Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.
This newsletter was wrapped and ready to go when Travis Kalanick brought me back to 2016 with an eyebrow-raising announcement. Uber’s co-founder and former CEO, who resigned in 2017 after a string of controversies, is back and building a robotics company called Atoms. He is on the precipice of acquiring Pronto, the autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining sites that was created by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. Kalanick revealed he is already the largest investor in Pronto.
That is a lot to digest and the final sign that, yes, we really are back in 2016. For those who may not remember, 2016 was a hyped year for autonomous vehicles. Uber acquired Levandowski’s startup Otto, a deal that went sideways almost immediately and resulted in Waymo suing the ride-hailing company for trade secret theft.
Now, back to our original programming.
Just last week I wrote about Rivian and the EV maker’s bid to make the upcoming R2 SUV one of the fastest vehicle launches in history. This week, I’m in Austin for SXSW. Rivian, the headline sponsor, used the event to share pricing and other specs of its R2. There is still a lot to unpack, but here is what we know.
The performance launch edition, which will be the first version of the R2 on the line, will start at $57,990. My initial article digs into what you get for that price. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane focused on the long-promised $45,000 version and why it won’t be coming until late 2027.
My time at SXSW with the Rivian folks has begun to reveal some of their R2 strategy. The company is leaning heavily into experiential marketing targeted directly at its core market. SXSW attendees in Austin, who include well-heeled tech and creative folks from all over the world, are about as close as you can get to a Rivian customer archetype.
But will it work? The EV itself is far more approachable in my opinion than the much larger and expensive flagship R1 truck and SUV. The R2 also has a few items, including a new operating system, that is more powerful and capable than its pricey peer. The operating system software is a standout improvement from the R1 in terms of computing and user interface. For instance, the R2 has one system on chip that runs the infotainment and handles 200 tera operations per second of computing on the edge. The next-gen R1 vehicles have four system on chips and do most of the computing in the cloud.
Rivian’s head of software, Wassym Bensaid, told me this edge computing matters because it allows the company to run large language models locally, which will provide much lower latency and better performance.
Another big change is the halo wheels on the steering wheel. These wheels give haptic feedback and let the driver quickly change the temperature, fan speed, and speaker volume without moving their hands or eyes over to the central screen. Chief designer Jeff Hammoud told me this addressed some of the biggest requests from customers without adding a bunch of buttons. Notably, software allows the company to add more capability to these halo wheels over time.
Lucid Motors tried to make a splash at its investor day when it showed a robotaxi concept designed to be built on the company’s midsize EV platform. Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff sounded declarative onstage, saying the company is working on a dedicated Lucid Robotaxi that would come after the midsize EVs debut.
The company later clarified that there is no active development happening and that the vehicle is just a concept. A little bird tells us the project is very new, having started only in the last two to three months, a timeline that leaves us wondering how long it would really take for Lucid Motors to put something like this on the road.
I guess this is the Rivian issue, because the company has spun another startup and raised a bunch of money to scale it up. I’m referring to Mind Robotics, an industrial robotics lab, and its $500 million Series A funding round that was co-led by venture firms Accel and Andreessen Horowitz.
As Sean O’Kane wrote, the financing follows a $115 million seed round led by Eclipse in late 2025. Mind Robotics is now valued at around $2 billion. Robotics was a focus of some of Rivian’s programming at SXSW. I interviewed CEO RJ Scaringe on the sidelines of the event and asked him about Mind Robotics and what was behind the effort. I also asked if he plans to spin out any more companies. Let’s just say there was a very long pause before he ultimately said, probably not.
I will have a longer story about the interview soon, but one item worth mentioning is that Scaringe basically believes companies are thinking about the future of industrial robotics all wrong. He told me the focus should be on the robotic hands, not on mimicking complex human biomechanics, which adds unnecessary complexity for most industrial tasks.
Other deals that got my attention this week include the global ride-hailing company inDrive acquiring Pakistan-based quick-commerce startup Krave Mart in an all-stock deal. Mirai Robotics, an Italy-based company developing autonomous maritime systems, raised $4.2 million. Surf Air placed an order for 25 of Beta Technologies’ all-electric ALIA aircraft and acquired options for up to 75 more.
Notable reads and other tidbits: Bryan Reimer, an MIT research scientist, poses an interesting question in a column published this month: Are automated vehicles headed for the same political divide as electric cars? Archer Aviation responded to a lawsuit with its own counterclaims that rival Joby Aviation allegedly defrauded the U.S. government and its competitors.
Group14 has started production of silicon battery materials at its factory in South Korea. Hayden AI has sued its co-founder and former CEO over allegations of serious misconduct and misuse of funds. The Federal Aviation Administration approved eight pilot programs that will allow a handful of companies to start widespread electric aircraft testing as early as this summer across 26 states.
Harbinger, a Los Angeles-based EV startup, revealed its second vehicle: a smaller, medium-duty work truck. Lucid Motors is shipping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to Gravity SUV owners. The National Transportation Safety Board released information showing two drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2024 while using Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving system were likely distracted before impact.
Nuro is testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Japan. Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has a new CEO ahead of its production launch. Tesla is now an officially licensed utility in the United Kingdom. Wayve is teaming up with Uber and Nissan to launch a robotaxi service in Tokyo, with a pilot scheduled for late 2026.
Uber added Hyundai-owned Motional to its growing robotaxi network in Las Vegas. Zoox has started to map the streets of Dallas and Phoenix and is partnering with Uber to make its robotaxis available on the app in Las Vegas later this year, pending necessary regulatory exemptions.
One more thing: The Chevrolet Bolt EV is coming back. Senior reporter Tim De Chant went to a press drive and came back with an interesting idea. The Chevy Bolt is the McRib of the automotive world. De Chant also dug into the economics of GM bringing back the Bolt.