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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Uber seemed to be everywhere at once in the emerging field of autonomous vehicle technology. The Financial Times has now put a number. The FT reckons Uber is committed more than 10 billion dollars to buy autonomous vehicles and take equity stakes in the companies developing the technology, according to public records and conversations with people behind the scenes. About $2.5 billion of that is in direct investment, with the remaining $7.5 billion to be spent on the robotaxis market over the next few years, the outlet said.
We’ve covered Uber’s numerous investments and deals with autonomous vehicle companies in drones, robotaxis and freight transportation. Some of its investments include WeRide, Lucid and Nuro, Rivian and Wayve.
That sizable number (and especially that $7.5 billion) got me thinking about another transformative era in Uber’s history and how it has visited these heavy shores in the past. Uber may have started with a plan to be asset light, but for a brief period it did the exact opposite.
Uber started moonlighting between 2015 and 2018. It launched electric air taxi developer Uber Elevate and in-house self-driving unit Uber ATG, which would be bolstered by its acquisition of Otto in 2016. It also created micromobility startup Jump in 2018.
And then, in 2020, Uber pulled the plug, seemingly leaving all those moons behind. Uber sold Uber ATG to Aurora, Jump to Lime and Elevate to Joby Aviation. But he didn’t disinvest completely. retained equity stakes in all of them.
Uber is now entering a new and different era with many assets. There’s no need to shell out millions, or even billions, to develop the technology in-house, although I’m sure the folks there will quickly learn that there’s always research and development at Uber. Instead, it seems to focus on owning (or perhaps leasing) physical assets.
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That could mean interesting line items on Uber’s balance sheet going forward.
Featuring fleets of robotaxis built by other companies may not have been Uber’s original vision, or its former CEO Travis Kalanick, who said the company made a mistake when it abandoned its AV development program. But this new approach could lead it to the same end point.
A little bird
Earlier this month, I was interviewed Eclipse partner Jiten Behl about the venture capital firm’s new $1.3 billion fund and where that money might go. The company, as I wrote, intends to incubate more startups (eg it was behind the Rivian spinout Also). Behl wouldn’t give me details, saying only, “We’re definitely working on some very interesting ideas.” He also said that Eclipse is particularly interested in startups that operate across businesses.
Thanks to a little birding and some document diving by senior reporter Sean O’Kane, it looks like a press release is imminent for a San Francisco-based startup working on an autonomous transporter that I’m told doesn’t have a driver’s cab. This sounds similar to what Einride has built, but since we haven’t seen it, we’ll have to wait.
The company’s roster isn’t large, but it’s full of Silicon Valley’s tech elite, including a founder who was at Uber ATG, Pronto and Waabi. Stay tuned for more.
Do you have a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07 or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
Shale is back with more capital as it prepares to put its first affordable pickup trucks into production by the end of 2026.
The Jeff Bezos-backed electric vehicle startup has raised another $650 million in a Series C funding round led by TWG Global. Watch TWG. That’s the company run by Guggenheim Partners CEO (and Los Angeles Dodgers owner) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull.
Slate has raised about $1.4 billion to date, and previous investors include General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co. and former Amazon executive Diego Piacentini, as TechCrunch first reported last year.
Other offers that caught my eye…
Glydwaysa San Francisco-based startup developing personal autonomous pods designed to operate in dedicated 2-meter-wide lanes in cities has raised $170 million in a Series C funding round led by Suzuki Motor Corporation, ACS Group and Khosla Ventures. Existing investors Mitsui Chemicals and Gates Frontier and new investor Obayashi Corporation also participated. But wait, there’s more.
GM and Passage are reportedly in talks with the Pentagon about whether the auto industry can help the military revamp its procurement program and find cheaper, faster ways to buy vehicles, ammunition or other hardware. the New York Times reportedciting anonymous sources.
Loopa San Francisco-based startup, has raised $95 million in a Series C funding round led by Valor Equity Partners and Valor Atreides AI Fund, and includes investments from 8VC, Founders Fund, Index Ventures and JP Morgan’s stage fund Growth Equity Partners.
Monarch Tractorthe startup developing electric, autonomous tractors has moved onto a different pasture. The startup’s assets were acquired by Caterpillar after struggling to pivot into a software services business.
Uber increases its share in Tradition hero by 4.5%, h the Financial Times reported. Uber has agreed to buy about 270 million euros in shares from Prosus, the Dutch investment group and largest shareholder of Delivery Hero.
Notable reads and other items
Doug Fieldthe high-ranking executive he formed PassageElectric vehicle and technology strategies over the past five years, he leaves. Specifically, Ford is shaking up the organization as well, creating a “product development and industrialization” team led by COO Kumar Galhotra. Any guesses where Field will go next? Maybe he’ll go back to Silicon Valley.
Lightshipthe all-electric RV starter, is expands its Colorado-based factory by another 44,000 square feet, which will allow it to quadruple its production capacity.
Rivian and battery and materials recycling startup Redwood Materials teamed up years ago. We are now seeing the fruits of this relationship. Redwood installs battery energy storage at Rivian’s Illinois plant. The catch? Redwood uses 100 packs of second life Rivian batterieswhich will provide 10 megawatt-hours (MWh) of detachable energy to reduce grid costs and load during peak demand periods.
Tesla created a new self-driving app that makes it easy for owners to sign up for its Full Self-Driving software and see statistics about how — and how often — they use it. This might not be huge news, but it caught my eye because of the gamified qualities of these new stats.
Waymoas usual, has some news this week. The Alphabet-owned company has begun testing its autonomous vehicles on public roads in London. It also removed the waiting list in Miami and Orlando to scale robotaxi services in the two cities.
One more thing…
This newsletter is not my only project that leans more towards robotics. My podcast, the Autonocastit is also, as the worlds of autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and robotics come together. Check out this interview with Foxglove founder Adrian McNeilwho previously worked for Cruise.
