Elon Musk vs. the Regulators | TechCrunch

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Elon Musk has never had the best relationship with regulators, often encountering or outright circumventing local and state laws where his numerous companies operate.

This week has been particularly active on the regulatory front.

Musk’s tunnel and infrastructure company The boring company is accused of nearly 800 violations by Nevada regulators, including digging without permission, dumping untreated water on city streets, failing to install silt fences and following dirt from construction sites to nearby roads, a ProPublica investigation found.

Then there is Teslawhich was hit with an enforcement action by the California Department of Insurance for routinely denying or delaying customer claims despite years of warnings from the state regulator. As a reminder, Tesla is an insurance company in certain states.

Tesla has also regained the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency opened a research in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology after receiving reports that the software caused vehicles to run red lights or cross into the wrong lane.

The NHTSA has investigated Tesla before. But this one is notable because it specifically targets Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance software. And Musk, as well as Tesla shareholders, have staked the company’s future on its ability to be a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, as well as robotics and AI.

This single investigation is unlikely to derail Tesla’s plans; the company has just rolled out the latest version of FSD (v14). But it’s another example of increased scrutiny of the technology Tesla is trying to push to the forefront and raises questions about its robotaxis, which uses a version of its FSD software.

A little bird

A Wired July article discovered that General engines repurposed a pair of Chevy Bolt EVs that had been part of the shuttered Cruise robotaxi program and drove them on select Michigan highways near Austin, Texas and the San Francisco Bay Area to develop simulation models and new driver assistance technology.

Now it appears that General Motors is making progress in developing autonomous vehicles, but in potentially surprising ways. When GM acquired Cruise in December 2024, it said it would combine Cruise’s technology with its own ADAS efforts to develop fully autonomous personal vehicles.

We hear rumors here and there that GM is building out an AV team in Austin and Mountain View. This comes just a few months after GM rehired laid-off Cruise employees Bloomberg.

We’re doing some poking around and if you know anything, please get in touch.

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

Offers!

Joby Aviation sold 30.5 million shares to raise approximately $514 million, money that the company said would be used to fund certification and manufacturing efforts and prepare for commercial operations, as well as for general working capital and other general corporate purposes. The company plans to start carrying passengers on its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft in Dubai in 2026, followed by the United States.

However, investors didn’t react too positively as shares went at a discount. Under the deal, they sold for $16.85 per share, down nearly 11% from the previous close.

Other deals that caught my attention this week…

I forgot this last week. Futuraila European startup developing an autonomy stack for self-driving trains, €7.5 million raised in seed funding, co-led by Asterion Ventures and Leap435, joined by EIT Urban Mobility and US investors Zero Infinity Partners and Heroic Ventures. Side note: The Autonocast, a podcast I co-host, recently had Alex Haag, CEO and co-founder of Futurail, on the show. Listen.

Nexcadea London-based startup developing end-to-end automation for freight forwarders, Raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Connect Ventures. MMC Ventures, Entropy Industrial Capital and Inovia also participated.

Toyota And Metal mining to have made a deal to collaborate on the mass production of cathode materials for all-solid state batteries for installation in battery-electric vehicles.

Tycho AIan autonomous drone navigation startup, $10 million raised in a Series A round led by FirstMark.

Useda Minneapolis-based vehicle analytics and benchmarking company, was acquired from Smith System. The terms were not disclosed.

Notable reading and other tidbits

Governor of California Gavin Newsom signed a bill giving Uber and Lyft drivers in the state the right to unionize as independent contractors.

We were still in the spotlight last week Doordash‘s efforts to build its own autonomous delivery robot. But that internal program doesn’t stop the company from pursuing external partnerships. DoorDash and Serve robotics announced a multi-year partnership where they would use autonomous robots to make deliveries across the United States.

Bright delivered a record number of electric vehicles in the third quarter. While it’s still nowhere near the forecasts it shared when it went public, its recent sales report does show progress.

Lyft has locked up another AV partnership – this time with Tensor Auto. The plan, the companies said, is to deploy robotaxis in Europe and North America from 2027. Tensor Auto may not sound familiar, but the Chinese robotaxi company AutoX might. Tensor Auto’s roots are with AutoX, although the San Jose-based company has told TechCrunch in the past that AutoX’s Chinese operations have been completely divested.

Transportation includes infrastructure such as bridges. Climate technology reporter Tim De Chant looked at it Allium techniquea startup developing wafer-thin stainless steel that could change the way bridges are built.

Tesla unveiled bare-bones versions of the Model 3 and Model Y, which start at $36,990 and $39,990 respectively. These “standard” versions are quite stripped down. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane provides more details here.

A few things struck me. Firstly, I was surprised that this standard version does not include Autopilot. Furthermore, Tesla is truly known for its innovation, from its manufacturing process and software-first approach to its business model. But this was not an act of innovation or even cleverness. It was just a matter of taking it away – and the end result wasn’t the deep discounts that had previously been touted. Recall that Elon Musk once pushed a $25,000 vehicle, a program that was later scrapped.

Zero motorcycles has moved its main operations from California to a new European headquarters in the Netherlands. The company told TechCrunch that the move is intended to accelerate growth and sharpen its focus on global opportunities.

One more thing…

If you’re in San Francisco later this month, come say hello. I’ll be there TechCrunch Disrupts 2025which will be held at Moscone West from October 27 to 29. And there are a few transportation-related conversations you won’t want to miss.

For example, TechCrunch will interview Uber’s Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal and co-founder and president of Nuro Dave Ferguson about the evolving relationship between AI and mobility. The discussion is expected to address how predictive modeling and computer vision improve road safety, why last-mile delivery is a proving ground for autonomy, and what it will take to bring AI-powered transportation to scale.