Transportation & Auto News | TechCrunch

Kim Kardashian has befriended Optimus, the Tesla bot

Amanda Silberling — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:18:16 +0000

Pete Davidson? Kanye West? Step aside. Kim Kardashian’s new beaux is a Tesla bot named Optimus. The fashion mogul got some hands-on experience with Tesla’s bipedal, humanoid robot, which is not yet available to the general public. In Kardashian’s videos with the robot — posted to X and her Instagram story — she prompts Optimus […]

VW taps former Rivian exec to run US business

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:09:31 +0000

Volkswagen of America has a new CEO: Rivian’s recently departed chief commercial officer Kjell Gruner. The appointment comes just one week after VW parent company Volkswagen Group formalized a $5.8 billion joint venture with Rivian, which will be focused on EV architecture and software. While Gruner’s new post isn’t really related to that new JV, […]

Mitsubishi backs Ample’s radical approach to charging EV batteries

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:01 +0000

Startup Ample is on a mission to convert commercial fleets into believers in the power of electric vehicle battery swapping technology. The company has spent the last three years piloting its electric vehicle battery swapping technology in San Francisco, Madrid, and Japan. Now, Ample is preparing to turn some of those pilot customers into commercial […]

Nuro expands driverless autonomous vehicle testing in push to attract customers

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Nuro is rolling out a test fleet of its driverless, passenger-less R3 vehicles across the Bay Area and Houston, two months after the autonomous vehicle technology startup changed its business strategy to license its AV tech to automakers and mobility providers. The large-scale demo, which will expand the domain where Nuro currently tests, is designed to show […]

Former TuSimple co-founder urges courts to block asset transfer to China

Rebecca Bellan — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 19:01:00 +0000

Xiaodi Hou, the co-founder and former CEO of self-driving trucking startup TuSimple, has urged a California district court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the company from transferring its remaining U.S. assets to China, according to a recent court filing. Hou, who plans to apply for a temporary restraining order in December during […]

Gadget lover Marc Benioff says his favorite gadget these days is his cars and trucks

Julie Bort — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 18:03:56 +0000

Marc Benioff famously got into tech as a child coder writing games. He’s always loved tech gadgets. During an episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, when asked about his latest gadgets, he showed off his Oura ring. But then he considered and said that his favorite gadget these days is his car. “I think my car […]

General Motors slashes another 1,000 jobs to cut costs

Sean O'Kane — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 16:20:46 +0000

General Motors is laying off nearly 1,000 workers in the U.S. as part of a cost-cutting bid, just three months after cutting 1,000 software jobs. The company told TechCrunch that cuts won’t affect hourly workers at any of its factories, but declined to specify which teams were affected. A significant majority of the layoffs were […]

GM’s Cruise to pay $500,000 fine to DOJ, admits submitting false report

Rebecca Bellan — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 14:08:53 +0000

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit of General Motors, has admitted to submitting a false report with the goal of influencing a federal investigation into a safety incident last year. In penance, the company will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, per the Department of Justice (DOJ). This is one […]

Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI seeks up to $224M in US IPO

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:30:52 +0000

Pony AI is inching closer to its initial public offering in the U.S., but as it does so, it continues to drop its minimum target for what it hopes to raise in the transaction. Pony operates a fleet of 190 “robotrucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou and more than 250 robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and […]

The $7,500 EV tax credit is on Trump’s chopping block

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 20:50:15 +0000

Republicans have long opposed the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Now, it seems President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made that a priority with plans to end the tax credit as part of broader tax reform legislation, Reuters reported citing two unnamed sources. TechCrunch has confirmed […]

Ford will pay up to $165M fine for rearview camera recall failures

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 20:13:00 +0000

Ford has agreed to pay a $165 million penalty to federal regulators after moving too slowly to recall vehicles with faulty rearview cameras. This is the second largest fine the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has handed out in its 54-year history, after the 2019 Takata airbag recalls. Ford also failed to provide accurate […]

Will Rivian be Volkswagen’s software savior? VW is betting $5.8B it will

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:05:00 +0000

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! Before we jump into the news, I wanted to steer you toward a recent TechCrunch Equity podcast episode with Waabi co-founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun. A little […]

Ecolectro stuffs hydrogen production into shipping containers to cut costs

Tim De Chant — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

The startup figures the best way to rein in costs is to bring production closer to where it’s being used.

ePlane looks to ride the Indian government’s interest in air taxis with new $14M round

Jagmeet Singh — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:30:00 +0000

India's ePlane Company has raised $14 million in a Series B round as it plans to commercialize its air taxi in 2026.

Lyten buys battery manufacturing assets from beleaguered Northvolt

Tim De Chant — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:17:26 +0000

Silicon Valley unicorn Lyten will gain equipment and space to start making its lithium-sulfur batteries.

Vecna Robotics raises $14.5M and taps former Motional CEO to lead startup

Kirsten Korosec — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:59:13 +0000

Karl Iagnemma, an early pioneer in the autonomous vehicle industry who recently stepped down as president and CEO from Hyundai-backed Motional, is back in the AV and robotics game. Vecna Robotics, a Massachusetts-based startup that uses robots to handle materials in warehouses, has hired Iagnemma as CEO. The robotics startup, which has developed autonomous pallet […]

Tesla issues sixth Cybertruck recall in a year

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 13:45:39 +0000

Tesla’s Cybertruck is facing its sixth recall since its launch a year ago. The recall affects 2,431 units, including certain 2024 Cybertrucks built between November 6, 2023 and July 30, 2024. A report from Tesla found that those trucks are or were equipped with a faulty drive inverter. “If the inverter stops producing torque, the […]

NASA awards ‘sustainable’ aircraft concepts $11.5M

Devin Coldewey — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:25:53 +0000

The future of aircraft may look very similar to today’s superficially — but under the hood (or sitting next to the tail fins) they will likely be quite different. That’s the future NASA is hoping to nurture with five research awards worth $11.5 million. The Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability 2050 (AACES) program is […]

The Rivian-Volkswagen joint venture deal is now up to $5.8B

Sean O'Kane, Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 21:11:54 +0000

Rivian and Volkswagen Group have finalized a multibillion-dollar joint venture to develop software, paving the way to let the German auto giant leverage the EV startup’s more technical chops in the coming years. Volkswagen will invest up to $5.8 billion by 2027, about 16% more than when the deal was first announced in June. Volkswagen […]

Waabi is taking generative AI into the physical world with autonomous long-haul trucks

Maggie Stamets — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:51:57 +0000

This week on Found, we’re diving into the future of trucking with Raquel Urtasun, CEO and co-founder of Waabi, a company pioneering driverless, long-haul trucks powered by generative AI. Hosts Dominic-Madori Davis and Becca Szkutak learn about Waabi’s unique simulation-based training and how this approach is intended to minimize mistakes once the massive trucks hit […]