Vroom hits the brakes on its online used car business to go full throttle on auto financing and AIVroom is shutting down its online used car marketplace and shifting all of its resources and capital into two business units focused on auto financing and AI-powered analytics.
The company said it is suspending all used car transactions through vroom.com and plans to sell off its used vehicle inventory to wholesalers.
Vroom was part of a wave of U.S. startups that launched about a decade ago all aiming to disrupt used car sales and the traditional dealership model.
The drop in valuation continued into 2022, pushing Vroom shares to under $2.
Vroom shares closed at $0.53 on Monday and then dropped to $0.25 after the company announced its plans to shutter the e-commerce business.
While other automakers are dialing back their electric vehicle plans, BMW is quietly going all in.
“The tipping point for the combustion engine was last year,” CFO Walter Mertl told journalists at a roundtable in Munich recently.
The German automaker has seen sales of its fossil fuel vehicles plateau and is expecting a slow decline, he said.
“Growth will come increasingly from electric vehicles.”BMW sold a record 2.5 million vehicles last year, 15% of which were all-electric.
This year, the company thinks it’ll sell 500,000 EVs, or 33% more than last year.
Much progress has been made since then, and 2024 — the 20th anniversary of Ghostrider — will be another seminal year for autonomous vehicles, especially for off-road industries.
The possibilities off-roadSafety remains the paramount metric for autonomous vehicle deployment, yet there has to be industry consensus on how to adequately measure a robotic or human driver’s safety.
For commercial operations, there is another compelling reason for deploying autonomous vehicles in these conditions: increased profits.
Safety remains a concernSafety remains the paramount metric for autonomous vehicle deployment, yet there has to be industry consensus on how to adequately measure a robotic or human driver’s safety.
To increase transparency, the California DMV logs autonomous vehicle collisions.
Google announced Tuesday at CES 2024 a new feature for EV drivers that will track and display real-time battery information in Google Maps.
The new Android Auto feature will rollout today on Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.
Google built-in adds Chrome, Weather ChannelGoogle also added new trip planning capabilities, the Chrome browser and the Weather Channel app to Google built-in.
The company said that starting today drivers of vehicles with Google built-in can send the trip they’ve planned on their smartphone using Google Maps directly to their car.
Cars with Google built-in will also get, starting today, PBS KIDS and Crunchyroll and the Weather Channel app.
Waymo is about to start testing its driverless passenger vehicles on the highway later this month, a critical milestone for the company that, if successful, will unlock expanded commercial operations.
Bringing its autonomous cars to the highway is just the latest in a series of big steps for Waymo, especially in the Phoenix area.
Just a few months before that, Waymo made its autonomous vehicles available in the Uber app.
The GM autonomous vehicle subsidiary recently slashed a quarter of its staff and pushed out a number of executives after a crash in October where one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian.
Last year, the company backed away from its autonomous trucking effort in order to focus more on ride-hailing.
Aurora and automotive supplier Continental have wrapped up the first phase of a more than $300 million project to mass produce autonomous vehicle hardware for commercial self-driving trucks.
The two companies said Friday that the design and system architecture of an autonomous vehicle hardware kit is now complete.
Importantly, the hardware system has to be reliable, easy to maintain and produced cheaply.
Initially, these driverless trucks will carry freight between Dallas and Houston, a route the company has been using for testing.
While these first 19 driverless trucks won’t be equipped with the Aurora-Continental hardware kit, they are designed to automotive standards and to operate safely without a driver, according to Aurora spokesperson Rachel Chibidakis.
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has revealed its first electric car, a sharp-looking sedan called the SU7.
It’s the same pitch Faraday Future’s founder originally gave many years ago when promoting his original electric vehicle project in China, a part of his tech conglomerate at the time.
There are quite literal versions of this in Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto, which mirror a phone’s software on the in-car screen.
Volkswagen tried to build up its own powerhouse in-car software team but has struggled mightily.
Tesla has developed a robust in-car software experience for its vehicles, though it has resisted CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of maintaining control of its screens.
Electric vehicle charging company EVCS is raising a $20 million round, TechCrunch+ has exclusively learned.
The startup has so far raised $7.5 million of the $20 million target, according to paperwork the company filed with the SEC on Wednesday.
If EVCS can raise the rest, this round would make for a slight step up from the $18.8 million Series A the company raised in July 2022, perhaps as an extension to that round.
But the round also suggests a tempering of expectations at the startup, which reportedly explored raising $125 million as recently as this June.
The funds would have helped the company add more than 2,000 fast chargers to its network.
Select Waymo One riders can now get picked up or dropped off by the company’s robotaxis curbside at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Waymo became the first autonomous vehicle operator in the U.S. to launch a paid robotaxi service to and from the airport in November 2022.
The average trip rating for its airport trips has been about 4.7 out of 5 stars, Waymo says.
Waymo’s trusted testers are riders who have been vetted by the company and have signed nondisclosure agreements.
“Last year, we partnered with Waymo to become the first airport in the world to offer travelers the ability to take an autonomous vehicle to the airport,” said Chad Makovsky, aviation director at Sky Harbor Airport, in a statement.
The 2024 Chevy Blazer EV RS first drive: A worthy but pricey all-electric SUV This roomy midsize SUV gets a lot right.
The Chevy Blazer EV will be offered in three trims: the LT, RS and performance SS.
The Chevy Blazer EV RS trim in all-wheel drive is already in production at GM’s factory in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.
The press drive held in San Diego put reporters behind the wheel of the rear-wheel and all-wheel drive versions of the Chevy Blazer EV RS trim.
Those specs combined with a lower roofline and athletic stance give the Chevy Blazer EV a sleeker appearance than its gas-powered cousin.
