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TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is packed! What a whirlwind it has been. Some highlights? Zoox Co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson Weigh in whether Tesla A robotaxi will be launched next year in California (he says “no” and explains why) and he made a big announcement about his own company. Meanwhile, RivianHead of software Waseem bin Saeed Said buttons are an anomaly (the future is audio) and gave us some additional details about where the fruits of the Rivian-VW joint venture deal may end up. Hint: Scout cars.
Did you miss the interviews? Here is the full interview with Levinson and the interview with Ben Said.
There was, of course, much more, including… GM President and CEO Mary Barrawho covered a lot of stuff related to autonomous vehicles, China, and electric vehicles in an interview with our global managing editor Rusoff died. On the one hand, you still see a future where GM builds a self-driving vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals (RIP, Origin). You can catch the entire interview here.
How could I forget, Banff It made it to the Top 20 list of Startup Battlefield games.
birdie
A little bird told us about some functional movement in Rivian. Specifically, the head of battery manufacturing engineering at Rivian Kenton Harris He left the company and is now the global chief engineer at Ford.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or see these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
Offers!
Remember when Waymo Raise $5 billion over the summer? Well, the company tour is a little bigger now. The company closed a $5.6 billion Series C funding round led by parent company Alphabet and joined by a group of Silicon Valley investment firms.
Waymo has been tight-lipped on details, saying only that it’s a “multi-year” commitment. Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Berry Creek, and T. Rowe Price have all joined the round. Waymo declined to say how much each of them invested.
Reminder, this is Alphabet’s second external fundraising round, and its first since its $2.25 billion Series B in 2020 which eventually grew to $3.2 billion.
Well, this wasn’t on my bingo card and it’s something I missed, but venture capital Riley Brennan Discover it (and share it in our newsletter). Applied intuition I got an IP to Stealth autonomyan AV startup that shut down earlier this year.
Endless machinesthe New York-based startup developing a cyberpunk-inspired electric scooter, has raised $9 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism team.
Gobi AviationAn electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle startup has launched a public offering to sell up to $200 million of its common stock. Joby said it will use proceeds from the raise — along with its existing funds — to fund certification and manufacturing efforts, prepare for commercial launch in 2025, and use it for general working capital.
Here’s one more dead deal: electric aircraft startups Lilium It said it would close after failing to raise emergency funds from the German government. The filing came after a series of setbacks from the German company that was once a darling of the emerging electric aircraft industry. Reminder: Lilium raised more than $1 billion from investors before going public in 2021 on the Nasdaq through a reverse merger with blank check company, SPAC Qell.
Third wave automationa developer of high-range, autonomous forklifts backed by Shared Autonomy, has raised $27 million in a Series C round led by Toyota’s Woven Capital fund. Innovation Endeavors, Norwest Venture Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures also joined the round, bringing the total capital raised to $97 million.
We are riding It debuted on the Nasdaq last weekTo join the growing number of Chinese companies reaching foreign markets. The self-driving car startup has raised $440.5 million and is now valued at more than $4 billion. That’s impressive, but it falls short of the $5 billion the company was aiming for.
zerothe electric motorcycle company, is closing a new financing round of just over $120 million. Zero has sold about a $100 million equity round so far from two undisclosed investors.
Notable Readings and Other Stories
Self-driving vehicles
Aurora Innovation It postponed the launch of its self-driving commercial truck to the spring of 2025.
During Disruption, Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos interviewed the investor Vinod Khosla In fact, means of transportation appeared. He mentioned a startup he invested in called glideways. He believes Glydways, which is developing autonomous personal pods designed to operate on narrow, dedicated routes, could replace most cars in most of our cities in the next 25 years. The answer is not a robo-taxi.
“This sounds radical, but these entrepreneurs want to make it happen, and I’m pretty sure it will happen, and this isn’t a robot; it’s not Waymo. It’s a much better solution.”
Electric cars, charging and batteries
Scout enginesVolkswagen, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, has unveiled two electric cars that it hopes will attract American customers with a sturdy, modern design that downplays digital technology and embraces the mechanical. But in a twist, the company has also added a different model to its Scout Traveler SUV and all-electric Scout Terra truck that will come with a built-in gas-powered generator. Which one do you think will sell better? I have my ideas, but we’ll have to wait until 2027 (when the vehicles go into production) to find out.
Tesla $25,000 USD volatility explained.
Passenger transportation, car sharing and rental services
Katethe car rental startup that describes itself as “the best alternative to Hertz,” is pulling out of nearly all of its major U.S. markets and cutting its workforce nearly in half in an attempt to survive after exploring a sale earlier this year. year.
Lyft It agreed to a $2.1 million settlement proposed by the Federal Trade Commission over the ride-hailing company’s “deceptive earnings claims about how much money drivers could expect to make.”
diverse
John MacNeillthe former Tesla president and former Lyft COO who is now CEO of VC firm DVx Ventures, spoke about innovation through pitching at the Global Business Forum. He also talked about the Tesla robotaxi and why electric car startups fail.
Wheels this week
Right before TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, I went to Zoox Headquarters in Foster City, California, for a custom-built robotaxi experience. To be clear, this was a fairly short trip from the Zoox building to another building about a mile away.
However, the robo-taxi ran into traffic, completed a red right turn and then an unprotected left, reaching speeds in excess of 35 miles per hour. It wasn’t jerky, and for that short ride the system moved confidently. Next step? Zoox Co-Founder and CTO Jesse Levinson The company will begin offering rides in its robotaxis on public roads in San Francisco and Las Vegas, he told me on stage.
What are “This Week’s Wheels”? It’s an opportunity to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in a self-driving vehicle.
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