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Courtesy of Rivian
Rivian Recalls Basically Every Vehicle It Has Ever Made
David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
On Friday evening, Rivian Automotive announced a recall on nearly every single vehicle it has produced so far.
According to documentation filed with the Nation Transportation and Highway Safety Administration, “The fastener connecting the front upper control arm and steering knuckle may have been improperly tightened … A loose steering knuckle fastener could separate, causing a loss of vehicle control and increasing the risk of a crash.”
The recall affects 12,212 total vehicles spanning the R1S, R1T and delivery van platforms. In layman's terms, the car’s suspension system has a loose bolt that can make the ride harsher or even result in a loss of steering control for the driver.
While undoubtedly bad news for the EV hopeful, the company has stated that there have been no reported injuries due to the defect. The fix for the problem–essentially just tightening the bolt–also appears to be simple and relatively cheap for Rivian to execute.
For context, recalls are relatively commonplace in the automotive industry. Though it’s also worth mentioning that EV startups have been particularly susceptible to them due to the sheer quantity of new technology and engineering in each car. To that end, Toyota also recently had to pause production on its new EV, the bz4x, over safety concerns related to the wheels coming loose. The Chevy Bolt has also faced its share of recall issues.
Nonetheless, this is Rivian’s third recall since May of this year. The company has previously had issues with airbags and seat belt anchors that required maintenance. Whether these three issues represent a concerning pattern or just normal growing pains for a company that only delivered its first vehicle 13 months ago remains to be seen, but the latest recall has taken its toll on the company’s stock, which is down nearly 8.5% by early afternoon Monday.
David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
ServiceTitan Reportedly Files for IPO at a Possible $18 Billion Valuation
05:57 PM | January 25, 2022
Photo by Konstantin Evdokimov on Unsplash
ServiceTitan—which has parlayed its field service software for contractors into one of Southern California’s most valuable tech startups—has reportedly confidentially filed for an initial public offering, Business Insider reported Tuesday.
The Glendale-based firm is said to be pursuing a valuation as high as $18 billion via an IPO sometime this year—though the report cautioned that both the timing and valuation could change. At that figure, ServiceTitan would rank among the five-most valuable venture capital-backed businesses in Southern California, according to Pitchbook data.
Reuters previously reported that ServiceTitan had begun preparing for an IPO last fall.
ServiceTitan’s software offers back-office tools for a wide range of service industries, from plumbing and landscaping to pest control and HVAC. It has grown in part by gobbling up other businesses, such as landscaping software provider Aspire and pest control-focused platforms ServicePro and, earlier this month, FieldRoutes.
The startup—founded in 2012 by Armenian immigrants Ara Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan—has also secured venture funding at a prolific rate. ServiceTitan has raised a total of $1.1 billion in capital to date, according to PitchBook data—most recently a $200 million Series G round that closed last June. At the time, the firm pegged its valuation at $9.5 billion.
ServiceTitan’s investors include prominent venture capital firms Tiger Global and Sequoia, as well as private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Arena Holdings. Santa Monica-based VC firm Mucker Capital is also among ServiceTitan’s backers.
Representatives for ServiceTitan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Business Insider report.
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Harri Weber
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
Super73 Co-Founder and CEO Turned His Biking Passion Into a Business
12:55 PM | August 01, 2022
Image courtesy of Super73.
LeGrand Crewse has been biking for his entire life — but it wasn’t until he made his own bike that he knew he would “change the world.”
On this episode of the PCH Driven podcast, Super73 founder LeGrand Crewse talks about his journey from enthusiast and hobbyist to founding and electric, fat-tire motorbike company based in Orange County.
“My very first memory of what I’d call freedom was actually on my fifth birthday,” Crewse says. Why? “I got my very first bike.”
That He-Man bike with a three speed shifter is “all he wanted,” Crewse says. The bike let him explore his hometown in Arizona on his own and introduced him to biking, which he continued as a teen and into adulthood — until he got his first car. Then, he says, the bike went into the garage and he became fascinated with customizing his new gas-powered ride.
“[It’s] a little bit cringeworthy now, but I put this, you know, loud exhaust on it and spray painted the wheels and spent way too much money at Autozone on various little pieces,” he says.
It was his corporate job—and its miserable 17-mile commute—that would later match his flair for customization with his earlier love for bikes and inspire him to build his first electric vehicle
“I thought, ‘hey, well, maybe I'll ride my bike to and from work’. That only happened a few times— and I realized ‘this is not fun’, you know, especially at the end of the day—riding an hour and a half back,” he says “Eventually, that's kind of what led me to saying, hey, what if I put a motor on one of these things, and let's see what happens.”
By trial and error, Crewse taught himself how to convert his bike into an ebike over the course of months. He continued tinkering with it, adding different motors, power controllers and batteries. Eventually, he turned his bike into a vehicle that could get him to and from the office in comfort.
“It literally changed my life. Because at that point, you know, that commute went from being this horrible thing in the beginning of my day — and the end of the day, too. It was the thing that brought me joy, it was what I woke up and was looking forward to was the ride to work the ride back, because I didn't have to take the same roads that I normally did,” says Crewse, “And so just going through and not dealing with traffic and cars and all that frustration, it was everything… It completely changed my life and that I was so excited about this.”
At the time he began working on his first creation, Crewse was also starting grad school. To everyone who knew him at the office and in class, he was “definitely that annoying ebike guy.”
He says he showed off his custom ebike to everyone, and spent the next five years trying to create prototypes and monetize his creations. He began to work with small manufacturers to convert their bikes into electric bikes. During that time he developed a drive system and a process that could easily convert a regular bicycle into an electric bicycle.
“And so that became my niche.”
An old friend’s Facebook post inviting Crewse to join him on a vacation in China later became the catalyst for his own bike company. While there, Crewse met with electric motor manufacturers and suppliers, visited factories and learned about the Chinese railway system. He used the knowledge and network he developed in China to grow his business. Along the way, he met Aaron Wong and Michael Cannavo, who would later become his two co-founders.
The two had been trying to manufacture and market cargo scooters to large warehouses to help move materials from one area to another. The concept didn’t pan out and the two had been considering ways they could electrify their creation. That’s where Crewse came in as the expert in electric drive train technology. Together, they used the manufacturing space and equipment and paired it with Crewse’s electric bicycle converter to produce ebikes. Slowly the model started to take off.
Courtesy of Super73
The first Super73 product the trio produced together was born out of a heavily-modified Taco mini bike kit, a Southern California brand that was popular in the ‘60s, and combined it with a fat tire kids’ bike they bought at a chain outlet. Their first-edition Super73 had 500 orders in the first month of the startup’s Kickstarter campaign.
“All of us kind of realized, ‘Oh, we actually have to do this for real’,” Crewse says.
It took the group a year and a half to fill those initial orders. At the same time, however, they were working on the next generation of the Super73. Now, the company has grown to offer a line of ebikes, and will soon be expanding into electric motorcycles.
Now, with a successful company in their hands, Super73 still holds onto the same values of electrifying transportation, making it accessible and creating products for the next generation.
“One of the things that never gets old, I will tell you, to this very day, when I see one of our bikes blasting down, I see people having fun on it. I mean, it's just, it makes everything worth it,” says Crewse. “[For] people to be able to go and enjoy this thing that you know, that I got to experience 11 years ago…. It's deeply, deeply satisfying.”
Subscribe to PCH Driven on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Engagement & Production Intern Jojo Macaluso contributed to this post.
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Jamie Williams
Jamie Williams is the host of the “PCH Driven” podcast, a show about Southern California entrepreneurs, innovators and its driven leaders on their road to success. The series celebrates and reveals the wonders of the human spirit and explores the motivations behind what drives us.
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