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It's been another busy week in the transportation world, especially in the electric vehicle startup and automated driving industries. Cruise certainly caught our attention by announcing a comeback of sorts. But there's a lot more to read about, including Indian ride-hailing giant Ola's exit from the UK, Australia and New Zealand; Feature on a New York-based startup that wants to bring curbside EV charging to light poles; Uber Eats launches a video feature similar to TikTok; Contract manufacturer Magna is piloting humanoid robots developed by Sanctuary AI.
Oh, one more thing – reporter Rebecca Bellan is back! I know my readers missed her, so show her a little love by sending her some tips at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com.
Let's go!
Little birds
Founders, investors, engineers, policy experts, and more tell us things. We are here to pass on the verifiable information that those little birds shared with us.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O'Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@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
Just a bunch of this week's deals!
Basemark, a Finnish company that develops augmented reality and computer vision software used by automakers, has raised €22 million ($23.6 million) in a Series B round led by ETF Partners. Other backers include Finnish Industry Investment, Constructor Capital, Business Finland, the European Innovation Council and private investors.
Bumper, an automotive fintech startup, has raised £2 million in a Series B extension round that included backing from Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures.
Carrar, an Israeli startup that provides battery modules and thermal management systems for electric vehicles, has raised $5.3 million in a Series A round that included new investors Salida BV, OurCrowd and NextGear, in addition to existing backers Gentherm, NextLeap Ventures, Dive Digital and others. .
Exoes, a France-based startup that has developed battery cooling technology for electric vehicles, has raised €35 million ($37.5 million) from BpiFrance and the Meridiam Green Impact Growth Fund.
HysetCo SAS, a startup that rents hydrogen-powered electric cars to taxi drivers in Paris, has raised nearly €200 million ($218 million) in a round led by Hy24. Raise Impact and Eiffel Investment Group also participated.
Yoshi Mobility, a Nashville-based startup that has developed an app to offer drivers preventive maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging, has raised $26 million in a Series C round led by General Motors Ventures. Bridgestone Americas, Universal Motors Agens and Shikra Limited also participated.
Notable Readings and Other Stories
Driver Assist Assistant
The driver of a Ford Mustang Mach-E who crashed into a parked car in Texas in February was using a hands-free driver-assistance system known as BlueCruise, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said. This is the first known fatality resulting from a crash using BlueCruise. The NTSB's announcement came one day after the safety board said it was investigating a second fatal crash near Philadelphia in which Ford's driver-assistance system may have been active.
Self-driving vehicles
GM's self-driving car company Cruise is back. somewhat. The company is redeploying robotaxis, but not in its home city of San Francisco. Instead, Cruise is setting up shop in Phoenix, and all of its self-driving cars will be manually driven by employees. Here's the weird part: Cruise says it will create maps and collect road information in Phoenix, a city where it has had a presence (and driven independently) since at least 2020. This means that they have mapped these roads before.
Going back to mapping has left me a bit confused. Is this theater or does Cruise see a need to reboot the entire operation due to concerns about the underlying technology?
Cruz has also petitioned California regulators to reinstate her permits to operate in San Francisco. Will we see the company map its birthplace again, or will it make a comeback with a robo-taxi service?
Meanwhile, Waymo officially launched paid rides in Los Angeles this week. We previously reported that California regulators have approved the Alphabet-owned company to charge fees for its robotaxi service in the city. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch that the service is starting small and will be built based on demand and performance metrics.
Electric cars, charging and batteries
TC reporter Tim de Chant writes that Elon Musk's decision to greenlight a robotaxi instead of an affordable electric car could cost the company its progress.
Exponent Energy, the Indian battery technology company that claims to have developed 15-minute charging technology, has partnered with automaker Omega Seiki Mobility to offer a passenger electric three-wheeler with fast charging capabilities.
Faraday Future is now grappling with two internal whistleblowers. Both former employees filed lawsuits alleging that the troubled electric car company was lying about some of the few sales it has announced so far. They also claim that founder Jia Yueting “weaponized” the EV startup's HR department to retaliate against anyone who spoke out about these alleged misrepresentations.
Lucid Motors delivered more electric vehicles in the first quarter of 2024 than any other quarter, although it held the record by very little.
Tesla has reduced the price of a monthly subscription for its “Supervised FSD” program (formerly known as “FSD Beta”) to $99, down from $199, in an effort to get more dollars and data from drivers.
horseback riding
Lyft and Uber said they will pause their planned exit from Minneapolis after city officials decided to delay the start of driver pay increases by two months.
diverse
Check out this deep dive into Neural Concept, a company that uses artificial intelligence to help engineers make more aerodynamic vehicles for the racing, automotive, and aerospace industries.
Wheels this week
Image credits: Kirsten Korosek
It's back to a Mercedes EV, this time a 2024 Mercedes EQE 350 4MATIC. The model retails for $77,900, not including destination charges. The version I drove came in at $97,615, due to all sorts of options, like 10-degree rear-axle steering, a head-up display, air suspension, AMG exterior trim, and a $1,250 driver-assistance system.
There are a number of improvements over the previous year's model, including a new braking system, a heat pump to help improve driving efficiency in winter conditions, an improved battery range of 20 miles, 20-inch wheels, an electrical outlet door for charging and a better user interface (in my opinion). In the central infotainment system.
What I really wanted to try was the advanced driver assistance system, specifically the automatic lane change feature, which I have yet to test.
Within the infotainment centre, the driver can choose between 'manual' or 'automatic' lane change options. When the Auto feature is selected and ADAS is engaged, the vehicle will automatically change lanes without driver intervention. Here's how it works. I was driving in the right lane on the highway with ADAS on. When the car approached slower traffic, an arrow appeared on the instrument cluster (see photo), the system turned on the indicator and then changed lanes. This can be overcome by holding the steering wheel and keeping it in the lane.
My thoughts? The system was running smoothly and I could see it being used occasionally. The question is whether drivers want to give up that kind of control.
