Travis Kalanick's Startup Atoms Is Moving Into the Robotaxi Business

Key points

• Atoms, founded by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, raised $1.7 billion in summer 2026 in a round led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
• Uber has invested $100 million in Atoms and held talks about using Atoms' robotaxi technology on its ride-hailing platform.
• Atoms acquired Pronto, an autonomous vehicle startup for mining operations, previously led by Anthony Levandowski, a former Uber self-driving chief.
• Atoms is planning a significant hiring spree and acquisitions to build out its position in the self-driving vehicle market.

Travis Kalanick built Uber into one of the most recognised companies on the planet. Then he was pushed out as CEO in 2017. His new venture, Atoms, raised $1.7 billion earlier this summer, but Kalanick kept quiet about what the company actually planned to do with it.

Now the picture is getting clearer.

So what is Atoms actually building?

Atoms is targeting the robotaxi market: fleets of self-driving cars that pick up passengers without a human driver. The Financial Times reported that Atoms is preparing for a major hiring push and a series of acquisitions to become a serious force in autonomous vehicles, the broad term for cars and trucks that drive themselves.

Kalanick himself described the funding round as "unfinished business," a phrase that reads more plainly now that his old company, Uber, is apparently in the picture.

What does Uber have to do with this?

Uber invested $100 million in Atoms, a figure TechCrunch AI had previously confirmed. Beyond the cash, the two companies have talked about how Atoms' self-driving technology could work inside Uber's app. Uber already partners with a long list of autonomous vehicle companies, so adding Atoms would fit that pattern.

For ordinary Uber users, nothing changes yet. But if these talks lead somewhere, riders could one day hail an Atoms-powered robotaxi through the same app they use today.

What is the Pronto acquisition about?

Atoms bought Pronto, a startup that was building self-driving technology for mining vehicles. The acquisition matters partly because of who led Pronto: Anthony Levandowski, the former head of Uber's own self-driving programme. Levandowski was convicted in 2020 of stealing trade secrets from Google's self-driving car project before joining Uber, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. President Donald Trump pardoned him.

Sources quoted by the Financial Times stressed that robotaxis are not the whole of Atoms' strategy. The company may have broader ambitions across different types of autonomous vehicles. But the Pronto deal, the Uber talks, and Kalanick's own framing all point in the same direction.

The self-driving industry has seen years of false starts and enormous costs. Whether Atoms can turn $1.7 billion and a headline-generating founder into a lasting business is an open question, but the company is clearly no longer keeping its plans quiet.