Welcome again to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for information and insights on the way forward for transportation.
Earlier than I soar into the all of the information — and boy there was so much! — I’ve an necessary replace for all of you beautiful readers. TechCrunch Mobility is transferring to Thursdays! It will likely be the identical publication stuffed with information and insights on the sector, however simply touchdown in your inboxes Thursday morning. Enroll right here free of charge — simply click on TechCrunch Mobility!
EV startup Fisker laid off extra staff to “protect money” as chapter inches ever nearer; ride-hailing firm Ola reduce about 180 jobs and ousted its chief government, Hemant Bakshi, merely 4 months after appointing him to the submit; and lidar firm Luminar slashed its 700-person workforce by 20% as a part of a restructuring to undertake an “asset gentle” enterprise mannequin.
Oh, after which there was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who axed the automaker’s world Supercharger community crew. That perplexing determination comes simply as non-Tesla EV drivers acquire entry to the community.
That’s to not say all the transportation sector was surrounded by financial storm clouds. There have been brighter moments as effectively. Let’s go test it out!
A bit of chicken
Within the fallout from Tesla’s nice Supercharger culling, we’ve spoken to a number of little birds, together with those that have been laid off and people working at different automakers. As I discussed above, Elon Musk gutted Tesla’s world Supercharger group of about 500 folks. Insiders at a number of totally different automakers — all of that are adopting Tesla’s charging tech — mentioned they didn’t see this coming. “Shocked” and “surprised” have been the most typical phrases I heard.
On the worker entrance, there was an absence of communication from human sources within the hours straight following the mass layoff. Some informed me they and their fellow former co-workers had not acquired details about severance and that communication had stopped altogether. A number of of these people had acquired severance emails by Friday. All the folks I communicated with have been nonetheless struggling to know why Musk would reduce the Supercharger crew — a corporation that’s elementary to Tesla and its EV gross sales. Others surmised solely Elon and perhaps the previous head of the Supercharger crew, Rebecca Tinucci, would ever know the reply.
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Offers!
It’s been a minute since we heard of an autonomous automobile startup elevating a considerable amount of cash — or heck any cash in any respect. That each one modified this week when Motional scored a necessary multi-million-dollar win, courtesy of Hyundai.
Hyundai’s whole dedication is $1 billion, however there are necessary particulars. Right here’s the way it breaks down. Hyundai invested $475 million straight into Motional as a part of a broader deal that features shopping for out three way partnership associate Aptiv. Hyundai is spending one other $448 million to purchase 11% of Aptiv’s widespread fairness curiosity in Motional.
The short backstory: Motional was fashioned in 2019 as a $4 billion three way partnership between Hyundai and Aptiv. Motional has spent the previous a number of years plugging away at its autonomous automobile tech, working towards a aim of launching a robotaxi service utilizing driverless Hyundai Ioniq 5 automobiles in 2024. As Motional and Hyundai received nearer — the businesses introduced plans in November to co-develop production-ready variations of the all-electric Ioniq 5 robotaxi — it appears Aptiv started to know its personal monetary limitations. By January, Aptiv chairman and CEO Kevin Clark flagged that the corporate would cut back its possession curiosity in Motional and cease allocating capital to the enterprise as a result of excessive value of commercializing a robotaxi enterprise and the lengthy street forward to earnings.
The choice, whereas not significantly stunning to the trade insiders I spoke to, nonetheless put Motional and Hyundai in a sticky spot. Would Hyundai step up? Would exterior traders step in? Hyundai answered the decision.
My query is will Motional, with the blessing of Hyundai, search out different traders? That can all come all the way down to how a lot capital Motional is burning by and whether or not it continues to chase the identical robotaxi objectives. If that’s the case, it appears the corporate will finally want extra capital.
Different offers that received my consideration …
LiNova Power, a California-based startup growing polymer cathode batteries, raised $15.8 million in a Sequence A funding spherical led by Catalus Capital, which was joined by Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, Chevron Expertise Ventures and a syndicate of traders.
Rivian was awarded an eye-popping $827 million incentives bundle from the state of Illinois, funds that can be used to construct out manufacturing strains for its next-generation EV, the R2.
Viking Holdings, the posh cruise operator backed by personal fairness agency TPG and the Canada Pension Plan Funding Board, raised $1.54 billion in its IPO.
X Shore, a Swedish electrical boat maker based in 2016, raised €8.5 million in new funding from a number of unnamed present backers, together with founder Konrad Bergström.
Notable reads and different tidbits
ADAS
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration opened an investigation into Ford’s hands-free driver-assistance system, BlueCruise, after it was discovered to be lively throughout two current crashes that killed a number of folks.
The NHTSA made one other massive transfer within the sector and finalized a brand new Federal Motor Automobile Security Customary that may make computerized emergency braking, together with the flexibility to detect and routinely brake for pedestrians, commonplace on all passenger automobiles and light-weight vans by September 2029. The company mentioned the protection commonplace is predicted to considerably cut back rear-end and pedestrian crashes. Now, the NHTSA isn’t choosing the expertise automakers have to make use of. A lot of laptop imaginative and prescient and lidar corporations have reached out to me to notice the way it might be useful to their enterprise fashions.
Autonomous automobiles
TC contributor Tim Stevens takes us behind the scenes of the primary Autonomous Racing League occasion in Abu Dhabi that pitted a self-driving automotive in opposition to a Method 1 driver. His take? Sure, there have been struggles; he additionally noticed plenty of progress.
Electrical automobiles, charging & batteries
Keep in mind final 12 months when Henrik Fisker proudly debuted two prototypes designed to catapult his eponymous EV startup into the mainstream? TC reporter Sean O’Kane realized the engineering agency that helped develop these automobiles is suing Fisker for $13 million in damages. Learn extra to find out about this lawsuit, plus a number of others.
This week’s wheels
Picture Credit: Emme Corridor
I turned the wheel over to TC contributor Emme Corridor this week for a check drive of the brand new all-electric Acura ZDX Sort S. You possibly can learn the total overview right here, plus I counsel you watch her video of the hands-free superior driver-assistance system within the automobile. For many who need a sneak peek earlier than committing to the longer learn, right here’s the gist.
Corridor anticipated pleasure and delight. As a substitute, it was extra meh. Right here’s one of many whys. The Sort S weighs over 6,000 kilos. Even when the burden is evenly distributed entrance to rear, that’s plenty of heft to get round a flip. She appreciated the hefty steering, however there wasn’t a lot suggestions taking place.
“The torque is at all times there on nook exit and physique roll is stored in test, but I’m not feeling the delight,” she wrote, including that the 275/40 Continental Premium Contact 6 summer time tires on the Sort S provided up loads of grip, however the low-profile sidewall mixed with the more durable run-flat rubber compound meant that the experience was only a contact harsh.
Corridor’s pursuit of an all-electric SUV that’s enjoyable by the twisties continues.
