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Welcome back to Navigation TechCrunch – Your central hub for news and ideas about the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!
It’s only been two days since the election, and there’s already a lot of speculation about what else is going on Trump presidency It will mean transport and technology – as well as adjacent sectors, such as energy and climate. It will take months to answer many of these questions, and we will be watching and reporting on how the future of transportation is affected.
In these early days, we have produced some articles exploring who will win and who will lose, and how certain sectors might adapt to a change in administration in the executive and legislative branches. TC’s Tim De Chant provided some analysis on why it’s so difficult for President-elect Trump to deconstruct the crisis. Inflation reduction lawand reporter Rebecca Bellan looked at what the win could mean for her Elon Musk and its companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and X.
birdie
A little birdie told us that Tesla has definitely canceled its $25,000 electric car and replaced it with a robotaxi. The shift, which occurred in April when Musk announced that Tesla would unveil a robotaxi this year, came as a surprise to many Tesla employees who were eager to build a cheaper electric car that their children could one day afford. This shift in strategy, coupled with mass layoffs earlier this year, led to low morale among employees and even some departures. But our little bird says morale is slowly improving.
And in other small bird news…
A few little birds told us about their electric car startup Kano It was plagued by executive departures and more furloughs. Days later, before this newsletter was ready to ship, our information was verified in a regulatory filing: The CFO and general counsel had left, and 30 workers had been furloughed, among other troubling moves.
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!
Beta Technologiesa startup developing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, had a mess in its funding round – 318 million is bigAnd yes, I mean dollars. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund led the Series C funding round. Fidelity, TPG and United Therapeutics, which are also clients, joined the round. This pushes total beta funding to over $1 billion. No word on evaluation.
As Rebecca Bellan noted in an article earlier this year, PETA has no interest in operating its own urban air taxi network. Instead, Beta positioned itself as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that would sell aircraft and cargo solutions to a wide range of customers. The company has secured customers in defence, cargo delivery and medical logistics – such as United Therapeutics, UPS, Air New Zealand and the US Air Force – with a plan to launch in those markets by 2025.
Other deals that caught my attention…
DeepRoute.aia Shenzhen-based self-driving technology startup, has raised $100 million from Great Wall Motor Co. The money is intended to help DeepRoute get its automated driving systems into as many vehicles in China before Tesla launches next year.
We mentioned you last week Waymo Closed $5.6 billion round from parent company Alphabet. Well, Bloomberg polled the valuation now stands at $45 billion, according to its sources.
Vanguard It revised its valuation of Indian ride-hailing startup Ola to around $2 billion as of the end of August.
Zavvioan autonomous vehicle sensor technology startup, It raised $8.6 million In a seed round led by Vsquared Ventures and imec.xpand.
Notable Readings and Other Stories
Self-driving vehicles
Lyft It announced three separate partnerships – with Startup May navigationAutomated driving company Mobile iSmart Dashcam Company Naksar – all aimed at establishing a foothold in the emerging self-driving car market. Uber and Lyft doing all these partnerships takes me back to the AV hype days of 2017 and 2018.
Electric cars, charging and batteries
Ford It said it will halt production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck starting in mid-November for about two months, as it suffers from falling demand, increasing competition and losses in its electric vehicle business.
Kia unveil EV camper concept Which she describes as “the perfect escape pod,” Ars Technica reports.
In-car technology and software
Reporter Sean O’Kane spoke to Rivian’s head of software Waseem bin Saeed On the sidelines, TechCrunch Disrupt learned that it is working on a third-party developer ecosystem that will bring more applications to the car’s infotainment system.
Wheels this week
This week I’m turning to a group of TechCrunch employees who took their first trip to Waymo while they were in San Francisco attending Disrupt 2024. I’ve been in quite a few self-driving vehicles, including driverless Waymos, so I thought it would be fun to share a perspective of the first time.
“I thought I was going to hate Waymo, but I didn’t,” said Venture magazine reporter Dominic Madori-Davis. “I drove like my mother. Very careful, very slow. I felt as safe as possible in a self-driving car, and I honestly loved not having to talk about the weather.”
Kyle Wagers, an Amnesty International and Foundations reporter, said it was “nerving, especially when other cars were overtaking us. The whole experience felt unnerving sitting on the shotgun. I kept expecting the worst.” I asked him if he would take another Waymo and his response was: “Yes.” “But with caution.”
Project editor Julie Port went on three trips. She noted that her first trip was a bit scary because she “swerved a little precariously in a narrow lane next to a row of parked cars.” She also didn’t turn right at a red light, causing some car horns from frustrated humans. She also noted that sometimes prices were much higher than what Uber would charge, and delivery locations were odd and close by.
“Overall, it was a fun experience, and if the car remains as affordable as other ride-hailing companies, I will do it regularly,” Port told me. “But even though it solved a safety problem, it introduced other problems.”
“Waymo is like a roller coaster,” said reporter Amanda Silberling. “It’s fun because it looks a little dangerous, but like a roller coaster, you know it’s been tested ad nauseam, so maybe it’s okay? If I’m not on a business trip with a corporate card, I don’t I know if I could see myself using it, because in many cases, it was more expensive than Uber I’m generally surprised at how safe I felt during my Waymo rides, although when I told my friends I was on Waymo, they made me promise to text them. When I reach my destination safely it’s the same way my friends would react if I was alone on the subway after midnight.
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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