Image credits: Aurora Innovation

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

I’m back from a sojourn through New Hampshire’s White Mountains — a few days of respite before Disrupt 2026, TechCrunch’s annual tech conference in San Francisco. Now, after a few days immersed in fall colors, I am ready for the action. And there is gonna be a lot of it. 

I want to see you all there, so here is a 30% discount on tickets to Disrupt with code mobility30. For more info on the show, scroll down.

Now, on to the news!

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Self-driving truck companies Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI received a federal exemption this week that removes a massive barrier to commercialization. 

Under federal regulations, if a traditional big rig runs into trouble, the human driver must pull over, activate the hazard lights, and then physically place reflective warning triangles on the road within 10 minutes to alert other road users. But if a mechanical problem forces a self-driving truck to pull over, there's no human driver to deploy those warning devices.

It was a big enough hurdle that Aurora took federal safety regulators to court over the requirement. After the court denied its request for an exemption, the company escalated the fight to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. (Companies did have a temporary waiver as it awaited a decision.)

Now Aurora and other self-driving truck developers have been given the green light from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The agency has granted a five-year exemption allowing companies to replace roadside warning devices, such as reflective warning triangles, with cab-mounted warning beacons. Check out Aurora’s first responders page to see how it works.

Image credits: Aurora Innovation

Daniel Goff, vice president of external affairs at Kodiak AI, said the exemption will help the industry “usher in an autonomous era of freight movement on U.S. roads, one that can save lives and improve the efficiency of goods delivery.”

Gerardo Interiano, Aurora’s head of government relations and public affairs, echoed that sentiment, saying the decision underscores the government’s recognition of the economic and community benefits of autonomous trucking. He described the high-visibility, cab-mounted warning beacons as a “critical, 21st-century solution that enhances roadside safety by immediately alerting other road users without ever needing to put a person in harm's way.”

One question I'm left with: Could these cab-mounted warning beacons eventually become standard equipment across the entire trucking industry?

A little bird

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It's been a few months since Redwood Materials, the battery-recycling company started by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, kicked off a restructuring to focus more on energy storage. The first stage of the restructuring involved laying off around 135 employees, or 10% of its workforce.

But a little bird recently told us that some more executives were on their way out the door. Sure enough, over the last few weeks, Redwood's vice presidents of engineering, operations, treasury, and external affairs have all left the startup.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 

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Waymo has relied on capital from its parent company Alphabet and high-profile venture firms to fund its autonomous vehicle tech plans. This week, the company turned to debt financing for the first time for another bump. A $5 billion bump to be exact. 

PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street were the lead lenders. But there were so many more, including Capital Group, Loomis Sayles, T. Rowe Price, Apollo, Blue Owl, Diameter Capital Partners, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Management & Research Company, HPS Investment Partners, and Oaktree.

The debt financing comes as the company accelerates its commercial expansion within existing cities while pushing into new markets in the United States, Europe, and Japan. 

Other deals that got my attention this week …

Bloom has raised $3.6 million to become the “Alibaba” of American manufacturing. The seed round was led by SNAK Venture Partners and included Flyover Capital, deep tech firm Mana Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Invest Detroit Ventures, and the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund.

Flai, a startup that developed AI software for dealerships, raised $27 million in a Series A funding round led by automation-focused firm Base10 Partners. The round included funding from dealers (Friedkin Group and Findlay Automotive), Toyota’s venture arm, Y Combinator, and First Round Capital.

Parallel Systems, a startup developing a rail vehicle capable of moving over several tons of freight as far as 500 miles without an operator, raised $100 million in a Series C round led by AVP, with participation from Hillspire, Agility Global, Cobalt Capital, Anthos Capital, Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures, and Collaborative Fund. 

Uber has agreed to buy catering company ezCater in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.3 billion.

Notable reads and other tidbits

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Surveillance camera maker Flock cut its workforce by 18%, or around 270 employees, as the company faces ongoing and growing backlash to its license plate readers and people-tracking technology. FYI:  Flock founder and CEO Garrett Langley will be at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. 

Lucid Motors built 2,954 electric vehicles in the third quarter of this year, a 54% drop from a year ago, as the company purposely limits production to better meet demand for its EVs.

Kodiak AI has a new 435-mile autonomous route between Dallas and Laredo, Texas, with carrier Charger USA. The self-driving trucks startup is hauling refrigerated and dry freight for consumer packaged goods and for food and beverage customers.

Tesla changed the name of its advanced driver assistance system in Europe after pushback from Germany’s transportation ministry. It’s now called “Tesla Assisted Driving” instead of “Full Self-Driving (Supervised).”

Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle maker Pony.ai plan to launch a robotaxi service in London as part of an expanded partnership to bring driverless cars to Europe.

One more thing

Here’s a bit more info on TechCrunch Disrupt 2026!

I will kick off the conference on October 13 with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane has a fireside interview with Agility Robotics CTO Jonathan Hurst, as well as a panel featuring Also CEO Chris Yu, General Catalyst’s Yuri Sagalov, and Shan Shan, investment manager at Baillie Gifford. 

I will also interview Shield AI CTO Nathan Michael; Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun; and Mikell Taylor, director of robotics strategy at GM about building AI systems when failure isn’t an option. And I will interview Foxglove CEO Adrian MacNeil and Bedrock Robotics CTO Kevin Peterson about taking physical AI from prototype to product. 

Not enough? OK, here ya go: We will also have Max Hodak, co-founder of Neuralink and founder of Science Corp.; Ricursive Intelligence co-founders Dr. Anna Goldie and Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini; Hello Robot co-founder and CEO Aaron Edsinger and their robot Stretch 4; and Mark Wahlberg. Plus, hear from engineers and execs from Anthropic, Gamma, Hugging Face, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Replit, as well as investors from Google Ventures, Greylock, Eclipse, Index Ventures, NEA, and Upfront Ventures (to name a few.)

Check out the agenda here.

Image credits: Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

On an average day in San Francisco, you might see dozens (hundreds?) of Waymo robotaxis zipping around the city — and with little disruption. But, as TechCrunch has reported, there have been numerous incidents of robotaxis impeding traffic, driving into crime scenes, and interfering with first responders. And not just in the Bay Area. In some cases, companies have relied on first responders to move their robotaxis.

These disruptions are occurring in the early stages of the robotaxi era. California has a new law hoping to get ahead of the problem before the next impending wave of robotaxis land. 

Senate Bill 1246, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom this week, sets a series of new rules for AVs designed to improve safety and response times when they become disabled or interfere with emergency responders. The law also creates ways to hold these companies accountable if they don’t.

Autonomous vehicle technology companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox will have to provide first responders with local, on-the-ground support when their robotaxis cause problems and could also face penalties if a robotaxi blocks police or firefighters for more than 30 minutes.

The law also says AV developers can only employ remote drivers who are based in the United States and those drivers must hold a U.S. driver’s license. They must also notify cities, towns, and other local jurisdictions about the location and status of vehicles during system-wide failures and must provide “local incident technicians” who can assist with AV accidents and obstructions.

There are still some details to hammer out, which the Department of Motor Vehicles will handle since it's the main regulator of autonomous vehicles in the state. But when this law goes into effect in July 2028, will it actually keep robotaxis out of the way of emergency responders? 

It likely won’t, but hopefully this law reduces the chaos and raises the accountability when something does happen.

Perhaps the better question is will other states follow California’s lead or wait for the federal government to weigh in?

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Harbinger, the EV startup, landed a $300 million deal to supply FedEx with 2,000 of its electric trucks. 

HyperGuest, an Israeli travel tech startup, raised $25 million from AMI, the investment arm of Apax Partners.

REGENT Craft, the developer and manufacturer of the all-electric Seaglider, extended its collaboration with the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, pushing the total value of the contract to $19.25 million.

Quartermaster, an Arlington, Virginia-based maritime intelligence startup, raised $140 million in a Series B round. About $100 million came from Insight Partners, defense-focused firm Overmatch Ventures, and First Round Capital. The remaining $40 million came in the form of a debt facility from investment bank Stifel.

Voltaback, a French fleet management software startup, raised €2.8 million from European investment fund Serena.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

When Aurora announced it would have 30,000 autonomous trucks on the road by the end of 2030, I admit that I raised at least one of my eyebrows. I interviewed CFO David Maday to find out exactly how the company plans to accomplish this and why he’s confident it will succeed.

BMW unveiled its new 2027 3 Series and it’s offering essentially the same car for gas and electric. Guess which one is cheaper?

DoorDash shared more about its new drone delivery business DoorDash Air, including the autonomous aircraft and its ground-based systems approach.

Kodiak has landed Ikea as a customer and will begin driverless deliveries on public highways later this year. The trucks will haul Ikea products without anyone in the cab on a 219-mile stretch of Interstate 45 between Houston and Dallas, according to the company.

Lyft agreed to pay $272.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the ride-hailing company of violating California law by misclassifying drivers as independent contractors, instead of employees. The settlement wraps up violations that occurred before Prop 22 was approved by voters, which allows companies like Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as contractors.

Northeastern University tested 21 late-model vehicles from 17 automakers and 30 companion mobile apps. The upshot: cars are collecting a trove of personal data and sharing it with a lot of tech companies, including Adobe, Contentsquare, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Snap, and Yahoo.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket reached Earth orbit for the first time, though not without some drama along the way.

Rivian reported a record-setting quarter of sales thanks to the new R2 SUV. And it’s still forecasting between 65,000 and 70,000 vehicles this year. But it is experiencing a few hiccups with its newest EV. The company issued a recall for its R2 SUV over fasteners on its high-voltage battery pack that might not be properly tightened, which can cause a loss of power while driving.

We’ll finish this roundup with a few notable Tesla news item. The company sold more than 480,000 EVs in the third quarter, the second strong quarter in a row for the company after a softer start to the year. The company has delayed its Roadster 2 event again due to bad weather. 

And while Tesla’s traditional automotive business may be clicking along, it really wants to be considered an AI and robotics company. One year ago, Elon Musk laid out his fourth Master Plan, which he claims will deliver “amazing abundance” through robotaxis, robots, and AI. As Sean O’Kane noted in his recent piece, “What that means, more than a year later, is still tricky to pin down.” 

It did just pin down more money to try. The company secured $30 billion in fresh credit lines that could be used to scale its future products, including the Optimus robot and the Cybercab robotaxi.

One more thing …

The countdown begins! Disrupt 2026, TechCrunch’s annual tech conference in San Francisco, is just days away. I mentioned this last week and I am here to share this again. I’m offering you a 30% discount on tickets to Disrupt with code mobility30. 

Why go? Well, I am interviewing Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe onstage October 13. I will also interview Mikell Taylor, director of robotics strategy at GM; Shield AI CTO Nathan Michael; and Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun on a panel entitled “Building AI Systems When Failure Is Not an Option.” Sean O’Kane will interview Also CEO Chris Yu; Yuri Sagalov, managing director at General Catalyst; and Shan Shan, investment manager at Baillie Gifford in “How to Win When You’re Not Building AI.” Plus, hear from execs and engineers from Cerebras, Nvidia, OpenAI, and Replit to name a few. Check out the full agenda here.

Speaking of Disrupt, here is a profile of MyMonthly Car, one of the Startup Battlefield 200 participants that earned a spot to exhibit at the event.

Image credits: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

Autonomous vehicle technology is not yet ubiquitous or mainstream — and though readers here might shout, “It’s everywhere!” I can tell you that it is not, although I understand why folks in the San Francisco Bay Area might disagree. 

The tech is, however, being commercialized and that transition from testing to commercial product has me thinking about scale. A few strategies are emerging. 

Scale through partnerships. A couple of announcements this week highlighted this strategy. Wayve locked in a commercial partnership with Mercedes-Benz to integrate the startup’s automated driving tech into at least one model set to be deployed within the next two years. This is a Level 2 type product, meaning it handles certain driving maneuvers but still requires the human driver to remain engaged. While this is not a Level 4, or fully driverless product, it gives Wayve reach and follows similar deals with Nissan and Stellantis. Those partnerships have also opened doors for its fully driverless product. Earlier this year, Wayve announced a partnership with Nissan and Uber to launch a robotaxi service in Tokyo. 

Widespread and concentrated, all at once. As I wrote this week, Waymo’s commercial robotaxi ramp-up looks expansive, both in geographic reach and ridership. And by almost every measure, it is — until you pay attention to where the bulk of those robotaxis are actually showing up.

I looked at vehicle registration data and found that, at least for now, Waymo is concentrating its efforts in just two states. About 80% of Waymo’s roughly 4,000 robotaxis are in California and Texas, and Texas is where the action is now: Waymo’s fleet there has grown by more than 49% in the past three weeks.

Waymo is also scaling by seeking out new kinds of users: teenagers.  

I might put Aurora, a company developing and commercializing self-driving trucks, somewhere between these two categories. Aurora is clearly focused on Texas, but it has cast a wide net when it comes to partners. CEO Chris Urmson is also clearly bullish on how the company will scale over the next four years, noting this week that Aurora has “emerged from the building stage.” The company said it’s targeting more than 30,000 driverless trucks in operation by 2030. Today, it has more than 200.

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Our little bird items are typically just that: small yet notable nuggets of insider information from across the transportation industry. But every now and then, a tip turns into something much bigger. 

That’s what happened a few weeks ago, when Zoox workers reached out to senior reporter Sean O’Kane about a problem with the company’s test fleet in Atlanta. Workers were getting sick, and they suspected it was from its test vehicles, Toyota Highlander SUVs equipped with Zoox’s self-driving system.

The TL;DR: Zoox grounded its autonomous vehicle test fleet in Atlanta after safety drivers were potentially exposed to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or hydrogen sulfide gas inside its vehicles last month. Zoox says it only ever found evidence of CO₂ in the vehicles. The repeated incidents led one worker to file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which opened an inquiry and told Zoox to investigate the exposures.

You can, and should, read the whole story here.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

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Wall Street may be preoccupied by whether the buzziest AI companies will go public in 2026, but there is other IPO activity in other industries, including transportation. Many of these are companies located outside of the United States. 

