French startup BlaBlaCar is announcing plans to acquire Ouibus, the bus division of France’s national railway company SNCF. For the first time, BlaBlaCar is moving beyond carpooling and plans to offer both long-distance carpooling rides and bus rides. BlaBlaCar already ran a test with Ouibus for the past six months on popular corridors. It looks… Continue reading BlaBlaCar to acquire Ouibus and offer bus service
Author: Tech Crunch Online News
Electric flying taxi service Lilium poaches key hires from Audi, Airbus
Lilium, the developer of a new, electric, vertical take-off and landing vehicle for a novel flying taxi service, has poached some pretty big former executives from Airbus and Audi as it builds out its technology and gets ready to bring its service to market. Mirko Reuter, the former head of automated driving at Audi, has… Continue reading Electric flying taxi service Lilium poaches key hires from Audi, Airbus
Harley-Davidson bets its future on the LiveWire electric motorcycle
It’s been a four-year wait since Harley-Davidson first showed off a concept electric motorcycle. Now, the production-ready bike — called the Harley-Davidson LiveWire — is finally here. Well, almost. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company unveiled the production-ready electric motorcycle Tuesday at the EICMA motorcycle show in Italy. It won’t be available, though, until next year. Harley… Continue reading Harley-Davidson bets its future on the LiveWire electric motorcycle
Grab pulls in $250M from Hyundai as ongoing round reaches $2.7B
Grab, the Singapore startup that bought Uber’s Southeast Asia business earlier this year, continues to announce strategic investors for its ongoing Series H funding round. The latest edition revealed today is Korean automotive firm Hyundai, which is investing $250 million. Hyundai first invested in Grab in January, and it joins recently announced investors Microsoft (undisclosed)… Continue reading Grab pulls in $250M from Hyundai as ongoing round reaches $2.7B
Luminar nabs former Uber executive to lead LiDAR startup’s business development
Luminar, the buzzy LiDAR startup founded by Austin Russell, has added another high-profile executive to its ranks. This time, Luminar has hired Uber executive Brent Schwarz as its head of business development. Schwarz, who has been at Luminar for about two months now, comes from Uber by way of self-driving truck startup Otto, which acquired… Continue reading Luminar nabs former Uber executive to lead LiDAR startup’s business development
You can ride Bird’s e-scooters in London starting today — but only in Olympic Park
It was only a matter of time before the electric scooters infiltrated the U.K. Today, the well-funded startup Bird is launching a fleet of its shareable e-scooters in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. As part of the pilot, the company is making the scooters available between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. for anyone heading between Stratford and Here… Continue reading You can ride Bird’s e-scooters in London starting today — but only in Olympic Park
Elon Musk says Tesla won’t make e-scooters, but might consider electric bikes
Tesla won’t be joining the scooter wars. But electric bikes? Yeah, maybe. During a lengthy podcast with Recode’s Kara Swisher, Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about everything from AI and his fights on Twitter with journalists to Saudi Arabia and Mars. Even scooters. Of course, scooters. But don’t get your hopes up for a Tesla… Continue reading Elon Musk says Tesla won’t make e-scooters, but might consider electric bikes
DeepMap, a maker of HD maps for self-driving, raised at least $60M at a $450M valuation
As car and tech companies continue to make inroads on vehicles and services to build autonomous driving systems, a startup that is creating high-definition maps to help these vehicles move around has quietly picked up a significant round of funding. DeepMap — a Palo Alto startup co-founded by James Wu and Mark Wheeler, who previously… Continue reading DeepMap, a maker of HD maps for self-driving, raised at least $60M at a $450M valuation
Baidu hits the gas on autonomous vehicles with Volvo and Ford deals
China’s search engine giant Baidu is continuing its partnership spree for Apollo, its open development platform for autonomous driving, after it inked a deal with Swedish automaker Volvo to develop level four self-driving passenger cars. “Autonomous driving has been our dream, but it’s coming true,” said Li Zhenyu, vice president and general manager of Baidu’s… Continue reading Baidu hits the gas on autonomous vehicles with Volvo and Ford deals
Carpooling startup Scoop partners with Lyft
Lyft is partnering with carpooling service Scoop to supplement Scoop’s offering to its customers from companies like LinkedIn, Workday, Samsung T-Mobile and Symantec. With Scoop, trips are pre-scheduled, so you can select from one or more times you’d be willing to leave in the morning and afternoon, and have up until 9pm the night before for… Continue reading Carpooling startup Scoop partners with Lyft