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Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights about the future of transportation.
This week it was all about Rivian and its stunning reveal of not one, but three futuristic electric cars. I attended the event to see the vehicles up close. Perhaps, more importantly, I also went out to talk to executives, investors, and customers to get a better understanding of the direction Rivian is headed and how people feel about this electric vehicle startup that is still far from turning a profit. I even met former Waymo CEO and now Rivian board member John Krafcik who was in attendance and struck a positive tone about the company's future.
I also interviewed founder and CEO RJ Scaringe after the event. Most of our conversation centered around R2 and a big and hopefully fruitful bet to shift production to its current plant in Normal, Illinois rather than a yet-to-be-built plant in Georgia. Stay tuned in the next day or so for a full recap of the interview. I'll give you one teaser: Relevance was a theme.
Check out our coverage of the R2 reveal, the surprise R3 and R3x, how reservations work, and a fun cinematic feature included in one of R2's many “adventure” extensions.
This week's news also includes articles about GM resuming Chevrolet Blazer sales, a financial update from Toro, another electric car reveal that showed a little muscle, and more!
One more thing… I'll be in Austin for SXSW this coming week.
I'm running two panels, and I hope to see your smiling faces in the audience. The first session will be held at 4pm on March 12, and will be titled “How Sustainable Mobility is Transforming the Last Mile of Delivery,” and will feature Sean Xu of Lowcarbon Capital, Anjali Naik of Cartken, and Abby Wheeler of Uber.
The next day, also at 4 p.m., I will moderate a panel discussion titled “Moving at the Speed of Trust: Spacecraft Purpose, Policy, and Performance” with Daran Anderson, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Texas DOT, Jay Blazek-Crosley of Farm&City and Katrin Lohmann, President of Volkswagen ADMT .
Please say hi if you're in town!
Little birds
No little birds this week – at least those that provided verifiable information I could share. You all shared a lot of spicy gossip though! Please keep in touch; No party is too small.
What I can share is an overview of the conversations I heard at the Rivian R2 reveal, which took place on March 7 at the South Coast Theater in Laguna Beach, California. (Rivian bought the theater and restored it last year.)
Among the staff, from the lowly to the highest, there was a mixture of excitement and relief once the event was over. The mood was positive, but it was clear that some employees were still digesting the recent layoffs. I've heard from a few people that top executives have downplayed the hype around the R3 and R3X — surprise, surprise. Importantly, the R3 and R3x vehicles have no production history. (At least not publicly).
The guests I spoke to or heard speaking — a mix of media, loyal customers, and investors — were very positive about what they saw. There have been some rumblings about the location of the charging port and I've heard more than a few wondering if Rivian can survive financially until 2026, when the company is expected to begin producing the R2.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or Sean O'Kane sean.okane@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and several encrypted messaging apps.
Deal of the week
Will Toro ever go public? Fellow TechCrunch reporter Alex Wilhelm and I share a joke about the company's long-awaited IPO; The company first filed an S-1 to go public in early 2022, and continues to update the document quarterly in preparation for the final offering. Unfortunately, the venture-backed peer-to-peer car rental service once again updated its S-1 with its financial performance for the fourth quarter and the full year.
This, Wilhelm points out, suggests that going public remains a key priority for Turo. Why bother with added leaves?
While this is not a deal in itself. I think it's useful to highlight the company's performance, according to its most recent financial reports.
Turo saw an 18% increase in revenue year over year to $879.8 million. This sounds like good news until you look at Turo's growth rate, which has declined significantly in the past two years. Wilhelm wrote that revenue growth rose slightly in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the same quarter a year earlier, a data point that could help convince general market investors that its slowdown is not necessarily irreversible.
Turo is also already profitable, which is no small feat. Gross margins fell from 54.3% in 2022 to 51.4% in 2023, and the company posted its smallest operating profit since 2020 last year. However, Turo is still in the black and that's why I'm betting that the IPO will come in 2024.
Other deals that caught my attention…
REE, an automotive technology company that makes full electric trucks and platforms, closed its public offering of 2.3 million Class A common shares, raising about $14.95 million. Several investors participated in the round, led by M&G Investment Management, REE's largest shareholder.
