Sahas Katta

Rivian's vehicles have software-defined architecture where we are able to continuously improve the vehicle software over and over. Through these software updates, we’re able to build features that deliver more value to Rivian drivers over time and are rooted in the feedback that we hear along the way. Today Rivian is pushing out software 2025.34 to its vehicles, which includes new features, system improvements and bug fixes. Tom Moloughney at State of Charge spoke with Rivian's Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid to learn more about what to expect from 2025.34. https://lnkd.in/emaepP88 https://lnkd.in/eskv86TF

68

3 Comments

Was fortunate to get a few minutes with Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe shortly after their Autonomy / AI Day presentation yesterday. Some takeaways, including a few that didn't make it into our story: 👉 Scaringe shrugged off the immediate stock reaction (down 6%). He said these scheduled reveals usually create volatility. "My conviction around our strategy is not gonna change because the stock is up or down a few percent." 👉 Scaringe said the hard turn Rivian made in 2022 to embrace AI as the engine of its self-driving system, ditching the "rules based" approach that prevailed in the first era of autonomy, is proving to be the correct call. “Once you start seeing the improvement rates and the data behind it, it’s more than night and day. It’s like, not even the same ballpark.” 👉 How did Rivian decide on $50/month or $2,500 upfront for its hands-free driving product? Scaringe said it was heavily debated internally. "Let's start with a price that we think is very fair and very reasonable, and recognize that if we want to grow that price over time, we can't do it unless we earn the right." 👉 How does Scaringe think about Rivian's potential legal liability once it introduces eyes off or fully autonomous capabilities? He said he expects eventual regulations from NHSTA, and referenced Rivian's insurance product with Nationwide where customers can pay less for using hands-free, he said. "There's a lot of unknowns. But I think very likely, in the fullness of time, insurance will be part of the subscription fee for self-driving." https://lnkd.in/gcyFr9gT

32

3 Comments

Here’s your weekly EV charging news recap👇 - Washington State Department of Transportation’s Electric Vehicle Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator (EVC RAA) awards $7M to companies including EVroadway, Electrify America, EVCS, EVgo, Blink Charging, and Amazon - Bart Saunders joins AMPECO as Head of Business Development for North America - Tesla enters @Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom targets 30% EV adoption by 2030 ---------------- 📥 Want the latest EV charging business and policy developments? Subscribe to EVPowerPulse in my profile.

66

7 Comments

San José Mineta International Airport will soon allow Waymo to offer fully autonomous rides. This is one of the most high-profile public launches for AVs in California to date. Airport pickups are consistently among the highest-earning trips for rideshare drivers. With SJC opening to Waymo, it raises a set of questions: How many of these rides will remain available to human drivers? What impact will this have on earnings? How will drivers respond? I think we’ll see a hybrid model for years. Human drivers will remain essential well into 2030 and beyond. The team and I will be following how this plays out for rideshare drivers at the airport. Interested in the current impact of AV on traditional rideshare in 2025? Here’s a report you can download: https://lnkd.in/drHnjtCS Read the Waymo announcement here: https://lnkd.in/difwZU4A Image credit: San José Mineta International Airport, www.flysanjose.com #autonomousvehicles #rideshare #mobility #gigwork #transportationpolicy

22

1 Comment

Thousands of semitrucks that cut across the U.S. highway system each day are harboring a secret: They’re only about half full. That inefficiency represents a multibillion-dollar opportunity. And one that a few companies like Uber Freight and Flock Freight are already chasing as part of broader business models that match truck drivers with companies selling goods. San Francisco-based startup Oway is seeking out a narrower business model that more closely resembles Uber for freight, especially on the most inefficient long-haul routes. But it’s a model that the startup believes can scale big enough to make an impact on the country’s economy. Oway, founded in 2023 and backed by Y Combinator and General Catalyst, recently closed a $4 million seed round in pursuit of that goal. Founder Phillip Nadjafov told TechCrunch that investors have bought into Oway’s concept because his company has already developed a way to cut the cost of shipping a pallet across the U.S. by 50%, using a clever mixture of new and somewhat old technologies. https://lnkd.in/evKvZ7vB

