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☆ Tesla slashes price of its premium driver assistance option by half in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Tesla said on Friday that it's cutting the subscription price of its premium driver assistance system for customers in the U.S. Marketed as its Full Self-Driving, or FSD, package, Tesla customers will now pay $99 per month, down from $199 previously. "The FSD price will continue to rise as the software gets closer to full self-driving capability with regulatory approval," Musk wrote on Twitter, now known as X, on May 18, 2020. Despite its brand name, the company's FSD option today doesn't make Tesla vehicles autonomous or functional as robotaxis. Tesla didn't respond to a request for more information, including whether the price cut announced Friday is permanent or temporary.

Persons: Tesla, Elon Musk, Musk, Uber, Bill Gates, Amazon's, FSD, didn't Organizations: Twitter, California Department of Motor Vehicles, Companies, Tesla Locations: U.S, China, Guangzhou, North America

☆ Robotaxi regulators say Tesla hasn’t contacted them about plans teased by Musk
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( David Ingram | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Musk hinted at his plans in a brief post late Friday afternoon on X, writing: "Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8." Musk has talked about a robotaxi service for years. In 2019, he discussed plans to launch a robotaxi fleet using Tesla vehicles that people had leased and then returned. Musk has also talked about a robotaxi service with decentralized ownership, in which Tesla owners could rent out their cars for fares. Amazon subsidiary Zoox has said it has authorization from Nevada to operate a robotaxi service, which hasn't launched.

Persons: robotaxis, Tesla, Elon Musk, Brad Templeton, Templeton, Cruise, Musk, Zoox, hasn't, Eli Rohl Organizations: The California Department of Motor Vehicles, California Public Utilities Commission, NBC, DMV, Google, General Motors, Phoenix, Toyota, Car Dealers Association, Reuters, Cruise, Transportation Department, Nevada DMV, The, The Nevada DMV, California DMV Locations: California, San Francisco, Los Angeles, leaseholders, Arizona, Nevada, The Nevada

☆ Elon Musk says Tesla will unveil its robotaxi on Aug. 8; shares pop
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. Musk shared the reveal date on Friday after Reuters reported that plans for Tesla's highly anticipated low-cost car model had been scrapped. In 2015, Elon Musk told shareholders that Tesla's cars would achieve "full autonomy" within three years. Tesla still has yet to deliver a robotaxi, autonomous vehicle or technology that can turn its cars into "level 3" automated vehicles. On Friday, Apple shuttered its self-driving unit and laid off about 600 people on Friday who had been associated with the project.

Persons: Elon Musk, Porte, Tesla, Musk, FSD, Waymo, Uber, Cruise's, Leswing Organizations: Twitter, Viva Technology, Porte de, Reuters, Tesla, Companies, Wayve, Apple, Cruise Locations: Paris, France, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin , Texas, Arizona, China, Guangzhou, U.S

☆ Explainer: GM-owned Cruise's wrong turn could slow robotaxi push
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Robotaxis are autonomous self-driving cabs which require no human interaction to operate the vehicle. When did driverless cabs become a reality? Cruise followed with its first driverless ride service last year in San Francisco, and slowly expanded to include Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas. The use of driverless cabs also raises the prospect of job losses and could attract pushback from unions. Regulatory hurdles facing robotaxisCommercializing fully autonomous vehicles, especially robotaxis, has been harder than expected with tough regulations, complicated technology and heavy investments forcing some to cut jobs.

Persons: Elijah Nouvelage, Cruise, Here's, Waymo, Nathan Gomes, Devika Organizations: San, GM Bolt, REUTERS, General Motors, Companies, Technologies, Amazon.com, Ford, Volkswagen, Argo, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, San Francisco , California, U.S, United States, Phoenix , Arizona, Austin , Texas, Bengaluru

Limp joins Blue Origin at a key phase of the company's multiple space projects. Earlier this year Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build a lunar lander for the agency's astronauts. However, Blue Origin has since hired aggressively. Read Bezos' message to Blue Origin employees on Monday:I'm excited to share that Dave Limp will join Blue starting December 4th as CEO, replacing Bob, who has elected to step aside on January 2. JeffRead Smith's message to Blue Origin employees:Team Blue, It's been about six years since I joined Blue Origin.

