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A Tesla co-founder returns, TuSimple restructures again and Uber’s stickiness strategyWelcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.
It was another busy week in the transportation world and no surprise, Tesla was one of the headliners. The company held its annual shareholder meeting and as per ushe, CEO Elon Musk shared tidbits and musings about the company. While some of this was rehashing old information, there were a number of notable and newsmaker moments.
Top of the list? JB Straubel, a Tesla co-founder and former CTO, has returned as a board member.
Other items that got my attention included another delay for the next-gen Roadster, hints of two upcoming EV products and Musk’s decision to “try a little advertising.” Here’s a roundup of our coverage.
Speaking of Musk, he lost another bid to end a 2018 settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that requires oversight of some of his Tesla-related tweets. The upshot: The Twitter sitter (as some have described the role) must remain.
Alrighty, then. Onward!

Want to reach out with a tip, comment or complaint? Email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com. You also can send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec
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Micromobbin’

May is Bike Month and Friday was National Bike to Work Day, two reminders that bikes are not just for sports and recreation — they’re a viable form of transit. That’s especially true for e-bikes, so don’t let someone tell you you’re cheating if you don’t ride a push bike to work.
But remember, e-bikes and e-scooters should be treated with care and responsibility.
A shocking video of an e-scooter catching fire in a London home has been going around. The owner of the scooter bought it off Gumtree (a Craigslist-type site) and was charging it inside when the battery caught fire, which spread rapidly. This is a PSA for safe e-scooter practices!
Here are tips and best practices on owning and storing a scooter. A few that are especially important:

Buy a scooter from a reputable company that equips its vehicles with batteries that are compliant with global standards.
Don’t charge batteries overnight while you’re asleep or while you’re away from home.
Don’t dispose of batteries in household waste or normal recycling. Find a battery recycling service.
Avoid storing and charging e-scooters and e-bikes on escape routes or communal areas of multi-occupied buildings.

And with that, onto the news nuggets …
BackPedal is a new British startup that offers e-bike theft protection via a monthly subscription. Included in that subscription are things like an integrated GPS system with LTE and a retrieval team that tracks your stolen bike and calls the cops for you. My question for the company: Do the cops — who are busy these days with increased crime in major cities — actually do anything to help people retrieve bikes?
A study commissioned by Bolt found that about half of residents in the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal want to see more micromobility parking spots and fewer car parking spots. Same.
Christchurch, New Zealand, might be the first city in the country to back a campaign for e-bike subsidies.
Citi Bike has been around for 10 years. The iconic bike-sharing program has been a staple in NYC and other cities since before it belonged to Lyft.
General Motors, in partnership with SAIC-Wuling in China, is building a super cute tiny electric pickup for the Chinese market that’s expected to cost around $14,000. It’s about the size of a Fiat 500, and potentially a great solution for urban tradespeople.
India is considering slashing its electric two-wheeler subsidies from 40% of the sale price to 15%, ostensibly to spread the incentive to a larger number of vehicles (link to paywall site).
New York City announced a $30 million RFP to create and sustain high-quality public spaces, like plazas and Open Streets, in under-resourced neighborhoods.
As I mentioned last week, there have been rumors floating around about Tier pondering an acquisition. This week, Sifted reported that European transportation super app Bolt is in late-stage acquisition talks with Tier. Tier had reportedly also been in M&A talks with Lime, but those talks ended, according to Sifted, which cited a source close to the company. I reached out to Tier, but no comment. The company only confirmed that it recently raised a convertible note from the majority of its existing investors.
“We are well financed for 2023 and we are aiming to achieve EBITDA profitability this year,” Lawrence Leuschner, Tier’s CEO, told TechCrunch.
Yamaha announced a limited-edition e-bike to celebrate its 30th year of e-bike building. The YDX-MORO 07, priced at $6,499, has a dual twin frame design that holds Yamaha’s new, lighter and smaller PW-X3 drive unit with powerful torque. It’s an all-mountain bike that has compact control switches, a minimalist display and one-finger braking power.
Deal of the week

