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☆ Waymo is full speed ahead as safety incidents and regulators stymie competitor Cruise
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Waymo, Alphabet 's self-driving car unit, is having a relatively good couple of months – at least, compared to one of its key rivals: GM 's Cruise. When Cruise began offering fully autonomous rides in San Francisco in the winter of 2022, Waymo followed in the fall. Now, after a barrage of safety concerns and incidents with Cruise self-driving cars in recent months, the landscape looks starkly different. I have worked with pretty high-scale systems before Waymo, at Google and Ericsson, and this is a pretty staggering scale. [Note: Waymo recently shared that Waymo riders took more than 700,000 trips in autonomous vehicles in 2023.]

Persons: Cruise, Waymo, Saswat Panigrahi, you've, –, … Organizations: Google, Cruise, California Department of Motor Vehicles, GM, CNBC, Ericsson, Phoenix Locations: Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin, Buffalo , New York, California, U.S

☆ Waymo's robotaxis coming to Austin, Texas
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Waymo, the Alphabet -owned autonomous vehicle company, is officially entering the land of breakfast tacos: Austin, Texas will become the newest city to offer Waymo's ride-hailing services, according to a Wednesday announcement. Austin is the fourth major city to allow Waymo's ride-hailing pilot program, behind Metro Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Waymo's autonomous ride-hailing service will be available night and day in areas like downtown Austin, Barton Hills, East Austin, Hyde Park, Riverside and more, according to a blog post. Bonelli declined to share a specific vehicle count for Waymo's planned Austin fleet. Waymo announced in late July it would "push back the timeline" on its autonomous semi-truck development and instead focus on autonomous ride-hailing services.

Persons: Austin, Chris Bonelli, Bonelli, Waymo's, Waymo, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Metro Phoenix, CNBC, Hyde Locations: Austin , Texas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, LA, Barton Hills, East Austin, Hyde Park , Riverside, U.S

☆ Summer has become a survival test as heat gets more extreme
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But lately, as extreme temperature records pile up, she said the heat has made her work more unbearable. Outdoor workers, particularly those in the farming and construction industries, are just one of the groups for which summer is now a survival test. Even desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the grip of an extreme heat wave smacking the Southwest this week. “When it comes to protecting the health of outdoor workers during extreme heat events, there are really just three fundamental pieces — water, shade and rest,” Dahl told CNN. Then they need to start early again.”People who work outdoors have a much higher risk of becoming ill or dying because of extreme heat, experts say.

Persons: CNN — Estela Martinez, ” Martinez, “, Martinez, It’s, Matt York, David Hondula, Phoenix’s, —, we’ve, ” Hondula, ” Kristina Dahl, ” Dahl, Concerningly, Dahl, she’s, Pablo Ortiz, ” Ortiz, Brandon Bell, Vivek Shandas, Shandas, ” Organizations: CNN, National Weather Service, Phoenix, Union of Concerned, ”, Portland State University Locations: Florida, Texas, Arizona, Rio, Pacific Northwest, Phoenix, Maricopa County, White

Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs is taking the state’s child protective services agency in a radically different direction in the wake of a ProPublica-NBC News investigation into the racial disparities that have plagued the child welfare system here. This week, Hobbs, a Democrat, announced that she has selected Matthew Stewart, a Black community advocate, as the new head of Arizona’s Department of Child Safety. Arizona’s child welfare system has long disproportionately investigated Black families. After leaving DCS, Stewart formed the community organization Our Sister Our Brother, which has fought the department for more equitable treatment of Black and also low-income parents. Child welfare experts in the state and families affected by the system praised Stewart’s selection, though some wondered how much change he could bring about even in DCS’ top position.

Put another way, more Black children in metro Phoenix will go through a child maltreatment investigation than won’t. Almost all described a system so omnipresent among Black families that it has created a kind of communitywide dread: of that next knock on the door, of that next warrantless search of their home. Many Black families first moved there as a result of redlining and racial covenants that blocked them from renting or owning property elsewhere. In Maricopa County, Black children experienced child welfare investigations at one of the highest rates among large counties nationally, and nearly three times the rate of their white peers, from 2015 to 2019. But throughout the country, investigations were more pervasive among Black families.

☆ Arizona agrees not to enforce near-total abortion ban until next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

PHOENIX — Arizona’s attorney general has agreed not to enforce a near total ban on abortions at least until next year, a move that Planned Parenthood Arizona credited Thursday with allowing the group to restart abortion care across the state. A lower court had allowed enforcement of that law on Sept. 23, halting all abortions statewide. On Thursday, Planned Parenthood said services would resume statewide, including at clinics in metro Phoenix and in Flagstaff. Brnovich sought to place that lawsuit on hold until the court of appeals rules on the Planned Parenthood case. Arizona women seeking abortions have been whipsawed by the state’s competing laws since the high court’s decision.

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