TechCrunch Mobility: Everything said on and off stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

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This week, we’re mixing things up a bit to focus on what was said on and off stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. In short, it was a huge success attended by many prominent executives and founders working on the future of transportation.

Meet Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, Chris Barman, CEO of Slate, Dave Ferguson, co-CEO and founder of Nuro, Sachin Kansal, CPO of Uber, Alex Kendall, founder and CEO of Wayve, and Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak AI. Videos of these interviews will be posted on our YouTube channel within the next week.

The Slate Auto interview with Sean O’Kane and Chris Barman has already been published. If you watch, keep an eye out for Barman’s comments on accessories you can add to the Slate EV. The startup will design, manufacture and sell accessories, but will also share data so owners can create their own. And even sell it to other owners.

“We’ll make all the data information about it public and allow anyone to 3D print it themselves,” Berman said. “So we also want to make sure that individuals don’t feel like they have to come to us. We want to create an ecosystem that is on the Slate marketplace on our website.”

O’Kane then asked if Slate would receive a cut of accessories if creators added them to the Slate marketplace.

“Yes, when we work with them, we take a certain amount of commission,” she says, quickly adding that creators can sell elsewhere (without Slate taking a cut). “If they want to, they can choose to sell on Etsy. That’s their power of choice, their action. We’re not trying to show them to us.”

Among other highlights: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said he is pleased to have Waymo on SF streets and welcomes other companies to use the city as a testbed for self-driving technology. And transportation-focused Glid has been declared the winner of Startup Battlefield 2025. Oh, and Sean O’Kane and I took a Wayve vehicle for a demo ride through the streets of San Francisco.

Additionally, Mawakana made a number of interesting comments on stage, including that he believes other companies working on self-driving cars also need to do more to prove their technology is safe, and that despite promises of improved safety, the public will accept deaths from robotaxis.

He also said Waymo will go after people who vandalize vehicles, adding that the company has denied government requests for videos taken from its vehicles and will continue to deny requests if those requests are “too broad.”

Great deal!

i6, a company that developed digital fuel management for aviation, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Yttrium. International Airlines Group, World Kinect and Shell Ventures participated.

IntrCity SmartBus, an Indian technology-powered intercity bus platform, has raised $30 million in funding to expand its network across small and medium-sized cities and towns in the South Asian country. The all-equity Series D round led by A91 Partners values ​​the Noida-based startup at $140 million post-money.

Corporate travel and expense management platform Navan ended its first day of trading on the Nasdaq down 20% from its $25 IPO price, giving it a valuation of about $4.7 billion.

Pavewise, a road construction technology startup, has raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by C2 Ventures. Other investors include Connectic, Service Provider Capital, Geoff Judge, former CEO of Ryvit Tom Stemm, M25, genere8tor 1889 and Broadwater Capital.

Ridepanda, an electric bike and scooter fleet startup that offers subscriptions to businesses, has raised $12.6 million in a Series A funding round led by Germany’s Bikeleasing Group. Other investors include Blackhorn Ventures, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Proeza Ventures, and Somersault Ventures.

Notable reads and other trivia

Aurora will add a 600-mile driverless route from Fort Worth, Texas, to El Paso, making it the company’s second self-driving truck. The company also revealed details about its next-generation hardware.

India, where BlaBlaCar once exited, is now its largest market.

General Motors is laying off thousands of workers at multiple electric vehicle and battery plants in the United States.

Luminar is facing new challenges after its board ousted founder and CEO Austin Russell. In new regulatory filings, the company has warned that it will run out of cash in early 2026 and announced a 25% reduction in its workforce. The company also announced that its CFO has left the company.

This week, Nvidia announced a bit of transportation news, including a partnership with Stellantis, Uber, and Foxconn to co-develop self-driving cars. The news was part of a broader announcement about Nvidia’s new Drive AGX Hyperion 10 autonomous vehicle development platform and Nvidia Drive software used by several automakers, suppliers and robotaxi companies. That list includes Lucid, Mercedes, and Stellantis. The platform is part of Uber’s goal to gradually expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles to 100,000 globally starting in 2027.

Wayve’s Alex Kendall told me backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt that he’s very excited about Hyperion and that he, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are encouraging automakers to use Hyperion. “What we want is to see more manufacturers build vehicles with Hyperion architecture, because it allows us to do everything we’re trying to do.”

Uber has chosen San Francisco to launch its premium robotaxi service in 2026 using Lucid Motors’ Gravity all-electric SUV equipped with self-driving technology developed by Nuro. The move puts the ride-hailing giant in direct competition with Waymo. Reminder: Uber partners with Waymo in other cities.

Waabi shared details of a new self-driving truck manufactured in partnership with Volvo during TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

One more thing…

In last week’s newsletter, we dug deeper into the question of self-driving car business models and ran a poll asking, “What is the best business model for ‘long range’ applications of self-driving car technology?”

I presented two options. One is a Class 8 self-driving truck that travels more than 500 miles on highways, and the other is middle-mile delivery, which is a self-driving truck that travels between warehouses and distribution centers.

Readers, you overwhelmingly chose the big rig option with 62.5% of the votes. (If you would like to participate in the poll, sign up for the Mobility Newsletter here.)

Let’s leave you with just one more shot. This photo of me and senior reporter Sean O’Kane is a bit of a full-circle moment for us. O’Kane, with a little help from me, spent months working on the big scoop on how Jeff Bezos is backing a little-known startup called Slate. Since then, Slate has shared plans to build cheaper electric trucks and gained a lot of attention.

Slate CEO Chris Barman not only came on stage for an interview, but he also brought along a TechCrunch-wrapped truck.