Travis Kalanick’s robotics startup Atoms is preparing a hiring spree and acquisitions that could turn it into a major autonomous vehicle player, according to a Financial Times report, putting the Uber founder back on a path he started more than a decade ago.
The report says Atoms has talked to Uber about how the ride-hailing company could use its robotaxi technology. Uber already invested $100M in Atoms’ $1.7B round this summer, a figure TechCrunch previously confirmed, making a partnership a natural next step. If one emerges, it would mark the first collaboration between Kalanick and his former company since he left its board in 2019.
Atoms was founded in March and revealed the a16z-led $1.7B raise in June. Sources emphasize that robotaxis are not the entirety of its plans, but the direction fits Kalanick’s description of the round as “unfinished business.”
The startup has already moved in this direction by acquiring Pronto, an autonomous mining company led by Anthony Levandowski, Uber’s former self-driving chief who was convicted of stealing trade secrets from Google and later pardoned.
Atoms, formerly City Storage Systems, also operates CloudKitchens and the kitchen-automation project Lab37, and employs more than 2,000 people. At an a16z event in San Francisco this month, Kalanick said “a lot of things that would have happened at Uber over time are things we’re doing now.”
