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receive back toTechCrunch Mobility — your primal hub for news and insights on the futurity of transportation . Sign up here for detached — just clickTechCrunch Mobility !
Before we skip into the newsworthiness , I want to point you toward a late TechCrunch Equitypodcast episodewithWaabico - founder and CEORaquel Urtasun .
A little bird
Got a tip for us ? Email Kirsten Korosec atkirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com , Sean O’Kane atsean.okane@techcrunch.comor Rebecca Bellan atrebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com . Or stop outthese instructionsto learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop .
Deals!
TheRivian - Volkswagen Groupjoint venture has been formally settle . Before the parties sign on the dotted wrinkle , it got about 16 % bigger . The deal will nowinject up to $ 5.8 billioninto Rivian ’s caisson with $ 1 billion already delivered via a convertible note of hand .
We do n’t know all of the specific terms , but it is worth mention that this will be an independent company co - led by Rivian ’s forefront of softwareWassym Bensaidand Volkswagen Group ’s chief expert engine driver , Carsten Helbing . The team , which will be hard loaded with Rivian engineers , will be establish in Palo Alto , California . It will eventually mark up three more sites in North America and Europe .
A lounge interrogation — and one asked by lashings of medium ( including moi ) during a press conference — is what happens to VW ’s struggling computer software arm , Cariad ? VW Group CEO Oliver Blume take that Cariad will still bring a “ central role . ” We ’ll see .
Meanwhile , Rivian is still struggling with a provider problem that stamp down production and cut into revenue . In its Q3 earnings , Rivianreported $ 874 million of revenue , more than 34 % lower than the same menstruum last year . But look at the gap between production ( 13,157 ) and rescue ( 10,018 ) hint that requirement is also an issuance .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
That VW money is looking pretty cherubic right now .
Other deals that commence my attention …
Just Eat Takeaway , the Netherlands - base food speech ship’s company , is sell its U.S. byplay Grubhub to New York - based Wonder Group in adeal prise at $ 650 million . That ’s 91 % less than the $ 7.3 billion Just eat on Takeaway paid for the companyjust four years ago .
Silicon Valley battery startupLytenisacquiring manufacturing assetsfrom Northvolt , the Swedish battery producer that has struggled in recent calendar month and is short on capital . The companies did n’t disclose fiscal terms but did say Northvolt will betray fabrication equipment it inherit in its 2021 acquisition ofCuberg , another shelling startup .
NASAgave out five research awardsworth $ 11.5 millionto troupe working on sustainable aircraft concepts , include JetZero .
Vatn Systems , a Portsmouth , Rhode Island - establish company developing subaquatic autonomous vessels , raised $ 13 millionin a seed rhythm conduct by DYNE Ventures and with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures , RTX Ventures , In - Q - Tel , and others . The round brings the startup ’s total financial backing to $ 16.5 million .
Vecna Robotics , a storage warehouse robotics startup that develop autonomous forklift and other pallet movers , hasraised $ 14.5 million . But the wage increase was n’t exactly what got my attending ; it was the fitting ofKarl Iagnemma , the former president and CEO of Motional . Iagnemma has been in the Ab globe for a match of decades now , largely in pursuit of commercializing autonomous vehicles ( i.e. , robotaxis ) . This newfangled stance puts him at the helm of a inauguration ( in which he was an former investor , btw ) that already has commercial customers .
Notable reads and other tidbits
Monarch Tractor , the sovereign electric tractor startup , haslaid off workersas part of a restructuring that will see it prioritize non - agricultural customers , license its autonomous applied science , and supercharge sale of its AI - power farm management software . Got a crown about Monarch ? Reach out to Sean O’Kane atsean.okane@techcrunch.com .
Yelpagreed to buyRepairPal , a situation for cable car repair estimates , for $ 80 millionin cash . The learning is expected to fold by the closing of the year , subject to customary closing condition .
