Atoms, the physical AI company founded by Travis Kalanick, has completed its acquisition of autonomous haulage specialist Pronto. The deal makes Pronto the core technology engine of Atoms Mining, one of three divisions within the newly restructured company.
Highlights
- Atoms has officially closed its acquisition of Pronto, folding the autonomous haulage company into a new Atoms Mining division.
- Pronto brings a vision-first, OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage system (AHS) with more than two million tons hauled at a single commercial site.
- The combined entity inherits active deployments with Heidelberg Materials and Komatsu North America, plus a tiered product portfolio from Pronto’s earlier acquisition of SafeAI.
- Atoms operates across three divisions — food, mining, and transport — under a thesis Kalanick calls “gainfully employed robots.”
From Stealth to Acquisition
Atoms emerged from stealth in March 2026 after eight years of quiet development. The company evolved from Kalanick’s earlier venture City Storage Systems, which operated the ghost-kitchen business CloudKitchens. Kalanick had previously disclosed that he was Pronto’s largest investor.
Pronto was founded in 2018 by Anthony Levandowski, the former Google and Uber autonomous vehicle engineer. The company developed a camera-first approach to autonomous haulage designed for faster deployment and lower total cost of ownership than traditional sensor-heavy systems.
Existing Deployments Continue
Pronto’s current operations will continue under the Atoms umbrella. Under a global agreement with Heidelberg Materials, the company is deploying its AHS across more than 100 trucks at over a dozen operations worldwide. At Heidelberg’s Lake Bridgeport, Texas quarry, the system hauled more than two million tons in a mixed-fleet environment in under eight months.
Pronto also continues to power Komatsu Smart Quarry Autonomous through its partnership with Komatsu North America. Additionally, just today TechCrunch reported that Pronto has struck its first post-acquisition deal — a partnership with Mariana Minerals to deploy autonomous haulage trucks at Copper One, a copper mine in Utah.
Tiered Autonomy Portfolio
Through its 2025 acquisition of SafeAI, Pronto assembled what it describes as a tiered autonomous haulage portfolio. The lineup spans three tiers: AHS Vision, a camera-based foundation system; VLR, which adds lidar and radar; and VL360, designed for the demands of deep-pit hard rock mining. The portfolio is intended to serve operations ranging from small quarries to large-scale mines.
Atoms’ Broader Vision
Atoms is organized around three divisions. Atoms Food focuses on robotics for food preparation and delivery infrastructure, building on the CloudKitchens foundation. Atoms Transport is developing standardized wheelbase platforms for logistics. Atoms Mining, now anchored by Pronto, targets autonomous systems for extraction industries.
Kalanick has framed the company’s philosophy around “purpose-built, specialized machines” rather than general-purpose humanoid robots. The thesis centers on deploying intelligent machines in high-cycle industrial environments where repetitive or hazardous tasks can be automated for immediate, measurable returns.
“Mining is exactly the kind of massive, physical, essential industry where intelligent machines can make an outsized difference — not someday, but right now,” Kalanick said.
Levandowski added: “Joining Atoms gives us the engineering depth, infrastructure, and long-term commitment to accelerate that mission dramatically.”
Industry Context
The acquisition reunites two of Uber’s most prominent former executives. Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009 and departed as CEO in 2017. Levandowski, a former star engineer on Google’s self-driving car project, later founded Otto, which Uber acquired in 2016. Their reunion under Atoms comes as the mining industry faces simultaneous pressure from labor shortages and surging demand for critical minerals — conditions that have made autonomous haulage an increasingly urgent investment priority.
Sign up for our weekly emails to stay up to date on the latest news!
