JS Mobility: Return of cruise robotaxis and Ford’s BlueCruise is examined

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It’s been another wild week in the transportation world, especially in the EV startup and automated driving industry. Certainly, Cruising caught our attention by announcing a return of sorts. But there’s plenty more to read about, including the Indian ride-hailing giant Ola leaving Britain, Australia and New Zealand; an article about a New York-based startup that wants to bring curbside electric vehicle charging to lampposts; Uber eats launching a TikTok-like video feature; and contract manufacturer Magna controlling humanoid robots developed by Shrine AI.

Oh, one more thing: reporter Rebekah Bellan is back! I know readers have missed her, so show her some love by sending her some tips at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com.

Let’s go!

A little bird

Founders, investors, engineers, policy wonks and others tell us things. And we are here to pass on the verifiable information small birds have shared with us.

Do you have a tip for us? E-mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com or Rebekah Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, Click here to contact usincluding SecureDrop (instructions here) and several encrypted messaging apps.

Offer of the week

Only offers this week!

Basic markinga Finnish company that developed AR and computer vision software used by car manufacturers, 22 million euros raised ($23.6 million) in a Series B round led by ETF Partners. Other financiers include Finnish Industry Investment, Constructor Capital, Business Finland, the European Innovation Council and private investors.

Bumpera fintech startup sector in the automotive sector, £2 million raised in a Series B expansion round with support from Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures.

Carraran Israeli startup that provides battery modules and thermal management systems for electric vehicles, $5.3 million raised in a Series A round with new investors Salida BV, OurCrowd and NextGear, as well as current backers Gentherm, NextLeap Ventures, Dive Digital and others.

Exosa France-based startup that developed battery cooling technology for electric vehicles, €35 million raised ($37.5 million) from BpiFrance and Meridiam Green Impact Growth Fund.

HysetCo SASa startup that rents hydrogen-powered electric cars to taxi drivers in Paris, almost €200 million raised ($218 million) in a round led by Hy24. Raise Impact and Eiffel Investment Group also participated.

Yoshi mobility, a Nashville-based startup that developed an app to offer drivers preventive maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging, has raised $26 million in a Series C round led by General Motors Ventures. Bridgestone Americas, Universal Motors Agencies and Shikra Limited also participated.

Notable reading and other tidbits

ADAS

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the driver of a Ford Mustang Mach-E that crashed into a stationary car in Texas in February was using the hands-free driver assistance system known as BlueCruise. This is the first known fatality resulting from an accident involving BlueCruise. The NTSB announcement came a day after the safety board announced it was investigating a second fatal crash near Philadelphia where Ford’s driver assistance system may have been active.

Autonomous vehicles

GMs subsidiary for self-driving cars Cruising is back. Kind of. The company is redeploying robotaxis, but not in its home city of San Francisco. Instead, Cruise will base itself in Phoenix and all of its autonomous vehicles will be manually piloted by employees. What’s strange is that Cruise says it will create maps and collect road information in Phoenix, a city where it has had a presence (and driven autonomously) since at least 2020. This means that it has already mapped these roads before.

Going all the way back to the mapping, I’m a little confused. Is this theater or does Cruise see the need to restart the entire process due to concerns about the underlying technology?

Cruise has also petitioned California regulators to reinstate its permits to operate in San Francisco. Will we see the company remap its hometown, or will it step in again with a robotaxi service?

In the meantime, Waymo officially launched paid rides in Los Angeles this week. We previously reported on California regulators’ approval of Alphabet’s company to charge fees for its robotaxi service in the city. The service will start small and be built based on demand and performance metrics, a Waymo spokesperson told JS.

Electric vehicles, charging and batteries

Elon Musk’s The decision to greenlight a robotaxi instead of an affordable EV could cost the company its lead, writes TC reporter Tim De Chant.

Energy exponentthe Indian battery technology company that claims to have developed the 15-minute charging technology has entered into a partnership with the car manufacturer Omega Seiki Mobility to deliver a three-wheeled passenger EV with these fast charging capabilities.

Faraday future is now struggling with two internal whistleblowers. Both former employees have filed lawsuits claiming the troubled EV company lied about some of the few sales it has announced so far. They also claim that founder Jia Yueting has “weaponized” the EV startup’s HR department to retaliate against anyone who speaks out about these alleged misrepresentations.

Clear engines delivered more electric vehicles in the first quarter of 2024 than in any other quarter, although the record was set by a very small margin.

Tesla lowered the monthly subscription price of its “Supervised FSD” (formerly known as “FSD Beta”) from $199 to $99, in an effort to get more dollars and data from drivers.

Drive hail

Lyft And Uber said they would pause upon their planned departure from Minneapolis after city officials decided to delay the start of driver pay increases by a few months.

Mixed

Check out this deep dive Neural concepta company that uses AI to help engineers create aerodynamic vehicles for the racing, automotive and aerospace industries.

This week’s wheels

Image credits: Kirsten Korosec

I’m in a Mercedes EV again, this time one Mercedes EQE 350 4MATIC from 2024. The model costs $77,900, excluding the destination charge. The version I drove cost €97,615, thanks to all kinds of options, such as a 10-degree rear axle steering system, head-up display, air suspension, AMG exterior and a €1,250 driver assistance system.

There are a number of improvements over the previous model year, including a new braking system, a heat pump to help improve driving efficiency in winter conditions, a 20-mile improvement in battery range, 20-inch wheels, an electric opening port door for charging and a better user interface (in my opinion) on the central infotainment.

What I really wanted to try was the advanced driver assistance system, and specifically the automatic lane change function, which I had yet to test.

Within the infotainment center, the driver can choose between ‘manual’ or ‘automatic’ lane change options. When the automatic function is selected and the ADAS is enabled, the vehicle will automatically change lanes without driver intervention. This is how it works. I was driving in the right lane on the highway with ADAS enabled. As the car approached slower traffic, an arrow appeared on the instrument cluster (see photo), the system turned on my turn signal and then made the lane change. This can be overridden by holding the steering wheel and keeping it in the lane.

My thoughts? The system worked seamlessly and I could see using it occasionally. The question is whether motorists want to relinquish that kind of control.