A leadership shake-up at Motional, inside the fight over TuSimple's cash, and Fisker waffles on recall repairs

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TuSimple truck

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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!

The latest news cycle is a good reminder that even a grizzled old reporter who thinks she has seen it all can still be surprised — and nothing lasts forever. Intrigued? Read on. 

A little bird

blinky cat bird green
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Welp, it sure is getting spicy over at TuSimple, according to several little birds. 

The company disclosed last month a new business segment focused on — wait for it — AI-generated animation and video gaming. That action, our little bird network told us, has prompted backlash among some shareholders. Now it seems a fight is brewing over roughly $450 million in funds, the bulk of which remains in the United States. And arguments over the company’s mission lie at the center of it.

TechCrunch reporters Rebecca Bellan and Rita Liao chased down the story, and there are quite a few interesting details. For instance, TuSimple was beefing up its autonomous vehicle workforce in China late last year but then changed course in early 2024. Hundreds were laid off, although when asked, CEO Cheng Lu told Rebecca that these folks (about 500) resigned en masse. 

Where does TuSimple go from here? There have been threats of lawsuits, although nothing new just yet. While the threats loom in the background, TuSimple is moving forward with development of an animated feature film and video game based on the science-fiction series “The Three-Body Problem.” 

This whack-a-doodle pivot had me thinking: Sheesh, maybe I’ve been covering this industry simply too long. 

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O’Kane at [email protected] or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.

Deals!

money the station
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Deal flow in the transportation industry is a bit light this week. Here are some highlights. 

Alaska Airlines completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines. The acquisition is yet another example of consolidation in the airline industry.

AIfleet, a trucking tech startup, raised $16.6 million in a Series B funding round led by Tom Williams at Heron Rock. Notably, Volvo Group VC participated, along with Obvious Ventures, Ibex Investors, Compound, Winthrop Square, and Cooley. The company has raised $50 million to date.

Clean Electric, an Indian battery tech startup, raised $6 million in a funding round co-led by Info Edge Ventures, Pi Ventures, and Kalaari Capital. Lok Capital and other investors also participated.

SiLC received an undisclosed investment from Honda to develop next-generation FMCW lidar solutions for all types of mobility. 

ZeroAvia, a startup developing hydrogen-electric (fuel cell-powered) engines for planes, extended its Series C financing round to a total of $150 million, with an investment from Scottish National Investment Bank. The round was co-led by Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund, with UK Infrastructure Bank joining as a cornerstone-level investor. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, Alaska Airlines, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, and AP Ventures also participated.

Oxa, a Google-backed startup developing software for autonomous vehicles, acquired industrial logistics company StreetDrone for an undisclosed sum.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles

Motional president and CEO Karl Iagnemma — an early pioneer in the AV industry — has stepped down from the top leadership spot. CTO Laura Major is now interim CEO. Whether Major keeps that position is unknown. My inside sources suggest this is very much an evolving situation. Stay tuned. 

Waymo and Uber expanded their relationship in a deal that is bigger than some folks might realize. Uber users in Austin and Atlanta will be able to hail Waymo robotaxis through the app in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. Why so notable? For one, Uber, not Waymo, will be the operator. 

Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries

Faraday Future is doling out big raises and bonuses to its CEO and its founder. Remember that this company is barely hanging on and has delivered just 13 cars in its 10-year history.

Fisker, the bankrupt EV startup, is reversing course just a few days after telling owners they would have to pay labor costs for recall repairs. 

GM’s electric vehicle customers can now officially access Tesla’s Superchargers, more than a year after the automaker first announced that it would adopt its rival’s charging standard. But what about all the other non-Tesla EVs out there? Stay tuned for a list that we’ll be keeping updated.

Gogoro CEO Horace Luke resigned as an investigation into subsidy fraud continues at the Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer and battery-swapping company.

Future of flight

U.K. startup Apian, Alphabet’s drone company Wing, and the U.K.’s National Health Service have launched a pilot program that will use drones to fly urgent blood samples between two hospitals in London. 

United’s chief customer officer, Linda Jojo, explained to TechCrunch why the airline picked SpaceX’s Starlink to power its free Wi-Fi.

Security

Remember that apparent cyberattack at the Port of Seattle, which also operates the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport? We now have official confirmation that it was targeted by a ransomware attack.

This week’s wheels

This week’s wheels will return next week with insights into the GMC Sierra EV. Future vehicles include the Mazda CX-90 PHEV and e-bikes.

What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.

Inside Brex's efforts to burn less cash

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hands of two people tearing money with flames in the background

Image Credits: Derek Berwin / Getty Images

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! In this edition, I’m going to look at Brex’s latest round of layoffs, the state of fintech investing in 2023 and more! I may be taking some time off in coming weeks but never fear, TechCrunch Fintech isn’t going away. We’ll be back soon!

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here.

The big story

What goes up must come down. For spend management startup Brex, this was the case for its employee headcount. While interest rates were low, the company saw a bump in business and VC money was easier to come by. Its headcount had swelled to about 1,300 before it laid off staff in October of 2022. As things have come down to earth, Brex is attempting a reset, announcing this week it cut 282 employees, or nearly 20% of its staff, in a restructuring. The move came after reports the company burned $17 million in cash each month during the fourth quarter and that it is trying to preserve runway.

