Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Enroll right here without spending a dime — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
Earlier than we soar into the information, I wished to steer you towards a latest TechCrunch Fairness podcast episode with Waabi co-founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun.
Slightly hen
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 take a look at these directions to discover ways to contact us by way of encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
Offers!
The Rivian-Volkswagen Group three way partnership has been formally finalized. Earlier than the events signed on the dotted line, it received about 16% greater. The deal will now inject as much as $5.8 billion into Rivian’s coffers with $1 billion already delivered by way of a convertible notice.
We don’t know all the particular phrases, however it’s price noting that this shall be an impartial firm co-led by Rivian’s head of software program Wassym Bensaid and Volkswagen Group’s chief technical engineer, Carsten Helbing. The workforce, which shall be closely loaded with Rivian engineers, shall be based mostly in Palo Alto, California. It should ultimately arrange three extra websites in North America and Europe.
A lingering query — and one requested by a lot of media (together with moi) throughout a press convention — is what occurs to VW’s struggling software program arm, Cariad? VW Group CEO Oliver Blume claims that Cariad will nonetheless play a “central role.” We’ll see.
In the meantime, Rivian remains to be combating a provider drawback that curbed manufacturing and minimize into income. In its Q3 earnings, Rivian reported $874 million of income, greater than 34% decrease than the identical interval final 12 months. However wanting on the hole between manufacturing (13,157) and deliveries (10,018) means that demand can also be a problem.
That VW cash is wanting fairly candy proper now.
Different offers that received my consideration …
Simply Eat Takeaway, the Netherlands-based meals supply firm, is promoting its U.S. enterprise Grubhub to New York-based Marvel Group in a deal valued at $650 million. That’s 91% lower than the $7.3 billion Simply Eat Takeaway paid for the corporate simply 4 years in the past.
Silicon Valley battery startup Lyten is buying manufacturing belongings from Northvolt, the Swedish battery producer that has struggled in latest months and is brief on capital. The businesses didn’t disclose monetary phrases however did say Northvolt will promote manufacturing gear it inherited in its 2021 acquisition of Cuberg, one other battery startup.
NASA gave out 5 analysis awards price $11.5 million to firms engaged on sustainable plane ideas, together with JetZero.
Vatn Programs, a Portsmouth, Rhode Island-based firm growing underwater autonomous vessels, raised $13 million in a seed spherical led by DYNE Ventures and with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, RTX Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and others. The spherical brings the startup’s complete funding to $16.5 million.
Vecna Robotics, a warehouse robotics startup that developed autonomous forklifts and different pallet movers, has raised $14.5 million. However the increase wasn’t precisely what received my consideration; it was the appointment of Karl Iagnemma, the previous president and CEO of Motional. Iagnemma has been within the AV world for a few a long time now, largely in pursuit of commercializing autonomous autos (i.e., robotaxis). This new place places him on the helm of a startup (wherein he was an early investor, btw) that already has industrial clients.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous autos
Monarch Tractor, the autonomous electrical tractor startup, has laid off staff as a part of a restructuring that may see it prioritize non-agricultural clients, license its autonomous know-how, and enhance gross sales of its AI-powered farm administration software program. Obtained a tip about Monarch? Attain out to Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Yelp agreed to purchase RepairPal, a web site for automobile restore estimates, for $80 million in money. The acquisition is predicted to shut by the tip of the 12 months, topic to customary closing situations.
Waymo dropped its waitlist in Los Angeles, opening the robotaxi service as much as the general public. The service space is now about 80 sq. miles of Los Angeles County.
Welp, Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson advised us at Disrupt 2024 that the Amazon-backed firm’s customized robotaxi could be hitting the streets of San Francisco and Las Vegas. And now they’ve formally arrived. These are only for staff proper now and can ultimately be opened as much as invited members of the general public.
Electrical autos, charging, & batteries
Canoo retains making an attempt to carry on, however its prospects don’t look nice. The EV startup-turned-SPAC advised shareholders in its Q3 earnings “it must continue to take aggressive actions to consolidate our operations, reduce costs, and catch-up to our plan.” As a part of that plan, Canoo’s exec workforce, which incorporates chairman and CEO Tony Aquila and new CFO Kunal Bhalla, will take “short-term pay cuts for long-term incentives.” Reminder: Aquila’s agency has lent Canoo cash, and among the many phrases is an 11% rate of interest.
In different Canoo information, the corporate examined its electrical vans for Walmart with out airbags regardless of warnings from staff, sources advised Fortune.
Lucid began taking orders for the Gravity SUV. If it wasn’t already clear, Lucid’s future hinges on the success of this EV.
Tesla issued a recall for greater than 2,000 Cybertrucks, the sixth for the reason that EV launched a 12 months in the past. And no, it’s not one that may be fastened by a software program replace. Talking of Tesla, the automaker is a part of the trillion-dollar membership (market cap) once more thanks partially to shareholders betting a Trump presidency will profit the corporate led by ally Elon Musk.
Way forward for flight
Exosonic, a startup growing supersonic industrial air journey and UAV tech, mentioned it’s shutting down after failing to search out the capital wanted to proceed operations.
This week’s wheels
This week, I’m again with a pair extra Waymo robotaxi tales from TechCrunch workers members who had their first rides whereas in San Francisco for Disrupt 2024. As I discussed final week, I’ve been in a great deal of autonomous autos, together with driverless Waymos, so I believed it will be enjoyable to share some first-timers’ views.
From UK-based reporter Paul Sawers: “Whereas I’ve written concerning the autonomous car business for a few years, taking my first experience in an precise self-driving automobile was fairly mind-blowing — it felt like I’d been catapulted into the longer term. I couldn’t assist however stare on the empty driver’s seat and marvel at the truth that we had been maneuvering via the streets of San Francisco. It wasn’t vastly nerve-wracking, however that’s in all probability as a result of we weren’t going a lot sooner than about 25 to 30 miles per hour. I believe if I used to be on the freeway in that factor, it is likely to be a little bit extra bushy.
Extra broadly, there was one thing a little bit jarring about seeing all these humanless vehicles creeping round avenue corners— marginally dystopian, just like the machines had been lastly taking management.”
From reporter Rebecca Bellan: “I rode in as many Waymos as I may throughout the week of Disrupt, and it felt kind of like a experience at Disneyland. It moved sluggish and cautiously, and I wasn’t actually fearful about crashing. Most rides went with out incident, barring one wherein the robotaxi appeared poised to drive in direction of a pedestrian however then fortunately swerved.
“My main gripe is that the vehicles often began to drive off before you reached them, likely due to a lack of access to city curbsides. I’m not sure how the ‘Driver’ decides it’s time to drive half a block up and wait there instead, but this little exercise had my editor Kirsten and I chasing one down a couple of blocks and a (thankfully well-lit) alleyway before we could come aboard.”
Senior reporter Sean O’Kane wrote: “I’ve covered AVs long enough that I expected my first taste of Waymo’s careful rollout to go super smoothly — and it did. I did not expect to feel so viscerally just how expensive these current vehicles are, from the whirring lidars to the high-price I-Paces. I’m excited to ride again someday soon, but I hope by then Waymo will have made more progress on making a viable business.”
What’s “This week’s wheels”? It’s an opportunity to be taught concerning the completely different transportation merchandise we’re testing, whether or not it’s an electrical or hybrid automobile, an e-bike, or perhaps a experience in an autonomous car.
