Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Enroll right here without spending a dime — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
This week I’m publishing an abbreviated model of the publication due to the 4th of July vacation. For those who’re driving, flying, or taking the practice for the U.S. vacation — which AAA initiatives 72.2 million individuals will journey a minimum of 50 miles or extra — keep secure on the market. The whole publication returns subsequent week.
I’ve one vital announcement earlier than I sprinkle in a bit of reports. TechCrunch Mobility is shifting to the Beehiiv publishing platform in a couple of weeks. Beehiiv offers numerous cool options — like polls! — to assist me higher have interaction with you, the reader. It’s a win for you and me.
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A little bit fowl
Chances are you’ll recall final week, a New York Instances article reported that Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is working with buyers to purchase the U.S. arm of Chinese language autonomous car 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 Middle 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 autos
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 firms deploy the minimal viable autonomy product adequate to perpetuate a story of progress.
One doable instance: Tesla let a Mannequin Y SUV drive roughly 15 miles from its manufacturing facility to the house complicated 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 illustration, then it’s an MVAT.
This isn’t simply to select on Tesla, by the best way. Many different firms have posted flashy movies to showcase the capabilities of their respective automated driving know-how. But it surely was a much more widespread follow in 2015 — as AVs had been taking pictures as much as the highest of the hype cycle.
Electrical autos, batteries, & charging
The second quarter has ended and meaning gross sales and manufacturing numbers! Whereas many automakers subject month-to-month stories, a number of the EV firms we monitor solely present quarterly numbers.
The electrical Hummer is nearly outselling the F-150 Lightning
Lucid gross sales inch ahead as EV maker pushes to ramp Gravity manufacturing
Rivian receives the subsequent $1B from Volkswagen as gross sales struggles proceed
Tesla faces second straight yr of falling gross sales after one other unhealthy quarter
In the meantime, Republican legislators handed 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 autos and the set up of residence EV-charging gear.
The tip of the EV tax credit score is already rippling by means of the trade, together with firms 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 web site has modified to replicate the invoice’s passage.
Additionally a bit of reports from the world of electrical RVs and vans … Pebble, the California-based startup we’ve written about earlier than, has began buyer deliveries of its flagship all-electric journey trailer. And Grounded, the startup based by former SpaceX engineers and based mostly in Detroit, delivered its new electric van, referred to as the G3, to its first buyer.
Safety
The FBI and cybersecurity corporations are warning that the prolific hacking group often known as Scattered Spider is now concentrating on airways and the transportation sector.
Qantas, the Australian airline big, mentioned it skilled a knowledge breach that compromised the private data of a minimum of 6 million passengers.