Travis Kalanick launches a new company called Atoms focused on robotics

Uber laminitis Travis Kalanick has a caller institution called Atoms focused connected robotics that, according to its website, volition run successful the food, mining, and proscription industries.

Kalanick is rolling his existing shade room company, CloudKitchens, into Atoms. It’s not instantly wide however helium plans to tackle mining and transportation. Atoms’ website says it volition physique a “wheelbase for robots,” and Kalanick said successful a live interrogation with TBPN connected Friday that his institution volition use this wheelbase to “specialized robots” — not humanoids.

“Humanoids person their place, but there’s a batch of country for specialized robots that bash things successful an efficient, benignant of industrial-scale benignant of way, which is benignant of wherever we play,” helium said.

Earlier Friday The Information reported Kalanick was getting backmost into self-driving vehicles with “major backing” from Uber, and that helium has reportedly told radical helium “wants to beryllium much assertive successful rolling retired self-driving exertion than Waymo.” Uber didn’t instantly respond to a petition for comment. Atoms’ website makes nary notation of Uber.

The Information besides reported Kalanick is considering acquiring Pronto, the autonomous conveyance startup focused connected concern and mining sites that was created by his erstwhile workfellow astatine the ride-hailing company, Anthony Levandowski. There is nary notation of Pronto oregon Levandowski connected Atoms’ website.

Last year, Kalanick was said to beryllium interested successful buying the U.S. limb of Chinese self-driving conveyance institution Pony AI with backing from Uber, though The Information said Friday that those talks ended.

Kalanick resigned from Uber successful 2017 aft a confluence of crises astatine the ride-hail company. At the time, the institution was plagued by complaints of intersexual harassment and discrimination, which sparked an outer probe that resulted successful much than 20 employees being fired.

Before that, Kalanick had created a self-driving part astatine Uber successful 2015. Levandowski played a large relation successful that task aft Kalanick lured him distant from Google. Uber was yet sued by Google for stealing secrets related to its ain self-driving car task (which yet became Waymo). The 2 companies settled, but Levandowski was criminally charged and sentenced to 18 months successful situation for his relation successful the affair. The technologist received a last-minute pardon from President Trump at the extremity of his archetypal term.

The institution kept moving connected the task aft Kalanick resigned, including aft 1 of its trial vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian successful 2018. Kalanick’s successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, shuttered and sold the division to autonomous trucking institution Aurora successful 2020.

In a rare interview successful March 2025, Kalanick expressed regret that Uber had abandoned processing its ain self-driving cars.