TechCrunch Mobility: A new, bigger AV boom is here
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Welcome to TechCrunch Mobility, your source for the future of transportation and the significant role AI plays in it. For free updates, sign up here under TechCrunch Mobility. My recent conversation with Trucks VC partner Puneeth Meruva made me reconsider the autonomous vehicle industry's buzziness reminiscent of 2016. Recent data shows that 2026 is even hotter – 81 new autonomous vehicle startups pitched to Trucks VC in 2026, a 2/3 increase from last year, surpassing previous boom years.
The driving force behind this surge is technological breakthroughs, specifically AI. Foundation models, like Nvidia's Alpamayo and Qwen's general-purpose vision-language-action models, have made it possible for startups to create end-to-end AV architectures. This lower barrier to entry has led to startups deploying within a few months and raising less than $1 million.
Among the 81 startups, I was surprised to see a growing number of pure-play robotaxi businesses, some positioning themselves as direct competitors to Waymo. Meruva believes there's room for smaller players to compete in specific regions or types of routes. Re:Build, a Massachusetts-based manufacturing accelerator co-founded by Amazon’s former commercial CEO Jeff Wilke, raised $2.1 billion to expand its capacity for manufacturing hard tech products and launch new industrial startups.
Bedrock Robotics secured $600 million for its autonomous vehicle technology startup valued at $4.1 billion. DoorDash acquired Instacart for $17 billion. PreScalar raised $7 million in seed funding co-led by Dynamo Ventures and BMW i Ventures. Elroy Air hired Jeremy Hux as CFO in preparation for going public. Ford introduced two new EV chargers for its Fathom pickup truck to serve as a battery for homes or the grid.
GM settled for $220 million to resolve allegations of selling private driving behavior and location information. Kodiak AI will deliver 75 self-driving trucks to DTL Transport in 2028. Rivian raised its 2026 delivery guidance for EVs to 67,000 vehicles. Tesla uses Turo to boost Full Self-Driving adoption, and Waymo and Toyota have a manufacturing partnership.
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