Instead of highlighting one deal this week, how about dozens of deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars?
According to data from PitchBook, automotive-related startups raised $402 million from investors in April, up about 2% from the previous month. That flatish result is actually worth cheering because investor activity has been falling since the beginning of the year.
In January, automotive-related startups raised $1.16 billion. That figure dropped to $690.5 million in February and $394.1 million in March.
This doesn’t mean everything is unicorns and rainbows now. The chaos surrounding the Silicon Valley Bank may have ebbed, but mobility startups are competing for investor attention and capital as other buzzy areas like generative AI takeover.
Other deals that got my attention this week …
Bird has decided to issue a reverse stock split, in an attempt to get back into compliance with the New York Stock Exchange after it received a delisting notice for trading too low. Bird’s stock closed Thursday at $0.11. When the market opened Friday, Bird began trading on a 1/25 split-adjusted basis. As of May 1, there were about 286.8 million shares of Class A common stock and 34.5 million shares of Class X common stock. After the reverse stock split, Bird will have about 11.5 million Class A shares and about 1.4 million Class X shares.
Brompton, a U.K.-based company that makes folding bikes, raised £19 million equity capital with investor BGF taking a minority stake.
Ethernovia, an automotive ethernet chip startup based in Silicon Valley, raised $64 million in a Series A funding round from a group of investors that includes Porsche Automobil Holding, Qualcomm Ventures and VentureTech Alliance.
Phantom Auto raised $25 million from private equity firm InfraBridge. The remote driving startup’s pre-raise valuation was $500 million, according to one source. And the CEO of ConGlobal, the rail terminal operator that is owned by InfraBridge and a customer of the startup, has joined the board.
Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital entity of the Bosch Group, completed an investment in AutoCore.ai, a startup that develops automotive middleware. The company didn’t disclose the investment amount.
Stellantis acquired a 33.3% stake in Symbio, a zero-emission hydrogen mobility company. Faurecia and Michelin will remain shareholders with 33.3% holding each.
Toyota Research Institute said its collaborative research program with U.S. academic institutions has funded $100 million of research and generated more than 1,250 paper submissions since its inception in 2016.
Volvo Cars’ venture fund invested an undisclosed amount into smart home energy company dcbel.
Notable reads and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles
Alibaba said its autonomous vehicle lab, which is under its Damo Academy, will merge into Cainiao, the company’s global logistics network. The lab will no longer operate under the basic research institute.
Cruise and Waymo are on the cusp of securing final approval to charge fares for fully autonomous robotaxi rides throughout the city of San Francisco at all hours of the day or night. The California Public Utilities Commission published two draft resolutions late last week that would grant the companies the ability to extend the hours of operation and service areas of their now-limited robotaxi services.
Ouster will supply May Mobility with lidar to power May’s autonomous vehicles.
TuSimple, the once high-flying autonomous trucks company that went public in 2021, is restructuring and laying off about 30% of its global workforce as it works to preserve cash and stay in business. One of the more interesting pieces of this restructuring (the second in six months) was the decision to keep its China subsidiary. The company was also at risk of being delisted from Nasdaq, but received a temporary reprieve from the exchange.
Electric vehicles, batteries and charging
BMW is working with Pacific Gas and Electric to test vehicle-to-grid technology to offset growing grid demand.
Mercedes-Benz Vans revealed more details on a new fully scalable electric vehicle architecture, called Van.EA. The new platform will be able to support a range of sizes, including midsize luxury vans and full-size cargo and camper vans. The first vans built on this platform will come to market in 2026.
QuantumScape, the solid-state battery company, is pivoting. The company is planning to focus on the consumer-electronics sector to bring in the capital it needs to commercialize automotive-grade cells.
Volvo said its upcoming all-electric EX30 small SUV will have a slew of safety features, including a driver monitoring system that detects eye and face movements around 13 times per second and an alert to help prevent drivers or passengers from opening their car door in front of bicyclists.
In-car tech
BMW also worked with Meta’s Reality Labs to explore how AR and VR can work inside a fast-moving vehicle.
Hyundai and Kia settled a class action lawsuit brought by owners of vehicles prone to theft for around $200 million. The trend of stealing Kias came from a viral TikTok “Kia Challenge” that provided demos for how to easily steal affected models in less than 90 seconds using a USB charging cord.
The U.S. International Trade Commission voted to institute an investigation into the unfair trade practices of Hesai Group based in Shanghai, China, following a patent infringement complaint from Ouster.
People
Austin Russell, the billionaire founder of lidar company Luminar, is getting into the media business. Yup, you read that correctly. Russell, through a consortium of foreign investors, is buying Forbes.
Autonomy, an EV subscription company, hired Leopold Visser as senior vice president of strategy and operations.
Flexport hired Bill Driegert, a former Amazon executive who previously headed Uber Freight, to develop the company’s trucking product.
Lyft has hired Erin Brewer, formerly of Charles Schwab & Co., as its next CFO. Elaine Paul is left the top financial position May 19. Lisa Blackwood-Kapral, the Lyft’s Chief Accounting Officer, will serve as interim CFO and principal financial officer until Brewer takes over July 10.
Mercedes-Benz USA appointed Melody Lee as chief marketing officer, Heike Scheuble as managing director of Mercedes-Benz Vans and Jee-Seop Kim as head of customer services.
Ride-hailing and other gig economy stuff
Lyft shareholders sent out a letter rallying other shareholders to vote against co-founder Logan Green’s position on the board. They argue he failed to address and rectify dangerous rideshare driver conditions.
Uber and Lyft drivers in Washington State officially have a right to paid family and medical leave, now that Governor Jay Inslee has signed HB 1570.
Uber held its annual Go-Get product event in New York City this week and the bevy of announcements showed a company hoping to grow through products and expanded consumer groups that reach every member of a family. In short: Uber wants its app to be sticky. Its plan includes opening the app up to teens, adding a group grocery feature and providing a 1(800) number for customers who don’t want to use the app at all to hail a ride.

