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Lucid Motors delivered a shock this week when it introduced that CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson was resigning. Hypothesis concerning the departure, which incorporates vacating a board seat, was amplified when Rawlinson didn’t attend the fourth-quarter earnings name.
Senior reporter Sean O’Kane has all the small print, together with how the EV maker carried out, who’s filling the highest spot (for now), and what the corporate’s objectives are transferring ahead. Rawlinson can be round in some capability, though it must be famous that he is not going to be there each day, nor will he have any decision-making authority. The corporate mentioned he’ll function “strategic technical adviser” to Turqi Alnowaiser, who’s chairman of the board and a high govt at Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — Lucid’s majority proprietor.
So the place does Lucid go from right here? It must promote extra EVs — particularly its new Gravity SUV — and cut back prices. That’s no small feat, particularly contemplating Lucid can also be growing a brand new midsize automobile platform (extra $$$) that’s anticipated to launch on the finish of 2026.
Earlier than we soar into the remainder of the information, I wished to spotlight an article about Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen and a collection of recent merchandise and options that the freight forwarding and logistics startup is rolling out. Many of those new merchandise use AI, which isn’t what caught my eye.
It’s the tempo of the rollout. Petersen advised TechCrunch that is the primary in a collection of semi-annual bulletins of this sort — à la Airbnb. Petersen mentioned Airbnb founder Brian Chesky’s speak about founder mode is what impressed the technique. The viral second for “founder mode,” which was fueled by Paul Graham’s essay, is perhaps over. However Petersen’s newest transfer reveals this administration technique isn’t fading anytime quickly.
Somewhat chicken
Bear in mind the massive spherical of Cruise layoffs that occurred earlier this month? For many who don’t, father or mother firm GM introduced it might slash Cruise’s workforce by practically 50%. The stays of Cruise are supposed to maneuver beneath father or mother firm Common Motors because the automaker directs its sources towards bettering its hands-free driver-assistance system Tremendous Cruise — and finally rolling out private autonomous automobiles.
Some little birds advised us a couple of extra layoffs have occurred because the preliminary spherical, particularly that the Cruise advertising crew — about eight individuals — has been dismissed. We hear that finance and authorized departments will seemingly observe as soon as the transition is full.
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Offers!
Let’s begin with the transportation-adjacent world of supply. Final month, Dutch meals supply big Simply Eat Takeaway offered off Grubhub for $650 million, a fraction of the $7.3 billion valuation the supply startup had when it was acquired in 2020. Now, Simply Eat Takeaway is the one being wolfed up.
International tech firm Prosus reached an settlement to purchase Simply Eat Takeaway for €4.1 billion in money. If the deal is accomplished, Prosus will develop into the fourth largest meals supply group globally.
Different offers that received my consideration …
AIRO Group, an aerospace and protection firm based mostly in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., filed for an estimated $100 million IPO. The corporate plans to record on the Nasdaq alternate.
Circuit, a short-trip, electrical shuttle options startup, raised $17 million as a part of a Sequence B spherical. Personal funding agency MKB, in addition to present buyers Tribeca Enterprise Companions and Affect Engine, participated.
Donut Lab, a subsidiary of Verge Bikes growing electrical motors and different associated know-how, raised €15 million. The corporate’s anchor investor is Risto Siilasmaa, founding father of cybersecurity corporations F-Safe and WithSecure and former chairman of Nokia’s board. Siilasmaa may even be a part of Donut Lab’s board.
Gozem, an African startup that provides ride-hailing, commerce, automobile financing, and digital banking throughout Togo, Benin, Gabon, and Cameroon through its app, raised $30 million in a Sequence B funding spherical. The spherical, which incorporates $15 million in fairness and $15 million in debt, was led by SAS Transport Companies Companies and Al Mada Ventures.
Vidyut, a Bengaluru, India-based startup that gives financing for industrial and passenger EVs, raised $2.5 million from Flourish Ventures.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous automobiles
AAA launched its annual survey that’s designed to gauge client curiosity and acceptance of superior driver-assistance techniques and robotaxis. TL;DR: Enthusiasm for self-driving automobiles is low — simply 13% of surveyed drivers think about it a precedence, a lower from 18% in 2022. And it appears many usually are not interested by utilizing them, both, with 53% saying they’d not select to journey in a single. In the meantime, curiosity in ADAS is excessive, particularly round options like Automated Emergency Braking.
Avride autonomous sidewalk supply robots have made it to Japan. The Yandex spinout has launched industrial operations in central Tokyo with a fleet of about 10 robots.
Electrical automobiles, charging, & batteries
Aston Martin lower 170 jobs and pushed again plans to launch an EV (will it ever occur?). The corporate will as an alternative work on an ultra-luxury hybrid mannequin.
Final week, I highlighted Sean’s article that appeared into how and who organized the Tesla Takeover motion, which led to protests at Tesla showrooms in dozens of U.S. cities. Now it appears the Tesla Takeover motion is gaining some traction. The query is how lengthy it’s going to persist and whether or not it’s going to have an effect on Tesla’s backside line as protestors hope.
Vary Power, a startup that developed electrified semitrailers, is shuffling its govt deck. Founder and CEO Ali Javidan is transferring into the president and CTO function, the corporate advised TechCrunch. Jon Foster, the previous CFO of Zoox who helped architect the autonomous automobile firm’s acquisition by Amazon, is Vary’s new CEO.
Way forward for flight
Joby Aviation launched its earnings and right here’s what we all know. The electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown startup says it’s on monitor to ship an plane to Dubai by mid-2025, when it’s going to reveal the automobile’s readiness to hold passengers. The corporate now has 5 plane in its check fleet and made progress on stage 4 of sort certification. Joby mentioned it expects to undergo the ultimate step of the FAA certification course of throughout the subsequent 12 months. However that is an costly pursuit: Joby’s web loss for 2024 was $608 million.
In-car tech
4 years in the past, Google was hit with a €100 million antitrust superb by Italy’s competitors authority for refusing to let a third-party electrical car-charging app developed by Enel combine with its Android Auto platform. Senior reporter Natasha Lomas wrote a couple of new ruling by the Courtroom of Justice of the European Union that affirmed the watchdog group’s view that Google’s preliminary block can represent antitrust abuse.
The upshot? The CJEU judgment units out situations for tech giants in terms of interoperability that would have wider applicability for app makers looking for to plug their wares into key platforms.
This week’s wheels
Nothing this week, however keep tuned.
What’s “This week’s wheels”? It’s an opportunity to study concerning the totally different transportation merchandise we’re testing, whether or not it’s an electrical or hybrid automobile, an e-bike, or perhaps a journey in an autonomous automobile.
