Uber founder Travis Kalanick has launched a new robotics company called Atoms. According to its website, the company will operate in the food, mining, and transportation industries. Kalanick is folding his existing ghost kitchen company, CloudKitchens, into Atoms.
The specific plans for tackling mining and transportation are not yet clear. The Atoms website states it will build a “wheelbase for robots.” In a live interview on Friday, Kalanick explained his company will apply this wheelbase to specialized robots rather than humanoids. He said that while humanoids have their place, there is significant room for specialized robots that operate efficiently on an industrial scale, which is where Atoms intends to focus.
To support the mining aspect of the business, Kalanick revealed he is on the verge of acquiring Pronto, an autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining sites. Pronto was founded by his former Uber colleague, Anthony Levandowski. Kalanick stated he is already the largest investor in Pronto and described the industrial sector as the company’s “main jam.”
Kalanick avoided the idea of using Atoms robots to transport people in the near term, noting that once you solve movement in the physical world, many will want access to that capability.
Earlier on Friday, it was reported that Kalanick is re-entering the self-driving vehicle arena with major backing from Uber. He has reportedly told people he wants to be more aggressive in deploying self-driving technology than Waymo. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Atoms website does not mention Uber.
Last year, Kalanick was said to be interested in buying the U.S. arm of the Chinese self-driving company Pony AI with Uber’s backing, but those talks have since ended.
Kalanick resigned from Uber in 2017 following a series of crises at the ride-hail company. At that time, Uber faced complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination, leading to an external investigation and the firing of more than 20 employees.
Prior to his resignation, Kalanick had established a self-driving division at Uber in 2015. Anthony Levandowski played a major role in that project after being recruited from Google. Uber was later sued by Google for stealing trade secrets related to its self-driving project, which became Waymo. The companies settled, but Levandowski faced criminal charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He received a presidential pardon at the end of the term.
Uber continued its self-driving work after Kalanick’s departure, even after one of its test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018. His successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, eventually closed and sold the division to autonomous trucking company Aurora in 2020.
In a rare interview in March 2025, Kalanick expressed regret that Uber had abandoned developing its own self-driving cars.