Service Robotics, an autonomous curbside delivery company, is eligible to trade on the OTCQB Venture Market operated by OTC Markets Group Inc. The Company's common stock is now traded on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol “SBOT.”
Notable Readings and Other Stories
Applications
Uber Eats has added live location sharing to help delivery companies find customers in hard-to-find locations, including public places like campus plazas, parks, and playgrounds.
Waze has launched some new features to help users navigate difficult roundabouts, get alerts when the speed limit is about to change, and get warnings about speed bumps and sharp curves. Question for readers: Am I the only one surprised that Google didn't kill Waze?
Self-driving vehicles
Baidu's self-driving ride booking platform Apollo Go now offers self-driving rides 24/7 in select areas of Wuhan, China. This is the third major operational expansion of Baidu's robo-taxi service in 2024. The company was recently approved for trial operation of robo-taxis on highways leading to Beijing Daxing Airport.
Waymo said it will begin allowing its self-driving vehicles to transit Austin without a safety agent behind the wheel, a crucial step before the company opens the program to the public. The announcement comes less than a week after the Alphabet-owned company received a critical permit allowing it to charge fees for robo-taxi rides in Los Angeles, freeways in San Francisco, and the Greater San Francisco Peninsula.
Electric vehicles, batteries and charging
Faraday Future has achieved an unwanted new breakthrough. The struggling electric car company has issued its first recall covering all 11 — yes, less than a dozen — vehicles it made last year. The recall centers around an issue with the airbag warning light on the company's FF91 SUV.
General Motors has resumed sales of the Chevrolet Blazer EV — and at a cheaper price — more than two months after the automaker recalled the vehicle due to software issues.
Rad Power Bikes has launched four new e-bikes and a newly designed battery equipped with heat-resistant technology to prevent overheating or fires. According to the company, the new batteries are equipped with a resin that absorbs heat and protects them from corrosion and high temperature. It encases each battery cell, and if overheating occurs, the resin is supposed to prevent the thermal event from spreading.
Stellantis has introduced two all-electric versions of the Dodge Charger packed with features muscle car fans have come to expect — right down to a system that attempts to mimic the rumble of a Hemi V-8 engine. Will the performance advantages of the all-electric Dodge Charger be enough to attract customers emotionally attached to the whiny gas-powered version? I'm not sure about that.
The Tesla factory outside Berlin, Germany was forced to shut down after an arson attack on the local power grid. The closure, which was expected to last at least a week, could cost the company an estimated $100 million.
Wheels this week
Image credits: Kirsten Korosek
What better way to get to a Rivian R2 event than driving a Rivian R1S SUV? The company displayed one of the vehicles from its press fleet and jumped at the opportunity. Why? I haven't driven a Rivian in over a year, and I wanted to test out the Rivian EV charging network and see how recent software updates have changed the car experience. Plus, I wanted to spend some time in the third row of the R1S before the company unveils the R2, a smaller, more affordable SUV.
Quick thoughts:
– I applaud the recent software update that added a new vehicle icon in the top left corner of the infotainment screen, and gives users quick access to some controls like opening the charging port or front pickup as well as other shortcuts for car wash and pet mode.
-I still and always will hate not having a physical toggle to move the HVAC vents. This is my hill on which I will die.
– The advanced driver assistance system is better, but still needs improvement. The car still sways a bit in the lane when the lane keeping feature is on and the torque sensor on the steering wheel is a bit too sensitive for my liking. I have accidentally disconnected ADAS several times. I appreciated that the lane keeping and adaptive cruise control stayed on and didn't disengage when I turned on the indicator and moved into another lane. salary!
– The Rivian EV charger, or “Adventure Network” as it is called, was easy to use and worked smoothly. It wasn't the fastest charge. I pulled up to 120kW. However, I was able to park and drop off the car without the hassle of using a credit card or app. I'm curious to test what the experience is like for non-rural owners. Unsurprisingly, I had some issues at my next stop, where I started the car using the Electrify America charger. Two of the charging ports weren't working, the app couldn't connect to the charger and I ended up using my credit card instead.
