learn more about self-love, discover something new, cope with anxiety or simply to entertain themselves. Podcasts take you through an enriching journey and transport you to a fictional world through your own imagination. It has a higher rate of effectiveness as users give all their attention while listening to their favourite choice of hosts. There is no other media interruption that can sway away a listener's attention, which brings in a huge opportunity for advertisers to jump on. According to KPMG, India is the third-largest podcast-listening market globally and is expected to be valued at INR 17.62 Cr by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 34.5%. Audio was also one of the most preferred mediums last year. As per eMarketer’s report from April 2020, 49% of users prefer using audio platforms like Gaana, Spotify and JioSaavn regularly. <div type="image" title="image (13)" msid="81655620" hostid="261"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="While users have accepted podcasts with open arms and more creators are exploring the new medium, are advertisers following?" text="While users have accepted podcasts with open arms and more creators are exploring the new medium, are advertisers following?">While users have accepted podcasts with open arms and more creators are exploring the new medium, are advertisers following?</cmsannotation> Amarjit Singh Batra, Managing Director – India, Spotify told us how 2020 was a foundational year for Spotify’s podcast business in India. The Swedish platform launched 30 Original podcasts, in multiple languages - English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu and brought on additional partners like Big FM, Radio City, and Aawaz.com, which indicates the increasing consumption and growth of the medium. Recently, it also launched a new campaign to increase awareness about its podcast offerings. Telling us about the platform's content partnerships, Batra said, “While podcasts have been around for more than a decade now, the recent innovation in monetization is presenting a whole new opportunity for both creators and advertisers. A variety of genres are streamed on Spotify locally, with listeners increasingly turning to podcasts for reflection, education and entertainment. And so, there’s a growing opportunity for brands to leverage these podcasts to reach their audience in a more meaningful and targeted way. While we don’t have advertisements for Spotify podcasts in India, we have seen brands use the medium meaningfully. For instance, Bumble India created and promoted its podcast, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2lt3oGhO4VxDJ77WmE2LpQ?si=TPw91gAlQHmeFEo2m_zUAA">Is Romance Dead?</a> on Spotify, leading to obvious relatability with the brand and connecting with their users beyond traditional marketing campaigns.” Unlike video content, podcasts allow consumers to blend content into their daily schedule in a way that doesn’t demand full attention and smoothly blends into the background, becoming a part of their daily schedule especially during commutes, post-working hours or mid-day breaks. Times Internet’s Gaana, in the last year alone, has witnessed 4x growth in user base and podcasts listening duration. After seeing this steady growth, Gautam Sinha, CEO, Times Internet is optimistic that advertisers will now follow the audience. He said, “Advertising spends tend to follow users and their journey. With users turning to newer ways of entertainment, gaining knowledge and engaging with their favorite genres via podcasts, the industry is slated for a boom in terms of advertising revenues. The need to make truly valuable and listen-worthy content is higher than it’s ever been, and so is the competition in the space. Podcasts are the perfect storytelling medium, and our streaming numbers clearly point at its rising popularity. Since marketers look for ways to reach and engage people where they are, it's a matter of time before branded podcasts become a rage." Aawaz.com started two years ago with 100 hours of programming, which was available only in Hindi. Today, it offers four languages and over 1000 hours of podcast programming. It has increased its presence by being available on 14 different devices including Ola cabs, Alexa, smartphone, smart television. It has also partnered with various B2B companies and has recently seen more interest from B2C clients as well. On the list of the clients the platform has worked with, Sreeraman Thiagarajan, CEO, Aawaz.com said, “We have Google Assistant, IBM Cloud, Agoda.com. We have also worked with Tata mutual fund as a client. We did Hind fictional content for them as they wanted to reach the Hindi speaking market. So there's a mixed bag of interest. For our news podcasts, we are talking to auto companies and they seem to be interested in fictional podcasts. For non-fiction, we are talking to lifestyle brands, because most of this non-fiction podcast appeals to youth. So far, it's a mixed bag of advertisers. And it (podcast) is coming across now.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Bringing in the next phase of growth" text="Bringing in the next phase of growth">Bringing in the next phase of growth</cmsannotation> According to Spotify’s survey, 41% of podcast listeners have reported trusting ads more if heard in a podcast and 81% of podcast listeners say they have taken action after listening to a podcast ad. Now that consumers are becoming more loyal to podcasts and sticking to their favourite shows for a long time, Batra said that Spotify will invest in helping content creators to bring in the next phase of growth for its platform. “Industry and Spotify insights show that podcasts will only grow from here, and led not by a company, but the booming creator community in India. We’re invested in nurturing this talent, enabling them to create and share their podcasts not just on Spotify, but other audio streaming platforms. In fact, there’s been an 80x increase in the number of podcasts created on Anchor in India in the span of just a year, making India one of the fastest growing markets for the platform. Going forward, we’ll see an inflow of talented creators across the country take center stage in growing their podcasting journey, contributing to the overall growth to the <keyword id="8518670" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="podcast-industry">podcast industry</keyword> in India,” said Batra. Varun Duggirala, Co-Founder &amp; Content Chief, The Glitch hosts a very popular podcast series called ‘Advertising in Dead’ on IVM, where he discusses the changes and developments in the business of advertising and content marketing. On factors that can drive industry’s growth, Duggirala said, “The podcast industry has created a new category of creators who are helping build an ecosystem of long-form content with deep retention rates with audiences. The next wave will come from podcasters evolving their audio expertise to newer formats (Twitter spaces/clubhouse, shorter format podcasts) while also building a content ecosystem around their podcasts (video podcasts, video clips, newsletters, etc). This will also showcase scale for brands to look at investing in podcasts a lot more than they are right now.” The pandemic-induced lockdown drove Indians to tune into devotional, spiritual and motivational content. It brought in a diverse audience onto audio platforms. Ergo, Sinha expects to see more regional podcasts this year. “Second wave of growth is likely to come from regional languages. As more and more regional creators get aware of the growing popularity of the medium, we'll start seeing quality content in these languages which will boost consumption,” said Sinha. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="New technologies audio platforms are investing on to woo advertisers" text="New technologies audio platforms are investing on to woo advertisers">New technologies audio platforms are investing on to woo advertisers</cmsannotation> With multiple companies like Google and Amazon investing in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning capabilities, contextual targeting is the hot area of innovation in the podcast industry. Gaana is also focusing on using its first-party right to provide an enhanced experience to its users and offer contextual advertising to bring in more clients. Sinha said, “Gaana will leverage its existing contextual targeting capabilities developed over the past few years while scaling music to make the consumer experience smoother and give advertisers data-driven targeting capabilities. As we scale podcasts, we will use the data we gather to enhance consumer experience &amp; advertiser-yields on podcasts.” According to Duggirala, a few technological advancements in the following fields will help audio platforms reach out to the next level: Dynamic ad insertion, live podcast sessions with ticketed audio events, ASMR content will scale especially in the wellness category and scaling up of transcription technology will bring in a lot of education-based content on a backbone of podcasts. Spotify’s Streaming Intelligence currently allows its advertisers to hyper-contextualize their communication, reaching the right audience, with the right message, and at the right moment. It also offers more clarity in ROI measurement to its clients with global partners like Nielsen, MOAT, IAS. Sharing the next focus areas for Spotify, Batra said, “As the awareness and consumption of podcasts grow globally and in India, Spotify is investing in technology that addresses the fragmentation and measurability in a more advanced way for this medium. Our Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) provides brands and podcast creators data on actual ad impression, frequency (number of times a listener heard the ad), reach and anonymized audience insights (age, gender, device type). In fact, Spotify research shows that a staggering 81% of listeners have taken an action after hearing audio ads during a podcast. And with listeners in India increasingly turning to podcasts too, we hope to bring SAI here, soon.” Aawaz.com is also going to focus on offering contextual advertising and help advertisers reduce spillover. Thiagarajan said, “We are a first-party data company, so we know our audience and their behavior. We can tailor campaigns that target only a particular kind of audience for example, Hindi-speakers or Telugu speakers. It can be done across different filters: age, language, time of day. We have different targeting parameters, a rich amount of data about our consumer behavior. So all that tells advertisers to reduce spillover and reach the right audience.” While podcasts have been around for a while, the lockdown accelerated its growth in India and more advertisers are warming up to the medium now.

