Kirsten Korosec
TechCrunch
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Recent articles by Kirsten:
The Station: Amazon eyes Zoox, Aurora goes back to school and Cabana hits the road –
The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive it every Saturday in your inbox. Hi and welcome back to The Station, a newsletter dedicated to all the present and future ways people and packages move from Point A to Point B. I’m […] → Read More
Toyota’s first plug-in hybrid RAV4 Prime priced a skosh under $40,000 –
When Toyota unveiled the 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime in November, the vehicle garnered a lot of attention because it achieved two seemingly conflicting goals. It was Toyota’s most fuel efficient and one of its most powerful vehicles. Now, it’s getting praise for managing a base price under $40,000. Toyota said Friday that the standard trim […] → Read More
Audi launches high-tech car unit Artemis to fast track a ‘pioneering’ EV to market –
Audi has created a new business unit called Artemis to bring electric vehicles equipped with highly automated driving systems and other tech to market faster — the latest bid by the German automaker to become more agile and competitive. The traditional automotive industry, where the design to start of production cycle might take five to […] → Read More
Uber latest features lets riders book by the hour and make multiple stops –
Uber is bringing a new feature to the U.S. that lets users book rides for $50 an hour and make multiple stops as the ride-hailing company tries to respond to changing consumer needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hourly booking feature, which is already available in a handful of international cities in Australia, Africa, Europe, […] → Read More
Tesla board certifies Elon Musk’s payday worth more than $700 million –
Tesla’s board certified a financial milestone that unlocks the first tranche — worth more than $700 million — of an unprecedented multibillion-dollar pay package for CEO Elon Musk, according a document filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The milestone allows Musk to purchase the first grouping or tranche of nearly 1.69 million shares […] → Read More
Rivian’s Amazon electric delivery van still on track as factory reopens –
Rivian, the electric vehicle company backed by Amazon, Cox Automotive and Ford, has resumed work at its factory in Normal, Ill. following a temporary shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Construction on the factory, which will eventually produce its R1T and R1S electric vehicles for consumers as well as 100,000 delivery vans for Amazon, has […] → Read More
6 leading mobility VCs discuss the road ahead –
Millions of consumers sheltering in place to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus sent shockwaves through the global economy. Transportation-related companies were not spared in the upheaval. Mobility startups consolidated, pulled back from some markets and reduced headcount. And yet, the industry — and the VCs who invest in it — is still rolling […] → Read More
Nuro’s self-driving vehicles to delivery prescriptions for CVS Pharmacy –
Nuro, the autonomous robotics startup that has raised more than $1 billion from Softbank Vision Fund, Greylock and other investors, said Thursday it will test prescription delivery in Houston through a partnership with CVS Pharmacy. The pilot, which will use a fleet of the startup’s autonomous Toyota Prius vehicles and transition to using its custom-built […] → Read More
Rivian is building an in-house insurance agency –
Rivian is hiring an insurance agency data manager, a job posting that suggests the all-electric automaker is planning to offer its own insurance to customers. The job was first posted by RivianForums, which also reached out to TechCrunch with the tip. Roadshow/CNET also reported about this new position. Rivian wouldn’t provide more details about its […] → Read More
Tesla cuts prices across EV line up, ends free supercharging for Model S, Model X –
Tesla slashed prices across its electric vehicle portfolio overnight as the automaker aims to boost sales in an economy beaten down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters and Electrek were the first to report the changes. The base price of Model 3 standard range plus is now $37,990, a $2,000 reduction. But the biggest cuts were […] → Read More
Mercedes-Benz launches sales of its premium all-electric EQV van –
Mercedes-Benz is now selling its EQV 300 all-electric premium van in Europe, the second EV to come out of the automaker’s initiative to produce a line of battery-powered models under its new EQ brand. A concept version of the EQV was first shown in March 2019. But unlike so many concepts destined for nonexistence, this […] → Read More
Daniel Abt fired from Audi’s Formula E team for using pro sim driver in virtual race –
Audi fired Daniel Abt from its Formula E racing team after learning he had a professional sim driver race for him during a virtual competition called the “Race at Home Challenge” held over the weekend. The automaker said in a statement via Formula E that Abt had been suspended from Audi Sport “with immediate effect.” […] → Read More
The Station: Hertz files for bankruptcy, hailing “self-driving” scooters, Memorial Day travel –
The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive it every Saturday in your inbox. Hi and welcome back to The Station. Memorial Day is this coming Monday, a holiday meant to honor military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. […] → Read More
Elon Musk: the Tesla Cybertruck isn’t getting any smaller –
In the days and weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the cybertruck — a post-apocalyptic inspired vehicle made of cold-rolled steel — there was a lot of speculation about whether it would be smaller once it actually made it to market. Production of the Cybertruck is still a long ways off. There isn’t even […] → Read More
‘Fallout Shelter’ joins Tesla arcade in latest software update –
Nearly a year ago, Todd Howard, the director of Bethesda Games, said that the company’s “Fallout Shelter” game would be coming to Tesla displays. It arrived, via the 2020.20 software update, this week, which was first noted at driver’s platform Teslascope. Fallout Shelter is the latest — and one of the more modern games — […] → Read More
New York Auto Show canceled for 2020, pushed to spring 2021 –
Organizers of the New York International Auto Show, once hoping to hold the rescheduled event to August, have decided to scrap the entire year. The show has been officially canceled for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers announced Friday. The next show will take place April 2 to April 11, 2021. Press days will […] → Read More
Scale AI releases free lidar dataset to power self-driving car development –
High quality data is the fuel that powers AI algorithms. Without a continual flow of labeled data, bottlenecks can occur and the algorithm will slowly get worse and add risk to the system. It’s why labeled data is so critical for companies like Zoox, Cruise and Waymo, which use it to train machine learning models […] → Read More
Tesla drops lawsuit against Alameda County over Fremont factory reopening –
Tesla has officially dismissed a lawsuit filed earlier this month against Alameda County that sought to force the reopening of its factory in Fremont, California. The dismissal, which was granted Wednesday, closes the loop on a battle between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and county health and law enforcement officials. The lawsuit filed May 9, hours after Musk […] → Read More
Autonomous aviation startup Xwing raises $10M to scale its software for pilotless flights –
Autonomous aviation startup Xwing locked in a $10 million funding round before COVID-19 hit. Now the San Francisco-based startup is using the capital to hire talent and scale the development of its software stack as it aims for commercial operations later this year — pending FAA approvals. The company announced Wednesday its Series A funding […] → Read More
Remote operators in Mexico are driving scooters to riders in this Atlanta suburb –
In one Atlanta suburb, finding and returning an electric shared scooter will be taken care of by teleoperators some 1,700 miles away in Mexico City. Riders in the enclave of Peachtree Corners will be able to use an app beginning this week to hail a GoX scooter equipped with tech from teleoperations startup Tortoise. Using […] → Read More