Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the way forward for transportation and now, greater than ever, how AI is taking part in a component. To get this in your inbox, join right here totally free — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
A couple of weeks in the past, I wrote about how Uber gave the impression to be all over the place, all of sudden within the rising autonomous car expertise sector. The Monetary Instances has now put a quantity on it. The FT calculated that Uber has dedicated greater than $10 billion to purchasing autonomous automobiles and taking fairness stakes within the corporations growing the tech, in accordance with public data and discussions with of us behind the scenes. About $2.5 billion of that’s in direct investments, with the remaining $7.5 billion to be spent on shopping for robotaxis over the subsequent few years, the outlet reported.
We’ve reported on Uber’s quite a few investments and offers with autonomous car corporations throughout drones, robotaxis, and freight. A few of its investments embrace WeRide, Lucid and Nuro, Rivian, and Wayve.
This moderately massive quantity (and notably that $7.5 billion) bought me enthusiastic about one other transformative period in Uber’s historical past and the way it has visited these asset-heavy shores earlier than. Uber may need began with a plan to be asset mild, however for a quick interval it did fairly the alternative.
Uber went on a moonshot spree between 2015 and 2018. It launched electrical air taxi developer Uber Elevate and the in-house autonomous car unit Uber ATG, which might be boosted by its acquisition of Otto in 2016. It additionally snapped up micromobility startup Soar in 2018.
After which in 2020, Uber pulled the asset-heavy rip twine, ostensibly leaving all of these moonshots behind. Uber offered Uber ATG to Aurora, Soar to Lime, and Elevate to Joby Aviation. Nevertheless it didn’t fully divest; it saved fairness stakes in all of them.
Uber is now getting into into a brand new and totally different asset-heavy period. It’s not plunking down hundreds of thousands, and even billions, to develop the expertise in-house, though I’m positive of us there could be fast to pipe up that there’s all the time R&D taking place over at Uber. As a substitute, it seems to be targeted on proudly owning (or maybe leasing) the bodily property.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
That would imply attention-grabbing line gadgets on Uber’s steadiness sheet sooner or later.
Proudly owning fleets of robotaxis constructed by different corporations may not have been the unique imaginative and prescient of Uber, or its former CEO Travis Kalanick, who has mentioned the corporate made a mistake when it deserted its AV growth program. However this new strategy may nonetheless get it to the identical finish level.
Somewhat chicken
Earlier this month, I interviewed Eclipse associate Jiten Behl in regards to the enterprise agency’s new $1.3 billion fund and the place that cash may be headed. The agency, as I wrote, intends to incubate extra startups (e.g., it was behind the Rivian spinout Additionally). Behl wouldn’t give me particulars, solely stating, “We’re undoubtedly engaged on a few actually cool concepts.” He additionally mentioned Eclipse is especially considering startups that work throughout enterprises.
Thanks to 1 little chicken and a few doc diving by senior reporter Sean O’Kane, it appears like a seed spherical announcement is imminent for a San Francisco-based startup engaged on an autonomous hauler that I’ve been instructed doesn’t have a driver cab. This sounds just like what Einride has constructed, however since we haven’t seen it, we’ll have to attend.
The corporate’s roster isn’t huge, however it’s chock-full of Silicon Valley tech elite, together with a founder who was at Uber ATG, Pronto, and Waabi. Keep tuned for extra.
Received a tip for us? E mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Sign at kkorosec.07, or e-mail Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
Slate is again with extra capital because it prepares to place its first inexpensive pickup vehicles into manufacturing by the top of 2026.
The electrical car startup, which bought its begin with backing from Jeff Bezos, raised one other $650 million in a Sequence C funding spherical led by TWG World. Maintain your eye on TWG. That is the agency run by Guggenheim Companions chief govt (and Los Angeles Dodgers proprietor) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull.
Slate has raised about $1.4 billion up to now, and its earlier traders embrace Common Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ household workplace, VC agency Slauson & Co., and former Amazon govt Diego Piacentini, as TechCrunch first reported final yr.
Different offers that bought my consideration …
Glydways, a San Francisco-based startup growing private autonomous pods designed to function on devoted 2-meter-wide lanes in cities, raised $170 million in a Sequence C funding spherical co-led by Suzuki Motor Company, ACS Group, and Khosla Ventures. Current traders Mitsui Chemical compounds and Gates Frontier and new investor Obayashi Company additionally participated. However wait, there’s extra.
GM and Ford are reportedly speaking to the Pentagon about whether or not the auto trade will help the army revamp its procurement program and discover cheaper, quicker methods to purchase automobiles, munitions, or different {hardware}, the New York Instances reported, citing nameless sources.
Loop, a San Francisco-based startup, raised $95 million in a Sequence C funding spherical led by Valor Fairness Companions and the Valor Atreides AI Fund, and contains investments from 8VC, Founders Fund, Index Ventures, and J.P. Morgan’s late-stage fund, Development Fairness Companions.
Monarch Tractor, the startup growing electrical, autonomous tractors, has moved on to (ahem) a special pasture. The startup’s property have been acquired by Caterpillar after struggling to pivot to a software program companies enterprise.
Uber is growing its stake in Supply Hero by 4.5%, the Monetary Instances reported. Uber agreed to purchase about 270 million euros in shares from Prosus, the Dutch funding group and Supply Hero’s largest shareholder.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Doug Subject, the high-profile govt who formed Ford’s electrical car and expertise methods over the previous 5 years, is leaving. Notably, Ford is shaking up the group as effectively, making a “product creation and industrialization” staff to be led by COO Kumar Galhotra. Any guesses the place Subject is headed subsequent? Maybe he’ll return to Silicon Valley.
Lightship, the all-electric RV startup, is increasing its Colorado-based manufacturing facility by one other 44,000 sq. toes, which can permit it to quadruple its manufacturing capability.
Rivian and battery recycling and supplies startup Redwood Supplies partnered years in the past. We’re now seeing the fruits of that relationship. Redwood is putting in battery power storage at Rivian’s manufacturing facility in Illinois. The catch? Redwood is utilizing 100 second-life Rivian battery packs, which can present 10 megawatt-hours (MWh) of dispatchable power to cut back value and grid load throughout peak demand durations.
Tesla created a brand new self-driving app that makes it simpler for house owners to subscribe to its Full Self-Driving software program and see statistics on how — and the way usually — they use it. This will not be large information, nevertheless it did catch my eye due to the gamified qualities of those new stats.
Waymo, as per standard, has a number of information gadgets this week. The Alphabet-owned firm began testing its autonomous automobiles on public roads in London. It additionally eliminated its waitlist in Miami and Orlando to scale its robotaxi companies within the two cities.
Yet one more factor …
This text isn’t my solely venture that’s leaning extra closely into robotics. My podcast, the Autonocast, is just too, because the worlds of autonomous automobiles, AI, and robotics mash collectively. Take a look at this interview with Foxglove founder Adrian MacNeil, who beforehand labored at Cruise.
