At stake is a share of a massive market for ride-hailing services in and beyond the U.S. According to research by Fortune Business Insights, the global ride-sharing market is projected to grow from an estimated $123.08 billion in 2024 to $480.09 billion by 2032.
As 2025 approaches, here's where these major players stand.
Hyundai Motor and Waymo have agreed to a multiyear, strategic partnership that includes the self-driving company adding the South Korean automaker's Ioniq 5 electric vehicle to its robotaxi fleet.
Waymo pulls way ahead
What began as "project chauffeur" at Google in 2009 became a publicly available, commercial robotaxi service across multiple U.S. cities this year.
The project, rebranded as Waymo in 2016, has now completed more than 5 million autonomous trips in total, the company said last week. That's about a sevenfold increase from November 2023, when Waymo said it had completed around 700,000 driverless ride-hailing trips.
Ethereum set for a new year rally: Is $4,500 within reach?
\With Ethereum’s price holding firm above $3,400, the market is buzzing with speculation of a New Year rally that could send ETH soaring by 30%. Over the weekend, Ethereum saw significant buying pressure as investors rotated from Bitcoin. This shift, paired with Ethereum staking inflows of 59k ETH and net outflows from exchanges of 130k ETH, signals bullish sentiment.
Some analysts believe Ethereum could mirror its performance from early 2021, echoing previous market cycles. If the current trend persists, this top altcoin could challenge its yearly high of $4,093 and possibly breach its 2021 all-time high of $4,800.
Waymo's service now operates in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, covering more than 500 square miles of public roads.
The company dropped its digital velvet rope in June and opened its robotaxi service to all San Franciscans, allowing them to hail rides via the Waymo One app. Opening to the general public proved to riders, and internally, that the company's fleet of AVs can work well in the traffic conditions of a complex urban environment.
In July, Alphabet's then-CFO, Ruth Porat, announced a multiyear investment by Google's parent into Waymo on an earnings call, which amounted to $5.6 billion in total, with $5 billion of that coming from Alphabet.
Ethereum set for a new year rally: Is $4,500 within reach?
\With Ethereum’s price holding firm above $3,400, the market is buzzing with speculation of a New Year rally that could send ETH soaring by 30%. Over the weekend, Ethereum saw significant buying pressure as investors rotated from Bitcoin. This shift, paired with Ethereum staking inflows of 59k ETH and net outflows from exchanges of 130k ETH, signals bullish sentiment.
Some analysts believe Ethereum could mirror its performance from early 2021, echoing previous market cycles. If the current trend persists, this top altcoin could challenge its yearly high of $4,093 and possibly breach its 2021 all-time high of $4,800.
Waymo co-CEOs, Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, told employees at an all-hands meeting in November that they should scale up as aggressively as possible but do so with safety at the forefront of all their efforts, company insiders told CNBC.
A big focus for Waymo in 2025 will be expanding its robotaxi service to more cities, winning over riders and continuing research and development on newer technology that will allow the company's AVs to operate in more weather and traffic conditions.
Waymo plans to launch a commercial service in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, with rides available through the Uber app next year. It's also begun testing in Miami with plans to offer rides to the public there in 2026.
Can top altcoins follow Ethereum’s suit?
The spotlight on Ethereum’s rally is reigniting interest in top altcoins. Projects like Remittix capture investors’ imagination with its huge potential and unique PayFi solution. Remittix is a crypto-to-fiat cross-border remittance network that bridges crypto with local payment networks globally.
What sets Remittix apart is its versatility, it facilitates individual transactions and enables crypto enterprises to handle invoices, salaries, and merchant payments. This level of functionality marks a significant step forward in crypto adoption, particularly in emerging markets where traditional payment systems often face limitations.
Earlier this month, Waymo announced its first international testing destination in Tokyo. Waymo said it's partnered with the taxi app GO and one of Japan's largest taxi operators, Nihon Kotsu, and will commence test rides in early 2025.
