Welcome back to the TechCrunch mobility – Your central hub for news and ideas for the future of transport. Sign up here for free – just click TechCrunch!
This week I am publishing a shortened version of the newsletter due to the July 4 holidays. If you drive, fly or take the train for US holidays – which AAA projects 72.2 million people will travel at least 50 miles or more – stay safe out there. The full newsletter returns next week.
I have an important announcement before sprinkling with a few news. TechCrunch mobility moves to the Beehiiv publication platform within a few weeks. Beehiiv provides many cool features – like polls! – To help me better deal with you, the reader. It’s a victory for you and me.
Emails will continue to come from newsletters@techcrunch.com. To make sure you don’t miss a single one, add the address above to your contacts and move it to your primary inbox. This tells the internet service provider that you love TechCrunch and you want to see this newsletter.
A little bird
You can remember last week, a New York Times article reported that Bery Co -founder and former CEO Basal works with investors to buy the US hand of Chinese autonomous vehicles Pony AIAnd Uber can even help this happen.
Quite little birds say kalanick ally and uber atg veteran Eric meyhofer It is involved. We take out to find out more. In the meantime, here is a small history lesson. Meyhofer was with the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University before officially moving to Uber in 2015. He finally became Managing Director of Uber Atg, the self-guiding unit later sold to Aurora. Meyhofer has been logged in with Kalanick’s Cloudkitchens business through a restaurant automation and robotics automation Lab37which was originally reported from the spoon in 2023.
Do you have a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec to kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or rebecca bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check These instructions To learn how to contact us through encrypted messages or secure applications.
Notable reading and other tidbits
Autonomous vehicles
A catchy new term created during a recent recording of AutomaticThe podcast co-festers with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer (full credit goes to Roy). The term is a MVAT or a minimum viable theater of autonomy – when companies develop the minimum viable product of autonomy sufficient to perpetuate a narrative of progress.
One possible example: Tesla let a Y SUV model drive about 15 miles from his factory to the apartment complex where the new owner of the car lives, completing what CEO Elon Musk called a customer’s first “autonomous delivery”. If this is a lump sum, also known as a demonstration, then it is a MVAT.
This is not just about choosing Tesla, by the way. Many other companies have posted fancy videos to present the capabilities of the corresponding automated driving technology. But it was a much more common practice in 2015 – as Avs were shooting up to the top of the advertising cycle.
Electric vehicles, batteries and charging
The second quarter is over and that means sales and production numbers! While many automakers issue monthly reports, some of the EV companies we watch provide only quarterly numbers.
Electric Hummer is almost outdated F-50 Lightning
Lucid Sales Inch forward, as EV manufacturer pushes to ramp gravity production
Rivian receives the next $ 1B from Volkswagen as the sales matches continue
Tesla faces the second consecutive year of decline in sales after another bad quarter
Meantime, Republican legislators Passed an act of reconciliation that, among other things Inflation Reduction ActIncluding solar, wind and pure hydrogen, they will lose all the incentives under the new bill. EV tax credits are also eliminated for new and used electric vehicles and EV charging equipment installation.
The end of EV tax credit is already riping through industry, including companies that still have no EV to sell. ShaleThe EV startup supported by Jeff Bezos was planning to sell a truck for less than $ 20,000 with EV tax credit. But the language on its website has changed to reflect the passage of the account.
Also, a few news from the world of electric RVs and vans… GravelThe start -up in California we have written before has begun the traditions of the flagship of the electric journey. And GroundedStarting founded by former SpaceX engineers and based in Detroit, gave his new electric truckIt is called G3, its first customer.
Safety
THE Fbi and cyberspace companies warn that the hacking team is known as Spider It is now targeting airlines and the transport sector.
QantasThe Australian airline giant said he had a breach of data that endangered personal information at least 6 million passengers.
