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We are in the middle of one of my four favorite times of the year – earnings season. And it’s not just that I like numbers. These required filings reduced much of the marketing noise that companies presented the rest of the year. They also help me assess the short-term and long-term stakes companies face.
RivianFourth quarter and full year earnings did just that. My product: Software, specifically the technology joint venture with Volkswagen Group, was the company’s savior in 2025. It will also propel the company in 2026 (another $2 billion from VW Group is expected) as Rivian launches its most important product to date: the cheaper R2 SUV.
The company’s earnings also provided a progress report on its bid to lower its cost of goods sold per unit. The TL;DR is that gearing per unit for its current portfolio is still high but falling, meaning it loses less on each vehicle it sells. According to Rivian, the company’s auto gears per unit delivered were $100,900 in 2025, up from $110,400 in 2024.
The upcoming R2, which is supposed to be significantly cheaper (both in production cost and price) than the flagship R1T truck and R1S SUV, will be the next big test. We will get some insight into the results of this later this year.
The R2 is expected to go into production in the first half of the year (we’re hearing June), and based on guidance for 2026, Rivian is confident it has the demand and capacity to ramp up production. The company expects to deliver between 62,000 and 67,000 vehicles in 2026 — which could represent an increase of up to 59% from last year. Rivian delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025, including the two R1 consumer vehicles and the electric delivery van (EDV).
The market loved this guidance, btw. Rivian’s stock jumped 27% the day after the earnings announcement.
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A little bird
Over the past 18 months, I’ve noticed a shift in how Uber and Lyft approach AV. Uber is locking down AV partnerships with every player it can. Lyft trails behind. It turns out I’m not alone in this observation.
Experts have shared that they wonder why Lyft hasn’t been more aggressive on this front. They noted that Lyft has about $1.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash and recently announced a new $1 billion share buyback program that represents about 15% of its market capitalization. per CNBC. This begs the question of why Lyft hasn’t invested in parts of the AV value chain like Uber does versus buying stock.
Meanwhile, these birds also pointed to some top executives who left in the past year. Aurélien Nolf has left his position as vice president of financial planning and analysis and investor relations to become Navan’s CFO. Audrey Liu, who was executive vice president and head of rider safety and community, is now at Adobe. Ameena Gill, who was vice president of safety and customer service, just got a job at rival Uber.
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!
Close followers of the mobility-crazy years between 2015 and 2019 may remember how many lidar companies emerged during that time. Many of the dominant and busiest players have since closed, while some of the smaller players have stuck around and expanded.
Take Evictionfor example. I remember way back when Ouster had this tiny booth in the jam-packed startup area (Eureka Park) at CES. Today, the company is much bigger — thanks to scale, its 2022 merger with rival Velodyne and its acquisition of Sense Photonics in 2021. And it doesn’t look like it’s done.
The company was acquired more recently Stereolabsa company that makes vision-based perception systems for robotics and industrial applications, for a combined $35 million and 1.8 million shares.
As TechCrunch senior reporter Sean O’Kane notes in his article, the deal is the latest in a move toward consolidation among perception sensor vendors. (Just last month, MicroVision bought the lidar assets of the much-hyped but now-bankrupt Luminar for $33 million.)
So why all the activity? It’s complicated, as they say. From my POV, the frenzy surrounding “natural AI” has rekindled interest and investment in sensor technologies, particularly cameras.
Other offers that caught my eye…
Everythingthe EV-only marketplace, raised $31 million in a Series A funding round led by Eclipse. Other backers are Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures and JIMCO – the investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s Jameel family (an early investor in Rivian).
Natilusthe San Diego-based startup developing mixed-wing aircraft, raised $28 million in a Series A funding round led by Draper Associates. Other investors include Type One Ventures, The Veteran Fund and Flexport, as well as new backers New Vista Capital, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 VC, VU Venture Partners and Wave FX.
Notable reads and other items
Dawn shared in its 4th and full year earnings report that its autonomous trucks can now travel non-stop on a 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix — exceeding what a human driver can legally accomplish. The company shared a number of other figures and financials, which you can read about here.
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission closed his investigation Fisher last year, TechCrunch was able to find out, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Lyft launched Teen Accounts, a product that allows minors as young as 13 to ride without an adult in 200 US cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and New York.
A new batch of videos gives us our best look at how Rivian has changed the manual tailgate release on the upcoming R2 SUV. This seemingly small design detail has life or death stakes and comes as the EV industry, and especially Teslais under pressure to change hidden, electronic door handles.
The Trump administration officially repealed the 2009 EPA.risk assessment,” which found that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane pose a threat to human health and well-being. This change will only affect emissions for cars and trucks — if the EPA can get through the long process of repealing the law, which will surely include many lawsuits aimed at stopping it.
Uber has locked down a few dozen AV partnerships, and we’re starting to see the results of those deals. of China Baidu and Uber plan to robotics launch in dubai next month, starting with select locations in the Jumeirah area. Meanwhile, Chinese company robotaxi WeRide and Uber announced a “Great expansion of their strategic partnership” to deploy at least 1,200 robotaxis across the Middle East by 2027, according to the companies. As part of this, WeRide and Uber have launched a robotaxi service in downtown Abu Dhabi.
Waymo has pulled the human safety driver from its self-driving test vehicles in Nashville as the Alphabet-owned company moves closer to launching a robotaxi service in the city. Meanwhile, this technology advancement company is grappling with the analog problem of making sure the doors to its robotic machine are properly closed. His solution? Payment DoorDash gig workers to close Waymo robotaxi doors. Waymo tells us this is a pilot program in Atlanta to improve the efficiency of the AV fleet.
One final Waymo tidbit: The company is getting rolling Sixth generation “Waymo Driver”, which is built into the Zeekr RT (branded as Ojai) and will eventually be in the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Waymo has launched “fully autonomous operations” on the Ojai vehicle in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is giving access to employees. The audience will have to wait a bit.
One more thing…
Rivian introduced its upcoming R2 SUV as a more affordable model. What does “more affordable” mean? The company has dropped around $45,000 and $50,000 as a base price. The version of the R2 that the company will launch, which will be premium with dual mode and all-wheel drive, will undoubtedly be more expensive. In our newsletter this week, we asked readers, “What’s your guess on the cost of the release version?”
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