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Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and information about the future of transport. This week’s news includes a BMW security flaw that exposed sensitive information, fallout from a federal agency for an anti-Tesla Super Bowl ad and a new federal investigation into Fisher.
But first, a few words about my recent visit to Detroit, where I met a few Passage executives to learn what they are focused on for 2024 and beyond.
It’s safe to say that Chinese EV automakers and Tesla is it above the mind; and in the view of Ford executives, a low-cost EV and cutting-edge software are the best ways to stave off these threats. The company’s EV skunkworks project, which came to light recently, is tasked with this task.
CFO of Ford John Lawler he didn’t mince words during an interview at the company’s headquarters.
“We have to assume he’s going to be here eventually,” Lawler said. “China has been looking for its world champion for decades. They couldn’t get there in a traditional gas vehicle. they saw the writing on the wall as early as 2010 that electric was the way to go and have subsidized and focused on it ever since.”
Lawler said Chinese automakers are now competitive. Now armed with manufacturing capacity and “fantastic” designs, China is pushing into other areas.
“It’s not a short stakes game. it’s a lot,” Lawler said. “So everybody’s thinking about the next two years, they’re thinking about the next 25, 30 years. They won’t sweat what’s going on right now. They will continue to build their footprint and build their brands, continue to build their technology and develop their advanced vehicle development, and eventually there will be no barriers.”
China and Tesla aren’t the only concerns occupying their collective gray matter. CEO of Ford Jim Farley it also plans to recover $2 billion in cost savings across the company’s industrial system. A big part of that is improving the quality of new vehicles — which are directly tied to warranty costs — and was a point he made during a recent interview at Wolfe Research’s World Auto and Auto Tech Conference in New York.
Let’s go!
A little bird
A little bird pointed us to a recent filing about Faraday Future that caught our attention. For those unfamiliar, Faraday Future is an EV startup that went public in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. Once upon a time, Faraday Future was about as raucous as a startup could get. But years of internal drama, a revolving door of executives and federal investigations have the company hanging by its financial threads.
Now it looks like the company is in danger of losing its LA headquarters. The company’s owner filed a lawsuit seeking to repossess the commercial space after Faraday Future failed to pay rent. The current account is close to $1 million.
Do you have a tip for us? e-mail Kirsten Korosech at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or Sean O’Kane sean.okane@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact uswhich includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.
Offer of the week
No deal of the week! Instead, here’s a list of deals that caught my eye.
Celadynea hydrogen fuel cell startup, raised $4.5 million a first round was co-led by Maniv and Dynamo Ventures, with significant participation from EPS Ventures.
I have funthe Brooklyn-based startup originally known for its fleet of rental blue electric mopeds is reportedly trying to raise $200 million in equity, Bloomberg reported. The company closed its motorcycle joint venture in November and is now looking to build electric vehicle and fast-charging EV businesses.
I wander, a Kenyan electric vehicle startup, has raised $24 million in a Series A round, including a debt commitment of up to $10 million from the US-based International Development Finance Corporation. Equator, an Africa-focused climate tech VC fund, led the round along with At One Ventures, TES Ventures, Renew Capital, The World We Want and One Small Planet.
Skylo Technologiesa provider of direct-to-device satellite connectivity services, raised $37 million in a round led by Intel Capital and Innovation Endeavors and joined by BMW i Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Seraphim Space and Next47.
Speeda startup developing sustainable aviation fuels, has raised $40 million from Carbon Direct Capital, Lightrock, GenZero and Kibo Investments.
Notable reads and other items
ADAS
GM is expanding access to Super Cruise, with plans to allow drivers to use the advanced hands-free driver assistance system on approximately 750,000 road miles in the United States and Canada. The expansion will almost double the automaker’s Super Cruise network by 2025 and includes rural and secondary highways.
The National Transportation Safety Board ordered it Dawn Project The agency stopped using its seal after it appeared in a Super Bowl ad calling on consumers to boycott Tesla.
Autonomous vehicles
Cruise was named Steve Kenneran autonomous vehicle industry veteran who has held top safety roles at Kodiak, Locomation, Aurora and the now-defunct self-driving division of Uber. first “Head of Security”. My take: This is a position Cruise should have had years ago. Meanwhile, Cruz lost another key employee. Carl Jenkins, Chief Hardware Officer at Cruise; resigned from the company.
May mobility fired 40 peopleor about 13% of its staff.
San Francisco Giants they’re swapping the Cruise robotaxi patch for a less controversial one promoting Chevrolet, another GM brand.
Waymo voluntarily recalled the software that powers its robotaxi fleet after two vehicles collided with the same tow truck in Phoenix, Arizona, in December. It is the company’s first recall. As reporter Sean O’Kane notes, the recall comes at a time when self-driving cars are facing intense scrutiny after a series of high-profile accidents and controversies, including this week when a crowd of people in San Francisco were crushed, vandalized and set on fire. a Waymo robotaxi.
Electric vehicles, charging & batteries
EVs had a hot 2023 — but December figures show weak sales, Automotive News reported. New EV registrations are up 52% in 2023 from the previous year, according to data from S&P Global Mobility. Electric vehicles now hold 7.7% of the US light vehicle market, up from 5.7% a year earlier.
Lucid Motors dropped the price of its Air luxury sedan by thousands of dollars. Lucid also caught his attention National Road Safety Agency this week. Regulators opened an investigation into a Clear Recalling windshield defroster since January, saying it is “concerned” that the company’s over-the-air update solution does not go far enough to fix the problem. Is NHTSA Starting to Strike Back at OTAs?
The NHTSA opened a second investigation into the EV startup FisherOcean SUV, after the agency received four reports of the vehicle running away unexpectedly, including one with an injury. Fisker also received a notice of non-compliance from New York Stock Exchange because its shares closed below $1 in the last 30 days, according to regulatory filing.
Stellandis, the parent company of brands such as Jeep and Chrysler, has announced that it will adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). Stellantis is the latest major Western automaker to announce NACS compatibility.
Ride-hailing and ride-sharing
HopSkipDriveyouth ride-share startup, passed two new key California emissions standards by 2023, an achievement the company believes will bolster its case for relying more on shared passenger vehicles to get kids and teens to and from school .
This week’s wheels
Image Credits: Kirsten Korosech
During my short trip to Michigan, I used a 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E to drive to various meetings in Dearborn and Detroit. (The press car came from Ford.)
My primary interest was Blue Cruise, the hands-free active driver assistance system. I had plenty of time to test it thanks to a series of 20- to 30-mile commutes, most of which were on highways. I was testing the Blue Cruise 1.3 version, which accelerates or brakes to maintain a selected distance from the vehicle in front, keeps the vehicle centered in the lane and steers. When the driver hits the turn signal, the vehicle will change lanes. It will also make a suggestion to pass if traffic is slow.
The thing I liked: It’s simple to activate Blue Cruise and crystal clear when the system handles the driving. Passing is clean and the vehicle does not ping pong within the lane, which is common in other systems. My only nit-picking criticism is that the word “ready” lights up in green on the instrument panel just below the Blue Cruise when it’s on (see photo). This “ready” has nothing to do with Blue Cruise and is instead meant to let the EV driver know that their vehicle is ready to drive. I’m sure drivers will get used to it, but I could also see it being confusing.
A feature I loved: I could take the helm and Blue Cruise would remain committed. I know in some circles this is frustrating because the driver can get confused. However, I hate how often I accidentally disengage other systems like Tesla’s Autopilot by moving the steering wheel too much.
