Kyle Vogt, the former founder and CEO of self-driving car company Cruise, has a new VC-backed robotics startup focused on household chores. Vogt announced Monday that the new startup, called the Bot Company, has raised $150 million from former GitHub CEO and investor Nat Friedman, Pioneer founder and investor Daniel Gross, Spark Capital general partner… Continue reading Cruise founder Kyle Vogt is back with a robot startup
Author: Tech Crunch Online News
GM’s Cruise ramps up robotaxi testing in Phoenix
Cruise has started testing its autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, with plans to begin “supervised” driving in the city more than six months after the GM self-driving subsidiary halted its driverless operations across the United States. Cruise announced Monday in a blog post that it will begin testing two vehicles in autonomous mode on public roads… Continue reading GM’s Cruise ramps up robotaxi testing in Phoenix
Tesla’s profitable Supercharger network is in limbo after Musk axed the entire team
At the start of the year, Tesla’s Supercharger team was tasked with the impossible. “We were on an exponential path,” a former team member told TechCrunch, adding that the new targets were “super-duper crazy.” Despite the bottlenecks that such expectations can create, “every time they upped the metric, we met it.” Then, one day in… Continue reading Tesla’s profitable Supercharger network is in limbo after Musk axed the entire team
Motional cut about 550 employees, around 40%, in recent restructuring, sources say
Around 550 employees across autonomous vehicle company Motional have been laid off, according to information taken from WARN notice filings and sources at the company. Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Motional is pausing commercial operations and delaying plans to launch a robotaxi service with its next-gen Hyundai Ioniq 5 robotaxis until 2026 as it… Continue reading Motional cut about 550 employees, around 40%, in recent restructuring, sources say
The buzziest EV IPO of the year is a Chinese automaker
Electric vehicle demand might be softening, but investors appear to be excited about the U.S. debut of a Chinese luxury EV brand. Geely-owned Zeekr hit the New York Stock Exchange with a splash on Friday, making it the first major U.S. listing by a Chinese company since 2021, following China’s effective ban on foreign IPOs.… Continue reading The buzziest EV IPO of the year is a Chinese automaker
Fisker Ocean faces fourth federal safety probe
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a fourth investigation into the Fisker Ocean SUV, this time to probe multiple claims of “inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking.” The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said it has received eight complaints about these braking incidents, three of which have reported injuries. The ODI has already… Continue reading Fisker Ocean faces fourth federal safety probe
Tesla drives Luminar lidar sales and Motional pauses robotaxi plans
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tap, tap. Mic check. Check 1, 2, 3. This thing on? Hey hey, yup, it’s the same TechCrunch Mobility newsletter you love, but on a different day.… Continue reading Tesla drives Luminar lidar sales and Motional pauses robotaxi plans
Uber promises member exclusives as Uber One passes $1B run-rate
Uber plans to deliver more perks to Uber One members, like member-exclusive events, in a bid to gain more revenue through subscriptions. “You will see more member-exclusives coming up where members have exclusive access to events and experiences, which will kind of surprise and delight our members,” said Uber chief financial officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah Wednesday… Continue reading Uber promises member exclusives as Uber One passes $1B run-rate
Tesla is Luminar’s largest lidar customer
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that lidar sensors are a “crutch” for autonomous vehicles. But his company has bought so many from Luminar that Tesla is now the lidar-maker’s top customer. Tesla accounted for “more than 10%” of Luminar’s revenue in the first quarter of 2024, or a little more than $2 million, the… Continue reading Tesla is Luminar’s largest lidar customer
Exclusive: Wayve co-founder Alex Kendall on the autonomous future for cars and robots
U.K.-based autonomous vehicle startup Wayve started life as a software platform loaded into a tiny electric “car” called Renault Twizy. Festooned with cameras, the company’s co-founders and PhD graduates, Alex Kendall and Amar Shah, tuned the deep-learning algorithms powering the car’s autonomous systems until they’d got it to drive around the medieval city unaided. No… Continue reading Exclusive: Wayve co-founder Alex Kendall on the autonomous future for cars and robots