Transportation & Auto News | TechCrunch

What Trump’s win might mean for Elon Musk

Rebecca Bellan, Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 18:51:03 +0000

Elon Musk — the billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and the owner of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X — took a sharp swing to the right this election to support President-elect Donald Trump, using his vast wealth, influence, and megaphone on X to influence the outcome of the election. Musk’s support came […]

Lyft partners with May Mobility, Mobileye to bring autonomous vehicles to the app

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

It seems Lyft is hoping to catch up to Uber’s string of autonomous vehicle partnerships. Lyft announced Wednesday three separate partnerships — with startup May Mobility, automated driving company Mobileye, and smart dashcam firm Nexar — all aimed at establishing a foothold in the emerging autonomous vehicle market. In the announcement, the ride-hailing company said […]

Canoo’s CFO and top lawyer are the latest executives to leave

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 22:34:27 +0000

EV startup Canoo has lost its chief financial officer and its head lawyer, the latest in a string of executive departures as the company continues to struggle to find mass adoption of its electric work vans. CFO Greg Ethridge and general counsel Hector Ruiz both resigned from Canoo on October 31, the company announced Tuesday […]

Waymo’s latest funding round boosts it to a $45B valuation

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 18:43:00 +0000

Waymo recently closed a $5.6 billion Series C funding round led by parent company Alphabet and joined by a who’s who of Silicon Valley venture firms. The investment boosts Waymo’s overall valuation to more than $45 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Alphabet had previously announced in July that it was pledging another $5 billion to […]

Rivian’s software boss is ‘super excited’ about third-party apps

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 18:26:31 +0000

Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid opened up at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 last week about his thoughts on physical buttons (“an anomaly“) and how his company will help power VW offshoot Scout’s EVs. But there’s one other item on his to-do list that he’s “super excited” about: making Rivian’s vehicles work with third-party app developers. […]

DeepRoute raises $100M in push to beat Tesla’s FSD in China

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 15:10:00 +0000

DeepRoute.ai, a Shenzhen-based autonomous driving technology startup, raised $100 million from Great Wall Motor. The startup aims to get its automated driving systems into as many vehicles in China before Tesla takes off next year, according to a Reuters report. DeepRoute did not publicly disclose the name of its automaker backer, but reports in the […]

From Lime to Uber to Hertz: Free and discounted Election Day rides

Rebecca Bellan — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Election Day is nearly here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride come November 5. Here’s a roundup of all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. Micromobility Lime is offering free rides to […]

Vanguard cuts Indian rideshare startup Ola’s valuation to $2B

Manish Singh — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:40:23 +0000

Vanguard has revised its valuation of Indian ride-hailing startup Ola to about $2 billion as of the end of August.

Ford pauses F-150 Lightning production as Tesla Cybertruck heats up

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:06:50 +0000

Ford will pause production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck starting in mid-November for almost two months as it struggles with decreased demand, increased competition, and losses in its electric vehicle business. “We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” a Ford spokesperson told TechCrunch. The news was […]

Zoox robotaxis are finally rolling out, Waymo snags more cash, and Aurora delays its self-driving truck launch

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:45:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is wrapped! And what a whirlwind it was. Some highlights? Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson weighed in on whether Tesla robotaxis will launch next […]

Aurora Innovation delays commercial autonomous truck launch to 2025

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 23:51:37 +0000

Autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation is targeting April 2025 for commercial deployment of its autonomous trucks, pushing its timeline back by about a quarter. The company had originally planned to launch by the end of 2024. The company said it delayed the launch so it can continue to validate its self-driving technology. “While this […]

Rivian’s chief software officer says in-car buttons are ‘an anomaly’

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 22:16:56 +0000

The trend of big touchscreens in cars has left many yearning for the not-so-distant days when most user interactions happened with physical buttons. But Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid believes using buttons in a car is an “anomaly.” “It’s a bug. It’s not a feature,” Bensaid said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “Ideally, you […]

Zoox co-founder on Tesla self-driving: ‘They don’t have technology that works’

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:09:12 +0000

Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson doesn’t believe Tesla will launch a robotaxi ride-hailing service in California (or anywhere else) next year despite what Elon Musk recently claimed. The “fundamental issue is they don’t have technology that works,” Levinson said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “And by works, I want to differentiate between a driver […]

Zoox custom robotaxis are finally coming to San Francisco and Las Vegas

Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:13:34 +0000

Amazon-owned AV company Zoox will start rolling out dozens of its purpose-built autonomous vehicle in San Francisco and in Las Vegas in the coming weeks, co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson announced on the TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 stage. Levinson said that Zoox will start offering rides — starting with employees — in the SoMa neighborhood of […]

Scout Motors EVs will use Rivian-VW software and architecture

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:34:55 +0000

VW’s new offshoot EV company Scout Motors, which revealed its first two vehicles last week, will use the software and zonal architecture being developed by the joint venture between Rivian and the Volkswagen Group. Rivian Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid confirmed to TechCrunch at Disrupt 2024 that Scout will leverage the joint venture tech when […]

The current and future landscape of AI on wheels with Jesse Levinson from Zoox

Yashad Kulkarni — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:10:00 +0000

Before generative AI took center stage, the burgeoning autonomous vehicle technology industry was where many machine learning and AI experts played.Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson , who has been in the thick of it for a decade, is now preparing the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company for its next big adventure.Watch as Levinson discusses the […]

How to build tech that wins over customers with Rivian Wassym Bensaid

Yashad Kulkarni — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:10:00 +0000

Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid knows a thing or two about building a product from scratch in a high-stakes environment. The software and systems engineering veteran played a central role in Rivian’s recent push to drive down costs, while improving its EVs. It was a massive and existential effort that led the EV maker […]

Equity Live: Bret Taylor’s $4.5 billion startup and Waymo’s $5.6 billion round

Theresa Loconsolo — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:41:29 +0000

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl took over the Builders Stage to kick off day 2 of Disrupt with no shortage of conference highlights, startups deals and venture news to chew through. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Equity will be back with a special interview episode on […]

GM CEO Mary Barra on the politics of EVs, the future of AVs, and moving away from China

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:26:04 +0000

“I never thought the propulsion of a vehicle would become a political issue,” GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Tuesday. While the executive didn’t expand on this statement, former president Donald Trump has railed against EVs and claimed, wrongly, that there is a mandate to make and sell electric […]

BANF’s smart tires for trucks promise to save fuel and lives

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:18:37 +0000

Tire health has a huge impact on a truck’s fuel efficiency and safety on the road. And yet, with all of the arguably sexier solutions out there offering driver assist features and self-driving software, tires don’t get the attention they deserve. At least, so says Ron Lee, the head of business development at BANF, a […]