Kirsten Korosec, Author at TechCrunch

Anthony Levandowski bets on off-road autonomy, Nuro plots a comeback and Applied Intuition gets more investor love

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Summer road trip season is upon us, so when Google announced some updates to Google Maps, we got excited. Surely this would include a feature that allows […]

Why Anthony Levandowski returned to his off-road autonomous vehicle roots with AV startup Pronto

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:45:00 +0000

Five years ago, as robotaxis and self-driving truck startups were still raking in millions in venture capital, Anthony Levandowski turned to off-road autonomy. Now, that decision — which brought the former Google engineer and serial entrepreneur back to the roots that helped launch his pioneering and controversial career — is starting to pay off. Pronto, […]

Founder behind social media app IRL charged with fraud

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 02:14:08 +0000

While venture capitalists and the rest of the technorati are off on holiday or attending the Paris Olympics, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its staff attorneys are keeping busy this summer. For the second time this week — and at least the fourth time in the past several months — the SEC has […]

Alphabet pours $5B into Waymo, Cruise scraps the Origin and Elon’s bet on autonomy

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I don’t know about you, but for me, the past few days have offered up even more evidence that our world is vulnerable to software bugs. Yep, […]

GM’s Cruise abandons Origin robotaxi, takes $583 million charge

Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 15:12:21 +0000

GM’s self-driving car subsidiary Cruise is scrapping plans to build the Origin — a purpose-built robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals — and will instead use the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt in its operations. GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra told shareholders Tuesday the decision will “simplify their path to scale” and addresses the regulatory uncertainty […]

CrowdStrike outage: How your plane, train and automobile travel may be affected

Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 22:37:17 +0000

The CrowdStrike outage that hit early Friday morning and knocked out computers running Microsoft Windows has grounded flights globally. Major U.S. airlines including United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have halted flight operations around the world. According to FlightAware, which is tracking the cancellations live, 7% of United Airlines flights, 8% of American […]

Waymo wants to bring robotaxis to SFO, emails show

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:43:07 +0000

Waymo would need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved.

Fisker scores a win, an AV startup reboots in Texas, and why Elon pushed the Tesla robotaxi reveal

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 17:05:00 +0000

This week's TechCrunch Mobility looks at Fisker scoring a win, an AV startup rebooting in Texas, why Elon is pushing the Tesla robotaxi reveal and more.

Ford’s EV plans are in flux once again as it invests $3B into its biggest trucks

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:40:16 +0000

Ford is still pushing forward on electrification, notably by increasing hybrid options.

GM CEO Mary Barra is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

The automotive industry is in the midst of dramatic technological change as companies seek out new ways to make money beyond building and selling gas-powered cars. And GM CEO and chair Mary Barra, who has held the top spot for a decade, is at the center of that change. Barra is pushing to double the […]

Lucid revs up sales, Fisker makes a deal and Uber reignites an old fight

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Did you miss us last week? Even with a relatively quiet week due to the July 4 holiday, there were some notable goings-on. To no one’s surprise, […]

From burritos to biotech: How robotics startup Cartken found its AV niche

Kirsten Korosec — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Cartken and its diminutive sidewalk delivery robots first rolled into the world with a narrow charter: carrying everything from burritos and bento boxes to pizza and pad thai that last mile to hungry customers. But the vision — thanks to the startup’s approach to autonomous vehicle technology — was always broader, according to Cartken co-founder […]

Volkswagen’s Silicon Valley software hub is already stacked with Rivian talent

Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 18:17:21 +0000

VW Group’s struggling software arm Cariad has hired at least 23 of the startup’s top employees over the past several months.

VW taps Rivian in $5B EV deal and the fight over Fisker’s assets

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Am I the only one whose head is spinning from all of the transpo news this week? Reminder, it’s only Thursday morning. Let’s jump in! Oh wait, […]

GM’s Cruise taps Xbox video game veteran as next CEO

Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 21:48:53 +0000

GM’s Cruise has appointed Marc Whitten — a video game veteran who was a founding engineer at Xbox and Xbox Live — as CEO. The Cruise CEO position has been vacant since December when co-founder Kyle Vogt resigned as part of a broader executive shakeup following an October 2 incident that saw one of its […]

VW to invest up to $5B in Rivian software deal

Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 20:32:54 +0000

Volkswagen Group will invest $1 billion into EV startup Rivian as part of a broad software development deal that could expand to as much as $5 billion. It’s a boon for Rivian, which has a tenuous path ahead as it pushes to develop its mass-market R2 SUV. The company’s shares shot up more than 49% […]

Waymo dumps its waitlist and opens up its San Francisco robotaxi service to everyone

Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:01:00 +0000

Waymo no longer has a waitlist for its San Francisco robotaxi service, removing the final obstacle for customers keen to use the self-driving technology. Waymo said Tuesday that anyone can download the app and then immediately hail one of its robotaxis in San Francisco — a move that mimics the Alphabet-owned company’s strategy in Phoenix, […]

Why Fisker failed

Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I’m back from holiday in Denmark and Germany, where I managed to try just about every kind of transportation, from bikes to scooters, to driving on the […]

EV startup Fisker files for bankruptcy

Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 08:06:36 +0000

Fisker Group Inc., the EV startup founded by famed designer Henrik Fisker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a capstone to months of problems with its Ocean SUV that included recalls and dozens of lemon law lawsuits. The California-based company, which filed for bankruptcy in Delaware District Court, had been seeking a deal with another […]

Rivian overhauled the R1S and R1T to entice new buyers ahead of cheaper R2 launch

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:00:15 +0000

Rivian has changed 600 parts on its R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck in a bid to drive down manufacturing costs, while improving performance of its flagship vehicles. The end goal, which will play out over the coming year, is an existential one. Rivian lost about $38,784 on every vehicle it delivered in the first […]