Uber is entering India’s growing B2B logistics market by extending its partnership with the Indian government-backed nonprofit that aims to break the domination of the e-commerce duo Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart and widen digital commerce in the South Asian nation.

On Monday, the ride-hailing giant announced it will soon launch its B2B logistics service through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to help businesses on the network access on-demand logistics through Uber’s 1.4 million driver network, without disclosing a specific timeline. The service will initially enable food deliveries for businesses operating on the open network, but is aimed to be expanded to e-commerce, grocery, pharmacy, and even healthcare logistics.

With its new move, Uber will be available as a logistics service provider on ONDC, competing with the likes of Shiprocket (Temasek and PayPal-backed), Shadowfax (TPG, Qualcomm Ventures, and Eight Roads-backed), recent Indian unicorn Porter, and Tiger Global-backed Loadshare.

It will be a white-label service and will operate similarly to Uber Direct, launched in the U.S. in 2020, but will be limited to businesses available on the ONDC network, a person familiar with the plan told TechCrunch.

Uber’s foray into B2B logistics in India follows the company’s expansion in the consumer logistics space by introducing Courier XL in Delhi NCR and Mumbai earlier this month to help users deliver large goods of up to 1,653 pounds from the company’s rider app by choosing three- and four-wheeler goods carriers. The company has also been offering its regular Courier package delivery service on two-wheelers for some time.

Eyeing logistics in general makes sense for Uber as the Indian logistics market is expected to grow 49% to 13.4 trillion Indian rupees ($157 billion) in the financial year 2028 from 9 trillion Indian rupees ($105 billion) in the financial year 2023, per Motilal Oswal. The move will help Uber get another business case in India, after seeing a 41.1% year-over-year increase in its operating revenue in the country to $439 million last year. Its last year’s results also showed collections from rides growing 21.45% YoY of the total operating revenue to $94.27 million.

Nonetheless, Uber is facing growing competition in the Indian ride-hailing market from local players, including emerging ones like Rapido (WestBridge Capital and Nexus Ventures-backed) and Namma Yatri (Google, Blume Ventures, and Antler-invested). Its diversification into new domains, such as logistics, is expected to help the San Francisco-based company maintain India as an important market.

Alongside its B2B logistics play, Uber has rolled out metro ticketing on its rider app powered by ONDC, based on the memorandum of understanding that the company signed with the Indian government-backed nonprofit during CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s visit to India in February 2024. Delhi Metro tickets are available first through the Uber app, while metro tickets in three more Indian cities will go live later this year.

Launched in 2021, ONDC debuted as India’s initiative to boost digital commerce and allow small retailers to go online and reach more customers easily. The network also expanded to the mobility sector in 2023.

ONDC was initially designed to replicate the success of the Indian government’s Unified Payments Interface, aiming to drive digital commerce adoption. However, it has struggled to gain traction, as its open-network model has yet to win over major industry players. Recent leadership churn has added to its challenges, with even its former managing director and CEO, T. Koshy, stepping down last month. Retail orders on the network also declined by nearly 34% to 4.3 million in April from a peak of 6.5 million in October.

“Uber’s initial enablement of metro ticketing and logistics unlocks new possibilities — from seamless multimodal journeys to unifying a fragmented logistics ecosystem,” said Vibhor Jain, acting CEO and COO at ONDC, in a prepared statement. “This collaboration lays the foundation for future innovations from Uber on the network, enhancing value for users, partners, and the broader mobility and services landscape.”

I’ve tested out a number of e-bikes in my time here at TechCrunch. And I’ve never been so tempted to hang onto one as I have with Heybike’s new Alpha.

This sturdy, fat-tire, all-terrain e-bike is worth the $1,699 price tag. The Alpha ticked a whole lot of my boxes, including ones I didn’t even know I had. For instance, I knew I’d like an e-bike with pedal assist and a throttle, but I didn’t know that I would love an e-bike with pedal assist, a throttle, and a manual shifter. Perhaps the dreamiest part of riding the Alpha was the mid-drive motor with torque sensor, which led to a more natural riding feel. That, and the battery life that seemed to last forever. 

