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TechCrunch covered a couple of stories this week that illustrate the countervailing forces at play within the autonomous vehicle industry. The federal government is hitting the accelerator while state and local officials are pumping the brakes on autonomous vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made a series of autonomous vehicle technology announcements designed to cut red tape and accelerate the development and deployment of this technology (my article describes many of its actions). The one that got the most attention was the agency’s decision to give Zoox a temporary exemption from eight federal motor vehicle safety standards, which will finally allow the company to charge customers for rides in its custom-built robotaxi.
The importance of this can’t be understated. This was one of the last remaining regulatory hurdles Zoox needed to clear before launching a commercial robotaxi service. And according to the company, paid rides are imminent. The company will start charging for rides in Las Vegas first.
Meanwhile, Waymo and other robotaxi operators are facing increased scrutiny over how their autonomous vehicles interact with emergency responders, a regulatory risk that’s becoming harder for the industry to shrug off. As I have noted before, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie asked state regulators to bolster rules for autonomous vehicles nearly two weeks after Waymo robotaxis became immobile in heavy July 4 traffic, ran out of power, and blocked key streets, further compounding the gridlock.
This week, Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) proposed a bill that would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle operators.
“We have seen disturbing, and frankly, an unacceptable number of incidents where autonomous vehicles inadvertently interfere with emergency responders,” Mullin said during the press conference, which Lurie also spoke at.
So here we are, a push forward, and nope, a pull back. And in the middle is the AV industry.
What do you think? Send me an email with your view at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com.
Deals!
Lucid has landed more Saudi money, this time from Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family. The billionaire prince purchased a little more than 19 million shares, or about 5%, of Lucid Motors, according to a regulatory filing.
Elon Musk’s tunneling startup The Boring Company is in talks to raise a $4 billion funding round at a valuation of $20 billion.
Terminal, a Toronto-based startup that provides telematics data infrastructure for the commercial fleet industry, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures. New strategic investors Intact Private Capital and Penske, as well as returning backers Y Combinator and Wayfinder Ventures, also participated.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Alaska Airlines CEO and president Ben Minicucci joined Lyft’s board of directors.
The nascent on-demand drone-delivery industry had a busy week. Walmart and Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery started service across Central Florida, and Flytrex announced a partnership with autonomic logistics platform Nash. But the biggest announcement was about DoorDash, which said it was building a drone delivery business, including its own aircraft, as part of an effort developed by its robotics and autonomy team. This will eventually operate within the company’s delivery app.
Ferrari might have received a lot of hate for its first all-electric vehicle, the Luce, but the criticism didn’t dampen sales. Ferrari hit this year’s sales target for the Luce in just two months.
Florida was awarded $200 million under the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, but the money never made it to charging infrastructure for electric cars. Instead, the state is using the money to build 32 landing pads with charging stations for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs.
London is shaping up to be the next robotaxi battleground. Baidu has started testing autonomous vehicles in London as part of its partnership with Lyft and Freenow, the taxi and multi-mobility app that the ride-hailing company now owns. The companies plan to invite the public to hail their robotaxis in 2027. Meanwhile, others are also preparing to launch. In April, Waymo began testing its autonomous vehicles with human safety operators in the city. Uber and its self-driving tech partner, Wayve, also announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in London this year.
Rivian spinoff Also will finally start delivering its first e-bikes to customers next week, after months of delays related to unspecified supply chain issues.
In yet another hint that a Tesla-SpaceX merger is imminent, the EV maker is considering selling off its China business ahead of a SpaceX merger, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Tesla hit a new milestone and built its 10 millionth EV.
Waymo robotaxis started to return to freeways, more than two months after the company stopped driving these high-speed roads over concerns about how its autonomous vehicles behaved near construction zones.
One more thing …
There was a time when this newsletter was chock-full of electric vehicle news, much of it centered on ambitious plans from U.S. automakers GM and Ford. Both companies ramped up spending and formed joint ventures to build battery and EV factories, in an effort to shift their portfolios to ones filled with electric cars, trucks, and SUVs. But as those plans have retreated, so has the talk.
TechCrunch teamed up with Hudson Labs, a New York-based financial research firm, to analyze the last seven years of GM and Ford quarterly earnings calls and found that both companies are talking about EVs at a lower rate than they did before the pandemic.
The upshot: While GM and Ford still sell EVs and have new models in their product pipelines, their collective focus has shifted, and it shows in the data. Check out the story, which includes two interactive graphs.
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