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Another week, another round of robotaxis announcements either starting or planning to take place in cities.
Let’s take stock. Waymo has begun testing its autonomous vehicles (with a safety display) in Philadelphia and will begin manual driving to collect data in Baltimore, St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Uber and Avride has launched a robotaxi service in Dallas that will initially include a human safety operator behind the wheel. and the California Department of Motor Vehicles released revised rules that would allow companies to test and eventually deploy autonomous trucks on the state’s public highways.
Autonomous vehicle technology is scaling and the pace is accelerating. But should you?
As autonomous vehicle technology permeates the urban landscape, so do criticism and challenges. A few recent incidents illustrate this point.
THE National Road Safety Agency has asked Waymo for more information about its self-driving system and operations after reports from the Austin School District that its robotaxis illegally passed school buses 19 times this year. The agency already opened an investigation into Waymo’s performance around school buses.
Then there’s KitKat, the bodega cat who died after being run over by a Waymo robotaxi on October 27. The company was already facing criticism for the event. And now it can be scaled thanks to the new video. The NYT spotted video surveillance which shows a woman crouching next to the Waymo trying to drag KitKat to safety before the vehicle suddenly pulls away.
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A little bird
Many changes have been made to the Lucid Motors recently, according to some birdies.
As many of you already know, the company has lost several top executives, including former CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson and most recently, chief designer Eric Bach. Lucid, which is in the midst of ramping up production of its Gravity SUV, has addressed some of those vacancies with a combination of internal promotions and outside hires.
And the changes keep coming. A few insiders told us this week that a handful or more of the top executives in its software and electrical teams have been let go, including two senior managers who started with Lucid about a decade ago.
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!
Manufacturer of electric aircraft Beta Technologieswhich went public last month, is building a nice little supplier business for itself. Which is fitting since the Vermont-based company aims to become an OEM in the aviation sector.
The company locked in a deal to supply air taxi company Eve Air Mobility with the electric thrusters. Beta says the deal is a potential ten-year opportunity worth $1 billion.
Of course, “potential” is an important hedge. That $1 billion isn’t guaranteed, even if shareholders interpreted it as such (stocks jumped 8% on the news). But Beta finds a short-term revenue path as it continues to work toward commercial certification of its electric aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The company also reported third-quarter earnings this week. Beta saw its revenue more than double to $8.9 million from the same quarter last year. Its net losses have also increased. Beta reported a net loss of $452 million in the third quarter, a more than fivefold increase over the same period last year.
Other offers that caught my eye…
Autolanea Palo Alto-based startup developing “air traffic control” for autonomous vehicles has raised $7.4 million in a round led by VCs Draper Associates and Hyperplane.
Element Fleet Managementcar fleet manager, acquired San Francisco-based connected vehicle payments company Car IQ. Terms were not disclosed, but sources with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch that the purchase price was $80 million. History lesson: in 2024, Canada-based Element Fleet Management acquired fleet optimization software startup Autofleet for $110 million.
ExploMara China-based marine electric propulsion system development company; raised $10 million in a Series A round. The investment was made jointly by private equity funds and a listed company in China (undisclosed), with existing shareholder DCM Ventures continuing to participate.
Heaven AeroTecha startup developing hydrogen-powered drones, raised $100 million in a Series B round led by US quantum computing company IonQ. The company’s subsequent valuation is now over $1 billion. Texas Venture Partners also participated.
Wavethe buzzing UK self-driving startup backed by Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank Group, acquired German startup Quality Match, which analyzes data used to train AI models for automated driving. Terms were not disclosed.
Notable reads and other items
Amazon is considering ending its long-standing contract with the United States Postal Service and creating its own competitive nationwide delivery network.
Tesla Owners can text and drive with the latest version of the company’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver assistance software, despite it being illegal to do so in most states.
Grand Theft Auto Online has added robotaxis from a fictional but well-known company called “KnoWay” whose sole purpose seems to be to wreak havoc.
Nvidia announced Alpamayo-R1, an open logic vision language model for autonomous driving research.
TechCrunch’s Europe-based reporter Anna Heim gives an inside look at a drone delivery partnership in Finland.
THE Trump administration said it would lower fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks sold in the United States, arguing it would make the vehicles more affordable. There is, however, a trade-off. Consumers could end up paying more for gas.
The reduction essentially brings the vehicles below what they are already achieving. The proposal would increase fleet-wide fuel economy to 34.5 mpg for 2031 cars. The previous fuel economy standard, set under the Biden administration, set fuel economy at 50.4 mpg by 2031. In 2024, automakers were required to average 30.1 mpg in their fleets, which they surpassed, returning 35.4 mpg, according to in CAFE calculations.
One more thing…
Back before Thanksgiving, we ran a poll in the Mobility Newsletter asking, “When do you expect robotics to reach a mass adoption tipping point that will impact how people get from Point A to Point B?” Most readers chose “before the end of the decade”, which received 47.2% of the vote, followed by “2030”. Based on your votes, there seems to be low confidence that 2026 will be the tipping point year.
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