For instance, Carro, the used car marketplace backed by SoftBank, is considering dual listing on the Nasdaq and the Singapore Exchange. Two India-based companies — used car marketplace Spinny, which is back by Tiger Global, and electric bus company PMI Electro Mobility Solutions — have both filed confidentially for IPOs. Then there’s EcoCeres, a Hong ​Kong-based company that produces renewable fuels, which reportedly plans to raise about $1 billion ‌in a Hong Kong initial public offering.

And don’t forget just last week the U.S.-based autonomous vehicle company May Mobility said it planned to go public via a merger with a blank-check company. 

Other deals that got my attention …

Ultraviolette, the India-based electric motorcycle manufacturer, raised $85 million and has brought on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan as an adviser. Read our previous coverage on Ultraviolette here.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Comma, the startup founded by hacker George Hotz, is facing a federal investigation after five reported crashes involving the company’s aftermarket hands-off driver-assistance tech, two of which resulted in three deaths.

Einride, the Swedish autonomous and electric trucking company, said it plans to use Nvidia’s Hyperion platform to build the next generation of its self-driving system.

San Francisco-based PitPro Automation has developed a robot that can change tires and has now deployed it at a shop in Canada. 

The Boring Company is working on “a simple precursor Hyperloop” between Austin and San Antonio that will reduce the journey between the two cities to less than 30 minutes, according to the tunneling startup’s founder, Elon Musk.

Tesla is finally handing over the first of its all-electric Semi trucks to customers. CEO Elon Musk is known for shaky timelines, but when I attended the Semi reveal event in 2017, I didn’t think it would take nearly a decade. One insider note from reporter Sean O’Kane: “Customers will be able to take delivery of the truck whenever they are ready, though charging infrastructure remains a hurdle.”

Does AI need a learner’s permit? MIT researcher Bryan Reimer, whose work I periodically share here, weighs in.

Volkswagen is reportedly delaying the return of its ID Buzz to the United States. Meanwhile, Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA America has partnered with Beep and is now launching its first passenger services in self-driving ID Buzz vehicles equipped with Mobileye self-driving tech in the Orlando community of Lake Nona. There is still a human operator on board.

One more thing …

We’re a couple of weeks away from Disrupt 2026, TechCrunch’s annual tech conference in San Francisco. I am interviewing Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe onstage October 13, and we have a lot of ground to cover. If you recall, Rivian has some lofty plans for its R2, robotaxis, and automated driving. And then there is Scaringe’s other projects, the spinout Also and Mind Robotics. 

If you’re in San Francisco during Disrupt, you should come. And I’m offering you a 30% discount with code mobility30 by following this link. There are other interesting talks besides Scaringe, plus dozens of startups to check out. Check out the agenda here, which includes talks with folks from startup Bedrock Robotics, GM, and self-driving trucks company Waabi. Les Karpas, Nvidia’s head of physical AI, and Mark Wahlberg will also be there, among many, many others.

Image credits: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

One of the stickier problems for autonomous vehicle developers, regulators, and the public is determining when self-driving technology is safe enough for the road. So far, that question has largely fallen to industry to answer — companies that are applying their autonomous vehicle technology to self-driving trucks, robotaxis, and maybe someday personally owned passenger vehicles. 

Today, there is no standardized test for judging how well an automated driving system performs in the real world. We require people to pass a driver’s test before getting a license, but there isn’t an equivalent test or system for autonomous vehicle technology. 

So how do we know whether an AV is a safe driver? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s working on an answer. 

Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) already govern the vehicle automakers sell today. But those FMVSS rules weren’t designed for vehicles like the Tesla Cybercab and Zoox robotaxi, which lack traditional, and federally required, equipment like pedals, steering wheels, and design features like side mirrors and rearview mirrors.  

The NHTSA is working on a federal automated vehicle framework that it says will put safety at the foundation without stifling innovation, or as Administrator Jonathan Morrison put it this week, force the agency to play “whack-a-mole” with policy decisions or try to predict how the technology will evolve. That’s a tricky recipe to get right. 

The agency took a notable step toward that goal this week by reaching an agreement with SAE to launch ASCEND, a government-industry initiative aimed at speeding up the development of data-driven AV performance standards. 

“Our top priority for this consortium is ADS competency, which will inform and accelerate a corresponding federal motor vehicle safety standard,” Morrison said at the AI Horizons Summit in Pittsburgh. “Ultimately, our ADS performance rulemaking will provide federal leadership in this space. By delivering an AV competency standard, we hope we'll be able to address the burgeoning past patchwork of inconsistent state and local level requirements, and continue to encourage American innovation and promote the safe deployment and development of these vehicles on the road.”

There is no timeline yet for when this consortium will produce ADS standards. But I bet the AV industry is already weighing in.

Note: Want to hear Morrison’s complete comments? Check out this video of the AI Horizons Summit, and fast-forward to the 04:36:00 mark.

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

We have a few things cookin’ but nothing quite ready to share. This is a reminder that you can send us tips!

Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com 

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Will Wall Street invest in a pure-play robotaxi company? We’re about to find out. 

Autonomous vehicle company May Mobility plans to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company ACP Holdings Acquisition Corp. in a deal that could raise more than $300 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion. 

There are other publicly traded companies working on autonomous vehicle technology: Aurora and Kodiak, which are both focused on self-driving trucks; Rivian; and Tesla. And while Waymo is not (yet) publicly traded, its parent company Alphabet is. It’s the same story for Amazon-owned Zoox. 

But May Mobility, which operates autonomous Toyota Siennas in three locations, says it will be the first public company in the U.S. focused entirely on autonomous ride-hailing vehicles. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane notes this will also be a test of May Mobility’s “asset-light” and “partnership-first” approach to autonomy.  

Other deals that got my attention …

Autonomous vehicle company Beep has merged with Freebee, an on-demand public transportation firm based in Miami. The combined company will be called Beep and will be led by Beep co-founder Kevin Reid as chair and CEO. Freebee co-founders Kris Kimball and Jason Spiegel will join as chief operating officer and president and chief growth officer, respectively.

Lucid Motors struck a partnership with European mobility platform Bolt to “deploy at least 25,000 fully autonomous vehicles” built on the EV maker’s upcoming midsize EV architecture, which is supposed to be smaller and cheaper than its current offerings.

R3 Lithium, a battery recycling startup based in Georgia, raised $15 million in a Series A round that included funding from TDK Ventures, Integral GlobalTech Partners, and Axial Partners.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Cybersecurity teams with the U.S. Coast Guard and FBI boarded two U.S.-bound oil tankers after hackers reportedly compromised at least one of the ship’s networks and took control of its navigation, propulsion, and cargo systems.

GM unveiled a new user interface for its full-size pickups, the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, a makeover that includes picture-in-picture displays for Apple CarPlay and Android Automotive. 

An aircraft equipped with Joby Aviation’s autonomy technology flew more than 3,100 miles across the United States without a human pilot taking control at any point. As I noted in my article, this should be viewed as more than a splashy demo.

ShinyHunters hacking group published hundreds of thousands of files from a Florida state database of vehicles and driver information. 

U.S. automakers may be forced to build AM radio into new vehicles within the next year after the House overwhelmingly approved the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. EV makers have eschewed AM receivers because the electromagnetic interference generated by electric motors can affect the frequencies used by AM radio.

Volkswagen unveiled a new prototype electric vehicle with record-breaking efficiency.

Waymo restarted its robotaxi service in San Antonio, Texas, five months after one of its vehicles was swept away during a flash flood. The company also launched a new robotaxi service in Las Vegas and announced it was headed to Singapore, where it would begin mapping and eventually testing its AV tech.

Wayve hired Elisa de Martel as its next CFO, an executive who has held several top financial jobs at tech companies, including Waymo. 

Zoox is currently under a 100-vehicle cap in Las Vegas, the only market in which it operates a commercial service. That cap expires September 25, clearing the way for the Amazon-owned company to expand its commercial fleet of custom-built robotaxis.

Image credits: Lyft

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation, and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

Lyft reached a new milestone this week when Waymo robotaxis landed on its app in Nashville. Under the partnership, Lyft handles fleet services, such as vehicle readiness and maintenance, as well as infrastructure and depot operations through its wholly owned subsidiary Flexdrive. 

In Nashville, customers can hail a Waymo robotaxi directly from the Waymo app, or try their luck on the Lyft app, which will match riders with a Waymo depending on availability. 

Lyft has more than dabbled in autonomous vehicle technology over the years, including through partnerships with Aptiv (now Motional) in Las Vegas, May Mobility in Atlanta, Baidu in London, and Waymo in Phoenix. But this week is notable because it marks Lyft’s first true entry into commercial robotaxi services using driverless vehicles without a human operator behind the wheel.

Lest you forget, the company spent four years and millions of dollars developing its own AV tech under its Level 5 business division. Lyft sold its autonomous vehicle unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet Holdings subsidiary for $550 million in 2021 — one of many acquisitions during a period of widespread consolidation across the nascent industry. 

Lyft then took a break from AVs as it focused on its core ride-hailing business. But it didn’t dismiss the idea altogether. 

I spoke to Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of growth, about the milestone and thought I would share a few insights. In his role, Bird manages Lyft’s international, luxury, and autonomous vehicle plans — and sometimes all three may converge.  

When I asked Bird when we’ll see more robotaxis on the Lyft app — and where — he didn’t get too specific. But he did say the company went into 2026 focused on its partnership with Waymo in Nashville and Baidu in London (where commercial service has not yet launched). 

“I think next year what you'll see is more diversification of that,” he said, adding that ideally this would include expanding Lyft’s partnership with both partners. “I think next year will be a big year for us.”

And it seems international markets are a big part of that AV expansion plan. Bird called London a “fascinating market,” and throughout our conversation he repeatedly talked about Lyft as a global company, a notable shift from just a few years ago when it was focused on the U.S. market. 

So, where is Lyft headed next? When it comes to international markets, Lyft seems to be prioritizing locations where it can operate a hybrid network — meaning AVs and human-driven vehicles — from the get-go. 

“We are a global company becoming more global, which is important for us,” he said. “And AVs will be the way we think about the future. Like any market we go into, is there an AV component to that? Is it a market where AVs are already open regulatorily, or that would put that market up higher on our list of the places we want to go?”

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

A little bird noticed a couple of interesting hires over at Ford that sure look like the company is building up its defense tech muscles. Ford recently hired ex-Raytheon employee Tomaz Seignemartin as VP of continuous improvement and former General Dynamics staffer Shirish Srinivasan, who is now chief of staff to Ford’s chief strategy officer. Ford also hired Nathan Rigoni, who was Lockheed Martin’s generative AI team lead, as senior software engineer. 

Now, of course, a handful of defense tech hires at a company that employs thousands is hardly a trend. But it does illustrate how having a background in defense tech has become more valuable.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 

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The Boring Company, the startup founded by Elon Musk to “solve traffic” by creating a network of underground tunnels, raised $3 billion in a round led by the United Arab Emirates. The Boring Company is now valued at $23 billion, the company shared in its announcement. There is a reason for UAE’s support. The Boring Company, which already worked with the UAE on the Dubai Loop, said it will dig another 150 kilometers of tunnels in the Middle Eastern country.   

Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Human Capital, Vy Capital, and Valor Equity Partners also participated.

In the U.S., the Boring Company’s most visible work is in Las Vegas, where it has developed tunnels connecting hotel casinos such as Resorts World, Encore, and the Sahara, the convention center, and limited trips to the airport. Tesla vehicles, driven by a human, shuttle riders to and from these locations.

Other deals that got my attention this week …

ARC Ride, the Kenya-based electric mobility startup, raised $33.3 million in a round led by Novastar Ventures and Norrsken22. Other backers included IFC, British International Investment, Proparco, Japanese supplier Musashi Seimitsu, and African impact investor Talanton. 

Beep, a startup known for operating autonomous shuttles at campuses and airports, raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Mobileye, one of its existing tech partners. The Orlando, Florida-based company that was founded in 2019 said it has raised $130 million to date. 

Fryte Mobility, a Munich, Germany-based software startup focused on charging logistics for electric trucks, raised €3.5 million ($4 million) in seed funding co-led by 4impact capital and Rethink Ventures. Existing backers Revent, F-LOG, accilium ventures, and unnamed angel investors also participated.

Porsche completed the sale of its stakes in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group to HOF Capital. Porsche received about 1 billion euros in the sale, and about 250 million euros of those proceeds will be used to further fund its pension obligations. 

Poseidon Aerospace raised $60 million ahead of the first test flight of its uncrewed cargo plane, Egret, expected by the end of this year. The Series A round was led by early-stage VC firm TQ Ventures and saw new investments from Hanwha Asset Management, G Squared, and JAWS. Existing backers Starship Ventures, Draper Associates, and Drover Ventures also invested.

Stoke Space may not be a traditional transportation player, but the reusable rocket company’s $1 billion raise, and some of its backers, got my attention. The round was led by Point72 Ventures (hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen’s tech investment vehicle) and Spark Capital, and included investment from General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovative Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, and Y Combinator, among others.

Tern, the Austin, Texas-based startup developing an alternative to GPS, landed an $11.26 million contract from the U.S. Army. The startup said U.S. Army vehicles will use its “Google Maps for the battlefield” tech.

Uber invested $10 million in Indian fleet management startup Carrum Mobility in a Series B round. The new investment values Carrum at ₹16 billion (about $168 million) post-money.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Autonomy, the California electric vehicle subscription service created by TrueCar founder Scott Painter, is pivoting. The company, which almost went out of business, is adding internal combustion engine vehicles to its fleet. 

Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, and Wisk, three companies developing electric aircraft, began test flight demonstrations in Texas as part of the Federal Aviation Administration's Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). The weeklong campaign will allow these companies to test real-world routes, including to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Travis Kalanick’s startup Atoms is preparing for a hiring spree in a bid to go after the robotaxi business, the Financial Times reported. 

TechCrunch reporter Jagmeet Singh digs into Uber rival inDrive and its push to scale beyond ride-hailing.

One more thing …

U.S.-based autonomous vehicle developers may get the bulk of the attention these days, but there is a lot of notable activity occurring outside of the country. This week alone we saw China AV developer Pony.ai and Croatia-based Verne (another Mate Rimac company) begin fully driverless test rides with passengers on public roads in Zagreb, while Spain issued the first national AV permits to WeRide and partners Uber and Avomo.

