Welcome relief to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the vogue forward for transportation. To procure this on your inbox, test in right here free of fee — apt click on TechCrunch Mobility!
Waymo’s acceleration over the past 18 months is easy. The Alphabet-owned self-riding company now operates commercial robotaxi companies and products in six markets, including the San Francisco Bay Residence, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. It has plans to develop its quick of driverless taxicabs this year to bigger than a dozen contemporary cities internationally, including London and Tokyo.
And now it has $16 billion to gasoline that growth. Is it sufficient?
Talking to just a few commerce watchers, the respond saved touchdown within the squishy “invent of” and “it relies” territory.
First the bull case. Alphabet is clearly dedicated to making certain Waymo’s success; the guardian company is, and is soundless, the significant investor. That system Waymo isn’t exposed love assorted AV startups that every person without delay lost funding after their backers (in general legacy automakers) obtained disquieted or pivoted.
Its ridership and independent miles driven stats are moreover exploding and will seemingly continue in that trajectory except it is miles derailed by regulators. (Waymo affords 400,000 rides a week all the strategy in which by six significant U.S. metropolitan areas, and in 2025 alone, it bigger than tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides.)
This doesn’t guarantee success, even supposing, especially if the gauge is about aside to profitability. Waymo tranquil must resolve various concerns, including price and extending attention from regulators (the company’s chief security officer apt testified in a Senate Commerce listening to). If Waymo needs to easily be the licensor of its AV tech, this can want to stream far flung from being the operator, which system giving up some management. That’s onerous with a nascent technology below scrutiny.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
And while just a few of you could perchance well fight me on this, it moreover lacks the in-home manufacturing that Tesla has. Optimistic, Waymo has automobile companions. But it doesn’t advance with the identical financial leverage or ability to power down charges with scale.
Disagree? Send your argument to my email at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com.
A minute chicken
The merchants within the aid of the now-defunct EV startup Canoo were always mysterious — no doubt, they were handiest published as portion of a lawsuit. Six years within the past, I received a tip to inquire of into one of them in particular: David Stern. He had connections to Prince Andrew however turned into in every other case a ghost.
He turned into on my mind, even supposing, because the Division of Justice started releasing its recordsdata on Jeffrey Epstein. My curiosity as as to if or now not he would turn up within the paperwork turned into fleet overwhelmed by the indisputable truth that he turned into, no doubt, a detailed commercial accomplice of the convicted sex culprit. He brought Epstein investment alternatives from all the strategy in which by the field, and in particular, pitched him on investing in Faraday Future, Lucid Motors, and Canoo one day of the hump-hump days of mobility funding. Be taught my story on Stern and Epstein’s relationship and how mobility startups were as soon as within the mix.
— Sean O’Kane
Obtained a tip for us? Electronic mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Affords!
Self sustaining automobile technology is about bigger than apt robotaxis — it is miles a fancy and expensive commercial that handiest a handful of successfully-capitalized companies love Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox are pursuing. Many startup founders are making use of the AV systems they’ve developed to assorted use cases, including off-avenue protection, trucking, forklifts, mining, and constructing. Investors, anxious about missing out on the AV occasion, are leaping into these sectors.
Bedrock Robotics is the latest instance of investor passion. The Silicon Valley independent automobile technology startup, based by veterans of Waymo and Segment, are creating a self-riding procedure that will perchance well well be retrofitted onto constructing tools. And it apt raised $270 million in Series B funding co-led by CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Other merchants encompass Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (Nvidia’s endeavor capital arm), Tishman Speyer, Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, Georgian, Incharge Capital, C4 Ventures, and others.
Bedrock raised bigger than $350 million in a transient while (the company turned into fashioned in 2024). And while that won’t seem love plenty in contrast to the scale of some seed rounds within the AI labs sector, it exhibits money is flowing into bodily AI startups. I seek data from extra deal circulation; importantly I seek data from the startups centered on perfect capabilities of automatic riding systems to entice talent — within the event that they are able to hold sufficient money them. Bedrock, shall we state, employed Vincent Gonguet, who previously led AI security and alignment at Meta for all Llama devices, as its head of review. It moreover employed John Chu far flung from Waymo.
