TechCrunch Mobility: Uber enters asset maximization era

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Uber seems to be everywhere at once in the emerging field of self-driving technology. The Financial Times has now published the figures. The FT calculates that Uber has spent more than $10 billion to buy self-driving cars and take stakes in companies developing the technology, according to public records and discussions with people behind the scenes. About $2.5 billion of this will be direct investment, and the remaining $7.5 billion will be spent on purchasing robotaxis over the next few years, the media reported.

We’ve reported on Uber’s numerous investments and deals with self-driving car companies across the drone, robo-taxi and cargo space. Its investments include WeRide, Lucid and Nuro, Rivian, and Wayve.

This rather large number ($7.5 billion in particular) got me thinking about another transformative era in Uber’s history and how the company has visited this wealth-rich land thus far. Uber may have started out with an asset-light plan, but in the short term it did just the opposite.

Uber experienced a moonshot-like growth from 2015 to 2018. The company launched an electric air taxi developer, Uber Elevate, and an in-house autonomous vehicle division, Uber ATG, which was further strengthened by its acquisition of Otto in 2016. It also acquired micromobility startup Jump in 2018.

And in 2020, Uber retired its asset-heavy ripcord, ostensibly leaving all those moonshots behind. Uber sold Uber ATG to Aurora, Jump to Lime, and Elevate to Joby Aviation. However, it was not completely sold. He continued to hold shares in all of them.

Uber is now entering a new era of different asset focus. Although we don’t spend millions or even billions of dollars developing technology in-house, I think people will quickly notice that there is always research and development going on at Uber. Instead, they seem to be focused on owning (or leasing) physical assets.

That could mean some interesting items on Uber’s balance sheet in the future.

Owning a fleet of robotaxis built by other companies may not have been Uber’s original vision, and former CEO Travis Kalanick says the company made a mistake in abandoning its AV development program. But this new approach could reach the same end point.

small bird

Earlier this month, I interviewed Jiten Behl, a partner at Eclipse, about the venture firm’s new $1.3 billion fund and where the money is headed. As I wrote, the company intends to incubate more startups (it was also behind the Rivian spinout, for example). Bale wouldn’t go into details, only saying, “We’re definitely looking at some really great ideas.” He also said Eclipse is particularly interested in startups that operate across the enterprise.

Thanks to a little bird and some document research by senior reporter Sean O’Kane, a seed round announcement appears to be imminent for a San Francisco-based startup developing a self-driving car that we’ve heard doesn’t have a cab. This seems similar to what Einride has built, but we haven’t seen it yet, so we’ll have to wait.

The company’s membership isn’t particularly large, but it’s chock-full of Silicon Valley’s tech elite, including founders who previously worked at Uber ATG, Pronto, and Waabi. Please look forward to future updates.

Have a tip? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.Korosec@techcrunch.com, email my Signal at korosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Great deal!

Slate is back with more capital as it prepares to begin production of its first affordable pickup truck by the end of 2026.

The electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos has raised another $650 million in a Series C funding round led by TWG Global. Please continue to pay attention to TWG. The company is run by Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners (and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers), and investor Thomas Tull.

As TechCrunch first reported last year, Slate has raised about $1.4 billion to date, with previous investors including General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co., and former Amazon executive Diego Piacentini.

Other sales that caught my attention…

Glydways, a San Francisco-based startup developing personal autonomous pods designed to operate in 2-meter-wide private lanes in urban areas, has raised $170 million in a Series C funding round co-led by Suzuki Motor Corporation, ACS Group, and Khosla Ventures. Existing investors Mitsui Chemicals and Gates Frontier and new investor Obayashi Corporation also participated. But wait, that’s not all.

The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, said GM and Ford are talking with the Pentagon about overhauling military procurement programs and whether the auto industry could help find ways to buy vehicles, munitions and other hardware more cheaply and quickly.

San Francisco-based startup Loop has raised $95 million in a Series C funding round led by Valor Equity Partners and Valor Atreides AI Fund, which also includes investments from 8VC, Founders Fund, Index Ventures, and JPMorgan’s late-stage fund Growth Equity Partners.

Monarch Tractor, a startup developing electric autonomous tractors, has (well) moved on to other pastures. The startup’s assets were acquired by Caterpillar after it struggled to pivot into a software services business.

The Financial Times reported that Uber will increase its stake in Delivery Hero by 4.5%. Uber has agreed to buy approximately 270 million euros of stock from Prosus, a Dutch investment group and Delivery Hero’s largest shareholder.

Notable reads and other trivia

Doug Field, a prominent executive who has shaped Ford’s electric vehicle and technology strategy over the past five years, is stepping down. Notably, Ford is also revamping its organization, creating a “product creation and industrialization” team led by COO Kumar Galhotra. Any predictions about where Field will go next? Perhaps he’ll return to Silicon Valley.

All-electric RV startup Lightship is expanding its Colorado factory by an additional 44,000 square feet, allowing it to quadruple its manufacturing capacity.

Rivian and battery recycling and materials startup Redwood Materials partnered several years ago. We are now seeing the fruits of that relationship. Redwood is installing battery energy storage at its Rivian plant in Illinois. What about the prey? Redwood uses 100 Second Life Rivian battery packs, which provide 10 megawatt hours (MWh) of deliverable energy and reduce costs and grid loads during peak demand periods.

Tesla has created a new self-driving app that allows owners to subscribe to its fully self-driving software and easily see statistics on how and how often they use it. This may not be big news, but it caught my eye because of the game nature of these new stats.

As always, Waymo has some news this week. The Alphabet company has begun testing self-driving cars on public roads in London. The company also removed waiting lists to expand its robotaxi service in two cities: Miami and Orlando.

One more thing…

This newsletter isn’t the only project of mine that leans heavily toward robotics. My podcast, Autonocast, is no different, as it brings together the worlds of self-driving cars, AI, and robotics. Check out our interview with Adrian MacNeil, founder of Foxglove, who previously worked at Cruise.