Meanwhile, Chinese autonomous delivery company Neolix began testing on a closed course in Japan, and Pony.ai pulled the human safety operator out of its AV test vehicles during demonstrations in Doha, Qatar. Pony.ai, along with partner Mowasalat, still has human operators behind the wheel of robotaxis in its commercial service.

Image credits: Getty

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

Depending on which corner of social media you frequent, the Tesla Cybercab event was either proof that the company is a robotaxi leader delivering the future or an overhyped affair with little substance. Whatever your view, Wall Street wasn’t impressed by the Cybercab event in Austin, which was unusually quiet and lacked the festival-like atmosphere of past Tesla events. CEO Elon Musk didn’t even attend — a notable and puzzling absence, especially considering he has spent years arguing that Tesla’s future — and its value — hinges on robotics and AI.

As senior reporter Sean O’Kane wrote before the event, “The Cybercab is Tesla’s fork in the road. This is either the moment the company begins to transform urban transportation as we know it, or the moment that reveals that, despite its many efforts, Tesla really is just an automaker after all.”

The event did little to boost confidence, but I don’t put much stock in events or demos. The real test is whether Tesla can launch a robotaxi service safely and at scale. For now, there is no scale, at least compared with Waymo. (As of today, Tesla has registered 45 Cybercabs in Texas, according to the state’s automated vehicle tracker.)

Another wrinkle emerged early Friday morning. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla just hours after the company put its first Cybercabs, which lack a steering wheel and pedals, on Austin streets. Federal vehicle safety regulations require manual controls like brake pedals, though the Department of Transportation recently proposed removing those requirements for vehicles that are designed to drive themselves.

Tesla chose to self-certify, the standard route taken by automakers for traditional human-driven vehicles. The NHTSA responded by tapping the brakes, although Tesla may choose to operate even as the investigation plays out. To be clear, there is precedent for the NHTSA’s action, and you can read all about it here.

Curious about the Cybercab? Tesla published several guides that reveal a few important details, including that this gilded robotaxi is not for kids. Here is a complete roundup of the Tesla Cybercab, as well as the company’s interest in selling the autonomous vehicles to fleet operators.

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Allianz, the German insurance company, is holding talks with advisors to consider acquiring AA, the U.K.-based roadside assistance organization, for £5 billion ($6.77 billion), SkyNews reported. 

Alteon, a Bengaluru-based startup developing autonomous aircraft inspired by dynamic soaring, raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by prominent solo investor Lachy Groom, with participation from Together Fund.

Delivery Hero’s board signed off on Uber’s $15 billion takeover offer and recommended shareholders approve the deal.

Easy Aerial, a startup that makes autonomous tethered drone systems for aerial surveillance, raised $20 million in a Series B funding round. Insight Partners, Entrée Capital, and other private U.S. investors participated in the round, the company said. 

Magna International is now investing another $35 million in Yuma Energy, a Bengaluru-based firm that operates a battery-swapping network for electric two- and three-wheelers. 

Newlight, a Bay Area startup developing a hydrogen injection system to make cargo ships more efficient, raised a $9 million seed round that included investment from lomarlabs, the venture arm of Lomar Shipping; BIRD Energy, a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Israel Ministry of Energy; deep tech funds Undeterred Capital and CiRi Ventures; and Fusion VC, an accelerator for Israeli startups in the United States.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Flock continues to face backlash over privacy concerns and misuse of its tracking technology. Florida and Texas have both said they will no longer use the surveillance giant’s license plate readers.

Ken Karklin, the CEO of the Larry Page-backed flying car company Pivotal, has left the company. Mike Ross, an aviation exec who is on the board, was named interim CEO. 

Meet Liux, the Spanish microcar startup that thinks it can compete with a tiny electric car built around sustainability. 

Autonomous vehicle technology startup May Mobility and NTT Mobility plan to deploy Toyota’s e-Palette vehicles on public streets in Japan this year. May Mobility’s self-driving system will be integrated into the vehicles.

Uber is laying off about 3,300 people, or about 10% of its global headcount, as part of a restructuring that will cut management and combine its engineering, science, and delivery divisions. 

Waymo went on the offensive ahead of Tesla’s Cybercab event, arguing that fully autonomous vehicles aren't possible without using a mix of sensors and warning that pure end-to-end AI systems aren't safe enough. Meanwhile, the Alphabet-owned company started to open its robotaxi service to the public in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa.

Zoox extended its commercial robotaxi service in Las Vegas to include rides to and from Harry Reid International Airport.

One more thing

Image credits: Kia

I typically test drive electric vehicles, but that doesn’t mean I never drive vehicles with different powertrains. I recently spent a week with the 2027 Kia Telluride hybrid X-Line SX- Prestige trim outfitted in sparkly black jade paint. My fully loaded model was priced at $61,180.

This second-generation Kia Telluride comes with a turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four hybrid engine that generates 329 horsepower and 339-pound of torque. Importantly, it delivers more horsepower and torque than its non-hybrid equivalent while improving fuel economy to 31 mpg (in the combined cycle).

Kia tweaked the design of the new Telluride, and it did give me Kia EV9 vibes, although it felt more like a cousin to that EV, not its twin. A few of my positive impressions: It's roomier than its predecessor and it is quiet on the road. It’s not the fastest three-row SUV out there and some critics have worried that Kia’s move from a V6 to a 4-cylinder engine would sap its power. But I found it zippy enough, especially for a vehicle of its size. 

Finally, I included a pic of the interior because I tend to focus on the UX and user interface of infotainment centers. This layout is not my favorite on the market, but it gets a few things right. For instance, it places a row of controls below the touchscreen for easy access. There is one design choice that I will probably never get over, even though I am sure I would eventually get used to it — and that’s the location of the gear shifter, which is a stalk attached to the right side of the steering column. I found that I was always searching for it.

Image credit: Allen J. Schaben / Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

Proponents of autonomous vehicle technology have long argued that robotaxis and other self-driving vehicles will reduce crash incidents and make roads safer. And there is some evidence of that. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a cost to those who are working (or have worked) for the companies developing that tech. 

Sean O’Kane, senior reporter, special projects, dug into data submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and found that test drivers for Waymo and Zoox sustained more than two dozen injuries in 2024 and 2025 from hard braking or other sudden movements made by the autonomous vehicles. In some cases, these workers were sidelined for months after sustaining injuries like whiplash when the AVs stopped abruptly, and hard.

Check out his full story, which includes interviews with former and current workers. 

There is one important item to consider. You might ask yourself, well what about the other AV developers? Surely, this isn’t a problem isolated to Waymo and Zoox? And you’re probably right. It’s likely that test drivers for other AV developers are also getting injured, but the companies they work for may be exempt from OSHA’s reporting requirements.

Got a tip for us on this story or others? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com 

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I’ve been writing about Gatik, the autonomous vehicle startup known for its self-driving box trucks, since 2019 when it came out of “stealth.” At the time, I wasn’t sure if the startup would survive. The hype cycle was already chewing up and spitting out AV startups and no one seemed close to commercializing their tech. 

Gatik has not only survived, but it has also crossed over from R&D lab to commercial operator, albeit at a small-scale compared with traditional human-driven delivery companies. (The company’s box trucks are driverless and deliver freight from distribution centers to retails stores like Walmart.) And now, with $200 million in fresh funding, it’s pushing to scale. The round was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Millennium Management, ARK Invest, and Intact Private Capital. 

This is Gatik’s largest funding to date. But I might argue that its multiyear commercial agreement with PepsiCo, which was signed in June and is part of $600 million in contracted revenue, is the bigger deal here. 

Other deals that got my attention …

Airbound, an Indian startup building autonomous drones, raised $37 million in a Series A round led by Greenoaks with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures.

Mubadala Capital, the alternative asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Company, agreed to acquire a majority equity interest in Arrive Logistics, a truckload brokerage based in Austin.  

Regent Craft, a Rhode Island electric startup developing and manufacturing electric seagliders, raised $120 million in a Series B round co-led by Mare Liberum and AE Ventures. (The seaglider is a class of vehicle called a wing-in-ground effect vehicle, or WIG.) Regent also secured about $120 million debt capital provided by Erebor Bank, which was launched by Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey. One note about Regent, a company I have followed for a while: The startup, which recently completed its 255,000-square-foot seaglider factory, is clearly pushing deeper into the defense sector, probably because there is money and partnerships to be had.  

Vista Global Holding, a private aviation group based in UAE, is considering a European IPO that could raise more than a $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

According to a recent YouGov survey, more Americans oppose police license plate cameras than support them. Do you? Shoot me an email and share your opinion. 

Any, an electric two-wheeler startup out of Belgium, is placing a bet on cargo space. 

General Motors is facing increased scrutiny from U.S. safety regulators after hundreds of incidents, more than 20 crashes or fires, and at least six injuries involving brake problems in its EVs.

Ford has hired Dave Carroll as president of the company’s energy business. Carroll, who previously worked at ENGIE North America, will succeed long-time executive Lisa Drake.

Rivian CFO Claire McDonough is resigning from her position and will leave at the end of October. Her tenure at Rivian came during a tough, and exciting (ahem IPO), period for the company. And her departure comes at another critical moment for Rivian as it takes on some of its biggest projects to date, including the robotaxi deal with Uber and scaling production and sales of its R2 SUV. 

Uber is launching a new live video streaming feature that will allow parents to keep track of their children during rides. 

Waymo shared 10 lessons it has learned after its vehicles had driven more than 200 million autonomous miles. The first lesson — that multimodal sensors are indispensable — received the most attention because it is in direct opposition to Tesla’s camera-only approach. But there were other lessons that got my attention, including Waymo’s promotion of vision language models (an area that is starting to get a lot of attention). 

Meanwhile, Waymo is making more inroads overseas. The company announced that it plans to launch in Munich, Germany. 

One more thing …

One important clarification on what I wrote about last week. You might recall that Waymo shared information about its custom silicon chip — specifically a 5 nm ASIC chip that is designed to handle the massive influx of raw data before it reaches the core “brain” of the self-driving system. Waymo stated in its blog post:

“While these ASICs alone deliver over 1,000 TOPS of ML performance dedicated to front-end processing and ML models, we optimize across the full stack to maximize achieved performance, especially in the low-batch regimes we often operate.”

That line led me, and others, to believe that its one chip can deliver 1,000 TOPs (trillions of operations per second) of computing performance. I compared it to Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor automotive processor, noting it was about the same performance. 

But alas, one eagle-eyed reader reached out with some questions, which prompted me to turn to Waymo for official answers. A Waymo spokesperson told me, “It's for the system, not a single chip.”

That’s an important distinction.

Image credits: Waymo

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

Waymo gets a lot of attention for its fast-paced expansion. And for good reason; it seems like every week, the company’s robotaxis are arriving in a new city, or expanding within an existing service area. 

We’ve known for a while that Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving system — which debuted in its next-generation Ojai robotaxi — is central to those ambitions. But now we have a better understanding about why. 

The company, which just opened its Ojai robotaxi to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco, has repeatedly said that this next-gen vehicle is cheaper to build, operate, and maintain — ingredients required if the company has any hopes of someday turning a profit. 

What was less clear, until this week, was just how hands-on and vertically integrated Waymo has become as it chases that goal.

The company shared this week that it built a custom silicon chip — specifically a 5 nm ASIC chip, which is designed to handle the massive influx of raw data before it reaches the core “brain” of the self-driving system. (To get a sense of how much data, consider that the Waymo Ojai has 13 high-fidelity cameras.) Waymo said the chip delivers more than 1,000 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of computing performance, a statistic that puts it roughly in the same performance range as Nvidia’s latest DRIVE AGX Thor automotive processor, a powerful computer designed for automated driving applications.

The end result, Waymo says, is a system that has “unmatched efficiency and performance.” The upshot: Waymo contends that this chip is a critical piece of a system that can react fast and safely in complex, high-density environments — like cities. 

It’s worth noting that Waymo isn’t working alone on compute. The company listed a slew of partners, some for the first time, that includes AMD, Micron, Nvidia, Samsung, Sandisk, Socionext, and TSMC.

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

A couple of little birds spoke to Sean O’Kane (senior reporter, special projects at TechCrunch) about a rather curious investigation being conducted by the Idaho National Laboratory. 

According to our sources, the lab is evaluating whether Chinese lidar sensors might pose a security risk if they become widely used on vehicles in the United States. That is notable on its own. But what got our attention is that the research is being funded by a company — or a group of companies — in the electric and autonomous vehicle industries. 

O’Kane reached out to numerous companies, including Rivian, General Motors, Ford, Kodiak, Lucid Motors, Nuro, and Uber. And all of these companies said they were unaware of the review. Aurora, Nvidia, and Zoox didn’t respond to questions. 

Read the full story here.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 

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Also, the startup incubated within Rivian, has raised another $150 million in a Series D round led by Prysm Capital with participation from existing backers Eclipse, Greenoaks, and MVP Ventures. Also has raised $455 million since it spun out of Rivian in March 2025.

The raise is notable, and not just because Also has already reached a Series D round after launching just a little more than a year ago. The company’s mission has also evolved, which helps explain why it still needs to keep raising cash. 

When Also launched in spring 2025, it was described as a micromobility company focused on pedal-assist electric bikes and commercial cargo quads. Now it is a “Palo Alto-based technology company building the world's most capable driven and autonomous small electric vehicles.” 

That autonomous driving component popped up earlier this year when Also closed a $200 million round and announced a multiyear commercial agreement with DoorDash to develop and deploy autonomous delivery vehicles. 

Sidewalk delivery robot company Serve Robotics also had a notable and very timely deal this week. You might recall that earlier this month, Serve reported during its earning call that Uber had reduced its use of its robots on the app; that partnership is set to end next year. Separately, Uber also sold all of its shares in the company. 

Months before these changes, Serve was working on several other deals that were recently finalized, according to insiders. Serve has partnered with Grubhub to use its sidewalk robots, starting in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Alexandria, Virginia. Serve also announced that its existing partnership with DoorDash has expanded to San Jose, California, and Washington, D.C. 

Uber’s retreat from Serve illustrates an important lesson for any company attempting to scale: Always diversify. And it seems Serve has managed to do that.

