Kalanick's Atoms Reportedly Eyes Robotaxis, With $100M From Uber Already In
Nine years after being pushed out of Uber, Travis Kalanick is back at the self-driving table, and he brought the protagonist of the old trade-secrets saga with him.
Three key facts
Uber put $100 million into Atoms' $1.7 billion round this summer. Andreessen Horowitz led, with Bain Capital Ventures, Fifth Wall, SV Angel, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and five banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs joining. TechCrunch, citing the Financial Times on September 6, reported that Atoms is gearing up for hiring and acquisitions and has discussed with Uber how its robotaxi tech could plug into ride-hailing.
Anthony Levandowski is said to be leading the robotaxi effort. He joined when Atoms bought his mining-automation startup Pronto in March. A Waymo co-founder and Uber's former self-driving chief, he was sentenced to 18 months for taking Google's self-driving trade secrets, a fight that helped push Kalanick out.
Atoms denies it is building robotaxis. It calls itself "an industrial software company" with no plans to enter the "saturated robotaxi market," while acknowledging Uber as a partner that may use its technology. Uber now counts at least three AV partners: Wayve, Pony.ai and Atoms.
WangDou's Take
"We're an industrial software company" is about as convincing as an ex-smoker loitering outside a tobacco factory saying he's just passing by. A $1.7 billion round, Levandowski's company acquired, $100 million from Uber, talks about ride-hailing integration: four puzzle pieces on the table, only the label is missing. Uber's play is the sharper one. It killed its own self-driving unit, then spread checks across Wayve, Pony.ai and the founder it once ousted, ready to ride whoever gets there first. That's not nostalgia, that's a hedge. And Kalanick's "unfinished business" arrives while Waymo already logs hundreds of thousands of paid rides a week across multiple cities. There aren't many seats left at this table.
Source: TechCrunch · The Next Web · SiliconANGLE