Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Join right here free of charge — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
President-elect Trump has wasted little time choosing cupboard members, together with naming former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy as the subsequent secretary of transportation. If Duffy’s appointment is confirmed by the Senate, the brand new secretary will oversee an annual funds of about $107 billion, to not point out a broad vary of points that can contact the tech world, together with gasoline effectivity requirements, superior driver help applied sciences, and autonomous automobiles.
I took a take a look at his legislative document and there’s nothing actually associated to transportation, save for a invoice pertaining to logging automobiles. That makes it troublesome to foretell precisely what his priorities can be. Keep tuned.
Two extra enjoyable issues. Throughout an episode of TechCrunch’s Fairness, Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff talked about a few of his favourite devices. And also you guessed it, automobiles and vehicles — a lot of that are EVs — had been on prime.
And this isn’t fairly transportation-related, so forgive me. Tesla’s Optimus bot has a brand new pal: Kim Kardashian.
Earlier than we bounce into the information, one housekeeping merchandise: We won’t have an version of TechCrunch Mobility subsequent Thursday because of the Thanksgiving vacation. For all my U.S.-based readers — plus these overseas who have fun the vacation — keep protected on the market on these roads. I do know what I can be giving because of this vacation: good well being and the power to do what I like, which incorporates penning this very e-newsletter.
A bit hen
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Offers!
Final month, Pony AI joined the checklist of Chinese language companies going public on the U.S. inventory market after a multiyear ban from Beijing on offshore capital elevating. Now we all know what Pony AI is aiming for.
Pony AI desires to boost round $260 million, up from its earlier goal of round $224 million, Sean O’Kane reported. To fulfill the aim, Pony will promote as many as 20 million American depository shares.
That’s nonetheless down from the a lot larger goal of $425 million, which Pony was aiming for earlier this yr earlier than its board authorised a discount of its minimal valuation from round $8 billion to $4 billion.
Different offers that acquired my consideration …
Ample, the San Francisco-based EV battery-swapping firm, raised $25 million from new investor Mitsubishi Company.
Class8, a Toronto-based trucking fleet operations startup beforehand known as FleetOps, raised $22 million in a Sequence A spherical led by Xplorer Capital. New investor Commerce Ventures and returning backers Impressed Capital and Resolute Ventures additionally joined.
Ecolectro, which makes hydrogen-producing electrolyzers, raised $10.5 million in a Sequence A spherical led by the Toyota Ventures local weather fund with participation from Cornell College, New Local weather Ventures, Starshot Capital, and Techstars.
ePlane, an Indian-based startup creating electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown plane, raised $14 million in a Sequence B spherical co-led by Speciale Make investments and Antares Ventures. The all-equity spherical additionally included participation from Micelio Mobility, Naval Ravikant, Java Capital, Samarthya Funding Advisors, Redstart (from Naukri), and Anicut. The spherical has valued the startup at $46 million post-money — over 2x its earlier $21 million valuation.
Flipturn, a New York-based startup that developed software program to assist fleets handle their EV charging, raised $11 million in a Sequence A spherical led by CRV with participation from Accel.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous automobiles
Cruise admitted to submitting a false report with the aim of influencing a federal investigation into a security incident final yr. The GM subsidiary agreed to pay a $500,000 prison positive as a part of a deferred prosecution settlement.
Might Mobility is beginning to check driverless shuttles (self-driving Toyota Sienna minivans) in Ann Arbor.
Nuro began rolling out a check fleet of its driverless, passenger-less R3 automobiles throughout the Bay Space and Houston, two months after altering its enterprise technique to license its AV tech to automakers and mobility suppliers. The rationale? Present potential prospects what they’ve acquired.
Xiaodi Hou, the co-founder and former CEO of self-driving trucking startup TuSimple, has urged a California district court docket to difficulty a brief restraining order to cease the corporate from transferring its remaining U.S. property to China. This struggle is getting messy.
Electrical automobiles, charging, & batteries
Hyundai revealed the brand new Ioniq 9, a three-row SUV that’s anticipated to return to the U.S. within the spring of 2025. Learn extra from contributor Emme Corridor about this new EV and its quite a few options.
Keep in mind the Ram Ramcharger? Properly Stellantis has launched new particulars about STLA Body, the underlying automobile platform that the Ram Ramcharger will finally be constructed on. TL;DR: That is designed to be a multi-energy platform, which suggests it may be the inspiration for an inner combustion, hybrid, battery-electric, and even gas-extending automobile just like the Ram Ramcharger.
The $7,500 EV tax credit score is on Trump’s chopping block.
In-car tech
Ford agreed to pay a $165 million penalty to federal regulators after shifting too slowly to recall automobiles with defective rearview cameras.
Individuals
Common Motors has minimize one other 1,000 jobs within the U.S., none of which had been hourly staff. And Ford mentioned it’s going to slash one other 4,000 jobs in Europe in a cost-cutting technique as the expansion fee for EVs has slowed.
Rivian’s head of communications, Sarah O’Brien, who as soon as held an analogous position at Tesla, has left the EV maker. She has joined LoveFrom, the artistic collective based by Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive.
In the meantime, Volkswagen has tapped former Rivian exec Kjell Gruner to run its U.S. enterprise.
This week’s wheels
What’s “This week’s wheels”? It’s an opportunity to study in regards to the totally different transportation merchandise we’re testing, whether or not it’s an electrical or hybrid automotive, an e-bike, or perhaps a journey in an autonomous automobile. Future automobiles embody the Lucid Air, extra time within the next-gen Rivian R1S, and the Volkswagen ID Buzz. Keep tuned.
