Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that the company will launch a paid ride-hailing service with a fleet of driverless vehicles in Austin, Texas, in June. This news comes as a surprise, with Musk providing almost no details about the upcoming service, including its geo-fence and operational constraints. The announcement was made during Tesla's fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call, and it's unclear whether this move is an attempt to distract from the company's flat automotive business.

In other mobility news, sources at Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, have shared that management began extending retention offers to employees, mostly engineers, in mid-January. This move is seen as an attempt to retain talent amidst the uncertainty surrounding the company's plans. Cruise CEO Marc Whitten stated that the company has completed its first wave of notifications to employees whose roles are expected to be needed in the future, but those who haven't received notifications aren't necessarily at risk of losing their jobs.

Meanwhile, Moove, the African mobility fintech company backed by Uber, has announced its acquisition of Kovi, a Brazil-based urban mobility provider. The deal, which is an all-share transaction, bumps Moove's annual revenue to $275 million. Moove has seen explosive growth in five years, expanding from 76 cars in Lagos, Nigeria, to 36,000 cars operating in 19 cities across six continents. The company has also partnered with Waymo to provide driverless vehicle fleet operations in Phoenix and Miami.

In other deals, Angell, a French smart electric bike startup, is nearing bankruptcy, while Bonsai Robotics, an autonomous agriculture startup based in California, raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based business travel management platform, has raised $200 million at a hefty $2.7 billion valuation, almost double its previous valuation. The company has also acquired Swiss startup Yokoy for an undisclosed amount.

UVeye, the Israeli startup that developed a vision-based "MRI for cars," raised $191 million in an extension to its 2023 Series D round led by Toyota's Woven Capital growth fund. Voi, the Swedish shared micromobility giant, has eked out its first profitable year in 2024, according to preliminary unaudited results.

In autonomous vehicle news, GM expects to save up to $1 billion annually by ending its Cruise robotaxi development program. Kodiak Robotics has handed off two autonomous trucks to customer Atlas Energy Solutions for driverless operations in an off-road environment in the remote Permian Basin, marking the startup's first commercial launch. Waymo has had a busy week, with a security researcher discovering a hidden feature in its app that allowed her to display whatever characters she wanted on the robotaxi's top display. The company has also announced plans to begin testing driverless vehicles on Los Angeles freeways and to bring its robotaxis to 10 U.S. cities this year.

Finally, in electric vehicle news, Lucid Gravity SUV owners will gain access to Tesla Superchargers on Friday. Tesla is bringing its redesigned Model Y SUV to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in March, with a starting price just shy of $60,000. The company has also faced lawsuits filed by employees who claim they were harassed by executives, with one case being moved to arbitration and another tracking toward a potential September 2025 trial date.

As the mobility space continues to evolve, it's clear that companies like Tesla, Cruise, and Moove are making significant moves to stay ahead of the curve. With advancements in autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and mobility fintech, the future of transportation is looking brighter than ever.