Technology

TechCrunch Mobility: Uber makes a bet on premium robotaxis

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A little bird

blinky cat bird green — **Image Credits:**Bryce Durbin

If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. Uber wants a big piece of the autonomous vehicle technology pie. The ride-hailing company has spent the past two years locking in partnerships with just about every AV company you can think of, and across every sector, including delivery, robotaxis, and trucks.

And yet, I wasn’t totally prepared for the amount of money Uber invested in its latest tie-up with EV maker Lucid and AV startup Nuro. Click here to read my article on the partnership agreement and Uber’s plans for a premium robotaxi service.

We’re here in the “Little bird” section because I’ve learned something new, and welp, I wanted to share it with subscribers first.

As a publicly traded company, Lucid had to disclose that Uber invested $300 million into the company. But Uber didn’t have to share what it invested into Nuro, saying only that it was a multi-hundred-million-dollar figure. One source with direct knowledge told me it was more than Lucid’s $300 million. Since the article was published, I’ve had some little birds fly in to tell me it was around $400 million.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected] or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane at [email protected], or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected].

Deals!

money the station — **Image Credits:**Bryce Durbin

When Waymo shuttered its self-driving trucks program, I wondered where that talent would go. And I (correctly) assumed some might go off and start their own companies.

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Last year, I heard that Boris Sofman, who led the self-driving trucks program at Waymo, had started an autonomous vehicle technology startup focused on heavy equipment used at construction sites. I had even written a little nugget about it in the “Little bird” section. But I was never able to verify exactly how much it raised and who else was attached to it.

Now we know. The startup, called Bedrock Robotics, raised $80 million from investors Eclipse and 8VC. Sofman co-founded Bedrock Robotics alongside Waymo veterans Kevin Peterson and Ajay Gummalla, as well as Tom Eliaz, who previously worked at Segment and Twilio.

Other deals that got my attention this week …

Amogy, a Brooklyn-based ammonia-to-power startup that can apply its tech to shipping, raised another $23 million in funding, bringing its most recent fundraise to $80 million. The round was led by the Korea Development Bank and KDB Silicon Valley LLC with participation from BonAngels Venture Partners, JB Investment, and Pathway Investment.

Geely Auto will take its luxury EV subsidiary Zeekr private through a merger agreement, just over a year after the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.

Gridserve, a U.K.-based mobile EV charging company, raised £100 million ($134 million) from its existing institutional investors, including TPG Rise Climate, Infracapital, and Mitsubishi.

Pronto, the San Francisco-based startup that developed a self-driving system designed for haulage trucks and other off-road vehicles used at construction and mining sites, acquired competitor SafeAI. Terms were not disclosed. Co-founder and CEO Anthony Levandowski described the acquisition as a talent and technology play. The bulk of the 12-person startup’s engineering team and its IP will come over to Pronto.

Via, the transit software startup, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering — again. History lesson: Via filed confidentially for an IPO in 2021 but never took the next official and regulatory steps to enter the public markets. Now the company says it’s ready. Will 2025 be the year?

Notable reads and other tidbits

the station ride hailing1 — **Image Credits:**Bryce Durbin

ADAS

Lucid is rolling out hands-free highway driving to its Air sedans via a software update at the end of the month, a major step forward for the company’s advanced driver-assistance system.

Autonomous vehicles

Uber struck a robotaxi deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles in multiple markets outside the U.S. and mainland China.

Electric vehicles, batteries, and charging

GM is the latest automaker to partner with Redwood Materials on its new energy storage venture. Speaking of GM, the automaker is upgrading the Tennessee factory it owns alongside LG Energy Solution to produce cheaper LFP batteries.

Public records requests can reveal the darndest things. For instance, Rivian will resume prep work on its planned Georgia factory in August and is still looking to break ground early next year, according to emails TechCrunch obtained through a public records request.

In other Rivian news … Rivian co-founder and CEO RJ Scaringe transferred a portion of his ownership stake and voting power as part of a newly settled divorce proceeding. The filing caught our interest for a few reasons (I suggest you read the story), notably that unlike so many tech founders, Scaringe never had a tremendous amount of voting power post-IPO.