Help an inquire of out for my interview with Bedrock Robotics co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman.
Other deals that obtained my attention this week …
German electric motor maker Additive Drives raised €25 million ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Companions.
Self sustaining underwater autos startup Apeiron Labs closed a $9.5 million Series A round led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Administration Planetary Health, and S2G Investments. Assembly Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures, and TFX Capital participated.
GoCab, the African mobility fintech startup, raised a $forty five million financing round comprising $15 million in equity and $30 million in debt. The equity round turned into co-led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.
Mitra EV, a commercial EV quick company in Los Angeles, raised $27 million in financing, including equity funding from lead investor Ultra Capital and a credit facility from S2G Investments.
Overland AI, a Seattle-based fully mostly developer of self-riding systems designed for protection power operations, raised $100 million in a round led by 8VC. Other merchants incorporated Point72 Ventures, Ascend Enterprise Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Equity Companions, and StepStone Community.
Jog, the historical EV marketplace, raised $20 million in a Series A led by Lightspeed with participation from Provoke and present merchants Autotech Ventures, Soar Forward Ventures, and Renn World.
R3 Robotics, a European startup that must automate the disassembly of EV systems at scale, raised €20 million ($23.6 million) together of grants and endeavor funding. The €14 million ($16.5 million) Series A funding turned into co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. Oetker Series, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and present shareholders, including BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT Urban Mobility moreover participated.
Skyryse, an El Segundo, California-based fully mostly aviation automation startup, has raised bigger than $300 million in a Series C investment. The round, led by Autopilot Ventures, pushes its valuation to $1.15 billion. Other merchants encompass Constancy Administration & Learn Firm, ArrowMark Companions, Atreides Administration LP, BAM Elevate, Baron Capital Community, Durable Capital Companions, Optimistic Sum, Qatar Funding Authority, RCM Private Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Administration, and Woodline Companions.
Vital reads and various tidbits
China has banned hid electronically actuated door handles popularized by Tesla. The ruling, printed by China’s Ministry of Industry and Data Know-how, says all contemporary autos supplied within the country must hold mechanical releases on their door handles by January 1, 2027. There is chatter that Europe could perchance well well soon apply.
Uber continues to manufacture moves designed to manufacture it competitive within the independent automobile sector. The corporate has promoted Balaji Krishnamurthy, its VP of strategic finance and investor members of the family, to be its CFO. This couldn’t seem connected to AVs, however it is miles. Krishnamurthy actively promotes the company’s independent saunter-hailing partnerships and has a board seat at AV company Waabi. One day of the company’s Q4 call, he talked about AVs, announcing the company would make investments capital in its AV utility companions, work with AV makers by investing equity or via offtake agreements, and “toughen our AV infrastructure companions.”
Meanwhile, a excessive-profile lawsuit in opposition to Uber has delivered a mixed verdict for the saunter-hailing company, which turned into sued after a girl alleged she turned into raped by her Uber driver in November 2023. A jury hump Uber turned into liable as an obvious agent of the driver and awarded $8.5 million to the plaintiff. The jury rejected claims that Uber turned into liable for negligence or create defects and declined to award punitive damages. An Uber spokesperson, who emailed TechCrunch an announcement, talked about the “verdict affirms that Uber acted responsibly and has invested meaningfully in rider security. We are going to have the option to continue to assign security at the coronary heart of everything we attain.” Uber plans to enchantment the resolution.
One extra aspect …
Final week in our newsletter, we did a poll asking what the title or ticker of Elon Musk’s mixed supercompany want to be. Thanks to of us who emailed their suggestions, fairly just a few which had set aside issues, love Galactic X (substantial one). As for the poll, the majority picked horrible ol’ X.
That makes sense, pondering Musk has in general talked, and posted, about X, the everything app. About 50% voted for X, while 20.7% picked ELON, 17.2% chosen SpaceAI, and 12.1% chose K2, a reference to some of the corporate entities created in January.
My decide? I judge this can indirectly be X, and the company will encompass bigger than apt SpaceX and xAI.
To grab part in our polls, be a part of our newsletter!