Persons: Limp, Shepard, Smith, Panos Panay, Bezos, Alexa, Limp's, Andy Jassy, Jeff Bezos, Blue, Bob Smith, Origin's, Glenn, –, Read, Dave Limp, Bob, I'd, we've, We've, I've, Dave, Jeff Read, It's, Jeff, I'm, Ferociter, Dave Limp's Organizations: Amazon, Alexa, CNBC, NASA, Blue Origin, Bloomberg, Microsoft, Billionaire, Blue Origin's, Origin, Honeywell, Shepard, Pentagon, U.S . Space Force, Elon, SpaceX, Blue, Amazon Devices, Services, Apple Locations: Van Horn , Texas, U.S, Alabama, Florida, California , Arizona, Colorado, Kent

☆ Zoox headcount grows as Amazon's self-driving unit expands testing in Vegas
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Abhirup Roy | Akash Sriram | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FILE PHOTO: The assembly line for Zoox, a self-driving vehicle owned by Amazon, is seen at the company's factory in Fremont, California, U.S. July 19, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc’s self-driving vehicle unit, Zoox, is hiring more employees to expand its testing in Las Vegas at a time when the regulatory implications have taken a front seat in the development of autonomous vehicle technology. Levinson said that Zoox autonomous vehicle will not be driving on the Vegas strip yet but is being tested for handling traffic lights, intersections and drive at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG last fall announced that they would shut down their Argo AI self-driving unit and focus on driver-assistance technology that provided more immediate returns. Alphabet’s self-driving technology project Waymo laid off 137 employees in a second round of job cuts this year.

Persons: Carlos Barria, Zoox, Zoox’s headcount, Jesse Levinson, Levinson, ” Levinson Organizations: Amazon, REUTERS, Reuters, Ford Motor Co, Volkswagen AG, Argo Locations: Fremont , California, U.S, Las Vegas, California

☆ The future of travel: 10 concepts that will change the way we experience the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Kate Springer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +22 min

Concepts that feel plucked from sci-fi novels and films are quickly making their way into mainstream travel, shaping every step of the journey. Seamus PayneLike air travel, eco-conscious hotels are paving the way for more sustainable travel in the future. HyperloopTTUS entrepreneur Elon Musk has been talking about hyperloop technology – an ultra-high-speed transport system in a low-pressure vacuum tube – for years. Meanwhile, Toronto-based TransPod hopes to bring hyperloop technology to Canada with its eponymous tube-based transportation system powered by renewable energy. By 2025, the company plans to build a 620-mile-per-hour TransPod link between Calgary and Edmonton, connecting the two cities in 45 minutes.

Persons: Elijah Nouvelage, Indira Gandhi, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Austin Farmer, we’ll, don’t, David ”, you’ll, Alexander the Great, ” Michael Breer, KAWS, collectables –, Breer, ” Breer, You’ve, ” Jetson, Peter Ternstrom, Apollo, Cruise, ”, what’s, Boom’s, –, Seamus Payne, room2, Marcel Breuer, Tesla, charades, Yusaku Maezawa, Elon Musk, hyperloop, Virgin Hyperloop, HyperloopTT, Hardt Hyperloop Organizations: CNN, Travel, Hartsfield, Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Bloomberg, Getty, Dubai International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Indira, Indira Gandhi International, European Union, Emirates, Dubai International, American Airlines, United, Delta, Bluetooth, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Specterras Productions, CNN Travel, VR, Aircraft, Federal Aviation Administration, Baidu, Hyundai, Las, CNN Travel ., Alphabet Inc, Beta, International Civil Aviation Organization, Alice, DHL, Air New, Concorde, Japan Airlines, Bauhaus, CEH Technologies, Origin, SpaceX, International Space, NASA, Galactic, Space Training Academy, Nastar Center, Boring Company, Virgin, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, China Morning Post, China Aerospace Science, Industry Corporation, European Hyperloop Center Locations: Singapore, Dubai, Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Delhi, London Heathrow, Paris, Dutch, Europe, Florence, Palmyra, Machu Picchu, New York, Ehang, China, Boston, Las Vegas, Motional, Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, North America, Austin, Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Mexico, Air New Zealand, Denver, New York City, Frankfurt, LA, Sydney, London, New Haven , Connecticut, Hungarian, Norway, Red, Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Shanxi province, Netherlands, Toronto, Canada, Calgary, Edmonton

☆ Tesla's not even in the top 10 of self-driving firms, according to experts who ranked all of the leading companies working on automation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Research firm Guidehouse Insights regularly ranks companies developing automated driving tech. Tesla didn't make this year's top 10, and ranked last of 16 companies assessed. Moreover, of the 16 companies recently ranked by research and consulting firm Guidehouse Insights (which ranks some of the biggest names working on automated-driving technology each year), Tesla came in last. Tesla ranked last in similar lists in 2021 and 2020. To come up with the list, Guidehouse weighs factors such as a company's vision, go-to-market and production strategies, partners, tech, commercial readiness, and more.

