Kyle Vogt Raises $150M for New Robotics Venture

Welcome to the Ride AI Newsletter, your weekly digest of important events and new developments at the intersection of technology and transportation. 

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Do you work in new mobility, specifically vehicle connectivity? You should check out this new whitepaper about how the latest breakthroughs in GNSS tech are shaking up asset tracking for everything from robo-lawnmowers to larger devices. In summary…

🌆 Historically, attaining accurate positioning for mass-market IoT devices has posed challenges due to constraints in GNSS technology, particularly in urban settings where signal interferences and obstructions are prevalent.

🚗 However, operators can now address these challenges through three methods: multi-band GNSS, RTK positioning, and dead reckoning (DR).

💡 Field trials suggest that integrating GNSS with DR or RTK substantially enhances positioning precision, even amidst demanding city landscapes.

What You Need to Know Today

On the latest episode of the Ride AI podcast, we dive into insurance, risk management, and driving automation with Michael Wagner, CEO of Edge Case Research. Unlike traditional auto insurance, where policies are based on factors like driver history and vehicle usage, insuring self-driving vehicles requires a deeper understanding of the technology itself. Edge Case Research aims to fill this gap by providing risk assessment technology tailored specifically for autonomous cars and trucks. Michael sheds light on how this nascent industry is developing new insurance solutions that address the unique challenges of AVs, while incentivizing safe practices and fostering trust. Listen in.

Cruise founder Kyle Vogt has raised $150M in seed funding for a new venture called the Bot Company that aims to sell personal robots that can help with household chores, like cleaning. The startup boasts impressive backers (including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison) and talent (such as Paril Jain, former AI lead at Tesla, and former Cruise software engineer Luke Holoubek).

Not much else is known about the Bot Company yet, but it’s interesting that for his next act Vogt has chosen to build robots that operate on private property (houses) rather than the public right of way (roads).

AV startup Motional has laid off about 550 employees, or around 40% of its workforce. The company, a four-year-old joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, recently halted commercial operations and postponed plans to launch a robotaxi service until 2026.

Only 2% of Tesla FSD free trial users end up buying the software, according to credit card data.

Chinese self-driving firm Momenta has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the US, according to people familiar with the matter. The GM-backed firm is aiming to raise up to $300M.

Waymo says its robotaxis are now making 50,000 paid trips every week…

… however, federal regulators are investigating the Alphabet-owned company’s autonomous vehicle tech following 22 reports of robotaxis crashing or potentially breaching traffic safety laws.

Amazon’s robotaxi company Zoox is also under investigation by NHTSA after two crashes involving motorcyclists.

Even though Elon Musk has dismissed self-driving companies that rely on lidar tech as “doomed” in the past, quarterly earnings reveal that Tesla is actually the biggest purchaser of lidar from Orlando-based startup Luminar.

Cruise will recommence robotaxis tests in Phoenix this week with human supervisors. The GM subsidiary suspended operations in October after one of its vehicles was involved in an accident in San Francisco.

Shanghai-based startup Zongmu is looking to commercialize its self-driving EV charging bank in China before expanding globally in the coming year.

Beep is deploying self-driving shuttles at the Honolulu airport in Hawaii.

Tesla is defending its use of the terms “Autopilot” and “self-driving” for its driver assistance features, arguing that the California Department of Motor Vehicles implicitly approved these terms by not taking action in previous investigations.

Daimler Truck, part of Mercedes-Benz, has introduced its first autonomous truck prototype. Equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and a powerful computer system, including technology from Waymo and Torc, the vehicle sets its sights on achieving fully autonomous freight transportation by 2027.

A patent application by Ford reveals plans for an autonomous shuttle that can move cargo and people.

Chinese lidar marker Hesai is suing the US government in response to being added to a list of companies allegedly working with China’s military.

Airlines are leveraging AI to optimize bookings and routing. “In 2023, about 25 percent of Alaska flights used this system to shave a few minutes off flight times. Those efficiencies added up to about 41,000 minutes of flying time and half a million gallons of fuel saved.”