Podcasts see an uptick in listenership but are advertising following the listeners?

Welcome to <keyword id="34991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="transportation">Transportation</keyword> &amp; Logistics Briefing, a new morning email providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting transportation and delivery, produced by BI Intelligence.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/top-5-disruptive-trends-shaping-transportation-and-logistics?IR=T&amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;utm_medium=content_marketing&amp;utm_term=content_marketing_subscription_text_link_transportation-and-logistics-briefing-gms-first-self-driving-car-model-new-regulatory-guidelines-for-self-driving-cars-thermal-sensors-for-fully-driverless-vehicles-2017-9&amp;utm_content=content_marketing_subscription_text_link&amp;utm_campaign=content_marketing_subscription_link&amp;vertical=transportation">Get the free Top 5 Disruptive Trends Shaping Transportation &amp; Logistics report and start receiving our brand new Transportation &amp; Logistics newsletter.</a>Have feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at: <a href="mailto:jcamhi@businessinsider.com">jcamhi@businessinsider.com</a>.RUMORS SWIRL AROUND NEW INVESTMENTS IN UBER AND LYFT: Last week, multiple media outlets reported ongoing discussions Uber and Lyft are each having with new investors at a pivotal moment in their competition. <ul><li>Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank, US investment firm Dragoneer, and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing are working on finalizing a major investment in Uber through a new joint venture, Tech Crunch <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/13/softbank-dragoneer-didi-close-to-finalizing-investment-in-uber/">reported</a>. The group - led by SoftBank - is looking to invest as much as $10 billion into Uber, which would be the largest investment in the ride-hailing company to date. The deal would involve both a direct investment in Uber, and a purchase of shares from existing investors and employees. However, SoftBank is reportedly looking to buy shares from investors and employees at a 30% discount from Uber's most recent valuation of $70 billion, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-shareholders-divided-over-softbanks-investment-offer-1505409810">according to</a> The Wall Street Journal. It's unclear if investors and employees are willing to part with their shares at that discount. Additionally, existing shareholders have reportedly expressed concern that such a discount could devalue Uber as it gears up for an IPO by 2020. SoftBank has already invested in several other ride-hailing firms, including Didi, as well as Ola and Grab, which compete head-to-head with Uber in India and Southeast Asia, respectively.</li><li>Meanwhile, Lyft is reportedly <a href="https://www.axios.com/google-in-talks-to-invest-in-lyft-2485369946.html">in talks</a> with Google's parent company Alphabet to inject a $1 billion investment in the ride-hailing player. The investment negotiations follow the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-moves-into-driverless-cars-with-new-division-and-building-2017-7">announcement</a> earlier this summer that Waymo, Google's self-driving spinoff, would partner with Lyft on developing autonomous technology. Google was also an early investor in Uber, but the two are now in the midst of a drawn-out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-update-1-ubers-bid-to-move-waymo-court-fight-to-arbitration-denied-by-appeals-court-2017-9">legal battle</a>. </li></ul>Uber's recent scandals and leadership troubles have given Lyft's business a significant boost in recent months. Uber's share of the US ride-hailing market fell from 84% at the beginning of this year to 77% at the end of May, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b4fb76a6-52dd-11e7-bfb8-997009366969">according to</a> Second Measure, which analyzes anonymized credit card data. Meanwhile, Lyft booked more total rides in the first half of this year than in all of last year. It also grew its gross bookings by 25% sequentially in Q2, compared to Uber's 17% growth in the quarter.New funding could help Uber achieve its twin goals of both defending market share and cutting its losses, while Lyft could use a cash injection to press its advantage. The two companies have relied heavily on providing discounts and incentives to attract new riders and drivers, resulting in steep operating losses for both. Uber needs to improve its balance to steer towards a potential IPO, but cutting back on new user discounts could stall growth and further Lyft's momentum. Extra cash could provide a cushion, allowing it to continue attracting new users while it fills out its rather <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-travis-kalanick-resignation-leadership-2017-6">empty</a> c-suite and formulates a strategy for long-term financial health. Lyft, meanwhile, could use new cash to expand geographically and put Uber on the defensive in more markets outside the US. Media outlets reported on Friday that Lyft plans to <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/09/14/lyft-canada-expansion/">enter</a> Canada by the end of this year, and is <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/lyft-said-to-be-eyeing-international-expansion/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0b&amp;linkId=42255887">exploring</a> other markets, including Australia and the UK.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="BI Intelligence" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59bc1e7038d20d2a008b6cc6-960/uber lyft rides updated logo.png"></a>BI Intelligence</div></div></div>AUTOLIV'S STRATEGY FOR THE ELECTRIC AND AUTONOMOUS AGE: Auto parts supplier Autoliv is mulling separating its electric and self-driving technology and its core safety businesses into two separate, standalone companies, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/autoliv-considers-split-into-two-listed-companies-1505384846?mod=djemlogistics">The Wall Street Journal</a>. The firm's core safety business manufacturers parts such as seat belts and airbags, while its electric and self-driving technology arm makes radar and positioning systems for self-driving cars. The Swedish company supplies parts and components to some of the world's largest automakers, including Volkswagen and Ford. Company executives say the split would leave both groups well-positioned to maximize their revenue potential. CEO Jan Carlson argued that the move would allow the firm's electric and autonomous driving business to innovate and continue to improve its offerings without stealing too many resources from its core safety business. Further, having a business dedicated to electric and self-driving technologies might help the firm to attract top engineers and developers so it can out-innovate, and pull ahead of, competitors.That'll be valuable as growth in the electric and self-driving car market outpaces Autoliv's core safety parts market in the coming years. While industry experts <a href="https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=25510008108711508212011212301501002301603906003901008710011509807006808902910106502201911710306100803002711211601810210409506404307507805105400500311002410309012010500307901608700808802410002212209300111">expect</a> individual car ownership to decline in the coming decades, which would cause car sales to plummet and dent Autoliv's core business, automakers are increasingly adding electric and semi-autonomous vehicles to their lineups. That trend that will only accelerate in the next few years - the head of the German automakers' lobby said last week that automakers and suppliers alone will devote about $47.6 billion for electric vehicles through 2020, and BI Intelligence forecasts that 2.4 million fully autonomous cars will be on US roads in 2025. A standalone company specifically devoted to building these technologies could allow Autoliv to capitalize on this forthcoming growth.That could also push other large auto suppliers to follow Autoliv's lead. Many other legacy automotive suppliers - including Bosch, Delphi, and Magna International - are also building technologies for electric and autonomous cars while also remaining committed to building the core legacy components that they've supplied for decades. If Autoliv indeed splits up its business and it proves to be valuable, that could prompt some of these other players to mimic the company's move.Enjoy reading this briefing? <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/transportation-and-logistics-briefing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up and receive Transportation &amp; Logistics Briefing to your inbox.</a>THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE TO USING DRONES AT CONSTRUCTION SITES: Construction has been one of the foremost industries in adopting commercial drones, with the sector making up a significant <a href="http://www.constructiondive.com/news/construction-drone-use-taking-off-as-industry-scores-40-of-all-faa-exempti/417421/">portion</a> of commercial drone exemptions granted by the FAA. Drones have helped make construction sites safer by automating dangerous safety inspections, while also delivering real-time imaging that helps managers track a site's progress.Hensel Phelps, one of the largest construction management companies in the US, has used drones to improve safety and measure progress at several of its construction projects. The company has been using drones for nearly four years to survey its sites and perform safety inspections. Using drones has cut the time it takes to perform safety inspections at Hensel's sites from a week down to a matter of hours. It also takes away much of the risk of a worker getting injured in an accident while performing an inspection, which can be a dangerous task requiring inspectors to climb high scaffolding.However, regulatory requirements have posed a major challenge from the start, Richard Lopez, a virtual design and construction manager who leads Hensel Phelps' drone program, told BI Intelligence. Putting drones to use at Hensel's sites required gaining pilot certifications and <a href="https://www.faa.gov/uas/beyond_the_basics/section_333/">Section 333</a> exemptions from the FAA. It also required documenting every detail of every drone flight - including flight path, altitude, and duration - in order to show regulators that Hensel Phelps' drones were operating in full compliance with current regulations. The company partnered with Skyward, a commercial drone software and services provider acquired by Verizon earlier this year, to help plan and document all of its drone sorties. This has been vital to Hensel's drone operations - Lopez says the drone program probably would not have won approval without Skyward's tools for logging all of its drone flights.Despite proper licensing and all of the documentation Hensel and Skyward collect, compliance can still be a time-consuming and frustrating task, Lopez says. Many of Hensel's projects take place in controlled airspace. Getting permission to fly a drone around such projects can take up to 120 days, despite FAA <a href="https://www.uaslawblog.com/2015/03/10/faa-streamlines-coa-process-for-section-333-exemptions/">efforts</a> to streamline its approval processes, he reports. Additionally, Lopez says Hensel could derive more benefits from doing more drone flights during the day, but has to limit its flights to before work crews arrive for the day, or after they leave. That's because companies can't fly commercial drones over people under current regulations. While companies hope that the FAA will resolve some of these issues in updated commercial drone regulations the FAA is scheduled to release next year. However, there are growing concerns that the updates may not arrive on schedule, or may not address some of these issues, because of the intervention of law enforcement agencies.In other news…<ul><li>Renault-Nissan <a href="https://www.alliance-2022.com/news/alliance-2022-announcement/">announced</a> it will roll out 12 electric cars, 40 cars with autonomous driving technologies, and intends to become a global leader in ride-hailing services powered by autonomous cars by 2022. The company previously <a href="https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_150549555939112&amp;key=5571228bb04e008b467a126d6af6bf81&amp;libId=j7m11tvn01011kx5000DAav8lkr0w&amp;loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Froadshow%2Fnews%2Frenault-nissan-to-start-autonomous-car-sharing-service-">said</a> it plans to launch a ride-hailing service rather than partner with an existing service, which is likely why it <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/12/karhoo-rides-again-nissanrenault-buys-failed-on-demand-ride-startup/">bought</a> the assets of failed ride-hailing startup Karhoo earlier this year. It's worth noting that these plans <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-making-driverless-cars-by-2020-2017-1/#volvo-is-aiming-to-make-its-cars-deathproof-by-2020-by-rolling-out-semi-autonomous-features-in-its-cars-eventually-working-up-to-fully-driverless-ones-6">are slightly behind</a> many other automakers' - Audi, Daimler, and Honda all plan on bringing at least partially self-driving cars to market in 2020, while Tesla may <a href="https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-tesla-cars-being-produced-now-have-full-self-driving-hardware">issue</a> an over-the-air update to make many of its cars fully autonomous as soon as next year.</li><li>Alphabet has spent more than $1.1 billion on self-driving car technologies since it started working on the technologies in 2009, according to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/waymo-vs-uber-8-things-i-learned-from-anthony-levandowski-taking-the-5th">court documents</a> filed in its lawsuit against ride-hailing giant Uber. This has vaulted the company's self-driving car project, now a standalone company known as Waymo, ahead of many automakers and arch rival Uber in terms of technological progress. This sheds light on just how expensive it is to build a self-driving system, a potential barrier to startups without the cash to spend that are eyeing the space.</li><li>Mitsubishi is bringing its Fuso eCanter electric delivery trucks to the US for the first time, according to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/14/daimlers-electric-short-haul-city-trucks-are-coming-to-the-u-s/">Engadget</a>. The Daimler-owned company will first lease the trucks to UPS and a handful of non-profits in New York City, but plans on making them available to other companies later this year. The trucks can handle a payload of up to 10,000 pounds, but can only travel for 60 miles on a single charge - which makes them ill-suited for long haul trucking, and likely too large for last-mile deliveries. Instead, the trucks are designed for inter-city deliveries of heavy goods, such as between a storage facility and a distribution center. Such local and short-haul trips make up the <a href="https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/programs/freight_transportation/html/length_of_haul.html">majority</a> of the US trucking industry.</li></ul><div id="categorypromo"><h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/top-5-disruptive-trends-shaping-transportation-and-logistics">Click here to receive a FREE download of The Top 5 Disruptive Trends Shaping Transportation and Logistics from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service.</a></h2></div>

TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS BRIEFING: Uber and Lyft in talks with new investors - Autoliv to break off tech business - Barriers to drone adoption in construction

Welcome to <keyword id="34991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="transportation">Transportation</keyword> &amp; Logistics Briefing, a new morning email providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting transportation and delivery, produced by BI Intelligence.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/transportation-and-logistics-briefing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up and receive Transportation &amp; Logistics Briefing free to your inbox.</a>TRANSPORTATION &amp; LOGISTICS BRIEFING will not appear Monday, September 4, due to the Labor Day holiday in the US.Have feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at: <a href="mailto:jcamhi@businessinsider.com">jcamhi@businessinsider.com</a>.NEW UBER CEO TARGETS IPO IN 18 TO 36 MONTHS: In an all-hands meeting with company employees, incoming Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the ride-hailing startup should make its initial public offering (IPO) in the next 18 to 36 months, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/uber-ipo-date-2019-to-2021.html">according to</a> a report from CNBC.In order to set the ground for a potential IPO, Khosrowshahi said he would make it a priority to "pay the bills," apparently referencing the company's continued losses. Those losses totaled $645 million in Q2 2017, despite $1.75 billion in adjusted revenue. That was down from $708 million in losses in Q1 2017, and $991 million in Q4 2016. Although Uber's revenue has been increasing and its losses narrowing, getting in the black will likely be a tall task for the company in the immediate future. Uber is facing increasing competition in multiple markets and its reputation has been severely damaged by a long string of scandals going back to the beginning of the year. Uber's share of the US ride-hailing market fell from 84% at the beginning of this year to 77% at the end of May, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b4fb76a6-52dd-11e7-bfb8-997009366969">according to</a> Second Measure, which analyzes anonymized credit card data. Meanwhile, Lyft has been making impressive gains - it hit the 1 million rides per day mark this past June and grew its gross bookings by 25% sequentially in Q2 to more than $1 billion. Additionally, Grab, Uber's biggest rival in Southeast Asia, is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/uber-rival-grab-expects-to-raise-2-point-5-billion-dollars-in-new-funding-round.html">expected</a> to close a new $2.5 billion funding round soon.Uber will have to prioritize whether to defend market share or cut its losses further. Reaching profitability will mean reducing the new rider discounts and incentives for new drivers that helped Uber grow its global ride-hailing business in the first place. It may also require raising prices on riders, which would likely give Uber's competitors a boost. Another option for Uber could be taking a bigger share of the revenue from rides, but that would mean paying its drivers less, possibly driving them to work for competitors.Uber also may consider pulling out of some markets, Quartz reports. It has already pulled out of China, and <a href="https://qz.com/1028866/yandex-taxi-yndx-bested-uber-in-russia-it-wasnt-cheap/">merged</a> its business in Russia earlier this year with domestic ride-hailing company Yandex Taxi. Uber may look to exit developing markets where it faces intense competition and little chance of making significant margins. Southeast Asia could be one such market, as Grab continues its expansion there, Quartz points out. Other candidates include India, where Uber is battling domestic alternative Ola, and Brazil, where it's competing with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-ridehailing-softbank-group-idUSKBN18K2XE">99</a>. Retrenching from some developing markets could help Uber further cut its losses, but it would still need to figure out a strategy for defending its position in the US, its most important market, and rebuilding its reputation.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="BI Intelligence" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59a86ccf79bbfd21008b71b2-960/uber gross bookings.png"></a>BI Intelligence</div></div></div>DELIV EXPANDS CROWDSOURCED DELIVERY SERVICE TO HELP RETAILERS COMBAT AMAZON: Deliv, a crowdsourced delivery startup, announced it is expanding its service to 33 new markets, nearly doubling its footprint across 23 US states and more than 1,400 cities. Some of those new markets include Denver, Austin, San Antonio, Orlando, Phoenix, and Charlotte. The startup, which was founded in 2012 and is backed by UPS, counts Best Buy, Bloomingdales, and Macy's among its retail partners.Deliv aims to help retailers improve their online sales and fend off Amazon by speeding up their deliveries. Customers can select from one-, two-, and three-hour delivery windows when they order from the retailer's app or website. This gives retailers a same-day delivery option to compete with Amazon's Prime Now <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-now-how-it-works-2017-6">service</a>, which provides free two-hour delivery on more than 25,000 items to Prime members in select cities. Amazon has been steadily expanding Prime Now, bringing it to more markets and adding new product categories - beer and wine products were <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/food/Amazon-Prime-Now-Alcohol-Delivery-43947735">introduced</a> just this week.Amazon's expansion of Prime Now could have a powerful impact on online shoppers' delivery expectations, and retailers and their logistics partners are working hard to respond. Consumers are already increasingly expecting same-day delivery - 61% of respondents to a UPS <a href="https://pressroom.ups.com/mobile0c9a66/assets/pdf/pressroom/white%20paper/UPS_2017_POTOS_media%20executive%20summary_FINAL.pdf">survey</a> earlier this year said they expect goods ordered before noon to be eligible for delivery that day. As Prime Now grows, it will likely push more consumers to expect same-day delivery, which could help Amazon steal business from competitors who don't offer it. Nearly 90% of respondents to a <a href="http://www.dotcomdist.com/Study-Delivery-Time-Influences-87-Percent-of-Online-Shoppers-92-Purchase-Decisions">survey</a> released last year by e-commerce fulfillment company Dotcom Distribution said delivery times had influenced their online buying decisions.Several retailers and logistics companies have recently announced expanded same-day delivery options. FedEx brought its same-day delivery service to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-ubers-losses-narrow-despite-lyfts-gains-drone-delivery-service-launches-in-iceland-audi-qualcomm-invest-in-connected-car-startup-2017-8">new</a> cities last week, while Walmart <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-is-testing-grocery-delivery-with-help-from-uber-2017-8">expanded</a> its same-day grocery delivery offering with UberRUSH. Crowdsourced delivery companies - including Deliv and UberRUSH - can help retailers provide same-day delivery in urban areas by quickly connecting them with nearby couriers available for immediate deliveries. As Amazon continues to push consumers' expectations for faster deliveries, more retailers will likely turn to crowdsourced delivery options as a countermeasure to the e-commerce giant's fulfillment capabilities.Enjoy reading this briefing? <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/transportation-and-logistics-briefing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up and receive Transportation &amp; Logistics Briefing to your inbox.</a>TOYOTA TO TRACK GRAB DRIVERS TO EXPLORE FINANCIAL SERVICES: Japanese auto giant Toyota will install tracking devices on the vehicles belonging to 100 drivers who work for Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyota-grabs-bigger-piece-of-ride-hailing-action-1504072197?mod=djemlogistics">reports</a>. Toyota is one of the major investors, along with Softbank and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, set to put $2.5 billion in new funding in Grab.Toyota plans to use the tracking data it gathers to develop new usage-based insurance, auto financing, and other mobility services, according to the WSJ. Toyota has been very active in exploring new services. In addition to its Grab investment, it has a deal to test self-driving taxis with Uber, and partnered with car-sharing startup Getaround to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyota-invests-in-car-share-startup-getaround-1477654599">test</a> some of Toyota's technology in its cars.The rise of alternative mobility services is opening up new revenue opportunities for traditional automakers. Besides launching their own ride-hailing and car-sharing service, automakers can also supply cars and repairs for other companies operating such services. GM's Maven car-sharing service, for example, lets Uber and Lyft drivers <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-gm-explores-on-demand-rides-and-deliveries-pelotons-plans-to-disrupt-trucking-ota-updates-coming-to-trucks-2017-8">rent</a> its cars for $229 per week. Its vehicles have provided 17.5 million rides for those ride-hailing services. Toyota's interest in offering financing and insurance could be another extension of this trend. As ride-hailing services grow in emerging markets, like those where Grab operates, recruiting drivers will likely require helping them attain financing for new cars and insurance to protect them in case of accidents. Many automakers, including Toyota, already have financial services arms that specialize in auto finance, so extending these arms to offer services that cater to ride-hailing drivers would be a natural fit for these businesses.In other news…<ul><li>Apple <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-auto-engineers-join-zoox-report-2017-8">lost</a> 17 engineers from its flailing self-driving car project to self-driving startup Zoox. The engineers reportedly left because of Apple's decision to turn the project's focus to self-driving software, rather than actually building a self-driving car. The engineers who left all specialized in traditional auto systems, including braking and steering. Apple's car project has failed to make much progress since its founding in 2014, and it remains far behind other players, including Google's Waymo, in deploying test cars with its self-driving technology. Meanwhile, Zoox plans to build a fleet of self-driving vehicles to provide rides in urban areas.</li><li>Swiss Post is <a href="http://postandparcel.info/82009/news/swiss-post-testing-delivery-robots-in-zurich/">testing</a> delivery robots in downtown Zurich, in partnership with robotics startup Starship Technologies and department store Jelmoli. Customers can select the delivery robots as a fulfillment option during the checkout process on Jelmoli's website, along with their preferred delivery slot. When the robot is close to the delivery location, the customer receives a code by SMS text message that allows them to unlock the robot's locker to retrieve their items. Swiss Post previously ran a trial in October 2016 with Starship Technologies, which is one of the early leaders in the emerging delivery robots space. Swiss Post said that it is planning further tests with Starship Technologies to use its robots for food deliveries and sending medical products.</li><li>Daimler <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/30/16226514/smart-vision-eq-electric-future-car2go">unveiled</a> the new Smart Vision EQ fortwo Concept car, an autonomous car designed for shared mobility services. The concept features no driver controls such as a steering wheel or pedals, and an LED display on the front of the car that can display messages as the car pulls up to pick up passengers. The concept might well never make into production, but shows how automakers are thinking ahead to how the designs and functionality of their vehicles will need to change with the advent of autonomous cars that don't require a driver.</li></ul><div id="categorypromo"><h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/transportation-and-logistics-briefing">Click here to sign up for the new FREE newsletter on Transportation &amp; Logistics from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service.</a></h2></div>

TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS BRIEFING: Uber CEO eyes IPO before 2020 - Deliv expands same-day delivery service - Toyota partners with Grab

