TechCrunch Mobility: How Jony Ive’s LoveFrom helped Rivian and what Uber’s next-generation playbook looks like

Summary

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I’ve spent a decade covering Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, so it would be natural for me to weigh in here about the billionaire’s public fallout with President Donald Trump. Plenty of other reporters, armchair analysts, influencers, and bloggers have already done that. Some of it is smart, while some of it misses the mark — by miles.Since I have the benefit of institutional knowledge, and a helluva good memory, let me offer some brief reminders and predictions. We’ve been here before — Musk has a long, well-documented history of creating seemingly strong alliances and then burning it all down. As senior reporter Tim De Chant noted, Elon is getting an introduction to politics. The problem here is that Musk also embraces risk and gravitas — which means that learning something doesn’t equate to his behavior changing. Expect a roller-coaster ride of tentative peace followed by public outbursts. Rinse. Repeat. The implications of this fallout promise to be broad and will likely touch all of Musk’s various enterprises. I will be monitoring how Tesla EV sales numbers fare and how the “Big, Beautiful Bill” will actually affect the automaker’s business if it is passed into law. In the short term, I will be focused on Tesla’s great robotaxi experiment in Austin, Texas, and how Musk’s complicated and increasingly toxic relationship with the Trump administration affects his dealings with the Department of Transportation. Prior to his public breakup with Trump, Musk was lobbying lawmakers on legislation related to autonomous vehicles — specifically over a bill introduced on May 15 called the Autonomous Vehicle Acceleration Act. A little bird Image Credits:Bryce Durbin Ever since Rivian spun out Also, a micromobility startup that also received backing from Eclipse Ventures, we’ve been poking around to find out more. A few...