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OK, who positioned their wager on Basic Motors being the touchdown spot for Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson? Not me. However right here we’re. A number of days after Anderson introduced his resignation from his place and the board at Aurora, he spoke to me about his subsequent gig as chief product officer at GM. Briefly, he’ll oversee the complete product line of GM’s gas-powered and electrical automobiles — a place that may cowl the complete life cycle of GM’s portfolio and embrace {hardware}, software program, companies, and consumer expertise.
Anderson couldn’t say an excessive amount of; plus, he hasn’t began the job but. Anderson did say he wouldn’t have taken the brand new job if Aurora had but to launch its business self-driving truck service in Texas.
Let’s bounce into the remainder of the information.
A bit chicken
In a fully wild flip of occasions, Luminar’s founder Austin Russell seems to have been pushed out as CEO and board chair. You’ll be able to learn my protection right here, which gives a little bit of an summary of how this unfolded, however I do know there’s a lot extra to this story. TL;DR: When you had been to solely learn Luminar’s Q1 earnings report, you’d assume Russell was nonetheless on the helm. A separate press launch, launched as the corporate’s earnings went out, introduced a management change and that Russell had resigned following an ethics inquiry from the board’s audit committee.
Right here’s what I’m listening to from just a few little birds. The phrase “blindsided” got here up greater than as soon as, and the chaos isn’t over. Luminar board member Jun Hong Heng, who’s founder and chief funding officer at Crescent Cove Advisors and a mentor of Russell’s, resigned a day later. Heng was additionally on the audit committee.
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Offers!
Aurora has had an odd couple of weeks crammed with highs — driverless business service woohoo! — and twists — whoops, there goes a co-founder. To cap issues off, Uber introduced plans to supply $1 billion in exchangeable senior notes due in 2028 in personal placement. As you may count on, shares dropped after traders obtained spooked about potential dilution and what this may imply for the worth of Aurora’s inventory.
Different offers that obtained my consideration …
AutoUnify, the most recent startup that has launched out of the Up.Labs-Porsche partnership, raised $5 million in seed cash. The Santa Monica, California-based startup, which constructed an API to permit dealerships and repair retailers to speak in actual time with the producers and software program distributors that energy their operations, has been working quietly for about 9 months.
Chinese language battery producer CATL is much from a startup. But it surely’s price noting this bananas IPO plan. The corporate desires to lift not less than HK$31.01 billion — that’s simply shy of $4 billion — in its Hong Kong itemizing. That is the most important itemizing globally in 2025.
Right here’s a potential deal that has raised some eyebrows. Federal railroad regulators are in talks with Elon Musk’s tunneling agency, The Boring Firm, over a multibillion-dollar Amtrak undertaking.
Flock Freight, the shared truckload freight brokerage based mostly in California, raised $60 million in a Sequence E funding spherical led by O’Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Personal Fairness Investments, SignalFire, GLP Capital Companions, and Bracket Capital additionally participated.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous automobiles
Tesla’s plan to launch a robotaxi service in Austin subsequent month has caught the eye of federal security investigators. The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration’s Workplace of Defects Investigation despatched the corporate an in depth record of questions on its upcoming robotaxi service as a part of an investigation into how the corporate’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software program operates in low-visibility situations.
Remembers are beginning to pop up extra within the AV sector. Final week it was Zoox. Now Waymo has issued a software program recall on 1,200 self-driving automobiles after a few of its robotaxis had been concerned in minor collisions with gates, chains, and different gate-like roadway objects.
WeRide appears to be attempting to ramp in Guangzhou. The Chinese language firm stated it has launched eight autonomous robotaxi pilot operation routes within the central a part of the town. The corporate has additionally began trialing totally driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi.
Electrical automobiles, charging, & batteries
Basic Motors has been engaged on a brand new battery chemistry known as lithium manganese-rich, which it says ought to slash prices whereas delivering driving vary. Notably, these LMR batteries dramatically cut back the quantity of nickel and cobalt in contrast with GM’s most superior cells, two important minerals that aren’t available from home sources in the USA.
A footnote in Lucid’s current Q1 regulatory submitting offers a bit extra perception into its gross sales numbers. The EV maker’s report quarter obtained a raise from rental gross sales and firm leases.
Slate Auto has racked up greater than 100,000 reservations for its customizable low-cost electrical pickup truck.
Everybody, let’s give a gradual clap to Toyota for redesigning — and extra importantly, renaming — its sole all-electric automobile for the U.S. market. The EV, as soon as known as the bZ4X, will now merely be bZ. The unique bZ4X was not nicely obtained. I’m wanting ahead to getting behind the wheel to see what enhancements Toyota has made. In the meantime, Toyota has introduced again the C-HR nameplate, however this time as an EV. Hopefully this time it’s extra profitable. It arrives within the U.S. in 2026.
Gig financial system
Three years in the past, reporter Rebecca Bellan famous that Uber was going via an Amazonification. Her pitch was that the corporate, like Amazon, had created a closed enterprise loop to feed prospects again into different Uber channels. The second a part of that evolution has began, she reported this week. Uber seems to be shifting past its concentrate on transportation and dealing to grow to be a handy tremendous app, an aggregator of companies, a daily-use way of life platform with its greatest choices tucked behind a paywall.
Way forward for flight
U.S. lawmakers launched the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The timing might be essential for startup Growth Supersonic, which has made progress in growing next-generation supersonic plane
Vertical Aerospace introduced a plan to develop a hybrid-electric variant of its VX4, suggesting the corporate is pursuing alternatives in protection and logistics.
In-car tech
Apple’s subsequent era of its common CarPlay infotainment software program is lastly launching. Reminder: It was first introduced three years in the past. The brand new model, known as CarPlay Extremely, will make its debut on new Aston Martin automobiles within the U.S. and Canada.
Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to all vehicles that help Android Auto within the subsequent few months. Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Automobiles, stated Gemini will floor within the Android Auto expertise in two predominant methods.
