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In case you have missed it, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would launch a paid transport service with a fleet of driverless vehicles in Austin in June. For those who keep a trace, it’s five months. Musk abandoned this announcement during the fourth quarter of Tesla and the call of the results of the year.
Musk has almost provided no details on this upcoming service, including what its geo-closation (environment, geographic and operational constraints) will be launched. But that is perhaps the point: enlarging the excitement and distracting from its rather flat automotive activity.
I recommend scrolling our blog live the report and the call of Tesla’s earnings, because there are many nuggets that may have been lost in ether, the progression of Bitcoin refinery and lithium at the ‘Absence of dojo and how Tesla trains the FSD in China. Oh, and finally, Elon admitted that yes, all these hardware vehicles 3 will need an upgrade to fully unlock the future capacities in its complete self-commissioner software (which is an advanced driver assistance system) .
Some small birds shared colors behind the scenes in Cruise, which we included in a recent article on GM and the estimated savings of a billion dollars that the automaker expects the closure of the Robotaxi development program.
Crivaled inside this article, a few pieces shared by sources of cruise that told us that management began to extend the retention offers to employees – who were all engineers – in mid -January.
“Although our plans remain subject to the approval of the cruising commissions, I wanted to share that we have finished our first wave of notifications to the employees we expect to need in the context of downstream cruise,” said the CEO Marc Whitten in the email, which Techcrunch has seen. He also called for continuous patience while the senior management has determined the next steps and waited for the cruise council to make a call.
Whitten has added that those who have not yet received a notification do not necessarily risk losing their jobs.
Sources in Cruise told Techcrunch that the board of directors should meet in early February, when they will find a plan for the thousands of workers who are now worried and worried.
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If you are not already paying attention to MooveThe African Mobility Mobility Society supported by Uber, you should be. The company has experienced explosive growth in five years. In 2020, Moove had 76 cars in Lagos, Nigeria; Today, it has 36,000 cars operating in 19 cities on six continents.
You may remember that Moove announced a partnership with Waymo last year to provide driver-free vehicle fleet operations in Phoenix and Miami.
From now on, the company, which offers vehicle financing to drivers for the application of tension and delivery on six continents, is developing via acquisitions. Moove said he had acquired KoviAn urban mobility supplier based in Brazil.
The value of the agreement is not disclosed, but Moove has confirmed that it was a transaction all -vares, and Kovi now belongs to Moove. The co-founder and CO-PDG of Moove, Ladi Delano, told Techcrunch that the agreement dropped the annual turnover of Fintech mobility at 275 million dollars.
Other offers that caught my attention …
AngellA French intelligent electric bike startup is bankrupt.
Bonsai roboticsAn autonomous agriculture startup based in California, has raised $ 15 million in a series of funding from the series A Bison Ventures. Cibus Capital, Acre Venture Partners, Contruent Ventures, Fall Line Capital, E14 Fund, SNR and Serra Ventures have also participated.
TravelerA business travel management platform based in Barcelona, raised $ 200 million to a heavy evaluation of $ 2.7 billion, almost double the evaluation of $ 1.4 billion in Its previous fundraising last year. The Tour of the E series was led by the European Company of Capital-Risque Atomo, with the participation of EQT Growth, Noteus Partners, Kinnevik, General Catalyst, among other existing investors. In addition to the increase, Travelperk also announced that he had acquired a Swiss startup Yokoy for an unhappy amount.
UveyeThe Israeli startup that has developed an “MRI for cars” based on vision, raised $ 191 million in an extension of its series D 2023, led by the Toyota woven capital growth fund. The Tour includes a mixture of $ 41 million in stock funding – with the participation of the UMC Capital and Myberg – and a debt ease of $ 150 million structured by Trinity Capital.
VoriThe Swedish giant shared from micromomability, expelled his first profitable year in 2024, according to non -audited preliminary results.
GM said he plans to save up to $ 1 billion a year by ending his Cruise Robotaxi development program.
Kodiak Robotics Based two autonomous trucks to Customer Atlas Energy Solutions – for driver -free operations in an all -terrain environment in the distant permian basin – marking the first commercial launch of the startup.
Waymo had a busy week. First of all, a hidden functionality Waymo in its application allowed a safety researcher to display the characters she wanted on the best Display of Robotaxi. The same security researcher also found a new tilting feature during the Android application of Waymo “overthrow Engineering”.
On the expansion front, Waymo said it would start testing driver -free vehicles on Los Angeles motorways; For the moment, only employees will be allowed to go up there. And he also plans to bring his robotaxie – in manual mode – to 10 American cities this year. Meanwhile, Waymo has increased its lobbying activity in San Francisco, and a main target seems to be access to the airport.
Lucid Friday, the owners of SUV Gravity will have access to Tesla super-chargers. Here is an overview of Tesla SuperCharger-Nacs news, including car manufacturers now have access to the network.
Tesla Bring its model as a model redesigned in the United States, Canada and Mexico in March, with a starting price just under $ 60,000.
You may remember our reports last month on a handful of proceedings brought against Rivian by employees who claim to have been harassed by executives. Here are some updates on some of these cases: one, deposited by the former sculptor of Clay Nathan Facciolla in October 2024 against Rivian and the chief designer Jeff Hammoud, is now transferred to arbitration. A second, tabled in February 2024 by the former director of the Color team, equipment and finish Elizabeth Curran against Rivian and Hammoud, now followed a potential date of trial in September 2025 – although Rivian tried to reign over the case Before the case before it happens.
Apple Admits that new generation Carplay is late, but says that it is still in development.
Amazon Expands its drone delivery service to the United Kingdom, starting with a city in northern Darlington England.
Supersonic boom went supersonic. The XB-1 demonstrator plane of the startup released Mach 1 and remained supersonic for about four minutes in the sky above the Mojave desert in California.
Nothing this week, but look for an article in the next newsletter.
What is “Wheels this week”? It is a chance to discover the different transport products that we test, whether it is an electric or hybrid car, an electric bike or even driving in an autonomous vehicle.
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