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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
TechCrunch Mobility: How Jony Ive's LoveFrom helped Rivian and what Uber's next-generation playbook looks like
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! I've spent a decade covering Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, so it would be natural for me to weigh in here about the billionaire's public fallout with President Donald Trump. Plenty of other reporters, armchair analysts, influencers, and bloggers have already done that. Some of it is smart, while some of it misses the mark — by miles. Since I have the benefit of institutional knowledge, and a helluva good memory, let me offer some brief reminders and predictions. We've been here before — Musk has a long, well-documented history of creating seemingly strong alliances and then burning it all down. As senior reporter Tim De Chant noted, Elon is getting an introduction to politics. The problem here is that Musk also embraces risk and gravitas — which means that learning something doesn't equate to his behavior changing. Expect a roller-coaster ride of tentative peace followed by public outbursts. Rinse. Repeat. The implications of this fallout promise to be broad and will likely touch all of Musk's various enterprises. I will be monitoring how Tesla EV sales numbers fare and how the "Big, Beautiful Bill" will actually affect the automaker's business if it is passed into law. In the short term, I will be focused on Tesla's great robotaxi experiment in Austin, Texas, and how Musk's complicated and increasingly toxic relationship with the Trump administration affects his dealings with the Department of Transportation. Prior to his public breakup with Trump, Musk was lobbying lawmakers on legislation related to autonomous vehicles — specifically over a bill introduced on May 15 called the Autonomous Vehicle Acceleration Act. Ever since Rivian spun out Also, a micromobility startup that also received backing from Eclipse Ventures, we've been poking around to find out more. A few little birds have been in touch and helped us better understand how the skunkworks program turned into a stand-alone company; they also revealed a surprising detail: Jony Ive's creative firm LoveFrom worked alongside Rivian's design team and the staff under the skunkworks program. Senior reporter Sean O'Kane and I have the full scoop here. Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O'Kane at or Rebecca Bellan at Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop. Memorandums of understanding rarely grab my attention. But this one did. Joby Aviation and Saudi Arabian conglomerate Abdul Latif Jameel signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a distribution agreement for up to 200 electric aircraft. The tentative deal is notable because Abdul Latif Jameel is already an investor of Joby. If finalized, the partnership could provide Joby with a fast path to monetizing its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles in Saudi Arabia. Turning an investor into a customer can complicate the relationship, too (just ask Amazon and Rivian.) Obvio, a California-based startup that is combining AI with cameras placed at stop signs to root out unsafe driving behavior, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Obvio plans to use those funds to expand beyond the first five cities where it's currently operating in Maryland. Portless, an e-commerce fulfillment and logistics startup, raised $18 million in a funding round led by Commerce Ventures, with participation from eGateway Capital, Ground Up Ventures, and FJ Labs. Portless uses a Shein-like business model and charges brands duties after an item sells, helping defer the cost of tariffs. Toma, an AI voice startup that is applying its tools to car dealerships, raised $17 million across a seed and Series A round led by a16z. Y Combinator (Toma was in YC's January 2024 cohort), the Scale Angels Fund, and auto industry influencer Yossi Levi, also known as the Car Dealership Guy, have backed the startup. Recent executive shuffling coupled with comments by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi don't just hint at the company's strategy. Nope, this is like a neon blinking sign and the word "autonomy" is at the center. Earlier this week, Uber announced it had appointed Andrew 'Mac' Macdonald as president and chief operating officer. The company also announced the departure of Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, who ran Uber's delivery business. Gore-Coty's responsibilities will slot under Macdonald, who has been with the company since 2012 and most recently led the mobility and business operations. Another tidbit worth mentioning: He launched Uber's Toronto operations 13 years ago and spearheaded its autonomous strategy. Mac's new role will combine mobility, delivery, and autonomy. At a Bloomberg conference, Khosrowshahi was asked about AVs. He talked about building the AV ecosystem and Uber's stakes in companies (Aurora and Waabi) developing autonomous vehicle technology. 'We want to essentially support the AV ecosystem and continue to help that ecosystem develop and then AVs penetrate into the marketplace,' he said. 