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Tesla earnings came and went, and much of it fell into the “we expected it” category. Investors were surprised $1.4 billion in free cash flow, Depending on which analyst group you look at, it gave the stock a brief bump, and earnings met or slightly beat expectations.

However, the earnings call provided an eyebrow-raising moment that prompted readers (including some former Tesla engineers and other industry founders) to contact me with some schadenfreude-tinged prose. CEO Elon Musk admitted that there will be millions of Tesla owners hardware upgrades are needed launching a future, more capable version of its Fully Self-driving software that requires no human supervision.

There are financial and legal implications for Tesla. As Chief Correspondent Sean O’Kane he wroteTesla owners with Hardware 3 cars have baffled the company and Musk for years, looking for a straight answer on whether they can run this advanced version of Full Self-Driving — which, it should be noted, Tesla has yet to launch or even prove capable of launching. Tesla sold these Hardware 3 vehicles between 2019 and 2023.

Here is the kicker and it blew me away. Musk said the company would have to physically upgrade each of those cars, which would require Tesla to build microfactories in several major cities to service millions of vehicles.

Microfactories? Yes, you heard right. It won’t come cheap, and it could be a key item in Tesla’s massively expanded capital expenditure budget. 25 billion dollars this year.

A little bird

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane obtained (and confirmed) internal memo Posted by Founder and CEO of Redwood Materials JB Straubel announced layoffs and restructuring. (Thanks to the little bird who shared this.) Straubel is a former CTO at Tesla.

The company cut about 135 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce, as it restructured to better accommodate its growing energy storage business. O’Kane learned later several executives they also left recently. Chief operating officer Chris Lister is retiring, and the company has let go at least three other VPs in recent months, with the company telling TechCrunch that the focus is on cutting management layers.

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Last week I shared that a new autonomous carrier is being backed by a startup (think cable-free autonomous big rig). Eclipse thanks to the little bird, he was about to break the cover and announce the seed round. By God, it happened a few days later.

San Francisco-based startup called Humble Robots, collected 24 million dollars in the seed cycle. Eclipse led the round including support Energy Impact Partners and RedBlue Capitala surprisingly active small early-stage VC firm.

From what I’m told, Humble is indeed full of Silicon Valley elite, including its founder Eyal Cohenpreviously worked on Apple special projects, Uber ATG, Pronto and Waabi. It also pioneered Spark AI, which was acquired by John Deere in 2023.

Other execs include Drew GrayWith a similarly AV-heavy resume, including the early days at Cruise, before moving on to Otto, the self-driving startup that was bought by Uber. After leaving Uber, he became CTO at Voyage, which was later acquired by Cruise.

A full-circle moment reinforced by this fun fact: Humble Robotics is in the same building. I know we keep going back to 2016.

It’s not 2016, and Cohen and Gray talked to me about how much has changed since then, why it’s time to launch an AV startup, and where the industry is headed. Stay tuned for this story next week.

Do you have a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or Email My Alert at kkorosec.07 or Sean O’Kane sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Deals!

Lyft For most of its history, it has stuck to the North American market, while Uber has opted for a global, whatever-it-cost expansion strategy. Lyft has been trying to catch up since last year when it bought German multi-mobility app Freenow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility for about $197 million in cash.

Now gets driving program You’re gone UK business. Lyft says the deal will give it a majority of Greater London’s registered black taxi drivers on the Lyft platform. The company did not disclose terms, but Calcalist did informed It was 55 million dollars.

The company also provides other vehicles in the region, including its recently renewed partnership with Serco. bikes and stations For European bike sharing system Santander Cycles. Lyft also plans to test autonomous rides in London with Baidu later this year.

Other deals that caught my eye…

A&K RoboticsA manufacturer of autonomous vehicles for airports in Vancouver, Canada, Raised $8 million CAD Series A led by BDC’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and Vantage Futures.

Decade of Energyproviding energy infrastructure in logistics warehouses, It collected 22 million euros In funding by Eiffel Investment Group and SET Ventures, along with existing investors.

Reliable Roboticsa Silicon Valley startup developing autonomous systems for airplanes, collected 160 million dollars In a round led by Nimble Partners, existing backers Eclipse, Lightspeed, Coatue and Pathbreaker Ventures and new investors Island Green Capital, Socium Ventures, AE Ventures (a strategic partner of Boeing Company), RTX Ventures, Presidio Ventures (Sumitomo Corporation) UP.PartnersKAS Venture Partners, What If Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels and Mana Ventures. History lesson: co-founder and CEO Robert Rose He briefly worked at Tesla, where he was CEO of Autopilot and helped ship the first iteration in 2015.

PlusAI and blank check company Churchill Capital Corp. IX stopped its SPAC merger agreement due to market conditions.

Porsche does sells his share In the Bugatti Rimac joint venture it created in 2021, as well as in the electric car manufacturer Rimac Group. Porsche, which holds a 20.6% stake in Rimac and a 45% stake in the joint venture, is selling to HOF Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Notable readings and other information

Last driver adds 75 of it electric heavy trucks for Amazon‘s Relay freight network as part of a deal that gives the Swedish startup a dominant position in the e-commerce giant’s operations.

Ford and a Chinese car manufacturer Geely It is reported that he is negotiating to expand European relations with the United States. The Wall Street Journal reported on this. The results, of course, will be Chinese cars entering the US market. However, negotiations appear to have stalled, leaving the eventual deal in limbo. Bloomberg reports that Ford has done just that denied these allegations.

Porsche adds another EV to its lineup. The Cayenne electric coupe will hit the market at the end of the summer. There is interesting information in my article on why this could be a winner for Porsche.

The first client is ready Rivian R2 SUVs rolled off the production line At its factory in Normal, Illinois, days after an EF-1 tornado tore off part of the roof. Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe Rivian said it expects any delays on the R2, which is expected to reach customers in June.

One more thing…

As diligent readers of this newsletter know, I test drive quite a few cars, and sometimes they aren’t EVs. take it Aston Martin Vantage Roadsterfor example. I was anxious to get into the roadster, and not just because this $205,000 cool-green machine is bright, powerful, and convertible. I wanted to try Apple CarPlay UltraA next-generation infotainment system that projects iPhone content onto the car’s screens (including the instrument cluster) and integrates car controls such as radio, performance settings and climate. CarPlay Ultra was first launched in an Aston Martin, which isn’t easy on my hands.

My first experience with Apple Ultra CarPlay last summer was mixed. It was great – when it worked, but often it didn’t. The problem seemed to be related to a bug in the Bluetooth settings that showed two versions of the car.

This time the installation was instant and never failed. long live And it always worked. That’s really important for Aston Martin, which has been stuck with Mercedes-Benz’s legacy COMAND system for years. (Mercedes abandoned this system for the new MBUX system in 2018).