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OK, who positioned their wager on General Motors being the touchdown spot for Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson? Not me. But right here we’re. A couple of days after Anderson introduced his resignation from his place and the board at Aurora, he spoke to me about his subsequent gig as chief product officer at GM. In quick, he’ll oversee the complete product line of GM’s gas-powered and electrical autos — a place that may cowl the complete life cycle of GM’s portfolio and embody {hardware}, software program, companies, and consumer expertise.
Anderson couldn’t say an excessive amount of; plus, he hasn’t began the job but. Anderson did say he wouldn’t have taken the brand new job if Aurora had but to launch its industrial self-driving truck service in Texas.
Let’s leap into the remainder of the information.
Somewhat chicken
In a fully wild flip of occasions, Luminar’s founder Austin Russell seems to have been pushed out as CEO and board chair. You can learn my protection right here, which supplies a little bit of an outline of how this unfolded, however I do know there may be a lot extra to this story. TL;DR: If you had been to solely learn Luminar’s Q1 earnings report, you’ll assume Russell was nonetheless on the helm. A separate press launch, launched as the corporate’s earnings went out, introduced a management change and that Russell had resigned following an ethics inquiry from the board’s audit committee.
Here’s what I’m listening to from a number of little birds. The phrase “blindsided” got here up greater than as soon as, and the chaos isn’t over. Luminar board member Jun Hong Heng, who’s founder and chief funding officer at Crescent Cove Advisors and a mentor of Russell’s, resigned a day later. Heng was additionally on the audit committee.
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Deals!
Aurora has had an odd couple of weeks stuffed with highs — driverless industrial service woohoo! — and twists — whoops, there goes a co-founder. To cap issues off, Uber introduced plans to supply $1 billion in exchangeable senior notes due in 2028 in non-public placement. As you would possibly anticipate, shares dropped after buyers received spooked about potential dilution and what this would possibly imply for the worth of Aurora’s inventory.
Other offers that received my consideration …
AutoUnify, the newest startup that has launched out of the Up.Labs-Porsche partnership, raised $5 million in seed cash. The Santa Monica, California-based startup, which constructed an API to permit dealerships and repair retailers to speak in actual time with the producers and software program distributors that energy their operations, has been working quietly for about 9 months.
Chinese battery producer CATL is much from a startup. But it’s value noting this bananas Stock Launch plan. The firm desires to boost at the very least HK$31.01 billion — that’s simply shy of $4 billion — in its Hong Kong itemizing. This is the biggest itemizing globally in 2025.
Here’s a potential deal that has raised some eyebrows. Federal railroad regulators are in talks with Elon Musk’s tunneling agency, The Boring Company, over a multibillion-dollar Amtrak undertaking.
Flock Freight, the shared truckload freight brokerage based mostly in California, raised $60 million in a Series E funding spherical led by O’Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, SignalHearth, GLP Capital Partners, and Bracket Capital additionally participated.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous autos
Tesla’s plan to launch a robotaxi service in Austin subsequent month has caught the eye of federal security investigators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation despatched the corporate an in depth record of questions on its upcoming robotaxi service as a part of an investigation into how the corporate’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software program operates in low-visibility situations.
Recalls are beginning to pop up extra within the AV sector. Last week it was Zoox. Now Waymo has issued a software program recall on 1,200 self-driving autos after a few of its robotaxis had been concerned in minor collisions with gates, chains, and different gate-like roadway objects.
WeRide appears to be making an attempt to ramp in Guangzhou. The Chinese firm mentioned it has launched eight autonomous robotaxi pilot operation routes within the central a part of town. The firm has additionally began trialing absolutely driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi.
Electric autos, charging, & batteries
General Motors has been engaged on a brand new battery chemistry known as lithium manganese-rich, which it says ought to slash prices whereas delivering driving vary. Notably, these LMR batteries dramatically scale back the quantity of nickel and cobalt in contrast with GM’s most superior cells, two important minerals that aren’t available from home sources within the United States.
A footnote in Lucid’s current Q1 regulatory submitting offers a bit extra perception into its gross sales numbers. The EV maker’s document quarter received a raise from rental gross sales and firm leases.
Slate Auto has racked up greater than 100,000 reservations for its customizable low-cost electrical pickup truck.
Everyone, let’s give a sluggish clap to Toyota for redesigning — and extra importantly, renaming — its sole all-electric car for the U.S. market. The EV, as soon as known as the bZ4X, will now merely be bZ. The authentic bZ4X was not effectively obtained. I’m trying ahead to getting behind the wheel to see what enhancements Toyota has made. Meanwhile, Toyota has introduced again the C-HR nameplate, however this time as an EV. Hopefully this time it’s extra profitable. It arrives within the U.S. in 2026.
Gig economic system
Three years in the past, reporter Rebecca Bellan famous that Uber was going by an Amazonification. Her pitch was that the corporate, like Amazon, had created a closed enterprise loop to feed prospects again into different Uber channels. The second a part of that evolution has began, she reported this week. Uber seems to be transferring past its concentrate on transportation and dealing to turn into a handy tremendous app, an aggregator of companies, a daily-use way of life platform with its finest choices tucked behind a paywall.
Future of flight
U.S. lawmakers launched the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The timing might be essential for startup Boom Supersonic, which has made progress in growing next-generation supersonic plane
Vertical Aerospace introduced a plan to develop a hybrid-electric variant of its VX4, suggesting the corporate is pursuing alternatives in protection and logistics.
In-car tech
Apple’s subsequent era of its well-liked CarPlay infotainment software program is lastly launching. Reminder: It was first introduced three years in the past. The new model, known as CarPlay Ultra, will make its debut on new Aston Martin autos within the U.S. and Canada.
Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to all automobiles that assist Android Auto within the subsequent few months. Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Cars, mentioned Gemini will floor within the Android Auto expertise in two major methods.
