TechCrunch Mobility: Uber is betting on its former CEO

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Tesla Earnings season has begun – at least for this sector – and the shareholder letter, combined with Elon Musk’s statements during the conference call, made some pretty startling revelations that I think have some investors worried, or at least confused.

Tesla has He reneged on his previous promises To reach “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi, and Megapack 3 vehicles in 2026. While the company has publicly promoted Expansions to Tesla Robotaxi service In new cities in Florida and Texas, quarterly data shows a decline in paid taxi miles.

Senior correspondent Sean O’Kane took a Close look at the chart It was shared in Tesla’s shareholder letter. At a glance, the graph appears to show steady growth in paid taxi trips between August 2025 and June 2026, O’Kane notes. But the numbers shown are cumulative, and when broken down by quarter, they show that Tesla Robotaxi’s fleet of Model Y SUVs carrying paid passengers covered about 1.1 million miles in the first quarter. That dropped to roughly 700,000 miles in the second quarter, a decline of about 36%.

Musk also revealed during the call that Tesla needs to collect the Cybercab’s driving data before it can put large numbers of vehicles on the road. This is not very surprising. The Cybercab is new, after all. But the reason caught my attention. He explained that Tesla has to accumulate miles using Cybercabs equipped with steering wheels, accelerator and brake pedals until it can calibrate with the Cybercab chassis.

This represents a change from the company’s previous claims. For years, Tesla has said its fleet of nearly 10 million customer cars collects data that can be used to train its advanced driver-assistance system, full (supervised) self-driving, and future robotaxis. Musk’s explanation points to a misalignment between fleet data and how it is applied to Cybercab.

On the financial front, Tesla’s Q2 earnings show the company is pouring money into its next generation of products (capex has doubled, and the company is back in negative free cash flow territory). Although revenues increased, the increase was not enough to offset the cost of doing business. The company’s net income decreased by 5% year over year.

Offers!

Travis Kalanick He burst back onto the robotics and mobility scene earlier this year with Atoms – a rebranded holding company at the helm of his ghost kitchen venture – and a deal to acquire it Anthony Lewandowski industrial automation startup, Pronto. Now the Uber co-founder and former CEO has done just that Capital: $1.7 billion to play with. Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board of directors following the investment.

This may seem inconceivable to those who remember Kalanick’s resignation from Uber’s top leadership position nearly a decade ago — and the series of scandals and lawsuits in the year leading up to his departure. What’s even more surprising is that Uber participated in the funding round. The information stated that Uber invested $100 million in Atoms; Conversations I’ve had since have confirmed that figure and provided new information, including that the investment was made six months ago.

Reminder: In 2016, while Kalanick was serving as CEO of Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving truck company is an Otto startup. Less than a year later, Levandowski’s former employer, Waymo (Google’s self-driving project), sued Uber for… Theft of trade secrets. The companies settled on the fifth day of the trial.

There’s a lot of history, much of it messy, between Kalanick and Uber (not to mention Lewandowski). But it seems that the passenger transport company is still willing to invest in it.

So what will Atoms do with this capital? Details are vague, but an email from Lewandowski suggests Pronto will be a big part of those plans.

“Atoms is investing heavily in industrial AI and physical automation applied to mining and transportation,” the email states. Next, “Pronto is a core strategic priority for Atoms, and this round is designed to accelerate exactly what matters to your operations: expanding non-OEM process autonomy.”

Other deals that caught my attention…

Final drivethe Swedish electric and autonomous trucking company, I agreed to the takeover The EV company is shipping startup Flipturn in an all-stock deal valued at $38 million.

IBM I agreed to purchase HRL LaboratoriesA Quantum Computing Research Laboratory Jointly owned by Boeing and GM.

they,starting battery materials, Raised $300 million In a round led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. The funds will be used to expand Sila’s plant in Washington state to produce enough anode material for more than 100,000 electric vehicles.

Notable Readings and Other Stories

Aurora We had some news this week that didn’t get a lot of attention, but maybe it should. The company launched The second generation of driverless truckswhich includes new, smaller devices, as well as updated sensor cleaning systems and extended-range sensors – all designed for a service life of up to 1 million miles. The initial fleet will be modest and will be used on the Dallas to Houston route. The company said the fleet will eventually reach 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year and will be used to transport freight for clients such as Hirschbach, Uber Freight, McLean and Ditmar. Most importantly for Aurora, these trucks do not have a human observer in the cab.

Ford Heading to apple For the next generation of electric vehicles. Specifically, Ford will integrate Apple Maps for navigation and mappingusing a new set of development tools called MapKit for Automotive, in its new line of electric vehicles, starting with a $30,000 midsize truck in 2027. I asked Ford what this means for it Googleand he is an existing partner. Apple’s announcement “does not change the role of Google’s automotive services across current production programs and in the near term,” a company spokesperson told me.

the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study called “The Rise of the Machines: Collision Experiments with Highly Automated Vehicles and Human Drivers.” The organization used a more clickable headline (Waymo’s self-driving cars crash less often than people) to direct people to its work. Unfortunately, this title misses part of the point. The study provides evidence that Waymo’s current robotaxis have lower crash-involvement rates than human drivers. “Overall, when including police-reported crashes, Waymo’s crash rate was 68% lower than that of human drivers,” the study said. Also important, the report concludes that data collection on national crashes and vehicle miles traveled for Tier 4 vehicles “could be improved to conduct more accurate and timely safety assessments.”

Mobile i Founder and CEO Amnon Shashua Plans to step down from Higher leadership position Nearly three decades later, just as the company is moving towards robotics and humanoid robots.

the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration We will look into developing New requirements for automakers To ensure drivers and passengers are able to safely exit their cars — the result of a petition that asked the agency to open an investigation into a safety flaw in the design of the emergency mechanical door release in 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. To be clear, this does not mean there will be new rules.

Rivian A lawsuit was filed against the US government over A “Full refund” on tariffs Paid under President Trump’s “Emancipation Day” taxes, which the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional.

two Volkswagen Engineers were assigned to Securities fraud After allegedly benefiting from inside information related to the German automaker’s joint venture with Rivian.

Waymo Internal discussions are underway about how to do this Termination of her contract with UberAccording to the Financial Times newspaper. Close followers of the partnership may have read this, rolled their eyes, and said “Duh!” But there are some interesting details here, including the Uber-Waymo contract covering Atlanta and Austin expiring in May 2028. Uber told TechCrunch that Waymo says it intends to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028.

WhatsApp It is rolling out a bunch of new features, including Refurbished Apple CarPlay And the Android Auto experience.