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Ok, who made their bet General engines Be the landing point for Aurora co-founder and general manager of the product Sterling Anderson? Not me. But here we are. A few days after Anderson announced his resignation from his position and by the Board of Directors of Aurora, he spoke to me about his next concert as GM’s Chief Product Officer. In short, it will supervise the entire line of GM gas electric vehicles products, a position that will cover the entire life cycle of the GM portfolio and includes hardware, software, services and user experience.
Anderson could not say too much; Furthermore, he hasn’t started work yet. Anderson said he wouldn’t take the new job if Aurora had still launched his self -employed commercial truck service in Texas.
Let’s jump in the rest of the news.
A bird
In an absolutely wild turning point of events, LightFounder Austin Russell It seems to have been expelled as CEO and Prime Minister. You can read my coverage here, which provides a little overview of how it took place, but I know there is much more in this story. TL; Dr: If I had to read only the report on the profits of Luminar’s Q1, Suppose Russell was still at the helm. A separate press release, released when the company’s profits came out, announced a change of leadership and that Russell had resigned following an ethical investigation from the Council revision committee.
Here’s what I feel from some birds. The word “blind” emerged more than once and chaos is not over. Member of the luminary council Jun hong hengWhich is founder and chief investment officer at Crescent Cove Advisors and a mentor of Russell, resigned the next day. Heng was also part of the audit committee.
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Offers!
Aurora He had a strange pair of weeks full of maximums: Woodo without driver without driver! -And twist-whoops, here is a co-founder. To close things, Uber has announced the intention of offering $ 1 billion in senior notes that exiting 2028 in private placement. As one might expect, the actions decreased after the investors were frightened by the potential dilution and what could mean for the value of Aurora’s actions.
Other business that attracted my attention …
AutomaticallyThe last startup that was launched by Up.Labs-Porscheche Partnership, has collected $ 5 million in money money. The startup based in Santa Monica, California, which built a fipas to allow dealers and service stores to communicate in real time with the manufacturers and software providers that feed their operations, works in silence for about nine months.
Chinese batteries manufacturer Catl It is far from a startup. But it is worth noting this IPO of Bananas. The company wants to collect at least $ 31.01 billion in HK – which is only shy of $ 4 billion – on its Hong Kong list. This is the largest list globally in 2025.
Here is a potential Deal that raised some eyebrows. Federal rail regulators are in negotiations with Elon Musk‘S FirM tunneling, The boring companyBeyond a Amtrak project from billions of dollars.
Sire transportThe intermediation of goods with a shared truck load based in California, collected $ 60 million in a standard financing round and led by O’Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Signalfire, GLP Capital Partners and Bracket Capital also participated.
Remarkable readings and other morsels
Autonomous vehicles
TeslaThe plan to launch a robotaxi service in Austin next month has attracted the attention of federal security investigators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Investigation defect office sent to the company a detailed list of questions about its next robotaxi service as part of an investigation on how the “autonomous driving software (supervised)” of the company operates in low visibility conditions.
The calls are starting to appear more in the AV sector. Last week was Zamx. Now Waymo It has issued a call of the software on 1,200 autonomous driving vehicles after some of its robotasses were involved in small collisions with gates, chains and other road objects similar to Gate.
Weride It seems that he is looking for a ramp in Guangzhou. The Chinese company said it had introduced eight autonomous robotaxi pilot operations routes in the central part of the city. The company also started the driver -free robotass test to Abu Dhabi.
Electric vehicles, charge and batteries
General engines He has worked on a new battery chemistry called manganese-scar lithium, which according to this should cut the costs while delivering the driving field. In particular, these LMR batteries drastically reduce the amount of nickel and cobalt compared to the most advanced cells of GM, two critical minerals that are not promptly available from domestic sources in the United States.
A piece of footing LucidThe recent regulatory storage Q1 provides a little more insights on its sales numbers. The EV Maker Record quarter has obtained a transition from rental sales and the company’s lease contracts.
Slate car He has accumulated over 100,000 reservations for his low -cost electrical truck customizable.
Everyone, let’s give a slow beat Toyota To redesign-e, above all, rename-the only full electric vehicle for the US market. The EV, once called BZ4X, will now be simply BZ. The original BZ4X was not well welcomed. I can’t wait to get behind the wheel to see what improvements made toyota. Meanwhile, Toyota has reported the C-HR plate, but this time as EV. I hope this time is more successful. He arrives in the United States in 2026.
Concert economy
Three years ago, the journalist Rebecca Bellan noticed this Uber He was crossing an Amazonification. His tone was that the company, like AmazonHe had created a closed commercial cycle to power customers in other Uber channels. The second part of that evolution began, reported this week. Uber seems to go beyond his attention to transport and work to become a comfortable super app, a service aggregator, a lifestyle platform from daily use with his best offers hidden behind a paywall.
Future of flight
US legislators introduced the law on the modernization of supersonic aviation in an attempt to review the 52 -year ban on the FAA on the supersonic flight on US soil. Times could be crucial for the start Boom Supersonicwho made progress in the development of next generation supersonic aircraft
Vertical aerospace He has announced a plan to develop a hybrid-electric variant of his VX4, suggesting that the company is pursuing opportunities in defense and logistics.
Tech by car
AppleThe next generation of its popular Carplay infotainment software is finally launching. Reminder: he was announced for the first time three years ago. The new version, called Carplay Ultra, will make its debut on New Aston Martin vehicles in the United States and Canada.
Google He is bringing Gemelli, his artificial generative intelligence, in all cars that support Android Auto in the coming months. Patrick Brady, vice -president of Android for cars, said Gemini will emerge in the Android automatic experience in two main ways.
