Welcome back TechCrunch Mobility - Your central hub for news and insights on the future of transport. Sign up here for free - just click on TechCrunch Mobility!
It may have been just a week, but there is still a lot of news, including another one Zamx Recall, it's about Stellantis-Amazon Partnerships, and some start-up capital transactions.
A noteworthy project: This week, I wrote about Carma Technology And patent infringement litigation Uber. This is not the case with patent trolls, and the IP lawyer I talked to is a challenging case for Uber.
Important points? Carma, founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneur and SOSV Ventures founder Sean O'Sullivan, filed a lawsuit against Uber earlier this year, accusing the company of infringing five patents for riders (or packages) that match the capacity of the matching vehicle. In other words, ride sharing.
IP lawyer Larry Ashery provides currency quotes, explaining why this is such a complex and challenging case.
"It is important to understand that Kalma not only advocates five patents. Over the past 18 years, they have developed very complex patent procurement strategies."
Carma’s five patents are part of a 30 youth family, all of which are related to the original filing date. This is important because each of the five claims contains multiple patent claims that define the legal boundaries of the invention. These personal claims (not just the entire patent) are Kalma's claims against Uber.
Ashery notes that this means Uber will have to resolve and defend each claim, making the lawsuit more complicated and difficult to beat.
Let's get into the rest of the news.
A little bird
Over the past few months, a few birds have been quietly inserting us into a new self-driving car technology startup for a year. Interesting Nuggets About This Startup - Called Bedrock Robot Technology - Who is behind: Boris SofmanWho leads WaymoThe self-driving truck program and previously co-founded and led the popular consumer robotics company Angi.
The San Francisco-based startup is still invisible, but my source told me it has raised a lot of venture capital. According to documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, BedRock Robotics is developing an autonomous driving kit that is retrofitted to construction equipment and other heavy machinery.
Are you tipping us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com Or my signal at Kkorosec.07, Sean O'Kane, sean.okane@techcrunch.com or rebecca Bellan, lebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out These instructions To learn how to contact us through encrypted messaging applications or Securedrop.
trade!
Firefly Aerospace Northrop Grumman received $50 million in investment as part of the D season. The investment will further boost the production of the medium-sized launch vehicle jointly developed by the startup, now known as the Eclipse.
trayA warehouse logistics software startup based in Fremont, California raised $27 million in Series B financing rounds, led by General Catalyst. Bain Capital Ventures, Radical Capital and Bessemer Venture partners also attended the meeting.
antennaIt is a London-based startup building virtual connective tissue that will allow plugging into electric electric vehicles to provide batteries to support the grid and shut down the $11.1 million Series A-led by Union Square Ventures, from Edenred, Exor, Long Journey Ventures and Wex.
Methods of data technologyIt is a fleet management startup founded by veterans of Lucid Motors and Wolt, raising €2.6 million ($2.95 million) upfront funding led by Pale Blue Dot and has been involved from 10x founders and Greens Ventures.
Famous readings and other tidbits
Self-driving cars
RIVRIts CEO and founder Marko Bjelonic describes its four-wheel climbing cargo robot as a dog on a roller - car As part of a pilot program in Austin, Texas, direct to customers’ front door vans. Both companies see this small pilot as a key step in solving unique slices in the end-to-end autonomous delivery journey.
Tasimpu (Now CreateAi) sent a series of sensitive data (actually a blueprint for self-driving cars systems made in the United States) to a Beijing-owned company after it promised to stop such transfers under a national security agreement. This revelation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, prompted many "not surprised" responses from several readers and sources in the industry.
Zamx On May 8, one of its robots sent out a second voluntary software recall within a month after a collision with an electronic driver in San Francisco. The incident is noteworthy, in large part because what happened after the low-speed unmanned ZOOX vehicle was running at low speed was hit by E Scooter.
According to Zoox, the electronic rider home landed on the ground next to the vehicle, "Robotaxi started moving and stopped after completing the turn, but did not have further contact with the electronic litigator."
In other ZOOX news, the company announced it is "official robotics partner for Las Vegas resorts." As part of the deal, there will be a dedicated, Zoox-branded robot pickup and drop-off location at the Las Vegas resort.
Electric cars, charging and batteries
this Tesla Cybertruck There was a difficult time. Dozens of unsold Tesla Seibok people are piled up in the parking lot of the Detroit Mall. Although Tesla now allows Seberak owners to trade vehicles for the first time since they went public, they will face huge depreciation. Cargurus recently showed a depreciation rate of up to 45%.
at the same time, Tesla Sales in Europe and the UK fell by nearly half, according to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
this public The 2015 emissions cheating scandal broke out in the automotive sector and prompted the company (and later) to move from diesel to hybrid and electric vehicles. Now, four former Volkswagen executives have been sentenced to jail for their roles.
In-car technology
Amazon No longer used Stellantis Create in-car software for automakers’ vehicles. The partnership, first announced in January 2022, is part of Stellantis’ plan to generate $22.5 billion from software each year. Stellantis told TechCrunch that this will be an Android-based system.