P2P car marketplace Shift pauses DC operations, lays off 10% of staff

After Beepi shut down its service and transferred its operations to stealth Fair.com, its closest competitor Shift is facing some downsizing, too — a measure of the challenges of the peer-to-peer car selling business model that both had been trying to establish. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Shift has laid off just under 10 percent of… Continue reading P2P car marketplace Shift pauses DC operations, lays off 10% of staff

Intel confirms 15% stake in mapping business Here to work on autonomous car tech

Here, the mapping and location services company once owned by Nokia and sold for €2.5 billion to a car-maker consortium of Audi, BMW and Daimler in 2015, is picking up a new investor today. Chipmaker Intel has confirmed that it is taking a 15 percent stake in the business, which it will use to develop autonomous… Continue reading Intel confirms 15% stake in mapping business Here to work on autonomous car tech

GM said to pilot peer-to-peer car sharing through its Maven brand

Automaker General Motors is said to be planning a new peer-to-peer car rental service, similar to existing offerings by Daimler-backed Turo and startup Getaround, to debut as early as this summer according to Bloomberg. The service will debut in a test pilot set to begin this summer, under GM’s Maven mobility sub-brand, per the report,… Continue reading GM said to pilot peer-to-peer car sharing through its Maven brand

Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo raises $866M in new financing led by Alibaba Group

Beijing-based bike-sharing startup Ofo has raised $866 million in new financing led by Alibaba Group to fuel its expensive competition with Mobike, which is backed by Tencent, one of Alibaba’s biggest rivals. Ofo and Mobike are the two largest bike-sharing companies in China. Other participants in the round, which consists of equity and debt financing,… Continue reading Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo raises $866M in new financing led by Alibaba Group

Lyft says its revenue is growing nearly 3x faster than Uber’s

Lyft made a lot of progress in 2017, helped by strong market expansion within the U.S., and riding some very bad news from its primary rival Uber. That’s helped it grow revenue to over $1 billion as measured by GAAP standards for its fiscal 2017, with a particularly strong Q4 during which its revenue outpaced… Continue reading Lyft says its revenue is growing nearly 3x faster than Uber’s

Update: Bird has raised $100 million to become the Uber of electric scooters

Update: Bird confirmed our reporting with an announcement of the close of the round. Index Ventures and Valor Ventures led the funding. “It feels like investing in Uber when it first launched.” That’s what one investor said of the hot new Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, Bird — an electric scooter company that’s now in the… Continue reading Update: Bird has raised $100 million to become the Uber of electric scooters

Bird is raising $100 million to become the Uber of electric scooters

“It feels like investing in Uber when it first launched.” That’s what one investor said of the hot new Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, Bird — an electric scooter company that’s now in the process of raising as much as $100 million on a $300 million valuation, according to several people with knowledge of the company’s… Continue reading Bird is raising $100 million to become the Uber of electric scooters

Volkswagen’s head of electric mobility says China will drive autonomy roll-out

What’s the biggest motivating factor behind automakers embracing autonomous vehicles and self-driving? You might think ‘safety’ or maybe even consumer demand, but in truth the biggest driver might be China and its incentivization programs for automakers. Much like China’s rules for qualifying for subsidies and restrictions on selling vehicles in market have led to automakers… Continue reading Volkswagen’s head of electric mobility says China will drive autonomy roll-out

Carsome raises $19M for its used-car sales platform in Southeast Asia

Funding for Southeast Asia’s car trading platforms is like buses. After a long wait without news, a third startup has raised funding in the space of a month. Carsome, a Malaysia-based company that also operates in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, announced today it has raised a $19 million Series B round just weeks after smaller… Continue reading Carsome raises $19M for its used-car sales platform in Southeast Asia

Audi gets in on the flying car action with Airbus and Italdesign

The Geneva Motor Show is home to many supercars and outlandish apparitions, but the collaboration between Italdesign, Audi and Airbus on the Pop.Up Next flying car concept is one of the more out there. It’s an updated version fo the Pop.Up that Italdesign and Airbus brought to the show last year, this time including an… Continue reading Audi gets in on the flying car action with Airbus and Italdesign