Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Enroll right here without cost — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
Your regular host Kirsten is out on trip, however she didn’t go away with out writing up This Week’s Wheels. However for the remaining, you’ve received me, Rebecca Bellan, to information you thru the mobility information of this week.
And what every week it’s been — and never simply due to the Tesla Robotaxi occasion on Thursday. Though I can be liveblogging that, fueled with loads of espresso to maintain me up previous my bedtime because it begins at *checks X* 7 p.m. PT. And figuring out Elon, it’ll in all probability begin late.
Right here’s find out how to watch it, by the best way.
The large query on everybody’s minds, or a minimum of ours, is whether or not Tesla will really reveal a full product roadmap for its Robotaxi (or Cybercab), full with commercialization plans, or whether or not this can be all smoke and mirrors. As a result of in any case, the reveal is happening at a Hollywood studio.
Musk has been hyping up the Robotaxi, and Tesla’s almost-autonomous capabilities, for years. Now that it’s showtime, buyers who’re attracted by the billionaire’s imaginative and prescient to drive Tesla’s valuation to $5 trillion, up from the $750 billion valuation right now, will need to see an precise car in motion and learn the way quick Tesla can mass-produce it at a revenue. (Reminder: Musk had beforehand mentioned Tesla could be mass-producing robotaxis by 2024 …)
We’re additionally interested by whether or not no matter mass-produced car Tesla lands on for the Robotaxi can be constructed with out steering wheels or pedals, one thing that would delay manufacturing attributable to federal security laws that require a manner for people to take over. Little doubt a hurdle that Tesla would possibly use as a cause for delaying its Robotaxi rollout.
A little bit chook
Obtained a tip for us? E-mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or try these directions to discover ways to contact us through encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
Offers!
Only one deal right now.
Lithios raised $10 million in seed funding to get well useful minerals, specifically lithium, locked in water from reservoirs deep underground. The startup is one among many making an attempt to feed the rising want for lithium batteries, although EV purchases have slowed down. Clear Vitality Ventures led the spherical, with participation from GS Futures, Lowercarbon Capital, and others.
Notable reads and different tidbits
ADAS
Kirsten received the inside track that Basic Motors is engaged on an automated driving system that not solely enables you to take your arms off the wheel, but in addition your eyes off the street! If GM pulls this off, it could put the automaker forward of just about each different ADAS available on the market right now. Sure, even Tesla’s FSD.
Autonomous autos
Baidu plans to increase its Apollo Go ride-hailing service exterior of China, and phrase is the corporate is taking a look at Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Center East.
Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, sat down with Kirsten to debate broad design themes across the upcoming Robotaxi, which he mentioned he had began doing in his head 12 years in the past. “I just think it felt inevitable we would get there,” he mentioned.
Electrical autos, charging, & batteries
Honda has been teasing the Collection 0 EVs since CES in 2023, however we lastly received a sneak peek after visiting the corporate’s HQ in Japan. The plan is to launch seven Honda 0 Collection fashions by 2030 globally, every with a decent vary of 300 miles.
Lucid Motors has offered extra EVs this yr than it did all of final yr. Lucid delivered 2,781 items within the third quarter, which is a 3rd straight file. That’s nice information for the EV maker because it gears as much as launch its Gravity SUV.
Palantir, the data-mining firm based by Peter Thiel, now owns 8.7% of struggling EV startup Faraday Future. Palantir was granted greater than 800,000 shares as “payment for certain outstanding receivables.”
TezLab is an app that TC’s Sean O’Kane described as “essentially like Strava for EVs.” The startup has just lately launched a automobile report that enables EV house owners (beginning with Tesla and Rivian automobiles) to nerd out on visualized knowledge about how they use their automobiles.
FiskerCrunch
This part is devoted to Fisker since we’ve been retaining tabs on all of the downs and downs over the previous week. Right here we go.
American Lease, the leasing firm that was on the hook to purchase Fisker’s remaining fleet of electrical SUVs, says it won’t full the acquisition as a result of there is probably not a technique to switch the knowledge related to every car to a brand new server not owned by the bankrupt EV startup.