Waymo showed off its next generation of self-driving vehicles, which it will be making with Chinese auto giant Geely, in August. Waymo's custom hardware and software will be integrated into the Geely Zeekr electric SUVs. For this new robotaxi, Waymo was able to reduce the number of cameras on board from 29 to 13 and lower the number of costly lidar sensors on board from five to four.
As Ethereum continues to advance with institutional support and use cases, it raises a critical question: Will projects like Remittix and other top altcoins ride the wave to new highs in 2025? Its ongoing presale is all the proof investors need. The presale accrued close to $500k in mere days, and price is still at just $0.0156.
Conclusion
Ethereum’s record-breaking inflows through BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF signal a powerful shift in market dynamics. As ETH pushes past key resistance levels, a new all-time high could be within reach. Meanwhile, top altcoins like Remittix are capturing attention with smart use cases and rapid presale momentum, hinting at a broader market resurgence. With 2025 on the horizon, the crypto landscape is primed for explosive growth, making now a pivotal moment for investors to watch closely.
The company also announced a partnership with Hyundai in October to integrate the automaker's Ioniq 5 SUV into Waymo's fleet of vehicles. The companies said they will begin testing the Waymo Ioniq 5s by late 2025.
Waymo is already conducting testing and validation drives in Detroit, Buffalo, New York, and at a test track in Columbus, Ohio, with its Jaguar I-Pace and newer Geely Zeekr vehicles to understand how these systems will perform in different types of traffic and weather.
Given its progress and increasing presence on U.S. streets, Waymo received plenty of social media and publicity in 2024, stirring delight and controversy.
Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru expressed concerns about Bitcoin’s volatility, warning that its price fluctuations could jeopardize Japan’s economic stability. He highlighted that the unpredictable nature of Bitcoin makes it unsuitable as a reliable reserve asset, prompting Japan to refrain from incorporating it into its national financial system. The Prime Minister stressed that Japan’s foreign exchange reserves aim to maintain stability, focusing on more predictable financial assets like bonds and foreign currencies.
In a Reddit channel, R/Waymo, users document every incident involving the company, including one in February where a crowd attacked a Waymo vehicle and set it on fire. The forum also dissected instances when Waymo vehicles were involved in collisions or backed up traffic.
A separate incident went viral when a woman posted on X in September that she was stuck in her Waymo robotaxi when two men stopped it by standing outside of the vehicle, asking for her phone number.
To maintain public trust in the safety of its service, Waymo has built a large public affairs operation, published more detailed safety reports in 2024, and is working closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, first responders and authorities in the cities where it operates.
Japan’s national adoption of Bitcoin could stimulate creativity in blockchain technology within the country, aligning with its broader cryptocurrency policies and encouraging technological development. To promote innovation, Japan plans to reduce regulations for non-exchange crypto intermediaries, such as gaming applications and self-hosted wallets. These new guidelines aim to ease compliance for these entities while maintaining a balance between investor protection and the advancement of blockchain technology.
Tesla unwraps its robotaxi concept
Musk, Tesla's CEO, has been promising "robotaxi-ready" cars for about a decade. Each year since 2016, he has declared the company is about a year away from making his vision a reality, but Tesla still doesn't manufacture robotaxis or run a driverless ride-hailing service.
While Tesla didn't deliver on its robotaxi promises in 2024, Musk revealed the look and feel of Tesla's "dedicated robotaxi" at an event in October held at a movie studio lot in Burbank, California. He called the vehicle the Cybercab and said Tesla wants to produce it by 2027 and sell it for under $30,000.
The Race for Bitcoin: U.S., Brazil, and Russia
Metaplanet, a Japanese investment firm, recently boosted its Bitcoin holdings by acquiring an additional 617 BTC. This substantial investment demonstrates Metaplanet’s positive outlook on Bitcoin and highlights the growing interest in cryptocurrency from Japan’s private sector.