☆ Cruise robotaxis now run all day in San Francisco, with public access after 10 p.m.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Kyle Vogt, CEO and founder of GM -owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise, announced Tuesday that the company's robotaxis are now running around the clock in San Francisco. The Cruise service is open to paying members of the public from 10 p.m. to 5:30am in the Northwest part of San Francisco, Cruise confirmed. People who are eligible to ride in the Cruise robotaxis during the day, and in other parts of the city, are not charged a fee. Across San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, where Cruise is currently operating or testing its vehicles, there are around 240 driverless cars that run concurrently at night, with a majority in San Francisco. The company did not disclose how many robotaxis are in use in a typical day or night in San Francisco.

☆ Cruise robotaxis blocked a road in San Francisco after a storm downed trees and wires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

General Motors ' self-driving vehicle unit Cruise acknowledged that some of its cars stalled out on city streets in San Francisco following rainstorms that downed trees there on Tuesday night. After that, another tree on Polk and Clay streets fell into the street. In response, he said, the San Francisco Fire Department had blocked off Clay between Polk and Jones streets with caution tape. He said the driverless Cruise vehicles did not appear to detect and avoid the caution tape and bus wires properly, and instead became "tangled in them." Cruise has permits to test and deploy autonomous vehicles in San Francisco all hours of day and night, excluding heavy rain."

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators said Monday they are opening a probe into Amazon (AMZN.O) unit Zoox self-certification in 2022 of a robotaxi without traditional driving controls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in September directed Zoox to answer questions about its basis for certifying the vehicle and that review is ongoing. NHTSA said Monday it is opening an audit query to determine whether the Zoox "certification basis depended upon unilaterally developed test procedures or determinations that certain standards were inapplicable due to the unique configuration of the vehicle." Reporting by David ShepardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Experts ranked the leading self-driving companies. Tesla didn't even crack the top 10.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Research firm Guidehouse Insights regularly ranks companies developing automated driving tech. Tesla didn't make this year's top 10, and ranked last of 16 companies assessed. That's despite CEO Elon Musk's confidence in his Full Self-Driving tech. Moreover, of the 16 companies recently ranked by research and consulting firm Guidehouse Insights (which ranks some of the biggest names working on automated-driving technology each year), Tesla came in last. Tesla ranked last in similar lists in 2021 and 2020.

☆ Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi drives on public roads in California for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Amazon’s Zoox driverless transportation company has started testing its robotaxi on open public roads — with employees on board, for now. The company said Monday that it conducted an initial run of its shuttle service for workers at its headquarters in Foster City, California on February 11, a key step in its efforts to make autonomous vehicles widely available. Full-time employees will now be able to travel in the self-driving taxi on the route between Zoox’s two main office buildings. Zoox, which was founded in 2014 and purchased by Amazon in 2020, is unique in its approach to designing electric self-driving vehicles. But Zoox has ditched the steering wheel and brake pedal, claiming those features are unnecessary when there’s no human driver.

☆ Leaked recording shows Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivering a brutally honest rallying cry for employees to 'redefine' the company
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees on Tuesday that it'll take many months to redefine the company. But he said if everyone works together as a team, Amazon will get through it stronger. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivered a brutally honest motivational pep talk at an internal staff meeting on Tuesday, urging employees to band together as the company tries to get through an unusually challenging time. But he promised employees that the progress they make will "redefine" Amazon and better-position the company going forward, according to a recording of the all-hands meeting obtained by Insider. I don't really know any other company that's pursuing a set of innovations like that," Jassy said.

☆ Amazon's Zoox tests robotaxi on public road with employees as passengers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Abhirup Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) self-driving vehicle unit, Zoox, said on Monday it has successfully tested a robotaxi with employees as passengers on a public road in a move to bring it closer to commercial service for the general public. Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) last fall announced they would shutter their Argo AI self-driving unit and focus on driver-assistance technology that provided more immediate returns. Companies still pursuing development of this technology include General Motors Co's (GM.N) Cruise unit and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo. Online retailer Amazon, which has been aggressively expanding into self-driving technology, bought Zoox for $1.3 billion in 2020. Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Amazon's Zoox robotaxi now giving rides to employees on public roads in California
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon -owned autonomous vehicle venture Zoox said on Monday that it is now testing its self-driving robotaxis on public roads in California with passengers on board. Zoox executives said the company began the tests after it received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles last week. Zoox said one of its vehicles completed a test run with employees on board over the weekend. Zoox unveiled its custom-built, electric robotaxi in 2020, with an eye on offering on-demand autonomous transportation in urban settings. It will continue to test the vehicle with employees and expects to launch a shuttle service for staffers this spring.

