TechCrunch mobility: Tesla continues to lose ground and a dog-like delivery robot lands in Texas
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It might have been a short week, but there was still plenty of news, including another Zoox recall, an update on the
Stellantis-Amazon partnership, and a few startup-funding deals. One item of note: This week, I wrote about Carma Technology and its patent infringement lawsuit against
Uber. It’s not a patent-troll case, and IP attorneys that I spoke with said it would be a difficult case for Uber. The gist? Carma, founded in 2007 by serial-entrepreneur and SOSV Ventures co-founder Sean O’Sullivan filed a lawsuit against Uber earlier this year, alleging that the company had infringed five of its patents, which are related to the matching of riders (or packages), with the capacity of vehicles. In other words, ride-sharing.IP attorney Larry Ashery provided the money quote that explains why this is such a complicated and challenging case. What’s important here is that Carma doesn’t only assert five patents. They have had a very sophisticated strategy of patent procurement that they’ve been working on for the past 18 years.”Carma’s five patents are part of a 30-patent family that are all related and connected to the original filing date. This is important because each of the five patents asserted contains multiple patents claims that define the legal boundaries for the invention. Carma asserts these individual claims, not the patents in their entirety, against Uber.
This means Uber will need to address and defend each asserted assertion, making the litigation complex and difficult for Uber to defeat. Let’s move on to the rest of the story.
A little bird
Image Credits:
Bryce Durbin
A few little birds have been chirping at us for months now about a new autonomous vehicle technology startup that has been quietly plugging along for a year. The interesting nugget about this startup — which is called
Bedrock Robotics
— is who is behind it:
Boris Sofman, who led
Waymo‘s self-driving trucks program and previously co-founded and led the popular consumer robotics company Anki. The San Francisco-based company is still under wraps, but according to my sources it has raised substantial venture capital. According to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing, Bedrock Robotics has been working on a retrofit kit for heavy equipment and construction equipment. Got an idea for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.Deals!Image Credits:Bryce DurbinFirefly Aerospace
received a $50 million investment from Northrop Grumman as part of its Series D round. This investment will further advance production of the startup’s co-developed medium launch vehicle, now known as Eclipse.
Pallet
, a warehouse logistics software startup based in Fremont, California, raised $27 million in a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst. Bain Capital Ventures, Activant Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated.
Volteras, a London-based startup building virtual connective tissue that will allow plugged-in EVs to offer their batteries to support the grid, closed an $11.1 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Edenred, Exor, Long Journey Ventures, and Wex.
Way Data Technologies, a fleet management startup founded by veterans of Lucid Motors and Wolt, raised EUR2.6 million ($2.95 million) in pre-seed funding led by Pale Blue Dot, with participation from 10x Founders and Greens Ventures.
Notable reads and other tidbitsImage Credits:
Bryce DurbinAutonomous vehicles
Rivr‘s four-wheeled, stair-climbing delivery robot — which its CEO and founder, Marko Bjelonic, describes as a dog on roller skates — will ferry packages from
Veho
vans directly to customers’ front doors as part of a pilot program in Austin, Texas. This small pilot is seen by both companies as an important step in solving the unique end-to-end delivery journey. TuSimple
(now CreateAI) sent a trove of sensitive data — effectively the blueprint of an American-made autonomous vehicle system — to a Beijing-owned firm after committing to the U.S. government that it would cease such transfers under a national security agreement. The revelation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, prompted numerous “not surprised” responses from several readers and sources within the industry.
Zoox issued its second voluntary software recall in a month, following a collision between one of its robotaxis and an e-scooter rider in San Francisco on May 8. Zoox reported that the e-scooterist fell to the ground directly next to the vehicle after stopping at an intersection. According to Zoox, the e-scooterist fell to the ground directly next to the vehicle and the “robotaxi began to move and stopped after completing the turn, but did not make further contact with the e-scooterist.”In other Zoox news, the company announced it was the “official robotaxi partner of Resorts World Las Vegas.” As part of the deal, there will be a dedicated and Zoox-branded robotaxi pickup and drop-off location at Resorts World Las Vegas. Electric vehicles, charging & batteries
The ‘Tesla Cybertruck
has a tough time. A parking lot at a Detroit mall is piled high with dozens of Tesla Cybertrucks that have not been sold. Tesla has allowed owners of Cybertrucks to trade-in their vehicles, but they will face steep depreciation. CarGurus recently showed depreciation rates of up to 45%.Meanwhile,
Tesla
sales in Europe and the U.K. have fallen by nearly half, according to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The
Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal of 2015 rippled through the automotive sector and prompted the company (and later followed by others) to shift away from diesel and toward hybrids and electric vehicles. Now, four former Volkswagen executives have received prison sentences for their role.In-car tech
Amazon is no longer working with Stellantis
to create in-car software for the automaker’s vehicles. Stellantis announced the partnership in January 2022 as part of its plan to generate $22.5 Billion annually through software. Stellantis said to TechCrunch that it would pivot towards an Android-based platform.