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ali Shihabi set up the Arabia Foundation to promote MBS to the <keyword id="11900133" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="washington" source="Orion">Washington</keyword>, DC, elite.</li><li>He weathered claims of official Saudi funding, an employee lawsuit, and Khashoggi's murder.</li><li>But he abruptly closed the foundation with no warning. Here's the story of what - and who - got in his way.</li></ul>Seated at a large table at Le Tsé Fung, a Michelin-starred restaurant at La Réserve - a secluded five-star hotel overlooking Switzerland's Lake Geneva - Ali Shihabi was feeling elated, if a little apprehensive.It was August 27, 2018, and Shihabi - the founder of the Arabia Foundation, a new Washington DC-based Saudi-advocacy nonprofit - had flown thirty VIPs 4,000 miles by business class for the foundation's second annual summit, an invite-only affair conducted under strict Chatham House rules (pass on what you learn, but don't name names).His reputation, newly built in Washington, was on the line.At dinner, dignitaries like Prince Khalid bin Bandar al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, rubbed shoulders with journalists and leading political analysts. Shihabi - tall, stubbly, and bespectacled - steered the discussions.Shihabi, a former banker, had opened the foundation in March 2017 to fill what he believed was a gaping hole. To him, <keyword id="11894587" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="saudi-arabia" source="Orion">Saudi Arabia</keyword> was woefully misunderstood, and Crown Prince <keyword id="12060852" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mohammed-bin-salman" source="Orion">Mohammed bin Salman</keyword>'s reforms were real, not just bread and circuses. Shihabi believed his government was failing to sell itself. Shihabi quickly made his mark on Washington, hosting dinners with the city's elite and making cable-news rounds. But when the foundation shuttered abruptly, 11 months after the La Réserve summit, the city was nonplussed. What happened? The closure was intriguing, not least because Shihabi had made as many adversaries as friends advancing the Saudi cause, especially in his defense of Crown Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, in the wake of <a href="https://www.insider.com/the-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi-2019-10">Jamal Khashoggi's murder</a>.This is the story of how the Arabia Foundation rose and vanished, according to hundreds of pages of leaked court filings from an ongoing employee lawsuit, and interviews with ten people connected to Shihabi or his foundation.Shihabi was tight-lipped about the closure at the time, attributing it to differences among donors. "Nothing more exciting than that I'm afraid," he <a href="https://twitter.com/aliShihabi/status/1156901188224397312">tweeted</a>. Others were unconvinced.<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170414215025/http:/www.arabiafoundation.org/blog/The-Launch-of-The-Arabia-Foundation">In its debut dispatch,</a> the Arabia Foundation promised to fill what it called "a critical gap in the understanding and coverage of Saudi Arabia." Among friends, Shihabi often grumbled that it was absurd that US academics who had never stepped foot on Saudi soil, or learned Arabic, appeared in US media to demystify the kingdom's affairs. <div type="image" title="Ali SHihabi seen on CNBC" height="717" width="1435" msid="86065792" hostid="261"></div>Shihabi hired Firas Maksad, a top Middle East-focused think-tank operative, as CEO. "Firas was basically Ali's facilitator," Geneive Abdo, a foundation employee, said in a September 2020 court deposition. "He introduced him to people around town." Shihabi also enlisted Bernard Haykel, a leading US scholar of Saudi Arabia and his friend of 20 years, as one of several unpaid advisors.Shihabi inculcated Washingtonians about Saudi Arabia, attending book parties and hosting off-the-record dinners in Georgetown, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/23/shihabi-saudi-arabia-washington-ambassador-933951">Politico reported</a>. He racked up scores of newspaper and cable-news appearances discussing Saudi affairs.Money flowed in. The foundation received $6 million in 2017 and 2018, according to Internal Revenue Service filings. Shihabi told employees and acquaintances that his donors were wealthy businessmen in Riyadh, but questions over the source of these funds dogged him.Shihabi never pretended to be nonpartisan, however, and in private deliberations was upfront about his links to the Saudi elite. He often flew between Riyadh and Washington, had met MBS several times, and had cordial relations with figures like Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister. Before Washington, Shihabi worked at banks on the Arabian peninsula, including the Saudi Central Bank."People weren't lapping up milk like uncritical kittens," J. Adam Ereli, a director at the Arabia Foundation, told Insider. "They knew that Ali was Saudi, they knew that he had official Saudi support."Shihabi's father, Samir, was a Palestinian refugee naturalized by Saudi Arabia in the 1940s, who later served as Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Pakistan, and Turkey.Ali, who spent much of his youth living outside Saudi Arabia due to his father's postings, felt a strong sense of belonging regardless. "It's a region that has been good to him and his family," Haykel said.A year into Shihabi's mission, Saudi Arabia's stock was high in Washington. The CEOs of Apple and Google treated MBS to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-crown-prince-visits-apple-google-2018-4">guided tours of their Silicon Valley campuses</a> in April 2018 and, in June, then-President Donald Trump heaped praise on MBS for letting Saudi women drive for the first time. But that sentiment evaporated when, in early October, Khashoggi was murdered in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi embassy on Washington's New Hampshire Avenue was mute, and Shihabi was the lone voice of opposition, appearing on PBS' "Frontline" and CNN's "Amanpour" to defend the kingdom's version of events. (The CIA would later conclude that MBS likely ordered the hit.)"Shihabi had to become the spokesperson for MBS in Washington," a former senior State Department official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told Insider. It was not a coincidence that Prince Khalid bin Salman al-Saud was replaced as ambassador soon after, the official added.Shihabi's stance riled many, especially as he had known Khashoggi well. "Keep cashing those checks, Ali. I cannot for the life of me understand how you sleep at night," Karen Attiah, Khashoggi's editor, <a href="https://twitter.com/karenattiah/status/1053729719659700224?lang=en">tweeted</a> at the time.Shihabi briefly decamped to California after Khashoggi's death, and the furor eventually died down. From early 2019, Saudi lobbyists <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/saudis-return-to-washington-after-khashoggi-140931538.html">started picking up the pieces</a> on Capitol Hill and US companies <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/27/saudi-arabia-us-influence-machine-lobbying-khashoggi/">signed new contracts with the Saudi government</a>.The Saudi cause arguably needed the Arabia Foundation more than ever. But on July 30, 2019, it vanished over lunch.At 10 a.m. that day, Shihabi seated himself beneath his foundation's banners for a panel discussion hosted alongside the Atlantic Council. He was typically combative throughout the event, and when it ended at 12 p.m. he stood, swiftly shook hands, and exited the stage.Soon after, a message pinged on the Arabia Foundation's staff WhatsApp group. Everyone was to be back at the L Street office within the hour, Shihabi wrote. The foundation was closing.In a conference room, Shihabi told the roughly dozen people gathered around the table that his donors had stopped funding the operation. Staffers should pack their things and their email addresses would stop working, he said. Days later they would receive nondisclosure agreements