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Waymo’s acceleration over the previous 18 months is plain. The Alphabet-owned self-driving firm now operates business robotaxi companies in six markets, together with the San Francisco Bay Space, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. It has plans to develop its fleet of driverless taxicabs this yr to greater than a dozen new cities internationally, together with London and Tokyo.
And now it has $16 billion to gas that enlargement. Is it sufficient?
Speaking to some trade watchers, the reply stored touchdown within the squishy “form of” and “it relies upon” territory.
First the bull case. Alphabet is clearly dedicated to making sure Waymo’s success; the dad or mum firm is, and continues to be, the first investor. Which suggests Waymo isn’t uncovered like different AV startups that out of the blue misplaced funding after their backers (typically legacy automakers) bought skittish or pivoted.
Its ridership and autonomous miles pushed stats are additionally exploding and can doubtless proceed in that trajectory except it’s derailed by regulators. (Waymo supplies 400,000 rides each week throughout six main U.S. metropolitan areas, and in 2025 alone, it greater than tripled its annual quantity to fifteen million rides.)
This doesn’t assure success, although, particularly if the gauge is ready to profitability. Waymo nonetheless should remedy a number of issues, together with value and growing consideration from regulators (the corporate’s chief security officer simply testified in a Senate Commerce listening to). If Waymo desires to easily be the licensor of its AV tech, it should transfer away from being the operator, which implies giving up some management. That’s onerous with a nascent know-how below scrutiny.
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And whereas a few of you’ll struggle me on this, it additionally lacks the in-house manufacturing that Tesla has. Sure, Waymo has automotive companions. However it doesn’t include the identical monetary leverage or potential to drive down prices with scale.
Disagree? Ship your argument to my electronic mail at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com.
Just a little chicken
The buyers behind the now-defunct EV startup Canoo had been all the time mysterious — actually, they had been solely revealed as a part of a lawsuit. Six years in the past, I obtained a tip to look into considered one of them specifically: David Stern. He had connections to Prince Andrew however was in any other case a ghost.
He was on my thoughts, although, because the Division of Justice began releasing its information on Jeffrey Epstein. My curiosity as as to whether he would flip up within the paperwork was shortly overwhelmed by the truth that he was, actually, a detailed enterprise associate of the convicted intercourse offender. He introduced Epstein funding alternatives from around the globe, and specifically, pitched him on investing in Faraday Future, Lucid Motors, and Canoo through the go-go days of mobility funding. Learn my story on Stern and Epstein’s relationship and the way mobility startups had been as soon as within the combine.
— Sean O’Kane
Obtained a tip for us? Electronic mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Sign at kkorosec.07, or electronic mail Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
Autonomous automobile know-how is about extra than simply robotaxis — it’s a tough and dear enterprise that solely a handful of well-capitalized firms like Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox are pursuing. Many startup founders are making use of the AV programs they’ve developed to different use circumstances, together with off-road protection, trucking, forklifts, mining, and building. Traders, anxious about lacking out on the AV celebration, are leaping into these sectors.
Bedrock Robotics is the newest instance of investor curiosity. The Silicon Valley autonomous automobile know-how startup, based by veterans of Waymo and Section, are creating a self-driving system that may be retrofitted onto building gear. And it simply raised $270 million in Collection B funding co-led by CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Different buyers embody Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (Nvidia’s enterprise capital arm), Tishman Speyer, Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, Georgian, Incharge Capital, C4 Ventures, and others.
Bedrock raised greater than $350 million in a short while (the corporate was fashioned in 2024). And whereas that may not appear to be lots in comparison with the scale of some seed rounds within the AI labs sector, it reveals cash is flowing into bodily AI startups. I count on extra deal movement; importantly I count on the startups centered on sensible functions of automated driving programs to draw expertise — if they will afford them. Bedrock, as an example, employed Vincent Gonguet, who beforehand led AI security and alignment at Meta for all Llama fashions, as its head of analysis. It additionally employed John Chu away from Waymo.
