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I spent a decade to cover Tesla and CEO Elon MuskSo it would be natural for me to weigh here about the public repercussions of the billionaire with President Donald Trump. Many other journalists, armchair analysts, influencers and bloggers have already done it. Some of these are intelligent, while some of these are missing the sign – for miles.
Since I have the advantage of institutional knowledge and a good memory of a good memory, let me offer some short reminders and forecasts. We went here before: Musk has a long and well documented story of creating apparently strong alliances and then burning it.
As the senior reporter Tim de Chant observed, Elon is getting an introduction to politics. The problem here is that Musk also embraces the risk and gravitas, which means that learning something does not equate to the change of his behavior.
Expect a roller coaster tour of the provisional peace followers followed by public explosions. Rinsing. Repeat.
The implications of this failure promise to be wide and probably touch all the various Musk companies. I will monitor how the sales numbers of Tesla EV and how the “big and beautiful invoice” will actually influence the activity of the car manufacturer if it is approved.
In the short term, I will focus on Tesla’s great robotaxi experiment in Austin, Texas, and on how the complicated and increasingly toxic relationship of Musk with the Trump administration affects its relations with the Transport Department. Before his public break with Trump, Musk was Initials of pressure on the legislation relating to autonomous vehicles, in particular over a bill introduced on May 15th ACTLEMENTO SELF -OPEN ACT ACT.
A bird
Since then Riveian shot out AlsoA Start of micromability This also received support from Eclipse Ventures, we went around to find out more. Some small birds have been in contact and helped us better understand how the Skunkworks program has turned into an autonomous company; They also revealed a surprising detail: the creative society of Jony Ive Lovefrom has worked together with the Rivian design team and the staff as part of the Skunkworks program. Senior Reporter Sean O’kane and me Have the complete scoop here.
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Offers!
The understanding memorandum rarely attract my attention. But this did.
Joby aviation and conglomerate of Saudi Arabia Abdul Latif Jameel has signed an understanding memorandum to explore a distribution agreement for Up to 200 electric aircraft. The provisional agreement is remarkable because Abdul Latif Jameel is already a Joby investor.
If finalized, the partnership could provide Joby with a quick path to monetize its electric vehicles of vertical take -off and landing in Saudi Arabia. Transforming an investor into a customer can also complicate the relationship (just ask Amazon and Rivian.)
Other noteworthy business …
ObviousA startup based in California that is combining artificial intelligence with the cameras placed on the stop signals to eradicate the non -safe driving behavior, collected $ 22 million In a Serie A financing round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Ovdio plans to use these funds to expand beyond the top five cities in which it currently operates in Maryland.
Portlessan e-commerce startup of e-commerce and logistics, collected $ 18 million In a financing round led by commerms, with the participation of Egateway Capital, Ground Up Ventures and FJ Labs. Portless uses a business model similar to Shein and charges brands after an article sells, helping to defer the cost of rates.
Uppera vocal startup to which is applying its tools to car dealers, collected $ 17 million Through a seed and a series a round guided by A16Z. Y Combinator (Toma was in the YC cohort of January 2024), the Fund Scale Angels and the influencer of the automotive sector Yossi Levi, also known as the Guy of the car dealership, supported the start.
What is telling us that Uber Executive tells us
Recent executive scruples combined with comments by CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi Do not suggest only the company’s strategy. No, this is like a sign of flashing neon and the word “autonomy” is in the center.
At the beginning of this week, Uber announced that he had appointed Andrew “Mac” MacDonald as president and operational director. The company also announced the departure of Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, which managed Uber’s delivery activity.
Gore-Coty’s responsibilities will be inserted under MacDonald, who has been with the company since 2012 and has more recently led the mobility and business operations. Another noteworthy morsel: he launched the Uber Toronto operations 13 years ago and led his autonomous strategy.
The new role of Mac will combine mobility, delivery and autonomy.
In a Bloomberg conference, Khosrowshahi Avs was asked. He spoke of the construction of the AV ecosystem and Uber stake in companies (Aurora and Waabi) which develops the autonomous technology of vehicles.
“We want to substantially support the AV ecosystem and continue to help the development of the ecosystem and therefore the AV penetrate them on the market,” he said. “Avs, we think, represent a safer way of transport. In the end, we think it will expand the market as it makes available for all confident transport cities.”
In other news Uber, the company has Added a new type of account with a simpler user interface for the elderly.
Remarkable readings and other morsels
Autonomous vehicles
Tesla Branded brand applications For the term “Tesla Robotaxi” after the previous attempts of the company to guarantee brands for its work blocks for planned autonomous driving vehicles.
Electric vehicles, batteries and charge
I lost this story From the reporter of Axios Katie Fehrenbacher and wanted to mention it here. Last year, Materials in sequoia quietly moved away from Department of Energy (Doe) Loan for which he had received a conditional approval for. To date, Redwood has never received federal funding.
I contacted Sequoia to understand why. Redwood initially asked for a Doe loan in 2021. The process dragged on and considerable costs for sequoia. The companies that cross this process are responsible for the payment of third party consultants and experts hired to control business and technology. By 2024, the Sequoia was still on the limbo of conditional approval. As he was waiting, the company has collected over $ 2 billion in private funding and has generated income almost $ 200 million last year.
In the end, Redwood established that the costs and constraints of this loan have exceeded its value.
Future of flight
Walmart and Alphabet’s Wing They are bringing the delivery of drones to thousands of more customers. The wing, which already operates on 18 Walmart Supercenters in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, is creating a shop In five other US cities through the partnership. Overall, more than 100 stores will be added to Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa.
People
Trevor Miltonthe recently pardoned founder of Nikolawas fight a quote by the creditors of his bankruptcy self -teaner company. Milton had to Nikola almost $ 100 million before having presented bankruptcy in February, which followed a case of arbitration with the company in 2023 in relation to his criminal sentence he lost.
