Latest news with #CloudKitchens
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pony AI stock surges after NYT reports Uber-Kalanick talks for acquisition
-- Pony AI (NASDAQ:PONY) stock rose 15% after The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported that Uber (NYSE:UBER) is in preliminary talks with its former CEO Travis Kalanick to help fund his acquisition of the U.S. arm of the autonomous vehicle company. According to the report, Kalanick would run Pony AI if the deal is completed, while maintaining his current role as CEO of CloudKitchens. The financial details of the potential transaction were not disclosed. Pony AI, which went public last year in the U.S., currently has a market capitalization of approximately $4.5 billion. The discussions highlight Uber's growing concern over competition from self-driving taxi services like Waymo, which was spun out of Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)'s recently unveiled robot taxi service in Austin. These autonomous vehicle services could potentially reduce demand for rides from human drivers. Pony AI, founded in Silicon Valley in 2016 but with its main presence in China, holds permits to operate robot taxis and trucks in both the United States and China. The company raised $260 million in its public offering last year. An Uber spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the deal talks but noted that the company "has a platform strategy, and we intend to work with multiple players in the U.S. and around the world who can safely bring autonomous technology to the world." If the deal materializes, it would mark a significant reunion between Uber and Kalanick, who was ousted from the company in 2017 following a boardroom coup. Related articles Pony AI stock surges after NYT reports Uber-Kalanick talks for acquisition India rejects a UN investigator offered to help probe into the 787 crash Raymond James lifts FactSet rating on cheaper valuation, signs of revenue rebound Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Travis Kalanick is trying to buy Pony.ai — and Uber might help
Uber founder Travis Kalanick is looking for ways to buy the U.S. arm of Chinese autonomous vehicle company according to The New York Times. Kalanick is reportedly working with investors to finance an acquisition, and Uber may even help make the transaction happen, the Times reports. went public last year and had a market cap of around $4.5 billion before The New York Times report was published. The report states that Pony started preparing its U.S. arm for a sale or spinoff in 2022, down to creating a 'forked' version of its source code. Acquiring would bring Kalanick back into the world of self-driving vehicles for the first time since he was pushed out of Uber in 2017. Uber was working on its own autonomous vehicle technology at that time. In 2018, one of its test vehicles killed a pedestrian in Arizona. Kalanick's replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, ultimately sold Uber's self-driving division to autonomous trucking startup Aurora. Under Khosrowshahi, Uber has taken a partnership approach, bringing self-driving cars onto its platform from companies like Waymo. Kalanick has increasingly embraced robotics in recent years while running his ghost kitchen company CloudKitchens. He would reportedly still run CloudKitchens day-to-day if he purchased In March, Kalanick said at an event that Uber was 'really only behind Waymo but probably catching up' at the time that he was pushed out of Uber. (Uber and Waymo eventually got locked in a legal battle over autonomous vehicle-related trade secrets that was ultimately settled.) Regarding Khosrowshahi's decision to sell the division, Kalanick said: 'I wasn't running the company when that happened, but you know, you could say, 'Wish we had an autonomous ride-sharing product right now. That would be great.'' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
26-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Uber in Talks to Fund Kalanick Bid to Buy Pony AI Unit, NYT Says
Uber Technologies Inc. is in talks with founder Travis Kalanick to help fund his acquisition of the US arm of Chinese self-driving firm Pony AI Inc., the New York Times reported. Shares of both companies jumped in Thursday trading. The talks are preliminary, according to the Times, citing two unnamed people. Kalanick would run Pony if the deal is completed while continuing to lead his current company, CloudKitchens, the report cited the people as saying. Financial details of the potential transaction were not known, the report said.
TechCrunch
26-06-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Travis Kalanick is trying to buy Pony.ai — and Uber might help
Uber founder Travis Kalanick is looking for ways to buy the U.S. arm of Chinese autonomous vehicle company according to The New York Times. Kalanick is reportedly working with investors to finance an acquisition, and Uber may even help make the transaction happen, the Times reports. went public last year and had a market cap of around $4.5 billion before The New York Times report was published. The report states that Pony started preparing its U.S. arm for a sale or spinoff in 2022, down to creating a 'forked' version of its source code. Acquiring would bring Kalanick back into the world of self-driving vehicles for the first time since he was pushed out of Uber in 2017. Uber was working on its own autonomous vehicle technology at that time. In 2018, one of its test vehicles killed a pedestrian in Arizona. Kalanick's replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, ultimately sold Uber's self-driving division to autonomous trucking startup Aurora. Under Khosrowshahi, Uber has taken a partnership approach, bringing self-driving cars onto its platform from companies like Waymo. Kalanick has increasingly embraced robotics in recent years while running his ghost kitchen company CloudKitchens. He would reportedly still run CloudKitchens day-to-day if he purchased In March, Kalanick said at an event that Uber was 'really only behind Waymo but probably catching up' at the time that he was pushed out of Uber. (Uber and Waymo eventually got locked in a legal battle over autonomous vehicle-related trade secrets that was ultimately settled.) Regarding Khosrowshahi's decision to sell the division, Kalanick said: 'I wasn't running the company when that happened, but you know, you could say, 'Wish we had an autonomous ride-sharing product right now. That would be great.''
