SpaceX said Monday that last month’s Starship explosion was brought on by a cascading series of events caused by propellant leaks — a problem the company says has been addressed ahead of an eighth test flight that could happen as early as Friday. The spaceflight company is still waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Freight forwarding and logistics company Flexport is rolling out a suite of new products and features, many of which use AI, in what the company says will be the first in a series of semi-annual announcements of this kind.  If that sounds similar to Airbnb’s approach to seasonal product announcements, that’s because it was the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Rivian said Thursday it plans to launch a hands-off version of its driver assistance system for highway driving “in a few weeks,” and an “eyes-off” version in 2026. The hands-off system will let Rivian compete with companies like Ford and General Motors, which have both launched similar systems in the past few years. (Ford has […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Rivian’s cost-cutting measures have gotten it a lot closer to profitability, but the company is warning that 2025 could still be a challenging year — especially because of the whorl of uncertainty caused by the new Trump administration. The company announced Thursday its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 financial results, and along with it, shared plans […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Electric trucking startup Nikola is hoping to sell what remains of its whole business as early as April, lawyers for the company told a judge Thursday during the first hearing of its bankruptcy case in Delaware. The lawyers claimed Nikola already has at least three interested buyers (who they did not name) and that the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meet the DOGE staffers and senior advisors in Elon Musk's inner circle, and how they got there.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As Elon Musk and his acolytes rip through the federal government looking for agencies to throw into the “wood chipper,” a grassroots effort to hit the world’s richest man where it hurts is picking up steam. The courts are busy contesting the actions of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, but the judicial system is slow […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The $60 billion mega-merger between Honda and Nissan has been called off, in part because of Nissan’s “pride and insufficient alarm about its predicament,” writes Reuters, citing half a dozen sources. The report hints at bad blood on both sides, saying the development also ties to Honda abruptly revising the terms of the merger and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Blue Origin is laying off 10% of its workforce, according to Reuters, just one month after the successful first launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket. The company reportedly has more than 10,000 employees, meaning the cut could affect around 1,000 people. CEO Dave Limp told employees in an all-hands meeting Thursday morning the company is […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

People magazine has landed the first interview with Elizabeth Holmes since she reported to prison in 2023, and the convicted Theranos founder says she is still working on “research and inventions” in the healthcare space. “I remain completely committed to my dream of making affordable healthcare solutions available to everyone,” she told the magazine. Holmes, […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has paused funding for a $5 billion EV charging infrastructure program that Tesla has received at least $31 million from. The move is widely viewed to be illegal. It’s the latest attempt from the Trump administration to hack away at federally funded renewable energy projects around the country, a clear […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A number of startups are racing to make vehicle inspections faster, easier, and cheaper. Self Inspection, a startup based in San Diego, thinks it has them all beat with its AI-powered service — and now it has convinced outside investors. Self Inspection, founded in 2021, is set to announce Thursday it’s raised $3 million in […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Ford CEO Jim Farley has a question about President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China: Why stop there? Farley said in a conference call Wednesday that Trump’s selective approach “doesn’t make sense.” “Why are we having this conversation while Hyundai-Kia is importing 600,000 units in the U.S. with no incremental […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

On a clear spring evening in Michigan, the stars aligned — just not in the way Upfront Ventures partner Nick Kim expected. He’d just led a $9.5 million seed round for OurSky, a software platform for space observational data, and was eager to see what its telescope partner PlaneWave Instruments could do.  But when they […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

People working for, or with, Elon Musk are reportedly taking over the inner workings of multiple government agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, the Treasury Department, and the General Services Administration. The Washington Post reported Friday that the highest-ranking career official at Treasury is leaving the department after “a clash” with people working for […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is trying to avoid being deposed in a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, according to new court filings. In response, lawyers for the plaintiff — the Authors Guild — have filed a motion to compel testimony from Amodei and his Anthropic co-founder, Benjamin Mann. Authors Guild’s lawyers claim that Amodei and Mann, […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

For nearly nine years, Elon Musk has promised Tesla vehicles had the hardware needed to support a self-driving car. This week, he made his latest admission that many are not. Musk said on a conference call Wednesday evening that Tesla cars equipped with so-called Hardware 3 will need an upgrade before they can support unsupervised […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas using its own fleet vehicles this coming June — the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy. Musk was otherwise unsurprisingly light on details. During an earnings call, Musk […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

UVeye started as a play to scan cars for security threats, but the Israeli startup really hit its stride when its founders realized the AI-powered computer vision systems could perform more typical vehicle inspections. Now, the company is evolving its funding strategy. UVeye announced Wednesday morning a $191 million extension to its 2023 Series D […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tesla earnings day is upon us — the quarterly check-in with one of the world’s largest EV makers and its controversial CEO Elon Musk. Tesla’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings are expected to be released Wednesday after market close. A webcast, in which Tesla management will answer questions from analysts and retail investors, is scheduled to […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.