General Motors CEO Mary Barra is “pretty confident” that the driver will be out of Cruise vehicles by 2022, as the company looks to enter early commercial operations for autonomous robotaxi and delivery services. Her comments reiterate a timeline outlined earlier this month by Cruise CEO Dan Ammann at the automaker’s investor day. The guidance […]
Smart Eye’s latest acquisition points to consolidation among driver monitoring system suppliers
Smart Eye, a supplier of driver monitoring systems for automakers, has agreed to acquire human behavior software company iMotions for $46.6 million just five months after it snapped up emotion-detection software startup Affectiva. Smart Eye, a publicly traded Swedish company, said Tuesday this is a cash-and-stock deal. Smart Eye will provide $23.2 million (200 million Swedish […]
UK driver shortage could steer grocery retailers toward bigger profits
The increasing prices as a result of today’s driver shortage could create a far more profitable e-grocery opportunity for British retailers by driving click-and-deliver customers to click-and-collect.
India’s Chalo acquires Amazon-backed bus aggregator Shuttl
Chalo, a startup that is digitizing bus commutes in India and which recently raised $40 million in a financing round, has acquired Amazon-backed app-based office commute bus aggregator Shuttl in an all-cash deal, the two said on Tuesday. Chalo founder and chief executive Mohit Dubey said the acquisition of Shuttl, which operates thousands of buses […]
Tesla Surpasses $1 Trillion Market Cap
Tesla’s market valuation hit and then surpassed the $1 trillion mark Monday, a milestone reached by the company 11 years after it became a publicly traded company. It also puts Tesla in select company with Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, all of whi…
Tesla surpasses $1 trillion market value
Tesla’s market valuation hit and then surpassed the $1 trillion mark Monday, a milestone reached by the company 11 years after it became a publicly traded company. It also puts Tesla in select company with Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, all of which have market caps above $1 trillion. Tesla met the $1 trillion market […]
NTSB chair calls on Elon Musk to change design of Tesla Autopilot
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy has called on Tesla to change the design of its advanced driver assistance system to ensure it cannot be misused by drivers, according to a letter sent to the company’s CEO Elon Musk. The letter, which TechCrunch has viewed, expressed concern that Tesla has yet to implement two […]
Tier scoots off with ‘first close’ of its $200M Series D
Berlin-based e-scooter rentals company Tier Mobility has announced what it’s billing as the “first close” of a $200 million Series D, as investors continue to plough money into urban micromobility. Today’s announcement follows a $60M debt raise this summer, and a $250M Series C last November (led by SoftBank). It’s not clear from its PR […]
Elon Musk rolls back newest ‘Full Self-Driving’ beta due to software issues
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company has temporarily pulled back the latest version of the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software less than a day after its release. “Seeing some issues with 10.3, so rolling back to 10.2 temporarily,” Musk tweeted on Sunday. “Please note, this is to be expected with beta software. It […]
Top highlights from Xpeng’s 2021 Tech Day
Chinese smart electric vehicle startup Xpeng has announced a series of innovations that direct the company towards crafting the mobility ecosystem of the future. “Our exploration of more efficient, safer, carbon-neutral mobility solutions goes far beyond just smart EVs, and is the cornerstone of our long-term competitive advantages,” said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of […]