TechCrunch Mobility: Elon’s Entry | TechCrunch

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Tesla Earnings came and went, and most of them fell into the “we expected this” category. Investors appeared surprised by the $1.4 billion in free cash flow, which gave stocks a bump, and revenue either met or slightly exceeded expectations, depending on which set of analysts you reviewed.

The earnings call, however, delivered one eyebrow-raising moment that prompted readers (including some former Tesla engineers and other industry innovators) to reach out to me with schadenfreude-tinged prose. CEO Elon Musk has acknowledged that millions of Tesla owners will need hardware upgrades to drive a future, more capable version of its Full Self-Driving software that requires no human supervision.

There are financial and legal implications for Tesla. As senior journalist Sean O’Kane has written, Tesla owners with Hardware 3 cars have spent years arguing with the company and Musk to get a straight answer about whether they will be able to use this advanced version of Full Self-Driving – which, it should be noted, Tesla has not released or proven that it can release. Tesla sold these Hardware 3 cars between 2019 and 2023.

Now, here’s the kicker and it made me swoon. Musk said the company would need to develop each of these vehicles, which would require Tesla to set up microfactories in many major cities to process millions of vehicles.

Microfactories? Yes, you heard right. This won’t be cheap, and it could be one of the things on the line of Tesla’s capital expenditure budget, which has increased to 25 billion dollars this year.

A small bird

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane obtained (and verified) an internal memo sent by Redwood Materials’ founder and CEO JB Straubel which announced layoffs and restructuring. (Thanks to the little bird who shared it.) Straubel is the former CTO of Tesla.

The company cut about 135 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce, as it restructures to better handle its growing energy storage business. O’Kane later learned that several managers had also recently left. Chief operating officer Chris Lister is retiring, and at least three other VPs have left in recent months, with the company telling TechCrunch that there has been a focus on reducing management layers.

Last week, I shared that a new standalone launcher (think of a large standalone machine) is supported The Eclipse he was about to break the cover and announce the offspring around, for the sake of the little bird. Welp, it happened a few days later.

A San Francisco-based startup, called Humble robotsraised $24 million in a seed round. Eclipse led the round, which included support Energy Impact Partners again RedBlue Capitala small VC firm that works amazingly.

As I was told, Humble is indeed full of Silicon Valley elite, including the founder Eyal Cohenpreviously involved in special projects for Apple, Uber ATG, Pronto, and Waabi. He also founded Spark AI, which was acquired by John Deere in 2023.

Other execs include Drew Graywith an AV-heavy CV, including early days at Cruise, before jumping into self-driving truck startup Otto, which was acquired by Uber. After leaving Uber, he became CTO at Voyage, which was then acquired by Cruise.

It’s a full-circle moment, reinforced by this fun fact: The humble robots are in the same building that Cruise was in after the startup came out of founder Kyle Vogt’s garage. I know, we keep circling back to 2016.

Except it’s not 2016, and Cohen and Gray talk to me about how much has changed since then, why this is the time to start AV startups, and where the industry is headed. Stay tuned for that story next week.

Got a tip? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected] or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at [email protected].

Deals!

Lyft it stuck to the North American market for most of its history, while Uber took a global, all-expenses-paid strategy. Lyft has been trying to catch on since last year when it bought German ride-hailing app Freenow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility for about $197 million.

Now it’s getting a boarding app Gett’s UK business. Lyft says the deal will give most registered black cab drivers across Greater London a Lyft platform. The company did not disclose the terms, but Calcalist reported it to be $55 million.

The company is also developing other transport options in the region, including its recently renewed partnership with Serco to provide bikes and stations for European bike-sharing program Santander Cycles. Lyft also plans to begin testing automated rides in London with Baidu later this year.

Some deals caught my attention…

IA&K RoboticsVancouver, Canada-based maker of autonomous vehicles for airports, has raised an $8 million CAD Series A round led by BDC’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and Vantage Futures.

Ten Years of Powerwhich provides energy infrastructure in warehouses, has raised 22 million euros in funding led by Eiffel Investment Group and SET Ventures, as well as existing investors.

Reliable RobotsSilicon Valley startup that develops autonomous flight systems, raised $160 million in a round led by Nimble Partners, existing backers Eclipse, Lightspeed, Coatue, and Pathbreaker Ventures, and new investors Island Green Capital, Socium Ventures, AE Ventures (a strategic partner of the Boeing Company, RTX Ventures Corporation), RTX Ventures Corporation (RTX Ventures) UP.Partners, KAS Venture Partners, What if Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, and Mana Ventures. History lesson: Co-founder and CEO Robert Rose he had a short stint at Tesla where he was the executive director of Autopilot and helped launch that first iteration in 2015.

PlusAI and a non-examining company Company Churchill Capital Corp IX terminated its SPAC merger agreement due to market conditions.

The Porsche is selling its stake in the joint venture Bugatti Rimac, which it founded in 2021, and electric car manufacturer Rimac Group. Porsche, which has a 20.6% stake in Rimac and a 45% stake in the joint venture, is selling to HOF Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Notable readings and other stories

Einride adds its 75 heavy-duty electric trucks to AmazonThe goods network is transferred as part of a deal that gives the Swedish startup the opportunity to take control of the e-commerce giant’s operations.

Ford and the Chinese automaker Geely they reportedly held talks to expand European relations with the US, the Wall Street Journal reported. The effect, of course, would be Chinese cars entering the American market. But it sounds like talks have stalled, leaving this important deal in limbo. Bloomberg reported that Ford denied the claims.

The Porsche adds another EV to its lineup. The Cayenne electric coupe will hit the market in late summer. There is some interesting data in my article on why this could be a winner for Porsche.

First customer ready Rivian R2 SUVs roll off the production line at its factory in Normal, Illinois, just days after the EF-1 tornado that partially destroyed the roof. Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said Rivian does not expect any delays to the R2 road, which is expected to reach customers in June.

One thing…

As avid readers of this newsletter know, I test-drive a fair number of cars, and sometimes they’re not EVs. Take the Aston Martin Vantage RoadsterFor example. I was eager to get into the roadster, and not just because this $205,000 chiltern-green machine is beautiful, powerful, and convertible. I wanted to explore Apple CarPlay Ultraa next-generation infotainment system that projects iPhone content onto the car’s screens (including the instrument cluster) and integrates car controls such as the radio, performance settings, and climate. CarPlay Ultra was first introduced to Aston Martin, which is not easy to get my hands on.

My first experience with Apple Ultra CarPlay last summer was mixed. It was great – when it worked, but often it didn’t. The problem appeared to be tied to a bug showing two versions of the car in the Bluetooth settings.

In this case, the setup was instant and did not interfere. Hooray. And it always worked. This is of particular importance to Aston Martin, which for years had stuck with Mercedes-Benz’s old COMAND system. (Mercedes ditched this system in 2018 with its new MBUX).