TechCrunch Mobility: Google’s Gemini is coming to your car, chaos comes for Luminar, and the Amazonification of Uber 2.0

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OK, who placed their stake connected General Motors being the landing spot for Aurora co-founder and main merchandise serviceman Sterling Anderson? Not me. But present we are. A fewer days aft Anderson announced his resignation from his presumption and the committee astatine Aurora, helium spoke to maine astir his next gig arsenic main merchandise officer astatine GM. In short, helium volition oversee the full merchandise enactment of GM’s gas-powered and electrical vehicles — a presumption that volition screen the full beingness rhythm of GM’s portfolio and see hardware, software, services, and idiosyncratic experience.

Anderson couldn’t accidental excessively much; plus, helium hasn’t started the occupation yet. Anderson did accidental helium wouldn’t person taken the caller occupation if Aurora had yet to motorboat its commercial self-driving motortruck service successful Texas. 

Let’s leap into the remainder of the news. 

A small bird

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

In an perfectly chaotic crook of events, Luminar’s laminitis Austin Russell appears to person been pushed retired arsenic CEO and committee chair. You tin read my sum here, which provides a spot of an overview of however this unfolded, but I cognize determination is truthful overmuch much to this story. TL;DR: If you were to lone work Luminar’s Q1 net report, you would presume Russell was inactive astatine the helm. A abstracted property release, released arsenic the company’s net went out, announced a enactment alteration and that Russell had resigned pursuing an morals enquiry from the board’s audit committee. 

Here’s what I’m proceeding from a fewer small birds. The connection “blindsided” came up much than once, and the chaos isn’t over. Luminar committee subordinate Jun Hong Heng, who is laminitis and main concern serviceman astatine Crescent Cove Advisors and a mentor of Russell’s, resigned a time later. Heng was besides connected the audit committee. 

Got a extremity for us? Email Kirsten Korosec astatine kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com oregon my Signal astatine kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane astatine sean.okane@techcrunch.com oregon Rebecca Bellan astatine rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or cheque retired these instructions to larn however to interaction america via encrypted messaging apps oregon SecureDrop.

Deals!

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

Aurora has had an unusual mates of weeks filled with highs — driverless commercialized work woohoo! — and twists — whoops, there goes a co-founder. To headdress things off, Uber announced plans to offer $1 cardinal successful exchangeable elder notes owed successful 2028 successful backstage placement. As you mightiness expect, stocks dropped aft investors got spooked astir imaginable dilution and what this mightiness mean for the worth of Aurora’s stock. 

Other deals that got my attraction …

AutoUnify, the latest startup that has launched retired of the Up.Labs-Porsche partnership, raised $5 million successful effect money. The Santa Monica, California-based startup, which built an API to let dealerships and work shops to pass successful existent clip with the manufacturers and bundle vendors that powerfulness their operations, has been operating softly for astir 9 months.

Chinese artillery shaper CATL is acold from a startup. But it’s worthy noting this bananas IPO plan. The institution wants to rise astatine slightest HK$31.01 cardinal — that’s conscionable shy of $4 billion — successful its Hong Kong listing. This is the largest listing globally successful 2025. 

Here’s a potential woody that has raised immoderate eyebrows. Federal railroad regulators are successful talks with Elon Musk’s tunneling firm, The Boring Company, implicit a multibillion-dollar Amtrak project.

Flock Freight, the shared truckload freight brokerage based successful California, raised $60 million successful a Series E backing circular led by O’Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, SignalFire, GLP Capital Partners, and Bracket Capital besides participated.

Notable reads and different tidbits

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

Autonomous vehicles

Tesla’s program to motorboat a robotaxi work successful Austin adjacent period has caught the attraction of national information investigators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation sent the institution a elaborate database of questions connected its upcoming robotaxi work arsenic portion of an probe into however the company’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” bundle operates successful low-visibility conditions.

Recalls are starting to popular up much successful the AV sector. Last week it was Zoox. Now Waymo has issued a bundle recall connected 1,200 self-driving vehicles aft immoderate of its robotaxis were progressive successful insignificant collisions with gates, chains, and different gate-like roadway objects. 

WeRide seems to beryllium trying to ramp successful Guangzhou. The Chinese institution said it has introduced eight autonomous robotaxi aviator cognition routes successful the cardinal portion of the city. The institution has besides started trialing afloat driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi.

Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries

General Motors has been moving connected a new artillery chemistry called lithium manganese-rich, which it says should slash costs portion delivering driving range. Notably, these LMR batteries dramatically trim the magnitude of nickel and cobalt compared with GM’s astir precocious cells, 2 captious minerals that aren’t readily disposable from home sources successful the United States.

A footnote successful Lucid’s caller Q1 regulatory filing gives a spot much penetration into its income numbers. The EV maker’s grounds 4th got a assistance from rental income and institution leases.

Slate Auto has racked up more than 100,000 reservations for its customizable low-cost electrical pickup truck. 

Everyone, let’s springiness a dilatory clap to Toyota for redesigning — and much importantly, renaming — its sole all-electric conveyance for the U.S. market. The EV, erstwhile called the bZ4X, volition present simply beryllium bZ. The archetypal bZ4X was not good received. I’m looking guardant to getting down the instrumentality to spot what improvements Toyota has made. Meanwhile, Toyota has brought backmost the C-HR nameplate, but this clip arsenic an EV. Hopefully this clip it’s much successful. It arrives successful the U.S. successful 2026.

Gig economy

Three years ago, newsman Rebecca Bellan noted that Uber was going done an Amazonification. Her transportation was that the company, similar Amazon, had created a closed concern loop to provender customers backmost into different Uber channels. The second portion of that improvement has started, she reported this week. Uber appears to beryllium moving beyond its absorption connected proscription and moving to go a convenient ace app, an aggregator of services, a daily-use manner level with its champion offerings tucked down a paywall. 

Future of flight

U.S. lawmakers introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act successful a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year prohibition connected supersonic flight implicit U.S. soil. The timing could beryllium important for startup Boom Supersonic, which has made advancement successful processing next-generation supersonic aircraft 

Vertical Aerospace announced a program to make a hybrid-electric variant of its VX4, suggesting the institution is pursuing opportunities successful defence and logistics. 

In-car tech

Apple’s adjacent procreation of its fashionable CarPlay infotainment bundle is yet launching. Reminder: It was archetypal announced 3 years ago. The caller version, called CarPlay Ultra, volition marque its debut connected caller Aston Martin vehicles successful the U.S. and Canada. 

Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to each cars that enactment Android Auto successful the adjacent fewer months. Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Cars, said Gemini volition aboveground successful the Android Auto acquisition in 2 main ways.