Travis Kalanick’s Summer Commute: a 5-Minute Jet Ski Ride

Most individuals battle visitors to get to work. Travis Kalanick seems to be skipping it altogether.

The Uber cofounder and former CEO posted a video on X on Monday exhibiting what he known as his “5 minute jet ski commute” throughout Lake Austin to his new workplace, giving followers a glimpse of his unconventional journey.

Kalanick is now primarily based in Texas, the place he owns a house on Lake Austin. The billionaire entrepreneur mentioned on the TBPN podcast in March that he has owned the place for 5 years, drawn partially by the lake and his love of watersports.

There is a rising record of tech leaders who’ve traded Silicon Valley for Texas. Billionaires and corporations alike have been drawn by decrease taxes, cheaper actual property, and a friendlier regulatory local weather than California, the place rising prices and speak of a one-time billionaire wealth tax have rattled some executives. Tesla, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise are among the many corporations which have shifted main operations to the state.

Kalanick is now main Atoms, the newly renamed model of Metropolis Storage Techniques and the parent company of CloudKitchens. The startup is creating AI-powered robots designed to automate repetitive bodily work in industries resembling meals service, mining, manufacturing, and logistics. He beforehand described Atoms’ purpose as constructing “gainfully employed robots” that may tackle specialised duties at an industrial scale.

Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009 and helped flip it right into a ride-hailing big earlier than resigning in 2017. Since then, he is been targeted on constructing software program and robotics for kitchens, mining, and logistics.

And whereas his transfer to Austin provides him the selection of a number of robotaxis, it looks as if Kalanick might be boating his strategy to work.