Transportation

Waymo begins offering robotaxi rides in Austin to certain members of the public

Waymo has gotten one step closer to a commercial launch in Austin by early 2025. This week, the company will open its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to certain members of the public in the city as it gears up to partner with Uber next year. The initial riders will have 24/7 access to the service […]

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TuSimple founder Xiaodi Hou is back with a new autonomous truck startup

Two years ago, Xiaodi Hou was ousted from his position as CEO of TuSimple, an autonomous trucking startup he co-founded that has since shut down U.S. operations and delisted from the stock exchange — and, in an odd twist, the company has pivoted to AI animation and gaming in China.  Now Hou is back with

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Toyota pours another $500M into electric air taxi startup Joby Aviation

Toyota is doubling down on Joby Aviation with a $500 million investment into the California-based company that’s developing electric air taxis. Toyota’s total investment in Joby, which includes a $394 million capital injection back in 2020, is now $894 million. The funds will be used to help Joby complete the lengthy Type 2 certification process

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The complete agenda for the Disrupt Stage at Disrupt 2024

Get ready for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, our signature event for startups of all stages, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. This year, we’re expecting a massive turnout of 10,000+ leaders from the startup, VC, and broader tech community. As part of the program, we’re thrilled to unveil the complete agenda

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Ford cuts price of BlueCruise hands-free driving feature

Ford is slashing both the monthly and annual cost of its hands-free driver assistance feature, BlueCruise, for new and existing owners in response to “customer and dealer” feedback, the company tells TechCrunch. The automaker announced Tuesday that it will now charge $49.99 per month or $495 annually for BlueCruise, which allows drivers to take their

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Tier becomes Dott following the merger of the two micromobility companies

Tier and Dott, two leading European scooter- and bike-sharing services, are becoming one service called Dott. The two startups have already laid out plans to merge and form a single company back in January 2024. With this merger, the companies didn’t want to build a conglomerate of micromobility services; the operation was all about scale.

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Cruise gets $1.5 million penalty for keeping pedestrian crash details from safety regulator

General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise must pay a $1.5 million penalty to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after its initial reports to the safety regulator about last year’s pedestrian crash omitted that the company’s robotaxi dragged the woman 20 feet. The penalty is part of a consent order announced by the regulator on Monday.

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A Waymo robotaxi stalled in front of VP Harris’ motorcade

A Waymo robotaxi got stuck making a U-turn in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ motorcade Friday evening in San Francisco.  ABC 7 reported that a San Francisco police officer had to manually drive the vehicle out of the way.  Waymo has not yet responded to TechCrunch’s questions, including what went wrong on the backend

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Tesla’s Cybertruck gets Supervised Full Self-Driving

Tesla’s end-of-September deadline for bringing Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) to Cybertruck owners has arrived. In typical Tesla fashion, the superfans are getting first access. Members of the Cybertruck Owners Club say they’ve been able to install the FSD update on their vehicles, according to Electrek. FSD is Tesla’s advanced driving assistance system that still requires

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A Russian warlord said he’s taking Cybertrucks into Ukraine; some experts think that’s unwise

In August, a Russian warlord posted a video on Telegram, showing a pair of Cybertrucks patrolling a road in Chechnya, armed seemingly with heavy machine guns. Leaving aside unanswerable (for now) questions about how the vehicles were obtained, Wired thought it worth digging into whether a Cybertruck actually makes sense as a “technical,” the term

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