Other deals that got my attention …

Einride, the Swedish electric and autonomous trucking company, struck a deal with Tesla to buy 500 of its electric Semis and make the electric big rigs available to its customers, which include Amazon. The Tesla Semis will be added in phases to Einride’s fleet over the next 24 months, starting in September. Reminder: Tesla is trying to scale up but recently pulled back on promises to reach “volume production” in 2026.

Grounded, the Detroit-based startup that customizes electric and gas-powered vans, raised a $5 million seed round, with repeat investments from existing backers Also Capital and Chicago-based early-stage firm The 81 Collection, along with Animal Capital, the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund, and “various SpaceX alumni,” according to founder and CEO Sam Shapiro.

Uber said it is investing in, and partnering with, drone delivery company Zipline. Uber and Zipline didn’t disclose the investment amount but did share one lofty goal: to make 1 million deliveries per day using the startup’s drones by the end of 2029.

Vessev, a New Zealand startup developing electric hydrofoil boats, raised $19 million in a Series A round led by Blackbird Ventures. New investors GD1 and Rypples joined alongside existing investors K1W1, Icehouse Ventures, Shasta Ventures, NZVC, and existing angel investors.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Amazon wants its drone delivery service to reach nearly 500 U.S. cities by the end of 2026, expanding its current footprint sixfold. 

Bedrock Robotics, an autonomous vehicle technology startup founded by veterans of Waymo and Segment, says excavators equipped with its self-driving system are now operating fully autonomously at three large customer sites in Nevada and Texas.

Hyundai’s luxury car brand Genesis unveiled a seven-seater electric SUV called the GV90 that will compete with other hefty EVs like the Cadillac Escalade IQ and Rivian R1S. 

Tesla is one of 11 carmakers in China recalling millions of vehicles over its hidden emergency door releases, which can trap occupants in the event of a crash or a fire. Xiaomi, Xpeng, and Geely brands Zeekr and Lynk & Co. are also recalling EVs.

Tesla, Uber, and Waymo all received permits from Nevada regulators that will allow them to operate commercial robotaxi services in Clark County, home to Las Vegas. Together, these permits would deploy up to 8,000 robotaxis across the county over the next 12 months. It’s unlikely that all 8,000 of these vehicles will land in Vegas over the next year, but even a fraction of that amount will affect the city.  

Uber was fined €825 million ($966 million) by the Dutch Data Protection Authority for using automated systems to deactivate or suspend driver accounts without adequately informing them — a violation of European data protection law. 

Uber also had a slew of other autonomous vehicle-related announcements this week, including early rider testing in London with partner Wayve; the launch of a robotaxi service in Zagreb, Croatia, with Pony.ai and Verne; and driverless rides in Dubai with Baidu.

Waymo has responded to questions from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the regulator’s investigation into a crash in which a robotaxi struck a child at low speed. The catch: The responses (at least the ones that have been released so far) are all redacted.

Image credits: Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

Something was in the air this week because we had a heck of a lot of electric aircraft news. Ba-dum-tss.

But really, it’s no joke — two of the bigger deals of the week involved companies developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL). Together they illustrate how the burgeoning sector continues to consolidate and seek out near-term revenue streams even as they go through the lengthy regulatory process to eventually deploy electric air taxis.

In one of the crazier twists in the nascent eVTOL industry, Archer Aviation announced that it now owns its former rival Wisk Aero. Under the terms of the deal, Boeing agreed to sell Wisk Aero and two other subsidiaries to Archer in exchange for an ownership stake in the company. Boeing now holds a 16.5% stake in Archer. The other subsidiaries are SkyGrid, a digital airspace and air traffic management software company, and drone maker Insitu. 

For those unfamiliar, Wisk sued Archer in 2021 over allegations of the “brazen theft” of confidential information and intellectual property. The case went on for two years before the companies reached an unusual settlement that not only ended the lawsuit and Archer’s countersuit against Wisk seeking $1 billion in damages, but also led to a new collaboration. 

Wisk has taken a rather winding path. It started as Kitty Hawk, an electric aviation startup led by Sebastian Thrun, who co-founded the Alphabet moonshot factory X, and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page. Kitty Hawk shut down in September 2022, but its Cora program, which had spun off into a joint venture with Boeing, lived on. That joint venture was renamed Wisk Aero.

Then there’s Joby Aviation, which made a more predictable deal this week. The company acquired Resonant Sciences for $500 million, marking the electric air taxi developer’s push into the defense sector.

Resonant Sciences, which makes radio frequency and sensor systems, will become a dedicated defense business under Joby aptly called Joby Defense. 

Joby has been slowly expanding into the defense sector over the past couple years even as it has pursued its original mission to certify and manufacture electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use as urban air taxis. Joby says it is sticking with its mission, but also sees opportunity — not to mention revenue — in the defense sector.

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

For the past two years, Uber has been laser-focused on locking up partnerships with, and even investing in, autonomous vehicle technology companies. But this week Uber did the opposite. The ride-hail company sold off its entire stake in Serve Robotics, the autonomous delivery robot company that spun out of Uber more than five years ago.

Here’s the interesting part. According to some little birds, Serve Robotics was surprised by the sell-off and only learned about it when Uber’s regulatory filing was posted. Uber and Serve are still business partners, and that contract, which puts Serve’s delivery robots on the Uber Eats app, is set to expire in 2027.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 

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Uber is investing in Galgo, a Chilean fintech company that specializes in extending credit to buy motorcycles, Bloomberg reported. 

Electric mobility startup Yulu raised $93 million in a Series C round comprising $63 million in equity led by GEF Capital Partners and $30 million in debt financing.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to begin testing their self-driving trucks on public roads in the state. And Kodiak AI has already started. 

Avride said it has surpassed 100,000 autonomous rides on the Uber app in Dallas. There are some caveats here, of course, namely that there is still a human safety operator behind the wheel. Avride wouldn’t supply me with a weekly ridership breakdown, but it has been about two months since the company announced it had reached the 60,000-ride milestone. 

Delta Air Lines is investigating a cybersecurity incident in which an unidentified passenger allegedly created a fake Wi-Fi network on a flight, prompting pilots to alert air traffic control.

Flock announced a series of new policies and tools, claiming they will help curb abuse of its automated license plate camera reader systems and help keep its law enforcement customers accountable.

Ford said it’s on track to complete its $2 billion overhaul of its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky, which will use a new assembly system to build its next-generation of EVs, starting with the midsize Fathom truck. 

Ground Truth, an art project created to raise awareness about housing affordability in New York, created a gadget that will trigger the brakes on Citi rental bikes, making it harder to pedal through rent-burdened neighborhoods, Wired reported.

Hiroshi Okuda, a longtime Toyota executive who served as president and eventually chairman, died this week, according to the company. Okuda took some big swings during his time at Toyota, notably pushing for the gas-electric hybrid Prius vehicle. Bloomberg has a lengthy writeup on Okuda.

Pony.ai and Uber plan to bring 2,000 robotaxis to four cities in Europe as part of an expanded partnership.

Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took to X this week to promote the DOT’s effort to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers. According to Duffy, 2,000 candidates have been hired through this program, although he didn’t say if they were all gamers. 

Uber Freight is investigating a cyberattack and data breach that hacking and extortion gang Helix recently took credit for. 

Waymo is expanding in California again after the state’s Public Utilities Commission approved terms of its commercial ride-hailing permit. The company’s robotaxis can now commercially operate (i.e., charge for rides) in a broader territory across the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. The service can also expand to Sacramento and San Diego — although the Waymo folks say this hasn’t happened yet.

Zoox released its safety case framework, a critical document for any company that wants to build trust with the public and show how and why it thinks its technology is safe enough. This framework is particularly important because today there is no federally mandated test, or AV “driver’s license” so to speak.  

One more thing …

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is just a couple of months away and I wanted to flag one guest who might be interesting to you. 

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe will join me onstage at Disrupt, our annual tech conference that brings together thousands of founders, investors, CEOs, policymakers, engineers, and media. Have a question for Scaringe? Shoot me an email and I’ll take a look. 

Disrupt will be held October 13 to October 15 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Check out the programming that’s been announced so far here, and if you don’t already have a ticket, lock in yours before our next price increase on August 22.

Image credits: Zoox

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

In just a few days, Amazon-owned Zoox will start charging for robotaxi rides. This might not seem like a big deal; the company’s custom-built robotaxis are already giving rides to passengers in Las Vegas and San Francisco, after all. And it’s opening up an early rider program in Miami and Austin too. 

None of this matters — in a business sense — until the company can operate commercially. 

And now it can, starting August 10, thanks to an exemption issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Because Zoox vehicles lack many of the traditional controls required under federal law, such as a steering wheel and pedals, it needed an exemption from federal motor vehicle standards in order to operate. It had an exemption that allowed it to demonstrate the technology; this one allows Zoox to operate a fleet of up to 2,500 vehicles commercially for two years. 

The exemption is a win for Zoox, but it also paves the way for any other autonomous vehicle developer that wants to launch a robotaxi that lacks a steering wheel, pedals, or other requirements that might not be needed in a vehicle with no human driver. For instance, a robotaxi really doesn’t need a rearview mirror; it already achieves that kind of visibility with sensors on the exterior of the vehicle. 

Tesla is the obvious beneficiary here since it is developing its two-seater Cybercab. But there will be others as well.

In other news, you might have missed my comprehensive assessment of Uber’s autonomous vehicle empire. Check it out; it offers a complete rundown of every company that Uber has partnered with (and in some cases invested in). And I hear more are coming. 

You might recall that the Financial Times did its own calculus of how much Uber was investing in AVs. The outlet determined it was about $10 billion. And what do you know? That is exactly the number Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi shared during the company’s earnings call. He said the company would commit $10 billion “over the coming years” to deploy 120,000 driverless vehicles.

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Moove started out as an African fintech company that provided vehicle financing for app drivers. While Moove remains in the mobility sector, it has evolved into a mega ride-hail fleet owner (42,000 vehicles and growing) across 13 countries. 

It has also added a new business division focused on autonomous vehicles. Moove got an early win and is now the fleet operator for Waymo in Phoenix, Miami, and Las Vegas, and in the future, London. But co-CEO Ladi Delano clearly has grander ambitions for Moove — and now he has the fresh capital to try. 

The startup, now based in Dubai, raised $250 million in a Series C round led by Mubadala Investment Company with Woven Capital and Ion Pacific as co-leads. Moove, which is now valued at $2.1 billion, plans to use the funds to scale its autonomous vehicle fleet management business, including hiring about 350 people. 

One interesting item of note: Moove plans to buy Waymo robotaxis and already owns the robotaxi assets of another unnamed company.

Other deals that got my attention this week …

Accell Group Holding, the Dutch bike maker behind brands like Lapierre, Raleigh, and Sparta, was granted a suspension of payments, kicking off an insolvency process. In 2022, a consortium led by KKR bought the firm for 1.56 billion euros ($1.77 billion at the time).

Advanced Electric Machines Group, a U.K.-based manufacturer of rare earth and magnet-free electric motors, raised £16 million ($21.5 million) in a round led by Barclays Climate Ventures, PXN Ventures, Northstar Ventures, and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund. The funding round was complemented by loan support from Innovate UK.

Chargepoly, a French company specializing in the electrification of heavy-duty and commercial vehicle fleets, raised €23 million ($26 million) in a round led by Meridiam.

Hadrian, a defense tech company building automated manufacturing facilities, raised a $1.37 billion round at a valuation of $7.87 billion. The lead investors in the round include WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures, and Baillie Gifford.

Matel Motion & Energy Solutions, an India-based company developing energy-efficient motors, motor controllers, and integrated powertrains, raised INR 130 crore ($13.6 million) in a Series B funding round led by UC Impower. 

River, the Indian electric vehicle startup, raised $120 million in a Series C funding round led by Elev8 Venture Partners and Claypond Capital. Other investors included Singularity AMC, Anicut Capital, 360 ONE Asset, JIF Capital, HDFC AMC, along with existing backers Yamaha Motors, Al-Futtaim Group, and Mitsui.

Notable reads and other tidbits

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Ford has a name and a number for its new midsize EV. It will be called Fathom and will start at $28,350 when it goes on sale in 2027. TechCrunch climate tech reporter and long-time EV owner Tim De Chant argues that Ford needs another Taurus, and the Fathom isn’t it. What do you think? 

Joby Aviation, the electric vertical takeoff and landing company, reported earnings this week. Revenue is up compared with the same quarter last year, thanks to its acquisition of Blade Air Mobility. Net losses shrank a bit to $245 million. One of the more interesting announcements this week, though, was Joby’s partnership with Atoms, Travis Kalanick’s AI and industrial automation startup. The partnership will develop and finance a network of transportation hubs serving air taxis and autonomous ground vehicles with an initial focus on Florida, New York, and Texas, as well as California, according to Joby.

Lucid Motors’ second-quarter earnings struck a somber it’s-time-to-get-down-to-business tone. And that comes with a cost. New CEO Silvio Napoli outlined four must-win priorities that include a $1.4 billion cost savings plan. It’s also banking on a successful robotaxi program with Uber and Nuro and launching its midsize Cosmos EV, which has now been delayed until the second half of 2027. 

Nvidia has released its Alpamayo 2 Super for commercial use — an AI model designed for autonomous driving. The model is available on Hugging Face, and the open license covers commercial redistribution and derivative models that allow AV developers, automakers, and others to adapt Alpamayo to their own data, driving policies, and deployment strategies, the company said.

Teamsters California sued the California Department of Motor Vehicles, alleging that the agency did not properly study and disclose the economic impacts of allowing self-driving heavy-duty trucks on the state's roads. I reached out to a few AV developers and all declined to comment. However, the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association did issue a statement: “This lawsuit from the Teamsters sets a new standard in abusive and frivolous litigation and cannot be taken seriously."

TechCrunch teamed up with New York-based financial research firm Hudson Labs again. This time to map what Elon Musk and Tesla’s other executives have spent the last seven years talking about on the company’s quarterly earnings calls. Check out the full story for graphs and complete findings. Here is a taste: Musk now speaks about artificial intelligence, along with robotaxis and Full Self-Driving software, nearly 50% of the time.

