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It might have been a short week, but there was still a lot of news, including another Zamx Think, an update about the Stellantis-Amazon Partnership, and a few deals for taking startup.
One comment: this week I wrote about it Carma technology and the trial infringement of the patent against Uber. This is not a Patenttroll situation, and the IP lawyers I spoke to say that it will be a challenging matter for Uber.
The core? Carma, which was formed in 2007 by Serial Entrepreneur and SOSV Ventures founder Sean O’Sullivan, brought a lawsuit against Uber earlier this year, claiming that the company infringed five of its patents related to the system of matching riders (or packages) with capacity in vehicles. In other words, sharing journeys.
IP -lawyer Larry Ashery provided the money quotation that explains why this is such a complicated and challenging matter.
“What is important to understand here is that Carma not only claims five patents. They have had a highly advanced strategy of patent purchase that they have worked on for the past 18 years.”
The five patents of Carma are part of a 30-patting family who is all related and connected to the original submission date. This is important because each of the five claimed patents contains several patent claims that determine the legal limits of the invention. These individual claims – not only the patents as a whole – are what Carma claims to Uber.
That means that Uber will have to tackle and defend against any claimed claim, making the lawsuit more complex and more difficult to defeat, Ashy noted.
Let’s enter the rest of the news.
A small bird
A few small birds have been having a new startup of autonomous vehicle technology for months now that fits quietly for a year. The interesting gold clog about this startup – which is called Borock -Robotics – is who is behind it: Boris Sofmanwho led Waymo‘s self-driving truck program and earlier co-founder and led the popular consumer Robotics Company Anki.
The startup based in San Francisco is still in Stealth, but my sources tell me that the considerable venture funds has collected. Bedrock robotics is working on a self-driving kit that afterwards on construction equipment and other heavy machines, According to an application With the US Patent and Trademark Office.
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Deals!
Firefly Aerospace received one $ 50 million investment Van Northrop Grumman as part of his D -Ronde series. This investment will further promote the production of the co-developed medium launch vehicle of the startup, now known as Eclipse.
PalletA startup of a warehouse logistics software based in Fremont, California, $ 27 million picked up In a series of B -finance round led by a general catalyst. Bain Capital Ventures, Activant Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated.
ManyA start-up building Virtual connective tissue with which affiliated EVs can offer their batteries to support the grid, concluded a Serie A of $ 11.1 million led by Union Square Ventures, with participation of Edenred, Exor, Long Journey Ventures and Wex.
Way Data TechnologiesA startup of a fleet management founded by veterans of lucid engines and Wolt, increased € 2.6 million ($ 2.95 million) in pre-seed financing led by Pale Blue Dot, with participation of 10x founders and Greens Ventures.
Remarkable reading and other facts
Autonomous vehicles
RivrThe four-wheeled, stair-climb delivery robot Die are CEO and founder, Marko Bjelonic, describes as a dog on roller skating-olasses to release packages of Vehicle Vans directly to the front doors of customers as part of a pilot program in Austin, Texas. Both companies see this small pilot as a crucial step in the direction of solving a unique piece of the end-to-end autonomous delivery journey.
Tusimple (now Createaeai) a series of sensitive data effective sent the blueprint of an American autonomous autonomous vehicle system-to a company in Beijing after he committed himself to the US government that she would stop such transfers under a national security agreement. The revelation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, led to countless “not surprised” answers from different readers and sources in the industry.
Zamx Published his second voluntary software-back procedure in a month, after a collision between one of his robotaxis and an e-scooter rider in San Francisco on 8 May. The incident is remarkable, largely for what happened after the non-satisfied ZOX vehicle that operated at low speed was hit by the e-scoot after braking an intersidy.
According to ZOX, the e-scooterist fell right next to the vehicle on the floor and the “robotaxi started to move and stopped after completing turn, but made no further contact with the e-scooterist.”
In other ZOX news, the company announced that it was the “official Robotaxi partner of Resorts World Las Vegas”. As part of the deal, there will be a dedicated and soo brand robotaxi pick-up and drop-off location in Resorts World Las Vegas.
Electric vehicles, charging and batteries
The Tesla Cybertruck Is it difficult. Dozens of unsold Tesla Cybertrucks are stacking up in a parking lot in the shopping center in Detroit. And while Cybertruck owners are now allowed by Tesla to exchange their vehicles for the first time since they have been on the market, they will be confronted with a steep depreciation hit. Cargurus recently showed a depreciation percentages of up to 45%.
In the meantime, Tesla The sale in Europe and the UK has fallen by almost half, according to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The Volkswagen Emissions cheat scandal of 2015 waved through the automotive sector and led the company (and later followed by others) to leave diesel and to hybrids and electric vehicles. Now four former Volkswagen leaders have received prison sentences for their role.
Tech in the car
Amazon no longer cooperates Stellantis To make software in the car for the vehicles of the automaker. The partnership, announced for the first time in January 2022, was part of Stellantis’s plan to generate $ 22.5 billion from software annually. Stellantis told Techcrunch that it would turn to an Android -based system.
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