Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Anyone paying even a little bit of attention to Tesla has probably heard about Dojo. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has referenced Dojo repeatedly over the years, oftentimes noting that the AI supercomputer is essential to the company’s future.
But what is Dojo really? TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan dug into what is supposed to be the cornerstone of Tesla’s AI ambitions. Check out her explainer here . There’s more, of course, to read about beyond Elon Musk and Dojo.
Let’s dive into the news. A little bird A little bird dropped us a few tidbits recently about Monarch Tractor , the startup developing electric autonomous tractors. It seems Monarch’s leadership team is going through quite a bit of change.
We’ve learned that Monarch’s chief revenue officer Kent Carroll left in August; chief commercial officer Sam Abidi and VP of product Danny Beck left in June; and Daron Hovanessian, who led product design, left in July. Abidi and Carroll were at Monarch for only a year . Their departures could mean anything — we’re not here to speculate, as there is always a bit of churn in the AV industry and tech sector as a whole.
But it does come at a curious time of layoffs and new funding. Monarch Tractor recently raised $133 million in a Series C funding round co-led by agri-food tech impact firm Astanor and HH-.