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Before we jump into the news, just a quick bit of housekeeping. I’m putting “This week’s wheels” on hiatus for a few weeks as I get into more EVs, hybrids, e-bikes, and robotaxis. Stay tuned!
A little bird
Waymo reached a deal with the San Francisco Airport Commission — and by extension the city — to use its vehicles to map the airport roadways. That news received widespread coverage because of the potential for the city to eventually give Waymo permission to expand its robotaxi service to the airport. For now, this only covers mapping and the vehicles will be manually driven.
Some little birds shared with us the terms of the agreement, which include two important points. One source described these as “concessions.” And it’s likely these terms will show up in future agreements.
Waymo has agreed to data-sharing after each mapping session per vehicle, according to the agreement that TechCrunch viewed. This “data interface agreement” requires Waymo to track its vehicles as they enter and exit the airport and provide the time, geographic location, identification, trip identifier, transaction type, driver-based unique identifier, and vehicle license plate number, according to the agreement.
The agreement also prohibits Waymo from using autonomous vehicles to move commercial goods. Sure Waymo no longer has a self-driving trucks program, but language like this matters for groups like the Teamsters.
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Deals!
Just a few deals this week …
Coreshell, the battery materials startup, raised $24 million in a Series A2 round led by Ferroglobe, which is also Coreshell’s silicon supplier. Asymmetry Ventures, Estrada Ventures, Foothill Ventures, Helios Climate Ventures, Lane Venture, Translink Investment, Trousdale Ventures, and Zeon Ventures also participated.
Einride, the Swedish driverless truck startup, is in talks about filing for an IPO that could value the company at more than $5 billion, Financial Times reported.
Evera, a French EV subscription startup, raised 2 million euro from Groupe Magellim and Newfund NAEH Innopy, MCapital, AstoryaVC, and business angel Eric Ibled.
Leta, the African logistics software-as-a-service provider, raised $5 million in seed funding led by European VC firm Speedinvest. Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Equator, an Africa-focused climate tech fund, also participated.
Pulsetrain, a battery tech startup, secured €6.1 million in a seed round co-led by Vsquared Ventures and Planet. Climate Club also joined.
Seadronix, a South Korea-based autonomous ship navigation company, raised $11.3 million in a Series B funding round that included new investors LB Investment, KB Investment, and the Korea Development Bank. The fund included existing backers Wonik Investment Partners and Lighthouse Combined Investment.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Autonomous vehicles
Ever wonder what inspired Nvidia to go “all in” on self-driving cars? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang snuck in a history lesson during his GTC keynote. Speaking of Nvidia’s GTC conference, there was a bunch of AV-related announcements. Check out this roundup, which covers deals with Gatik, GM, Torc, and more.
Zoox issued a voluntary recall for 258 vehicles due to issues with its autonomous driving system that could cause unexpected hard braking.
Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries
BYD announced new EV charging technology that, if it comes to fruition, will blow away the competition and be as fast as fueling up a gas-powered car.
Honda and its luxury and performance brand Acura will gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network in June. Dig in: We have a handy roundup of all the brands that have access.
Tesla and Rivian are nailing the EV-charging experience. The two companies have the fewest problems, according to a survey by Consumer Reports. The worst: Shell’s Recharge network, EVgo, and Blink.
Meanwhile, Tesla is not doing so well with the Cybertruck — even though it continues to outsell other EV trucks. The automaker issued a recall for around 46,000 Cybertrucks sold to date because of an exterior steel trim panel on the side of the windshield that can peel off.
And finally, and still on the Tesla front, analyst Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities pleaded with Elon Musk in a note published Thursday to reduce his role working with the Department of Government Efficiency. He said Musk is facing a “moment of truth” at his EV company because of a “crisis” he’s created by spending so much time in the Trump administration.
Future of flight
Joby Aviation has partnered with Virgin Atlantic to launch electric air taxis in the U.K., marking the seventh country in which the startup hopes to one day commercialize. Reminder: We first reported on this potential partnership in our “A little bird” section last year.
In-car tech
Well, I suppose this is an in-car and out-of-the-car tech story. I’m talking about the expanded collaboration between GM and Nvidia, which was announced at the GTC conference. TL;DR: GM will work with Nvidia to build custom AI systems using several of the tech giant’s products. The idea is to bring AI to GM’s physical world of factories, robots, and cars. More details here.
Tesla received a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, news that some have conflated or inaccurately reported on. Here’s what Tesla can and cannot do with this transportation charter permit.