In the United States, Senator Cynthia Lummis has advocated for the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, believing it would enhance the durability of the dollar and reinforce national leadership in the cryptocurrency sector. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has noted that the Fed is unable to hold Bitcoin. This ongoing discussion could potentially impact Bitcoin’s market price, which has already shown significant volatility influenced by investor sentiment.
The fan-pleasing robotaxi concept was a two-seater with butterfly doors and no steering wheel or pedals. The Petersen Automotive Museum already added a preproduction Cybercab to its collection earlier this month.
At the October event, Tesla also showed off the Robovan, a low-clearance autonomous bus with an art deco design aesthetic.
Musk has promised that Tesla's Model Y and other vehicles will be able to function as robotaxis as early as 2025 once their systems are upgraded. Model Y vehicles, without safety drivers on board, also circulated in the closed environment of the studio lot at the Burbank event, showing how Tesla envisions they will function as robotaxis.
Brazil is also pursuing similar initiatives, with legislators pushing for the inclusion of Bitcoin in their national reserves. These examples reflect a global trend where various countries are diversifying their financial strategies to incorporate decentralized digital assets. Concurrently, former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has proposed a plan to integrate Bitcoin into Phuket’s tourism economy.
In the meantime, Russia is making news with its latest moves in cryptocurrency regulation. Beginning in January 2025, the nation will enforce a six-year ban on crypto mining across ten regions to tackle power shortages and avert outages during times of high electricity demand. Additionally, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has announced that Russia has officially started using Bitcoin for international payments. This adoption of Bitcoin highlights the country’s broader strategy aimed at reducing its reliance on the dollar.
At the time of that "We, Robot" event, Tesla had not applied for licenses and permits that would allow it to operate a commercial robotaxi service in major U.S. markets where they are required by city or state authorities.
Despite the lack of permits and licenses, Musk told analysts in an October earnings call that Tesla had already built a "development app" allowing employees to request a ride that would take them anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bullish investors say Tesla will make good on its driverless technology promises as early as next year, but critics remain skeptical in part because of Musk's many missed deadlines on robotaxis.
Tesla currently sells driver assistance systems, including its standard Autopilot option and a premium paid option called Full Self-Driving supervised. In correspondence with government agencies, Tesla calls these "partially automated" systems that are not robotaxi-ready. In fine print in its EV manuals, Tesla says FSD and Autopilot require a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times.
This year, Tesla corresponded with authorities in Austin regarding safety expectations for its autonomous vehicle technology.
Musk has repeatedly painted regulation as a hurdle that prevented Tesla from putting self-driving cars on U.S. roads. On a Tesla earnings call on Oct. 23, Musk said he would use his sway with now President-elect Donald Trump to establish a "federal approval process for autonomous vehicles."
Sentient AI has completed its first development phase, focusing on connecting and collecting human interactions. These interactions will serve as the core foundation for the current second phase, which aims to train and adapt the AI Agent model.
Agent Launchpad on Sui Network
A cornerstone of the Sentient AI team’s vision is the upcoming Agent Launchpad, designed to help investors optimize their AI tokens and gain exclusive early access to investment opportunities across the web3 space.
By integrating with the Sui Network, Sentient AI leverages Sui’s strengths: high speed for rapid interactions, horizontal scalability for large-scale tasks, and cost-effectiveness to drive widespread adoption. Investors can also benefit from advanced security powered by Sui’s Move language and a seamless user experience provided by this rising network.
However, AV policy expert Bryant Walker Smith rejected the notion that regulation has curtailed any robotaxi business in a post for Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. Pointing to Waymo as an example, Walker Smith wrote, "AVs can be — and in fact are — lawfully deployed and regulated under existing federal statutory law."
Zoox 'toasters' heat up
Well before Tesla showed off its Robovan and Cybercab designs, Zoox in February secured important permits allowing it to carry members of the public in its autonomous vehicles in Foster City, California, this year.
Founded in 2014 and acquired by Amazon in 2020 in a deal worth around $1.3 billion, Zoox has developed a unique self-driving shuttle that features big side windows, inward-facing seats and no steering wheel, driver's seat or traditional windshield.