5

The 2024 California Public Utilities Commission report found that only 21% of medium/heavy duty fleet EV charging sites were using load management, leaving significant cost savings on the table. As we're talking to fleets about adopting Flipturn, we've found the same. Existing charging management providers make energy management too hard to set up, or don't put the control in operators' hands to make day-to-day adjustments in accordance with changing operations. At Flipturn, we educate every fleet we bring onto the platform about energy management, with over 50% of sites on Flipturn taking advantage of this functionality. Here's the report -- a few more interesting insights in there as well! https://lnkd.in/gkE6uqBR

16

1 Comment

Same title and same role, yet completely different engines. Senior SWE compensation in 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 can shift gears by hundreds of thousands depending on the company. We’re bringing back the Senior SWE box-plots but this time for automotive tech and built from recent offer data points (0-3 Years at Company) to reduce the impact of equity growth. Using recent offers means fewer data points, but a truer anchor for what candidates are actually seeing today, without older equity wind-ups stretching the top end. Some insights: Waymo leads the pack with a median of $420.5K (p25 $380.5K, p75 $516.5K). Its p25 clears the p75 at Tesla, Lucid Motors, General Motors, Zoox, and Rivian for clear, consistent top-of-market positioning for autonomy talent. Zoox ($304K) and General Motors ($302K) cluster in the low-$300Ks with moderate IQRs, implying more standardized offer bands. Tesla shows a low center (median $213K, p75 $290K) but an unusually long upper tail (max $700K) and the largest spread, indicating occasional outlier packages amid a generally lower band. Additionally: although we’re mitigating the effect of equity growth through the 0-3 years at company filter, Tesla’s well-known stock volatility could very well be the culprit here. Even in the same niche, compensation isn’t just about market value, it can also be about philosophy. Some companies reward stability, others reward risk. And in automotive, that split often mirrors the tech itself: established automakers vs. autonomous pioneers. Explore these distributions with realtime data, and see which bands are widening or tightening in our Benchmark tool: https://lnkd.in/gwhv2A6y What category of companies do you want to see next? Which company’s offer range surprised you most?

51

2 Comments

BIG news from Kirsten Korosec in automotive industry: Former Tesla autopilot head (and recently-departed chief product officer of self-driving truck company Aurora) has taken a top role at General Motors overseeing essentially all new products. https://lnkd.in/e36Vmebn

55

29 Comments

Waymo just raised $16 billion at a $126 billion valuation. But the real story isn't in the fundraise. It's in the talent war hiding in plain sight. We analyzed compensation data across the entire Automotive & AV sector, from legacy automakers to autonomous driving pure-plays. What we found tells you everything about who's positioned to win. At the entry level, the gap is noticeable. At staff level, it's a canyon. And pay ranges widening is characteristic of how pay bands evolve as you go higher up in level. Waymo, Aurora, and Zoox are paying senior engineers $400K-$500K+. Staff engineers at Waymo are clearing $700K-$900K. Meanwhile, Ford and GM hover around $150K-$250K for similar roles. That's not a compensation gap. That's a statement about where the future is being built. The graphic below highlights pay at different normalized levels via the Levels.fyi software engineer standard level set between 2024 and 2025 so we can compare companies apples to apples. The companies treating AI and autonomy as their core product (not a side project) are paying accordingly. They understand that the engineers who can make a car drive itself are among the scarcest, most valuable people in tech. Pay has to match. When Waymo says they achieved a 90% reduction in serious injury crashes across 127 million autonomous miles, those aren't just safety stats. They're the compound result of world-class engineering talent, retained over years, solving problems no one else can solve. The fundraise validates it. The comp data proves it. The autonomous vehicle race won't be won by who has the most cars in production right now. It'll be won by who has the best engineers, and who can keep them. Curious how your team stacks up? We built a benchmark tool to crunch cohorts like this across any industry, level, or location: https://lnkd.in/gC4EGrB7

271

5 Comments

Waymo is taking on the food delivery space and it’s a crucial one to conquer. In Phoenix, Waymo will deliver to DoorDash customers. To start, it will just include items from DashMart, but aims to expand to more grocery stores and restaurants. For DoorDash, this means cutting expenses associated with paying gig workers and eliminates the dangers associated with delivering via a bicycle or motorbike. For customers, it means no coordinating with a human delivery worker, no tipping and no concerns about strangers approaching a home. (But it also means no one to deliver directly to your doorstep, if you live in an apartment. Will this concept resonate with customers though? The UberEats/Waymo partnership never took off. The delivery experience is becoming increasingly faceless. If Waymo can prove that its technology can function as well as a human delivery worker (or at least close), we’ll see this concept scale quickly. #waymo #waymophoenix #AV #driverlessvehicles #waymodoordash