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ghost kitchen delivery drivers have overrun an Echo Park neighborhood, say frustrated residents
As soon as Echo Park Eats opened on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Douglas Street in the fall of 2023, Sandy Romero said her neighborhood became overrun with delivery drivers. 'The first day that they opened business it was chaotic, unorganized and it's just such a nuisance now,' she said. Echo Park Eats is a ghost kitchen, a meal preparation hub for app-based delivery orders. It rents its kitchens to 26 different food vendors. The facility is part of CloudKitchens, led by Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber Technologies, which has kitchen locations across the nation including 11 in Los Angeles County. With a long list of vendors and the ease of placing an online food order, Romero said the daily influx of delivery drivers coming into her neighborhood has surged and drivers are often taking up parking spaces, idling in red zones and double parking. In an already high-density community, with seasonal traffic from Dodger stadium less than a mile away, the residents of Douglas Street say the opening of the ghost restaurant suddenly swamped the neighborhood with more people, cars, trash and crime. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose district represents the neighborhood, said there is a glaring issue that is much larger than just parking and traffic safety. The ghost restaurant, which replaced a medical office, is designated as a catering business, allowing it to operate adjacent to a residential neighborhood, he said. The business phenomenon of ghost kitchens has only been around since the 2010s so there isn't an up-to-date land-use definition for them. CloudKitchens did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The facility is a nuisance "that does not belong in a residential area, especially not on a residential street," said Erika Torres, a resident of more than 30 years on Douglas Street. Torres lives two houses away from the facility's rear parking lot and is frustrated by the army of food carriers on mopeds who speed along the sidewalk, the traffic congestion on her block and the overpowering smell of oil, onions and other cooked foods permeating her home. She and other neighbors say they have heard angry confrontations between drivers trying to get in and out of the parking lot and loud music blasting in the early mornings and late at night. Several concerned neighbors asked that they not be identified citing safety concerns. Another neighbor, J.C. Arias said he suspects there is a connection between the increase in people coming into the neighborhood and an uptick in theft on the block, including stolen tools and license plates. Read more: L.A. landlord stops blasting 'Baby Shark' tune to drive off homeless following complaints An email thread created to discuss the safety issues and possible solutions to the ghost restaurant problem has as many as 90 people on it, including neighbors, Soto-Martinez's district staff and other city staff. The email chain is still active today. Soto-Martínez is presenting two possible fixes to the City Council. One possible solution is to request that city staff create a specific land-use designation for ghost kitchens while assessing how these existing facilities can affect a neighborhood. If ghost kitchens are categorized differently from other commercial operations, they might have to operate in designated industrial areas, for example. However, a change in land-use rules would likely only apply to future ghost kitchens, not to the exiting facility in Echo Park. Another solution presented by Soto-Martínez would use geofencing technology to immediately keep drivers at least 1,000 feet from the ghost kitchen, prohibiting drivers from loitering on the block while they wait to claim a delivery. The technology is currently used on Lime scooters to remotely enforce speed, parking restrictions and dead zones. Soto-Martinez is asking city staff to look into how that would apply to app-based delivery drivers. "The theory behind this is that the traffic will sort of disperse or it'll be a little more disaggregated because, right now, they're literally hanging out feet from the [facility]," he said. But some neighbors worry that the geofencing idea would not solve the problem but only force the delivery drivers to hang out in other neighborhoods. "We feel bad because we don't want to do that to anybody else," said a resident who asked not to be identified. Read more: DoorDash rolls out food delivery robots in Los Angeles Incremental changes have been adopted on Douglas to try to mitigate the traffic and other concerns, such as adding permitted parking last year and deploying more parking enforcement officers. In December 2024, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation received complaints of frequent illegal parking in the neighborhood and began weekly patrols to address the community's concerns, said Colin Sweeney, spokesperson for the department. On top of the patrols, the department deploys officers to respond to complaints or calls for service. The situation on Douglas escalated so far in February that a neighbor said a traffic enforcement officer was assaulted when trying to enforce the parking laws. Sweeney confirmed that the LAPD is investigating an "alleged attack on a traffic officer during the course of his duties on February 8" but declined to offer more details. Echo Park Eats also implemented five-minute parking on their lot in 2024, but neighbors say that has only pushed more delivery drivers to linger on the street or on the sidewalk with their mopeds. Last summer, Arias said food carriers, mostly men, parked or idled their cars and hung out under the shade of the large tree in front of his home, across the street from the ghost restaurant. The men would bring their chairs, snacks and sit under the tree until they claimed a delivery. Arias frequently asked the men to pick up their trash and move their vehicles from blocking the street. Arias was so frustrated by the loitering delivery drivers that he chopped off the branches that shaded the drivers. The drivers stopped hanging out under his tree but many simply moved to another shaded areas on Douglas Street. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
