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Raise your hand if you’re exhausted by the firehose of information coming from every direction. Yeah, me too.
At TechCrunch, we’re focused on helping readers (that’s you!) become informed; that’s different than blasting information your way. Instead, we work to answer the “Why should I care?” question and provide important context.
Take the Department of Transportation’s decision to pause funding for a $5 billion EV charging infrastructure program. As senior reporter Sean O’Kane notes in his coverage, this is more than just the latest attempt from the Trump administration to hack away at federally funded renewable energy projects around the country, which has been a stated priority of the president.
It also illustrates the growing conflict between Elon Musk’s politics and his car company’s goal of advancing the transition to sustainable energy. Tesla, which Musk runs and is the largest shareholder of, received $31 million in funding from the program.
In other how-we-are-keeping-you-informed actions, we also monitor certain topics of interest and provide updates when warranted. Reporter Rebecca Bellan has been keeping track of Tesla’s Dojo program, updating it on the regular. Check it out.
A little bird
A little bird reached out to me recently to share this nugget, which was confirmed via a LinkedIn post. Brian Lerner, a former Apple software engineer who spent the past four years at Built Robotics, was hired as director of factory software at Ford.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O’Kane at [email protected], or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
Deals!
Dual-use technology — meaning it can be used by civilians and military — attracted quite a bit of investment in 2023 and 2024. This year is shaping up to be even bigger as founders take advantage of President Donald Trump’s platform.
Archer Aviation, the developer of electric vertical and take-off vehicles, is the latest company to tweak its mission in order to capture those sweet, sweet dual-use dollars.
Archer Aviation, which went public in September 2021 via a special purpose acquisition merger, raised $300 million from institutional investors, including BlackRock and Wellington. The funds will mainly be used to accelerate the work Archer is doing with Anduril to build a hybrid craft (VTOL).
The raise brings Archer’s total funding to around $3.36 billion. And as reporter Rebecca Bellan noted, this fresh capital comes off the back of a $430 million round in December to fund its new Archer Defense program.
Reminder: It wasn’t too long ago that Archer’s go-to-market strategy was an air taxi network across several cities in the U.S. and abroad.
Other deals that got my attention …
Auto Hauler Exchange, the Michigan startup that developed a digital marketplace for vehicle transportation, raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by MHS Capital. Golden Ventures, which led Auto Hauler Exchange’s seed round, also invested in the Series A round.
Endera, an electric bus manufacturer in Ohio, raised $49 million in equity and debt. The round included a $36 million equity investment led by Magnetar. Pulse Fund also participated. The total also included a $13 million credit facility.
GreenSpark Software, a New York City-based startup building software for the metal recycling industry, disclosed last month it raised $9.4 million from investors Zero Infinity Partners, Third Prime, Bienville Capital, and several unnamed strategic investors. We now know that BMW i Ventures is one of them.
Innoviz, the lidar company, raised $40 million from institutional investors at a share price of $1.39 — a discount that caused its stock price to fall steeply. As of Wednesday, the company’s stock had fallen 37% since its Friday closing price of $1.59.
JLR is expanding its U.S. technology hub in Portland with a $180 million investment that will be spread out over the next decade. The hub is developing the next generation of connected cars and what it described as “autonomous driving technologies” in future JLR vehicles. History lesson: JLR opened its tech hub in 2014 and expanded the facility in 2016, 2017, and 2024.
Revel, the electric shared moped-turned-EV-charging-infrastructure startup, secured a $60 million loan from New York’s clean energy investment fund NY Green Bank to more than triple its current public fast-charging network in New York City.
Self Inspection, a startup based in San Diego that has developed an AI-powered vehicle inspection service, raised $3 million in a seed round co-led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures, the firm run by former Tesla president Jon McNeill. Joining the round was Westlake Financial, which handles more than 1 million vehicle transactions annually.
Notable reads and other tidbits
ADAS
BYD unveiled “God’s Eye,” an advanced driver-assistance system that will be installed on its entire model lineup, including its $9,600 Seagull hatchback.
Tesla won a defamation lawsuit against Zhang Yazhou, who in February 2021 was a passenger in a Tesla Model 3 car that allegedly crashed due to faulty brakes, resulting in a four-day hospital stay for both her parents. Tesla has finally released telemetry data from her car, which apparently showed that the brakes had functioned as intended.
Autonomous vehicles
Aurora Innovation is still on track to commercially deploy its autonomous trucks beginning in April 2025, according to its Q4 shareholder letter. Aurora was supposed to launch at the end of 2024 but pushed back the timeline to validate its self-driving technology.
Lyft plans to bring fully autonomous robotaxis, powered by Mobileye, to its app “as soon as 2026” in Dallas, with more markets to follow. Lyft isn’t spilling details about which carmaker it will partner with; we do know that Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate with experience managing fleets, will own and finance the Mobileye-equipped vehicles that will show up on the Lyft app.
The Lyft-Mobileye deal got me thinking about Texas. It wasn’t that long ago that California and Arizona were the main hotbeds of robotaxi activity. But Texas is quickly becoming a hub, not just of testing, but also of commercial operations. Austin is one Texas AV hot spot: Tesla is planning to launch its driverless ride-hail service in the city this coming June, and Waymo and Uber are set to launch a service soon. Avride has also set up shop in Austin. Meanwhile, self-driving truck companies Aurora and Kodiak Robotics also have a footprint in Texas. This TechCrunch article from 2023 posed a question that we may finally answer in 2025.
May Mobility launched its first fully driverless commercial service in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. May has a different operations strategy than Waymo or Zoox. This isn’t a free-wheeling service that goes anywhere. Instead, it has (for now) eight pre-determined stops.
Waymo continues to expand its robotaxi service areas, this time in Los Angeles. The company has added 10 square miles to include Westchester and parts of Inglewood and Crenshaw, giving customers access to popular destinations like SoFi Stadium and HHLA Entertainment.
Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries
Mercedes-Benz is taking its EV charging network to Canada, starting with Vancouver this year and then to stations in metro Toronto in 2026. The German automaker has 300 charging stalls in operation and under construction in 11 U.S. states. In total, more than 2,500 charging stalls will be deployed between Canada and the U.S.
Rivian will sell its commercial electric vans to any U.S. business that wants one — more than a year since ending an exclusivity deal with backer Amazon.
People
Jonathan Morrison, an Apple executive, has been picked to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Morrison was chief counsel for NHTSA during Trump’s first term. He was previously president of Auto Advisory Services and director of legal and regulatory affairs at the California New Car Dealers Association.
Ride-hailing and gig economy
Earnings season is here, and the two top ride-hailing companies, Lyft and Uber, have reported their fourth-quarter and full-year earnings. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Lyft reported record growth and its first full-year GAAP profitability for 2024 with a net income of $22.8 million, compared to a net loss of $340.3 million in 2023. That’s good news, but investors paid more attention to the company’s lower-than-expected guidance for gross bookings in the first quarter.
Lyft says Q1 is just a slower season, but the company also anticipates bookings to be negatively affected by the loss of its partnership with Delta, which Uber has snagged. Another interesting tidbit: Lyft’s board authorized $500 million in share buybacks, the company’s first time doing such a program.
Meanwhile, Uber beat revenue expectations in the fourth quarter, growing its revenue 20% to $11.96 billion. Its adjusted EBITDA was $1.84 billion for Q4 and $6.84 billion for the full year. Still, shares fell after the company reported that it missed analyst expectations on EPS and offered soft guidance.
The company expects gross bookings to hit between $42 billion and $43.5 billion in Q1, which would be less than the $44.2 billion Uber recorded in Q4 2024. Uber CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah cited currency headwinds and impact from the recent Los Angeles fires and “extreme weather in January.”
This week’s wheels
This newsletter is getting long, so no this week’s wheels! Stay tuned for new vehicles in the coming months.
What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.
