While Rivian didn't say exactly how many R2s it sold over the three-month period, the company is confident enough in the pace of sales that it raised its delivery guidance for Wall Street. Rivian had previously expected to deliver between 65,000 and 70,000 EVs this year. On Thursday, it bumped up that floor to 67,000. It's the second time Rivian has raised its delivery guidance this year, and the company is now on track to break a three-year stalemate during which it struggled to ship more than 50,000 vehicles annually. The company launched the R2 just in June, but it has made a major bet on scaling production of the lower-cost SUV at a historically quick rate. The early success of the R2 is also a sign that Rivian is finding new customers despite last year's loss of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. The death of that tax credit, along with changes made by the Trump administration to U.S. regulations that supported the growth of EVs, has caused many major automakers to shift their attention back to internal combustion and hybrid vehicles ' leaving room in the market for pure-EV companies like Tesla and Rivian....

Each year, Climate Week NYC brings together more than 100,000 people in more than 1,000 events across the city to discuss climate challenges, explore solutions, and spur action. Participants come from industry, academia, philanthropy, nonprofits, government, and finance and venture capital. And this year, the mix included a strong, cross-campus presence from MIT. The MIT community could be seen multiple days during Climate Week, with appearances by Evelyn Wang, vice president for energy and climate, at the official opening ceremony discussing artificial intelligence and the climate equation; an event co-hosted by MIT and the Bezos Earth Fund on climate innovation; and 14 sessions organized by the MIT Climate Project and eight MIT departments, labs, centers, and initiatives ' including the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS), the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, the Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), MIT Lincoln Laboratory, MIT Open Learning, the MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM), the MIT Climate Policy Center, and the Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Center for Social Impact....

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free ' just click TechCrunch Mobility! U.S. federal safety regulators continue to tackle the sticky problem of autonomous vehicles, this time with a proposal that could signal to the public, quite literally, when a vehicle is operating autonomously. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed new lighting requirements for autonomous vehicles that include an option (dare I say a strong suggestion') to use cyan-colored lights to signal when a vehicle is operating autonomously without a human occupant monitoring the road. The proposal establishes equipment specifications, including where the lights are mounted, the color they emit, and how they're activated. It would also remove requirements for manually operated controls for turn signals, high beams, and hazard lights. The agency is already working on a federal automated vehicle framework and is trying to update federal motor vehicle safety standards, which already govern automakers today. For instance, FMVSS rules were not designed for vehicles like the Tesla Cybercab and Zoox robotaxi, which lack traditional, federally required equipment like pedals, steering wheels, and design features like side mirrors and rearview mirrors....

It was another interesting week for AI-related startup funding, with a number of large rounds and quirky companies. The largest financings went to Tenstorrent, a developer of AI processors and systems, and AI lab Flapping Airplanes. The quirkiest round, meanwhile, was undoubtedly a $200 million financing for Warhound, which wants to breed elite military dogs. 1. Tenstorrent, $1.5B, AI infrastructure: Santa Clara, California-based Tenstorrent, a developer of AI processors and systems, secured $1.5 billion in Series E funding. Trace Capital and Innovation X led the round, which set a $6.2 billion valuation for the 10-year-old company. 2. Flapping Airplanes, $1B, foundational AI: Flapping Airplanes, an AI lab with a focus on developing models that cost less to train and run, closed on $1 billion in Series A funding led by Lux Capital and Index Ventures. The round comes less than 10 months after the year-old San Francisco startup raised a $180 million seed financing. 3. ASI, $325M, AI for critical infrastructure: ASI, a developer of AI technology for securing and operating critical infrastructure in areas such as aviation, transportation and defense, picked up $325 million in Series C financing. Spark Capital led the round, which set a $3 billion valuation for the Boston-based company....