9

6 Comments

$40K to electrify your fleet—what would you buy? That’s the question more and more government fleet managers are facing. And here’s the twist: it has to be fully electric—no hybrids allowed. A fleet director recently reached out with this exact challenge. They’re planning to replace 40 sedans over the next five years using EPA grant funds. The vehicles will be used across departments—from administrative tasks. They’ve had limited EV experience so far (a Mach-E and a Tesla), and now need more budget-friendly options. Hybrids aren’t allowed under the grant. And since Ford doesn't offer a small BEV sedan, they’re looking beyond their usual go-to. This conversation really stuck with me. It’s a perfect example of the tension between policy ambition and operational reality. $40K isn't nothing—but in the BEV world, it narrows your choices fast. Especially when comfort, uptime, and versatility still matter. My main takeaway: fleets don’t just need vehicles—they need context. What’s worked for similar teams? What hasn’t? Which models do well with multi-driver rotation? What happens when they hit 115°F in Arizona? So I want to open this up: If you’ve added smaller BEVs to your government or municipal fleet—what’s your take? What models have worked well for your needs? What caught you by surprise—good or bad? Anything you wish you knew before choosing? I already recommended few vehicles based on what I learnt from my clients but would love to learn from what others are seeing on the ground.

18

2 Comments

I was wondering what Uber was going to do after shutting down ATG. This makes perfect sense. Today they announced a massive pivot into autonomy: a $300M investment in Lucid (congrats Claudia Gast), a board seat at Nuro, and a plan to deploy 20,000 robotaxis starting in 2026. Lucid provides the EV platform—high-range, luxury-grade, and designed with autonomy in mind. Nuro brings the Level 4 self-driving system. And Uber, of course, has the global demand and rider network to scale it all. It’s a bold strategy—but a logical one. Instead of building everything in-house, Uber is now stitching together best-in-class partners to re-enter the autonomy race with a real shot. After years of hype and retrenchment in AVs, this feels like a smart, second-wave approach (clearly the stock market agrees). https://lnkd.in/g5jjZYWh #autonomousvehicles #robotaxis #futureoftransportation #strategy #uber #evs #mobility

55

3 Comments

Autonomous Commerce: Your Car Is the New Delivery App Ben Seidl founder of Autolane, came down to the studio to talk to us about his bold vision: your autonomous vehicle acting like a personal delivery agent—handling errands, pickups, and drop-offs while you go about your day. • Autolane is building the connective tissue between AVs and real-world businesses • Focused on the “last 50 feet” of delivery—where most autonomous systems break down • Imagine your Tesla drives to Whole Foods, picks up a burrito, and brings it to your ranch • Why AVs will soon power a new logistics category: autonomous commerce One of the most future-forward startup ideas we’ve heard in a while—watch the full clip and see what’s coming.

58

6 Comments

Slate Auto, the US company that plans to come to market selling $25,000 electric trucks next year, has released new details on how its DIY-friendly trucks will work. And it involves working with others. For those who don’t want to service their own trucks or wrap them in colors besides Slate Gray themselves, Slate has partnered with the Yelp-owned RepairPal network. RepairPal is a platform that lets users learn how much repairs will cost ahead of time and schedule service at one of its 4,000 RepairPal-certified local repair shops in the US. “Slate’s partnership with RepairPal will offer our customers service in an unprecedented number of locations, pricing transparency unseen in the modern auto industry, for both service and accessory installation,” CCO Jeremy Snyder told Sherwood News. “We believe in empowering independent service shops across America to make Slate ownership easy.” Slate, which uses North American Charging Standard ports, has also struck a deal with Tesla to use its vast network of fast chargers, considered the gold standard for EVs. While Slates come with standard 120-volt charging cable for powering up in regular home outlets, the availability of quick, on-the-go charging stations is a common concern among EV owners and an important factor in the company’s viability. Both partnerships are part of an effort by Slate, which is backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, to create a “frictionless” experience for customers. https://lnkd.in/eDpNybhQ

38

1 Comment