Analysis of the week

Fintech, oh, fintech. Last year wasn’t easy on you. Fintech investors injected $34.6 billion in startups across 2,055 deals in 2023, a –43.8% and –32.4% YoY drop, respectively, according to PitchBook data. Valuations also mostly dropped, with the median of $19.4 million, down –13% from 2022’s median. Exits also took a dive, with just $5.9 billion in exit value generated across 185 deals in 2023, a decrease of –76.1% and –22.3% YoY, respectively. But Q4 was a good one. According to CB Insights, fintech saw eight new unicorns during the period and equity funding increase by double-digit percentages.

Dollars and cents

Bilt Rewards, whose platform aims to allow consumers to earn rewards on rent and daily neighborhood spend, announced last week that it raised $200 million at a $3.1 billion valuation. General Catalyst led the financing, which more than doubled the New York–based company’s valuation compared to its $150 million October 2022 raise. The raise and valuation jump are impressive in an environment were mega-rounds (deals worth over $100 million) are few and far between. CB Insights’ State of Venture Report 2023 found that while mega-rounds “were a hallmark of 2021, with 350+ occurring each quarter . . . in Q4’23, that figure fell to just 78 — the lowest level since 2017.”

What else we’re writing

Swedish fintech company Klarna announced its first subscription plan, “Klarna Plus,” for $7.99 per month, featuring benefits like no added service fees when using Klarna’s One Time Card, double rewards points and access to exclusive discounts with popular brands.

A new list compiled by GGV US highlights 50 fintech startups venture capitalists think are hot stuff. We also spoke to GGV managing partner Hans Tung about what he’s seeing in the sector today.

PayPal will begin piloting a few new upcoming updates to its service, some of which will leverage AI-driven personalization. The company is introducing a new “CashPass” cash-back offering called “Smart Receipts,” with personalized recommendations, among other things.

Other high-interest headlines

Rainbow raises $12 million

Sequence raises $5.5M in funding

Sunbit Secures US$310m Debt Warehouse Facility led by Citi

Investing platform Public launches options trading—and pays customers for their orders

FinZi, the Colombian fintech company, has been acquired by Girasol Payment Solution

BillingPlatform lands $90m growth equity investment from FTV Capital

Fintech predictions from Plaid’s CEO

Follow me on X @bayareawriter for breaking fintech news, posts about coffee and more.

The silhouette of the high voltage power lines during sunset.

China-backed Volt Typhoon hackers have lurked inside US critical infrastructure for ‘at least five years’

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The silhouette of the high voltage power lines during sunset.

Image Credits: imaginima / Getty Images

China-backed hackers have maintained access to American critical infrastructure for “at least five years” with the long-term goal of launching “destructive” cyberattacks, a coalition of U.S. intelligence agencies warned on Wednesday.

Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored group of hackers based in China, has been burrowing into the networks of aviation, rail, mass transit, highway, maritime, pipeline, water and sewage organizations — none of which were named — in a bid to pre-position themselves for destructive cyberattacks, the NSA, CISA and FBI said in a joint advisory published on Wednesday.

This marks a “strategic shift” in the China-backed hackers’ traditional cyber espionage or intelligence gathering operations, the agencies said, as they instead prepare to disrupt operational technology in the event of a major conflict or crisis.

The release of the advisory, which was co-signed by cybersecurity agencies in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, comes a week after a similar warning from FBI Director Christopher Wray. Speaking during a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing on cyber threats posed by China, Wray described Volt Typhoon as “the defining threat of our generation” and said the group’s aim is to “disrupt our military’s ability to mobilize” in the early stages of an anticipated conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.

According to Wednesday’s technical advisory, Volt Typhoon has been exploiting vulnerabilities in routers, firewalls and VPNs to gain initial access to critical infrastructure across the country. The China-backed hackers typically leveraged stolen administrator credentials to maintain access to these systems, according to the advisory, and in some cases, they have maintained access for “at least five years.”

This access enabled the state-backed hackers to carry out potential disruptions such as “manipulating heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in server rooms or disrupting critical energy and water controls, leading to significant infrastructure failures,” the advisory warned. In some cases, Volt Typhoon hackers had the capability to access camera surveillance systems at critical infrastructure facilities — though it’s not clear if they did.

Volt Typhoon also used living-off-the-land techniques, whereby attackers use legitimate tools and features already present in the target system, to maintain long-term, undiscovered persistence. The hackers also conducted “extensive pre-compromise reconnaissance” in a bid to avoid detection. “For example, in some instances, Volt Typhoon actors may have abstained from using compromised credentials outside of normal working hours to avoid triggering security alerts on abnormal account activities,” the advisory said.

On a call on Wednesday, senior officials from the U.S. intelligence agencies warned that Volt Typhoon is “not the only Chinese state-backed cyber actors carrying out this type of activity” but did not name the other groups that they had been tracking.

Last week, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice announced that they had disrupted the “KV Botnet” run by Volt Typhoon that had compromised hundreds of U.S.-based routers for small businesses and home offices. The FBI said it was able to remove the malware from the hijacked routers and sever their connection to the Chinese state-sponsored hackers.

According to a May 2023 report published by Microsoft, Volt Typhoon has been targeting and breaching U.S. critical infrastructure since at least mid-2021.

US disrupts China-backed hacking operation amid warning of threat to American infrastructure