Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Launches Specialized Robotics Venture 'Atoms'

Travis Kalanick, the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Uber, launched a new robotics venture called Atoms on March 13, 2026. The new company represents a significant rebranding and expansion of City Storage Systems, which serves as the parent organization for the ghost kitchen startup CloudKitchens. Atoms will focus on the development of specialized robots designed for specific industrial applications rather than general-purpose humanoid machines. The company intends to deploy these technologies across the food, mining, and transportation sectors to automate labor-intensive processes. Kalanick described the initiative as a way to create robots that are effectively integrated into the workforce to perform specific commercial tasks.

The launch of Atoms coincides with Kalanick's move to acquire Pronto, an autonomous vehicle startup that focuses on industrial and mining sites. Pronto was founded by Anthony Levandowski, a former colleague of Kalanick at Uber who previously served as a technical lead for Google's self-driving car program. Kalanick already holds the position of the largest investor in the startup and is now moving to integrate its technology into the broader Atoms ecosystem. Instead of pursuing the development of humanoid robots, Atoms will prioritize the creation of a universal wheelbase for robotic applications. This hardware foundation is intended to serve as a versatile platform for various industrial tools and sensors across different environments.

„Atoms will focus on building gainfully employed robots for the food, mining, and transportation industries” — Travis Kalanick via Bloomberg Business

Industry reports indicate that Kalanick is positioning Atoms to be more aggressive in the deployment of self-driving technology than established competitors such as Waymo. There are also indications that Uber may provide financial or strategic backing for Kalanick's return to the autonomous vehicle sector. This potential partnership would mark a notable connection between the founder and the company he led until 2017. The strategy for Atoms involves a rapid rollout of specialized autonomous systems in controlled environments like mines before potentially expanding to more complex public infrastructure. Kalanick aims to leverage his experience in scaling global platforms to accelerate the adoption of industrial robotics.

Travis Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009 and served as its CEO until his resignation in 2017. Following his departure, he acquired a majority stake in City Storage Systems and launched CloudKitchens to provide commercial kitchen spaces for food delivery. Anthony Levandowski, the founder of Pronto, was a central figure in the early development of autonomous technology at Google before joining Uber. The formation of Atoms represents Kalanick's first major public shift toward hardware-centric industrial automation and a return to the self-driving vehicle space he helped pioneer at Uber.