The company’s newest software update gives its in-car navigation a new look and feel. In short: Mapbox is out, and a customized Rivian-meets-Google-Maps app is in.

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane and I joke that we’re the only two people left on earth who care about what’s going on at Faraday Future. Oh! But wait, so does the SEC, and it appears the agency is getting ready to take action.

Subaru unveiled its all-electric crossover model called Uncharted that has more than 300 miles of range and will go on sale in the U.S. in early 2026. Subaru said it will release pricing closer to market launch.

Tesla made its long-awaited entry into India with the opening of its first showroom — nine years after CEO Elon Musk first teased the move and following years of delays and shifting timelines in one of the world’s largest automotive markets. Stay tuned for more coverage from our India-based reporter Jagmeet Singh.

Tesla Cybertruck sales have plummeted from their peak last year. How far? Here’s one point of reference: The GMC Hummer EV (which isn’t exactly a volume seller) outsold the polarizing steel-clad curiosity in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, jury selection started for a federal civil lawsuit against Tesla. At issue is whether the company’s driver-assistance technology was to blame for a 2019 fatal crash in Key Largo, Florida. As you might expect, personal feelings about Elon Musk loomed large in the jury process.

Future of flight

Joby Aviation has doubled the size and production capacity of its pilot manufacturing facility in Marina, California, as it pushes to commercialize its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles by early next year.

Technology

The Case for Custom eLearning Platforms: Why Organizations Are Making the Switch

aloe vera plant on grey pot on table with MacBook Pro and iPad

The corporate eLearning market has exploded in recent years, growing over 800% since 2000. As the demand for eLearning continues to accelerate, more and more organizations are finding that off-the-shelf solutions cannot keep pace with their training needs. This has led many companies to make the switch to custom-built eLearning platforms tailored specifically for their requirements.

There are several key reasons driving the demand for customized eLearning tools:

Greater Flexibility and Scalability

Generic eLearning software packages often impose rigid constraints that limit their ability to adapt to an organization’s evolving needs. Meanwhile, the “one-size-fits-all” approach fails to support the personalized learning critical for employee development. Custom platforms provide flexibility to add and modify features to match ever-changing business goals. As companies scale training across global workforces, custom solutions built on cloud infrastructure can scale seamlessly to handle growing demand.

Deeper Integration Across Systems

Smooth integration with existing HR, LMS, and other business systems is critical for optimizing training workflows. However, off-the-shelf tools rarely integrate well, creating data and process siloes. Custom platforms can tightly integrate role-based learning paths with core business applications, sync user profiles, enable single sign-on, and more. This level of integration catalyzes more impactful training function.

Better Data and Analytics

Generic software severely limits access to data insights that drive improvement. Custom platforms unlock a trove of analytics on content consumption, learner progression, platform adoption, and real-time feedback. Integrated analytics dashboards and APIs allow businesses to derive deep visibility across the learner lifecycle. These insights help continuously enhance learner experience, target development gaps, and demonstrate direct training ROI.

Enhanced Learner Engagement

For modern learners accustomed to consumer-grade digital experiences, poor platform usability quickly erodes engagement. Custom designs allow companies to incorporate familiar features from popular apps and websites while optimizing for their audience. Adaptive learning approaches further personalize content to individual styles and needs. With modular component architecture, custom platforms stay on the cutting edge of new modalities like AR/ VR to captivate learners.

Brand and Culture Alignment

Off-the-shelf tools impose a generic and often disruptive experience that clashes with existing brand identity and culture. In contrast, custom platforms allow organizations to carry over familiar styling, voice, and workflow patterns. Consistency in experience preserves brand recognition while smoother onboarding leads to wider adoption across all employee groups. Over time, the platform can evolve alongside cultural changes as well.

While custom elearning tools require greater upfront investment, for enterprise training needs, the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs. The ability to mold platforms to current and future needs results in greater leverage from learning spend.

As businesses demand ever-more from their learning technology, custom solutions provide the agility needed for true scale. Rather than forcing training functions into the constraints of generic software, custom elearning development keeps the focus on nurturing talent and capabilities. For any organization looking to drive workforce transformation through learning, custom elearning represents the way forward.