Calling all early-stage startups! Apply to join the Startup Battlefield 200 cohort at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. All finalists get expert training, VC networking, a booth at Disrupt, and the chance to compete for $100,000 in equity-free funds. Applications close May 31. Apply today!

A Tesla co-founder returns, TuSimple restructures again and Uber’s stickiness strategy by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

Bandcamp workers vote to unionize, issues joint statement with companyBandcamp workers voted 31 to 7 in favor of forming Bandcamp United, a union represented by the AFL-CIO affiliated Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). On May 10th, the. Continue reading
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A young billionaire buys Forbes, a startup offers free TVs and ChatGPT goes mobileHey, folks. You’ve made it to the end of the week — congrats, by the way — and to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering the week that was in tech. Here, in this humble little column of ours, we do our best to curate the top stories that emerged over the past five days. Hope you find it useful.
Just a few PSAs before we get on with the news. On May 24, TechCrunch Live, TC’s podcast about founder stories, will host Romi Gubes, the co-founder of Sensi.AI, in a discussion about how the company uses audio-based software to monitor patients and assist medical staff and family members with care. (Register for it here — it’s free.)
Meanwhile, TechCrunch City Spotlight will go virtual on June 7 with a focus on Atlanta, where speakers will present about building businesses in the exploding metro and startups will apply to participate in TC’s famed Battlefield 200.
Last but not least, Disrupt, TC’s flagship conference, will return September (September 19–21) in San Francisco. Expect six stages of presenters, including a new AI-focused stage, and plenty of surprises. Learn more here.
Now, without further ado, on to the news.
most read
Young billionaire buys Forbes: Austin Russell, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Luminar, which develops vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies primarily for self-driving cars, told The Wall Street Journal this week that he’s buying an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values the company at nearly $800 million.
New Teslas on the way: Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased two new electric vehicles Tuesday at the automaker’s 2023 annual shareholder’s meeting. Tesla previously hinted at new models during its Investor Day in March, displaying a photo with the company’s entire lineup and several unveiled car outlines. One of the vehicles looked to be the size of a van, roughly, and the other similar in appearance to a sedan or hatchback. Both are expected to be more affordable vehicles that sell at far higher volumes.
Free TV, but with a catch: Telly, a hardware startup led by Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin, announced Monday that it’s giving away 500,000 of its new smart TVs for free. (Yes, we said free.) There’s a catch, though. Users must watch 24/7 ads while simultaneously streaming TV shows and movies.
ChatGPT goes mobile:  This week, OpenAI announced the launch of an official iOS app that lets users access its popular AI chatbot on the go — months after the App Store was filled with dubious, unofficial services. The new ChatGPT app will be free to use and free from ads and will allow for voice input, the company says, but will initially be limited to U.S. users at launch.
Holmes headed to prison: After years of high-profile court proceedings, Elizabeth Holmes could actually be headed to prison — for real this time. The former Theranos founder and CEO was found guilty of defrauding investors last January, but has consistently delayed and appealed her sentencing to remain out of incarceration. Though the infamous biotech entrepreneur is still appealing her 11-year sentence, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges ruled that Holmes’ legal team has not raised enough of a “substantial question” to keep her out of prison.
