- What: Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick is launching a multi-venture robotics empire focused on "gainfully employed robots."
- Key Industries: Food service, industrial mining, and autonomous transport.
- Major Entities: Lab37 (a secret robotics lab), City Storage Systems (CloudKitchens), and potential backing from Uber Technologies Inc.
- Strategic Lead: Reports indicate Kalanick may acquire or partner with Anthony Levandowski’s Pronto.ai for mining and industrial automation.
Travis Kalanick, the billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Uber, has unveiled an ambitious new roadmap to deploy "gainfully employed robots" across the food, mining, and transport sectors. Operating through his secretive "Lab37" incubator and the real estate-focused City Storage Systems, Kalanick is reportedly shifting his focus from the gig economy to a hardware-heavy "robotics empire" designed to automate essential labor-intensive industries.
The Secret Rise of Lab37
The center of Kalanick’s new technological push is Lab37, a quiet offshoot of City Storage Systems (the parent company of CloudKitchens). According to reports from Ottomate News, Lab37 has been spearheading innovative approaches to restaurant automation and robotics for several years.
While CloudKitchens focused on the infrastructure of "dark kitchens," Lab37 represents the next logical step: replacing the human element of food preparation and delivery with autonomous systems. This move signals a transition from Kalanick’s previous focus on consumer-facing software to a complex integration of artificial intelligence and physical hardware.
Industry analysts suggest that by building a proprietary robotics division, Kalanick aims to solve the margin pressures currently facing the ghost kitchen industry. By automating the kitchen itself, the "gainfully employed robots" could potentially operate 24/7, significantly lowering overhead costs compared to traditional restaurant models.
A Multi-Startup "Robotics Empire"
Rather than consolidating his efforts into a single firm, Kalanick is reportedly considering a diversified strategy. According to The Information, he is weighing the launch of multiple startups simultaneously. This "empire" approach would allow Kalanick to place several high-stakes bets across different applications of AI and robotics, shielding the individual ventures from the risks associated with any single market.
This strategy includes a surprising return to his roots in autonomous mobility. Reports indicate Kalanick is preparing to launch a new self-driving car company, which, in a significant turn of events, may receive major backing from Uber Technologies Inc. This potential partnership marks a dramatic professional rapprochement between the founder and the ride-hailing giant he was forced to leave in 2017.
Mining and Industrial Automation: The Levandowski Connection
Kalanick’s vision extends beyond the streets and kitchens into the earth itself. The new venture is targeting the mining industry, a sector ripe for autonomous disruption due to its repetitive and hazardous nature.
As reported by The Information, Kalanick has discussed acquiring or collaborating with the startup founded by Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski, a former Google and Uber engineer, has been developing autonomous software for mining and heavy industrial use cases through his company, Pronto.ai.
The integration of Pronto.ai’s software with Kalanick’s capital and Lab37’s hardware capabilities could create a dominant force in industrial automation. Unlike urban self-driving projects, which face immense regulatory and environmental hurdles, mining sites offer controlled environments where "gainfully employed robots" can be deployed more rapidly and with fewer legal constraints.
Impact: From Gig Workers to AI Agents
The phrase "gainfully employed robots" suggests a paradigm shift in how Kalanick views the labor market. While Uber was built on the back of flexible human labor, this new venture seeks to create a permanent, automated workforce.
For the food industry, this means the eventual automation of food prep, cooking, and delivery. For mining and transport, it represents a future where human operators are replaced by AI agents capable of managing heavy machinery without the need for breaks or safety concerns associated with human fatigue.
"Consumer software CEOs are freaking out about what to do when AI agents take over," Kalanick noted in a recent appearance on the All-In podcast. His new ventures appear to be his definitive answer to that anxiety: building the physical bodies (robots) for those AI agents to inhabit.
For developers and engineers, this move signals a massive influx of capital into the robotics space. The involvement of Uber as a potential funder suggests that the industry's biggest players see robotics—not just software—as the next trillion-dollar frontier.
What’s Next
The timeline for a full public rollout remains fluid, but the pieces of the Kalanick robotics empire are moving into place. Lab37 is expected to continue its secret testing of restaurant automation, while the potential acquisition of industrial AI assets could see Kalanick-backed robots appearing in mining operations by 2026.
As these startups emerge from stealth, the industry will be watching to see if Kalanick can replicate the rapid, aggressive scaling that defined Uber’s early years—this time with a workforce made of silicon and steel rather than independent contractors.