Speaking of Elon Musk, his companies had a newsy week. SpaceX reported its first earnings report as a publicly traded company. The TL;DR: The company doubled its revenue compared to last year, in large part thanks to the growth of its Starlink satellite internet service and deals it struck to rent out computing power to Anthropic and Google. And during the earnings call, Musk made some out-of-this-world claims about the company’s business and future prospects, while his fellow executives tried to bring his ideas closer to Earth.

Meanwhile, Tesla and SpaceX said that “Terafab,” the advanced chip factory they are jointly developing, will be built in Grimes County, Texas, outside Houston, and that they will make an initial investment of $16.8 billion in the project.

The New York Times published an investigation on Uber’s defense strategy against more than 4,000 lawsuits filed by passengers who allege the company failed to protect them from sexual violence. 

Waymo dropped the waitlist for its robotaxi service in Dallas, opening it up to all residents and visitors.

One more thing …

Travis Kalanick, and his AI and industrial automation startup Atoms, is popping up everywhere these days (see that Joby partnership above). Kalanick isn’t just making deals — although remember he did just raise $1.7 billion. The former Uber CEO also appears to be getting the band back together and bringing on former engineers and executives he once worked with. 

For instance, Gautam Gupta, the former finance chief under Kalanick, has joined Atoms as chief financial officer. Gupta spent more than four years at Uber until he left in July 2017, just a few weeks after Kalanick resigned as CEO. 

Image credits: Jay Janner / The Austin American-Statesman / Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

TechCrunch covered a couple of stories this week that illustrate the countervailing forces at play within the autonomous vehicle industry. The federal government is hitting the accelerator while state and local officials are pumping the brakes on autonomous vehicles. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made a series of autonomous vehicle technology announcements designed to cut red tape and accelerate the development and deployment of this technology (my article describes many of its actions). The one that got the most attention was the agency’s decision to give Zoox a temporary exemption from eight federal motor vehicle safety standards, which will finally allow the company to charge customers for rides in its custom-built robotaxi.

The importance of this can’t be understated. This was one of the last remaining regulatory hurdles Zoox needed to clear before launching a commercial robotaxi service. And according to the company, paid rides are imminent. The company will start charging for rides in Las Vegas first.

Meanwhile, Waymo and other robotaxi operators are facing increased scrutiny over how their autonomous vehicles interact with emergency responders, a regulatory risk that’s becoming harder for the industry to shrug off. As I have noted before, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie asked state regulators to bolster rules for autonomous vehicles nearly two weeks after Waymo robotaxis became immobile in heavy July 4 traffic, ran out of power, and blocked key streets, further compounding the gridlock.

This week, Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) proposed a bill that would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle operators. 

“We have seen disturbing, and frankly, an unacceptable number of incidents where autonomous vehicles inadvertently interfere with emergency responders,” Mullin said during the press conference, which Lurie also spoke at.

So here we are, a push forward, and nope, a pull back. And in the middle is the AV industry.

What do you think? Send me an email with your view at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com.

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Lucid has landed more Saudi money, this time from Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family. The billionaire prince purchased a little more than 19 million shares, or about 5%, of Lucid Motors, according to a regulatory filing. 

Elon Musk’s tunneling startup The Boring Company is in talks to raise a $4 billion funding round at a valuation of $20 billion.

Terminal, a Toronto-based startup that provides telematics data infrastructure for the commercial fleet industry, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures. New strategic investors Intact Private Capital and Penske, as well as returning backers Y Combinator and Wayfinder Ventures, also participated.

Notable reads and other tidbits

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Alaska Airlines CEO and president Ben Minicucci joined Lyft’s board of directors.

The nascent on-demand drone-delivery industry had a busy week. Walmart and Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery started service across Central Florida, and Flytrex announced a partnership with autonomic logistics platform Nash. But the biggest announcement was about DoorDash, which said it was building a drone delivery business, including its own aircraft, as part of an effort developed by its robotics and autonomy team. This will eventually operate within the company’s delivery app.

Ferrari might have received a lot of hate for its first all-electric vehicle, the Luce, but the criticism didn’t dampen sales. Ferrari hit this year’s sales target for the Luce in just two months.

Florida was awarded $200 million under the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, but the money never made it to charging infrastructure for electric cars. Instead, the state is using the money to build 32 landing pads with charging stations for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs.  

London is shaping up to be the next robotaxi battleground. Baidu has started testing autonomous vehicles in London as part of its partnership with Lyft and Freenow, the taxi and multi-mobility app that the ride-hailing company now owns. The companies plan to invite the public to hail their robotaxis in 2027. Meanwhile, others are also preparing to launch. In April, Waymo began testing its autonomous vehicles with human safety operators in the city. Uber and its self-driving tech partner, Wayve, also announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in London this year.

Rivian spinoff Also will finally start delivering its first e-bikes to customers next week, after months of delays related to unspecified supply chain issues.

In yet another hint that a Tesla-SpaceX merger is imminent, the EV maker is considering selling off its China business ahead of a SpaceX merger, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Tesla hit a new milestone and built its 10 millionth EV.

Waymo robotaxis started to return to freeways, more than two months after the company stopped driving these high-speed roads over concerns about how its autonomous vehicles behaved near construction zones.

One more thing …

There was a time when this newsletter was chock-full of electric vehicle news, much of it centered on ambitious plans from U.S. automakers GM and Ford. Both companies ramped up spending and formed joint ventures to build battery and EV factories, in an effort to shift their portfolios to ones filled with electric cars, trucks, and SUVs. But as those plans have retreated, so has the talk. 

TechCrunch teamed up with Hudson Labs, a New York-based financial research firm, to analyze the last seven years of GM and Ford quarterly earnings calls and found that both companies are talking about EVs at a lower rate than they did before the pandemic.

The upshot: While GM and Ford still sell EVs and have new models in their product pipelines, their collective focus has shifted, and it shows in the data. Check out the story, which includes two interactive graphs.

Image credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

Tesla kicked off earnings season — at least for this sector — and the shareholder letter, along with Elon Musk’s remarks during the conference call, provided some pretty incredible disclosures I imagine have some investors concerned, or at least puzzled. 

Tesla has backed off previous promises to reach “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi, and Megapack 3 in 2026. And while the company has publicly touted expansions of its Tesla Robotaxi service into new cities in Florida and Texas, the quarter-over-quarter data shows a drop in paid robotaxi miles. 

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane took a closer look at a graph shared in Tesla’s shareholder letter.  At a passing glance, the chart appears to show steady growth in paid robotaxi rides between August 2025 and June 2026, O’Kane notes. But the numbers displayed are cumulative, and when broken down by quarter, they show that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet of Model Y SUVs carrying paying passengers covered around 1.1 million miles in the first quarter. That fell to roughly 700,000 miles in the second quarter, a decline of about 36%.

Musk also disclosed during the call that Tesla needs to accumulate driving data specific to the Cybercab before it can put large numbers of the vehicles on the road. That isn’t terribly surprising; the Cybercab is new, after all. But the reason got my attention. He explained that Tesla has to accumulate miles using Cybercabs retrofitted with steering wheels and accelerator and braking pedals so it can calibrate to the Cybercab chassis.

This marks a change from the company’s previous claims. For years, Tesla has said its fleet of nearly 10 million customer cars has been collecting data that could be used to train its advanced driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), and future robotaxis. Musk’s explanation suggests there is a misalignment between that fleet data and how it’s applied to the Cybercab.

On the financial front, Tesla’s Q2 earnings show a company plowing money into its next generation of products (CapEx has doubled, and the company is back in negative free cash flow territory). And even though revenue is up, the boost wasn’t enough to offset the cost of doing business. The company’s net income fell 5% year over year.

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Travis Kalanick burst back onto the robotics and mobility scene earlier this year with Atoms — a rebranded holding company atop his ghost kitchen project — and a deal to acquire Anthony Levandowski's industrial automation startup, Pronto. Now the Uber co-founder and former CEO has $1.7 billion in capital to play with. VC giant Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board following the investment.

This may seem inconceivable for those who remember Kalanick’s resignation from Uber’s top leadership spot nearly a decade ago — and the string of scandals and lawsuits in the year leading up to his departure. What’s even more incredible is that Uber participated in the funding round. The Information reported Uber invested $100 million into Atoms; conversations I’ve had since confirm that figure and provided new information, including that the investment was made six months ago.  

Reminder: In 2016 and while Kalanick was CEO, Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving trucks startup Otto. Less than a year later, Levandowski’s former employer Waymo (Google self-driving project) sued Uber for trade secret theft. The companies settled on the fifth day of the trial. 

There is a lot of history, much of it messy, between Kalanick and Uber (not to mention Levandowski). But it appears the ride-hailing company is still willing to invest in them. 

So what is Atoms going to do with this capital? The details are vague, but a company email from Levandowski suggests that Pronto will be a big part of those plans. 

The email states that “Atoms is investing heavily in Industrial AI and physical automation applied to mining and transport.” And later, “Pronto is a core strategic priority for Atoms, and this round is designed to accelerate exactly what matters most to your operations: scaling practical, OEM-agnostic autonomy.”

Other deals that got my attention …

Einride, the Swedish electric and autonomous trucking company, agreed to acquire EV charging startup Flipturn in an all-stock deal worth $38 million.

IBM agreed to buy HRL Laboratories, a quantum computing research lab jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors. 

Sila, the battery materials startup, raised $300 million in a round led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. The money will be used to expand Sila’s factory in Washington state to produce enough anode material for more than 100,000 EVs.

Notable reads and other tidbits

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Aurora had some news this week that didn’t get a ton of attention, but probably should. The company launched its second-generation driverless trucks, which include new hardware that is smaller, as well as upgraded sensor-cleaning systems and extended range lidar — all of which is built for a million-mile service life. The initial fleet will be modest and used on its Dallas-to-Houston route. The fleet will eventually reach 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year and will be used to haul freight for customers like Hirschbach, Uber Freight, McLane, and Detmar, the company said. Importantly for Aurora, these trucks do not have a human observer in the cab.

Ford is turning to Apple for its next generation of EVs. Specifically, Ford is going to integrate Apple Maps navigation and mapping, using a new set of developer tools called MapKit for Automotive, into its new line of electric vehicles, starting with the $30,000 midsize truck in 2027. I asked Ford what this means for Google, which is an existing partner. A company spokesperson told me the Apple announcement “does not change the role of Google Automotive Services across our current and near-term production programs.”

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study called “Rise of the machines: crash experiences of highly automated vehicles and human drivers.” The organization used a far more clickbaity headline (Waymo’s driverless cars crash less often than people) to direct folks to its work. Unfortunately, that headline misses part of the point. The study does provide evidence that Waymo’s current robotaxis have lower crash involvement rates than human drivers. “Overall, when including police-reportable crashes, Waymo’s crash rate was 68% lower than that of human drivers,” the study reads. It also, importantly, concludes that national-crash and vehicle-miles-traveled data collection for Level 4 vehicles “can be improved for more timely and accurate safety evaluations.” 

Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua plans to step down from the top leadership post after nearly three decades, just as the company pushes into robotaxis and humanoid robots.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will look into developing new requirements for automakers to ensure drivers and passengers can safely exit their vehicles — the result of a petition that asked the agency to open a safety defect investigation into the emergency mechanical door release design on 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. To be clear, this doesn’t mean there will be new rules. 

Rivian has sued the U.S. government for a “full refund” on tariffs paid under President Trump’s “Liberation Day” taxes, which the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional. 

Two Volkswagen engineers were charged with securities fraud after allegedly profiting off of insider information related to the German automaker’s joint venture with Rivian. 

Waymo is having internal discussions over how to end its contract with Uber, the Financial Times reported. Close followers of this partnership might have read this, rolled their eyes, and said “DUH!” But there are some interesting details in here, including that Uber-Waymo contract that covers Atlanta and Austin ends in May 2028. Uber told TechCrunch that Waymo says it intends to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028.

WhatsApp is rolling out a suite of new features, including a revamped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experience.

Image credits: Kirsten Korosec

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part.

Last week, I wrote about Uber and Waymo and how their partnership appears to be deteriorating. I predicted the two companies would end up on opposing sides of autonomous vehicle policy. That wasn’t a guess.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been talking to sources and digging through correspondence Uber sent to the D.C. Council, which is evaluating a proposed bill that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate in Washington, D.C.

What I found: Uber and Waymo are already on opposite sides of the proposal, sparring behind the scenes and in public. Uber has made a particularly interesting argument in its effort to shape the rules that govern autonomous vehicles.

Uber, which opposes the D.C. bill, argues it would displace for-hire human drivers and hand Waymo a de facto monopoly. Instead, it has lobbied for a system that would require robotaxis to operate on a ride-hailing network alongside human drivers.

Insiders tell me the "hybrid" approach has little chance of becoming law. But if it did, it would leave AV developers like Waymo with two suboptimal choices: either put their robotaxis on ride-hailing apps like Uber or employ human drivers alongside fleets of robotaxis that took years and hundreds of millions of dollars to develop.

A D.C. Council hearing on Monday drew representatives from Lyft, Tesla, Uber, and Waymo, along with dozens of disability rights and accessibility advocates, local business and industry groups, highway safety organizations, government officials, labor unions, and think tanks.

My takeaway — based on the public testimony and the calls and texts I received afterward — is that Waymo is one of the few companies that generally likes the bill. Much of the rest of the industry does not.

Tesla’s senior policy adviser, India Herdman, echoed concerns I've heard from multiple AV developers, including objections to the 180-day, 250,000-mile mandatory testing requirement; the $1 million application fee; the $5 million permit fee; and the $0.15-per-mile tax. Tesla, along with other companies, argued that testing miles accumulated in other jurisdictions should count toward the mileage threshold.

Waymo, which has been testing its AVs with human safety operators in Washington, D.C., has already surpassed the 180-day and 250,000-mile requirements. That means if the bill passed as written today, Waymo would enter the market with at least a six-month head start.

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Uber is considered a ride-hailing and delivery giant. It is now cementing that status through a $14.8 billion deal to acquire Germany’s Delivery Hero. 

If the deal closes — and it will absolutely take time to overcome the regulatory hurdles — Uber will get access to nearly 100 markets across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The upshot: Uber’s delivery footprint will double.

