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The United Autoworkers strike continued to dominate the information cycle. And the strike, now in its third week, is escalating.
After GM and Ford CEOs went on the assault, UAW chief Shawn Fain responded by saying the strike would develop. Employees walked off the job at a Ford plant in Chicago and GM’s Lansing, Michigan meeting plant. Stellantis wasn’t a part of the expanded strike after making a last-minute concession.
With tempers and tensions operating excessive, it’s onerous to see how this can get resolved anytime quickly.
Earlier than we soar into the remainder of the information, right here’s the most recent episode of the Fairness Podcast. OK, let’s goooooo.
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Micromobbin’
Chicken has lastly been delisted from the New York Inventory Trade. The official motive was that the corporate failed to take care of a market cap of over $15 million for 30 consecutive days, however Chicken has had a tough time conserving its inventory worth above $1, as nicely. The corporate will proceed to commerce over-the-counter, and can enchantment the choice.
The timing is awkward, given Chicken acquired Spin out from Tier solely every week earlier than its delisting. In a TechCrunch+ piece, I analyze whether or not the Spin acquisition will probably be sufficient to save lots of Chicken from crashing fully.
We don’t understand how a lot runway Chicken has with out entry to Spin’s steadiness sheets. However Spin’s reported income is simply a couple of fifth of Chicken’s, and primarily based on Chicken’s personal working bills, money owed, income and accessible money — to not point out its turbulent historical past — I’d say the corporate has a troublesome street forward to regain investor confidence.
A fast phrase on battery fires. Rep. Ritchie Torres launched laws to Congress that might require a nationwide security customary for lithium-ion batteries for micromobility units. The invoice took place partly as a result of on-line retailers like Amazon proceed to promote unsafe batteries, regardless of the rise in battery fires through the years.
Deal of the week
I’m unsure if this sector will keep its buzzy standing without end, however for now traders appear comfortable to pour cash into electrical boat startups. Arc is a kind of.
The Los Angeles-based EV boat startup simply raised $70 million in a Collection B spherical from a bevy of returning traders, together with Eclipse, Andreessen Horowitz, Lowercarbon Capital and Summary Ventures. New investor Menlo Ventures — particularly long-time accomplice and self-proclaimed boating fanatic Shawn Carolan — additionally joined in. Arc has raised greater than $100 million, up to now.
Flush with contemporary capital, co-founders Mitch Lee and Ryan Cook dinner are planning to scale up with a brand new higher-volume electrical boat designed for wakeboarding, wakesurfing and different watersports reminiscent of tubing. That focus might show profitable as most EV boat startups are producing hydrofoil-styled boats, which don’t create wakes giant sufficient for use for watersports.
Different offers that obtained my consideration this week …
H55, a Swiss developer of electrical propulsion and battery administration techniques for aviation, raised about $49 million in Collection C funding fromND Capital, Tippet Enterprise Companions, RTX Ventures and different “distinguished” non-public traders.
Kneron, which is creating AI chips to energy self-driving vehicles, amongst different autonomous machines, raised $49 million in an extension to its Collection B spherical from traders together with Foxconn, Alltek, Horizon Ventures, Liteon Expertise Corp., Adata and PalPilot. The corporate has raised $190 million, up to now.
Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand supply app in Thailand, is getting prepped for an preliminary public providing in Bangkok that might increase round $300 million, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
Sierra Area raised $290 million in a Collection B spherical to scale its Dream Chaser spaceplane and business house station initiatives. The business house transportation startup is now valued at $5.3 billion.
Notable reads and different tidbits
ADAS
Contributor Emme Corridor examined Mercedes’ hands-off, eyes-off automated driving system on a traffic-laden Los Angeles freeway. Right here’s the way it went.
Autonomous automobiles
The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters union despatched a letter to U.S. auto security regulators urging the company to disclaim a petition by Basic Motors to grant an exemption to subsidiary Cruise to construct its Origin AV with out conventional automobile requirements like a steering wheel.
Electrical automobiles, charging & batteries
Ford has halted work on its deliberate $3.5 billion EV battery plant in Michigan that was speculated to make cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries utilizing tech from China’s CATL. The manufacturing unit has been controversial with native residents in addition to on the nationwide stage, the place Republican lawmakers proceed to push the automaker to share extra paperwork concerning the settlement with CATL. Ford insists it has shared every part.
Aspect be aware: Ford’s timing is curious. Many have linked the choice to the UAW strike. However maybe it’s one thing else. One concept floating round my circles is that Ford noticed the U.S. Commerce Division’s not too long ago launched interpretation of international entity of concern for the CHIPS Act and is anticipating related language from the Treasury Division for the Part 30D Credit score below the Inflation Discount Act. In different phrases, it doesn’t anticipate for the plant to fulfill necessities to obtain incentives.
Honda touted its large EV accomplice community within the U.S. Now it wants to start out promoting EVs within the nation.
Lucid Group opened its first worldwide manufacturing unit in Saudi Arabia, the house of its largest shareholder. For now the manufacturing unit will re-assemble Lucid Air automobile kits which are pre-manufactured on the firm’s U.S. manufacturing unit in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Volkswagen’s $2.1 billion plan to launch a devoted electric-vehicle manufacturing unit in Wolfsburg, Germany is kaput. The automaker will as an alternative modify two current crops within the nation.
Gig economic system
Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub acquired a blow to their enterprise in New York Metropolis after a choose dominated to permit the implementation of the minimal pay price of $18 per hour for the town’s meals supply staff.
Talking of Uber, the ride-hailing firm struck a multiyear partnership with Los Angeles Yellow Cab and its 5 accomplice taxi fleets in Southern California. Underneath the association, taxi drivers may have entry to Uber journey referrals in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. (I discover it fascinating to observe how Uber and taxi firms at the moment are working collectively)
Folks
The U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee filed a lawsuit towards Tesla, accusing the automaker of violating federal regulation by tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black workers and subjecting some staff to retaliation for opposing harassment.
Reminder: the lawsuit from the federal company chargeable for implementing civil rights legal guidelines towards office discrimination is certainly one of a number of towards Tesla for racial bias. The California Civil Rights Division sued Tesla in 2022 over related allegations.
Volkswagen’s software program unit Cariad went by a shakeup earlier this 12 months and now it’s beginning to put the items again collectively once more. Cariad simply employed Sanjay Lal — who most not too long ago led the event of Rivian’s infotainment and next-gen middleware throughout the automobile and cloud — to tackle the two.0 model of its software program structure that will probably be an working system designed for all VW Group manufacturers. Particularly he’ll lead the institution of the so-called SDV Hub, the place software program builders and tech specialists from Cariad, Volkswagen and Audi will work collectively to develop the two.0 platform. Yup, that’s a giant job.
You may bear in mind Lal’s title. Previous to his VP of software program platform job at Rivian, Lal labored held a number of engineering management positions at Cisco, Tesla and for Android Automotive at Google.