# AI Automation, Robotaxis, and Data Monetization Trends

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-03-20

## Transcript

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Uber taps Rivian to build robot taxis in a billion dollar deal.
I'm Aimron Shake and your daily crunch for Friday, featuring three big tech headlines, and a little bit of startup business news starts right now.
On Thursday, Meta announced that it's starting to roll out more advanced AI systems to handle content enforcement as it plans to cut back on third-party vendors.
You see, tasks related to content enforcement include catching and removing content about terrorism, child exploitation, drugs, fraud, and you know, just general scams out there.
The company says it'll deploy these more advanced AI systems across its apps once they consistently outperform its current content enforcement methods.
At the same time, it'll reduce its reliance on third-party vendors for content enforcement.
Meta believes these AI systems can detect more violations with greater accuracy, better prevent scams, respond more quickly to real world events, and reduce over enforcement.
It also says the systems can identify and prevent more impersonation accounts involving celebrities and other high-profile individuals, as well as help stop account takeovers by detecting signals such as logins from new locations, password changes, or edits made to a profile.
Now, additionally, Meta says the systems can identify and mitigate around 5,000 scam attempts per day, in which scammers try to trick people into giving away their login details.
Now, all this comes as Meta has been loosening its content moderation rules over the past year or so.
It also comes as Meta and other big tech companies are currently facing several lawsuits looking to hold social media giants accountable for harming children and young users.
Also on Thursday, DoorDash announced that it's launching a new standalone tasks app that will allow the company to pay its delivery couriers to complete assignments aimed at improving AI and robotic systems.
Delivery couriers will be able to earn money by completing activities like filming everyday tasks or recording themselves speaking in another language, DoorDash says.
Bloomberg reports that the original audio and video footage submitted by workers will be used to evaluate both the company's in-house AI models and those developed by its partners in the retail, insurance, hospitality, and technology sectors.
Bloomberg reports one example of a task involves asking a courier to capture footage of their hands washing at least five dishes while wearing a body camera, holding each clean dish in frame for a few seconds before moving on to the next.
DoorDash isn't the only company tapping its delivery workforce to train AI models.
Late last year, Uber announced plans to let drivers earn extra income by completing small jobs, such as uploading photos to help train AI models.
In addition to the standalone tasks app, delivery couriers will see new digital tasks listed on the Dasher app.
Examples of these include helping a restaurant showcase its menu by taking real photos of its dishes or taking photos of a hotel entrance so delivery drivers can find the drop-off location more easily, or maybe their future robot replacements.
DoorDash's partnership with Waymo, where delivery couriers are paid to close the doors of the self-driving cars, is also listed in the app as a task.
Now the in app tasks and the standalone tasks app are available in select places in the U.S., excluding California, New York City, Seattle, and Colorado.
Doordash plans to expand into more task types and countries in the future.
We had a big Thursday, folks, because Rivian also made an announcement, and that announcement was that it's partnering with Uber to build thousands of robotaxis based on its upcoming R2 SUV.
The deal could be worth up to 1.25 billion dollars for the EV Maker.
Uber is kicking off the partnership with an initial $300 million investment in Rivian and is expected to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis ahead of a planned rollout in San Francisco and Miami in 2028.
Uber will have the option to buy up to 40,000 more autonomous R2 SUVs from Rivian starting in 2030.
The two companies said they plan to launch the Robotaxis in 25 cities in the US, Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031.
The fleet will be exclusively available on Uber's network.
While the agreement is potentially lucrative for Rivian, it's brimming with risk and challenges.
You see, Rivian hasn't started producing the R2 SUV yet.
It's said manufacturing is expected to begin by June, nor has it tested and deployed a self-driving system designed for robotaxis.
To raise the hurdle even higher, the Robotaxi is supposed to be built in Rivian's Georgia factory, which is still under construction.
Those obstacles don't appear to have softened Rivian's resolve, or the determination of its founder and CEO, RJ Scryringe, who has made automated driving technology a top priority for the company.
He even hinted during the company's inaugural Autonomy and AI Day in December that this work enables the startup to pursue opportunities in the rideshare space.
Automated driving remains one of Rivian's biggest focus areas, Scarring said on stage at South by Southwest 2026 last week.
He said our path to get to hands off, eyes off in 2027 is something we're spending more money on than anything else.
And now over to our friend producer Dennis with the latest in startup business news all in about one minute.
Imran, thank you.
And social network Blue Sky is gearing up for big changes with Thursday's news that the company raised 100 million dollars in Series B funding.
The round was closed in April 2025, but had not been disclosed until now.
This round follows Blue Sky's $15 million Series A, and Blue Sky did not disclose its updated valuation.
And consumer-facing security tools often focus on one kind of modality, such as password protection, VPNs, or identity management.
This forces people to use multiple tools to keep their data private.
Cloaked, the company that instead offers a bundle of security and privacy solutions, announced on Thursday that it has secured $375 million in Series B funding and growth financing to expand its consumer offering and move into the enterprise market.
And that'll do it for me.
Yeah.