TechCrunch Mobility: Robotaxi expansions that really matter

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It seems like not a day goes by that Waymo doesn’t announce some kind of expansion. Detroit, Las Vegas, Nashville, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. are just a few of the cities where the company plans to deploy robotaxis in the coming months. However, as I have argued before in this newsletter, there is another “extension” that I think is more important.

highway.

Now, after years of testing and development, the company’s commercial robotaxi service is plying highways around the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

This is a significant expansion for the company. It’s the connective tissue of concrete and asphalt in vast metropolitan areas like the Bay Area. This new freeway access is facilitating Waymo’s expansion in the 260-square-mile region, which currently includes Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

Robotaxi ride routes will also become more efficient. Waymo says it can cut ride times by up to 50%.

Freeway access is also essential to offering rides to and from the San Francisco airport, which Waymo is currently testing.

This highway-to-airport moment could be a huge opening for Waymo. But will it be enough to achieve profitability? I can’t say anything until someone slides me a balance sheet. It will definitely be a popular choice for travelers. That doesn’t mean the economy will take off.

Read more news on Einride’s SPAC bid, the Harbinger-Teradar deal, how Via survived its first earnings, and the impending closure of Rad Power Bikes. plus! Scroll down to see the results of the Tesla poll.

small bird

It’s been about nine months since Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson abruptly resigned, leaving the company without a permanent replacement. But that may be about to change.

A few birds told us that Lucid Motors is focusing on candidates for top roles. You would expect it to be someone outside the organization, which is probably not surprising. In August, we shared here that the company and the executive recruiting firm it uses had cast a very wide net, even soliciting some candidates. This will likely mean interim CEO Mark Winterhoff will return to the COO role he held before Rawlinson’s departure.

Any tips? 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!

Another SPAC enters the AV world! Mergers with special acquisition companies may not be officially back, but they’re certainly popular among self-driving car companies.

Einride, the Swedish electric self-driving truck startup, plans to go public through a merger with a special acquisition vehicle, just six weeks after raising $100 million from investors. The SPAC and Legato Merger Corp. merger values ​​Einride’s pre-money capital at $1.8 billion.

Einride does generate revenue, which may sound obvious, but there have been a number of transportation companies that have SPACed in recent years before generating revenue.

For now, the company’s main sources of revenue come from its software-as-a-service products and its fleet of 200 heavy-duty electric trucks used by companies like Heineken and PepsiCo. The autonomous pod-like truck with its unusual appearance is still in pilot mode.

The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2026, and Einride plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

Other sales that caught our attention this week…

Fortera, a company developing autonomous technology for defense, has raised $238 million in equity and debt. Moore Strategic Ventures led the equity portion of the financing, and Crescent Cove provided debt financing.

Gopuff, a quick delivery startup, has raised $250 million in a round led by Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity Partners. Baillie Gifford, co-founder of Robinhood, Equalis Capital, George Ruan, Yakir Gabay, and Gopuff. According to Bloomberg, the funding is valued at $8.5 billion, a significant discount from the company’s previous funding in 2021.

Los Angeles-based electric truck startup Harbinger has raised $160 million in a Series C funding round co-led by FedEx. As part of the investment, FedEx has ordered 53 Harbinger electric truck chassis.

UK-based electric vehicle leasing business Octopus Electric Vehicles has signed a deal with financial institutions including Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley and Credit Agricole for a total funding commitment of 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), Sky News reported.

Teradar, a Boston-based startup developing solid-state sensors, has raised $150 million in a Series B funding round from investors at Capricorn Investment Group, the venture arm of Lockheed Martin, mobility-focused firm Ibex Investors, and VXI Capital, a new defense-focused fund led by the former CTO of the U.S. Army’s Defense Innovation Unit.

Upway, an electric bike retrofit startup, has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by AP Moller. Galvanize, Ora Global and Sequoia Capital also participated. The company has raised more than $125 million since its founding in 2021.

Vay, a German startup that remotely dispatches rental cars to customers, has announced a $60 million investment from Singapore tech giant Grab. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the year, after which it could be supplemented with “an additional $350 million if joint milestones are achieved within one year.”

Notable reads and other trivia

Ford is expanding the availability of its BlueCruise hands-free highway driving technology in Europe. The automaker plans to make the system available in several vehicles from spring 2026, including Puma, Puma Gen-E, Kuga and Ranger PHEV 5 models.

Joby Aviation has conducted the first flight of a turbine-electric autonomous VTOL aircraft. Although this demonstration aircraft is built on that platform, it should not be confused with an all-electric air taxi. The aircraft has a hybrid turbine powertrain and is designed for defense applications.

Lyft has partnered with Curb, a ride-hailing platform for licensed taxis. The deal will connect Lyft riders to Curb’s driver network through an integration with the Curb Flow platform, which is already in Los Angeles. Other cities will soon follow.

It might not be long before Rad Power Bikes, one of the most popular electric bike companies, takes hold in this world. The company informed employees that if it can’t find new funding or isn’t acquired, it will shut down in January, according to internal staff emails seen by TechCrunch.

Tesla may introduce Apple CarPlay to its EVs. But should you do that at this point? Meanwhile, the company’s energy storage division is working to expand its recall of its consumer product, the Powerwall 2, following reports of fires.

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company is once again under intense scrutiny. This time, it’s because of reports that firefighters conducting safety training at one of The Boring Company’s construction sites in Las Vegas suffered burns from chemicals used in the tunneling process. And the controversy doesn’t stop there.

Toyota has begun production at its new $13.9 billion battery factory in North Carolina. Toyota has several facilities in the United States, but this will be the first time it will build a battery factory outside of Japan. And it’s not done investing in the U.S. yet. The company said it plans to invest up to $10 billion more than previously expected over the next five years.

Uber has quietly begun testing in-app video recording for drivers in India. The ride-hailing company is also trying to attract more premium customers through new initiatives like Uber Ski, which lets customers pre-book vehicles to about 40 popular ski destinations in North America and Europe, including Vail, Colorado, and Park City, Utah.

Via made a profit for the first time since becoming a public company, but lo and behold, it lost money. The high-tech transportation software company reported a loss of $36.9 million in the third quarter, an increase of 73% from the year-ago period. Revenue increased 11% year over year to $713 million.

One more thing…

Remember last week’s newsletter poll? I asked which product goal Tesla is most likely to achieve by 2035? These options are based on the actual goals laid out in Musk’s $1 trillion compensation package.

20 million Tesla cars delivered 10 million active fully self-driving subscriptions 1 million robots delivered 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation None of these will be achieved.

And you are divided into two choices. One is for Tesla to deliver 20 million vehicles, which received 34.7% of the vote, and “None of these will be achieved”, which received 32% of the vote.

One item you seem to agree on is that Tesla is unlikely to achieve the other three goals. Approximately 9.5% of readers selected the 1 million robots option, 12.6% selected the 10 million active fully self-driving subscription, and 10.5% selected the 1 million robotaxis that will be in commercial operation within 10 years.

Note: If you would like to participate in the survey, sign up for the Mobility Newsletter here.