Maintain a watch out for my interview with Bedrock Robotics co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman.
Different offers that bought my consideration this week …
German electrical motor maker Additive Drives raised €25 million ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Companions.
Autonomous underwater automobiles startup Apeiron Labs closed a $9.5 million Collection A spherical led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Administration Planetary Well being, and S2G Investments. Meeting Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures, and TFX Capital participated.
GoCab, the African mobility fintech startup, raised a $45 million financing spherical comprising $15 million in fairness and $30 million in debt. The fairness spherical was co-led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.
Mitra EV, a business EV fleet firm in Los Angeles, raised $27 million in financing, together with fairness funding from lead investor Extremely Capital and a credit score facility from S2G Investments.
Overland AI, a Seattle-based developer of self-driving programs designed for army operations, raised $100 million in a spherical led by 8VC. Different buyers included Point72 Ventures, Ascend Enterprise Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Fairness Companions, and StepStone Group.
Plug, the used EV market, raised $20 million in a Collection A led by Lightspeed with participation from Impress and present buyers Autotech Ventures, Leap Ahead Ventures, and Renn World.
R3 Robotics, a European startup that desires to automate the disassembly of EV programs at scale, raised €20 million ($23.6 million) together of grants and enterprise funding. The €14 million ($16.5 million) Collection A funding was co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. Oetker Assortment, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and present shareholders, together with BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT City Mobility additionally participated.
Skyryse, an El Segundo, California-based aviation automation startup, has raised greater than $300 million in a Collection C funding. The spherical, led by Autopilot Ventures, pushes its valuation to $1.15 billion. Different buyers embody Constancy Administration & Analysis Firm, ArrowMark Companions, Atreides Administration LP, BAM Elevate, Baron Capital Group, Sturdy Capital Companions, Constructive Sum, Qatar Funding Authority, RCM Personal Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Administration, and Woodline Companions.
Notable reads and different tidbits
China has banned hid electronically actuated door handles popularized by Tesla. The ruling, printed by China’s Ministry of Trade and Info Know-how, says all new automobiles offered within the nation should have mechanical releases on their door handles by January 1, 2027. There’s chatter that Europe may quickly comply with.
Uber continues to make strikes designed to make it aggressive within the autonomous automobile sector. The corporate has promoted Balaji Krishnamurthy, its VP of strategic finance and investor relations, to be its CFO. This may increasingly not appear related to AVs, however it’s. Krishnamurthy actively promotes the corporate’s autonomous ride-hailing partnerships and has a board seat at AV firm Waabi. In the course of the firm’s This fall name, he talked about AVs, saying the corporate would make investments capital in its AV software program companions, work with AV makers by investing fairness or through offtake agreements, and “help our AV infrastructure companions.”
In the meantime, a high-profile lawsuit in opposition to Uber has delivered a combined verdict for the ride-hailing firm, which was sued after a girl alleged she was raped by her Uber driver in November 2023. A jury decided Uber was liable as an obvious agent of the driving force and awarded $8.5 million to the plaintiff. The jury rejected claims that Uber was chargeable for negligence or design defects and declined to award punitive damages. An Uber spokesperson, who emailed TechCrunch an announcement, mentioned the “verdict affirms that Uber acted responsibly and has invested meaningfully in rider security. We’ll proceed to place security on the coronary heart of every part we do.” Uber plans to enchantment the choice.
Another factor …
Final week in our publication, we did a ballot asking what the identify or ticker of Elon Musk’s mixed supercompany must be. Because of those that emailed their options, lots of which had area themes, like Galactic X (nice one). As for the ballot, the bulk picked plain ol’ X.
That is sensible, contemplating Musk has typically talked, and posted, about X, the every part app. About 50% voted for X, whereas 20.7% picked ELON, 17.2% chosen SpaceAI, and 12.1% selected K2, a reference to one of many company entities created in January.
My decide? I feel it’ll finally be X, and the corporate will embody extra than simply SpaceX and xAI.
To take part in our polls, join our publication!
