Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the latest developments in the future of transportation and the crucial role artificial intelligence (AI) plays in shaping it.
Countervailing Forces in the Autonomous Vehicle Industry
This week, TechCrunch covered a couple of stories that illustrate the conflicting forces at play within the autonomous vehicle industry. On one hand, the federal government is accelerating the development and deployment of this technology, while on the other hand, state and local officials are slowing it down.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) made a series of autonomous vehicle technology announcements aimed at cutting red tape and speeding up the development and deployment of this technology. The agency’s decision to grant Zoox a temporary exemption from eight federal motor vehicle safety standards, which will finally allow the company to charge customers for rides in its custom-built robotaxi, received the most attention.
This was one of the last remaining regulatory hurdles Zoox needed to clear before launching a commercial robotaxi service. According to the company, paid rides are imminent, with the company planning to start charging for rides in Las Vegas first.
Regulatory Scrutiny on Robotaxis
Meanwhile, Waymo and other robotaxi operators are facing increased scrutiny over how their autonomous vehicles interact with emergency responders, a regulatory risk that’s becoming harder for the industry to shrug off. As we’ve noted before, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie asked state regulators to bolster rules for autonomous vehicles nearly two weeks after Waymo robotaxis became immobile in heavy July 4 traffic, ran out of power, and blocked key streets, further compounding the gridlock.
This week, Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) proposed a bill that would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle operators.
“We have seen disturbing, and frankly, an unacceptable number of incidents where autonomous vehicles inadvertently interfere with emergency responders,” Mullin said during the press conference, which Lurie also spoke at.
Lucid Lands Saudi Investment
Lucid has landed more Saudi money, this time from Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family. The billionaire prince purchased a little more than 19 million shares, or about 5%, of Lucid Motors, according to a regulatory filing.
Other Notable Developments
Elon Musk’s tunneling startup The Boring Company is in talks to raise a $4 billion funding round at a valuation of $20 billion. Terminal, a Toronto-based startup that provides telematics data infrastructure for the commercial fleet industry, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures.
Electric Vehicle News
Alaska Airlines CEO and president Ben Minicucci joined Lyft’s board of directors. The nascent on-demand drone-delivery industry had a busy week, with Walmart and Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery starting service across Central Florida, and Flytrex announcing a partnership with autonomic logistics platform Nash. But the biggest announcement was about DoorDash, which said it was building a drone delivery business, including its own aircraft, as part of an effort developed by its robotics and autonomy team.
Ferrari might have received a lot of hate for its first all-electric vehicle, the Luce, but the criticism didn’t dampen sales. Ferrari hit this year’s sales target for the Luce in just two months.
Florida was awarded $200 million under the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, but the money never made it to charging infrastructure for electric cars. Instead, the state is using the money to build 32 landing pads with charging stations for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs.
London is shaping up to be the next robotaxi battleground. Baidu has started testing autonomous vehicles in London as part of its partnership with Lyft and Freenow, the taxi and multi-mobility app that the ride-hailing company now owns. The companies plan to invite the public to hail their robotaxis in 2027. Meanwhile, others are also preparing to launch. In April, Waymo began testing its autonomous vehicles with human safety operators in the city. Uber and its self-driving tech partner, Wayve, also announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in London this year.
Rivian spinoff Also will finally start delivering its first e-bikes to customers next week, after months of delays related to unspecified supply chain issues.
In yet another hint that a Tesla-SpaceX merger is imminent, the EV maker is considering selling off its China business ahead of a SpaceX merger, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Tesla hit a new milestone and built its 10 millionth EV.
Waymo robotaxis started to return to freeways, more than two months after the company stopped driving these high-speed roads over concerns about how its autonomous vehicles behaved near construction zones.