'AVs, we think, represent a safer way of transportation. Ultimately, we think it'll expand the marketplace as it makes kind of safe transportation cities available to everybody.' In other Uber news, the company has added a new type of account with a simpler UI for older people. Tesla filed trademark applications for the term 'Tesla Robotaxi' after the company's previous attempts to secure trademarks for its planned self-driving vehicle service hit roadblocks. I missed this story from Axios reporter Katie Fehrenbacher and wanted to mention it here. Last year, Redwood Materials quietly walked away from the Department of Energy (DOE) loan it had received conditional approval for. To date, Redwood has never received any federal funding. I reached out to Redwood to understand why. Redwood initially applied for a DOE loan in 2021. The process dragged on and at considerable cost to Redwood. Companies that go through this process are responsible for paying the third-party consultants and experts hired to vet the business and technology. By 2024, Redwood was still on the conditional approval limbo. While it was waiting, the company raised more than $2 billion in private funding and generated nearly $200 million in revenue last year. Ultimately, Redwood determined that the costs and constraints of this loan outweighed its value. Walmart and Alphabet's Wing are bringing drone delivery to thousands more customers. Wing, which already operates out of 18 Walmart Supercenters in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, is setting up shop in five more U.S. cities through the partnership. In all, more than 100 stores will be added in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa. Trevor Milton, the recently pardoned founder of Nikola, has been fighting a subpoena from the creditors of his bankrupt electric trucking company. Milton owed Nikola nearly $100 million before it filed for bankruptcy in February, which followed an arbitration case with the company in 2023 related to his criminal conviction that he lost.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
TechCrunch Mobility: Uber Freight's AI bet, Tesla's robotaxi caveat, and Nikola's trucks hit the auction block
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! For those U.S.-based readers out there, enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend, and if you're on the road, expect it to be crowded. AAA projects 45.1 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Memorial Day holiday period, from Thursday to Monday. About 39.4 million of those folks will use a car. Let's get to it! This edition has news on loads of companies, including Aurora, Uber, Tesla, and Waymo. Plus, a number of startups you may be interested in. Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O'Kane at or Rebecca Bellan at Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop. Luminar, the lidar startup turned SPAC, appears to be grasping for capital. Why else would the company make a deal with Yorkville Advisors Global that could bring another $200 million into its coffers through the sale of convertible preferred stock over an 18-month period? Under the terms, Luminar will issue $35 million in convertible preferred stock to the investors. Luminar may issue additional tranches in amounts of up to $35 million no more than every 60 days at a purchase price equal to 96% of the stated value of the convertible preferred stock. You might recall Luminar's board recently replaced founder Austin Russell as its CEO. The company is also going through another restructuring — its third in a year. Other deals that got my attention … SparkCharge, which offers what it calls 'charging-as-a-service' for fleets, raised $15.5 million in a Series A-1 round led by Monte's Fam, with participation from Cleveland Avenue, Collab Capital, Elemental Impact, MarcyPen, and non sibi ventures. Alongside the equity round, SparkCharge also secured a $15 million venture loan from Horizon Technology Finance Corp. Sylndr, a Cairo-based online used car sales startup that is expanding into auto financing, servicing, and tools for dealers, raised $15.7 million. The round was led by Development Partners International's Nclude Fund. The startup also raised nearly $10 million in debt financing from local banks in the past year. Is an auction a deal? Perhaps for someone. Nikola's hydrogen trucks, which have a value of about $114 million, are up for auction — one of the company's last steps in unloading all of its assets after filing for bankruptcy in February. Aurora has put human 'observers' in its self-driving trucks at the request of its partner PACCAR, a disclosure that has some scratching their heads about the move. To be clear, these 'observers' are not human safety operators, meaning they can't intervene. An Aurora spokesperson confirmed and noted they have a different role than the human safety operators in the company's supervised hauls. This news prompted folks to send me a slew of messages with questions like 'Why?' and 'What's the point?' Einride founder Robert Falck is stepping down from the role of CEO. Einride's CFO, Roozbeh Charli, will take over the role of chief executive effective immediately. Reliable Robotics, the autonomous aviation company, appointed Marc Stoll as its new CFO. Stoll is the former VP of Finance at Apple and partner at Eclipse Ventures. Zoox has completed the 'initial mapping phase' and will begin testing its self-driving vehicles in Atlanta later this summer. The California Public Utilities Commission approved Waymo's request to expand its commercial robotaxi service area into more communities south of San Francisco. Meanwhile, Waymo and Uber plan to