Travis Kalanick’s return proves it really is 2016 again

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Uber’s co-founder and former CEO who resigned in 2017 after a string of controversies is back andbuilding a robotics companycalledAtoms.

And, wait for it, he is on the precipice of acquiringPronto, the autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining sites that was created by his former Uber colleague,Anthony Levandowski.

Kalanick revealed he is already the “largest investor” in Pronto.

That is a lot to digest and the final sign that, yes, we really are back in 2016.

For those who may not remember, 2016 was a hyped year for AVs.

Uber acquired Levandowski’s startup Otto — a deal that went sideways almost immediately and resulted in Waymo suing the ride-hailing company for trade secret theft.

Now, back to our original programming.

Just last week I waxed on aboutRivianand the EV maker’s bid to make the upcoming R2 SUV one of the fastest vehicle launches in history.

ICYMI,here it is.

This week, I’m in Austin forSXSW— the annual tech meets music meets film, TV, and comedy festival.

Rivian, the headline sponsor of SXSW, used the event to share pricing and other specs of its R2.

There is still a lot to unpack and I’m still interviewing folks as I write this (including CEORJ Scaringelater today), but here is what we know.

The performance launch edition, which will be the first version of R2 on the line, will start at $57,990.

My initial article digs intowhat you getfor that price.

And senior reporter Sean O’Kane focused on the long-promised $45,000 version and why it won’t be cominguntil late 2027.

My time at SXSW with the Rivian folks has begun to reveal some of their R2 strategy.

The company is leaning heavily into experiential marketing targeted directly at its core market.

SXSW attendees in Austin, who include well-heeled tech and creative folks from all over world, are about as close as you can get to a Rivian customer archetype.

But will it work?

The EV itself is far more approachable IMO than the much larger and expensive flagship R1 truck and SUV.

The R2 also has a few items, including a new operating system, that is more powerful and capable than its pricey peer.

The operating system software, which admittedly I haven’t tested at length, is a standout improvement from the R1 in terms of computing and user interface.

For instance, the R2 has one SoC (system on chip) that runs the infotainment and handles 200 TOPS (tera operations per second) of computing on the edge.

The next-gen R1 vehicles have four SoC and do most of the computing in the cloud.

Rivian’s head of software,Wassym Bensaid, told me this edge computing matters because it allows the company to run large language models locally, which will provide much lower latency and better performance.

Another big change that I will briefly mention are the “halo wheels” on the steering wheel, which are pictured above.

These wheels give haptic feedback and let the driver quickly change the temperature, fan speed, and speaker volume without moving their hands or eyes over to the central screen.

Chief designerJeff Hammoudtold me this addressed some of the biggest requests from customers without adding a bunch of buttons.

Notably, software allows the company to add more capability to these halo wheels over time.

Lucid Motorstried to make a splash at its investor day when it showed arobotaxi conceptdesigned to be built on the company’s “midsize” EV platform.

Interim CEOMarc Winterhoffsounded declarative onstage, saying the company is “working on a dedicated Lucid Robotaxi” that would come after the midsize EVs debut.

The company later clarified to TechCrunch that there is no active development happening and that the vehicle is just a concept.

A little bird tells us the project is very new, having started only in the last two to three months, a timeline that leaves us wondering how long it would really take for Lucid Motors to put something like this on the road.

Got a tip for us?

Email Kirsten Korosec atkirsten.korosec@techcrunch.comor my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane atsean.okane@techcrunch.com.

I guess this is the Rivian issue!

Because the company has spun ANOTHER startup and raised a bunch of money to scale it up.

I’m referring toMind Robotics, an industrial robotics lab, and its$500 million Series A funding roundthat was co-led by venture firms Accel and Andreessen Horowitz.

As Sean O’Kane wrote, the financing follows a $115 million seed round that was led by Eclipse (this VC really seems to be everywhere lately) in late 2025.

Mind Robotics is now valued at around $2 billion.

Robotics was a focus of some of Rivian’s programming at SXSW, including a panel with engineer and YouTuberMark Roberand Rivian CEORJ Scaringe.

I interviewed Scaringe on the sidelines of the event and asked him about Mind Robotics and what was behind the effort.

