Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobilityyour hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role artificial intelligence is playing in it. To get it in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!
Tesla earnings season has begun — at least for this sector — and the shareholder letter, along with Elon Musk’s remarks during the conference call, provided some incredible revelations that I imagine have puzzled or at least puzzled some investors.
Tesla has reneged on earlier promises to reach “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 in 2026. And while the company has publicly touted expansions of its Tesla Robotaxi service to new cities in Florida and Texas, quarter-over-quarter data shows a decline in paid robotaxi miles.
Senior Journalist Sean O’Kane took a closer look at a chart shared in Tesla’s shareholder letter. At a glance, the chart appears to show a steady increase in paid ride-alongs between August 2025 and June 2026, O’Kane notes. However, the numbers shown are cumulative and when broken down by quarter, show that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet of paid passenger-carrying Model Y SUVs covered about 1.1 million miles in the first quarter. That fell to about 700,000 miles in the second quarter, a drop of about 36%.
Musk also revealed during the call that Tesla needs to gather driving data specifically for the Cybercab before it can put large numbers of vehicles on the road. This is not terribly surprising. Cybercab is new, after all. But the reason caught my attention. He explained that Tesla must accumulate miles using Cybercabs that are retrofitted with steering wheels and gas and brake pedals so that it can be calibrated against the Cybercab chassis.
This marks a change from the company’s previous claims. For years, Tesla has said its fleet of nearly 10 million customer cars has been collecting data that could be used to train its advanced driver assistance system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and future robotaxis. Musk’s explanation suggests there’s a misalignment between that fleet data and how it’s applied to the Cybercab.
On the financial front, Tesla’s Q2 earnings show a company plowing money into its next generation of products (CapEx has doubled and the company is back in negative free cash flow territory). And although revenue is up, the boost hasn’t been enough to offset the cost of doing business. The company’s net income was down 5% year-over-year.
Offers!
Travis Kalanick returned to the robotics and mobility scene earlier this year with People — a rebranded holding company on top of his ghost kitchen project — and a takeover deal by Anthony Lewandowski industrial automation startup, Quickly. Now the Uber co-founder and former CEO has $1.7 billion in capital to play with. VC giant Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and Uber. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board following the investment.
That might seem inconceivable to those who remember Kalanick’s resignation from Uber’s top job nearly a decade ago — and the series of scandals and lawsuits in the year leading up to his departure. What’s even more incredible is that Uber participated in the funding round. Uber has reportedly invested $100 million in Atoms. Conversations I’ve had since confirm that number and provide new information, including that the investment was made six months ago.
Reminder: In 2016, while Kalanick was CEO, Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving truck startup Otto. Less than a year later, Levandowski’s former employer Waymo (Google’s self-driving program) sued Uber for trade secret theft. The companies settled on the fifth day of the trial.
There’s a lot of history, much of it messy, between Kalanick and Uber (not to mention Lewandowski). However, it seems that the riding company is still willing to invest in them.
So what will Atoms do with this capital? Details are sketchy, but a company email from Lewandowski suggests Pronto will be a big part of those plans.
The email states that “Atoms is heavily invested in industrial artificial intelligence and physical automation applied to mining and transportation.” And later, “Pronto is a key strategic priority for Atoms, and this round is designed to accelerate exactly what matters most to your business: scaling practical, OEM-agnostic autonomy.”
Other offers that caught my eye…
Einridethe Swedish electric and autonomous truck company, has agreed to acquire EV charging startup Flipturn in a deal worth a total of $38 million.
IBM agreed to buy HRL Laboratoriesa quantum computing research lab common property Boeing and General Motors.
Sheilathe battery materials startup, raised $300 million in a round led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. The money will be used to expand Sila’s factory in Washington state to produce more than 000 EV materials.
Notable reads and other items
Dawn had some news this week that didn’t get much attention, but probably should have. The company launched it second generation driverless truckswhich include new hardware that is smaller, as well as upgraded extended-range lidar and sensor cleaning systems — all built to last millions of miles. The initial fleet will be modest and will be used on the Dallas-Houston route. The fleet will eventually reach 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year and will be used to transport freight for customers such as Hirschbach, Uber Freight, McLane and Detmar, the company said. Importantly for Aurora, these trucks do not have a human observer in the cab.
Passage turns towards Apple for its next generation of electrics. Specifically, Ford is set to integrate Apple Maps navigation and mapping, using a new set of developer tools called MapKit for Automotive, into its new lineup of electric vehicles, starting with the $30,000 midsize truck in 2027. I asked Ford what that means for Googlewho is an existing partner. A company representative told me that Apple’s announcement “does not change the role of Google Car Services in our current and near-term production plans.”
THE Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study called “The rise of the machines: collision experiences of highly automated vehicles and human drivers”. The organization used a much more headline-grabbing clickbaity (Waymo’s driverless cars crash less often than humans) to steer people to its work. Unfortunately, this title misses some of the point. The study provides evidence that Waymo’s current robotaxis have lower crash involvement rates than human drivers. “Overall, when police-reported crashes are included, Waymo’s crash rate was 68 percent lower than that of human drivers,” the study says. Also importantly, it concluded that the collection of national crash and mileage data for Level 4 vehicles “can be improved for more timely and accurate safety assessments.”
Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua plans to step down from the top leadership position after nearly three decades, just as the company is pushing for robotics and humanoid robots.
THE National Road Safety Agency will consider developing new requirements for automakers to ensure drivers and passengers can safely exit their vehicles — the result of a petition that asked the agency to open a safety defect investigation into the design of emergency mechanical door releases on 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. To be clear, this does not mean there will be new rules.
Rivian has sued the US government for a “full refund” of tariffs paid under President Trump’s “Liberation Day” taxes, which the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional.
Two Volkswagen engineers were charged with securities fraud after allegedly benefiting from inside information related to the German automaker’s joint venture with Rivian.
Waymo is having internal discussions about how to terminate her contract with Uberthe Financial Times reported. Close followers of this collaboration may have read this, rolled their eyes and said “DUH!” But there are some interesting details here, including the Uber-Waymo contract covering Atlanta and Austin expiring in May 2028. Uber told TechCrunch that Waymo says it plans to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028.
WhatsApp a number of new features are rolling out, including a revamped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experience.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
