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I’m certain you might be ready to be taught the outcomes of final week’s ballot. (Reminder: Join the Mobility e-newsletter to take part in our polls!) Here’s what I requested: “What’s the finest enterprise mannequin for autonomous car tech? (Hold profitability in thoughts.)”
Far and away, readers assume longer-haul supply is the very best guess, with 40% choosing this feature. Robotaxis got here in subsequent with 25.5% of the vote, adopted by licensing tech to automakers at 19.1% and last-mile supply with 14.9%. One reader emailed to level out that I didn’t embody warehouse purposes like autonomous forklifts. The longer-haul supply class might be damaged down additional, although, and is value one other ballot, which we included on this week’s e-newsletter.
Within the lengthy record of arguments one may make to justify a $1 trillion compensation package deal, having management over a robotic military was definitely not on my thoughts. And but, that is the argument Elon Musk made throughout Tesla’s third-quarter earnings name.
Right here’s the rundown: On November 6, shareholders will vote whether or not to approve a board-endorsed compensation package deal that might grant Musk as much as 12% of Tesla’s inventory. If the corporate hits its goal market worth of $8.6 trillion, that package deal can be value about $1 trillion.
The board and Musk have spent weeks lobbying shareholders to approve the measure, at the same time as proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Companies and Glass Lewis have beneficial that buyers reject it. Musk is now in assault mode, which was on show on the finish of the earnings name when he known as the corporations company terrorists and made his closing pitch. His robotic military argument facilities on energy and management, not a lot cash. Though, hey, cash can present each.
“My largest concern line: If we construct this robotic military, do I’ve a powerful affect over that robotic military? I don’t really feel snug constructing a robotic military if I don’t have a powerful affect,” Musk mentioned through the earnings name. He was referring to Tesla’s Optimus robotic program and used it for instance of merchandise he desires full management over.
That argument will hardly persuade Musk’s critics, notably within the wake of his function as head of the Division of Authorities Effectivity. However Musk doesn’t have to persuade his rising record of critics, until, after all, they personal Tesla shares.
Picture Credit:Bryce Durbin
This week, Normal Motors dropped the ax on the BrightDrop electrical van program after 4 brief years. It was not the largest shock on this planet; in spite of everything, a whole bunch of unsold vans have been sitting untouched in heaps in Michigan and Canada for months now. (One little chicken reached out to inform us that a whole bunch of them are in rather a lot in Flint, Michigan.) GM cited a slower-than-expected marketplace for business electrical vans, however it didn’t go into element about why, precisely, BrightDrop failed so miserably.
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One other little chicken has given us a clue, although. The vans are dear however well-liked and will save fleet house owners cash over time. And electrical drivetrains are an awesome match for last-mile supply. What GM seems to have missed was the infrastructure piece, based on one insider. The corporate leaned exhausting on outdoors partnerships to construct out so-called depot charging, as a substitute of providing it as a part of the fleet purchases. That turned various potential clients away and simply typically prompted complications.
Bought a tip for us? Electronic mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Sign at kkorosec.07, or electronic mail Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Picture Credit:Bryce Durbin
The large deal this week is about EVs and AI knowledge facilities. Sure, there’s a connection.
Redwood Supplies raised $350 million in a Sequence E spherical led by enterprise agency Eclipse, and included a brand new strategic funding by Nvidia’s enterprise capital arm, NVentures. The corporate’s valuation was not disclosed, however a supply accustomed to the spherical instructed TechCrunch it was about $6 billion, a billion {dollars} larger than its earlier valuation.
The chunk of this cash goes towards Redwood’s new vitality storage enterprise, which is giving a brand new function to EV batteries it has collected and which have an excessive amount of life left to place by way of the recycling course of. The corporate ties these retired EV batteries to renewable vitality sources like wind and photo voltaic, or the grid, to energy AI knowledge facilities or industrial websites.
Different offers that bought my consideration this week …
Avride secured strategic investments and different commitments of as much as $375 million, backed by Uber and Nebius. None of those firms gave me specifics when requested if this was all fairness. One insider did say to concentrate to the “different commitments” bit, which suggests it was not a straight money injection.
Spiro, the African electrical motorcycle startup headquartered in Dubai, raised $100 million in a spherical led by the Fund for Export Improvement in Africa (FEDA), the event arm of Afreximbank. That is the most important increase ever for African e-mobility.
Picture Credit:Bryce Durbin
Normal Motors made a number of bulletins at an occasion in NYC that have been meant to point out the place it’s headed. And, sure, AI performs a central function. Earlier than AI might take the stage, GM mentioned it would overhaul {the electrical} and computational guts of its future automobiles. The corporate will roll out a brand new electrical structure and centralized computing platform in new automobiles, beginning with the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028. That basis will enable the corporate to ship sooner software program; extra succesful automated driving options, together with eyes-off driving; and a customized, conversational AI assistant.
Earnings season is upon us, and this quarter I’m expecting knowledge and government commentary that helps me perceive how tariffs and the expired EV tax credit score are affecting the automotive sector. I don’t have any clear takeaways but — and doubtless received’t till the subsequent quarter.
Tariffs are hitting, Q3 studies from GM and Ford point out. As an illustration, GM forecast that tariffs will scale back its 2025 earnings by $2.3 billion and Ford mentioned it might take a $2 billion chew out of the underside line. However each of these projections are billions of {dollars} higher than the automakers predicted earlier this yr, and the automakers hope to offset these prices. CEOs from each automakers thanked President Trump for extending a reduction measure from tariffs on automotive components sourced from Canada and Mexico.
Another GM and Ford information: Ford will proceed to pause manufacturing of its F-150 Lightning vans because it prioritizes fuel and hybrid F-Sequence variations in a bid to get better from a hearth at its major aluminum provider Nevolis. In the meantime, GM CEO Mary Barra instructed the Verge’s Decoder podcast that the corporate will drop assist for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from all of its automobiles. Oh, and late-breaking: GM has laid off 200 salaried employees from its Warren Tech Middle.
Tesla delivered a file variety of automobiles within the third quarter of 2025, outcomes buoyed by U.S. clients who took benefit of the expiring federal EV tax credit score. That didn’t translate to larger earnings. Tesla’s third-quarter revenue was $1.4 billion, 37% decrease than it was in the identical quarter final yr.
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration opened an investigation after seeing footage from early October of a Waymo autonomous car maneuvering round a stopped faculty bus that was unloading youngsters in Atlanta.
Rivian is present process a little bit of a shake-up that features slicing 600 individuals from its workforce (its third spherical of layoffs this yr), and its founder and CEO is taking over yet one more place: chief advertising officer. Rivian additionally agreed this week to pay $250 million to settle a class-action shareholder lawsuit filed after the corporate all of a sudden hiked costs on its R1 pickup truck and SUV in 2022.
In the meantime, I spent a while within the Bay Space with executives from Rivian’s micromobility spinout firm Additionally. The corporate revealed three new merchandise, and if Additionally president Chris Yu and Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe (and Additionally board member) are to be believed, there can be much more coming. For now, it’s a slick modular pedal-assist e-bike and two pedal-assist quad automobiles — the supply van model that Amazon has already agreed to purchase. The large compelling tech story right here is vertical integration and software program.
