Thursday, October 31, 2024

Image Credits: Sean O'Kane

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is wrapped! And what a whirlwind it was. Some highlights? Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson weighed in on whether Tesla robotaxis will launch next year in California ("no" and he explains why) and made a significant announcement on his own company. Meanwhile, Rivian's head of software Wassym Bensaid said buttons are an anomaly (the future is voice) and gave us a few more details about where the fruits of the Rivian-VW joint venture deal might end up. Hint: Scout Motors.

Missed the interviews? Here is the full interview with Levinson and the one with Bensaid.

There was, of course, so much more, including GM chairperson and CEO Mary Barra, who covered a lot of ground on AVs, China, and EVs in an interview with global managing editor Matt Rosoff. For one, she still sees a future where GM makes an autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals (RIP, Origin). You can catch the whole interview here.

And how could I forget, BANF made it to the Startup Battlefield top 20.

A little bird

A little bird told us about some job movement over at Rivian. Specifically, Rivian's head of battery manufacturing engineering Kenton Harris has left the company and is now the global chief engineer at Ford.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.

Deals!

Remember when Waymo raised $5 billion over the summer? Welp, the company's round is a bit bigger now. The company closed a $5.6 billion Series C funding round led by parent company Alphabet and joined by a who's who of Silicon Valley venture firms.

Waymo was mum on the specifics, saying only that it was a "multi-year" commitment. Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Perry Creek, and T. Rowe Price all joined the round. Waymo declined to say how much each invested.

Reminder, this is the Alphabet subsidiary's second external fundraising round, and its first since a $2.25 billion Series B in 2020 that eventually grew to $3.2 billion.

OK, this was not on my bingo card and something I missed, but VC Reilly Brennan spotted it (and shared on his newsletter). Applied Intuition acquired the IP of Ghost Autonomy, the AV startup that shuttered earlier this year.

Infinite Machines, the New York-based startup developing a cyberpunk-inspired electric scooter, raised $9 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism team.

Joby Aviation, the electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle startup, launched a public offering to sell up to $200 million of its shares of common stock. Joby said it will use the proceeds from the raise — together with its existing cash — to fund its certification and manufacturing efforts, prepare for commercial launch in 2025, and use for general working capital.

This is more of a dead deal: Electric aircraft startup Lilium said it will shut down after failing to raise emergency money from the German government. The filing came after a series of setbacks from the German company that was once a darling in the nascent industry of electric aircraft. Reminder: Lilium had raised more than $1 billion from investors before going public in 2021 on the Nasdaq Exchange via a reverse merger with a blank-check company, SPAC Qell.

Third Wave Automation, a developer of autonomous high-reach forklifts powered by Shared Autonomy, raised $27 million in a Series C round led by Toyota's fund Woven Capital. Innovation Endeavors, Norwest Venture Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures also joined the round, bringing total capital raised to $97 million.

WeRide debuted on the Nasdaq last week, joining the increasing number of Chinese companies accessing foreign markets. The autonomous vehicle startup raised $440.5 million, and its valuation has now topped $4 billion. Impressive, but less than the $5 billion the company had been going for.

Zero, the electric motorcycle company, is in the process of closing a new funding round for a little bit more than $120 million. Zero has sold around $100 million of the equity round so far from two undisclosed investors.

Notable reads and other tidbits

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Aurora Innovation delayed its commercial self-driving truck launch to spring 2025.

During Disrupt, editor-in-chief Connie Loizos interviewed investor Vinod Khosla and transportation did in fact come up. He mentioned a startup he has invested in called Glydways. He believes that Glydways, which is developing personal, autonomous pods designed to operate on narrow, dedicated paths, can replace most cars in most of our cities in the next 25 years. The answer is not robotaxis.

"That sounds radical, but these entrepreneurs want to make that happen, and I'm pretty certain it will happen, and it's not roboatxis; it's not Waymo. It's a much better solution."

ELECTRIC VEHICLES, CHARGING, & BATTERIES

Scout Motors, the Volkswagen Group spinoff, unveiled two EVs it hopes will hook American customers with modern-meets-rugged styling that downplays digital and embraces the mechanical. But in a twist, the company has also added a variant to its all-electric Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra truck that will come equipped with a built-in gas-powered generator. Which one do you think will sell better? I have my thoughts, but we'll have to wait until 2027 (when the vehicles go into production) to find out.

Tesla's $25,000 EV flip-flop, explained.

RIDE-HAILING, CAR-SHARING, AND RENTALS

Kyte, the rental car startup that bills itself as the "best alternative to Hertz," is pulling out of almost all of its major markets in the United States and has cut its workforce roughly in half in a bid to survive after exploring a sale earlier this year.

Lyft agreed to a $2.1 million settlement proposed by the Federal Trade Commission over the ride-hailing company's "deceptive earnings claims about how much money drivers could expect to make."

MISCELLANEOUS

Jon McNeill, former Tesla president and ex-Lyft COO who is now CEO of VC firm DVx Ventures, talked about innovation through subtraction at the World Business Forum. He also talked about the Tesla robotaxi and why EV startups fail.

This week's wheels

Image Credits: Zoox

Right before TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, I went over to Zoox HQ in Foster City, California, to try out its custom-built robotaxi. To be clear, this was a rather short ride from one Zoox building to another one about a mile away.

However, the robotaxi encountered traffic, completed a right turn on red and an unprotected left, and reached speeds beyond 35 miles per hour. It wasn't jerky, and in that brief ride the system maneuvered confidently. The next step? Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson told me onstage that the company is going to start offering rides in its robotaxis on public roads in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

What is "This week's wheels"? It's a chance to learn about the different transportation products we're testing, whether it's an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.