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tesla is back in the news cycle and our crystal ball says it's one of those long-term issues. The week began with layoffs (about 10% of its 140,000-plus workforce) and CEOs. Elon Musk declaring that he was going x.com/elonmusk/status/1780376546148327690″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>”balls to the wall” about autonomy. It ended with a Cybertruck recall. Cool cool.
There's a lot more to the newsletter than just Tesla, though before we continue, check out Sean O'Kane scoop on the company's 1,800-mile Tesla Semi charging corridor program. Read on to catch up Serve robotics Debut on the public market, a week of ups and downs for Waymoand more.
Come on!
a little bird
While much of our focus is on startups and Silicon Valley, we have some small birds in Washington, D.C.
A little bird recently told us that federal regulators are about to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on autonomous vehicle regulations, which would be the first set of proposed federal barriers to the industry.
Our source said that Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which regulates commercial vehicles in the US, should have a proposal this summer, at the latest in the fall. We're told that the federal ruling on autonomous vehicles will likely set a minimum safety standard for autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads, but that state governments could enforce stricter regulations within their own borders. We've been hearing about discussions and plans around federal AV regulations for years. Have we finally started to move forward? We will see.
Do you have a suggestion for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O'Kane at [email protected] or Rebeca Bellan at [email protected]. If you prefer to remain anonymous, Click here to contact uswhich includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging applications.
Offer of the week
Serve robotics, the Nvidia and Uber-backed curbside robot delivery company, hit the public markets this week via a reverse merger. Serve expects its public debut to generate around $40 million in gross revenue, funds that will go toward R&D for future robots, manufacturing of new robots, geographic expansion and more.
Serve's goal is to grow its fleet from the 100 robots deployed today in Los Angeles to 2,000 robots in multiple U.S. cities by the end of 2025, through a partnership with Uber Eats. Serve has huge revenue ambitions, with plans to generate between $60 million and $80 million in annual revenue by that same deadline. In 2023, Serve generated $207,545 in revenue with a loss of $1.5 million.
FWIW, Uber and Nvidia remain shareholders, but their shares in the company are declining with this debut. Before the IPO, Uber and Nvidia had a 16.6% and 14.3% stake, respectively. Once the offering closes, those stakes will change to 11.5% and 10.1%, for regulatory filings.
Serve's stock price was $4 at the market open on Thursday and closed that day at around $3.
Other offers that caught my attention…
Found energyA startup that uses waste aluminum to generate heat and hydrogen raised a $12 million seed round, but Tim De Chant's story about the company is much more.
Cana Turkish delivery company once worth $12 billion, is reportedly weighing asset sales and exits from secondary markets as investors push to reduce losses.
change energy, a company that creates electric vehicle charging solutions for apartment buildings, raised $27.2 million in a Series B to expand its charging network and boost the technology behind its charging and energy management solutions. Blue Earth Capital led the round with participation from Alantra's Klima Energy Transition Fund, Active Impact Investments and GIGA Investments Corp.
Notable readings and other tidbits
ADA
mobile has secured orders to ship 46 million of its EyeQ6 lightweight ADAS chips to car manufacturers in the coming years. Several models launching this year will feature the chip, which promises to offer better detection of wet roads, detection and reaction to objects at greater distances, and a better ability to read key text phrases on road signs. TechCrunch had a chance to dig deeper into this, and our main takeaway is that automakers will probably love this chip because it's more powerful than Mobileye's latest chip, but it's the same price.
autonomous vehicles
Waymo has begun data collection and initial mapping in Atlanta, the company's latest geographic victory. The Alphabet-owned company did not say whether it plans to launch in the Georgia city or any other cities it is mapping, such as Washington, D.C., and Buffalo. In addition to San Francisco, Waymo has launched commercial robotaxi services in Los Angeles and Phoenix, with Austin planned for later this year.
But with the ups, there are downs. Six Waymo vehicles were also trapped blocking traffic toward an on-ramp in San Francisco. The vehicles became trapped between a construction zone and the access ramp and had to stop while waiting to be rescued. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that while Waymo has the green light to go driverless on San Francisco freeways, the company has not yet removed the driver.
Electric vehicles, charging and batteries.
General Motors launched a home charger for electric vehicles and vehicle home (V2H) that allows a home to draw power from an electric vehicle's battery in the event of a blackout. Customers in California, Florida, Texas, Michigan and New York can shop today.
Gogorothe two-wheeler battery exchange company, and TSMC, a global semiconductor company, are partnering to introduce 15 GoStations across Taiwan that use 100% clean energy. They will also launch Gogoro scooter sharing service in TSMC's headquarters city, Hsinchu, and expand the charging network in the city.
TeslaCrunch
We've been everywhere tesla this week, so let's dive in.
The week began with company-wide layoffs affecting at least 10% of the entire 140,000-person organization, with some teams seeing 20% of their staff gutted. Two high-profile executives also left Tesla: Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and energy, and Rohan Patel, vice president of public policy and business development. Patel told TechCrunch that he left due to “(b)big overall changes” at the company that he declined to specify. In an email to the company, CEO Elon Musk said the cuts were necessary to increase productivity and prepare for Tesla's “next phase of growth.”
(Psssst! Don't you want to read about the Tesla layoffs and what's coming next? You can watch it instead.)
Many of those who were laid off, sources say, were high performers who were simply working on lower-priority projects. Tesla sources also told TechCrunch that the company made the cuts because it expects poor first-quarter earnings. Deliveries were poor and all those price cuts from last year that continued into early 2024 likely had an effect on Tesla's margins. Deliveries declined in the first quarter year over year, despite the $200,000 Tesla spent on advertising on x, according to our reports.
Perhaps that's why Tesla abandoned its EV stock price discounts this week. At x, Musk said this move was in line with Tesla's strategy to “simplify Tesla's entire sales and delivery system.”
These changes in general, and the layoffs in particular, are made more stark by Tesla's proxy statement calling on the board to reinstate Musk's $56 billion payout, which a Delaware judge voided earlier in this year. Angry, Musk threatened to reincorporate Tesla in Texas, and it appears that plan will also be presented to the board soon.
Meanwhile, on the charging front, Tesla is moving forward with its plan to build a charging corridor for large electric trucks stretching from Texas to California, despite being rejected by a lucrative federal funding program that is part of of Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill.
This week, Tesla also had to recall all 3,878 Cybertrucks it has delivered to customers to date due to faulty accelerator pedals that can get stuck. I know what you're thinking. We finally know how many Cybertrucks Tesla delivered.
This week's wheels
I've been in several new vehicles and am eager to share my thoughts, but we are also running out of space this week. In the next issues, we will have some versions of electric bicycles, the 2024 Lexus LC 500hhe Mercedes-Benz eSprinter 2024 and more.
See you next week!
