Sunita Gopal

It all starts here 🌉 ​ ​ The San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market to welcome the Uber-exclusive robotaxi, powered by Nuro and Lucid, expected to begin in late 2026.​ ​ On-road development with our Robotaxi Engineering Fleet is now underway, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in our Global Robotaxi Program. ​ ​ Over the coming months, more than 100 Nuro-driven Lucid Gravitys will join the fleet as we continue to test, validate, and advance the future of safe, sustainable rides.​ ​ The future is on its way! ⚡​ #AutonomousVehicles #Technology #Innovation #Partnership #ElectricVehicles

95

3 Comments

Lucid announced a landmark initiative with NVIDIA to accelerate the path to autonomous features for Lucid vehicles. Working together, our team will bring eyes-on, point-to-point driving (L2++) to Lucid Gravity later next year, and one of the first true eyes-off, hands-off, and mind-off (L4) consumer owned autonomous vehicle to future midsize vehicles leveraging NVIDIA’s multi-sensor suite architecture, including cameras, radar, and lidar. Read more about today’s announcement: https://ow.ly/vkfq30sQRi3

98

1 Comment

Nonprofits need more than passion—they need data-driven insights to secure funding and grow their mission. With 277+ employees and complex funding requirements, Bay Area Youth Services (BAYS) turned to PrimePay HCM for: • Position-based workforce management • Automated funding tracking • AI-driven applicant tracking • Streamlined compliance tools CTA: Read their story. https://hubs.ly/Q03lhW5b0

24

WAYMO EXPANDS BAY AREA ROBOTAXI SERVICE ACROSS PENINSULA & SILICON VALLEY Waymo continues to lead the autonomous vehicle industry with its latest expansion of robotaxi services across the Peninsula and Silicon Valley. •Waymo’s fully driverless rides are now available in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View, connecting key tech hubs. •The autonomous vehicle industry is projected to surpass $1.2 trillion globally by 2030, with AI-powered robotaxis transforming urban mobility. •Waymo, backed by Alphabet, has logged over 20 million autonomous miles on public roads, setting the industry standard for safety and innovation. •The Bay Area remains a focal point for AI-driven transportation, fueling economic growth, job creation, and cutting-edge research. #AI #AutonomousVehicles #Waymo #Robotics #SelfDriving #TechNews #SiliconValley #Mobility #Innovation

8

1 Comment

When most people hear "solid-state," they think storage. But in Santa Clara, xMEMS Labs just gave that term new resonance, literally. The company just raised $21M in Series D funding led by Boardman Bay Capital Management, with Cloudview Capital, CDIB-TEN Capital, Harbinger Ventures, Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, and other strategic investors tuning in. This isn't another round of capital, it's an #amplifier for a company turning silicon into a new language of #sound and #cooling for the AI era. Founded in 2018 by Joseph Jiang and Jemm Liang, xMEMS spun out of piezoelectric R&D at TSMC and turned what was once wafer-level theory into commercial hardware. Joseph Jiang, a veteran of Knowles, Fortemedia, and InvenSense, leads with precision and swagger, while Jemm Liang, who built Ultrachip from the ground up, drives the engineering with surgical focus. Co-Founder & CLO Wei-Fu Hsu, the former MediaTek exec and IP expert, ensures xMEMS' innovation is as protected as it is disruptive. Their play? A monolithic MEMS platform that transforms voltage into vibration, silicon into sound. Unlike legacy coil speakers and fans, xMEMS tech doesn't move parts, it moves markets. Over 500K MEMS speakers shipped in 1H'24, backed by >250 global patents. The Cypress & Sycamore lines redefine what "small" can do: 1mm-thin, full-range, and capable of sub-bass response once thought impossible in earbuds. Their XMC-2400 µCooling chip, 1mm-thin, fan-on-a-chip, inaudible, moves 39cc/sec of air at just 30mW. That's not cooling, that's choreography at a molecular level. Dr. Chester Hwang, named CTO on Oct 15, 2025, joins to push that curve further. Alongside veterans Mike Housholder (VP Marketing & Biz Dev), Jim Wargnier (VP N.A. & EU Sales), James Lee (VP & Korea GM), Steven P. Bentley (VP Sales), and Martin Lim (VP MEMS Tech), xMEMS is scaling at semiconductor speed. They're already in BleeqUp's AI sports glasses and teamed with Dongguan Rayking Electronics for TWS modules. When OEMs talk "next-gen," they're talking xMEMS-level integration. For investors like Boardman Bay's Will Graves, this isn't just sound engineering, it's signal intelligence. With AI pushing devices thinner, faster, and hotter, xMEMS' piezoMEMS platform sits at the intersection of #acoustics and #thermals, where every millimeter matters. Backing them is a bet that the next wave of #sensorytech won't just compute, it'll feel alive. So what's next? Scaling production, expanding capacity, and embedding xMEMS' silicon pulse into everything from earbuds to AI #datacenters. In a world chasing speed, silence, and fidelity, xMEMS isn't following the beat, they're building the frequency the future will hum to. #Startups #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #SeriesD #AI #Sound #SoundEngineering #Semiconductors #Data #DataDriven #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #Hiring #TechHiring If software engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen.

