Transportation

Transportation includes all the present and future ways people and packages get from Point A to Point B, from scooters and e-bikes to autonomous vehicles, EVs, transit and evTOLs. We cover players big and small, from Tesla, GM, Uber, and Lyft, to small startups entering the automotive tech space.

“Embarking on an Electric Expedition: Ford and Tesla Superchargers Unite”

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Less than a year ago, every automaker and EV charging company operating in the United States used the Combined Charging System (CCS). Six months later, Ford announced a deal to that would give owners of Ford EVs access to Tesla Superchargers. Within nine months every major automaker selling vehicles in the United States has agreed to the Tesla charging standard, with many committing to integrate the technology within their next-generation vehicles. Tesla owners have long enjoyed sole access to the network and newcomers may put pressure on an already popular charging network. Ford executives were quick to note in a briefing with reporters that not every Tesla Supercharger will be accessible to Ford owners.

Polestar Secures $1 Billion Loan to Ensure Success of EV Plans

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Polestar secured a $950 million loan from a dozen banks, critical funds needed to keep its EV plans moving forward following Volvo’s decision to pull back its financial support of the electric automaker. Polestar, which has cut 10% of jobs since mid-2023, said it plans to make another 15% cut this year. Polestar currently produces the Polestar 2, Polestar 3, which recently started production in China, and the Polestar 4. The company said it has successfully completed test production runs for the Polestar 3 at its factory in South Carolina. The $950 million loan follows Volvo Cars’ decision last month to reduce its 48% holding in Polestar and let parent company Geely take over financial responsibility.

Motional, Backed by Hyundai, Trims Workforce by 5% in Pursuit of Autonomous Future

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Motional, the autonomous vehicle company borne out of a joint venture between Hyundai Moor Group and Aptiv, told employees Wednesday it will cut about 5% of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned. The autonomous vehicle company last had layoffs in December 2022, when it cut about 10% of its workforce. Motional operates an autonomous vehicle taxi service in Las Vegas (still with human safety operators behind the wheel) on Uber, Lyft and Via platforms. A production-ready autonomous vehicle, equipped with the kind of redundancies designed for safe operations without a human driver, is a critical milestone required for commercial operations. During CES 2024, the company announced plans to work with Kia on a next-generation vehicle that will enter commercial operations later this decade.

Top Five Contenders in Four Years From Now’s 2024 Pitch Competition Revealed

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The five finalists to emerge from the Four Years From Now 2024 pitch competitionLong ago Mobile World Congress, which we’ve been covering all week, absorbed a side event for startups, the idiosyncratically named “Four Years From Now”. Thus, out of hundreds of startups that applied and pitched, five finalists were selected by a panel of industry experts and investors after pitching their projects on stage. Here’s a quick run-down of the five finalists to emerge from the competition. The company is from South Korea and has raised $21.3 million to date. WHISPPThis “Assistive Voice Tech and Calling App” was covered by TechCrunch last January.

“Apple Discontinues Development of Self-Driving Car and Implements Workforce Reduction”

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Apple is scuttling its secretive, long-running project to build an autonomous electric car, according to Bloomberg. The company has already started laying off some people who worked on the project, TechCrunch has learned. Many of the nearly 2,000 employees who were still working on the project will be shifted to Apple’s generative AI projects, Bloomberg reported. The decision to kill the project comes at a time when major automakers are reevaluating their investments in electric vehicles, and amid increased scrutiny on autonomous vehicle projects. Apple first started working on its car project, known internally as “Project Titan,” in 2014.

Is the Ring car camera destined to fail due to an undefined target audience?

Ring Car Cam
But the Ring Car Camera? You do have to know who your customers are, though, and that’s where the Ring Car Camera found itself straddling multiple domains without a clear foothold in any. Ring Car Camera did have some exciting innovations. Moreover, discontinuing the Ring Car Camera may prompt a reassessment of consumer expectations regarding dash cams and automotive security devices. The discontinuation of the Ring Car Camera is likely the final nail in the coffin of that project, too.

Xiaomi SU7: A Revolutionary Electric Vehicle

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Alongside Xiaomi SU7 design, Xiaomi has developed the five core EV technologies: E-Motor, CTB Integrated Battery, Xiaomi Die-Casting, Xiaomi Pilot Autonomous Driving, and Smart Cabin. Here’s what I can say: the SU7 is a car – and nice looking one at that. It was parked inside Xiaomi’s MWC booth atop a rotating platform. Here’s Xiaomi again,Xiaomi’s transition from “Smartphone x AIoT”, the “Human x Car x Home” smart ecosystem seamlessly merges personal devices, smart home products, and cars. As the foundation of the “Human x Car x Home” smart ecosystem, it integrates over 200 product categories incorporating 600 million global devices, and covering more than 95% of user scenarios.

“Stellantis Chief Executive Spills Secrets on Waymo, Rivian Layoffs, and the Ongoing Decline of EV Enthusiasm”

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TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Of course, as he talked, I wondered if this was wishful thinking or an attempt to show the company was still part of the autonomous vehicle conversation? Robotic Research Autonomous Industries (RRAI), an autonomous vehicle company with a history of working with the Department of Defense, changed its name to Forterra.

Stellantis Executive Optimistic About Prospects of Waymo Partnership for Self-Driving Delivery Vans

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This “deepened” partnership will focus on commercial self-driving Ram delivery vans, a target that was first announced in 2020 and promptly faded from public view. Discussions on this “improved” deal have focused, in part, on a crux around driverless delivery: how does the package get from the vehicle to the customer? Waymo, which is owned by Google parent-company Alphabet, currently doesn’t operate a commercial delivery service using its self-driving vehicles. That deal did include a future plan to include delivery via Uber Eats, but as of today, it has not launched, according to a Waymo spokesperson. Under the deal, Fiat Chrysler — now known as Stellantis — would handle the manufacturing and provide Waymo with minivans that built in redundancies designed for autonomous driving.

Navigating the rough path of electric vehicle makers

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Well, it seems the EV market is a tad more cutthroat than anticipated, with pricing pressure mounting like the suspense in a bad thriller movie. Most interesting startup stories this weekStaying in the world of automotive, there’s been a lot of movement from the avant-garde of EV manufacturers. These price adjustments from Ford and Lucid come hot on the heels of EV industry poster child Tesla’s price reductions, suggesting that the EV market is maturing and that customers are becoming more price conscious. Despite all their rage, they’re still just a rat in a Faraday cage: Struggling EV startup Faraday Future owes the landlord of its Los Angeles headquarters nearly $1 million after missing the last two months’ rent. This week’s big trend: The AI train keeps rumblin’ alongOpenAI has introduced a new generative AI model named Sora, capable of creating videos from text descriptions or still images.