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There’s a bit of a theme emerging in the transportation industry, and really in every industry. That is, AI will create jobs for some people and take away jobs from others.
General Motors, for example, laid off more than 10% of its IT department, or about 600 salaried employees, through an intentional skills swap. This means that there is likely to be a net negative job loss as there will not be a one-for-one exchange. But GM is hiring, arguing that these layoffs give it room to hire IT talent with AI-focused backgrounds.
The most requested capabilities are AI native development, data engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, agent and model development, prompted engineering, and new AI workflows. In fact, GM is looking for people who know how to build with AI from the ground up, including designing systems, training models, and engineering pipelines, rather than just using AI as a productivity tool.
Job losses due to AI are increasing in the automotive sector. Over the past decade, Ford, GM and Stellantis have collectively cut more than 20,000 U.S. salaried jobs from their recent employment peaks, or 19% of their total workforces, according to CNBC estimates. The reasons for these reductions vary, but generally relate to changes in technology, including AI.
Companies are leaning heavily toward AI, but anecdotes from some engineers and founders suggest that not all of these companies yet fully understand what they’re doing with it.
Samsara is one company that seems to have figured out a profitable use case. For the past decade, the company has provided customers with cameras installed inside millions of trucks to monitor drivers, prevent theft, and assist with claims. The company took that mountain of data and trained a proprietary model that can detect potholes and determine how quickly they deteriorate. The company is marketing the product to cities, and announced that several cities, including Chicago, have signed on.
small bird
Nothing this week, but I’m working on something fun. Reach out anytime for insights, tips, or just because. You can contact us via email or Signal.
Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.Korosec@techcrunch.com, email my Signal at korosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Great deal!
You may have noticed that Rivian spinoff company Mind Robotics has raised another $400 million just two months after raising $500 million. And that pace got me thinking about founder RJ Scaringe and his natural ability to persuade VC and institutional backers to invest in his ideas and projects.
By my calculations, investors likely poured $12.3 billion into Scaringe’s three startups (Mind Robotics, Rivian). This figure does not include the nearly $12 billion in total proceeds raised in Rivian’s IPO, nor does it count recent strategic deals with Volkswagen Group and Uber. Combined, Rivian’s coffers could grow by nearly $7 billion.
You can read my entire riff on this topic here. But if you don’t want to click, here’s one item worth your attention. I spoke with many insiders and investors, and they all mentioned Scaringe’s ability to make whoever he was talking to – investors, suppliers, executives, etc. – feel like he was the most important person in the room.
This is another piece of evidence in my long-standing case against multitasking. Please discuss with me!
Other sales that caught my attention…
Arkeus, an Australian startup that develops recognition software for autonomous drones and aircraft, has raised $18 million in a Series A round led by QIC Ventures. Other investors include R+VC, Folklore Ventures, DYNE Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Salus Ventures, and Beatn Zone.
Aseon Labs, a Redwood City, Calif., startup developing a depot in a box to charge, clean and test autonomous vehicles, has emerged from stealth with undisclosed backing from Y Combinator.
Rapido raises $240 million in round led by Prosus, valuing the Indian ride-hailing company at $3 billion. Existing investors including WestBridge Capital and Accel participated. This round was part of a larger $730 million primary and secondary financing.
Quantum Systems, a Germany-based drone startup backed by Peter Thiel, is in talks to raise about 600 million euros ($703 million) with investors including Airbus and Blackstone, Bloomberg reported.
Notable reads and other trivia
Is Redwood Materials ready for an IPO? Senior reporter Sean O’Kane interviewed the company’s new CFO, Deepak Ahuja, whose name will be familiar to anyone who follows Tesla. Mr. Ahuja is a former financial chief at Tesla and most recently held a similar role at drone company Zipline.
Tesla robotaxis have crashed at least twice since July 2025 while remote operators were driving the vehicle, according to new unredacted information submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Uber is expanding in India with two new engineering campuses that can accommodate approximately 9,600 people and a data center partnership aimed at supporting product development and overall infrastructure operations.
Waymo has implemented a software update on approximately 4,000 of its vehicles to prevent road flooding as part of a recall announced by NHTSA. Important note: The company has not fully resolved the issue of how the vehicle behaves in these conditions.
One more thing…
Disrupt, our flagship annual technology conference, will be held in San Francisco in October. It’s still a long way off, but I’d like to share some news. This year there will be six stages. Click here for more information. Of note to this crowd is AI on the real-world stage. Here, we take a deep dive into robotics, autonomous systems, manufacturing, defense, and industrial operations.
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