16

1 Comment

Big M&A news in Seattle startup land as Palo Alto Networks plans to acquire 3-year-old cybersecurity company Protect AI, ranked No. 10 on the GeekWire 200, our list of top tech startups across the Pacific Northwest. It's part of a growing cohort of cybersecurity startups that are based in the Seattle region or have a significant presence in the area. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gfx_pXkS

91

One of my closest school friends now leads several engineering teams in a fast growing series F startup in the Bay Area. He’s based in New York and has to travel to the Bay Area often. (Important later on) A graduate engineer joined his extended team in the Bay Area as his skip report. She’s talented and has scaled up quickly so far. As her first big thing, she was working on a particular feature X (omitting the actual info). In the larger scheme of things though, this feature is a tiny update to the end customer. It’s useful but not something they will remember. During his recent visit to their Bay Area office, my friend met this new joiner at their cafeteria. After a few pleasantries, she mustered up the courage to ask him “In the recent customer calls, did you discuss about my feature?” My friend took a split second and said “yes, we did. They loved it & it’s made their lives easier.” She walked away grinning and happy. And she’s been asking for more work recently. This is not a productivity hack or a trick to get somebody to work more. This is realizing that most human beings crave meaning. My friend told me later “We didn’t discuss the feature explicitly in the calls but it’s definitely made their lives easier.” He helped the new engineer feel important with a single answer in a 1 min interaction. She felt like her work mattered. Human beings are a hot mess. But sometimes, they are also incredibly simple. Help people find meaning in their work and watch the magic unfold. #manager

81

10 Comments

It all starts here 🌉 ​ ​ The San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market to welcome the Uber-exclusive robotaxi, powered by Nuro and Lucid, expected to begin in late 2026.​ ​ On-road development with our Robotaxi Engineering Fleet is now underway, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in our Global Robotaxi Program. ​ ​ Over the coming months, more than 100 Nuro-driven Lucid Gravitys will join the fleet as we continue to test, validate, and advance the future of safe, sustainable rides.​ ​ The future is on its way! ⚡​ #AutonomousVehicles #Technology #Innovation #Partnership #ElectricVehicles

20

2 Comments

Today we’re launching our Physical AI Lab, led by UCLA professor and renowned researcher Bolei Zhou, who’s joining Coco as Chief AI Scientist. Bolei has spent his career advancing physical AI with 60,000+ citations and pioneering work. Now, he’s bringing that expertise to Coco. What makes this lab special is Coco’s fleet itself. Our robots run urban deliveries across the U.S. and Europe, navigating unpredictable environments (construction, pedestrians, weather, etc.). These are the kinds of real world challenges you can’t capture in simulation and that data is becoming the raw material for advancing physical AI. As we scale to 10,000+ robots in 2026, this fusion of research and deployment will define the next generation of physical AI and reimagine how goods move through cities everywhere. TechCrunch has the scoop - link in comments.

212

12 Comments

The Bay Area isn’t losing its edge, it’s redefining it. BNB Project Executive and Mission Critical Team Member Paul Kivi breaks down why Silicon Valley remains the heartbeat of tech in the AI era, despite power constraints, rising costs, and shifting data center demand. From retrofits to grid innovation to the talent engine behind today’s biggest breakthroughs, Paul shares where the future of mission-critical infrastructure is headed. Read Paul’s full perspective: https://lnkd.in/gSzFh99T

46

🚗 New Interview: Inside Nuro’s Autonomous Driving Tech with Qingqing Cao! I had a great conversation with Qingqing Cao, a Software Engineer at Nuro, a robotics company building autonomous vehicles with their self-driving system, Nuro Driver. Nuro recently partnered with Uber and Lucid Motors to launch the first autonomous ride-hailing vehicle designed specifically for Uber. At Nuro, Qingqing works on the data platform that powers these autonomous systems. In this episode, we talk about the infrastructure behind Nuro Driver, the incredible data pipelines that support self-driving, and how Qingqing’s background in civil engineering and machine learning shapes her work today. 🎯 One highlight: we talk about how Nuro’s vehicles perceive the road using a variety of sensors with a 360° view that go beyond human perception and could make autonomous driving even safer than human driving. We also cover: • How a single vehicle running Nuro Driver generates terabytes of data per day • How Qingqing and her team use Cursor AI to streamline engineering workflows • Advice for early-career engineers interested in AI and robotics 📺 Watch the full episode: https://lnkd.in/es-gmfuj Big thanks to Qingqing for the thoughtful conversation and for sharing how her team is pushing the future of autonomous mobility forward. #AutonomousVehicles #DataEngineering #Robotics #AIinProduction #Nuro #LearnTheTechnologyWithBK #SoftwareEngineering #SelfDrivingCars #CursorAI #TechCareers #WomenInTech

60

3 Comments

Alphabet's Waymo unit has received approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose. In March, the company submitted a request to the California Public Utilities Commission to gain approval for its latest passenger safety plan, a key step in gaining permission to operate driverless vehicles across a broader area. On Monday, the proposed expansion was approved, allowing for Waymo's driverless coverage to extend from San Francisco down through the Peninsula. "We're very excited to share that the CPUC has approved our application to operate our fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the South Bay and nearly all of San Jose!" the company wrote in a post on X on Monday. "While this won't change our operations in the near-term, we're looking forward to bringing the benefits of Waymo One to more of the Bay Area in the future." This self-driving car technology stock could pop by more than 400%, say thre

8

2 Comments