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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to do just that Uber It seems that Everywhere, at once In the emerging autonomous vehicle technology sector. Now the Financial Times has put a number on it. The Financial Times calculates that Uber has complied More than 10 billion dollars To buy self-driving cars and take stakes in companies developing the technology, according to public records and discussions with people behind the scenes. The newspaper reported that about $2.5 billion of that is direct investment, with the remaining $7.5 billion spent on purchasing automated taxis over the next few years.
We’ve reported on Uber’s numerous investments and deals with self-driving vehicle companies across drones, robotaxis, and freight. It includes some of its investments We are riding, Lucid and Nuru, Rivianand WIFI.
This big number (especially $7.5 billion) got me thinking about another transformative era in Uber’s history and how it has visited these asset-heavy shores before. Uber may have started out with a plan to be asset light, but for a while it did exactly the opposite.
Uber traveled to the moon between 2015 and 2018. It has launched electric taxi developer Uber Elevate and its in-house self-driving vehicle unit Uber ATG, which will be strengthened through its partnership with Uber. Acquisition of Otto In 2016. Also taken Jump to start the mini navigation In 2018.
And then in 2020, Uber pulled the asset-laden rope, ostensibly leaving all that success behind. Uber Uber sold ATG To Aurora, Go to Lymeand Step up to Joby Aviation. But it did not withdraw its investments completely; I retained equity stakes in all of them.
Uber is now entering a new and different era full of assets. It doesn’t require spending millions, or even billions, to develop the technology in-house, although I’m sure people there will be quick to point out that there’s always R&D going on at Uber. Instead, they seem to focus on owning (or perhaps renting) physical assets.
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This could mean interesting items on Uber’s balance sheet in the future.
Owning fleets of robotaxis that you have built last Corporate may not have been the original vision for Uber, or its former CEO Travis Kalanick, who told the company He made a mistake When she abandoned her AV development program. But this new approach could still get it to the same endpoint.
birdie
Earlier this month, I gave an interview eclipse a partner Jitin Behl About the new project company A $1.3 billion fund Where could this money go? The company, she wrote, intends to incubate more startups (for example, it was behind… Rivian Spinout too). Biehl didn’t give me any details, just said, “We’re definitely working on some really cool ideas.” He also said that Eclipse is particularly interested in startups that work across enterprises.
Thanks to a little birdie and some documentation by senior reporter Sean O’Kane, a seed round announcement appears to be imminent for a San Francisco-based startup working on an autonomous transportation van that I’m told doesn’t have a driver’s cab. This looks similar to what Einride built, but since we haven’t seen it, we’ll have to wait.
The company’s roster isn’t large, but it’s filled with Silicon Valley’s tech elite, including a founder who was at Uber ATG, Pronto, and Waabi. Stay tuned for more.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosek at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com Or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
List It returns more capital as it prepares to start production of its first affordable pickup trucks by the end of 2026.
The electric car startup, which was started with backing by Jeff Bezos, has got something else together 650 million dollars In a Series C funding round led by TWG Global. Keep an eye on TWG. This is the company run by Guggenheim Partners CEO (and Los Angeles Dodgers owner) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull.
Slate has raised about $1.4 billion to date, and its previous investors include General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co., and former Amazon CEO Diego Piacentini. It was first reported by TechCrunch last year.
Other deals that caught my attention…
glidewaysa San Francisco-based startup developing self-driving pods designed to operate on dedicated two-meter-wide lanes in cities, has raised $170 million in a Series C funding round co-led by Suzuki Motor Co., ACS Group, and Khosla Ventures. Existing investors Mitsui Chemicals and Gates Frontier and new investor Obayashi Corporation also participated. But wait, There is more.
GM and Ford The United States is said to be talking with the Pentagon about whether the auto industry could help the military revamp its procurement program and find cheaper and faster ways to procure vehicles, munitions or other hardware. The New York Times reportedciting anonymous sources.
episodea San Francisco-based startup, It raised $95 million In a Series C funding round led by Valor Equity Partners and Valor Atreides AI Fund, and includes investments from 8VC, Founders Fund, Index Ventures and JP Morgan’s late-stage fund, Growth Equity Partners.
Monarch tractora startup developing autonomous electric tractors, has moved to (ahem) a different pasture. It was the origins of the startup Acquired by Caterpillar After struggling to transition into a software services business.
Uber It is working to increase its share in Delivery hero by 4.5% The Financial Times reported. Uber agreed to buy shares worth about 270 million euros from the Dutch investment group Prosus, the largest shareholder in Delivery Hero.
Notable Readings and Other Stories
Dodgefieldthe high-level executive director who formed FordElectric vehicle and technology strategies over the past five years, He leaves. It’s worth noting that Ford is shaking up the organization as well, creating a “product creation and manufacturing” team led by its COO. Kumar Galhotra. Any guesses where Field is headed next? Maybe he will return to Silicon Valley.
Floating lighthousethe start of all-electric recreational vehicles expansion Its Colorado factory has another 44,000 square feet, which will allow it to quadruple its manufacturing capacity.
Rivian and battery recycling and starting materials, Redwood Materials has been involved for years. We are now seeing the fruits of that relationship. Redwood is installing the battery power bank at a Rivian factory in Illinois. hunting? Redwood is used 100 pack of Rivian second life batteriesWhich will provide 10 MWh of dispatchable power to reduce cost and grid load during periods of peak demand.
Tesla It has created a new self-driving app that makes it easier for owners to sign up for its full self-driving program See statistics About how – and how often – they use them. This may not be huge news, but it caught my attention because of the manipulative qualities of these new stats.
WaymoAs usual, he has some news this week. The Alphabet-owned company has begun testing its self-driving vehicles on public roads In London. It also removed its waiting list in Miami and Orlando to expand robo-taxi services in the two cities.
Another thing…
This newsletter isn’t my only project that leans more robotics. my podcast, Automatic broadcasttoo, where the worlds of autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and robotics merge together. Check out this interview with foxglove founder Adrian MacNeilwho previously worked at Cruz.