Delivery Hero also made a separate agreement to sell its business in 14 markets, where Uber Eats is already operating, to New York-based investment firm SSW Partners for $1.6 billion.

Other deals that got my attention …

Self Inspection, a San Diego-based startup trying to disrupt the vehicle inspection process, raised $10 million in a round led by the family office of Sheryl Sandberg. Tire distributor U.S. AutoForce and automotive lender Westlake Financial made strategic investments. Early-stage funds Costanoa Ventures, Rebellion Ventures, and BrightCap Ventures also invested.

Senra, a startup modernizing how wire harnesses are made, raised $65 million in a Series B round co-led by Lowercarbon and Interlagos with participation from General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Founders Fund, among others.

Zepto, the Indian fast-delivery company, is seeking a valuation in an initial public offering well below its $7 billion peak, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources.

Notable reads and other tidbits

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Chip Motors, a Miami-based startup, revealed a low-speed small EV designed for short errands and families, and with some automated driving capabilities.

The Los Angeles Police Department is reportedly ending its deal with Flock Safety, a surveillance company that helps law enforcement track vehicles using thousands of its license plate cameras placed across the United States.

Lucid Motors is pushing back — and hard — on a report that claimed the EV maker was weighing whether to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company’s comms team, its CEO, and a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission all say the same thing: The rumors are false. The initial report sent the company’s stock down more than 50% on Tuesday, its biggest intra-day drop ever. The stock has since recovered and is now trading about 28% higher than it was prior to the big drop. 

Lyft CEO David Risher says it’s the “Good Uber,” per Wired.

Manual, or standard, transmission vehicles are a dying breed, according to preliminary government data that shows just 0.6% of new vehicles made for the U.S. in 2025 had stick shifts, the Washington Post reported. I own two manual vehicles. Does that make me a driving unicorn?

The National Transportation Safety Board said the driver of a Tesla who crashed into a house in June had pressed the accelerator pedal to 100%, overriding the company’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.

San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie has urged state regulators to toughen rules on autonomous vehicles after Waymo robotaxis became immobile in heavy July 4 traffic, ran out of power, and blocked key streets, further compounding the gridlock. In a letter (parts of which are excerpted here) Lurie outlined four core requirements he would like to see enacted to ensure robotaxi companies can “perform reliably” during extraordinary events. 

SpaceX abruptly aborted the second attempted launch of its upgraded Starship rocket system on Thursday, just moments after the booster ignited at the company’s complex in South Texas.

Zoox issued a software recall after one of its robotaxis got confused by smoke emitting from an emergency fire scene in June.

One more thing …

Uber chief product officer Sachin Kansal talks to TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos about travel, AI agents, and playing both sides of the robotaxi race, in the latest Strictly VC podcast episode. If you’d rather read the interview, check out the Q&A.

image credits: Heather Diehl / Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part.

I am back from vacation. What did I miss? Turns out, quite a lot — including the end of the Uber-Waymo partnership in Phoenix. Uber and Waymo still have robotaxi service partnerships in Atlanta and Austin. The question is not if, but when will these agreements end? But that isn’t the most intriguing question, in my opinion. I am far more intrigued by how these two companies will behave once the remaining partnerships end. 

There is already tension with Uber executives taking not-so-subtle shots at Waymo. I expect that once the partnerships end, these thinly veiled barbs will be replaced with more direct action. One battleground will be policy, specifically markets where robotaxi companies are angling to get access. 

This week, we saw another interesting development in the autonomous vehicle industry on the federal stage. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator Jonathan Morrison issued a directive to autonomous vehicle developers, stating that it is unacceptable for their vehicles to interfere with first responders or law enforcement.

The money quote: “Let me be clear: the inability to detect and appropriately respond to such situations represents a functional insufficiency. Emergency scenes are not rare or extreme ‘edge cases.’ As such, NHTSA is today issuing a call to action for AV developers and operators to immediately focus their resources on fixing this issue.”

Morrison’s letter never calls out any one robotaxi company and it was sent to every AV developer listed in the Department of Transportation’s Standing General Order. But it sure seems like Morrison is directing the agency’s ire at Waymo.

A previous TechCrunch investigation found that Waymo — which operates the largest robotaxi fleet in the United States, with vehicles in cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco — has had repeated run-ins with first responders. And just this week, San Francisco supervisor Bilal Mahmood said he plans to submit a letter of inquiry to examine how autonomous vehicles affected public transit services and emergency responders following a July 4 fireworks show that resulted in massive gridlock. Local news outlets reported that numerous Waymo robotaxis had to be towed after running out of power during the lengthy traffic jam.

Morrison’s letter has gravitas. But will there be substantive consequences for AV developers? It’s hard to tell at this point. For now, the NHTSA has demanded companies present the agency with “solutions” by the end of the month.

One more news item from the feds. Take a look at the new 2026 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda, which was updated last week. It contains a long list of proposed changes to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) requirements, which govern vehicle design and equipment requirements. These proposed changes could help autonomous vehicle companies like Tesla and Zoox, which are developing vehicles without steering wheels, pedals, or other features required on human-driven cars.

A little bird

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Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 

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We usually focus on venture deals, but this week I wanted to highlight Rivian and the sale of 86.25 million Class A common shares priced at $15.50 each (that includes an added 11.25 million in additional shares that underwriters opted to buy).

In all, Rivian said it expects to raise $1.32 billion in new capital. The raise comes at a notable time for the EV maker. The company started delivering its new R2 SUV last month and recently raised its sales forecast for 2026. The company said it now expects to deliver between 65,000 and 70,000 vehicles after outperforming its own expectations in the second quarter due to robust growth quarter-over-quarter in EDV and R1, coupled with the introduction of R2 deliveries. 

The company didn’t explain the reason for the raise. But as a reminder, Rivian is not yet profitable and scaling up production of the R2 — or any vehicle for that matter — isn’t cheap!

Other deals that got my attention …

Bidbus, a Los Angeles-based startup that built a digital marketplace where multiple dealers can bid on a car, raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Ibex Investors. Mucker Capital, FJ Labs, Motley Fool Ventures, Data Point Capital, Walter Ventures, and the Car Dealership Guy’s Yossi Levi also participated.

Lyft said it plans to acquire Serveo’s bike-share business in Spain. Terms weren’t disclosed, but the ride-hailing company said it is expected to close this year.

TaiSan, a U.K. battery startup, raised £4.65 million in a seed funding round co-led by Eos Advisory and the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II. InnoEnergy, AFI Ventures, EverQuest Capital Partners, Exergon, Heartfelt Ventures, Adeline Arts & Science, Techmind, angel investor François Badelon, and matched funding from Innovate UK also participated.

Notable reads and other tidbits

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AssuranceAmerica, a U.S. insurance provider, confirmed a data breach that affected the personal information and driver’s license numbers of 6.9 million people, making it the largest known spill of Americans’ driver’s license information this year.

Beta Technologies, the electric vehicle takeoff and landing developer, completed operational flights conducted under the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration’s new eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The flights covered about 275 nautical miles covering Virginia and Maryland. 

Longtime followers of Tesla will remember the heady days when Elon Musk battled various short sellers of the company’s stock. Musk is more polarizing than ever, and one exchange-traded fund creator has found a way to tap into that negative sentiment with two new anti-Elon exchange-traded funds. 

GM brand Chevrolet built an all-American EV truck. Senior reporter Tim De Chant asks, Why is nobody buying it? 

Manna Aero, the Ireland-based autonomous drone delivery startup, is scaling up in the United States with a factory and operations center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that it says will employ 1,000 in the next few years. 

Slate Auto teamed up with Crayola to offer its EV truck and SUV customers vehicle wraps in five crayon colors. (Reminder: The basic Slate EV vehicle isn’t painted. Instead, it comes in a gray composite material that can be customized with a vehicle wrap. The company has hundreds of options to choose from.)

One more thing …

TechCrunch podcast Build Mode just launched its third season, and it’s a banger. Build Mode is hosted by Isabelle Johannessen, who heads TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield program. Unlike Equity — the TC podcast I co-host along with Anthony Ha and Sean O’Kane — Build Mode is designed to help early-stage founders. 

The new season kicks off with Precursor Ventures founder and managing partner Charles Hudson, who talks about what early-stage founders need to know before raising their first institutional round.

Check it out: The new rules of early-stage fundraising with Charles Hudson.

Tesla FSD in Spain on May 26, 2026. Image credits: Josep LAGO / AFP via Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part.

A quick heads-up to readers: I will not publish an issue next week due to the July 4th holiday. I will see you all the following week. 

A series of stories this week highlight the continued — and apparently growing — scrutiny of Tesla’s automated driving system known as Full Self-Driving (Supervised). A fatal crash involving a Tesla that struck a home in Texas and killed a 76-year-old woman gained national attention after the driver told police that Autopilot — the company’s basic driver-assistance system, which has since been discontinued — was engaged at the time of the crash. 

Ashok Elluswamy, vice president of AI software at Tesla, shared a different account of the crash, claiming on X that the driver manually overrode “self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area.”

His comments suggest the vehicle was equipped with FSD (Supervised), and not Autopilot, but without an independent investigation we don’t know for sure. But we might, eventually. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have now opened investigations into the crash.

Meanwhile, Tesla settled a lawsuit connected to a fatal 2023 crash involving a vehicle using FSD (Supervised). This crash is part of a different NHTSA investigation into Tesla FSD focused on whether the system could “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions,” such as “sun glare, fog, or airborne dust.”

All of this attention comes as Tesla positions itself as an AI and robotics company. FSD (Supervised) is currently the most visible, revenue-generating product tied to that branding.

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

A reader who has shared tips with us before alerted me to a research report on Waymo and its growing fleet of Ojai robotaxis. For a refresher, Waymo struck a supplier deal with Zeekr, the brand owned by China’s Geely Holding Group, to provide it with an electric vehicle designed to operate as a robotaxi.

The minivan-like robotaxi was designed in Sweden and is manufactured in China. (These vehicles don’t contain any vehicle communication modules; current U.S. policy bans Chinese-connected vehicle technology.) Once it gets to the U.S., Waymo takes over and adds in its self-driving system. The Ojai is equipped with Waymo’s sixth-generation system — including 13 cameras, four lidar sensors, six radar units, and an array of external audio receivers.

The New York-based research firm MoffettNathanson did a bit of gumshoeing to figure out how serious Waymo’s Ojai program is. The firm examined Bill of Lading documents, which are detailed receipts of shipped goods that are filed with the U.S. government. The company counted Zeekr vehicle labels CM1e or CME, the company’s label for Waymo-bound vehicles. 

MoffettNathanson, which shared its report with TechCrunch, discovered that Waymo is on pace to import 3,156 vehicles into the U.S. this year, about 300 vehicles per month.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

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Aseon Labs, a Silicon Valley startup developing mobile pods that can autonomously inspect, clean, and charge robotaxis, raised $10 million in a seed round led by Crane Venture Partners. Other participants included Y Combinator, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp’s venture firm Expa, Robin Hood Ventures, and Founders Capital.

CaoCao and May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle technology startup, partnered to jointly explore commercializing robotaxi services in international markets, beginning with Europe.

Elroy Air, the autonomous heavy-cargo ‌drone startup, plans to go public through a merger with blank-check firm ​Columbus Circle Capital Corp II. The deal is valued at about $1 billion.

Partly, a company that creates AI tools for the automotive repair supply chain, raised $50 million in a Series B round led by DST Global Partners.

Spiro, an African electric vehicle and clean energy infrastructure platform, finalized a $55 million investment from NewTrails Capital, a Chinese growth-stage fund. 

Terawatt Infrastructure, a company that provides EV charging for fleets, including for Waymo and other autonomous and electric fleets, set up a five-year senior secured credit facility that could allow it to borrow as much as $300 million from banks. The proceeds will support the acquisition and development of charging depots, the company said. 

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Companies like Tesla and Zoox could get a boost from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which has proposed changes to federal vehicle regulations that would allow companies to skip the inclusion of brake pedals in “vehicles designed to be driven exclusively by automated driving systems.” 

Lucid Motors is laying off 18% of its workforce, or around 1,500 employees, and cutting the second shift of EV production at its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. Reminder: The layoffs come just four months after the EV maker cut 12% of its staff. CEO Silvio Napoli said the cuts are part of an effort “to simplify the company, sharpen execution, and position Lucid to become more competitive over time.” In this pursuit to simplify, what will Lucid give up? 

Lyft CEO David Risher posted a blog that got my attention. In it, he laid out the company’s multi-sensor safety standard for autonomous rides. The upshot: Autonomous vehicles that use one type of sensor can’t go on the Lyft network. I reached out to the company and they confirmed what this seemed to imply — vehicles like the Tesla Cybercab and Tesla robotaxis that use FSD (Unsupervised) won’t qualify since they only use cameras. The rules don’t apply to advanced driver-assistance systems, by the way. So all of those humans who drive Tesla vehicles on the Lyft app are not affected.

OpenAI hired away Uber India president Prabhjeet Singh to be its first managing director.

Polestar, the Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer owned by Chinese automotive giant Geely, can no longer sell its new cars in the U.S. market. The imported vehicles are restricted by a U.S. government law that bans Chinese connected car technology. 

Samsara, the fleet management company, is rolling out business-card-sized sticky tracking labels to solve cargo theft. 

Slate Auto’s radically simple electric truck starts at $24,950. Would you pay $25K for a two-seater truck with a 205-mile range, hand-crank windows, no infotainment system, and gray composite material finish (owners can order customizable wraps for the vehicle)? Scroll down to take our poll. And climate tech reporter and in-house battery expert Tim De Chant explains why Slate changed the battery in its cheap EV truck. 

Uber is facing a lawsuit by shareholders that accuse the board and management of putting profits ahead of compliance and safety, decisions that have exposed the company and its shareholders to risk.

Waymo has set up an entity in Germany, which German news outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung first reported. The company registration filing makes it pretty clear that it’s gearing up to launch a robotaxi service in the country. However, this doesn’t mean it’s imminent, insiders tell me. Meanwhile, Waymo has dropped its waitlist in Nashville, a move that opens up its service to the public. 