It wasn’t all roses and rainbows. I have a few complaints about the app, setting up the bike, and the outsized horn. But generally, this is an excellent all around e-bike,  whether you want to take it on off-road adventures or use it in the city to do your weekly Trader Joe’s shopping.

And then there is the question of how long this bike will remain affordable. Heybike is Chinese manufacturer and its bikes are made in China. With tariffs, even at the recently lowered rate, these bikes are likely to get more expensive for U.S. consumers.

An affordable mid-drive e-bike

The Alpha is Heybike’s first with its made-in-house Galaxy eDrive system, which uses a 500W Mivice mid-drive motor alongside a 680Wh battery, which provides a smooth ride. 

Most other e-bikes I’ve tried are built with motors mounted in the wheel hub, which makes for a simpler, more affordable design. A mid-drive motor is located near the pedals, and if you can get a bike like that at a decent price? Take it. Because not everyone wants to buy a Bafang conversion kit and build their own cheap mid-drive. 

Even at the fifth and highest level of pedal assist, the Alpha is smooth and easy to control, making you feel like you’re pedaling a traditional push bike. There’s nothing jerky about the acceleration.

There are downsides to the mid-drive, though. If you’re the type of rider who likes to lean heavy on the throttle, then Heybike’s Alpha is probably not for you. A company spokesperson told me Heybike doesn’t encourage sole throttle use, especially at the start of a ride, because it could damage the motor and drive train.

And with the Alpha, you actually can’t start a ride with the throttle. You have to pedal first and build up to at least 5 miles per hour before the throttle will engage. When you do use the throttle, the speed adjusts based on what pedal assist level you’re on. Though even at the highest level, the top speed while using the throttle only reaches 20 miles per hour. That said, you can push it up to 28 miles per hour while pedaling. 

I didn’t find the throttle constraints to be too much of a problem. Of course, there were those occasional moments while riding through the chaotic streets of New York City when I wanted the quick getaway that a sensitive throttle would provide. Still, I found the pedal assist was responsive enough. 

And with 105 N m of torque, it was also powerful. I rarely found myself needing to take it off the first level. The addition of the Shimano Altus 8-gear shifter helped augment that power. The shifter let me kick it up to a higher gear on flat terrain and bring it back down to a low gear when climbing hills; this meant I could keep the pedal assist at 1 to save on battery power. 

And while I’m on the subject of hills, it’s worth noting that the Alpha handled inclines like an absolute champ, once again due to the mid-drive motor. 

Long live the Alpha battery

The Alpha’s UL certified batteries allow for up to 60 miles of range on a single charge, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they surpassed that. After removing the battery to charge it once (which ended up being an ordeal that I’ll describe below), I took the bike on several trips around the neighborhood and up various hills, probably riding for a total of 22 miles. The battery life on the LCD mid-mounted screen somehow didn’t drop below 100%. 

That could have something to do with the Galaxy eDrive, which seemed to have a regenerative braking system that provided power back to the battery whenever I braked. Heybike says its Galaxy system provides more than 8% of additional range compared to batteries of the same capacity.

More notes on sturdiness

The Alpha could probably double as a cargo bike for delivery riders. It comes with a rear rack that was more than sufficient to strap three packed bags of groceries, though I could have just as easily attached one of those large food delivery boxes. 

It also has a total payload of 400 pounds. That’s the same amount as the Pedego cargo bike I tested last year, which is twice the price and also twice as heavy. Heybike’s Alpha isn’t exactly a small bike that can be tucked away easily in a NYC apartment, but with its aluminum alloy frame, it wasn’t too heavy or clunky at 71 pounds. 

And while the 26 X 4 inch fat tires are great for traipsing over gravel and tree roots, they’re just as good at handling the potholes and uneven road surfaces of NYC. Not only the tires, but the bouncy hydraulic front fork suspension took most of the blows from some of those roads and made it easy for me to hop on and off sidewalks. 

The cons: set up, quality concerns, and wow, what a horn

The Alpha was not without its challenges. For one, there was a decent amount of setup involved when the bike was delivered, which required careful squinting at a QR-code instruction manual.

