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Elon Musk has never had a good relationship with regulators, often running afoul of or outright ignoring local and state laws in which many of his companies operate.
This week has been particularly active on the regulatory front.
Musk’s tunneling and infrastructure company, The Boring Company, has been accused by Nevada regulators of nearly 800 violations, including digging without approval, dumping untreated water onto city streets, failing to install silt fences and tracking construction site dirt onto nearby roads, a ProPublica investigation found.
Tesla was then the subject of enforcement action by the California Department of Insurance for routinely denying or delaying customer claims despite years of warnings from state regulators. Reminder: Tesla is an insurance company in certain states.
Tesla is also once again attracting attention from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency launched an investigation into Tesla’s fully self-driving technology after reports that the software caused vehicles to run red lights or enter the wrong lane.
NHTSA has investigated Tesla before. But this one is notable in that it specifically targets Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance software. And Mr. Musk and other Tesla shareholders are betting the company’s future on whether Tesla can become a leader not only in robotics and AI, but also in self-driving technology.
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This one investigation probably won’t derail Tesla’s plans. The company just released the latest version of FSD (v14). But it’s another example of the growing scrutiny of the technology Tesla is bringing to the fore, raising questions about robotaxis that use a version of the FSD software.
small bird
A July Wired article revealed that General Motors was repurposing several Chevrolet Bolt EVs that were part of the now-shuttered Cruise robotaxi program and driving them on some highways in Austin, Texas, and Michigan near the San Francisco Bay Area to develop simulation models and new driver-assistance technology.
Now, General Motors appears to be working on self-driving cars, and it could be done in a surprising way. When GM acquired Cruise in December 2024, it announced that it would combine Cruise’s technology with its own ADAS efforts to develop fully autonomous personal vehicles.
I’m hearing rumors all over the place that GM is building an AV team in Austin and Mountain View. This comes just months after GM began rehiring laid-off Cruise employees, according to Bloomberg.
We are investigating, so if you know anything please contact us.
Have a tip? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.Korosec@techcrunch.com, email my Signal at korosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Great deal!
Joby Aviation sold 30.5 million shares to raise approximately $514 million, which the company said will be used to fund certification and manufacturing activities, prepare for commercial operations, as well as general working capital and other general corporate purposes. The company plans to begin transporting passengers with electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft in Dubai in 2026, followed by the United States.
However, investors did not react very favorably as the stock price fell. In this transaction, shares were sold for $16.85 per share, nearly 11% below the previous closing price.
Other sales that caught our attention this week…
I forgot about this last week. Futurail, a European startup developing an autonomous stack for self-driving trains, has raised €7.5 million in seed funding co-led by Asterion Ventures and Leap435, with participation from EIT Urban Mobility and US investors Zero Infinity Partners and Heroic Ventures. Side note: The Autonocast, a podcast I co-host, recently had Alex Haag, CEO and co-founder of Futurail, on the show. Please listen.
Nexcade, a London-based startup developing end-to-end automation for freight forwarders, has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Connect Ventures. MMC Ventures, Entropy Industrial Capital and Inovia also participated.
Toyota Motor Corporation and Metal Mining have agreed to cooperate in the mass production of cathode materials for all-solid-state batteries used in electric vehicles.
Tycho AI, an autonomous drone navigation startup, has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by FirstMark.
Utilimarc, a Minneapolis-based fleet analytics and benchmarking company, has been acquired by Smith System. Terms were not disclosed.
Notable reads and other trivia
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill giving Uber and Lyft drivers in the state the right to form unions as independent contractors.
Just last week, we featured DoorDash’s efforts to build its own autonomous delivery robots. But its internal program doesn’t prevent the company from partnering with outside parties. DoorDash and Serve Robotics announced a multi-year partnership to use autonomous robots to make deliveries across the United States.
Lucid delivered a record number of EVs in the third quarter. While the company still falls short of the forecasts it shared when it went public, recent sales reports show progress.
Lyft has signed another AV partnership – this time with Tensor Auto. The plan is to roll out robotaxis in Europe and North America starting in 2027, the companies said. Tensor Auto may not be familiar to you, but Chinese robotaxi company AutoX might be. Tensor Auto’s roots lie in AutoX, but the San Jose-based company previously told TechCrunch that AutoX’s China operations have been completely sold.
Transportation includes infrastructure such as bridges. Climate technology reporter Tim de Chant investigated Allium Engineering, a startup developing paper-thin stainless steel that could change the way bridges are built.
Tesla has announced barebones versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. Prices start at $36,990 and $39,990, respectively. These “standard” versions are significantly stripped down. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane explains more here.
A few things occurred to me. First, I was surprised that this standard version does not include autopilot. Tesla is also known for being innovative, from its manufacturing processes and software-first approach to its business model. But this was neither an innovative nor a wise move. It was simply a matter of cutting back and as a result, there were no deep discounts as previously advertised. Recall that Elon Musk once promoted a $25,000 vehicle, but that program was later scrapped.
Zero Motorcycles has relocated its primary operations from California to its new European headquarters in the Netherlands. The company told TechCrunch that the move is aimed at accelerating growth and strengthening its focus on global opportunities.
One more thing…
If you’re in San Francisco later this month, please come and say hi. I will be attending TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at Moscone West from October 27th to October 29th. There are also several transportation-related talks that you won’t want to miss.
For example, TechCrunch will interview Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer, and Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, about the evolving relationship between AI and mobility. Discussions will include how predictive models and computer vision are improving road safety, why last-mile delivery is a proving ground for autonomy, and what it will take to scale AI-driven transportation.