Zoox gave its custom-built robotaxis a makeover as it prepares for commercial service and larger-scale production at its Hayward, California, facility.

One more thing …

It’s polling time!

Image credits: Pedro PARDO / AFP

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

Today is Juneteenth, a U.S. federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. 

About 10 years ago, there was a lot of chatter about who was winning the self-driving car race. One of the problems with that debate — besides assuming there would be just one winner — was that no one had a reliable way to measure it. This was an early era filled with a lot of demos and capital, but little substance — at least what the public, and folks like myself, had access to. 

Advisory and research startup Autnmy AI has developed a generative AI platform to create a benchmarking system that evaluates and ranks autonomous vehicle companies in an effort to answer that question in real time. And this week, the startup released its Road to Autonomy Index, which searches relevant global public databases, including federal and state reports, SEC documents, public exchanges, and other data. The system weighs the company’s operations, scale, revenue, commercial partnerships, manufacturing, and safety record based on that data and provides an update every 12 hours. There are four indices that rank robotaxis, autonomous driving licensing companies, autonomous trucks, and delivery bots.

One important note, per Autnmy AI co-founder Rob Grant, the AI platform doesn’t just scrape information off the internet. “We agreed early on, we don't scrape information,” he said. “If it's publicly available or if it's available under a Creative Commons license, we will use that information. We do have some license data that we pay folks for, and under that agreement too.”

The indices take a global approach, which produces some interesting results. One of the initial takeaways that made an impression on Grant was China’s stronger ranking across multiple categories.

As of Friday, the robotaxi leader was not Waymo. It was China’s Baidu Apollo Go program — just barely. Waymo was in the secondary position, followed by Chinese companies Pony.ai and WeRide. Tesla was in the fifth position. 

A little bird

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

I was reminded recently by a little bird to keep an eye on the Texas automated vehicle tracker tool that launched in May. And I am glad they did; looks like Tesla, Waymo, and  Zoox are building up their respective fleets in the state. Reminder: This doesn’t mean every one of these are being used commercially. Zoox, for instance, cannot operate commercially until it receives an exemption from the federal government. It currently has the ability to give rides in its custom-built robotaxi but cannot charge customers.

As of May 28, Waymo had 577 autonomous vehicles registered in the state. It now has 620 of them, about a 7.5% increase in less than a month. Tesla now has 69 registered autonomous vehicles, a 64% increase from the 42 it had on May 28. Zoox, which had 35 registered autonomous vehicles last month, now has 43.

Avride, Nuro, and Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA are holding steady at 317, 47, and 12, respectively. 

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

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Cargofy, a logistics company that uses AI to automate freight operations, raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by u.ventures, Toloka, and Movens Capital. Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, and several angel investors, also participated. 

Carro, the Singapore-based online car marketplace, acquired Australian used-car platform CarPlace, Reuters reported. Terms were not disclosed.

Gatik, a startup that has developed self-driving trucks for short hauls, announced a multi-year partnership with PepsiCo. The companies wouldn’t share the value of this deal, but it does signal PepsiCo’s commitment to Gatik, which is already operating driverless trucks for the food and beverage giant across Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas. 

QuantumScape announced a joint research agreement with Honda R&D Co. to accelerate solid-state battery development and associated manufacturing processes.

Automaker Stellantis, self-driving startup Wayve, and ride-hailing giant Uber struck a deal to jointly develop and deploy driverless robotaxis.

XDOF, a startup focused on robot training data, raised $70 million from Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z, Lux, and WndrCo.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

A video posted on Reddit showed a driver running a stop sign and hitting an autonomous vehicle in Dallas. TechCrunch confirmed it was an Avride robotaxi, which was hailed via the Uber app. An Avride spokesperson said no injuries were reported and that data from the incident is being reviewed “to continuously refine our technology and processes, as part of our standard procedures.” When asked about the reaction of the self-driving system and the human safety operator who was behind the wheel, Avride said, “Our safety review is currently ongoing, so we cannot provide more precise details at this time.”

Tesla owners in China have discovered a workaround to the vehicle’s distracted driving monitor: tiny plastic heads.  

Over on X, folks spotted a Tesla with an authorized limousine permit sticker for San Francisco County and the San Francisco International Airport. A spokesperson for SFO told TechCrunch that “Tesla has been issued a limousine permit to operate at SFO. This is for traditional limousine operations, meaning the vehicles have a human driver. Tesla has not been issued a permit for any autonomous operations at SFO.”

Mobileye, which has pitched itself as an autonomous vehicle technology supplier, is now making moves to become a robotaxi operator. The company plans to launch a robotaxi service in an unnamed U.S. city in 2027. History lesson: Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua told me back in 2020 that to crack the holy grail of passenger car autonomy, you needed to pursue robotaxis first.  

Uber plans to launch a premium robotaxi service in Houston by mid-2027, making it the second U.S. market under its partnership with EV maker Lucid and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro.

Waymo recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis to stop them from driving into highway construction zones. Waymo took its robotaxis off the freeways weeks ago and has identified at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving into highway sections that were closed for construction. Here is a detail worth noting: The software fix is “under development,” which means this issue is not resolved.

Image credits: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part.

I won’t spend too much time rehashing the SpaceX IPO — every media outlet, including TechCrunch, has spilled enormous amounts of digital ink on the company’s first day of trading. But there are two important data points to note for anyone who closely watches the “future of transportation” industry.

As of market close Friday, SpaceX has a market cap of $2.1 trillion, rocketing past Musk’s other publicly traded company, Tesla. SpaceX is currently the sixth most valuable U.S.-listed company, behind Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon. Tesla’s market cap was $1.52 trillion as of market close.

These two companies could soon become one. There have been plenty of hints and speculation. Last week, senior reporter Sean O’Kane spotted new language in SpaceX’s S-1 document that warns investors of future dilution. The additional sentence reads, “We may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.” This isn’t a forecast of some small-scale deal; it likely means Tesla.

On opening day, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell added fuel to the speculative fire. During an interview with CNBC, Shotwell seemed open to the idea and said a merger “might make Elon’s life a little easier.”

And if you do want to read more, we have conveniently packed everything together in a single spot, including stories on who wins (Elon Musk) and who might not (lower-tier SPV investors).

A little bird

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Senior reporter Tim De Chant heard from a little bird who is familiar with GM and its inner workings that a “foreign supplier” is providing lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells for the 2027 Chevrolet Bolt — and that the automaker currently has no plans to make LFPs for its EVs.

Previously, a Wall Street Journal report said the arrangement with the foreign supplier — identified as Chinese battery manufacturer CATL — was a temporary stopgap. De Chant heard that GM is starting production of LFP at an Ultium plant in the coming weeks, but those cells are destined for energy-storage systems made by LG Energy Solution. The automaker hasn’t yet decided whether LFP has a future in an EV beyond the Bolt.

Meanwhile, EV maker Lucid Motors is going through a bit of executive-level disruption. Emad Dlala, a top executive at Lucid, has left the company just months after being promoted to a leading role, TechCrunch has learned. Dlala’s exit is the first major executive departure since Lucid Motors named Silvio Napoli as its new CEO in April. And we hear there may be more coming.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

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We can officially say goodbye to the Apple car. Yeah, I know that special project was shut down in 2024. But now there is further proof that Apple has moved well beyond autonomous cars. 

After a tip and some document scouring, we found that Waymo acquired a massive 5,500-acre proving ground in Arizona owned by Route 14 Investment Partners LLC, a Delaware shell company associated with Apple. Waymo acquired the property for $220 million, according to the filing. 

The acquisition is the latest evidence that Waymo is trying to scale up its operations.

Other deals that got more attention …

CameraMatics, an Irish company that uses AI-powered video telematics to help make fleets safer, raised €49 million from a consortium led by U.K. investment firm Blume Equity, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, and Goodbody Capital Partners.

Clear Robotics, an Indian tech company developing autonomous ships, raised a $1.75 million pre-Series A funding round led by maritime-focused Shipsfocus Ventures. Katapult Ocean, SGInnovate, M7 Holdings MGS Ventures, and other strategic partners also joined the round.

Evotrex, a startup developing hybrid RV travel trailers, raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. Funding came from a consortium of Chinese and Hong Kong-based investment firms, like GSR United Capital, Forebright Concerto Capital, TTGG Ventures, and Pegasus Capital, among others. Anker, the consumer electronics company, is among its seed investors.

Volteum, a startup that developed fleet management software for electric and mixed fleets, raised €2.5 million in a round led by Movens Capital. WakeUp Capital and Aidiom, as well as existing backers DayOne Capital, Techstars, and Nesprit also participated.

Zepto, the Indian quick-commerce delivery startup, unveiled plans for an initial public offering that could be valued at about $1 billion.

Zūm, a startup that provides transportation services (typically in electric buses) for school-age children, is interviewing banks about a possible IPO, The Information reported.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Decart, an AI startup, unveiled an interactive world model called Oasis 3 that can generate photorealistic driving environments in real time. The startup is initially targeting autonomous vehicle companies that need to simulate rare driving scenarios at scale and plans to expand into robotics and other physical AI applications, senior reporter Rebecca Bellan reported. 

General Motors is pushing deep into batteries — and not for EVs. We covered some of GM’s battery plans last week, but there is more to share. GM announced plans to sell a commercial energy-storage system for AI data centers and the grid. It is partnering with energy-storage startup Peak Energy and will be developing an entirely new sodium-ion battery chemistry tailored for grid-scale deployments. With GM and Ford chasing energy storage — plus a number of startups like Redwood Energy piling in — it seems like everyone wants a piece of Tesla’s battery business. 

Rivian started deliveries of its all-important R2 SUV.

Uber, U.K. startup Wayve, and Waymo are headed toward a robotaxi showdown in London. Here’s why. 

Waymo launched a loyalty program called Waymo Premier, which will offer frequent robotaxi riders a number of perks in exchange for $29.99 per month. The company also released details on a new computer model it created that is designed to more accurately answer a fundamental question: How does its autonomous driving software stack up against humans? 

Wing, the Alphabet-owned autonomous drones company, is pushing into seven more U.S. cities through its partnership with Walmart. Wing isn’t the only company using drones to autonomously deliver groceries, and while it’s certainly not mainstream yet, it isn’t a novelty anymore in certain markets.

One more thing …

Since the SpaceX IPO has just wrapped, I thought I would share some initial reactions from our TechCrunch staff. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane and AI editor Russell Brandom recorded a special episode of the Equity podcast Friday to give first impression. I suggest a listen!

The SpaceX IPO has finally arrived — here’s what TechCrunch editors think so far.

Image credits: GM

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

Senior reporter (and resident battery expert) Tim De Chant traveled to General Motors’ sprawling Warren Technical Center outside Detroit to learn more about the automaker’s plans to reduce the cost of its next slate of EVs. The upshot: GM is banking on LMR batteries and a new Battery Cell Development Center that is viewed as the bridge between its R&D efforts and full-scale production. 

Kurt Kelty, GM’s VP of battery and sustainability, provided fresh details about the company’s $900 million initiative and how this new chemistry will preserve range while slashing costs. For instance, the Chevrolet Silverado EV could be $6,000 cheaper. Read the story here.

As with most companies these days, AI also makes a cameo appearance. Although I should note that AI plays more than just a supporting role at GM. I recently interviewed Sterling Anderson, GM’s chief product officer, and Jason Fischer, who is executive director of virtual integration engineering, about some of the changes inside the company and how it’s using AI. That story is coming next week, but I’ll give you a bit of a teaser. 

GM is using a collection of outside AI models as well as ones it has created in-house that can be used across large swaths of the business and that — here’s the punchline — will speed up its vehicle development cycle. I’ll have more details in my article, and don’t worry, if you miss it, I will highlight it in next week’s newsletter. 

Finally, last week I wrote about the Ferrari Luce EV and how it doesn’t matter that it has been so widely criticized. I got some wonderful emails from you all on the topic — thanks! The poll, however, showed that as much coverage as the Luce received, many of you really don’t care about it. 

In the poll I asked, ‘Do you love it, hate it, or indifferent to it?’ Most of you, about 44%, are indifferent, while the remainder are equally split between love and hate. 

The more I think about the future of the Luce EV, the more I think this might become a ragebait purchase among those who can afford it and are deemed worthy by Ferrari to buy it.

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The looming SpaceX IPO is the deal of the decade, certainly for the bankers and for CEO Elon Musk. But it could also affect Tesla shareholders. 

As part of the IPO registration process, a company will often file numerous amendments before making its public markets debut. SpaceX has filed a few already. And our eagle-eyed senior reporter Sean O’Kane spotted a new sentence added to the S-1 document that has some big implications: “We may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.”

While it is certainly possible that SpaceX will use the $75 billion it is expected to raise to snap up a variety of companies, the most likely M&A target is Tesla. This sentence was included in the risk factors and appears to be preparing future investors for the possibility of a major dilution event. Read the full story. 

There is another interesting deal spotted by O’Kane — this time involving Carvana and Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos. According to documents obtained by TechCrunch, Carvana has been granted the option to invest in Slate Auto. As O’Kane notes in his article, this could hint at a deeper partnership between the two companies.

Other deals that got more attention …

Layup Parts, a startup trying to become the Amazon of composite parts, raised $42 million in a Series A funding round led by dual-use venture fund Marlinspike, with participation from new investors Cerberus Ventures and Pinegrove Venture Partners, as well as existing backers Founders Fund and Lux Capital. 

Mach Industries, the three-year-old defense tech startup that now has five autonomous vehicles in development, raised a $300 million Series C at a $1.8 billion valuation. The round was led by Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital and includes backing from Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures.

Molfar Defence Technologies, a Polish-Ukrainian defense startup developing anti-drone radar systems, closed the first tranche of its €2 million funding round. Swedish investor Front Ventures committed €1.5 million, Tech.Eu reported.

Spiro, the African electric mobility startup, raised $215 million in a round that pushed its valuation close to $1 billion, Bloomberg reported. 

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Avride CEO Dmitry Polishchuk shared a few stats about the autonomous vehicle startup on LinkedIn. The company has completed 60,000 trips for Uber riders in Dallas since launching in December. (Avride robotaxis show up on the Uber app in Dallas.) The company’s fleet of vehicles, which includes test cars and the Uber robotaxis, has driven more than 1.3 million miles, with a million of that covered in the first five months of 2026.

