Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, has unveiled a new robotics venture called Atoms, signalling a return to the world of advanced automation and autonomous systems. The company, according to its website, plans to develop robotics technologies that can be deployed across industries such as food production, mining and transportation.
Kalanick is folding his ghost kitchen business, CloudKitchens, into the new venture as part of a broader effort to build what he describes as a “wheelbase for robots.” Rather than focusing on humanoid robots, Atoms intends to develop specialised machines designed for specific industrial tasks. In a recent interview, Kalanick explained that the company’s approach centres on creating robots that perform targeted functions at scale, making them more efficient for sectors that depend on heavy logistics and repetitive operations.
The former ride hailing executive also disclosed that the company is close to acquiring Pronto, a startup developing autonomous driving technology for industrial and mining environments. The firm was founded by engineer Anthony Levandowski, a former colleague of Kalanick during his time building autonomous vehicle projects at Uber. Kalanick noted that he is already the largest investor in Pronto and sees industrial automation as a central focus for Atoms’ future expansion.
Although robotics for transportation remains part of the broader vision, Kalanick indicated that moving people will not be the immediate priority. Instead, the company plans to concentrate on industrial mobility, where robots and autonomous vehicles can handle specialised tasks in controlled environments such as mining sites and large logistics facilities.
The launch of Atoms also reconnects Kalanick with technologies he pursued during his time at Uber, where he helped establish a self driving vehicle programme in 2015. That effort later became embroiled in legal disputes with Google over trade secrets linked to its autonomous driving project that evolved into Waymo. Despite those setbacks and his resignation from Uber in 2017, Kalanick has continued to explore the future of automation, and Atoms appears to be his most ambitious step yet toward building large scale robotics systems for industry