The Agent Launchpad currently reports three projects under incubation, with the first product set to launch for token stakers in January 2025.
Strong Progress & Team Expertise
Sentient AI’s growth is bolstered by a diverse group of industry-leading investors, prominent VCs, KOLs, and blockchain pioneers, highlighting the product’s trendsetting potential.
The progress of Sentient AI is demonstrated through impressive metrics from early testing: over 1 million interactions and 100,000 users within two weeks.
Zoox in March expanded the environmental conditions its AVs can handle on public roads to include "nighttime driving, driving under light rain and damp road conditions, and at speeds up to 45 mph," a spokesperson told CNBC.
The company's vehicles can carry four adults and luggage comfortably, and the small shuttles feature calming lighting, ambient music and interior cameras to monitor what's happening inside the cabin. Some early riders have described the look of the Zoox vehicles as "futuristic hot dog toasters" or "toasters on wheels."
With a proven track record of delivering impactful and innovative products, the Sentient AI team is poised to sustain its remarkable growth trajectory, further solidifying its position as a leading innovator in the AI and blockchain space.
What’s Next for Sentient AI?
Sentient AI plans to accelerate development and expand its ecosystem following the successful raise. Key upcoming milestones include its Token Generation Event, the release of the AI Agent Launchpad, partnerships with industry leaders, and collaborations with AI developers across the tech space.
Led by CEO Aicha Evans, Zoox is aiming to offer free rides to more members of the public early next year, before opening up to paying customers and the general public.
The service will start in Las Vegas and expand to San Francisco, the company told CNBC. It will begin with an early rider program called Zoox Explorers, allowing select users to ride in a Zoox for free and provide feedback.
With its robotaxis currently on public roads in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Foster City, this summer, Zoox also began testing in Austin and Miami, where its test fleet is still driving.
Sentient AI (SETAI) is an advanced AI Agent capable of human-like thoughts and emotions. Functioning as both a chatbot and personal assistant, it generates creative life solutions through exceptional critical thinking and empathetic responses. By perceiving the world around it and responding with creativity, Sentient AI works to revolutionize the future of human-AI interactions.
The company has also been attracting senior talent. One notable recent hire was Zheng Gao, previously the leader of Tesla's autopilot hardware design team, now director of hardware engineering for Zoox.
Cruise's closure
Despite clear demand for robotaxi rides in the U.S. market, GM surprised some longtime industry observers when it announced earlier this month that it was exiting the business.
"Cruise was well on its way to a robotaxi business, but when you look at the fact you're deploying a fleet, there's a whole operations piece of doing that," GM CEO Mary Barra said on a call announcing the strategic change.
The Detroit automaker will now focus on the development of what it calls "personal autonomous vehicles" instead of robotaxis. GM has yet to determine how many of Cruise's 2,300 employees will move into its broader tech team.
"In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies," Cruise founder Kyle Vogt, who sold Cruise to GM in 2016 and left the company in November 2023, posted on X after the automaker's exit announcement.
An early entrant in the U.S. robotaxi market, Cruise grounded its driverless operations in October 2023, shortly before Vogt's departure. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined Cruise $1.5 million after the company failed to disclose details of a serious crash that month involving a pedestrian.
That meeting set the stage for what would be a year of contrasting takes from the company's vocal workforce. As Google faced some of the most intense pressure its experienced since going public two decades ago, so too did CEO Sundar Pichai, who took the helm in 2015.
Pichai oversaw a steady stream of revenue growth this year in key areas like search ads and cloud. The company rolled out groundbreaking technologies, rounded out its AI strategy despite a slew of embarrassing product incidents and saw its stock price rise more than 40% as of Thursday's close, ahead of the S&P 500 but trailing rivals Meta and Amazon.
Over the course of 2024, many staffers questioned Pichai's vision following product mishaps in the first half of the year as well as internal shake-ups and layoffs, according to conversations with more than a dozen employees, audio recordings and internal correspondence.