Lectric eBikes launched its third brand in six months — an initiative the company has sunk about $10 million into. How is this seven-year-old company expanding while so many others tanked? I dug into the company a bit and interviewed its co-founder to find out. Read the full story.

Uber’s annual Lost & Found Index has provided a rather quirky anthropological snapshot of its riders over the past decade. This year, the company also released a list of items left in robotaxis that are available via the Uber app. There are some odd items on the list! It also got me thinking about how Uber is clearly finding every way possible to push into — and make money from — the nascent autonomous vehicle industry. To my point: Uber is planning to put 500 data-collection vehicles on the road this year as part of its new AV Labs division. 

Waymo had a couple of interesting news items this week. One of its robotaxis was used in a burglary and the case sheds some light on how Waymo handles all that rider footage it collects. And the Alphabet-owned company announced a deal with B2U to use the batteries from its retired all-electric robotaxis to support electricity grids in California and Texas. 

Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, promoted Jarek Khoilian and Manas Punhani as principals. Reminder: Woven Capital launched its $800 million fund II in September 2025.

One more thing …

Image credits: Kirsten Korosec

With Subaru rolling out some new EVs, I thought it would be good to remind myself what the original was like. I’m talking about the Solterra, which was born out of a partnership between Toyota and Subaru to jointly develop a platform dedicated to battery electric vehicles.

I spent a week with a pearl-white 2026 Subaru Solterra premium trim model that starts at $38,495. Putting aside for a moment that my friend’s Ring camera identified the Solterra as a mini golf cart, this EV does have something to offer. Yeah, it’s basic. And sure, it’s not going to fire off the line like a Tesla, Lucid, or Porsche Taycan. But it doesn’t need to. 

The headline here is that the Solterra has gotten better — and it really needed it. 

The 2026 model has a bunch of notable updates that improve the power, range, and usability. 

The front and rear motors have been updated — along with a new controller that improves power distribution and control — and together produce an improved 233 horsepower (the XT trim pushes it up to 388 hp). Like most other EVs out there, the Solterra now has an integrated NACS charging port, the system developed by Tesla. The range has also improved to an EPA-estimated 288 miles, which is notable considering Subaru increased the battery capacity by only 2 kWh and managed to increase the range by more than 50 miles. There is also a preconditioning setting to prepare the battery for a charge, which greatly improves the charging time. 

Subaru revamped the tech inside as well, adding a 14-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and making wireless 15 W smartphone chargers for standard.

Subaru doesn’t offer true one-pedal driving in the Solterra, a standard bearer of EVs. Instead, the Subaru has paddles located on the back of the steering wheel that let you increase the regenerative braking if you want. But it won’t come to a complete stop like other popular EVs that have one-pedal driving. While longtime EV owners might be turned off by this, it could be more attractive to car buyers who want their EV to act like their old gas-powered car.

Image credits: Ferrari

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part. 

If you’re into EVs or sports cars, then you surely saw the kerfuffle over Ferrari’s first all-electric car, the Luce. The reaction was swift and biting for the five-seater EV designed by Apple veteran Jony Ive and priced at close to $650,000.

Ferrari fans expressed horror, critics compared it to the far cheaper Nissan Leaf, memes were made, and even one car designer (Lucid’s Derek Jenkins) threw some shade.

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane asked a different question as the great Ferrari Luce debate blew up the internet: Who is the Luce for?

You’ll have to read the full story to get his complete breakdown. But in my view, the most important question is whether the Luce is for existing Ferrari owners. After all, Ferrari owners often possess more than one. More than 80% of the 14,000 people who bought a Ferrari last year already own one of its vehicles, O’Kane notes.

According to Ferrari, there is demand for the EV. Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna claims the Luce is already getting orders from old and new customers. Assuming that demand outstrips the number of Luce EVs that the automaker plans to make, the next question is, who will Ferrari pick? (IYKYK)

Ferrari could be vindicated. Remember the Ferrari Purosangue, which was widely panned when it launched several years ago? That SUV is now considered a success. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if a product is hated. Ferrari doesn’t need universal approval; it just needs enough buyers.

Let’s jump from EVs to AVs.

A new Texas law allows its Department of Motor Vehicles agency to exert more control over autonomous vehicle testing and deployment in the state. Companies must now license AVs in the state, and the data is public. Here’s what I found after spending a little time with the AV tracker tool. 

Waymo is far and away the leader with 577 registered AVs, followed by Avride with 317, Nuro with 47, and Tesla with 42. Self-driving truck companies Aurora, Gatik AI, Kodiak AI, and Waabi can also be found. (For all the details, you can read my story.)

Fleet size is just one measure — and it certainly doesn’t always translate into whoever has the most wins. After all, many of these companies have not launched commercial services in the state.

I’m far more interested in the complaints feature on this new tool, which is also public record. As of today, complaints have not been filed against the companies listed above.

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A new single asset fund managed by Equip Capital has taken a majority stake in European e-scooter operator Ryde Technology. Goldman Sachs Alternatives is the lead investor. 

Harley-Davidson’s electric motorbike spinoff LiveWire acquired electric off-road startup Dust Moto. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Matternet, an autonomous drone delivery company, raised $33 million in a private placement offering and completed a reverse merger with Los Altos Ventures Corp.

Revel, the EV charging company that shuttered its ride-hailing business last August, is merging with Voltera. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the combined business will operate under the Voltera brand and will be led by Revel CEO Frank Reig, Bloomberg reported. 

Stark, a German drone maker, is in talks to raise at least €300 million ($350 million), a round that could double its valuation to €2.5 billion, the Financial Times reported.

Volara Motorsports Group, a motorsports and performance-focused holding company, acquired Lynx Motor Works, an Austin, Texas-based company that makes limited-production, reimagined classic vehicles.

WeRoad, the Milan-based group adventure travel startup, raised $58 million in a Series C round led by Airbnb. The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to roughly $100 million and will finance WeRoad’s push into the U.S., beginning with Austin.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

American Airlines will install Starlink on more than 500 narrow-body Airbus aircraft beginning early next year, the latest carrier to pick the SpaceX unit for in-flight Wi-Fi service. The deal provides a financial lift for Starlink, the satellite communications network and the only SpaceX business unit that generates meaningful revenue.

Rivian said it will begin deliveries of its new R2 SUV on June 9. Meanwhile, Rivian is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over how the EV maker services its vehicles’ rear suspension components. 

Slate Auto is expected to announce pricing and start taking nonrefundable preorders for its low-cost electric vehicle on June 24. Deliveries are supposed to happen later this year. 

Volvo Cars received a specification authorization by the Commerce Department that allows the Swedish automaker, which is majority owned by China’s Geely Holding, to continue to import and sell its vehicles in the United States. A law, finalized in January 2025, effectively bans virtually all Chinese vehicles from the U.S. market as part of a crackdown on connected car technology with ties to China. 

Waymo has started giving select riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco access to its newest robotaxi: an all-electric, minivan-like vehicle that is designed to lower costs and handle the use and abuse of hundreds of thousands of riders. I had a chance to ride in the vehicle, a modified Zeekr-made minivan called the Ojai (pronounced oh-hi). Stay tuned for my full review, which will run this weekend. Here’s a teaser: Robotaxis have long suffered from a magic problem. This Ojai robotaxi starts to solve it.

One more thing …

It’s poll time! Maybe you secretly like the Ferrari Luce and just don’t want to get trolled. Maybe you hate it. Share your opinion here.

And now one more thing, for real this time. Last week, I asked readers, “Will SpaceX and Tesla merge?” Here's how they answered. More than 51% selected "Yes, within two years”; 34% picked "never"; and 14.5% chose "Yes, this year." That means more than 65% believe a merger is inevitable.

Image credits: Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

Robotaxis are here! And yet, they’re not. 

That contradiction neatly captures Waymo’s current reality. Anyone walking around San Francisco could reasonably declare that robotaxis have arrived. But arrival, even at scale, doesn’t guarantee permanence. Such is the dogged threat hanging over every company trying to commercialize autonomous vehicles.

Waymo paused operations in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio because its robotaxis are struggling to deal with heavy rain and flooded roads — and specifically knowing when not to enter them. As I prepared to send this newsletter, we learned the company extended that to Austin and Nashville as well. It’s been a persistent problem for Waymo, which prompted the company to issue a recall last week.

In the same week, Waymo halted robotaxi operations on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami as it works to improve performance in construction zones.

For now, the arrival of robotaxis is conditional. That doesn’t mean this conditional status will last forever, but it’s a reminder that launching commercially is not mission accomplished. Waymo — arguably the leader in commercial robotaxi ridership and fleet size — is in the thick of that process. For every new city it enters or capability it unlocks, a new edge case is discovered.

Situationship or corporationmaxxing?

I’m ditching my “Little bird” section this week to dive into SpaceX, its IPO, and the situationship in the Elon Musk business universe.

I typically don’t dedicate too much space in this newsletter to space. Heh. But the SpaceX IPO filing dropped this week, and the man at its helm is also deeply tied to Tesla. So, here we are, talking about space and, more specifically, how Elon Musk uses resources from one company to service another. 

The interconnected nature of Tesla and SpaceX isn’t a secret; Tesla is a publicly traded company and does disclose financial transactions with other Musk-affiliated entities. This new IPO filing does the same and with a bit more detail. And now that Musk’s company xAI has merged with SpaceX, the IPO puts all of these transactions under one company. 

For example, SpaceX purchased $506 million of Tesla’s commercial energy storage products, called Megapack, in 2025 — nearly a threefold increase from the previous year. SpaceX also bought $131 million of Cybertrucks last year. SpaceX paid Musk’s infrastructure firm, The Boring Company, $1 million to construct tunnels in Bastrop, Texas. Musk’s social media company X, which was acquired by xAI last year and has since merged with SpaceX, also spent $1 million leasing space from The Boring Company. 

Then there is Tesla's investment in xAI. Following SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI, that investment was converted into an equity interest in SpaceX.

These costs will likely be eclipsed by two future SpaceX-Tesla projects: building Terafab, a chip-manufacturing facility, and Macrohard, an AI platform the two companies are developing that will use autonomous agents to augment the work of humans.

All of this leads to my question for you. Will SpaceX and Tesla merge?

For other SpaceX coverage, check out these stories:
Everything in the SpaceX IPO filing
A breakdown of how Elon Musk increased his power 
Who will benefit most?
xAI burned through $6.4B last year 
xAI keeps turning to gas turbines to power data centers

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Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Aboard, a Southern California-based startup developing extended-range electric travel trailers, raised $13 million in a pre-Series A round led by Ondine Capital and Llama Ventures. Fun fact: The company hired Richard Kim — an automotive designer known for his work on the BMW i3 and i8 and as co-founder of the defunct EV startup Canoo — as a consultant.

Quartermaster, an Arlington, Virginia-based startup developing a distributed sensing network for ships, raised $43 million in a Series A funding round co-led by First Round Capital and Quiet Capital.

May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle technology startup, formed a strategic agreement with Ecarx, an automotive tech company backed by Geely founder Li Shufu. Under the deal, Ecarx will supply May Mobility with thousands of purpose-built robotaxi vehicles. The companies plan to partner with a third party to initially deploy the AVs next year and scale to commercialization by 2028. The total value of the project is estimated to be about $750 million over its entire duration.

Scapia, an Indian travel booking startup, raised $63 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst, with existing investors Peak XV Partners and Z47 also participating.

Uber increased its stake and now owns 19.5% of German food delivery company Delivery Hero, Bloomberg reported. 

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image credits: Bryce Durbin

Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at MIT, shared his recent presentation on AI and how its future depends on human behavior, governance, and trust.

The global EV economy is K-shaped, and this is the country that is being left behind. 

Lyft published a blog that lays out the company’s position on autonomous vehicles. In its view — and one that is similar to rival Uber — a ride-hailing service requires human drivers and robot ones. This makes sense politically; Lyft doesn’t want to rattle its human gig workers. It also reflects the realities of where robotaxis are, in terms of scale. The upshot: Robotaxis are not a part of daily life for most people in the United States.

Self-driving tech startup Nuro hired Michael Mancini as its chief financial officer. Mancini was previously CFO at Energy Recovery, Astranis Space Technologies, and Aerion Supersonic.

Stellantis, the automaker behind the Jeep and Ram brands, has tapped self-driving startup Wayve to bring hands-free driving to its vehicles in 2028. Meanwhile, Stellantis unveiled its $70 billion turnaround plan, which includes 11 new models for North America — and even some Chryslers!

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver-assistance software is now available in Lithuania. This is the second European country to approve its use. Reminder: Making FSD available in Europe is critical to Tesla’s and CEO Elon Musk’s ambitions. It’s also financially important for Musk, whose $1 trillion pay package is tied to hitting a number of product goals, including hitting “10 million active FSD subscriptions” by 2035.

A San Francisco doctor who sued Waymo because its identity-verification system misidentified him as a terrorist dropped the lawsuit after the company resolved the issue.

One more thing …

Image credit: Kirsten Korosec

The last time I was in a Nissan Leaf was two years ago when I test drove a 2024 Nissan Leaf SV Plus, which cost $37,815 (including the destination fee). And at the time, I described the experience as a mixed bag. I recently got back in one, this time a 2026 Nissan Leaf Platinum+, priced at $42,635, including destination charges and some special add-ons like two-tone paint and the floor mat package. 

This model, the third generation of the Leaf, had an improved EPA estimated range of 259 miles (and some versions go above 300 miles). But that wasn’t the first upgrade I noticed. This new Leaf had a lighter, more modern, dare I say upscale, interior cabin. I won’t quite say “sleek,” but it was enjoyable and a notable upgrade. (Notice the cool lighting at night in the picture above?) My version, which should be noted was the top trim, came with a wireless phone-charging pad, dimming panoramic roof, a heads-up display, and a long, curved 14.3-inch central screen.

Last time, I complained about the lack of tech for a vehicle priced above $30,000 — like a backup camera with high resolution. There are several notable improvements that come standard and correct my previous criticism, including a 360-degree camera, wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, and adaptive cruise control. This time around, I was happy to get back in a Nissan Leaf.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.