start offering robotaxi rides in Atlanta to select customers who signed onto a waitlist earlier this year. Tesla plans to limit where its robotaxis operate in Austin, Texas, to specific areas the company deems 'the safest,' according to Elon Musk. Using a geofence represents a major strategy shift for Musk, who spent years claiming his company would be able to create a general-purpose self-driving solution that could be dropped into any location and work without human supervision. Arc unveiled a new electric boat called the Arc Coast, a $168,000 watercraft with a center console design. Senate Republicans have voted to overturn a waiver that allowed California to set stricter air pollution standards for vehicles. The state has received waivers more than 100 times since federal laws granted the right some 50 years ago. Uber plans to launch a B2B logistics service in India through a partnership with a government-backed nonprofit that aims to break the domination of Flipkart, the e-commerce giant backed by Amazon and Walmart. Uber Freight recently launched a suite of AI features to shippers around the world as part of its existing supply chain software. That includes an expansion of Insights AI, which Uber Freight quietly launched in 2023, as well as more than 30 AI agents built to 'execute key logistics tasks throughout the freight lifecycle.' Senior reporter Sean O'Kane interviewed CEO Lior Ron about the company's dive into AI — including the how, why, and what's next. Yup, 'This week's wheels' is back with Rebecca Bellan, who writes about her time on the new Heybike Alpha, a sturdy, fat-tire, all-terrain e-bike with a $1,699 price tag. The entire review can be read here. For those who want the highlights: The Alpha ticked a lot of boxes for Bellan — notably the mid-drive motor with torque sensor and long-lasting battery. There were some frustrations, though, too. Putting the bike together, the app, and outsized horn were disappointments. But generally, Rebecca felt the Alpha was an excellent all-around e-bike, whether you want to take it on off-road adventures or use it in the city to do your weekly Trader Joe's shopping. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
TechCrunch Mobility: Google's Gemini is coming to your car, chaos comes for Luminar, and the Amazonification of Uber 2.0
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! OK, who placed their bet on General Motors being the landing spot for Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson? Not me. But here we are. A few days after Anderson announced his resignation from his position and the board at Aurora, he spoke to me about his next gig as chief product officer at GM. In short, he will oversee the entire product line of GM's gas-powered and electric vehicles — a position that will cover the entire life cycle of GM's portfolio and include hardware, software, services, and user experience. Anderson couldn't say too much; plus, he hasn't started the job yet. Anderson did say he wouldn't have taken the new job if Aurora had yet to launch its commercial self-driving truck service in Texas. Let's jump into the rest of the news. In an absolutely wild turn of events, Luminar's founder Austin Russell appears to have been pushed out as CEO and board chair. You can read my coverage here, which provides a bit of an overview of how this unfolded, but I know there is so much more to this story. TL;DR: If you were to only read Luminar's Q1 earnings report, you would assume Russell was still at the helm. A separate press release, released as the company's earnings went out, announced a leadership change and that Russell had resigned following an ethics inquiry from the board's audit committee. Here's what I'm hearing from a few little birds. The word "blindsided" came up more than once, and the chaos isn't over. Luminar board member Jun Hong Heng, who is founder and chief investment officer at Crescent Cove Advisors and a mentor of Russell's, resigned a day later. Heng was also on the audit committee. Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O'Kane at or Rebecca Bellan at Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop. Aurora has had an odd couple of weeks filled with highs — driverless commercial service woohoo! — and twists — whoops, there goes a co-founder. To cap things off, Uber announced plans to offer $1 billion in exchangeable senior notes due in 2028 in private placement. As you might expect, stocks dropped after investors got spooked about potential dilution and what this might mean for the value of Aurora's stock. Other deals that got my attention … AutoUnify, the latest startup that has launched out of the partnership, raised $5 million in seed money. The Santa Monica, California-based startup, which built an API to allow dealerships and service shops to communicate in real time with the manufacturers and software vendors that power their operations, has been operating quietly for about nine months. Chinese battery manufacturer CATL is far from a startup. But it's worth noting this bananas IPO plan. The company wants to raise at least HK$31.01 billion — that's just shy of $4 billion — in its Hong Kong listing. This is the largest listing globally in 2025. Here's a potential deal that has raised some eyebrows. Federal railroad regulators are in talks with Elon Musk's tunneling firm, The Boring Company, over a multibillion-dollar Amtrak project. Flock Freight, the shared truckload freight brokerage