to sign, which would release their severance pay.The closure came after a monthslong effort by Saudi officials to influence or hinder Shihabi's work, according to a person close to the foundation. The source requested anonymity out of fear for their safety but their identity is known to Insider.According to the source, in early 2019, Saudi officials had approached Shihabi and informed him that he was to start reporting to a government committee overseeing US-Saudi affairs. Spearheading the committee were Princess Reema bint Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US, and Prince Khalid bin Salman, the kingdom's deputy defense minister, the source said, adding, "That's just like saying, 'we're gonna pull the strings.'"The source also told Insider, without specifying details, that there were two Saudi officials in particular who were working to hamper Shihabi's efforts in Washington: Adel al-Juber, the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and a senior civil servant who served as the head of the royal Diwan, the king's advisory chamber."The Arabia Foundation was a victim of its own success," Ereli said of the closure."As Ali became an increasingly powerful voice for the kingdom in the US, there were people in Riyadh who wanted to either control it or manage it.""Ali was just hamstrung ... When he was off doing his thing and actually making a difference, it was fine. When people back in Riyadh started fucking with him, he just said, 'I'm done.'""If the back office isn't helping you, then you can't do your job. When I say office in this case, I mean the government bureaucracy in Riyadh."<div type="image" title="a composite of Ali Shihabi (L) and Adam Ereli (R.)" height="1000" width="2000" msid="86065795" hostid="261"></div>In a statement to Insider, Shihabi said: "I set up the Foundation to be independent of donor interference. When I saw that that was no longer going to be possible, I closed it down. Simple as that."The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, DC, did not respond to Insider's request for comment.In the days after the foundation's closure, speculation was rife in Washington."It couldn't have been more abrupt," a senior academic, who has worked at Middle East-focused think tanks for more than two decades, told Insider. "Something really weird happened because this is not what organizations do."One theory, as Gregory Gause, an Arabia Foundation advisor, told Insider, was that the Khashoggi murder had made it "extremely difficult to sell Saudi Arabia in the US."Another theory was that donors bolted in light of a lawsuit filed against Shihabi by Ola Salem, the foundation's former communications director.In her April 2019 complaint, Salem claimed that Shihabi was discriminatory, made unwanted sexual advances, and threatened her. "If you don't do a good job for this event I'll behead you," Shihabi told Salem in 2017, according to the complaint.Salem alleges that on another occasion Shihabi told her: "Come over here - I didn't get my morning kiss today."In his deposition, Shihabi said he "continuously" joked about beheading people for making trivial errors, and denied making the comment about the kiss. <div type="image" title="Founder and Chairman of Ramala Investment Bank Ali Al Shihabi participates at a Al Arabiya TV debate at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Marrakesh October 28, 2010. The forum runs from October 26 to 28. REUTERS/Jean Blondin (MOROCCO - Tags: BUSINESS POLITICS HEADSHOT)" height="1722" width="3443" msid="86065797" hostid="261"></div>"Had I felt the lawsuit had any merit, I would have settled quickly and quietly for a fraction of the legal costs, as many others do," Shihabi told Insider. The lawsuit is still ongoing.Those Insider spoke to for this story all agreed that Shihabi, a 62-year-old graduate of Princeton and Harvard Business School and the author of two books, is intelligent, driven, and commendably well-read.What they also agreed on was that he is aggressive, brash, and self-destructive."Anything can set him off," Salem said in her deposition. "It's even worse, actually, than [walking on] eggshells. It's like walking on grenades."Abdo, the foundation employee, agreed in her deposition. "He intimidated and bullied the staff all the time," she said, also calling him "extremely domineering."The senior academic told Insider: "He's one of the most impulsive people I've dealt with in Washington. He's absolutely capable of saying 'you know what, comma, screw it."Shihabi told Insider that in Washington, it is a case of eat or be eaten."I had to be loud, brash, and aggressive since you cannot quickly make an impact in a place such as DC by being soft-spoken and timid," he said. "After all, because I was advocating views that went directly against the dominant narrative, I had to forcefully impose these views onto the narrative, or else they never would have been heard."Shihabi's dinners were well known in Washington, and not always for the right reasons."He would insult people at the dinners, and they would leave in anger," Abdo said in her deposition. At one dinner, which featured Maksad and journalists from CNN and The Atlantic, Shihabi spent the meal "essentially screaming at anyone who disagreed with him," the journalist Hassan Hassan, Salem's husband, said in his deposition.When asked by Insider, Shihabi said: "My dinners were very popular in DC. I used to hold them often twice a month and if I had spent my time screaming at people I doubt they would have continued to attend."When asked to summarize Shihabi's temperament, Gause told Insider: "Ali doesn't mind a good fight."Shihabi's hackles also raised when his staff went too far in criticizing MBS, according to Abdo in her deposition. Abdo said Shihabi once tried to block the publication of an article she had written for The Washington Post hours before it was set to publish because it didn't paint MBS in a positive light.Shihabi denied blocking the article. "We never tried to block anything our people wrote because we were sensitive about exactly this accusation," he told Insider. <div type="image" title="RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - APRIL 28 (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY â MANDATORY CREDIT - &quot;SAUDI ROYAL COUNCIL / HANDOUT&quot; - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman gives an interview to the official TV channel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 28, 2021. (Photo by Saudi Royal Council/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)" height="1554" width="3109" msid="86065800" hostid="261"></div>Despite being a firm believer in MBS' vision, Shihabi's support for Saudi Arabia wasn't total. "He was never a crude apologist, he was always a very sophisticated interpreter, explainer," Haykel said.Shihabi had long had issues with how the country was run, especially when it came to the religious establishment and government bureaucracy. In 1996, after the religious authorities banned sports for women, he left Saudi Arabia so his daughter could be schooled in Dubai.Shihabi now spends much of the year in Portugal, on the site of an avocado farm bought by his late father.He is still widely quoted in the US and world media, demystifying Saudi developments as they emerge, even as his plan to use his foundation to sway Washington in Riyadh's favor didn't go as planned.But those efforts did not go unnoticed. "There were all kinds of offers made to him to be in Riyadh if he wanted to be," Haykel told Insider. In March 2020, Shihabi announced that he'd been appointed to the advisory board of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/neom">Neom</a>, a futuristic mega-city under construction in Saudi Arabia's northwest.Neom is the prized project and central pillar of MBS' "Vision 2030" for Saudi Arabia. Also on the board is Softbank founder Masayoshi Son. "I think that tells you that Ali's still a valued human resource for the senior levels of the government," Ereli said. With the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks looming, Saudi Arabia remains a tricky sell in Washington. But it's a sure bet that Shihabi will keep trying.

