Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility \u2014 your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free \u2014 just click TechCrunch Mobility!<\/a><\/p>\n What a wild week for transportation news! It was a smorgasbord of news that seemed to touch every sector and theme in transportation, including tariffs on Chinese EVs, an escalating Tesla<\/strong> strike<\/a> in Sweden, a federal investigation into Waymo<\/strong>, a buzzy EV IPO, executive shuffling<\/a> at Ford<\/strong>, and an Uber<\/strong> shuttle service <\/a>developed for commuters in India and Egypt that has been adapted for American concertgoers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go!<\/em><\/p>\n We heard from a few little birds<\/strong> this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n First up, here\u2019s a deep cut for all those autonomous vehicle nerds. Remember Roborace<\/strong>, the autonomous vehicle racing series that never was? As you might recall, it died in 2022, but founder Denis Sverdlov (who also founded the now-defunct EV startup Arrival) had talked about trying to revive it if more funds were secured. It seems those dreams have died. One little bird spotted that the roborace.com domain<\/a> is up for sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we continue to talk to little birds about the autonomous vehicle company Motional. As you might recall, the autonomous vehicle startup received a direct investment of $475 million from Hyundai. That money came with some strings, namely some belt tightening that included pausing all commercial operations. Our latest scoop, thanks to several insiders, is that more than 550 employees, or about 40% of its workforce, have been laid off from Motional<\/a>. While many of those were in commercial operations, the cuts affected other departments, including product, safety, cybersecurity and legal teams.<\/p>\n Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com<\/a>, Sean O\u2019Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com<\/a> or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com<\/a>.<\/em> Or check out these instructions<\/a> to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.<\/p>\n A trade war with China may be heating up and EV demand may be softening, but it\u2019s apparently not enough to discourage Zeekr investors!<\/p>\n Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding<\/strong>, the Chinese EV brand under China\u2019s Geely Holdings, sold 21 million shares at $21 per share to raise $441 million, an upsize from earlier plans to sell 17.5 million shares between $18 and $21. Shares popped 38%<\/a> on Zeekr\u2019s first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, giving it a valuation of $7 billion \u2014 and the capital it needs to expand outside China in 2024.<\/p>\n Shares have settled a bit since, but Zeekr is still holding onto a $6.6 billion market cap. That\u2019s surprising stability considering President Joe Biden released plans to increase tariffs<\/a> on imports of Chinese EVs from 25% to 100% in 2024.<\/p>\n Kyle Vogt<\/strong>, the founder and former CEO of Cruise, has a new VC-backed robotics startup focused on household chores called the Bot Company. Reminder: Vogt resigned from Cruise in November just weeks after one of the company\u2019s robotaxis hit and dragged a pedestrian. But investors still seem keen to back Vogt and his ideas. Sidebar: Comma.ai<\/strong> founder and firebrand\u00a0George Hotz<\/strong> didn\u2019t seem too pleased<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vogt, who co-founded the Bot Company with former Tesla AI tech team leader Paril Jain and an ex-Cruise software engineer Luke Holoubek, raised $150 million<\/a> from former GitHub CEO and investor Nat Friedman, Pioneer founder and investor Daniel Gross, Spark Capital general partner Nabeel Hyatt, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, Stripe co-founder John Collison and Quiet Capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n Li Industries<\/strong>, a Pineville, North Carolina, lithium-ion battery recycling startup, raised $36 million in a Series B<\/a> funding round co-led by Bosch Ventures, Khosla Ventures and LG Tech Ventures. Other new investors included Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp., Anglo American Decarbonization Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures coming in as new investors. Previous backers Shell Ventures and Myriad Ventures also joined.\u00a0<\/p>\n Magic Lane<\/strong>, the Amsterdam-based startup that developed software development kits to bring mapping, location and navigation into ride-hailing apps, micromobility and vehicles, raised \u20ac3 million<\/a> ($3.26 million). The round was led by No Such Ventures.<\/p>\n Orange Charger<\/strong>, a startup that sells landlords a 240-volt smart outlet among other products, has raised $6.5 million<\/a> in a seed round led by Munich Re Ventures and Climactic with participation by Baukunst, Crow Holdings, Lincoln Property Ventures, and Spacecadet Ventures.<\/p>\n Uber<\/strong> agreed to buy Foodpanda<\/strong> \u2014 the Taiwan unit of Delivery Hero \u2014 for $950 million<\/a> in cash. As part of the deal, Uber will take a stake in Delivery Hero through the purchase of $300 million newly issued ordinary shares.<\/p>\n Cruise<\/strong> has reportedly reached a settlement<\/a> between $8 million and $12 million with the pedestrian who was hit and then dragged by one of its robotaxis. TechCrunch has confirmed that range.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Cruise is ramping up robotaxi testing<\/a> in Phoenix with \u201csupervised\u201d autonomous driving.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waymo<\/strong>\u2019s autonomous vehicle software is under investigation<\/a> after federal regulators received 22 reports of the robotaxis crashing or potentially violating traffic safety laws by driving in the wrong lane or into construction zones.<\/p>\n Fisker<\/strong> has the attention of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration once again. The federal agency opened a fourth investigation<\/a> into the Fisker Ocean SUV, this time to probe multiple claims of \u201cinadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking.\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla<\/strong> isn\u2019t done cutting jobs. CEO Elon Musk<\/strong> said in April that the company would lay off more than 10% of its 140,000-person workforce. We\u2019ve seen several waves since then that suggest the cuts have gone beyond that initial target. There have been reports that Musk wanted to cut 20% of employees. The latest is 601 workers at Tesla facilities in California, according to a\u00a0Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice.\u00a0<\/p>\nA little bird<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Deals!<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"money](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/money-the-station.png?w=680\")
Other deals that got my attention \u2026<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Notable reads and other tidbits<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/the-station-ride-hailing1.png?w=680\")
<\/figure>\nAutonomous vehicles<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Electric vehicles, charging & batteries<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"mercedes](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/mercedes-esprinter.jpeg?w=680\")