based in California, raised $60 million in a Series E funding round led by O'Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, SignalFire, GLP Capital Partners, and Bracket Capital also participated. Tesla's plan to launch a robotaxi service in Austin next month has caught the attention of federal safety investigators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation sent the company a detailed list of questions on its upcoming robotaxi service as part of an investigation into how the company's 'Full Self-Driving (Supervised)' software operates in low-visibility conditions. Recalls are starting to pop up more in the AV sector. Last week it was Zoox. Now Waymo has issued a software recall on 1,200 self-driving vehicles after some of its robotaxis were involved in minor collisions with gates, chains, and other gate-like roadway objects. WeRide seems to be trying to ramp in Guangzhou. The Chinese company said it has introduced eight autonomous robotaxi pilot operation routes in the central part of the city. The company has also started trialing fully driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi. General Motors has been working on a new battery chemistry called lithium manganese-rich, which it says should slash costs while delivering driving range. Notably, these LMR batteries dramatically reduce the amount of nickel and cobalt compared with GM's most advanced cells, two critical minerals that aren't readily available from domestic sources in the United States. A footnote in Lucid's recent Q1 regulatory filing gives a bit more insight into its sales numbers. The EV maker's record quarter got a lift from rental sales and company leases. Slate Auto has racked up more than 100,000 reservations for its customizable low-cost electric pickup truck. Everyone, let's give a slow clap to Toyota for redesigning — and more importantly, renaming — its sole all-electric vehicle for the U.S. market. The EV, once called the bZ4X, will now simply be bZ. The original bZ4X was not well received. I'm looking forward to getting behind the wheel to see what improvements Toyota has made. Meanwhile, Toyota has brought back the C-HR nameplate, but this time as an EV. Hopefully this time it's more successful. It arrives in the U.S. in 2026. Three years ago, reporter Rebecca Bellan noted that Uber was going through an Amazonification. Her pitch was that the company, like Amazon, had created a closed business loop to feed customers back into other Uber channels. The second part of that evolution has started, she reported this week. Uber appears to be moving beyond its focus on transportation and working to become a convenient super app, an aggregator of services, a daily-use lifestyle platform with its best offerings tucked behind a paywall. U.S. lawmakers introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA's 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The timing could be crucial for startup Boom Supersonic, which has made progress in developing next-generation supersonic aircraft Vertical Aerospace announced a plan to develop a hybrid-electric variant of its VX4, suggesting the company is pursuing opportunities in defense and logistics. Apple's next generation of its popular CarPlay infotainment software is finally launching. Reminder: It was first announced three years ago. The new version, called CarPlay Ultra, will make its debut on new Aston Martin vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to all cars that support Android Auto in the next few months. Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Cars, said Gemini will surface in the Android Auto experience in two main ways. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
UK jobseekers: share you experience of visiting a Jobcentre
We'd like to hear how people in the UK looking for work have experienced visiting Jobcentre branches. Have you found your visit to a Jobcentre helpful? Did the support offered by the Jobcentre match your expectations? Has the Jobcentre helped you find work? Tell us. Tell us about your experience of visiting a UK Jobcentre, and whether you found it helpful in finding work. Please include as much detail as possible Please include as much detail as possible Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you include other people's names please ask them first. Contact us on WhatsApp at +447766780300. For more information, please see our guidance on contacting us via WhatsApp. For true anonymity please use our SecureDrop service instead.
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Share your experience of coming off weight-loss jabs
With weight-loss jabs popular among people trying to lose weight and advised treatment time using drugs such as Wegovy limited to two years, we are interested in finding out more about people's experiences after coming off weight-loss jabs. What did you think of the results? Did the weight stay off, and did your relationship with food, or your body, change? You can tell us what it was like when you stopped using weight-loss jabs by filling in the form below. Please include as much detail as possible Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB. Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you include other people's names please ask them first. Contact us on WhatsApp or Signal at +447766780300. For more information, please see our guidance on contacting us via WhatsApp, For true anonymity please use our SecureDrop service instead.
