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Canoo’s latest defeat, stories from Waymo players and what Trump’s victory means for Elon (and his corporations)

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Welcome back TechCrunch Mobility – Your central hub for news and insights on the long run of transport. Register here for free – just click TechCrunch Mobility!

The election has only been two days and there may be already numerous speculation concerning the next election Trump’s presidency will mean for transport and technology, in addition to related sectors akin to energy and climate. Many of those questions will take months to reply. We will observe and report on what impact this may increasingly have on the long run of transport.

Early on, we produced several articles that examined who might win, who might lose, and how specific sectors might deal with changes in governance in the chief and legislative branches. TC reporter Tim De Chant provided evaluation on why President-elect Trump may find it difficult to lighten the mood Act on reducing inflationand reporter Rebecca Bellan examined what this victory could mean Elon Musk and his corporations including Tesla, SpaceX and X.

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Little bird

Image credits:Bryce Durbin

A little bit bird told us that Tesla has definitely given up on its $25,000 electric vehicle and replaced it with a robotaxi. The breakthrough that got here in April, when Musk announced that Tesla would unveil its robotaxi this 12 months, got here as a surprise to many Tesla employees who were enthusiastic about the opportunity of constructing a less expensive electric vehicle that their children could sooner or later afford. This change in strategy, combined with mass layoffs earlier this 12 months, led to low morale amongst employees and even some departures. But our little bird says morale is slowly improving.

In other baby bird news…

Just a few little birds told us concerning the launch of electrical vehicles Canoo struggled with executive departures and more furloughs. Just a few days later, before the newsletter was able to ship, our information was verified in a regulatory document: the CFO and general counsel had left, which, amongst other things, resulted within the furloughing of 30 employees.

You can even see these instructions to learn the best way to contact us via the encrypted messaging app or SecureDrop.

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Offers!

money for the station
Image credits:Bryce Durbin

Beta technologiesstartup developing electric planes for vertical takeoff and landing had an enormous round of funding — 318 million largeand yes, I mean dollars. The Series C financing round was led by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Fidelity, TPG and United Therapeutics, which can also be a client, joined the round. This brings Beta’s total funding to over $1 billion. Not a word concerning the valuation.

As Rebecca Bellan noted in an article earlier this 12 months, Beta doesn’t wish to run its own urban air taxi network. Beta is positioning itself more as an OEM that may sell aircraft and charging solutions to multiple customers. The company has assured security for customers within the defense, cargo delivery and medical logistics industries – akin to United Therapeutics, UPS, Air New Zealand and the United States Air Force – with plans to launch products in these markets by 2025.

Other offers that caught my attention…

DeepRoute.aiShenzhen-based autonomous driving technology startup raised $100 million from Great Wall Motor. The funding is meant to assist DeepRoute introduce automated driving systems to as many vehicles as possible in China before Tesla launches next 12 months.

Last week we reminded you Waymo closing a $5.6 billion round from parent company Alphabet. Well, Bloomberg spotted the valuation, which their sources say is currently at $45 billion.

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Van revised the valuation of Indian passenger transport startup Ola to around $2 billion at the tip of August.

Xavveostart-up coping with autonomous vehicle sensor technology, raised $8.6 million in a seed round co-led by Vsquared Ventures and imec.xpand.

Noteworthy reading and other interesting facts

Image credits:Bryce Durbin

Autonomous vehicles

Lift announced three separate partnerships — with a startup May mobilityautomated vehicle company Mobileyeand the corporate’s smart dash camera Nexar — all aimed toward gaining a foothold within the emerging autonomous vehicle market. All of those Uber and Lyft partnerships take me back to the hype days of AV in 2017 and 2018.

Electric vehicles, charging and batteries

Ferry said it is going to halt production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck starting in mid-November for nearly two months because it grapples with reduced demand, increased competition and losses in the electrical vehicle industry.

Hurry up unveiled by an Electric camper concept which he describes as “the perfect escape pod,” Ars Technica reports.

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Technology and software within the automotive

Reporter Sean O’Kane spoke with Rivian’s software chief Wassym Bensaid on the sidelines of TechCrunch Disrupt and learned that it’s working on an ecosystem for third-party developers that may make more apps available on the vehicle’s infotainment system.

This week’s wheels

Waymo Jaguar i-Pace fully autonomous robotaxi in San Francisco
Image credits:Waymo

This week, I’m reaching out to a handful of TechCrunch staffers who took their first Waymo rides while in San Francisco for Disrupt 2024. I’ve ridden many autonomous vehicles, including a driverless Waymos, so I assumed it might be fun to share a newbie’s perspective.

