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Little bird
If that wasn’t clear before, then it’s now. Uber wants a large portion of its self-driving car technology pie. Over the past two years, the ride company has partnered with almost every AV company you could think of, and across all sectors, including delivery, robotaxixis, trucks and more.
Still, it wasn’t entirely prepared for the amount Uber invested in its latest partnership with EV Maker Lucid and AV Startup Nuro. Click here to read my article on partnership agreements and planning for Uber’s premium Robotaxi service.
We are here in the “little birds” section. Because I’ve learned something new.
As a publicly available company, Lucid had to disclose that Uber had invested $300 million in the company. However, Uber didn’t have to share what it invested in Nuro. One source of information with direct knowledge said it was more than Lucid’s $300 million. Since the article was published, I have had some little birds fly, saying it was about $400 million.
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Great deal!
When Waymo closed its autonomous truck program, I wondered where the talent would go. And I assumed that some (rightly) might come out and start my own company.
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I heard that Boris Sofman, who headed the autonomous truck program at Waymo last year, has launched an autonomous vehicle technology startup focusing on heavy machinery used at construction sites. I was writing a bit of nuggets about it in the “Birds” section. But I couldn’t see exactly how much it rose or who was obsessed with it.
Now we know. The startup called Bedrock Robotics raised $80 million from investors Eclipse and 8vc. Sofman co-founded Bedrock Robotics with Waymo veterans Kevin Peterson and Ajay Gummalla and Tom Eliaz, who previously worked at Segment and Twilio.
Other deals that caught my eye this week…
Brooklyn-based ammonia-to-power startup Amogy has raised an additional $23 million in funding, bringing its latest funding to $80 million because it can apply its technology to its shipments. The round was led by the Korea Development Bank and KDB Silicon Valley LLC with participation from Bonangels Venture Partners, JB Investment and Pathway Investment.
Geely Auto will acquire high-end EV subsidiary Zeekr Private through a merger agreement just a year after the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.
GridServe, a UK-based mobile EV charging company, has raised £100 million ($134 million) from existing institutional investors, including TPG Rise Climate, Infracatial and Mitsubishi.
San Francisco-based startup Pronto has developed autonomous driving systems designed for transport trucks and other off-road vehicles used in construction and mining sites, and has acquired competitor SAFEAI. Conditions are not disclosed. Co-founder and CEO Anthony Levandowski described the acquisition as a play of talent and technology. The majority of the 12 startup engineering team and their IPs come to Pronto.
Transit Software Startup, VIA, has secretly submitted it to its first public offer. History Lesson: Secretly filed with the IPO in 2021, but did not take the following official and regulatory measures to enter the open market. Now the company says it’s ready. Will 2025 be the year?
Notable readings and other information
Adas
Lucid is deploying a hands-free highway that drives into an aerial sedan via software updates at the end of the month. This is a major step forward for the company’s advanced driver assistance system.
Self-driving cars
Uber has signed a Robotaxis deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu, deploying thousands of autonomous vehicles in multiple markets outside the US and mainland China.
Electric cars, batteries, charging
GM is the latest automaker to partner with Redwood Materials on New Energy Storage Venture. Speaking of GM, the automaker has upgraded its Tennessee plant, which it owns alongside LG Energy solutions, to produce cheaper LFP batteries.
Requests for public records can reveal the most frightening thing. For example, Libian resumed preparatory work at its planned Georgia plant in August, and is about to break the ground early next year, according to an email obtained in a request for public records.
In other Libian news, Ribian co-founder and CEO RJ Sculling has transferred some of his ownership stakes and voting power as part of the newly resolved divorce proceedings. This submission caught our interest for several reasons (I recommend you read the story). Especially because unlike so many technology founders, Scaringe has not had an incredible amount of voting power since the IPO.
The company’s latest software updates provide a new look and feel for in-car navigation. In short, Mapbox has been released and comes with a customized Rivian-Meets-Google-Maps app.
Senior reporter Sean Okane and I are jokingly stating that the only two left on Earth are the ones who care about what is going on in Faraday’s future. oh! But wait, so does the SEC, and it appears that the agency is ready to take action.
Subaru has announced all electric crossover models called Uncharted, which have a range of over 300 miles, and is expected to be available in the US in early 2026. Subaru said it would bring prices closer to market launches.
Tesla has been inaugurated in India for many years with the opening of its first showroom. This is after CEO Elon Musk first teased the move, changing the timeline with years of delays and timelines in one of the world’s largest automotive markets. Stay tuned for more coverage from India-based reporter Jagmeet Singh.
Sales of Tesla Cybertruck have plummeted from last year’s peak. How far? One point of reference is: The GMC Hummer EV (not exactly a volume seller) outperformed the curiosity of polarized steel in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the selection of ju judges began due to a federal civil lawsuit against Tesla. The question is whether the company’s driver assistance technology blames the company for the fatal crash in 2019 in Key Largo, Florida. As you can imagine, personal feelings about Elon Musk were smashed into the juju review process.
The future of flights
Joby Aviation has doubled the size and capacity of its pilot manufacturing facility in Marina, California.
