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Another week, another round of announcements about robot axis either launching or planning in cities.
Let’s take stock. Waymo began testing its autonomous vehicles (with a safety monitor) in Philadelphia and will begin manual driving to collect data in Baltimore, St. Louis and Pittsburgh; Uber and Unride launched a robot taxi service in Dallas that will initially include a human safety operator behind the wheel; and that California Department of Motor Vehicles released revised rules that would allow companies to test and eventually install self-driving trucks on public highways in the state.
Autonomous vehicle technology is scaling and the pace is increasing. But should it?
As autonomous vehicle technology penetrates the urban landscape, so do the criticisms and challenges. A few recent incidents illustrate this point.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked Waymo for more information about its self-driving system and operations following reports from the Austin School District that its robot axis illegally passed school buses 19 times this year. The agency has already opened an investigation into Waymo’s performance around school buses.
Then there’s KitKat, the bodega cat who died after a Waymo robot taxi ran him over on October 27. The company was already met with criticism over the event. And now it may escalate thanks to new video. NYT tracked down surveillance video showing a woman crouching next to Waymo trying to lure KitKat to safety before the vehicle suddenly pulled away.
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A little bird
There have been many changes at Lucid Motors recently, according to some small birds.
As many of you already know, the company has lost a number of 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 mix of internal promotions and outside hires.
And the changes keep coming. A couple of little birdies told us this week that a handful or more top executives on their software and electrical teams were let go, including two senior executives 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.
Offer!
Electric aircraft manufacturer Beta Technologieswhich went public last month, is creating a nice little supplier business for itself. Which is fitting, since the Vermont-based company aims to be an OEM for the aerospace sector.
The company has entered into an agreement to supply the air taxi company Eve Air Mobility with its electric pusher motors. Beta says the deal is a potential 10-year option worth $1 billion.
Of course, “potential” is an important hurdle. That $1 billion isn’t guaranteed, though shareholders interpreted it as such (stocks rose 8% on the news). Still, Beta is finding a short-term revenue path as it continues to work toward the commercial certification of its electric plane with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The company also reported its third-quarter results this week. Beta saw its revenue more than double to $8.9 million from the same quarter last year. Its net loss has also widened. Beta reported a net loss of $452 million in the third quarter, a more than five-fold increase over the same period a year earlier.
Other offers that caught my attention…
Auto lanea Palo Alto-based startup developing the “air traffic management” for autonomous vehicles raised $7.4 million in a round led by VC firms Draper Associates and Hyperplane.
Element Fleet Managementa fleet manager, acquired San Francisco-based connected vehicle payments company Car IQ. Terms were not disclosed, but sources with information about the deal told TechCrunch that the acquisition price was $80 million. History lesson: back in 2024, Canada-based Element Fleet Management bought fleet optimization software startup Autofleet for $110 million.
ExploMara China-based developer of electric propulsion systems for boats, raised $10 million in a Series A round. The investment was jointly led by private equity funds and a listed company in China (undisclosed), with existing shareholder DCM Ventures continuing to participate.
Heven AeroTecha startup developing hydrogen-powered drones raised $100 million in a Series B round led by US quantum computing company IonQ. The company’s valuation after money is now more than DKK 1 billion. Texas Venture Partners also participated.
Wavethe busy British self-driving startup backed by Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank Group, bought German startup Quality Match, which analyzes data used to train AI models for automated driving. The terms were not disclosed.
Notable reads and other goodies
Amazon is considering ending its long-standing contract with the United States Postal Service and building its own competitive nationwide delivery network.
Tesla owners can text and drive with the latest version of the company’s fully autonomous (supervised) driver assistance software, despite it being illegal to do so in most states.
Grand Theft Auto online has added robotaxis from a fictitious yet well-known company called “KnoWay” whose sole purpose seems to be to wreak havoc.
Nvidia announced Alpamayo-R1, an open reasoning vision language model for autonomous driving research.
TechCrunch’s Europe-based reporter Anna Heim provides insight into a drone delivery partnership in Finland.
The Trump’s administration said it will lower fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks sold in the U.S., arguing it will make vehicles more affordable. However, there is a trade-off. Consumers may end up paying more for gas.
The reduction essentially brings vehicles below what they already achieve. The proposal would roll fleet fuel economy to 34.5 miles per gallon for 2031-model-year cars. The previous fuel economy standard set under the Biden administration mandated a fuel economy of 50.4 mpg by 2031. By 2024, automakers were required to average 30.1 mpg across their fleets, which they beat, delivering 35.4 mpg, according to 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 affect how people move from point A to point B?” Most readers chose “before the end of the decade,” which received 47.2% of the vote, followed by “the 2030s.” Based on your votes, there appears to be low confidence that 2026 will be the year of the tipping point.
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