An influential Saudi banker moved to the US to pitch his country and crown prince to DC. Here's how his mission suddenly derailed.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Simon SongTaxi-hailing app Didi Kuaidi controls around 90 per cent of the Chinese market.</div></div></div>Didi Kuaidi, Uber's biggest rival in China, delivered a billion rides last year.By comparison, it took Uber five years of international expansion to hit the one-billion ride mark. According to the company, Uber gave its one-billionth ride in London on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-just-gave-its-billionth-ride-2015-12">Christmas Eve 2015</a>.Didi Kuaidi announced Monday that the company gave 200 million rides in December 2015 alone - and 1.43 billion rides in 2015 altogether. It's worth noting that the 1.43 billion figure comes from all of Didi's services (private car, taxi, social carpooling service Hitch, Didi bus, enterprise services and more).Uber and Didi Kuaidi are locked in a fierce battle in China.Four of Uber's 10 biggest cities are now in China, according to an email sent by Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to investors and <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e533bb8a-1081-11e5-b4dc-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3cnKza7vy">obtained by the Financial Times</a> this summer.Uber has been investing heavily in China, and the service is growing there like crazy. Uber's service is taking off in China much faster than it did in the United States. Nine months after launching in Chengdu, Uber had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-graph-shows-uber-meteoric-growth-china-investors-2015-6#ixzz3d8ZMOAyu">479 times</a> the trips it had in New York after the same amount of time. Uber is also putting a lot of money into its Chinese growth. Uber's China branch has closed a funding round that values it at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-china-unit-closes-funding-round-2016-1">$7 billion</a>. In total, Uber has raised more than <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-has-expanded-its-most-recent-round-of-funding-by-1-billion-2015-2">$6 billion in several funding rounds</a>, including a $600 million investment from Chinese search engine company Baidu.Uber's potential to own international markets is a big reason investors are interested in giving the five-year-old private company billions of dollars. It's currently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-is-about-to-raise-a-giant-round-at-a-65-billion-valuation-heres-how-thats-even-possible-2015-11">raising a round at a $62.5 billion valuation and an insider told Business Insider</a> how: "The company is selling the future in Asia," this person said. "I don't even think they're talking about self-driving cars. They're saying, if 30% of our revenue is in Asia, imagine how our company will look in the next five years if we nail India and China. Look at the potential market waiting for you."Uber has also apparently already placed servers in China, as part of its earlier effort to obtain an internet service company license in China, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-proposed-rules-for-uber-2015-10">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>.Uber faces competition in China, though. In September, Didi Kuaidi - Uber's biggest competitor in China - and Lyft, Uber's biggest US rival, announced the two companies were teaming up to take on Uber. The strategic partnership will let the companies share technology, product development, and local resources, and when US users of Lyft go to China (or when Didi users come visit the US), they'll be able to pay in their native currency on each app.Since then, Singapore's GrabTaxi and India's Ola have<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/didi-kuaidi-and-lyft-partner-to-take-on-uber-2015-9"> joined a partnership with the ride-hailing companies Lyft and Didi Kuaidi</a>, creating a global alliance between all four startups.Now that Lyft has teamed up with Didi, the two companies seem better suited to take on Uber. Didi recently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-china-rival-didi-kuaidi-raises-3-billion-2015-9">closed a $3 billion round of venture capital funding</a>, and it's valued at $15 billion, so it's well-equipped financially - in total, Didi Kuaidi has amassed a $4 billion war chest of venture capital funding. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-made-billions-life-story-2015-12">The insanely successful life of Uber billionaire Travis Kalanick</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xwY2lmdjrD0sKNXKjphpxxEqtRvRDYXG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Uber delivered a billion rides after 5 years - but its biggest rival in China did it in just one year

A considerably higher percentage of <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> are flush with funds today compared to a decade earlier. As a consequence, in the last few years, the market prices for certain type of talent has shot up, mainly fuelled by the whirlwind of VC money made available. 
 
 
 
(Image Source: Dilbert.com) 
 
The machinations of startup finances require them to pay over the odds for top talent. While they are high pressure jobs that require cross-functional skill sets, not unlike other industries, they are also high-risk, as the environment is relatively new, unexplored and extremely competitive. 
 