I also asked if he plans to spin out any more companies.

Let’s just say there was a very long pause before he ultimately said, “Probably not.”
I will have a longer story about the interview soon, but one item worth mentioning is that Scaringe basically believes companies are thinking about the future of industrial robotics all wrong.

“There has been a surprising emphasis on mimicking human biomechanics, or in some cases even going further, making even more complex mechatronics.

I think what’s missed in industrial [settings] and this is one of the things we really see clearly, is the work happens with the hands,” Scaringe told me.

“So the hands are very, very important.

Everything else, from a robotic system point of view, is to get the hands to the right place.

And so the ability for the robots to do really complex motions, like, let’s say, a back flip, that actually just means the robot has a lot of unnecessary complexity in it for the vast majority of tasks and understanding.”
Other deals that got my attention this week …
Global ride-hailing companyinDriveacquiredPakistan-based quick-commerce startup Krave Mart.

The all-stock deal received approval from the Competition Commission of Pakistan, allowing the companies to proceed with the transaction, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

inDrive confirmed the acquisition but declined to disclose its financial terms.

Mirai Robotics, an Italy-based company developing autonomous maritime systems,raised $4.2 millionfrom Primo Capital, Techshop, and 40Jemz Ventures.

Surf Airplaced an orderfor 25 of Beta Technologies’ all-electric ALIA aircraft and acquired options for up to 75 more.

Bryan Reimer, an MIT research scientist who was recently on myAutonocast podcast, poses an interesting questionin a columnpublished this month: Are automated vehicles headed for the same political divide as electric cars?

Archer Aviationresponded to a lawsuitwith its own counterclaims that rival Joby Aviation allegedly defrauded the U.S.

government and its competitors by falsely presenting itself as an American-made company.

The electric air sector is getting litigious, which can be mighty distracting and expensive in this early stage of development.

Group14has started production ofsilicon battery materialsat its BAM-3 factory in South Korea.

The factory is capable of producing up to 2,000 metric tons annually, enough for 10 gigawatt-hours of energy storage, or about 100,000 long-range EVs.

Hayden AI, a startup based in San Francisco,has suedits co-founder and former CEO over allegations of serious misconduct and misuse of funds.

TheFederal Aviation AdministrationOK’deight pilot programsthat will allow a handful of companies, includingArcher Aviation,Beta Technologies,Joby Aviation, andWisk, to start widespread electric aircraft testing as early as this summer.

The three-year program will span 26 states!

Harbinger, a Los Angeles-based EV startup, revealed its second vehicle: a smaller,medium-duty work truck.

Lucid Motorsis shippingApple CarPlay and Android Autoto Gravity SUV owners.

TheNational Transportation Safety Boardreleased information that shows two drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2024 while usingFord’sBlueCruise hands-free driving systemwere likely distracted in the moments before impact.

Nuro, the Silicon Valley-based startup backed by Nvidia, Uber, and SoftBank, istesting its autonomous vehicle technologyin Japan.

Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, hasa new CEOahead of its production launch.

Former Amazon Marketplace vice president Peter Faricy now leads the company, while former CEO Christine Barman is now president of vehicles.

Teslais now an officiallylicensed utilityin the United Kingdom.

Wayveis teaming up withUber and Nissanto launch a robotaxi service in Tokyo, with a pilot scheduled for late 2026.

Uberadded Hyundai-ownedMotionalto itsgrowing robotaxi network.

Motional’s self-driving Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles now show up on the Uber app in Las Vegas.

These vehicles have human safety monitors in the car, for now.

Zooxhad a couple of announcements this week that provide a roadmap of sorts of where the Amazon-owned company wants to go.

The company has started tomap the streetsof Dallas and Phoenix, the first step before testing its autonomous vehicles in the Sun Belt cities.

It is alsopartnering withUber and will make its robotaxis available to hail on the ride-hailing app in Las Vegas later this year.

That Uber tie-up deserves an important caveat, though.

Zoox can’t deploy commercially until it gets an exemption from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for its custom-built robotaxis, which don’t have a steering wheel or other traditional controls.

That process has started.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would begin taking public comment on Zoox’s application for those exemptions.

Zoox only has an exemption to demonstrate its vehicles.