The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Just sign up here and click on “The Station” to have our newsletter delivered to your inbox every weekend. Subscribe for free. Welcome to The Station. It is the central hub for all past, present, and future means of moving people and goods from point A to point B. Hello everyone! I’m back from Chevrolet Blazer EV Press drive. Sometimes I have an idea. However, you’ll have to wait until later this week to read about it. There is one important news item that former TC contributor turned InsideEVs editor Patrick George collected during his press days that he would like to point out to you. Remember how GM I messed up my Chevy Volt and Volt EUV and after a few months I was like, “Never mind!” Are you going to bring it back to the new Ultium platform? Good. Well, we now know when it’s coming back. It will be EUV only. The small original Bolt EV is over and done with. I wonder how this will ultimately affect GM’s subsidiary Cruise, which uses a self-driving version of the Bolt. That is, if cruises resume operations in 2024. Let me share some more important items. I’m a regular at stocks podcast With TC+ Editor Alex Wilhelm and Senior Reporter Mary Ann Azevedo. You can listen to the latest episode here. And finally, we’re excited to share this: We’ve adopted Sean O’Kane As a senior reporter covering all aspects of transportation. Mr. O’Kane comes from Bloomberg via The Verge, and I can’t say enough about his investigative and storytelling abilities. He will share his email next week once he officially starts work. Please welcome him! Want to contact us with a tip, comment, or complaint? Email Kirsten at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or Rebecca at rebecca.techcrunch@gmail.com. Send your notes to tips@techcrunch.com. If you wish to remain anonymous, Click here to contact us; this includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps. This week’s sale Automakers love to talk about software-defined vehicles. But that doesn’t mean automakers eager to bring sophisticated digital platforms to their vehicles have actually realized this software-defined future. One startup is taking advantage of that demand. cubic telecomhas developed a networking system that makes it easy to connect vehicles (and other devices) to mobile networks, and has received €473 million ($513 million) from . Softbank Corp.. The deal sees SoftBank Corp. (not Vision Fund or SoftBank Group) take a 51% stake in the Dublin-based startup, valued at 927 million euros ($1 billion). Become strong. As editor Ingrid Lunden writes, this effectively makes Cubic Telecom a consolidated subsidiary of SoftBank. Barry Napier will remain CEO and become a member of the Board of Directors. Daichi Nozaki, SoftBank’s senior vice president of global business, and two other SoftBank-appointed people (names yet to be determined) will join the board, with the remaining three seats held by CARIAD (Volkswagen Group) and others. It will be occupied by Cubic Telecom’s existing investors, including Qualcomm. Another interesting note: Cubic Telecom participated in TechCrunch’s first Startup Battlefield in 2007. Other sales that caught our attention this week… AM battery, a lithium-ion dry electrode technology startup, has raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Toyota Ventures. Other new investors include Porsche Ventures, Asahi Kasei, RA Capital Management – Planetary Health, Wilson Sonsini, and Industry Ventures. Existing investors Anzu Partners, TDK Ventures, Creative Ventures, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, Foothill Ventures, and Zeon Ventures also participated. generac power systems Made a minority investment in Wallbox, an EV charging and energy management company. The undisclosed minority investment includes an additional seat on Wallbox’s board of directors and a global commercial agreement to deliver next-generation energy management systems to Generac’s residential and commercial customers. Foreteryx, which builds verification and verification solutions for testing driver assistance and autonomous vehicle systems, has raised $42 million and closed its Series C for $85 million. The entire round was led by Israel’s VC 83North, with Singapore’s Temasek and Isuzu joined by Woven Capital (Toyota’s venture fund), Nvidia, Artofin, and previous backers MoreTech, Nationwide, Volvo Group VC, Jump Capital, Next Gear Invested with Ventures and OurCrowd. The first close of this Series C was in May of this year for $43 million. stuartis a Paris-based last-mile delivery platform founded in 2015 and acquired by Munich-based private equity holding company Mutares. Terms were not disclosed. Notable reads and other trivia self-driving car of Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, American Chamber of Commerce, Alliance for Automotive Innovation sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, imploring the Department of Transportation to: Supports AV development Otherwise, we risk losing our competitiveness against China. cruise The company faces fines and sanctions for failing to disclose details of an Oct. 2 incident, specifically an incident in which one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian 20 feet, according to a California Public Utilities Commission ruling. It is said that there is a possibility of facing. The agency ordered Cruz to appear at a Feb. 6 hearing to defend himself against the charges against him. Ganesh Venkataramananwho led Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer project for the past five years. I left the company. For those unfamiliar, the Dojo supercomputer is considered a key technology supporting self-driving car efforts. kodiak robotics introduced a self-driving car that resulted from a $50 million, two-year contract signed by the U.S. Department of Defense, and more specifically the U.S. Army. If you thought it was a semi-truck, you were wrong. No, it’s a Ford F-150 pickup truck that the startup has outfitted with its own software and sensor stack. The Department of Defense uses this vehicle to test autonomous surveillance and reconnaissance missions in off-road terrain, diverse operating conditions, and GPS-challenged environments. torque robotics and uber freight We are building strategic partnerships. Under the agreement, Torc will use data from Uber Freight’s logistics network to help refine autonomous freight network design and expansion strategies. This includes learning which lanes are best for deployment and how to prioritize lane deployment and various operational design areas. Use self-driving trucks to balance supply and demand across your supply chain. There was a time when there were developers of self-driving trucks. TuSimple Not to mention investments and partnerships, it attracted a lot of attention. Those days are over, at least in the United States. The publicly traded company plans to lay off most of its U.S. employees and sell its U.S. assets as it exits the country for Asia. Approximately 150 people, or 75% of the U.S. workforce, will be laid off. The remaining 50 employees will help TuSimple scale down its U.S. operations, including asset sales, and support the company’s transition to the Asia-Pacific region. electric car, charging, battery scoutis a spin-off company of the VW Group aimed at selling EVs for North America, and is currently developing pickup trucks and SUVs.some New details revealed Ahead of its scheduled debut in Q3 2024. Stellantis Partnering with battery replacement startup enough to test the technology in a Fiat 500e city car. The companies will launch the first phase in Madrid, where 100 vehicles from Stellantis’ Free2move car-sharing service will be retrofitted to accept Ampoule’s modular batteries. TC reporter Tim de Chant thinks battery swapping could work well in vehicles, but are consumers ready for the technology? Speaking of that, fiat 500e, the compact EV will be in North American showrooms in the first quarter of 2024, starting with a production red model in collaboration with the AIDS prevention organization co-founded by U2’s Bono. TC reporter Hari Weber calls the Fiat 500e the anti-Cybertruck. Will Americans buy it? Another Stellantis item. The automaker will temporarily reduce one shift at its Detroit assembly plant, which produces Jeep sport utility vehicles, due to California emissions regulations. What kind of relationship is there?Stellantis sent a petition It opposes the California Framework Agreement signed in 2019 with four automakers (BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen). Stellantis says framework companies can use gross EV sales to comply with state emissions regulations, while other OEMs can only use sales generated in states that comply with CARB regulations. claims. As a result, Stellantis, which includes the Jeep brand, has an excess inventory of plug-in hybrids in California. Therefore, production will be reduced. Tesla’s The lowest-priced vehicles, rear-wheel-drive Model 3s, will no longer receive the full $7,500 federal tax credit starting next year. Tesla isn’t the only company…
Source: techcrunch.com
