TechCrunch Mobility: Uber everywhere, all at once

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If you haven’t noticed, Uber is suddenly everywhere, at least when it comes to self-driving vehicles. The company sold Uber ATG, its self-driving vehicle development unit, in 2020. Uber has divested of a number of its successful ventures — though it retained an equity stake in all of them — so it can focus on its core business of delivery and ride-hailing services.

But Uber has never completely given up on autonomous vehicles. It has spent the past two years partnering with dozens of autonomous vehicle technology companies across delivery, drones, trucking, and taxis. It also took a global vision, forging agreements with Chinese companies to launch robotaxis in Europe and the Middle East, as well as startups like UK-based Wayve.

And now there’s another one with Rivian. The TL;DR of the deal is that Uber will make an initial $300 million investment in Rivian and will purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis ahead of their planned rollout in San Francisco and Miami in 2028. Uber has the option to purchase up to 40,000 more starting in 2030. This fleet will be available exclusively on the Uber network.

Here’s how I think about this deal. While the total deal could reach $1.25 billion, Uber’s initial outlay is relatively small. The risk ratio is heavily weighted towards Rivian. It’s also the only deal Uber has made where the company is both the developer of the self-driving system and the manufacturer of the vehicle.

Rivian has not yet begun production of the R2 SUV, nor has it tested and deployed a self-driving system designed for robotaxis. To raise the bar even higher, the robotaxi will supposedly be built at Rivian’s Georgia factory, which is still under construction.

The electric vehicle manufacturer has already made at least one sacrifice in hopes of succeeding. Rivian said it no longer expects to meet its profitability target in 2027 due to the amount of money it is spending on autonomy efforts.

In our newsletter, we conducted a poll asking: Are the risks too high for Rivian? Sign up here to get navigation in your inbox and let your voice be heard in our surveys!

birdie

Speaking of Uber, Little Bird hinted that the company may have been in talks with Rivian about its robotics deal for a long time. A person with direct knowledge of both companies told me that a deal like this wouldn’t happen overnight. After I asked for more details, I received a question in return: “Does RJ strike you as someone with a very short strategic horizon?” touch!

Got a tip for us? Contact Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com Or via Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Offers!

like uber, Nvidia everywhere. Or at least he wants to be. The company has made several investments – either through direct cash injections or in-kind chip deals – in self-driving vehicle technology companies. It’s also partnering with automakers — as we saw this week during GTC — in an attempt to sell its autonomous vehicle development platform called Nvidia Drive Hyperion.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announces deals on stage – Either new or expanded – With BYD, Geely, Hyundai, and Nissan for autonomous vehicle development platform. General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota have already signed deals with Nvidia to use the platform.

Nvidia has been making deals with automakers for years, but the pace and specificity of self-driving vehicles is noteworthy.

“The ChatGPT moment for self-driving cars has arrived. We now know we can successfully drive cars autonomously,” Huang said during his GTC keynote, noting that the four automakers produce 18 million cars each year.

Other deals that caught my attention…

Advanced navigationan Australian start-up company that develops navigation and autonomous systems, It raised $110 million In a Series C funding round led by Airtree Ventures, with strategic participation from Quadrant Private Equity and the National Reconstruction Fund Foundation (NRFC).

Arc Boat Companya Los Angeles-based electric boat startup, has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round from Eclipse, a16z, Menlo Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Necessary Ventures, and Offline Ventures.

BusRightSchool bus routing and technology start, It raised more than $30 million In a round led by Volition Capital.

Jeff Bezos It is reportedly raising $100 billion for a new fund that will focus on buying companies in major industrial sectors — such as automobiles and aerospace. The plan is to then modernize these companies using AI models developed by Bezos’ startup Project Prometheus.

Rivera Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup known for its stair-climbing delivery robot, has been acquired by Amazon. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Trevor MiltonThe founder of now-bankrupt electric truck startup Nikola, who was pardoned by President Trump, is trying to raise $1 billion for AI-powered planes.

Zenobi energy He has Purchased Spina San Francisco-based fleet charging startup, for an undisclosed sum.

Notable Readings and Other Stories

A cyber attack on an American company for breathalyzer devices Intoxalok Leaving drivers across the United States stranded and unable to start their cars.

Kodiak It expanded independent commercial shipping operations to the Dallas-El Paso corridor. This is the company’s second major route and an essential part of its network expansion roadmap. According to To Chief Operating Officer Michael Weisinger.

the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration It has upgraded its investigations into performance TeslaFull self-driving (supervision) program for in low visibility conditions. The investigation has now been escalated to an “engineering analysis,” the highest level of scrutiny and a required step before the agency can ask a company to issue a recall.

Another thing…

I mentioned it in last week’s edition to follow up my interview with Rivian Founder and CEO Scaring RJ. We covered a lot of ground and I found his comments about robots particularly interesting. To sum it up, Scaringe believes companies are approaching industrial robots the wrong way. His new startup, Mind Robotics, will do things differently and focus more on robotic hands and move away from building robots that can do backflips.

As Scaring told me: “I think that’s what we’re missing in the industry [robotics] This is one of the things that we see clearly, is that the work is done with the hands. So, hands are very, very important. Everything else, from the point of view of the automated system, is putting the hands in the right place. So the ability of robots to do really complex movements, like backflips, actually means that the robot has a lot of unnecessary complexity in the vast majority of tasks. You can read the interview here.