TechCrunch Mobility: Uber bets on its former CEO

Published 26 July 2026 · india

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tesla kicked off earnings season — at least for this sector — and the shareholder letter, along with Elon Musk’s remarks during the conference call, provided some pretty incredible disclosures I imagine have some investors concerned, or at least puzzled. Tesla has backed off previous promises to reach “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi, and Megapack 3 in 2026. And while the company has publicly touted expansions of its Tesla Robotaxi service into new cities in Florida and Texas, the quarter-over-quarter data shows a drop in paid robotaxi miles. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane took a closer look at a graph shared in Tesla’s shareholder letter. At a passing glance, the chart appears to show steady growth in paid robotaxi rides between August 2025 and June 2026, O’Kane notes. But the numbers displayed are cumulative, and when broken down by quarter, they show that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet of Model Y SUVs carrying paying passengers covered around 1.1 million miles in the first quarter. That fell to roughly 700,000 miles in the second quarter, a decline of about 36%. Musk also disclosed during the call that Tesla needs to accumulate driving data specific to the Cybercab before it can put large numbers of the vehicles on the road. That isn’t terribly surprising; the Cybercab is new, after all. But the reason got my attention. He explained that Tesla has to accumulate miles using Cybercabs retrofitted with steering wheels and accelerator and braking pedals so it can 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 Self-Driving (Supervised), and future robotaxis. Musk’s explanation suggests there is a misalignment between that fleet data and how it’s applied to the Cybercab.

On the financial front, Tesla’s Q2 earnings show a company plowing money into its next generation of products (CapEx has doubled, and the company is back in negative free cash flow territory). And even though revenue is up, the boost wasn’t enough to offset the cost of doing business. The company’s net income fell 5% year over year. Deals! Image Credits:Bryce Durbin Travis Kalanick burst back onto the robotics and mobility scene earlier this year with Atoms — a rebranded holding company atop his ghost kitchen project — and a deal to acquire Anthony Levandowski’s industrial automation startup, Pronto. Now the Uber co-founder and former CEO has $1.7 billion in capital to play with. VC giant Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board following the investment. This may seem inconceivable for those who remember Kalanick’s resignation from Uber’s top leadership spot nearly a decade ago — and the string of scandals and lawsuits in the year leading up to his departure. What’s even more incredible is that Uber participated in the funding round. The Information reported Uber invested $100 million into 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 and while Kalanick was CEO, Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving trucks startup Otto. Less than a year later, Levandowski’s former employer Waymo (Google self-driving project) sued Uber for trade secret theft. The companies settled on the fifth day of the trial. There is a lot of history, much of it messy, between Kalanick and Uber (not to mention Levandowski). But it appears the ride-hailing company is still willing to invest in them. So what is Atoms going to do with this capital? The details are vague, but a company email from Levandowski suggests that Pronto will be a big part of those plans. The email states that “Atoms is investing heavily in Industrial AI and physical automation applied to mining and transport.” And later, “Pronto is a core strategic priority for Atoms, and this round is designed to accelerate exactly what matters most to your operations: scaling practical, OEM-agnostic autonomy.” Other deals that got my attention … Einride, the Swedish electric and autonomous trucking company, agreed to acquire EV charging startup Flipturn in an all-stock deal worth $38 million.