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There is a theme emerging in transportation, and indeed all industries: AI is creating jobs for some at the expense of others.
general motorsFor example, laid off more than 10% of its IT departmentor around 600 salaried employees, in a deliberate exchange of skills. This will not result in a one-to-one exchange, meaning there will likely be a net loss of employment. But GM insists it is hiring, and those layoffs have left it room to hire IT staff with AI-focused experience.
The most sought-after capabilities are native AI development, data engineering and analytics, cloud-based engineering, agent and model development, rapid engineering, and new AI workflows. In practical terms, GM is looking for people who know how to build with AI from the ground up—designing the systems, training the models, and designing the pipelines—and not just using AI as a productivity tool.
Those AI job losses are increasing in the automotive sector. CNBC calculated that Ford, GM and Stellantis have cut a combined total of more than 20,000 salaried jobs in the United States, or 19% of their combined workforces, since recent employment peaks this decade. While there are a variety of reasons for these cuts, they are generally related to technological changes, including AI.
Companies are leaning heavily toward AI, although anecdotes from some engineers and founders suggest that not all of these companies yet know what they are doing with it.
samsara is a company that seems to have discovered a revenue-generating use case. The company has spent the last decade providing its customers with cameras to mount inside millions of trucks to monitor drivers, prevent theft and help with liability claims. The company took that mountain of data and trained its own model that can detect potholes and determine how quickly they are deteriorating. The company is rolling out this product to cities and announced it has several under contract, including Chicago.
a little bird
Nothing this week, although I’m working on a fun one! Reach out anytime with ideas, advice, or just because. You can contact us via email or Signal.
Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my sign at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.
Offers!
You may have noticed that the Rivian spin-off company Mental robotics raised another $400 millionjust two months later raising 500 million dollars. And that pace made me think about its founder, RJ Scaringe, and his innate ability to get venture capitalists and institutional backers to invest in his ideas and projects.
I estimate that investors have poured $12.3 billion into Scaringe’s three startups: Mind Robotics and Rivian. That figure doesn’t include the nearly $12 billion in gross proceeds raised in Rivian’s initial public offering, nor did I count the most recent strategic deals with Volkswagen Group and Uber, which together could add nearly $7 billion to Rivian’s coffers.
You can read my full riff on the topic here.. But if you don’t feel like clicking, here’s one item that stood out. I spoke to several experts and investors and they all mentioned Scaringe’s ability to pay full attention to whoever is speaking, whether an investor, supplier or executive, and make them feel like the most important person in the room.
It’s another piece of evidence in my long-running case against multitasking. Debate with me!
Other offers that caught my attention…
Arkeusan Australian startup that developed perception software for autonomous aircraft and drones, 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 Beaten Zone.
Aseon Laboratoriesa startup from Redwood City, California, that has developed a tank-in-a-box for charging, cleaning and inspecting autonomous fleets. came out of stealth with undisclosed support from Y Combinator.
Fast raised 240 million dollars in a round led by Prosus, and which values the Indian ride-sharing company at $3 billion. Existing investors including WestBridge Capital and Accel participated. The round was part of a larger primary and secondary financing of $730 million.
Quantum SystemsA Germany-based drone startup backed by Peter Thiel, is in talks to raise around €600 million ($703 million) with companies including Airbus and Blackstone as investors. Bloomberg reported.
Notable readings and other tidbits
Is Redwood Materials ready for an IPO? Senior journalist Sean O’Kane interviews the company’s new CFO. Deepak Ahujawhose name will be familiar to anyone who follows Tesla. Ahuja was the former chief financial officer of Tesla and most recently held a similar position at drone company Zipline.
tesla Robotaxis have crashed at least twice since July 2025, while a The teleoperator drove remotely. vehicles, according to recently unredacted information submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Uber is expanding in India with two new engineering campuses with capacity for approximately 9,600 people and a data center partnership aimed at supporting overall product development and infrastructure operations.
Waymo issued a software update for its fleet of nearly 4,000 vehicles to help them avoid flooded roads as part of a recall announced by NHTSA. Important note: The company has not completely solved the problem of how its vehicles behave in these conditions.
One more thing…
Disrupt, our flagship annual tech conference in San Francisco, will take place in October. And although there is still a long way to go, I wanted to share a little news. We will have six stages this year, which you can read about in more details here. One worth mentioning for this crowd is ours. AI in real world scenarioThis will be where we will delve into robotics, autonomous systems, manufacturing, defense and industrial operations.
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