TechCrunch Mobility: Uber bets on its former CEO

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Tesla kicked off earnings season — at least for this sector — and the shareholder letter, along with Elon Musk’s remarks during the conference call, provided some pretty incredible disclosures I imagine have some investors concerned, or at least puzzled. 

Tesla has backed off previous promises to reach “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi, and Megapack 3 in 2026. And while the company has publicly touted expansions of its Tesla Robotaxi service into new cities in Florida and Texas, the quarter-over-quarter data shows a drop in paid robotaxi miles. 

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane took a closer look at a graph shared in Tesla’s shareholder letter.  At a passing glance, the chart appears to show steady growth in paid robotaxi rides between August 2025 and June 2026, O’Kane notes. But the numbers displayed are cumulative, and when broken down by quarter, they show that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet of Model Y SUVs carrying paying passengers covered around 1.1 million miles in the first quarter. That fell to roughly 700,000 miles in the second quarter, a decline of about 36%.

Musk also disclosed during the call that Tesla needs to accumulate driving data specific to the Cybercab before it can put large numbers of the vehicles on the road. That isn’t terribly surprising; the Cybercab is new, after all. But the reason got my attention. He explained that Tesla has to accumulate miles using Cybercabs retrofitted with steering wheels and accelerator and braking pedals so it can calibrate to the Cybercab chassis.

This marks a change from the company’s previous claims. For years, Tesla has said its fleet of nearly 10 million customer cars has been collecting data that could be used to train its advanced driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), and future robotaxis. Musk’s explanation suggests there is a misalignment between that fleet data and how it’s applied to the Cybercab.

On the financial front, Tesla’s Q2 earnings show a company plowing money into its next generation of products (CapEx has doubled, and the company is back in negative free cash flow territory). And even though revenue is up, the boost wasn’t enough to offset the cost of doing business. The company’s net income fell 5% year over year.

Deals!

Travis Kalanick burst back onto the robotics and mobility scene earlier this year with Atoms — a rebranded holding company atop his ghost kitchen project — and a deal to acquire Anthony Levandowski’s industrial automation startup, Pronto. Now the Uber co-founder and former CEO has $1.7 billion in capital to play with. VC giant Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board following the investment.

This may seem inconceivable for those who remember Kalanick’s resignation from Uber’s top leadership spot nearly a decade ago — and the string of scandals and lawsuits in the year leading up to his departure. What’s even more incredible is that Uber participated in the funding round. The Information reported Uber invested $100 million into Atoms; conversations I’ve had since confirm that figure and provided new information, including that the investment was made six months ago.  

Reminder: In 2016 and while Kalanick was CEO, Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving trucks startup Otto. Less than a year later, Levandowski’s former employer Waymo (Google self-driving project) sued Uber for trade secret theft. The companies settled on the fifth day of the trial. 

There is a lot of history, much of it messy, between Kalanick and Uber (not to mention Levandowski). But it appears the ride-hailing company is still willing to invest in them. 

So what is Atoms going to do with this capital? The details are vague, but a company email from Levandowski suggests that Pronto will be a big part of those plans. 

The email states that “Atoms is investing heavily in Industrial AI and physical automation applied to mining and transport.” And later, “Pronto is a core strategic priority for Atoms, and this round is designed to accelerate exactly what matters most to your operations: scaling practical, OEM-agnostic autonomy.”

Other deals that got my attention …

Einride, the Swedish electric and autonomous trucking company, agreed to acquire EV charging startup Flipturn in an all-stock deal worth $38 million.

IBM agreed to buy HRL Laboratories, a quantum computing research lab jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors. 

Sila, the battery materials startup, raised $300 million in a round led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. The money will be used to expand Sila’s factory in Washington state to produce enough anode material for more than 100,000 EVs.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Aurora had some news this week that didn’t get a ton of attention, but probably should. The company launched its second-generation driverless trucks, which include new hardware that is smaller, as well as upgraded sensor-cleaning systems and extended range lidar — all of which is built for a million-mile service life. The initial fleet will be modest and used on its Dallas-to-Houston route. The fleet will eventually reach 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year and will be used to haul freight for customers like Hirschbach, Uber Freight, McLane, and Detmar, the company said. Importantly for Aurora, these trucks do not have a human observer in the cab.

Ford is turning to Apple for its next generation of EVs. Specifically, Ford is going to integrate Apple Maps navigation and mapping, using a new set of developer tools called MapKit for Automotive, into its new line of electric vehicles, starting with the $30,000 midsize truck in 2027. I asked Ford what this means for Google, which is an existing partner. A company spokesperson told me the Apple announcement “does not change the role of Google Automotive Services across our current and near-term production programs.”

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study called “Rise of the machines: crash experiences of highly automated vehicles and human drivers.” The organization used a far more clickbaity headline (Waymo’s driverless cars crash less often than people) to direct folks to its work. Unfortunately, that headline misses part of the point. The study does provide evidence that Waymo’s current robotaxis have lower crash involvement rates than human drivers. “Overall, when including police-reportable crashes, Waymo’s crash rate was 68% lower than that of human drivers,” the study reads. It also, importantly, concludes that national-crash and vehicle-miles-traveled data collection for Level 4 vehicles “can be improved for more timely and accurate safety evaluations.” 

Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua plans to step down from the top leadership post after nearly three decades, just as the company pushes into robotaxis and humanoid robots.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will look into developing new requirements for automakers to ensure drivers and passengers can safely exit their vehicles — the result of a petition that asked the agency to open a safety defect investigation into the emergency mechanical door release design on 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. To be clear, this doesn’t mean there will be new rules. 

Rivian has sued the U.S. government for a “full refund” on tariffs paid under President Trump’s “Liberation Day” taxes, which the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional. 

Two Volkswagen engineers were charged with securities fraud after allegedly profiting off of insider information related to the German automaker’s joint venture with Rivian. 

Waymo is having internal discussions over how to end its contract with Uber, the Financial Times reported. Close followers of this partnership might have read this, rolled their eyes, and said “DUH!” But there are some interesting details in here, including that Uber-Waymo contract that covers Atlanta and Austin ends in May 2028. Uber told TechCrunch that Waymo says it intends to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028.

WhatsApp is rolling out a suite of new features, including a revamped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experience.