Undeniably, salaries contribute massively to the burn-rate of startups, especially at unicorns. Often, wages were the single biggest expense items at a startup. At one point it appeared as though the unicorns were trying to outspend each other in enticing the best talent from top B-schools and the valley, but more as an ostentatious show of strength rather than out of requirement or necessity. It reminds you of those pubs that have a scoreboard announcing which table spent the most on alcohol. Needless to say, there has been plenty of debate on when the bubble would burst. 
 
The problem with too much money and overpaying key personnel is that you start operating in a separate market altogether. 
 
That means expensive hires could turn out to be expensive mistakes too, when exorbitant severance packages are factored in. Also, there aren’t many corporates willing to pay unicorn-level startup wages, even for above-average talent which results in them getting locked-in at the startup. 
 
All of this (combined with other macro factors) hastened the fund crunch, leading to lay-offs and a <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/funding-freeze-puts-startup-hiring-in-cold-storage-up-to-50-drop-in-recruitment/articleshow/57240893.cms">50% drop in recruitment</a> in the last 18 months. 
 
Using <keyword id="1454728" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="high-wages">High Wages</keyword> as a Strategy 
Ashish Sinha, in his <a href="https://www.nextbigwhat.com/indian-startups-foreign-competition-297/">critical post</a> against protectionism mentions how “excessive funding” shaped the thinking of a “startup founder’s <keyword id="6357342" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Hiring">hiring</keyword> mantra”, which was to give 
 
…so much salary to employees that the salary becomes an exit-barrier. 
 
He goes onto mention that, several startups “had to shut shop because they couldn’t afford to bring in great talent, thanks to the talent-hoarding war by the likes of Flipkart and Ola.” 
 
It can be supposed that, 
 
Such practices created an environment where it appeared as if there existed two markets, one for unicorns and another for the rest. 
 
 
 
(<a href="http://www.tnhh.net/assets/posts-images/throw_money_at_it.jpg">Image Source</a>) 
 
In a way, when growth is the focus and the pace set is extremely ambitious and aggressive, there are few options left other than ‘throwing money at the problem’. So, the <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/55bKNDKYIn4YFlBVuuxitL/Startups-pay-top-dollar-for-Silicon-Valley-talent.html">best talent was lured in at a considerable premium</a> which further skews the wage index heavily. 
 
But paying extremely high salaries comes with its cons besides increasing cash-burn. A recent Bloomberg report mentions how some Google self-driving car experts were <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-13/one-reason-staffers-quit-google-s-car-project-the-company-paid-them-so-much">overpaid so much that they quit</a>. Back here, there’s been a spate of exits at the highest levels at <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/LgBrTHVqAM6MBeCAhdDIVJ/Flipkarts-new-CEO-has-his-work-cut-out-in-the-wake-of-topl.html">various</a> <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/top-executives-from-flipkart-snapdeal-ola-and-paytm-quit-companies-to-start-own-ventures/articleshow/51901907.cms">unicorns</a>. While the reasons vary, they have been largely attributed to lack of innovation and work culture in the latter case. 
 
When M&amp;As become the primary strategy for top talent acquisition-When unicorns can’t get the talent they desire, they ‘acqui-hire’ 
Usually an effective strategy to on board entrepreneurial talent who have a high risk appetite, it turns out to be quite expensive too (especially if the buy-out is an all-cash deal). Many a time, post acquisition, the founders lose motivation and may not align completely with the acquirer’s vision. Sometimes, it could turn out to be bad cultural fit for both organisations. 
 
An interesting case was when Flipkart <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/DbMTb2tDKuZoTfEa203XBL/Flipkart-acquires-UPIbased-payments-startup-PhonePe.html">hired back their ex-employees</a> by acquiring the startup they had just founded for a rumoured $20 million. The acquisition was done so quickly, that the founders were yet to launch their product after having quit. It does make one wonder why they weren’t given the freedom to develop that product while they were still employed. 
 
But the playing field is more level now than ever before 
The sheer quantum of dollars flowing in and number of deals happening has resulted in the Indian startup system becoming a more level playing field in reality. 
 
Everyone has reasonable spending power and there is only so much top talent the unicorns can hire. 
 
And the absolute elite talent from the valley, could not be lured in to make that extra difference. That meant, other funded startups could attract local talent, albeit above market prices. 
 
Issues due to wage disparity 
Another problem is that while the top management is paid top dollar, it does not filter down the pyramid at the entry-level or mid-level roles. It is becoming increasingly common for employees to have that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/08/22/justifying-recent-layoffs-flipkarts-sachin-bansal-claims-he-wa/">odd spat with the management</a> and sometimes even <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/sacked-tinyowl-employees-confine-founder-for-48-hours/article7850903.ece">openly revolt against the founders</a>. But, that is expected when there’s uncertainty over future funding and/or revenue sources. 
 
The recent <a href="https://m.yourstory.com/2017/02/the-infosys-severance-drama/">Infosys episode</a> on high severance packages is a clear example of the old guard trying to uphold core values and maintain transparency as the current management team has adopted a growth-at-all-costs approach which has upset the founders who built their success on frugality and efficiency. 
 
N R Narayana Murthy felt his “compassionate capitalism” philosophy was under threat, which recommends that the ratio between highest compensation in the firm and the median salary should ideally between 50% to 60%. The salary hikes and severance packages, NRN claimed, affected employee morale and increased dissatisfaction. 
 
Regulate Wages? 
Does bringing in regulations on salaries make sense? I don’t think so. We operate in a free market and market dynamics should always dictate wages. That is key for a performance based economy to flourish. 
 
However, to create companies that last at least a couple of decades, firms could insert clauses in the company’s charter that impose reasonable restrictions on salaries. 
 
So what then is the solution? 
Focusing on the fundamentals of building a company and never losing sight of it as the firm grows, is key. That means, getting the work culture right, building lean teams, reducing redundancy and increasing efficiency are critical for success. 
 
But more importantly, it always starts with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-steps-hiring-right-your-startup-praveen-rajaretnam">choosing the right candidates</a>. 
 
Share your thoughts with me on <a href="https://twitter.com/prajaret">Twitter</a>. 
 
Read: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-steps-hiring-right-your-startup-praveen-rajaretnam">8 Steps to Hiring Right at Startups</a> 
 
(Main Image: Thinkstock)