Kustomer leaves Meta, raises money: Meta’s grand experiment in building an enterprise-ready customer service platform has come to a close. The parent of Facebook has officially spun out Kustomer, the CRM startup it acquired last year for around $1 billion. The new entity is starting life with an infusion of $60 million from backers Battery, Redpoint and boldstart, plus a major chop into its previous valuation — it’s now reportedly at $250 million.
Lock and hide: WhatsApp announced today that it’s introducing a new “Chat Lock” feature designed to give users an additional layer of security for their most intimate conversations. As the name suggests, the feature lets you “lock” a chat, which takes that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with your device password or biometric, like a fingerprint.
Humanoid robots FTW: Vancouver, British Columbia–based Sanctuary AI this week unveiled Phoenix, its stab at the humanoid robot form factor. The bipedal bot stands 5’7″ and weighs 155 pounds — not dissimilar from the humans it plans to augment (or replace, depending on who you ask). The system is capable of lifting payloads up to 55 pounds and traveling up to three miles per hour. No word on pricing — yet.
audio
Need listening material for the weekend? Not to worry — TechCrunch has you covered (and then some). This week on Equity, the crew covered Vice going bankrupt, Twitter’s first acquisition with Elon Musk at the helm and what the future of venture debt could look like. Found featured Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, the co-founder and CEO at Samooha, a startup creating key infrastructure needed for data collaboration. Over on Chain Reaction, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, talked about Chainlink’s protocol that provides an oracle network to power smart contracts. The TechCrunch Podcast did a deep dive on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch. And TechCrunch Live profiled Richard Song, one of the co-founders of Persona, which built and offers a large suite of identity verification solutions, alongside Persona investor and Index Ventures lead Mark Goldberg.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
The new rules of venture debt: The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was not the end of venture debt, but it was likely the end of companies raising debt with the same ease many were accustomed to. Rebecca writes about the state of venture debt in the wake of SVB and then First Republic Bank’s collapse and how it might change in the future.
Alibaba, in the clouds: Chinese tech giant Alibaba is shaking up its corporate structure in a series of moves that will allow large pieces of its business to raise capital and potentially even go public. That may not be a bad idea, when you consider that the conglomerate’s revenue rose a middling 2% in Q1 2023 and its profitability is trending downward (operating income declined 9%) from a year earlier.
AI in retail, maturing: As the retail sector grows increasingly reliant and focused on data and AI, it’s essential that retailers understand exactly how first-party data analysis can be crystalized into insights on customer behavior — and, in turn, a tangible competitive advantage. Hugh Cameron, head of data for Zitcha, looks at the three most important milestones along the road to predictive analysis in the retail media context.

Calling all early-stage startups! Apply to join the Startup Battlefield 200 cohort at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. All finalists get expert training, VC networking, a booth at Disrupt, and the chance to compete for $100,000 in equity-free funds. Applications close May 31. Apply today.

A young billionaire buys Forbes, a startup offers free TVs and ChatGPT goes mobile by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

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