Venture reporter Dominic-Madori Davis said: “I thought I would hate Waymo, but I didn’t. He drove like my mother. Quite careful, very slow. I felt as safe as I could in the self-driving car, and honestly, I was glad I didn’t have to talk about the weather.”

AI and enterprise reporter Kyle Wiggers said “it’s nerve-wracking, especially when other cars pass us.” Sitting with a shotgun, the entire experience felt unnerving. I expected the worst.” I asked him if he would take one other Waymo, and his answer was, “Yes, but carefully.”

Venture editor Julie Bort went on three rides. She noted that her first ride was somewhat scary because she “turned a bit wobbly in a narrow lane next to a row of parked cars.” He also did not turn right on a red light, which resulted in frustrated people honking. She also noticed that sometimes the costs were much higher than what Uber would charge, and the drop-off locations were strange and just across the corner.

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“All in all, it was a fun experience and if the car price is as affordable as other rideshares, I will do it regularly,” Bort told me. “But while it solved one security problem, it introduced others.”

Reporter Amanda Silberling said: “Waymo is like a roller coaster. It’s funny because it seems a little dangerous, but like a roller coaster, you know it’s been tested ad nauseam so it’s probably okay? If I wasn’t on a business trip with a corporate card, I don’t know if I could see myself using it because in many cases it was more expensive than Uber. Overall, I’m surprised at how safe I felt on Waymo rides, even though when I told my friends I was riding Waymo, they made me promise to text them once I arrived safely at my destination. My friends would react the same way if I was alone on the subway after midnight.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Lime scooter and Ebike batteries will be recycled by Redwood Materials

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The joint company Micromobility Lime has reached an agreement on sending batteries utilized in scooters and electronic bikes to Sewoi materials that extract and recycle critical minerals, comparable to lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper.

The agreement announced on Monday makes Redwood Materials the only real battery recycling partner for common scooters and e-bike bikes situated in cities within the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. The contract doesn’t cover every region where lime worksAn inventory covering cities throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.

In Lime up to now he had other recycling partnerships, especially with Sprout through his suppliers. However, for the primary time, the joint company Micromobility had direct relations with battery recycling in North America, which might directly process the fabric for recovery and returns it to the availability chain.

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Redwood Materials, The Carson City, Startup from Nevada founded by the previous CFO Tesla JB Straubel, will get better battery materials when they can’t be used. After recovering and recycling, the materials will be re -introduced within the battery production process. This production system of a closed loop-which can reduce the demand for extraction and refining of minerals-is on the Redwood Materials business center.

The effort can also be consistent with its own goals of limestone sustainable development. Lime is geared toward decarbonization of operations by 2030. The company has made progress in reducing the range 1, 2 and 3 of emissions by 59.5% in five years of basic years 2019. Wapno plans to report the outcomes of carbon dioxide emissions 2024 in May.

“This cooperation means significant progress in the establishment of a more round supply chain, helping our batteries not only to recycled responsibly after reaching the end of their lives, but that their materials are returned to the battery supply chain,” said Andrew Savage, vice chairman for balanced development in Lime.

Lime also has partnerships from Gomi in Great Britain and Voltr in France and other European countries to gather these live battery cells for “Second Life” applications, including, amongst others, in the sphere of consumer electronics, comparable to portable speakers and battery packages.

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Redwood Materials has contracts with other micromobility corporations, including Lyft, RAD Power Bikes and bicycle batteries and scooters specialized in recycling. Redwood, which collected over $ 2 billion in private funds, announced at first of this month, opened the research and development center in San Francisco.

(Tagstranslat) ebikes

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The Legal Defense Fund withdraws from the META civil law advisory group over Dei Rolback

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Legal Defense Fund,, Meta, dei,


On April 11, the Legal Defense Fund announced that he was leaving the external advisory council for civil rights regarding the fear that the changes in technology company introduced diversity, own capital, inclusion and availability in January.

According to those changes that some perceived as the capitulation of meta against the upcoming Trump administration, contributed to their decision To leave the advisory council of the technology company.

In January, LDF, along with several other organizations of civil rights, which were a part of the board, sent a letter to Marek Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, outlining their fears As for a way changes would negatively affect users.

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“We are shocked and disappointed that the finish has not consulted with this group or its members, considering these significant changes in its content policy. Non -compliance with even its own advisory group of experts on external civil rights shows a cynical disregard for its diverse users base and undermines the commitment of the meta in the field of freedom of speech with which he claims to” return “.

