Techcrunch Mobility: Waymo’s Big Apple Score And Nvidia Backs Nuro

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I was sad to person missed nan Monterey Car Week this year, particularly because location were a number of reveals I was willing in, including nan all-electric Cadillac Opulent Velocity; nan Chevrolet Corvette CX and CX.R Vision Gran Turismo concepts; and Lucid Gravity X reveals. But alas, nan sprawling, Champagne-soaked grounds of Quail aliases nan oversea of seersucker suits and wide-brimmed hats astatine Pebble Beach Golf Course were suboptimal landscapes for my recently fractured and boot-encased foot. Next year!

In nan meantime, I thought I would scope retired to you, beloved reader, to get your forecast connected what’s successful shop for automakers and EV income successful nan United States erstwhile nan national EV taxation in installments expires September 30.

My prediction? Well I don’t really want to taint nan results, but I will opportunity this: Automakers are going to person to do thing successful nan short word to pull customers, and not conscionable because of nan expiring EV taxation credit.

A small bird

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

Serve Robotics, nan autonomous sidewalk transportation robot company, announced earlier this week that it acquired Vayu Robotics, a startup that has developed AI instauration models and a simulation-powered information motor for robots. The companies didn’t disclose nan position of nan deal, but immoderate back-of-the-envelope mathematics and a small vertebrate helped maine find that Serve Robotics paid betwixt $45 cardinal and $50 cardinal for Vayu. 

Got a extremity for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal astatine kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com

Deals!

Several weeks ago, I highlighted a woody betwixt Uber, autonomous conveyance tech startup Nuro, and EV shaper Lucid. You tin read astir that here, but nan important portion to retrieve is Uber’s committedness to make an undisclosed “multimillion-dollar” finance into Nuro. (Sources told maine it is much than nan $300 cardinal Uber invested successful Lucid.)

Nuro has now raised much money successful a Series E information that has reached $203 million from a group of caller investors that includes Nvidia, existing backer Baillie Gifford, Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Pledge Ventures. And a information of Uber’s finance has gone toward nan Series E round.

Other deals that sewage my attraction …

ARK Invest, Cathie Wood’s firm, invested astir $12.9 million successful nan Chinese autonomous driving patient Pony.ai, according to nan company.  

Grid Aero, an aerospace startup, raised $6 cardinal successful seed funding from Calibrate Ventures and Ubiquity Ventures.

Group14, a artillery materials startup, raised $463 million successful a backing information led by artillery shaper SK pinch information from ATL, Lightrock, Microsoft, Porsche, and OMERS. Alongside nan round, Group14 besides announced it had “acquired afloat ownership” of a associated task pinch SK successful South Korea.

Oway, founded successful 2023 and backed by Y Combinator and General Catalyst, precocious closed a $4 cardinal seed round. Read up connected nan company’s scheme to build a decentralized “Uber for freight.”

One update connected nan Via IPO: Renaissance Capital estimates Via could raise up to $500 million.

Notable sounds and different tidbits

Hertz will start selling preowned vehicles connected Amazon Autos.

Redwood Materials said it is moving pinch Caterpillar to recycle nan artillery packs from nan company’s battery-electric underground loaders.

Tesla is readying to present in-car voice-assistant functions powered by DeepSeek and ByteDance’s Doubao artificial intelligence.

The Routing Company, a startup that helps transit agencies lucifer riders pinch vehicles quickly and cheaply, landed Zoox arsenic its first robotaxi client. Zoox will acquisition a nonexclusive licence for The Routing Company’s tech and will bring 5 of nan startup’s engineers connected committee to “advance nan ratio and scalability” of its fledgling robotaxi service. 

Volkswagen faces a suit in nan U.S. District Court of New Jersey complete nan buttons connected nan steering instrumentality of its cars, including ID.4. The suit alleges nan buttons are excessively delicate and excessively easy to activate unintentionally.

Waymo has been granted a licence to trial its autonomous vehicles successful New York City, nan first specified support granted by nan city. The institution told TechCrunch it plans to commencement testing “immediately.”

In nan world of drones and food, I suppose it was inevitable we would get Zipotle — a merging of nan words Zipline and Chipotle. Zipline, an autonomous drone transportation startup, has collaborated pinch Chipotle to fly integer orders to guests’ locations successful nan greater Dallas area.

One much point …

Vanity Fair has a lengthy characteristic connected Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana that digs into her past, really she manages, and, arsenic nan writer notes, her un-Elon style. It’s worth nan read and gives maine an opportunity to punctual you each that Mawakana will beryllium connected our shape astatine Disrupt 2025, which will beryllium held October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco.