Welcome back to Mobility TechCrunchits center for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role that AI plays in it. To get this delivered to your inbox, sign up here for free – just click TechCrunch Mobility!

tesla Earnings season has begun (at least for this sector) and the letter to shareholders, along with Elon Musk’s comments during the conference call, provided some pretty incredible revelations that I imagine have some investors worried, or at least baffled.

Tesla has walked back previous promises to reach “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 in 2026. And while the company has publicly touted the expansion of its Tesla Robotaxi service to new cities in Florida and Texas, quarterly data shows a drop in paid robotaxi miles.

senior reporter Sean O’Kane He took a closer look at a chart shared in the letter to Tesla shareholders. At a glance, the graph appears to show steady growth in paid robotaxi rides between August 2025 and June 2026, O’Kane notes. But the numbers shown are cumulative and, when broken down by quarter, show that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet of Model Y SUVs carrying paying passengers covered about 1.1 million miles in the first quarter. That figure fell to about 700,000 miles in the second quarter, a decrease of about 36%.

Musk also revealed during the call that Tesla needs to accumulate Cybercab-specific driving data before it can put a large number of vehicles on the road. That’s not very surprising; After all, the Cybercab is new. But the reason caught my attention. He explained that Tesla has to rack up miles using Cybercabs equipped with steering wheels and gas and brake pedals in order to calibrate to the Cybercab chassis.

This marks a change from the company’s previous claims. For years, Tesla has said its fleet of nearly 10 million customer cars has been collecting data that could be used to train its advanced driver assistance system, full (supervised) autonomous driving and future robotaxis. Musk’s explanation suggests that there is a misalignment between that fleet’s data and how it applies to the Cybercab.

On the financial front, Tesla’s second quarter earnings show a company pouring money into its next generation of products (CapEx has doubled and the company is back in negative free cash flow territory). And although revenue increased, the boost was not enough to offset the cost of doing business. The company’s net income fell 5% year over year.

Offers!

Travis Kalanick burst onto the robotics and mobility scene again earlier this year with atoms – a renamed holding company on top of its ghost kitchen project – and an agreement to acquire Antonio Levandowski start-up of industrial automation, Soon. Now the co-founder and former CEO of Uber has $1.7 billion in capital to play with. Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and Uber. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board of directors following the investment.

This may seem inconceivable to those who remember Kalanick’s resignation from Uber’s top leadership position nearly a decade ago, and the series of scandals and lawsuits in the year before his departure. What’s even more incredible is that Uber participated in the financing round. The Information reported that Uber invested $100 million in Atoms; Conversations I’ve had since confirm that figure and provided new information, including that the investment was made six months ago.

Reminder: In 2016, while Kalanick was CEO, Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving truck startup Otto. Less than a year later, Levandowski’s former employer, Waymo (Google’s self-driving project), sued Uber for theft of trade secrets. The companies reached an agreement on the fifth day of the trial.

There is a lot of history, much of it confusing, between Kalanick and Uber (not to mention Levandowski). But it seems that the transport company is still willing to invest in them.

So what is Atoms going to do with this capital? Details are vague, but a company email sent by Levandowski suggests Pronto will be a major part of those plans.

The email states that “Atoms is investing heavily in industrial AI and physical automation applied to mining and transportation.” And later, “Soon is a key strategic priority for Atoms, and this round is designed to accelerate exactly what matters most to its operations: expanding hands-on, independent autonomy from OEMs.”

Other offers that caught my attention…

EinrideThe Swedish electric and autonomous truck company, agreed to acquire electric vehicle charging startup Flipturn in an all-stock deal worth $38 million.

IBM agreed to buy HRL Laboratoriesa quantum computing research laboratory jointly owned by boeing and general motors.

silaThe battery materials startup raised $300 million in a round led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. The money will be used to expand Sila’s factory in Washington state to produce enough anode material for more than 100,000 electric vehicles.

Notable readings and other tidbits

Aurora I had some news this week that didn’t get much attention, but probably should. The company launched its second-generation self-driving trucks, which include new smaller hardware as well as improved extended-range lidar and sensor cleaning systems, all of which are designed for a million-mile lifespan. The initial fleet will be modest and will be used on its route from Dallas to Houston. The fleet will eventually reach 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year and will be used to transport cargo for customers such as Hirschbach, Uber Freight, McLane and Detmar, the company said. Most importantly for Aurora, these trucks do not have a human observer in the cab.

Ford is resorting to Apple for its next generation of electric vehicles. Specifically, Ford will integrate Apple Maps navigation and mapping, using a new set of development tools called MapKit for Automotive, into its new line of electric vehicles, starting with the $30,000 midsize pickup truck in 2027. I asked Ford what this means for Googlewho is an existing partner. A company spokesperson told me that Apple’s announcement “does not change Google Automotive Services’ role in our current and near-term production programs.”

He Insurance Institute for Road Safety published a study called “Rise of the Machines: Crash Experiences of Highly Automated Vehicles and Human Drivers.” The organization used a much more clickbaity headline (Waymo’s self-driving cars crash less often than people) to direct people to their work. Unfortunately, that headline misses part of the point. The study provides evidence that Waymo’s current robotaxis have lower accident involvement rates than human drivers. “Overall, including police-reported accidents, Waymo’s accident rate was 68% lower than that of human drivers,” the study reads. It also, more importantly, concludes that data collection on national accidents and miles traveled by Level 4 vehicles “can be improved to achieve more timely and accurate safety assessments.”

mobile founder and CEO Amnon Shashua plans to step down from the top leadership role after nearly three decades, just as the company moves toward robotaxis and humanoid robots.

He National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will seek to develop new requirements for automakers to ensure that drivers and passengers can safely exit their vehicles, as a result of a petition asking the agency to open an investigation into safety defects in the mechanical emergency door release design in 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. To be clear, this does not mean there will be new rules.

rivian has sued the US government for a “full refund” of tariffs paid under President Trump’s “Liberation Day” taxes, which the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional.

Two volkswagen The engineers were charged with securities fraud after allegedly benefiting from inside information related to the German automaker’s joint venture with Rivian.

Waymo is having internal discussions about terminating its contract with Uberreported the Financial Times. Close followers of this association might have read this, rolled their eyes, and said “DUH!” But there are some interesting details here, including the Uber-Waymo contract that covers Atlanta and Austin ends in May 2028. Uber told TechCrunch that Waymo says it intends to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028.

WhatsApp is rolling out a set of new features, including a revamped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experience.