Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Join right here totally free — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
This week I’m publishing an abbreviated model of the publication due to the 4th of July vacation. For those who’re driving, flying, or taking the practice for the U.S. vacation — which AAA tasks 72.2 million folks will journey a minimum of 50 miles or extra — keep secure on the market. The whole publication returns subsequent week.
I’ve one vital announcement earlier than I sprinkle in a bit of stories. TechCrunch Mobility is shifting to the Beehiiv publishing platform in a couple of weeks. Beehiiv gives a number of cool options — like polls! — to assist me higher have interaction with you, the reader. It’s a win for you and me.
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Slightly chicken
You could recall final week, a New York Occasions article reported that Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is working with traders to purchase the U.S. arm of Chinese language autonomous automobile firm Pony AI, and Uber may even assist make it occur.
A number of little birds inform me Kalanick ally and Uber ATG veteran Eric Meyhofer is concerned. We’re poking round to study extra. Within the meantime, here’s a little historical past lesson. Meyhofer was with the Nationwide Robotics Engineering Middle at Carnegie Mellon College earlier than formally shifting over to Uber in 2015. He ultimately grew to become CEO of Uber ATG, the self-driving unit that was later offered off to Aurora. Meyhofer has been related to Kalanick’s CloudKitchens enterprise by way of a restaurant automation and robotics enterprise referred to as Lab37, which was initially reported by the Spoon again in 2023.
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Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous automobiles
A catchy new time period was coined throughout a current recording of the Autonocast, the podcast I co-host with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer (full credit score goes to Roy). The time period is MVAT, or minimal viable autonomy theater — when corporations deploy the minimal viable autonomy product ample to perpetuate a story of progress.
One doable instance: Tesla let a Mannequin Y SUV drive roughly 15 miles from its manufacturing unit to the condo advanced the place the automotive’s new proprietor lives, finishing what CEO Elon Musk referred to as the primary “autonomous supply” of a buyer automotive. If it is a one-off, aka an illustration, then it’s an MVAT.
This isn’t simply to select on Tesla, by the best way. Many different corporations have posted flashy movies to showcase the capabilities of their respective automated driving expertise. However it was a much more frequent observe in 2015 — as AVs have been capturing as much as the highest of the hype cycle.
Electrical automobiles, batteries, & charging
The second quarter has ended and meaning gross sales and manufacturing numbers! Whereas many automakers challenge month-to-month experiences, a number of the EV corporations we monitor solely present quarterly numbers.
The electrical Hummer is nearly outselling the F-150 Lightning
Lucid gross sales inch ahead as EV maker pushes to ramp Gravity manufacturing
Rivian receives the subsequent $1B from Volkswagen as gross sales struggles proceed
Tesla faces second straight 12 months of falling gross sales after one other dangerous quarter
In the meantime, Republican legislators handed a reconciliation act that, amongst different issues, unwinds a lot of the Inflation Discount Act, together with that photo voltaic, wind, and clear hydrogen will all lose incentives beneath the brand new invoice. EV tax credit are additionally eradicated for brand new and used electrical automobiles and the set up of house EV-charging gear.
The tip of the EV tax credit score is already rippling via the trade, together with corporations that don’t even have an EV but to promote. Slate Auto, the Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup, was planning to promote a pickup truck for lower than $20,000 with the EV tax credit score utilized. However the language on its web site has modified to mirror the invoice’s passage.
Additionally a bit of stories from the world of electrical RVs and vans … Pebble, the California-based startup we’ve written about earlier than, has began buyer deliveries of its flagship all-electric journey trailer. And Grounded, the startup based by former SpaceX engineers and based mostly in Detroit, delivered its new electrical van, referred to as the G3, to its first buyer.
Safety
The FBI and cybersecurity corporations are warning that the prolific hacking group referred to as Scattered Spider is now concentrating on airways and the transportation sector.
Qantas, the Australian airline large, mentioned it skilled an information breach that compromised the private info of a minimum of 6 million passengers.
