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

Welcome backmost to TechCrunch Mobility — your cardinal hub for quality and insights connected the aboriginal of transportation. To get this successful your inbox, motion up present for escaped — conscionable click TechCrunch Mobility!

We’re mixing things up a spot this week to absorption connected what was said on, and off, the signifier astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. In short, it was a banger with a fig of high-profile execs and founders moving connected the aboriginal of transportation. 

Here are a few: Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, Slate CEO Chris Barman, Nuro co-CEO and laminitis Dave Ferguson, Uber CPO Sachin Kansal, Wayve laminitis and CEO Alex Kendall, and Kodiak AI laminitis and CEO Don Burnette. Videos of those interviews volition beryllium posted connected our YouTube channel implicit the coming week. 

The Slate Auto interview with Sean O’Kane and Chris Barman is already available. If you ticker it, wage attraction to Barman’s comments astir the accessories that tin beryllium added to immoderate Slate EV. The startup volition design, make, and merchantability accessories, but it’s besides going to stock information truthful owners tin marque their own. And adjacent merchantability it to different owners. 

“We volition merchandise each of the information accusation connected that and anybody tin 3D people their own,” Barman said. “So we besides privation that individuals don’t consciousness they person to travel to us. We privation to make an ecosystem that’ll beryllium connected our website Slate marketplace.” 

O’Kane past asked if Slate would instrumentality a chopped connected those accessories if creators adhd them to the Slate marketplace. 

“Yeah, we’ll instrumentality immoderate magnitude of interest erstwhile we enactment with them,” she said, rapidly adding that creators tin merchantability elsewhere (and without Slate taking a cut). “If they wanted to, they could take to marketplace it connected Etsy. It’s their powerfulness of prime and what they do. It’s not arsenic if we’re going to behold them to us.”

Among different highlights … San Francisco politician Daniel Lurie said helium was blessed to person Waymo connected SF’s streets and welcomed different companies to usage the metropolis arsenic a testbed for autonomous conveyance tech. And transportation-focused Glīd was declared the victor of Startup Battlefield 2025. Oh, and Sean O’Kane and I took a demo thrust done the streets of San Francisco successful a Wayve vehicle. 

Plus, Mawakana made a fig of absorbing comments onstage, including that she believes different companies moving connected autonomous vehicles request to bash much to prove their exertion is safe and that successful the look of the committedness of greater safety, the nationalist would judge a decease caused by a robotaxi.

She besides said Waymo volition spell aft radical who vandalize its vehicles and that the institution has rejected authorities requests for video captured from its vehicles —adding that they volition proceed to cull those requests if they are “overly broad.”

Deals!

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

A institution that developed integer substance absorption for aviation, i6, raised $20 million successful Series B backing led by Yttrium. International Airlines Group, World Kinect, and Shell Ventures joined.

IntrCity SmartBus, a tech-enabled intercity autobus level successful India, raised $30 million successful backing to grow its web crossed smaller cities and towns successful the South Asian nation. The all-equity Series D round, led by A91 Partners, values the Noida-based startup astatine $140 cardinal post-money.

Navan, the firm question and disbursal platform, finished its archetypal time of trading connected the Nasdaq down 20% from its $25 IPO price, resulting successful a valuation of astir $4.7 billion.

Pavewise, a roadworthy operation tech startup, raised $2.5 million successful a effect circular led by C2 Ventures. Other investors included Connectic, Service Provider Capital, Geoff Judge, the erstwhile CEO of Ryvit Tom Stemm, M25, gener8tor 1889, and Broadwater Capital.

Ridepanda, an e-bike and scooter fleet startup that provides subscriptions to companies, raised $12.6 cardinal in a Series A backing circular led by Bikeleasing Group of Germany. Other investors included Blackhorn Ventures, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Proeza Ventures, and Somersault Ventures.

Notable reads and different tidbits

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

Aurora added a 600-mile driverless route from Fort Worth, Texas, to El Paso, the company’s 2nd for its self-driving trucks. The institution besides revealed details connected its next-generation hardware.

India, the marketplace BlaBlaCar erstwhile walked distant from, is present its biggest.

General Motors is laying disconnected thousands of workers crossed aggregate electrical conveyance and artillery plants successful the United States. 

Luminar is experiencing a caller circular of struggles since the committee pushed retired its laminitis and CEO Austin Russell. A caller regulatory filing warns that it volition run retired of cash successful aboriginal 2026 and has announced a 25% chopped to its workforce. The institution besides said its CFO has left.

Nvidia made a spot of proscription quality this week, including a concern with Stellantis, Uber, and Foxconn to jointly make autonomous vehicles. The quality was portion of a broader announcement astir Nvidia’s caller Drive AGX Hyperion 10 autonomous vehicle development platform and Nvidia Drive software, which respective automakers, suppliers, and robotaxi companies volition use. That database includes Lucid, Mercedes, and Stellantis. The level is portion of Uber’s extremity to standard its planetary autonomous fleet to 100,000 vehicles implicit time, starting successful 2027. 

Wayve’s Alex Kendall told maine backstage astatine TechCrunch Disrupt that helium was truly excited astir Hyperion and that he, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi,and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang person been encouraging automakers to usage it. “What we would emotion to spot is much manufacturers gathering vehicles with the Hyperion architecture, due to the fact that that unlocks everything we’re trying to do.”  

Uber picked San Francisco to motorboat a premium robotaxi work that volition usage Lucid Motors’ all-electric Gravity SUVs equipped with self-driving tech developed by Nuro, successful 2026 — a determination that puts the ride-hailing elephantine successful nonstop contention with Waymo. Reminder: Uber is partnering with Waymo successful different cities.  

Waabi shared details of a new autonomous truck made successful concern with Volvo during TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

One much happening …

In past week’s newsletter, we did a poll, digging deeper into the question of autonomous conveyance concern models and asked: What is the champion concern exemplary for “longer haul” applications of autonomous conveyance tech?

I offered 2 choices: self-driving Class 8 trucks traveling much than 500 miles connected highways oregon middle-mile delivery, which is autonomous trucks traveling betwixt warehouses and organisation centers. 

Readers, you overwhelmingly picked the large rig enactment with 62.5% of the vote. (Remember, if you privation to instrumentality spot successful our polls, motion up for the Mobility newsletter here.)

Image Credits:Kirsten Korosec

Let maine permission you with 1 much shot. This photo, of maine and elder newsman Sean O’Kane, is simply a spot of a full-circle infinitesimal for us. O’Kane, with a tiny assistance from me, spent months moving connected a large scoop astir however Jeff Bezos was backing a small known startup called Slate. Since then, Slate has shared its plans to marque a cheaper electrical motortruck and received a batch of attraction for it.

Slate CEO Chris Barman not lone came onto our signifier for an interview, but she besides brought a TechCrunch-wrapped motortruck too.