Waymodropped its waitlist in Los Angeles , opening the robotaxi serviceup to the world . The service area is now about 80 satisfying knot of Los Angeles County .
Welp , Zooxco - founder and CTOJesse Levinsontold us atDisrupt 2024that the Amazon - backed company ’s customs duty robotaxi would be hitting the streets of San Francisco and Las Vegas . And now they haveofficially arrive . These are just for employee right now and will eventually be opened up to invited members of the populace .
Canookeeps trying to hold up on , but its prospects do n’t look great . The EV startup - twist - SPAC told shareholder in its Q3 earnings “ it must continue to take aggressive action to consolidate our operations , trim monetary value , and haul - up to our program . ” As part of that architectural plan , Canoo ’s White House team , which include president and CEOTony Aquilaand newCFOKunal Bhalla , will take “ brusque - terminal figure pay cut for long - terminal figure incentives . ” Reminder : Aquila ’s firm has lent Canoo money , and among the terms is an 11 % interest rate .
In other Canoo news , the companytested its electric avant-garde for Walmartwithout airbags despite warning from employee , source told Fortune .
Lucidstarted taking orders for theGravity SUV . If it was n’t already open , Lucid ’s future hinges on the succeeder of this EV .
Teslaissued a recallfor more than 2,000 Cybertrucks , the sixth since the EV launched a twelvemonth ago . And no , it ’s not one that can be fixed by a software update . Speaking of Tesla , the automaker is part of thetrillion - dollar club(market roof ) again thanks in part to stockholder bet a Trump administration will profit the company direct by friend Elon Musk .
Exosonic , a inauguration develop ultrasonic commercial air travel travel and UAV technical school , said it isshutting downafter failing to find the working capital demand to preserve operations .
This week’s wheels
This calendar week , I ’m back with a couple moreWaymorobotaxi tales from TechCrunch staff members who had their first rides while in San Francisco forDisrupt 2024 . As I mentioned last week , I ’ve been in load of autonomous vehicle , including driverless Waymos , so I thought it would be fun to share some first - timers ’ views .
From UK - free-base reporterPaul Sawers : “ While I ’ve written about the autonomous fomite industry for many years , take my first ride in an literal self - drive car was pretty judgement - blowing — it felt like I ’d been catapulted into the future . I could n’t serve but gaze at the empty driver ’s seat and marvel at the fact that we were maneuvering through the streets of San Francisco . It was n’t hugely heart - wracking , but that ’s probably because we were n’t travel much faster than about 25 to 30 stat mi per hour . I suspect if I was on the main road in that matter , it might be a little more hairy .
More broadly , there was something a small jarring about seeing all these humanless motorcar creep around street corners — marginally dystopian , like the machines were lastly take control condition . ”
From reporterRebecca Bellan : “ I rode in as many Waymos as I could during the week of Disrupt , and it feel sort of like a ride at Disneyland . It move easy and cautiously , and I was n’t really apprehensive about break apart . Most rides go without incident , blockade one in which the robotaxi face brace to repel towards a pedestrian but then thankfully swerved .
“ My main bitch is that the vehicle often begin to get off before you reached them , in all probability due to a deficiency of admittance to metropolis curbside . I ’m not sure how the ‘ Driver ’ decides it ’s meter to force half a block up and hold back there alternatively , but this slight drill had my editor Kirsten and I chasing one down a dyad of block and a ( gratefully well - lit ) alleyway before we could come aboard . ”
Senior reporterSean O’Kanewrote:“I’ve covered AVs long enough that I bear my first taste of Waymo ’s thrifty rollout to go super swimmingly — and it did . I did not expect to feel so viscerally just how expensive these current vehicles are , from the whirring lidars to the high - cost I - Paces . I ’m excited to ride again someday soon , but I desire by then Waymo will have made more progress on making a viable clientele . ”
What is “ This calendar week ’s wheel ” ? It ’s a chance to pick up about the different transportation product we ’re test , whether it ’s an electric or hybrid railroad car , an e - bike , or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle .
