Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation. Join right here totally free — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
Your common host Kirsten is out on trip, however she didn’t go away with out writing up This Week’s Wheels. However for the remainder, you’ve bought me, Rebecca Bellan, to information you thru the mobility information of this week.
And what per week it’s been — and never simply due to the Tesla Robotaxi occasion on Thursday. Though I will probably be liveblogging that, fueled with loads of espresso to maintain me up previous my bedtime because it begins at *checks X* 7 p.m. PT. And figuring out Elon, it’ll most likely begin late.
Right here’s watch it, by the best way.
The massive query on everybody’s minds, or not less than ours, is whether or not Tesla will truly reveal a full product roadmap for its Robotaxi (or Cybercab), full with commercialization plans, or whether or not this will probably be all smoke and mirrors. As a result of in any case, the reveal is going down at a Hollywood studio.
Musk has been hyping up the Robotaxi, and Tesla’s almost-autonomous capabilities, for years. Now that it’s showtime, buyers who’re attracted by the billionaire’s imaginative and prescient to drive Tesla’s valuation to $5 trillion, up from the $750 billion valuation at the moment, will wish to see an precise automobile in motion and find out how quick Tesla can mass-produce it at a revenue. (Reminder: Musk had beforehand mentioned Tesla can be mass-producing robotaxis by 2024 …)
We’re additionally fascinated by whether or not no matter mass-produced automobile Tesla lands on for the Robotaxi will probably be constructed with out steering wheels or pedals, one thing that might delay manufacturing as a result of federal security rules that require a approach for people to take over. Little question a hurdle that Tesla would possibly use as a cause for delaying its Robotaxi rollout.
Just a little fowl
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Offers!
Only one deal at the moment.
Lithios raised $10 million in seed funding to get better worthwhile minerals, particularly lithium, locked in water from reservoirs deep underground. The startup is one in every of many attempting to feed the rising want for lithium batteries, despite the fact that EV purchases have slowed down. Clear Power Ventures led the spherical, with participation from GS Futures, Lowercarbon Capital, and others.
Notable reads and different tidbits
ADAS
Kirsten bought the inside track that Basic Motors is engaged on an automated driving system that not solely allows you to take your palms off the wheel, but additionally your eyes off the highway! If GM pulls this off, it will put the automaker forward of just about each different ADAS in the marketplace at the moment. Sure, even Tesla’s FSD.
Autonomous autos
Baidu plans to develop its Apollo Go ride-hailing service exterior of China, and phrase is the corporate is Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Center East.
Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, sat down with Kirsten to debate broad design themes across the upcoming Robotaxi, which he mentioned he had began doing in his head 12 years in the past. “I just think it felt inevitable we would get there,” he mentioned.
Electrical autos, charging, & batteries
Honda has been teasing the Sequence 0 EVs since CES in 2023, however we lastly bought a sneak peek after visiting the corporate’s HQ in Japan. The plan is to launch seven Honda 0 Sequence fashions by 2030 globally, every with a good vary of 300 miles.
Lucid Motors has offered extra EVs this 12 months than it did all of final 12 months. Lucid delivered 2,781 items within the third quarter, which is a 3rd straight document. That’s nice information for the EV maker because it gears as much as launch its Gravity SUV.
Palantir, the data-mining firm based by Peter Thiel, now owns 8.7% of struggling EV startup Faraday Future. Palantir was granted greater than 800,000 shares as “payment for certain outstanding receivables.”
TezLab is an app that TC’s Sean O’Kane described as “essentially like Strava for EVs.” The startup has just lately launched a automotive report that permits EV house owners (beginning with Tesla and Rivian automobiles) to nerd out on visualized knowledge about how they use their automobiles.
FiskerCrunch
This part is devoted to Fisker since we’ve been holding tabs on all of the downs and downs over the previous week. Right here we go.
American Lease, the leasing firm that was on the hook to purchase Fisker’s remaining fleet of electrical SUVs, says it may not full the acquisition as a result of there is probably not a approach to switch the data linked to every automobile to a brand new server not owned by the bankrupt EV startup.
The DOJ says Fisker can’t make house owners pay for the labor prices associated to its a number of remembers as a result of that’s very a lot unlawful. The company thus objects to Fisker’s proposed chapter liquidation plan.
The SEC is investigating Fisker, but it surely’s not saying why precisely. The company has despatched a number of subpoenas to Fisker and should ship extra because it appears to be like into whether or not Fisker violated federal securities legal guidelines.
Shamrock Properties II, the owner on Fisker’s headquarters, submitted a submitting to Fisker’s Chapter 11 chapter docket saying the startup deserted the area and left it in “complete disarray,” with literal drums of hazardous waste and autos mendacity about.
Way forward for flight
Odysee is the first startup born out of an aviation-focused enterprise lab fashioned by Alaska Airways and UP.Labs, and its purpose is to make use of AI-powered software program that may analyze reams of knowledge to assist industrial airways get essentially the most out of advanced flight schedules.
Micromobility
Ola Electrical’s clients are complaining about its service and scooters, and the corporate’s inventory worth is taking successful. And now India’s client rights regulator has issued a discover to the struggling startup besides.
The electrical two-wheeler producer, one of many buzziest Indian IPOs this 12 months, appears to be falling prey to the identical points that VanMoof had: an excessive amount of hype and never sufficient funding into servicing capability.
Miscellaneous
The Boring Firm’s 2.4-mile underground Loop in Las Vegas isn’t just dwelling to slow-moving Teslas with automated driving options. At the very least 67 trespassing occurrences have occurred since 2022 as individuals are lured like moths to a flame by that easy, colourful tunnel.
SpotHero will combine its extraordinarily useful parking instrument with Google Maps and Google Search, permitting customers within the U.S. and Canada to order parking spots at over 8,000 areas.
Folks
Waymo has a new program director, Daniel Ho, and he’s come straight from main Tesla’s automobile applications and new product integrations. The shakeup comes only a few days earlier than Tesla reveals its Robotaxi.
Trip-hail
Uber will launch an integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4o early subsequent 12 months as a part of a push to carry extra electrical autos onto its platform. What do EVs must do with OpenAI? Properly, the AI assistant will probably be there to assist drivers be taught extra about EVs, like which to purchase and the place to cost.
This week’s wheels
I (Kirsten) spent per week within the 2025 Mazda CX-70 Premium Plus — with the soul-red crystal metallic paint and a listing worth of $59,420 — and I used to be struck instantly by how related (equivalent even?) it’s to the CX-90. So far as I may inform, the first distinction is that the CX-70 Premium Plus doesn’t have a 3rd row.
The CX-70 and CX-90 even have the identical plug-in hybrid guts, which features a 173-horsepower electrical motor, a 14.8-kilowatt-hour battery, an eight-speed transmission, and a 189-hp 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine. Collectively, this produces 323 horsepower and 369 kilos of torque. In EV mode, the automobile has a 26-mile vary. The whole vary (when pairing fuel and electrical) is 490 miles.
That 26 miles of EV vary didn’t final lengthy as I tooled round city, though Mazda does give drivers the choice of getting some further regen juice by hitting a small button within the heart console (and proper subsequent to the gear selector).
One phrase of meh-ness: The hybrid powertrain on this automobile produces what I describe as less-than-fantastic efficiency off the road and felt clunky as the automated transmission moved by the gears.
The inside within the Premium Plus feels, effectively, premium. It’s full of good, higher-end particulars, together with cooled and heated seats, and I typically favored the combination of actual buttons and touchscreen. What I didn’t like was the gear selector within the heart console, which requires the motive force to recollect to make that further step and push it to the left to park. For those who overlook, you’re in reverse. And yeah, I forgot as soon as.
What’s “This week’s wheels”? It’s an opportunity to be taught in regards to the completely different transportation merchandise we’re testing, whether or not it’s an electrical or hybrid automotive, an e-bike, or perhaps a experience in an autonomous automobile.
