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receive back to The Station , your primal hub for all past , present and future mean value of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.
This week , we ’ll keep things short due to the Veteran ’s Day vacation ; do n’t occupy , we still have plenty for you to view up on .
But first , one fun thing .
LTA Research , the Sergey Brin - back startup , deal the wrap off its prototype electric airship — the heavy aircraft in the world — right in the heart of Silicon Valley . As contributorMark Harris wrote , the airship — its snow - white steampunk visibility visible from the busy 101 highway — has taken trailer technology such as fly - by - telegram ascendance , electric motors and lidar sensing , and supersized them to something retentive than three Boeing 737s , potentially capable to carry tons of cargo over many one C of miles .
Let ’s go !
Want to reach out with a pourboire , comment or ailment ? Email Kirsten atkirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com .
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Micromobbin’
Ridepanda , the D2C micromobility market place that a duet of Bird , Lime and Scoot alum launched in 2020 , has made asignificant patronage pivotthat focus on endeavor - degree business . Now , instead of selling a scope of e - wheel and e - water scooter models from top brands to customer across the rural area , Ridepanda has become an ending - to - goal root for employers — like Amazon and Google — to offer employee commuter benefit .
The key takeaways here are 1 ) What was n’t ferment with D2C ; and 2 ) Why they chose B2B2E. The tl;dr is that getting the provision strand and service set up for multiple unlike brands all over the U.S. was incredibly hard , and enterprises are doing the most right now to get people back into the berth and fulfil sustainability goals .
Tech continues to seep into micromobility . For case , Gogoro , the Chinese two - Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler battery - swapping giant , say that its sassy electrical motor scooter can now be unbarred and turned onvia a keyin a rider ’s Apple Wallet on their iPhone or Apple Watch . fomite owner will also be able to partake in their iceboat key with other iOS drug user .
— Rebecca Bellan
Deal of the week
Robotaxi ship’s company Cruise and Waymo get the mass of the attention — and lately , not the good variety . Meanwhile , another autonomous fomite startup calledMay Mobilityhas beenoperating quietly in the desktop , which Colorado - founder and CEO Edwin Olson told TechCrunch is by design .
That under - the - microwave radar approach shot — which is belike helped by its B2B stage business model — has n’t prevent it from raising money . May Mobility raised $ 105 million in a Series D round go by Japan ’s telecommunication giant NTT . Toyota Ventures , BMW i Ventures , Trucks VC and State Farm Ventures also participated in the muckle , among other investor . To date , the companionship has raised around $ 300 million .
Other deals that get my aid …
EasyPark Group , a roving paid parking fellowship , tell it intend to acquire Flowbird Group , which mesh under brand Flowbird , YourParkingSpace , TPARK , Extenso Cloud and Yellowbrick . Flowbird offers a issue of services such as pay and display machines , software and “ Mungo Park and charge . ”
Flitter , a Paris - based salary - by - mile insurance tech inauguration , lift € 3.5 million($3.75 million ) in seed funding run by Swiss underwriter Helvetia . The Frenchfounders fund , former Sarenza CEO Stéphane Treppoz , Optimind founder Christophe Eberlé , Voodoo atomic number 27 - laminitis Laurent Ritter and Sorare co - founder Adrien Montfort also participated .
Getir , the Turkish instantaneous food market speech startup , acquiredFreshDirect , an online grocery delivery inspection and repair free-base in New York .
Niron Magnetics , a Minnesota - based startup developing rarified earth - free permanent magnets , raised $ 33 million with new investments from GM Ventures and Stellantis Ventures . Previous investor Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the University of Minnesota also participate . The company plans to use the funds to expand its original production adroitness and scale manufacturing capacitance of its “ clean earth attraction . ” The chief executive officer told me the society plans to reduplicate its 60 - somebody men by the death of 2023 and double it again in 2024 .
Zeekr , another Geely caller , is gearing up for aU.S. IPO .
Notable reads and other tidbits
Autonomous vehicles
Cruise , and its parent companyGM , continue to portion out with the aftermath of an October 2 incident that exit a char , who was initially hit by a human equipment driver , adhere under and then draw by a robotaxi . This week alone , the companypaused productionof its custom - built Origin vehicle , recall its fleetof 950 vehicle fit with self-directed vehicle software andlaid off contract workerswho were responsible for the upkeep and driverless operations . Meanwhile , theCalifornia Public Utilities Commissionissued an order tohalt the effectuation of Cruise ’s permitto charge for robotaxi rides across San Francisco 24/7 as they consider the city ’s petition for a redo of the earshot that grant the permit .
Ghost Autonomysaid it plans to begin exploring the applications of multimodal heavy speech communication exemplar ( LLMs ) — AI models that can understand text as well as ikon — in ego - driving through the OpenAI Startup Fund , which provide early access to OpenAI systems and Azure resources from Microsoft , OpenAI ’s close collaborator , plus a $ 5 million investment funds . TechCrunch newsman Kyle Wiggers foundexperts were skepticaland said LLMs are the wrong tool for self drive .
MotionalandUber Eatsare team up up to autonomously deliver solid food from Shake Shack .
Waymostarted winter testing its robotaxis in Buffalo , New York .
Electric vehicles, batteries & charging
Ramintroduced the2025 Ramcharger — an galvanic truck that draw its EV succus from a gas - power generator . Based on feedback from some reader , this will be a polarizing vehicle . Some people were incredibly excited and called it the perfect truck ; others took law-breaking to the EV stigmatisation .
Polestarheld its initiatory Polestar Day to showcase itsvision for the future : newfangled technical school and next - multiplication vehicle that the Swedish EV party own by China ’s Geely Holdings hopes will spark cut-rate sale and spur an epoch of increment . But as contributor Abigail Bassett noted , the event stood in bleak contrast to its present .
Earnings
Luciddidn’t have the blushful of earnings reports . The troupe revise its 2023 product outlook amid softening requirement for luxury electric vehicles . Meanwhile , the company jumped on theTesla charging standardbandwagon .
Lyftreported 22.4 million active riders in the third one-fourth , up from 21.5 million in the 2nd twenty-five percent and 19.6 million in the first . The growth suggest that its scheme of slashing drive - hail fares to compete with Uber has result in slow and stiff addition for the company , but rivalry remains tearing . Get thefull Q3 rundownhere . The ride - acclaim society also said it will inaugurate a “ more affordable kind of gamy - end ride ” in an attempt to tender drive - hail product thatcustomers in reality want , according to the CEO .
Riviancontinued to exit the gap on loss , reduce monetary value and ramp up product in thethird quarterwith results that trounce Wall Street arithmetic mean and suggested a flushed future , including raising its yearly production steering from 52,000 to 54,000 vehicle . The big news : Rivian and Amazon areno longer exclusive . Oh , and Rivian founder and CEORJ Scaringealsoweighed in on subscription . Tl;dr : he ’s eyeing package upcharges around AR and self-reliance , not heat seats .
Uber’sthird - one-fourth earningsshow a profitable ride - hail and saving party that ’s chug along in spite of slowing growth in some sector .
Future of flight
Archer Aviationpartnered with India ’s travel and cordial reception conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises to launch anall - electric atmosphere taxi servicein the state in 2026 .
Skyryse , the air travel software program startup , completed a fully autorotation emergency landing procedure in a helicopter . The milestone cast the company on the path to unveil the first yield helicopter featuring it applied science in the first stern of next yr .