Technology

Pintarnya raises $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia

Pintarnya, an Indonesian employment platform that goes beyond job matching by offering financial services along with full-time and side-gig opportunities, said it has raised a $16.7 million Series A round.

The funding was led by Square Peg with participation from existing investors Vertex Venture Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures.

Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan founded Pintarnya in 2022 to tackle two of the biggest challenges Indonesians face daily: earning enough and borrowing responsibly.

“Traditionally, mass workers in Indonesia find jobs offline through job fairs or word of mouth, with employers buried in paper applications and candidates rarely hearing back. For borrowing, their options are often limited to family/friend or predatory lenders with harsh collection practices,” Henry Hendrawan, co-founder of Pintarnya, told TechCrunch. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Around 59% of Indonesia’s 150 million workforce is employed in the informal sector, highlighting the difficulties these workers encounter in accessing formal financial services because they lack verifiable income and official employment documentation.

Pintarnya tackles this challenge by partnering with asset-backed lenders to offer secured loans, using collateral such as gold, electronics, or vehicles, Hendrawan added.

Since its seed funding in 2022, the platform currently serves over 10 million job seeker users and 40,000 employers nationwide. Its revenue has increased almost fivefold year-over-year and expects to reach break-even by the end of the year, Hendrawn noted. Pintarnya primarily serves users aged 21 to 40, most of whom have a high school education or a diploma below university level. The startup aims to focus on this underserved segment, given the large population of blue-collar and informal workers in Indonesia.

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“Through the journey of building employment services, we discovered that our users needed more than just jobs — they needed access to financial services that traditional banks couldn’t provide,” said Hendrawan. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Pintarnya Founders Press Kit — image credits: Pintarnya (Founders of Pintarnya Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan)

While Indonesia already has job platforms like JobStreet, Kalibrr, and Glints, these primarily cater to white-collar roles, which represent only a small portion of the workforce, according to Hendrawan. Pintarnya’s platform is designed specifically for blue-collar workers, offering tailored experiences such as quick-apply options for walk-in interviews, affordable e-learning on relevant skills, in-app opportunities for supplemental income, and seamless connections to financial services like loans.

The same trend is evident in Indonesia’s fintech sector, which similarly caters to white-collar or upper-middle-class consumers. Conventional credit scoring models for loans, which rely on steady monthly income and bank account activity, often leave blue-collar workers overlooked by existing fintech providers, Hendrawan explained.

When asked about which fintech services are most in demand, Hendrawan mentioned, “Given their employment status, lending is the most in-demand financial service for Pintarnya’s users today. We are planning to ‘graduate’ them to micro-savings and investments down the road through innovative products with our partners.”

The new funding will enable Pintarnya to strengthen its platform technology and broaden its financial service offerings through strategic partnerships. With most Indonesian workers employed in blue-collar and informal sectors, the co-founders see substantial growth opportunities in the local market. Leveraging their extensive experience in managing businesses across Southeast Asia, they are also open to exploring regional expansion when the timing is right.

“Our vision is for Pintarnya to be the everyday companion that empowers Indonesians to not only make ends meet today, but also plan, grow, and upgrade their lives tomorrow … In five years, we see Pintarnya as the go-to super app for Indonesia’s workers, not just for earning income, but as a trusted partner throughout their life journey,” Hendrawan said. “We want to be the first stop when someone is looking for work, a place that helps them upgrade their skills, and a reliable guide as they make financial decisions.”

Technology

OpenAI warns against SPVs and other ‘unauthorized’ investments

In a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs.

“We urge you to be careful if you are contacted by a firm that purports to have access to OpenAI, including through the sale of an SPV interest with exposure to OpenAI equity,” the company writes. The blog post acknowledges that “not every offer of OpenAI equity […] is problematic” but says firms may be “attempting to circumvent our transfer restrictions.”

“If so, the sale will not be recognized and carry no economic value to you,” OpenAI says.

Investors have increasingly used SPVs (which pool money for one-off investments) as a way to buy into hot AI startups, prompting other VCs to criticize them as a vehicle for “tourist chumps.”

Business Insider reports that OpenAI isn’t the only major AI company looking to crack down on SPVs, with Anthropic reportedly telling Menlo Ventures it must use its own capital, not an SPV, to invest in an upcoming round.