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Jet ski to work
Travis Kalanick said he commutes to his Austin office by jet ski across Lake Austin, describing it as a "5 minute jet ski commute" and telling TBPN that he recently went roughly 70 miles per hour on the ride.
“"5 minute jet ski commute"”
On TBPN, Kalanick asked, "Who else do you know is jet-skiing to work?" and said the ride was still five minutes unless it rained.
Business Insider Africa reported that Kalanick moved from California to Texas and owns a home on Lake Austin, and that he is now leading Atoms, the newly renamed version of City Storage Systems and the parent company of CloudKitchens.
The same report said Atoms is developing AI-powered robots designed to automate repetitive physical work in industries such as food service, mining, manufacturing, and logistics, and that Kalanick previously described Atoms' goal as building "gainfully employed robots" for specialized tasks at an industrial scale.
Atoms raises $1.7B
Atoms raised $1.7 billion in a funding round backed by venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz, with participation including Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and Uber, according to MoneyWise and Cadena 3 Argentina.
MoneyWise said Kalanick announced the funding round and that Atoms was rebranded in March with a new focus on robotics in the mining and transportation industries, after Kalanick invested $150 million in City Storage Systems in 2018.
Cadena 3 Argentina said Uber participated in the funding round with a $100 million investment in Atoms, and that Atoms aims to develop automation solutions with an initial focus on transportation and mining.
TechCrunch said Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board following the investment, and it described Andreessen Horowitz as leading the round with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber.
Uber, Levandowski, and history
MoneyWise tied Atoms’ backers to Kalanick’s past by describing Anthony Levandowski as a former Uber employee who was charged after stealing 14,000 files on his laptop as he jumped ship from Google.
“stealing 14,000 files on his laptop”
MoneyWise also quoted a 2020 release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California saying, "he downloaded thousands of Project Chauffer (sic) [now known as Waymo] files onto his personal laptop," and it said Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2020.
TechCrunch said Uber invested $100 million into Atoms, and it described a history in which Uber acquired Levandowski’s self-driving trucks startup Otto in 2016 and later faced a Waymo lawsuit for trade secret theft.
TechCrunch further quoted a company email from Levandowski stating that "Atoms is investing heavily in Industrial AI and physical automation applied to mining and transport," and it said Pronto is a core strategic priority for Atoms.