Shifting Gears: Uber eyes a big buy, airline bankruptcies accelerate, and CEOs reveal the new normal

Good morning and Happy Friday. Welcome to another week of Shifting Gears — Business Insider's roundup of all the transportation news you might have missed.

This week, we published a massive feature based on conversations with more than 200 CEOs on how their business will be transformed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Twenty-three of those executives are in transportation — doing everything from ride-hailing to cargo shipping, trucking, self-driving cars, traditional autos, and more. You can read all their answers here.

Let's get to the news:

Uber appears to be circling a major acquisition

• Multiple news outlets reported this week that Uber has made a bid for competing delivery outlet GrubHub that would value the Chicago-based company around $6 billion. The disputes appear to be around share ratios for the all-stock transaction, but nothing appears to be anywhere close to final.
• The combined company would be a delivery powerhouse, and investors cheered the reports. Getting the deal through congressional hurdles amid a pandemic, on the other hand, might be more tricky.

Elon Musk had another strange week,

• The billionaire continued to flout coronavirus shelter-in-place rules and opened Tesla's Fremont, California factory this week. The renewed tussle came after his "fascist" comments and a lawsuit against Alameda County officials. He also listed five more of his mansions for sale, and his Boring Company completed tunneling on its first real project.

Truckers got a big break this week

• Rachel Premack reports the federal government overturned four key parts of a road safety law that was hurting their pay.

American roads are pure chaos right now.

• Yes, fewer people are driving. But some of those who are hitting the road are driving way too fast. Newest BI transportation team member Kristen Lee reports cops are seeing a surge in dangerous driving, but punishing those at fault is tricky in the midst of a pandemic.

Everything else:

• Avianca was the first major airline in the Americas to go belly up, following Virgin Australia last week. My colleague David Slotnick reports that more bankruptcies are probably on the way, too.

• Uber's self-driving car business may be at risk of shutting down as consolidation in the space ramps up, analyst predicts. Mark Matousek has the full story.

• Waymo raised another $750 million for its self-driving car technology amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company has now raised $3 billion from outside investors.
• Cruise, meanwhile, is laying off 8% of its staff.
• Camper van conversion companies are seeing a surge in customer interest despite COVID-19 ravaging the travel and transportation industry. While air travel and car sales slump, camper vans offer freedom from quarantine while still adhering to social distancing rules.
• Leaked email reveals Carnival CEO's message to employees after the company announced mass layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts. The company is laying off workers and cutting pay in response to the impact of COVID-19, which has shut down the cruise industry since March.