The DOJ says Fisker can’t make house owners pay for the labor prices associated to its a number of remembers as a result of that’s very a lot unlawful. The company thus objects to Fisker’s proposed chapter liquidation plan.
The SEC is investigating Fisker, but it surely’s not saying why precisely. The company has despatched a number of subpoenas to Fisker and will ship extra because it appears to be like into whether or not Fisker violated federal securities legal guidelines.
Shamrock Properties II, the owner on Fisker’s headquarters, submitted a submitting to Fisker’s Chapter 11 chapter docket saying the startup deserted the house and left it in “complete disarray,” with literal drums of hazardous waste and autos mendacity about.
Way forward for flight
Odysee is the first startup born out of an aviation-focused enterprise lab fashioned by Alaska Airways and UP.Labs, and its aim is to make use of AI-powered software program that may analyze reams of information to assist industrial airways get probably the most out of advanced flight schedules.
Micromobility
Ola Electrical’s prospects are complaining about its service and scooters, and the corporate’s inventory value is taking successful. And now India’s shopper rights regulator has issued a discover to the struggling startup in addition.
The electrical two-wheeler producer, one of many buzziest Indian IPOs this yr, appears to be falling prey to the identical points that VanMoof had: an excessive amount of hype and never sufficient funding into servicing capability.
Miscellaneous
The Boring Firm’s 2.4-mile underground Loop in Las Vegas isn’t just house to slow-moving Teslas with automated driving options. At the least 67 trespassing occurrences have occurred since 2022 as individuals are lured like moths to a flame by that easy, colourful tunnel.
SpotHero will combine its extraordinarily useful parking instrument with Google Maps and Google Search, permitting customers within the U.S. and Canada to order parking spots at over 8,000 areas.
Individuals
Waymo has a new program director, Daniel Ho, and he’s come straight from main Tesla’s car applications and new product integrations. The shakeup comes only a few days earlier than Tesla reveals its Robotaxi.
Journey-hail
Uber will launch an integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4o early subsequent yr as a part of a push to deliver extra electrical autos onto its platform. What do EVs should do with OpenAI? Effectively, the AI assistant can be there to assist drivers study extra about EVs, like which to purchase and the place to cost.
This week’s wheels
I (Kirsten) spent every week within the 2025 Mazda CX-70 Premium Plus — with the soul-red crystal metallic paint and a listing value of $59,420 — and I used to be struck instantly by how related (similar even?) it’s to the CX-90. So far as I might inform, the first distinction is that the CX-70 Premium Plus doesn’t have a 3rd row.
The CX-70 and CX-90 even have the identical plug-in hybrid guts, which features a 173-horsepower electrical motor, a 14.8-kilowatt-hour battery, an eight-speed transmission, and a 189-hp 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine. Collectively, this produces 323 horsepower and 369 kilos of torque. In EV mode, the car has a 26-mile vary. The entire vary (when pairing gasoline and electrical) is 490 miles.
That 26 miles of EV vary didn’t final lengthy as I tooled round city, though Mazda does give drivers the choice of getting some additional regen juice by hitting a small button within the heart console (and proper subsequent to the gear selector).
One phrase of meh-ness: The hybrid powertrain on this car produces what I describe as less-than-fantastic efficiency off the road and felt clunky as the automated transmission moved by the gears.
The inside within the Premium Plus feels, effectively, premium. It’s stuffed with good, higher-end particulars, together with cooled and heated seats, and I usually favored the combo of actual buttons and touchscreen. What I didn’t like was the gear selector within the heart console, which requires the driving force to recollect to make that additional step and push it to the left to park. If you happen to neglect, you’re in reverse. And yeah, I forgot as soon as.
What’s “This week’s wheels”? It’s an opportunity to study in regards to the totally different transportation merchandise we’re testing, whether or not it’s an electrical or hybrid automobile, an e-bike, or perhaps a journey in an autonomous car.