Here’s how the startup hiring scene has changed in the unicorn era

3 reasons why Uber will win in the end

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)</div></div></div>Uber is currently raising more money - <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-03/uber-raises-funding-at-62-5-valuation">up to $2.1 billion</a> - at a valuation of about $62.5 billion. The round will bring the five-year-old company's total amount raised to just over $12 billion.And as of this moment, the company says it has no plan to go public, despite generating more than $10 billion in gross annual revenue. The last time we saw a private company scale to a $60+ billion valuation was Facebook in 2011. In March 2011, fourteen months before Facebook went public, it was <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/tracking-facebooks-valuation/?_r=0">valued at $65 billion</a> when General Atlantic reportedly bought less than 0.1% of the company. But a year later Facebook was essentially forced to go public. Basically it had so many shareholders that, according to SEC guidelines, it would have to start reporting its business metrics as if it were a public company.Facebook priced its IPO at more than $100 billion in 2012, making it the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/05/17/facebook-prices-ipo-at-38-per-share/">third most-valued public offering of all time</a>, only trailing Visa and Enzel.Even though Uber is almost the same size and scale as Facebook was back then, it's in a substantially better situation. The company has been careful to learn from Facebook's missteps and control who owns its stock so it isn't forced into an IPO.CEO Travis Kalanick hasn't even sold any of his shares."It took Facebook a long time to go public, but once they did, Zuck has become a huge proponent - is it misery enjoys company?" Uber CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-is-nowhere-near-going-public-2015-10">Kalanick joked at the WSJD Live conference</a> in October.How is a founder able to raise $12 billion at a $62.5 billion valuation and resist the pressure to go public? Here's what Kalanick did to get himself and Uber in a cozy position, flush with both cash and control. <h2>Circumstances have changed since Facebook's IPO</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP</div></div></div>It's easier for startups to stay private longer than it was when Facebook filed to go public.First, there's a lot more money chasing private companies than there was in 2011.That doesn't help every private company: Jack Dorsey's payment company Square, for example, recently went public to gain the capital necessary to continue growing its business. But Uber's fundamentals are strong enough that it still has a line of investors eager to give it capital, and it's always in fundraising mode."In years and decades past, you'd go public for that last slug of capital to get to market," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-is-nowhere-near-going-public-2015-10">Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said at the WSJD Live conference</a> in October. "And the dynamics have changed. There's a lot of money in the private markets. So that part of going public is no longer there."Government regulations have changed in favor of companies staying private longer as well.When Facebook began the process of going public, the SEC required private companies with more than $10 million in assets and 500 shareholders to comply with some of the burdensome reporting requirements public companies have.But in April 2012, <a href="http://www.lathropgage.com/newsletter-44.html">the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) increased this threshold</a> so private companies with $10 million or more in assets could have up to 2,000 shareholders without having to comply with SEC public company reporting rules. Additionally, people who own restricted stock units (RSUs) or other forms of equity under the company's compensation plans don't count toward that 2,000 number. And for the past few years, Uber has given its employees RSUs instead of stock option grants. <h2>Why RSUs?</h2>Ron Fleming, a partner in charge of emerging companies at law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, explained to Business Insider why RSUs have become increasingly popular for fast-growing private companies.Basically, options are riskier for employees, who may end up with no stake in the company if they leave before a liquidity event (like an IPO or sale).If a company's valuation rises dramatically, employees who leave before a liquidity event may not be able to afford to buy the options at their initial strike price - there's no easy way to sell shares to cover the bill.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Mike NudelmanTravis Kalanick and Mark Zuckerberg have actually been friends for a while. Kalanick took Mark Zuckerberg out to a NYC club after his first meeting with Sean Parker, as documented in "The Social Network."</div></div></div>With RSUs, there's no exercise price. The company simply agrees to grant the employee stock on a regular vesting schedule. That means an employee who leaves the company doesn't have to pay to acquire her vested shares (although taxes can still be an issue). RSUs are also better for employees if a company loses value. For example, if an employee has a stock option grant at $4 per share, and then the company's valuation drops 25% due to poor performance or bad market conditions, the employee's stock options are worthless. RSUs would still be worth $3 a share.<h2>Keeping a tight leash on Uber stock</h2>It's important to remember that Uber is only five years old. So while you might think early-stage investors and employees would be pounding the table for a liquidity event, five years is a relatively short time to wait for a return on investment in a startup. Typically investors need to wait seven or eight years to pay back their LPs.In Uber's case, it's not particularly easy for shareholders to get liquidity either.Take this story, for example.A tech executive relayed a friend's experience with Uber to Business Insider. The friend was trying to buy Uber shares from an early Uber investor and had struck a deal to purchase them. The early investor and the friend took the deal to Uber for approval, but the company shut it down."They brought it to Travis and he said, 'You can sell your stock, but only back to Uber at this price.'" The price, this person claims, was heavily discounted off of Uber's valuation at the time. <a href="http://fortune.com/2014/06/20/uber-plays-hardball-with-early-shareholders/">Fortune's Dan Primack</a> was told a similar story:An early Uber employee thought that he had found a buyer for his vested stock, at $200 per share. But when his agent tried to seal the deal, Uber refused to sign off on the transfer. Instead, it offered to buy back the shares for around $135 a piece, which is within the same <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/The-Math-Behind-Ubers-18-Billion-Valuation">price range</a> that Google Ventures and TPG Capital had paid to invest in Uber the previous July. Take it or hold it.One reason Uber may be so protective of its stock is that other big tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google weren't, and it caused them issues later on.In the case of Twitter, Chris Sacca, a billionaire investor, made a fortune when he somewhat sneakily bought up the majority outside stake. Before Twitter's IPO, Sacca reportedly created a few generically named investment vehicles, and aggressively bought Twitter stock from early employees and investors on secondary markets.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NpHbMFaQ8">YouTube/Kevin Rose</a></div></div></div><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2015/03/25/how-venture-cowboy-chris-sacca-made-billions/">Forbes' Alex Konrad describes the move</a> as "accumulating the largest outside position in Twitter right under their noses."Sacca, who invested an early $300,000 in Uber, reportedly tried the a similar approach with Travis Kalanick's company, but Kalanick found out and shut it down, according to Forbes. However, we've heard that Uber was not upset about Sacca trying to buy shares, but trying to sell shares he'd already bought without following certain guidelines Uber had said out. Another Uber insider says the stock situation, while annoying to Kalanick, wasn't actually what drove Kalanick and Sacca apart, but declined to elaborate further.Regardless, it's a good example of how tightly Uber controls its stock. "Travis wants to be in control, so when you do things behind his back he thinks he can't control you anymore and you're dead to him," one person familiar with the pair told Business Insider.Uber has no problem admitting it's a control freak when it comes its stock. "We have very strict transfer restrictions in place and pursue necessary means to ensure they are respected and to limit any fraudulent activity," an Uber spokesperson tells Business Insider. "The only way to invest in Uber is through Uber." Sacca declined to comment for this story.<h2>Selling the future</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Travis Kalanick in one of Uber's first offices.</div></div></div>Uber's management team knows how to create hype. But unlike most startups, Uber has the revenue, growth, and execution to back up its claims. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-travis-kalanick-bio-2014-1">Kalanick has always been a salesman</a>, and he knows exactly how to get investors excited.The Information's Jessica Lessin describes <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-ubers-private-roadshows">Uber's current fundraising strategy as something that resembles an IPO</a> roadshow:Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and other executives have been on a roadshow giving investors a two-hour management presentation-followed by Q&amp;A-after they sign serious NDAs...Before the meeting, the investors are told very little about the company's financials. At the end, and after receiving data, they have been asked how many shares they would be willing to buy based on various valuation targets, which ranged from $60 billion to $80 billion this time.The big selling point, an early Uber investor tells Business Insider, is Uber's growth potential in Asia. There, ride-hailing competitors like Didi and Ola dominate. But if Uber can capture more of the market, it can become even more gigantic."The company is selling the future in Asia," an Uber investor tells Business Insider. "I don't even think they're talking about self-driving cars. They're saying, if 30% of our revenue is in Asia, imagine how our company will look in the next five years if we nail India and China. Look at the potential market waiting for you."<h2>Being exceptional</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Anindito MukherjeeUber taxi drivers hold placards during a protest against the ban on online taxi services, in New Delhi December 12, 2014.</div></div></div>Uber wouldn't be able to get away with any of this if it wasn't truly an exceptional business. It doesn't own cars; it's merely a logistics business, connecting supply and demand, taking around 20% of every trip total, and leaving the other 80% for drivers.The company will <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-tech-fundraising-idUSKCN0QQ0G320150821#TmxfzV8xeb6jIPiI.97">generate more than $10 billion this year</a>, according to an internal document obtained by Reuters in August, of which Uber will keep about $2 billion. And its growth shows no signs of slowing. Projections for next year are nearly triple this year, at about $26 billion in gross revenue."Uber has unbelievable growth," a source familiar with the company tells Business Insider. "Usually companies grow a lot in the beginning, then they reach an inflection point. I don't think this company has reached that inflection point yet."Like the biggest businesses in the world, Uber didn't just create a world-class product. It invented an entirely new industry, the on-demand industry, where anything from food to cars can be hailed with one button push on a smart phone. "This company created a new economy," an early Uber investor tells Business Insider. "It's not a traditional company. It invented a new way to transact and it's a pioneer. What Google did for search, that's what Uber has done for the sharing economy. Before Uber, it wasn't anything." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/taxi-driver-dragged-by-uber-2015-12">A angry taxi driver latched onto an Uber car and got dragged down the street</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="syaDhneTqVs3YVNSOQv_tUotKibiXjkx" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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An influential Saudi banker moved to the US to pitch his country and crown prince to DC. Here's how his mission suddenly derailed.

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