TechCrunch Mobility: A new speed bump for EV owners and Waymo’s robotaxi fleet surpasses 2,000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

Wow, y’all aren’t exactly bullish on EV sales in the U.S. once the federal tax credit expires. For those wondering what I am referring to: I included a poll in the last edition of TechCrunch Mobility. Yup, only email subscribers get to participate in polls.

The question was: “What’s your prediction for EV sales over the next two quarters after the EV tax credit expires?” And about 60% of you predicted a steep decline. 

I don’t totally disagree, although I do think some automakers will try to pass along the $7,500 federal tax credit through other price reductions for at least one quarter. Automakers with fresh EV models slated for late 2025 and 2026 may be better positioned than competitors. However, tariffs are also bound to shrink margins. 

Meanwhile, there is another speed bump emerging in the EV industry in the United States as automakers transition over to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard.

Yeah, I’m talking about dongles, aka EV charging adapters.

Senior climate reporter Tim De Chant, who is a longtime EV owner himself, explains how some folks may soon have a trunk or frunk load of charging adapters.

Take GM. The automaker began selling an adapter nearly a year ago to allow existing electric vehicles to use the North American Charging Standard plugs at Tesla Supercharger stalls. EV owners rejoiced in their newfound freedom.

Now GM has announced three more adapters. The additional adapters, which help GM customers access EV chargers with different charging rates and standards, is a win for flexibility, but at the cost of simplicity. It’s entirely possible that two-EV households could own four different adapters. Check out the full article here. 

One important housekeeping note: TechCrunch Mobility will NOT land in your inboxes next week. I know, I know. You’ll miss me. Same here. But I will be back the following week.

A little bird

It’s your lucky day — we have two little birds to share. 

It’s been six months since Peter Rawlinson abruptly stepped down from his CEO, CTO, and board positions at Lucid Motors. His departure came at a critical time, too, as the company was on the precipice of finally launching its long-awaited Gravity SUV. Since then, Rawlinson’s CEO role has been filled on an interim basis by Marc Winterhoff, a longtime consultant at Roland Berger who came on as CFO of Lucid in 2023, as the company looks for a permanent replacement. While it’s unclear whether Lucid is close to making a decision, a little bird recently told us the search net has been cast very wide, with the company even cold-calling some candidates. In the meantime, it’s said that Winterhoff has an eye on taking the position himself.

Meanwhile, over at Tesla. 

When Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla would disband the team working on Dojo, reporters here were predictably curious about what would happen to the factory in Buffalo, New York, where the automaker was supposed to build the AI training supercomputer.

We heard from a few little birds, and the big takeaway is that Tesla is still committed to spending $500 million on a supercomputer there.

The company already invested about $314 million of those funds last year, according to sources who said Tesla reported this figure to the state’s economic development department. Could Buffalo be getting a rebrand to Cortex, Tesla’s other supercomputing cluster? We’re also hearing that Buffalo is keen to keep its relationship with Tesla alive and well, given that the automaker’s facility there is one of the top private employers in the city.

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

Deals!

Not a lot of deals this week; blame the last weeks of summer. Here are a couple of items for you, though …

Blue Water Autonomy, a startup developing unmanned ships for the U.S. Navy, raised $50 million in a Series A round led by GV. Eclipse Ventures, Riot, and Impatient Ventures also participated.

Joby Aviation completed its acquisition of Blade.

Vox AI, an Amsterdam-based startup developing a conversational voice AI platform that’s purpose-built for drive-throughs in quick-service restaurants, raised €7.5 million in seed funding.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Aurora Innovation said it will integrate its self-driving trucking platform into McLeod Software‘s transportation management system. The upshot: Mutual customers would be able to manage autonomous shipments with McLeod’s TMS software and that could help boost adoption.

The Boring Company is finally testing Full Self-Driving (Supervised), the advanced driver-assistance system created by Tesla, in the tunnels that connect Las Vegas’ Convention Center to a few nearby hotels.

The last vestige of bankrupt Fisker Inc. is gone. Henrik Fisker, the founder of failed EV startup Fisker Inc., and his wife, Geeta, quietly wound down a private charitable foundation. 

Kodiak Robotics hired Surajit Datta as chief financial officer. Datta previously was VP of finance at SentinelOne. Remember that Kodiak will soon be a publicly traded company, which it will accomplish by merging with a special purpose acquisition company. 

Tesla could have avoided that $242.5 million Autopilot verdict, filings show. Speaking of that trial, The Washington Post reports that a hacker helped retrieve critical crash data that was missing.

And speaking of data, a security researcher found over a thousand publicly exposed hobby servers run by Tesla vehicle owners that are spilling sensitive data about their vehicles, including their granular location histories. Stay safe, people!

Just days before Labor Day, California lawmakers have reached an agreement with app-based companies Lyft and Uber that will give drivers a path to unionization. 

Uncaged Innovations, a biomaterials startup, is working with Hyundai’s Cradle division to refine its plant-based artificial leather material for automotive use. It even smells like leather — or can be made with other signature scents. 

Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov posted on X a video of one of his company’s robotaxis navigating through the giant dust storm — known as a haboob — in Phoenix. Also, Waymo now has more than 2,000 robotaxis in its commercial fleet, the company told me. More than 800 are in the San Francisco Bay Area, 500 in Los Angeles, 400 in Phoenix, 100 in Austin, and “dozens” in Atlanta — its newest market.

One more thing …

The Autonocast, a podcast I co-host with Alex Roy and Ed Niedermeyer, has a new episode out. And it’s worth a listen, especially if you’re interested in the intersection of boats, autonomy, and planes. In the episode, Roy and I interview Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO of Regent.