They closed the letter, hoping that the finish would recommend the ideals of freedom of speech: “If the finish really wants to recommend freedom of speech, he must commit to freedom of speech for all his services. As an advisory group from external civil rights, we offer our advice and knowledge in creating a better path.”

These fears increased only in the next months, culminating in one other list, which from the LDF director, Todd A. Cox, who indicated that the organization withdraws its membership from the META civil law advisory council.

“I am deeply disturbed and disappointed with the announcement of Medical on January 7, 2025, with irresponsible changes in content moderation policies on platforms, which are a serious risk for the health and safety of black communities and risk that they destabilize our republic,” Cox wrote.

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He continued: “For almost a decade, the NACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has invested a lot of time and resources, working with META as part of the informal committee advising the company in matters of civil rights. However, the finish introduced these changes in the policy of the content modification without consulting this group, and many changes directly with the guidelines from the guidelines from LDF and partners. LD can no longer participate in the scope. ” Advisory Committee for Rights “

In a separate but related LDF list, it clearly resembled a finish about the actual obligations of the Citizens’ Rights Act of 1964 and other provisions regarding discrimination in the workplace, versus the false statements of the Trump administration, that diversity, justice and initiative to incorporate discriminates against white Americans.

“While the finish has modified its policy, its obligations arising from federal regulations regarding civil rights remain unchanged. The title of VII of the Act on civic rights of 1964 and other regulations on civil rights prohibit discrimination in the workplace, including disconnecting treatment, principles in the workplace which have unfair disproportionate effects, and the hostile work environment. Also when it comes to inclusion, and access programs.

In the LDF press release, announcing each letters, Cox He called attention Metal insert into growing violence and division in the country’s social climate.

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“LDF worked hard and in good faith with meta leadership and its consulting group for civil rights to ensure that the company’s workforce reflects the values ​​and racial warehouses of the United States and to increase the security priorities of many different communities that use meta platforms,” ​​said Cox. “Now we cannot support a company in good conscience that consciously takes steps in order to introduce changes in politics that supply further division and violence in the United States. We call the meta to reverse the course with these dangerous changes.”

(Tagstranslate) TODD A. COX (T) Legal Defense Fund (T) META (T) Diversity (T) Equality (T) inclusion

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Students of young, talented and black yale collect $ 3 million on a new application

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Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, juniors from Yale University, collected $ 3 million in only 14 days to finance their startup, series, social application powered by AI, designed to support significant connections and challenge platforms, similar to LinkedIn and Instagram.

A duo that’s a co -host of the podcast A series of foundersHe created the application after recognizing the gap in the way in which digital platforms help people connect. SEries focuses moderately on facilitating authentic introductions than gathering likes, observing or involvement indicators.

“Social media is great for broadcasting, but it does not necessarily help you meet the right people at the right time,” said Johnson in an interview with Entrepreneur warehouse.

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The series connects users through AI “friends” who communicate via IMessage and help to introduce. Users introduce specific needs-are on the lookout for co-founders, mentors, colleagues or investors-AI makes it easier to introduce based on mutual value. The concept attracts comparisons to LinkedIn, but with more personal experience.

“You publish photos on Instagram, publish movies on Tiktok and publish work posts on LinkedIn … And that’s where you have this microinfluuncer band,” Johnson added.

The application goals to avoid the superficial character of typical social platforms. Hargrow emphasized that although aesthetics often dominates on Instagram and the content virus drives tabktok, Number It is intentional, deliberate contacts.

“We are not trying to replace relationships in the real world-we are going to make it easier for people to find the right relationships,” said Hargrow.

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Parable projects carried out before the seeded (*3*)Funding roundwhich included participation with Pear VC, DGB, VC, forty seventh Street, Radicle Impact, UNCASMON Projects and several famous Angels Investors, including the General Director of Reddit Steve Huffman and the founder of GPTZERO Edward Tian. Johnson called one meeting of investors “dinner for a million dollars”, reflecting how their pitch resonated with early supporters.

Although not the principal corporations, Johnson and Hargrow based pre-coreneuring through their podcast, through which they interviews the founders and leaders of C-Suite about less known elements of constructing the company-as accounting, business law and team formation.

Since the beginning of the series, over 32,000 messages between “friends” have been mentioned within the test phases. The initial goal of the application is the entrepreneurs market. Despite this, the founders hope to develop in finance, dating, education and health – ultimately striving to construct probably the most available warm network on the earth.

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(Tagstranslate) VC (T) Yale (T) Venture Capital (T) Technology (T) APP

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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