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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Uber it seemed like everywhere, all at once in the field of autonomous vehicle technology. The Financial Times has now posted a number. The FT calculated that Uber did more than $10 billion purchasing autonomous vehicles and participating in companies that are developing the technology, according to public records and interviews with public figures. About $2.5 billion of that is direct investment, with the remaining $7.5 billion to spend on robotics purchases over the next few years, the transaction said.
We’ve talked about Uber’s many businesses and deals with autonomous vehicle companies across drones, robotaxis, and delivery vehicles. Some of its expenses include WeRide, Lucid and Enlightenment, Rivianand Wave.
The huge figure (mostly $7.5 billion) made me think of another turning point in Uber’s history and how it has navigated these rich shores. Uber may have started out with a plan to be an innovator, but for a short while it did the opposite.
Uber participated in the monthly survey between 2015 and 2018. It launched the electric taxi company Uber Elevate and the group of autonomous vehicles Uber ATG, which has been promoted by Otto’s purchase in 2016. It came out again the introduction of micromobility Jump in 2018.
And in 2020, Uber pulled the trigger, and stopped shooting for the moon. Uber sold Uber ATG in Aurora, Jump to Limeand Upload to Joby Aviation. But it didn’t come out completely; it saved all the downloads.
Uber is now entering a new and more demanding era. It’s not dropping millions, or even billions, to develop internal technology, although I’m sure people would be quick to point out that there’s always R&D going on at Uber. Instead, it seems to focus more on owning (or renting) material things.
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This could mean some interesting things down the line for Uber in the future.
Having robotaxis ships built with other companies may not have been the original vision of Uber, or its former CEO Travis Kalanick, who has said that the company. he was wrong when it discontinued its AV development program. But this new approach could still lead to the same end.
A little bird
Earlier this month, I asked questions Eclipse beloved Jiten Behl of the company’s innovations $1.3 billion in revenue and where the money can go. The company, as I wrote, wants to expand many startups (for example, it was behind the Rivian spinout Also). Behl didn’t elaborate, saying only, “We’re working on a couple of really cool projects.” He said Eclipse is especially popular with startups working in all industries.
Thanks to one little birdie and some sneak peeks by senior reporter Sean O’Kane, it looks like a seed round announcement is about to be launched in San Francisco working on an autonomous vehicle that I’m told is driverless. This sounds like something Einride has built, but since we haven’t seen it yet, we’ll have to wait.
The list of companies isn’t huge, but it’s full of Silicon Valley tech elite, including the founder who was at Uber ATG, Pronto, and Waabi. Stay tuned for more information.
Do you have a warning for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Sales!
Slate is back with more money as it plans to roll out its first affordable cars by the end of 2026.
The start of electric cars, which started with the support of Jeff Bezos, raised another $650 million in a Series C funding round led by TWG Global. Check out TWG. This is a company run by Guggenheim Partners CEO (and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull.
Slate has raised nearly $1.4 billion to date, and previous investors include General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co., and former Amazon CEO Diego Piacentini, as TechCrunch first reported it last year.
Some products that impressed me…
Glydwaysa San Francisco-based startup developing autonomous pods designed to operate on 2-meter long urban roads, has raised $170 million in a Series C round of funding led by Suzuki Motor Corporation, ACS Group, and Khosla Ventures. Existing investors Mitsui Chemicals and Gates Frontier and new investor Obayashi Corporation also participated. But wait, there are many.
GM and Ford is said to be talking to the Pentagon about whether the auto industry can help the military overhaul its procurement program and find cheaper, faster ways to buy vehicles, weapons, or other equipment, The New York Times saidciting unknown sources.
Looporiginally from San Francisco, earned $95 million in Series C funding round led by Valor Equity Partners and Valor Atreides AI Fund, and includes investment from 8VC, Founders Fund, Index Ventures, and JP Morgan’s late-stage fund, Growth Equity Partners.
Monarch tractorthe electric, autonomous tractor maker has moved on to (ahem) other pastures. The basics were taken by Caterpillar after struggling to get into the software industry.
Uber it increases its interest Shipping Hero and 4.5%, The Financial Times reported. Uber has agreed to buy about 270 million euros in shares from Prosus, a Dutch financial group and a major shareholder of Delivery Hero.
Popular reading and more
Doug Fielda high official who formed FordThe electric car is a technology in the last five years, he is leaving. In particular, Ford is also shaking up the organization, creating a “production and manufacturing” group to be led by a COO. Kumar Galhotra. Where do you think Field is headed? Maybe they’ll go back to Silicon Valley.
Lightshipan all-electric RV launch, that is to expand its Colorado-based factory is another 44,000 square feet, which will quadruple its production capacity.
Rivian and battery recycling and equipment startup Redwood Materials partnered years ago. We are now seeing the fruits of that relationship. Redwood is installing battery energy storage at the Rivian plant in Illinois. Fish? Redwood is using it 100 second Rivian battery lifewhich will provide 10 megawatt-hours (MWh) of dispatchable power to reduce the cost and load on the grid during peak demand.
Tesla created a new self-driving program that makes it easy for owners to sign up for its Full Self-Driving program and see statistics how – and how often – they use it. This may not be big news, but it caught my attention because of the interesting look of these new figures.
That’s itas usual, it has several stories this week. The Alphabet company has begun testing its autonomous vehicles on public roads in London. It also eliminated its waiting list in Miami and Orlando to expand its robotaxi services in those two cities.
One thing…
This letter is not my only work that leans heavily on robotics. My podcast, and Autonocasttoo, as the worlds of autonomous vehicles, AI, and robotics converge. Check out this discussion and Foxglove the initiator Adrian MacNeilwho used to work for Cruise.