If you’re not in the habit of putting bike parts together (which I am not), you’re liable to get a few things wrong. I had the help of two lovely colleagues at my office, but when I hit the road something still felt off. I took it to a bike shop where the mechanic shook his head empathetically and made some tweaks, including to the handlebars which I hadn’t installed in the correct position.

I also struggled with removing the battery cover from the down tube. It just wouldn’t come off! I tried looking up an instructional video on YouTube, but all I could find was an annoying 16-second remove and install battery ASMR video from Heybike. In the end, I had to jimmy the cover open, and found that someone appeared to have screwed that latch the wrong way, hindering the release of the metal cover. I screwed it back on the right way so it could be clicked in properly.

But then, more battery cover drama. After a few rides, the cover started popping off half-way mid-ride. I’d clip it back in, hit a bump, and there it went again. Figuring that I likely messed something up while fiddling with the battery cover, I taped it in place and called it a day.

Another downvote for the Alpha was the horn. My god, it was loud. Imagine trying to annoy someone by yelling “HOOOONNNKKK” at them loudly. That’s what the horn sounded like. It was so aggressive that I was embarrassed to use it to alert pedestrians or other riders when I was passing, lest I scare the crap out of them. It did come in handy when I wanted to symbolically flip off cars that entered the bike lane, though. 

The app was also unimpressive. It could turn the bike off, but it couldn’t turn it on, because the bike needed to be on already to connect to the app via bluetooth. The app could also turn on and off the front headlight (which was very bright, by the way), as well as record and share any trip data. Personally, I think e-bike apps are only worth using if they give you live tracking, anti-theft, and alarms.   

There aren’t many colors to choose from. In fact, if you want a step-through, you’re getting it in white. And if you want a step-over frame, you’d better be happy with black.

A final note on the addition of turn signals: they worked fine, but I almost never remembered to use them. 

Heybike Alpha: Best if you’re handy, still good if not

All in all, I thought the Heybike Alpha was a solid ride, particularly for the price point. Usually a bike with the Alpha’s specs will run you anywhere from $2,000 to $4,500, so it’s a pretty good deal. Though that issue with the battery cover did raise some red flags about quality issues, and if I had ridden it longer, I wonder what other issues might have arisen. 

The affordable price tag could be based on poor customer service, based on reviews online, though I couldn’t personally speak to that. All I know is that it was one of the smoothest, easiest fat-tire e-bikes I’ve had the pleasure of riding. 

MIT says that due to concerns about the “integrity” of a high-profile paper about the effects of artificial intelligence on research and innovation, the paper should be “withdrawn from public discourse.”

The paper in question, “Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation,” was written by a doctoral student in the university’s economics program. It claimed to show that the introduction of an AI tool into a large-but-unidentified materials science lab led to the discovery of more materials and more patent filings, but at the cost of reducing researchers’ satisfaction with their work.

MIT economists Daron Acemoglu (who recently won the Nobel Prize) and David Autor both praised the paper last year, with Autor telling the Wall Street Journal he was “floored.” In a statement included in MIT’s announcement on Friday, Acemoglu and Autor described the paper as “already known and discussed extensively in the literature on AI and science, even though it has not been published in any refereed journal.”

However, the two economists said they now have “no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and in the veracity of the research.”

According to the WSJ, a computer scientist with experience in materials science approached Acemoglu and Autor with concerns in January. They brought those concerns to MIT, leading to an internal review.

MIT says that due to student privacy laws, it cannot disclose the results of that review, but the paper’s author is “no longer at MIT.” And while the university’s announcement does not name the author, both a preprint version of the paper and the initial press coverage identify him as Aidan Toner-Rodgers. (TechCrunch has reached out to Toner-Rodgers for comment.)

MIT also says it has requested the paper be withdrawn from The Quarterly Journal of Economics, where it was submitted for publication, and from the preprint website arXiv. Apparently, only a paper’s authors are supposed to submit arXiv withdrawal requests, but MIT says “to date, the author has not done so.”