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Remember last week when Aurora Have you encountered an important milestone-whatever creation under its deadline-has and launched an autonomous driving truck service without driver? Welp, this week Aurora has made news again, but for a surprising change in leadership.
Co-founder Sterling AndersonWhich was Chief Product Officer, he resigns from his position and the Council. No real word on what has pushed his resignation, as well as some comments he made during the call of the company’s Q1 profits. “Leaving Aurora is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made, above all since the stage that Aurora is is exciting,” he said. “This is exactly what gave me the trust that is now the right time.”
He did not say exactly where he was going, except for the fact that it will be an “exciting external opportunity in a role of senior leadership in an iconic global society”.
I will leave you all your bets.
Aurora is pressing without Anderson. The company has announced during its gain call that will begin to send its autonomous trucks at night and during adverse weather conditions such as rain or heavy wind by the second half of 2025. The company also plans to expand its driver’s self -transport route plus Dallas to Houston and El Paso and Phoenix.
A bird
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It does not happen every day a company publishes the course inverts and becomes private. But then again, these are not normal times. Especially for any company involved in the US-China commercial war.
Take Zeekrfor example. A year ago, the Chinese EV company made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Now, parent company Geely Auto He wants to bring private Zeekr in response to the idea of the Trump administration to kick off Chinese companies from American bags.
Other business that attracted my attention …
Bosch Ventures It has a new fund of $ 270 million which will continue its investment tradition in technological startups in depth. Managing Director Swallow ramesohl He told Techcrunch that the plan is to put more money in the North American startups.
Investors who previously supported the Indian rival Uber Bllusmart They proposed a plan to inject another $ 30 million in the startup in difficulty, which abruptly stopped the operations last month. But there is a problem.
BreatheA start of the battery software has collected $ 21 million in a Serie B round led by Kinnevik Online AB, the company has only told Techcrunch. Participation in the capital of Lowercarbon and Volvo Cars Tech.
Doordash Two important acquisitions announced while expanding to Europe. The company agreed to buy its rival in the United Kingdom Delivery for about £ 2.9 billion (about $ 3.87 billion) and said separately that he is purchasing Settero – which provides CRM software, marketing and operations to help restaurants, hotels and public places with reservations and guest management – for $ 1.2 billion in cash.
In the meantime, Uber He was busy this week, acquiring companies and investing in them.
Uber has increased its investments in the $ 100 million Chinese autonomous vehicle company as part of a partnership agreement expanded to bring the service to 15 other cities in the next five years. In a separate agreement, Uber also acquired a control participation of 85% in Trendyol goThe delivery of online meals and food -based genres in Istanbul, for about $ 700 million in cash.
Remarkable readings and other morsels
Autonomous vehicles
Here is a staff switch that I didn’t expect. MosuresThe former president and CTO of the autonomous car company now closed CruiseHe has just been appointed Technology Officer of Telehealth and Wellness Company He and his. I spoke to him and his co-founder and CEO Andrew DudumAnd he said he focused specifically on the AV sector to find the next CTO. That’s why.
A sole He started testing his AV technology on the Las Vegas strip. I recently sat with the co-founder and president Dave Ferguson. Stay tuned for an update on why the company has moved its business model.
TeslaThe “Robotaxi” and “Cybercab” brands hit some road blocks. THE Patent office and brands from the United States He denied Tesla’s attempt to mark the term “robotaxi” in reference to his vehicles because he is too generic. In the meantime, Tesla’s questions for the brand in the term “cybercab” have been interrupted due to the companies that pursued similar “IT” brands.
Uber Partnership blocked with three companies of autonomous Chinese vehicles – Pony a, MomentAND Weride – In an attempt to swallow Robotaxi’s market share in the Middle East and Europe. Note at the foot of the page: these affairs do not have to operate in China.
Waymo Announced that he has a new factory of 239,000 square feet in the suburb of Phoenix Mesa through an agreement with Magna to build over 2,000 autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles. This obviously was very careful. But I was more interested in finally learning the size of the existing commercial fleet of Waymo, which is now 1,500.
Wayve He is going around the high profile executive set. You may remember Bill Gates’s video in one of Wayve’s autonomous test vehicles. It is now the founder of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson tour. PS Branson is a Wayve investor. Btw, Luck brainstorming He held his conference to the London, and CEO and co-founder of Wayve Alex Kendall He was there. He had some interesting comments on the company end-to-end approach and Tesla’s Elon Musk.
Zamx He paused his driver -free test program for more than a week and has issued a volunteer of his software following an accident in Las Vegas.
Electric vehicles, charge and batteries
THE Cadillac Celestiq EV – Yes, that monster – is here and the collaborator Emme Hall has thoughts after spending a day behind the wheel.
It is the useful season and the US-China commercial war is starting to leave a scratch on the paint of car manufacturers around the world. And well, I don’t think we will be able to polish.
Ford AND General engines He pulled their guide for the year, citing the economic uncertainty linked to the Trump rates. In the meantime, Riveian He said that he will probably deliver less vehicles this year (from 40,000 to 46,000 EVs) compared to the previously expected due to rates and other regulatory changes. Reminder: the company was already monitoring for its third consecutive year without a volume growth before cutting the guide. There has been some good news for Rivian, however: he generated gross profits (yes, I know, even gross profit is not exactly my favorite). But this met a contractual milestone that unlocked about $ 1 billion in funding from Volkswagen Group as part of a joint venture with the German car manufacturer.
Ford The price of the Mustang Allelectric Mustang SUV and the Maverick sampling up to $ 2,000 due to taxes on imports that Trump is putting the vehicles made in Mexico is increasing.
Lucid engines He worked through some quality “sobs” in the early stages of the delivery of his long -awaited electrical severity SUV.
Mitsubishi engines It is in negotiations with Foxconn To obtain an electric car model, the Japanese car manufacturer plans to sell in Australia and New Zealand in the second half of 2026.
Tesla Sales continue to collapse in Europe despite a wave of sales of EV of April.
Future of flight
Joby aviation It seems to be settled on 2026 for its first commercial passenger service, according to its report on the profits of the first quarter. The electric vertical take -off and the landing startup transformed into Spac was targeting 2025, so he said “at the beginning of 2026”. Now it is only 2026, which suggests that it may not be at the beginning of next year.
