Last year, Hugging Face, the AI dev platform, launched LeRobot, a collection of open AI models, datasets, and tools to help build real-world robotics systems. On Tuesday, Hugging Face teamed up with AI startup Yaak to expand LeRobot with a training set for robots and cars that can navigate environments, like city streets, autonomously. The… Continue reading Hugging Face expands its LeRobot platform with training data for self-driving machines
Author: Tech Crunch Online News
Waymo expands its robotaxi service across Silicon Valley
Waymo will start offering robotaxi rides to people in its “Waymo One” early rider program in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and “parts of Sunnyvale” starting Wednesday, an expansion that will bring its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 square miles. The Waymo vehicles will be available around-the-clock, and the new territories add to… Continue reading Waymo expands its robotaxi service across Silicon Valley
Meet the new VC firm secretly backed by Volkswagen
A new venture firm called Leitmotif has been on a quiet blitz for the last 16 months, funding around 20 startups broadly focused on decarbonization. Its portfolio includes EV companies, space and battery plays, and four nuclear fusion startups. But the firm has only said its funding is from “European industrial interests.” Now, Leitmotif has… Continue reading Meet the new VC firm secretly backed by Volkswagen
Rad Power Bikes CEO steps down
Rad Power Bikes CEO Phil Molyneux has stepped down as part of a wider strategic reshuffling at the acclaimed electric bicycle company. The company told TechCrunch that Chief Financial Officer Stephanie Roberts will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a replacement, and that Molyneux will serve as an adviser. The news, first… Continue reading Rad Power Bikes CEO steps down
Daqus Energy has a plan to make EV sports cars fast, light, and cheap
Cheaper, lighter, and denser: the trifecta defines an ideal battery. No one has devised a perfect cell quite yet, but one stealthy startup thinks it has found a new material that solves at least two of those challenges. Daqus Energy has been quietly operating for the past four months, refining a compound known as TAQ… Continue reading Daqus Energy has a plan to make EV sports cars fast, light, and cheap
Nirvana keeps on truckin’ with $80M at $830M valuation for its AI-powered insurance
As the U.S. trucking industry gears up for the negative impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada, a startup building a new kind of trucking insurance has raised some money to grow and help truckers weather the changes. Nirvana, an AI-based insurance platform that uses real-time driving… Continue reading Nirvana keeps on truckin’ with $80M at $830M valuation for its AI-powered insurance
Chevy Silverado EV vs Rivian R1T: How two EVs handled the iconic Mint 400 off-road race
Something special went down in the desert outside of Las Vegas this weekend: two EVs took on the Mint 400 for the first time. Since the Mint 400 launched back in 1969, vehicles in this iconic desert endurance race have been powered by dead dinosaurs. Spectators and race participants alike are used to the smell… Continue reading Chevy Silverado EV vs Rivian R1T: How two EVs handled the iconic Mint 400 off-road race
SXSW 2025 live coverage: AI takes center stage
Kirsten Korosec What the TechCrunch staff is seeing, hearing, and trying out in Austin SXSW 2025, the annual consumer tech-meets-music-film-culture-and-comedy conference held in Austin, is here — and this is where you can find all of our live updates. SXSW 2025 kicked off Friday and runs through March 13. We’ll have folks on the ground… Continue reading SXSW 2025 live coverage: AI takes center stage
SXSW 2025: What we’re paying attention to
TechCrunch will be on the ground at SXSW 2025 — the annual tech, music, comedy, and film conference that kicked off Friday in Austin — in search of the zeitgeist of this AI-centric era. Yup, we’re one sentence in and AI has already made its entrance. And why not? A quick scan of the massive… Continue reading SXSW 2025: What we’re paying attention to
Intuitive Machines’ second moon lander is dead
Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander is dead, just one day after it touched down at the moon’s south pole and tipped over. Luckily, the company says it was able to “accelerate several program and payload milestones” and deploy a few of the experiments that were riding shotgun before Athena’s lander ran out of juice. The… Continue reading Intuitive Machines’ second moon lander is dead