Uber founder Travis Kalanick has launched a new venture, Atoms, which is focused on robotics in the food, mining, and transportation sectors. Kalanick is integrating his ghost kitchen business, CloudKitchens, into Atoms. Though his strategies for addressing mining and transportation remain uncertain, Atoms’ website outlines plans to create a “wheelbase for robots.” During a TBPN interview, Kalanick mentioned that this wheelbase would be used for “specialized robots” rather than humanoid forms.
“Humanoids have their place, but there’s much potential in specialized robots operating efficiently on an industrial scale, which is our focus,” he stated.
For the mining sector, Kalanick indicated he is close to acquiring Pronto, a startup for autonomous vehicles in industrial and mining areas founded by his former Uber colleague, Anthony Levandowski. He noted he already holds a significant investment in Pronto.
“The industrial focus is essentially our primary area,” Kalanick told TBPN. He also appeared hesitant about employing Atoms robots for human transport in the immediate future. “Once movement in the physical realm is mastered, many will seek access to it.”
Earlier, The Information reported Kalanick’s resurgence in the self-driving vehicle segment, with significant support from Uber. He purportedly aims for more rapid deployment of self-driving technology than Waymo. Uber declined to comment, and Atoms’ website has no Uber mentions. The acquisition discussions concerning Pronto were first reported by The Information.
Last year, Kalanick was rumored to be eyeing the acquisition of the U.S. division of Pony AI, a Chinese self-driving vehicle company, with Uber’s backing. Talks reportedly ended.
Kalanick resigned as Uber CEO in 2017 amid various company crises, including harassment and discrimination issues that led to an external investigation and over 20 employee dismissals.
Previously, Kalanick established Uber’s self-driving division in 2015, bringing on Levandowski from Google. This led to a legal battle with Google over trade secrets, culminating in a settlement. Levandowski faced criminal charges and 18 months in prison, later receiving a pardon from President Trump.
Even after Kalanick’s resignation, Uber continued developing its self-driving project until an incident in 2018 where a test vehicle fatally struck a pedestrian. Under Kalanick’s successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, the division was sold to Aurora in 2020.
In a March 2025 interview, Kalanick expressed regret over Uber discontinuing its self-driving car development.
This article has been updated with recent information from Atoms’ website and an interview with Kalanick.