Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Enroll right here free of charge — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
This week I’m publishing an abbreviated model of the e-newsletter due to the 4th of July vacation. For those who’re driving, flying, or taking the prepare for the U.S. vacation — which AAA tasks 72.2 million individuals will journey no less than 50 miles or extra — keep protected on the market. The whole e-newsletter returns subsequent week.
I’ve one essential announcement earlier than I sprinkle in a bit of stories. TechCrunch Mobility is shifting to the Beehiiv publishing platform in a number of weeks. Beehiiv offers numerous cool options — like polls! — to assist me higher interact with you, the reader. It’s a win for you and me.
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A bit of hen
You might recall final week, a New York Occasions article reported that Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is working with investors to purchase the U.S. arm of Chinese language autonomous automobile firm Pony AI, and Uber would possibly even assist make it occur.
A number of little birds inform me Kalanick ally and Uber ATG veteran Eric Meyhofer is concerned. We’re poking round to be taught extra. Within the meantime, here’s a little historical past lesson. Meyhofer was with the Nationwide Robotics Engineering Heart at Carnegie Mellon College earlier than formally shifting over to Uber in 2015. He ultimately grew to become CEO of Uber ATG, the self-driving unit that was later bought off to Aurora. Meyhofer has been linked to Kalanick’s CloudKitchens enterprise through a restaurant automation and robotics enterprise referred to as Lab37, which was initially reported by the Spoon again in 2023.
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Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous automobiles
A catchy new time period was coined throughout a latest recording of the Autonocast, the podcast I co-host with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer (full credit score goes to Roy). The time period is MVAT, or minimal viable autonomy theater — when corporations deploy the minimal viable autonomy product ample to perpetuate a story of progress.
One potential instance: Tesla let a Mannequin Y SUV drive roughly 15 miles from its manufacturing unit to the condo advanced the place the automobile’s new proprietor lives, finishing what CEO Elon Musk referred to as the primary “autonomous supply” of a buyer automobile. If this can be a one-off, aka an indication, then it’s an MVAT.
This isn’t simply to select on Tesla, by the best way. Many different corporations have posted flashy movies to showcase the capabilities of their respective automated driving expertise. Nevertheless it was a much more widespread follow in 2015 — as AVs have been taking pictures as much as the highest of the hype cycle.
Electrical automobiles, batteries, & charging
The second quarter has ended and which means gross sales and manufacturing numbers! Whereas many automakers problem month-to-month experiences, among the EV corporations we monitor solely present quarterly numbers.
The electric Hummer is almost outselling the F-150 Lightning
Lucid sales inch forward as EV maker pushes to ramp Gravity production
Rivian receives the next $1B from Volkswagen as sales struggles continue
Tesla faces second straight year of falling sales after another bad quarter
In the meantime, Republican legislators passed a reconciliation act that, amongst different issues, unwinds a lot of the Inflation Discount Act, together with that photo voltaic, wind, and clear hydrogen will all lose incentives below the brand new invoice. EV tax credit are additionally eradicated for brand spanking new and used electrical automobiles and the set up of house EV-charging tools.
The top of the EV tax credit score is already rippling by means of the trade, together with corporations that don’t even have an EV but to promote. Slate Auto, the Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup, was planning to promote a pickup truck for lower than $20,000 with the EV tax credit score utilized. However the language on its website has changed to replicate the invoice’s passage.
Additionally a bit of stories from the world of electrical RVs and vans … Pebble, the California-based startup we’ve written about before, has began buyer deliveries of its flagship all-electric journey trailer. And Grounded, the startup based by former SpaceX engineers and primarily based in Detroit, delivered its new electric van, referred to as the G3, to its first buyer.
Safety
The FBI and cybersecurity companies are warning that the prolific hacking group often known as Scattered Spider is now targeting airlines and the transportation sector.
Qantas, the Australian airline big, stated it experienced a data breach that compromised the private info of no less than 6 million passengers.