☆ I used to work on Mars rovers and now I develop self-driving cars. Here's how I made the pivot from NASA's JPL to Amazon's Zoox.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The former supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab now works at AV startup Zoox. I figured after all the startups, why not work for a big company, and what better big company than NASA? ZooxThe AV space is the next frontier of robotics. What we're trying to do here in the AV space, it's extremely multidisciplinary. You're doing perception, you're doing planning, you're doing prediction, doing simulation.

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is in advanced talks to invest in Gatik, a California-based autonomous driving startup, as part of its cloud partnership with the company, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters. Microsoft plans to invest over $10 million in a financing round that values Gatik at more than $700 million, the sources added. As part of the deal, Gatik will use Microsoft's cloud and edge computing platform Azure in developing autonomous delivery technology for trucks. Like other big tech companies, Microsoft has recently been putting funds into self-driving technology. In November, Ford and Volkswagen shut down their self-driving technology unit, Argo AI, saying that creating self-driving "robotaxis" would be "harder than putting a man on the moon."

☆ Elon Musk responds to a Twitter user saying Jeff Bezos copies every business move the billionaire makes: 'Maybe it's a coincidence'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk has stoked his ongoing rivalry with Jeff Bezos. Responding to a tweet suggesting the Amazon founder "copies" every business move he makes, Musk said, apparently sarcastically: "Maybe it's a coincidence." Musk has been feuding with Jeff Bezos for some 15 years and regularly accuses him of being a copycat. The Amazon founder has long had an interest in space exploration, starting up spaceflight firm Blue Origin in 2000. Musk founded his own commercial space firm SpaceX two years later.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says layoffs will continue into next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Amazon will continue to lay off employees in the coming year, CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to workers on Thursday. "Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023," Jassy wrote. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023. And, as has been the case this week, we will prioritize communicating directly with impacted employees before making broad public or internal announcements. Amazon has weathered uncertainty and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so.

☆ Amazon has halted most internal transfers as it slashes positions, leaving workers scrambling to find new jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon has frozen internal transfers, making it hard for some laid-off workers to find new jobs. Employees who had transfers in progress in the past month have had those job changes halted, one Amazon employee said. Amazon will continue to backfill openings created by attrition, Galetti wrote, "and there are some targeted places" where Amazon will continue to create new jobs. The company gave the hundreds of impacted employees three months to find a new job inside Amazon and promised assistance on their internal job hunt. Two other workers whose roles were cut said they found new jobs internally, one through an internal job fair that Amazon hosted.

☆ Amazon is reportedly putting its Alexa personal-assistant division under review as it seeks to cut costs across unprofitable businesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon has launched a cost-cutting review of its businesses, according to the WSJ. Amazon has already told employees in certain unprofitable divisions to look for jobs elsewhere in the company, the WSJ reported. One of the areas the company is scrutinizing its Alexa business. The device business currently has more than 10,000 employees and has received major influxes of investment, the WSJ noted. Still, an Amazon spokesperson told the WSJ that customer interactions with Alexa have increased more than 30% over the past year.

☆ A hiring freeze finally comes to Amazon Web Services as enterprise spending slows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Katherine Long | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meanwhile, at least two AWS engineering orgs are planning to freeze headcount until the end of 2023, according to two current employees. People who depart may be replaced, but the goal is to keep total headcount static, according to two of the current employees. AWS reported its slowest revenue growth ever last quarter, which Olsavsky attributed to reduced enterprise spending as cloud customers gird themselves for potential economic turmoil. Amazon announced a hiring freeze in its advertising business on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. The New York Post reported last week on a hiring freeze in AWS.

☆ Analysis: Ford, VW pop the automated-vehicle bubble with Argo AI exit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Paul Lienert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

DETROIT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The road map to fully self-driving vehicles is being rewritten once again, this time by Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE). VW also bought Argo shares from Ford for $500 million. Ford previously injected $1 billion into Argo when it bought control of the company in 2017. Before it acquired the stake in Argo, VW flirted with at least two other U.S.-based self-driving startups: Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo and Aurora Innovation (AUR.O). VW reportedly considered a $13.7 billion investment in 2018 in Waymo for a 10% stake that would have valued Waymo at $137 billion.

☆ U.S. autonomous vehicle group picks ex-Senate aide as director
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) has tapped Jeff Farrah as its first executive director, the group told Reuters. U.S. lawmakers have been divided for years over how to amend current auto safety regulations to encompass self-driving cars, including the scope of consumer and legal protections. In August, U.S. House members launched a bipartisan effort to help revive stalled legislative efforts to boost self-driving vehicles. In July, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said GM's Cruise and Ford sought exemptions to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles annually without human controls. The Transportation Trades Department for the AFL-CIO, told U.S. lawmakers in 2021 that autonomous vehicles place "millions of jobs at risk" and any self-driving legislation should not apply to commercial trucks.

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