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OK, who placed the bet on General Motors, the landing site for Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson? It’s not me. But here we are. A few days after Anderson announced his position in Aurora and his resignation from the board, he spoke to me about his next gig as GM’s Chief Product Officer. In short, he oversees GM’s entire gas-powered and electric vehicle product line. This is a position that covers the entire lifecycle of GM’s portfolio and includes hardware, software, services and user experience.
Anderson couldn’t say much. Plus, he hasn’t started his job yet. Anderson said he would not have gotten a new job if Aurora hadn’t yet launched commercial autonomous truck services in Texas.
Let’s jump on the rest of the news.
Little bird
It was an absolute wild event, and Luminar founder Austin Russell appears to have been pushed out as CEO and board chair. You can read my report here. This gives a bit of an overview of how this unfolded, but I know there’s a lot more to this story. TL;DR: If you read only Luminar’s first quarter revenue report, you’ll assume Russell is still at the helm. Another press release released when the company’s revenues were generated announced the change in leadership and announced that Russell had resigned following an ethical investigation from the board’s audit committee.
This is what I’m hearing from some birds. The term “blindness” appears multiple times and chaos is not over. Jun Hong Heng, a board member of Luminar, founder and chief investment officer of Crescent Cove Advisors and leader of Russell’s, resigned a day later. Heng was also on the audit committee.
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Great deal!
Aurora had a strange few weeks filled with high prices. – And a twist – Oops, the co-founder goes. To close things off, Uber has announced plans to offer $1 billion in exchangeable senior notes in private placements in 2028. As you can imagine, the stock fell after investors were surprised by the potential dilution and what this meant for the value of Aurora stock.
Other deals that caught my attention…
Autounify, the latest startup launched by the Up.labs-Porsche partnership, has raised $5 million in seed money. The Santa Monica, California-based startup has been quietly running for around nine months, allowing dealers and service shops to communicate in real time with manufacturers and software vendors that are bolstering their business.
Chinese battery manufacturer CATL is far from a startup. However, it is worth paying attention to this banana IPO plan. The company hopes to raise at least HK 310.1 billion (only $4 billion) on its list in Hong Kong. This is the largest list in the world for 2025.
Here are some potential deals that frowned upon: Federal Railroad Regulators are in talks with the boring company Elon Musk’s tunnel company over the multi-billion-dollar Amtrak project.
Flock Freight, a California-based shared truck freight broker, has raised $60 million in a Series E funding round led by O’Neil Strategic Capital. Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Signalfire, GLP Capital Partners, and Bracket Capital were also involved.
Notable readings and other information
Self-driving cars
Tesla’s plan to launch Robotaxi services in Austin next month has attracted the attention of federal safety investigators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Defect Investigation Bureau has sent the company a detailed list of questions about upcoming Robotaxi services as part of its investigation into how the company’s “fully autonomous driving (supervisor)” software works under low visibility conditions.
Recalls are beginning to pop up more in the AV sector. Last week it was Zoox. Currently, Waymo is issuing software recalls for 1,200 self-driving cars after some of the Robotaki have been involved in minor collisions with road objects such as gates, chains and other gates.
Vilaid appears to be about to play a ramp in Guangzhou. The Chinese company said it has introduced eight autonomous Robotaksi pilot operation routes in the central part of the city. The company also launched a trial for a completely unmanned Robotaxis in Abu Dhabi.
Electric cars, charging, batteries
General Motors is working on a new battery chemistry called lithium manganese rich, which says it should reduce costs while providing operating range. In particular, these LMR batteries dramatically reduce the amount of nickel and cobalt compared to GM’s most advanced cells. These are two important minerals that are not available from domestic US sources.
Lucid’s recent first quarter regulatory submissions give a little more insight into sales. EV Maker’s record quarter won lifts from rental sales and company leases.
Slate Auto has won over 100,000 bookings for its low-cost, customizable electric pickup truck.
Everyone, let’s have a slow applause for the redesign of the only all-electric vehicle for the US market, and more importantly, even more importantly. Once known as the BZ4X, the EV simply becomes a BZ. The original BZ4X was not well received. I look forward to being behind the wheels to see what improvements Toyota has made. Meanwhile, Toyota has regained its C-HR nameplate, but this time it’s an EV. Hopefully this time, it will be even more successful. Arrived in the US in 2026.
Gig economy
Three years ago, reporter Rebecca Veran pointed out that Uber was experiencing Amazonification. Her pitch was that, like Amazon, the company created a closed business loop for its customers to return to other Uber channels. The second part of that evolution has begun, she reported this week. Uber is focused on transport and seems to be beyond working to become a daily lifestyle platform with convenient super apps, service aggregators and the best products behind the paywall.
The future of flights
US lawmakers have introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act to amend a 52-year ban on FAAs for supersonic flights via US soil. Timing may be important for startup boom Supersonic, advancing the development of next-generation supersonic aircraft
Vertical Aerospace has announced plans to develop a hybrid electrical variant of VX4, suggesting that the company is pursuing defense and logistics opportunities.
In-car technology
Apple’s next-generation popular Carplay Infotainment software will finally be released. Reminder: First announced three years ago. The new version, called Carplay Ultra, will debut with new Aston Martin vehicles in the US and Canada.
Google is bringing it to AI that generates Gemini for all cars that support Android Auto in the coming months. Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Cars, said Gemini will emerge in two major ways in Android Auto Experience.