Dara Khosrowshahi is resigning from the board of autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation, citing a desire to focus on his ongoing responsibilities as CEO of Uber and reduce external board commitments, according to a Friday regulatory filing. Khosrowshahi’s resignation was effective as of Tuesday. Aurora says Khosrowshahi’s decision to leave the board was not […]

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Two individuals rented cars from Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform, and used them to perform acts of violence earlier this week. First, a military veteran driving a Ford F-150 Lightning drove into a crowd of people, killing at least 15. Then, an active-duty Green Beret rented a Tesla Cybertruck, parked it in front of the […]

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Elon Musk had an eventful 2024, what with his hard push into right-wing politics and leveraging his X social media platform and considerable influence to help Donald Trump win the presidential election. Putting politics aside for a moment, it’s worth focusing on another Musk pastime: making promises for Tesla. The Tesla CEO’s promises — and […]

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On December 27, a Waymo robotaxi and a Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robot collided at a Los Angeles intersection, according to a video that’s circulating on social media. The footage shows a Serve bot crossing a street in West Hollywood at night and trying to get onto the sidewalk. It reached the curb, backed up […]

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If there was one phrase that captured the vibe and theme of 2024 — at least in the transportation sector — it was “business whiplash.” Legacy automakers changed direction on their all-EVs-or-bust strategy, startups pivoted, and some Silicon Valley VCs and executives adjusted their views on a changing political landscape in which they now are […]

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Hertz has been contacting people who are in the middle of renting electric vehicles recently to offer them the option to buy the car instead of returning it, reports The Verge. And the offers are pretty sweet, according to some renters who shared the offers on Reddit.  One renter was reportedly offered a 2023 Chevy […]

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A year after Onyx Motorbikes owner James Khatiblou died suddenly, leaving customers with unfulfilled orders and millions in unpaid debts, the brand has been revived by its original founder. “I’m excited to announce I have resurrected my original brand Onyx with incredible backers!” founder Tim Seward wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. “Onyx is […]

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday proposed a new national framework that could make it easier for companies to deploy at scale autonomous vehicles without traditional manual driving controls — like steering wheels, pedals, and sideview mirrors.  The guidelines also require AV companies to share a whole lot more safety data with […]

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TuSimple has completed its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company shall henceforth be known as CreateAI.  The rebrand comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company’s plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to fund the new business, which it initially announced […]

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“I think the most ironic way the world could end would be if someone makes a memecoin about a man’s stretched anus and it brings about the singularity.” That’s Andy Ayrey, the founder of decentralized AI alignment research lab Upward Spiral, who is also behind the viral AI bot Truth Terminal. You might have heard […]

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TuSimple co-founder and former CEO Xiaodi Hou is on a war path in the lead up to Friday’s annual shareholder meeting that will decide the makeup of the company’s board of directors.  Over the past several weeks, Hou has sued TuSimple for control of his voting rights, demanded the company immediately liquidate and return all […]

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Tesla is trying to boost its Model S sales before the year is out, but it’s got a funny way of doing it.  After initially abandoning its free Supercharging for life offer in 2018, the automaker is bringing it back for some Tesla Model S cars at the end of the year. It’s something of […]

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The all-electric 2025 Lucid Air Pure is a dreamy, sexy car that’s no less luxurious for being the cheapest trim in Lucid’s Air lineup. I felt fancy and discerning driving around, but in an understated way – as if I were wearing designer sweatpants.  But does fancy equal value? I spent about 10 days driving […]

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These startups have fascinating new technologies, business models, founder stories or are pushing an industry forward in exciting ways.

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Electric vehicle charging startup EVgo is the latest company to secure funds from the U.S. Department of Energy as the Biden administration races to approve clean energy loans before Donald Trump takes over.  Trump has promised to cancel any unspent funds from Biden’s bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act, including the $7,500 tax credit for new EV […]

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon plan to donate $1 million each to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, according to reports from Fox and The Wall Street Journal.  TechCrunch has confirmed Altman’s plans to personally commit the money, which is not coming directly from OpenAI.    The donations from the billionaires follow plans by […]

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Roundabouts. They trapped Clark Griswold in “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” and now they’ve tripped up a Waymo robotaxi. A video is circulating on social media showing a Waymo robotaxi going round and round on a roundabout — as if it is stuck in a loop. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch there were no passengers onboard […]

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Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pulling off a lobbying-public relations combo move by gifting President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund $1 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The money came from Meta, to be clear, but Zuckerberg sweetened the gift further — while doing great marketing — by sending Trump a pair of Meta’s smart […]

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Funding to defense tech companies has boomed in 2024 as geopolitical tensions rise, advancements in AI abound, and investors seek out a new growth area amid a broader tech sector slowdown.  Archer Aviation wants in on the action.  The aviation startup, which is building vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, said Thursday that it has […]

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Honda Motor Co. will stop funding a joint venture with General Motors and Cruise to launch a robotaxi service in Japan, now that GM has pulled the plug on Cruise and its commercial robotaxi ambitions, reports The Nikkei. GM said Tuesday it would cease funding Cruise and instead absorb the company and combine it with […]

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