Kirsten Korosec, Author at TechCrunch

Why Fisker failed

Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I’m back from holiday in Denmark and Germany, where I managed to try just about every kind of transportation, from bikes to scooters, to driving on the […]

EV startup Fisker files for bankruptcy

Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 08:06:36 +0000

Fisker Group Inc., the EV startup founded by famed designer Henrik Fisker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a capstone to months of problems with its Ocean SUV that included recalls and dozens of lemon law lawsuits. The California-based company, which filed for bankruptcy in Delaware District Court, had been seeking a deal with another […]

Rivian overhauled the R1S and R1T to entice new buyers ahead of cheaper R2 launch

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:00:15 +0000

Rivian has changed 600 parts on its R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck in a bid to drive down manufacturing costs, while improving performance of its flagship vehicles. The end goal, which will play out over the coming year, is an existential one. Rivian lost about $38,784 on every vehicle it delivered in the first […]

Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang is coming to Disrupt 2024

Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +0000

The early victors in the AI gold rush are selling the picks and shovels needed to develop and apply artificial intelligence. Just take a look at data-labeling startup Scale AI — and its long and diverse list of customers and investors. The San Francisco-based startup, founded in 2016, developed software that labels image, text, voice […]

Tesla shareholder sweepstakes and EV layoffs hit Lucid and Fisker

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 30 May 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Okay, okay — remember last week when I suggested Tesla was being a bit extra in its bid to convince shareholders to vote in favor of relocating […]

Feds add nine more incidents to Waymo robotaxi investigation

Kirsten Korosec — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:06:20 +0000

Federal safety regulators have discovered nine more incidents that raise questions about the safety of Waymo’s self-driving vehicles operating in Phoenix and San Francisco. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened an investigation earlier this month into Waymo’s autonomous vehicle software after receiving 22 reports of robotaxis making unexpected […]

Tesla lobbies for Elon and Kia taps into the GenAI hype

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 23 May 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Is it me, or is the Tesla board being a bit extra these days as it tries to convince shareholders to vote in favor of relocating the […]

The new Kia EV3 will have an AI assistant with ChatGPT DNA

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 23 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000

The Kia EV3 — the new all-electric compact SUV revealed Thursday — illustrates a growing appetite among global automakers to bring generative AI into their vehicles. The automaker said the Kia EV3 will feature a new voice assistant that is built off ChatGPT, the text-generating AI chatbot developed by OpenAI. The Kia EV3, and its […]

Tesla keeps cutting jobs and the feds probe Waymo

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 16 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

What a wild week for transportation news! It was a smorgasbord of news that seemed to touch every sector and theme in transportation.

Cruise founder Kyle Vogt is back with a robot startup

Kirsten Korosec — Mon, 13 May 2024 23:37:15 +0000

Kyle Vogt, the former founder and CEO of self-driving car company Cruise, has a new VC-backed robotics startup focused on household chores. Vogt announced Monday that the new startup, called the Bot Company, has raised $150 million from former GitHub CEO and investor Nat Friedman, Pioneer founder and investor Daniel Gross, Spark Capital general partner […]

GM’s Cruise ramps up robotaxi testing in Phoenix

Kirsten Korosec — Mon, 13 May 2024 17:42:23 +0000

A human safety operator will be behind the wheel during this phase of testing, according to the company.

Tesla drives Luminar lidar sales and Motional pauses robotaxi plans

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 09 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tap, tap. Mic check. Check 1, 2, 3. This thing on? Hey hey, yup, it’s the same TechCrunch Mobility newsletter you love, but on a different day. […]

Rivian loses $1.45B as cost-cutting measures continue

Sean O'Kane, Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 07 May 2024 20:17:00 +0000

Rivian lost $1.45 billion in the first quarter, showing that its recent company-wide cost-cutting measures have a ways to go before it can approach profitability. The EV-maker brought in $1.2 billion in revenue in the period, coming in just under its record haul from the prior quarter, according to its first-quarter earnings report that was […]

Motional delays commercial robotaxi plans amid restructuring

Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 07 May 2024 14:07:00 +0000

Motional, the autonomous vehicle startup borne out of a $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai and automotive supplier Aptiv, will pause its commercial operations and delay plans to launch a driverless taxi service as it undergoes a restructuring, TechCrunch has learned. The aim is to make progress on the core technology and the business model, […]

Hyundai antes up $1B for AV startup Motional and Elon unplugs the Tesla Supercharger team

Kirsten Korosec — Sun, 05 May 2024 19:00:54 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Before I jump into the all the news — and boy there was a lot! — I have an important update for all of you lovely readers. TechCrunch Mobility is moving to Thursdays! It will be the same […]

Tesla profits tumble, Fisker flatlines, and California cities battle for control of AVs

Kirsten Korosec — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 18:00:01 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welp, Tesla earnings happened this week — and yeah that was a lot. A lot of what, you ask? A […]

Tesla profits drop 55%, company says EV sales ‘under pressure’ from hybrids

Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane, Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 23:10:03 +0000

Tesla profits fell 55% to $1.13 billion in the first quarter from the same year-ago period as a protracted EV price-cutting strategy and “several unforeseen challenges” cut into the automaker’s bottom line. Tesla reported revenue of $21.3 billion in the first quarter, a 9% drop from the first quarter of 2023. Analysts polled by Yahoo Finance […]

Tesla earnings week spotlights EV price cuts, ‘balls to the wall’ autonomy push

Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 16:33:09 +0000

Tesla investors, still digesting a 43% drop in share price since the beginning of the year, are gearing up for what will likely be unimpressive financial results for the first quarter and a shift in priorities for CEO Elon Musk, who is making more moves to go “balls to the wall for autonomy.” Tesla is expected to […]

Rivian targets gas-powered Ford and Toyota trucks and SUVs with $5,000 ‘electric upgrade’ discount

Kirsten Korosec — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 02:10:34 +0000

Rivian is offering discounts of up to $5,000 on its EVs — and a year of free charging — to customers willing to trade in their gas-powered trucks and SUVs. The company is offering discounts on three R1T pickup truck trims and one R1S SUV model. The promotion, which kicked off on April 22, is […]

Tesla layoffs, Cybertruck recalls and Serve Robotics goes public

Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 19:15:59 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Tesla is back in the news cycle and our crystal ball says it’s one of those long-term affairs. The […]