As the second half of the year progressed and Google rolled out a number of eye-catching AI products, Pichai's standing improved, though some skepticism remains, sources told CNBC.
Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis (L) and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai open the tech titan's annual I/O developers conference focusing on how artificial intelligence is being woven into search, email, virtual meetings and more.
The AI race pressure cooker
After the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022, the tech industry saw an influx of AI products from Microsoft, with its Copilot AI assistant, and Meta, which placed its Meta AI chatbot in the search functions of its apps, as well as from hot startups like OpenAI and Perplexity.
The popularity of those tools has eaten into Google's grip on U.S. search. The company's share of the search advertising market is expected to dip below 50% in 2025, which would be the first time falling below that mark in more than a decade, according to research firm eMarketer.
Google responded to the pressures from new AI tools with offerings of its own. The company in 2024 rebranded its family of AI models as Gemini and released a number of products that were well received. But in its scramble to play catch-up, the company also released a pair of AI products that initially proved embarrassing.
In February, Google launched Imagen 2, which turned user prompts into AI-generated images. Immediately after it was introduced, the product came under scrutiny for historical inaccuracies discovered by users. Notably, when one user asked it to show a German soldier in 1943, the tool depicted a racially diverse set of soldiers wearing German military uniforms of the era.
The company pulled the feature, and Pichai told employees the company had "offended our users and shown bias," according to a memo. Google said it would take a few weeks to relaunch Imagen 2, but it ended up being six months before it was revived as Imagen 3 in August.
"We definitely messed up on the image generation," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told a small crowd at a hacker house in March, in a video posted to YouTube. "It was mostly due to just not thorough testing."
The launch of AI Overview in May caused a similar reaction.
That product showed users AI summaries atop Google's traditional search results. Pichai hyped the product, calling it the biggest change to search in 25 years. Once again, users were quick to find problems.
When asked "How many rocks should I eat each day," the tool said, "According to UC Berkeley geologists, people should eat at least one small rock a day." AI Overview also listed the vitamins and digestive benefits of rocks.
Google responded by saying it would add more guardrails to AI Overview for health-related queries but said the mistakes weren't hallucinations, and were rather just rare edge cases. Search Vice President Liz Reid told employees at an all-hands meeting in June that AI Overview's launch shouldn't discourage them from taking risks.
"We should act with urgency," Reid said. "When we find new problems, we should do the extensive testing but we won't always find everything and that just means that we respond."
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Beyond its AI blunders, Google also saw its greatest regulatory challenges to date in 2024.
In August, a federal judge ruled that the company illegally holds a monopoly in the search market. The Justice Department in November asked that Google be forced to divest its Chrome internet browser unit as a remedy for the ruling
The DOJ's request represents the agency's most aggressive attempt to break up a tech company since its antitrust case against Microsoft, which reached a settlement in 2001.
The remedies are expected to be decided next summer, and Google has said it will appeal, likely dragging out the situation a couple more years, but the company faces more antitrust hurdles.
In a separate case, the DOJ accused the company of illegally dominating online ad technology. That trial closed in September and awaits a judge ruling. In October, a U.S. judge issued a permanent injunction that will force Google to offer alternatives to its Google Play app store for Android phones. After the ruling in October, Google won a temporary pause on the ruling, meaning it won't have to open up Android to more app stores yet.
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At stake is a share of a massive market for ride-hailing services in and beyond the U.S. According to research by Fortune Business Insights, the global ride-sharing market is projected to grow from an estimated $123.08 billion in 2024 to $480.09 billion by 2032.
As 2025 approaches, here's where these major players stand.
Hyundai Motor and Waymo have agreed to a multiyear, strategic partnership that includes the self-driving company adding the South Korean automaker's Ioniq 5 electric vehicle to its robotaxi fleet.
Waymo pulls way ahead
What began as "project chauffeur" at Google in 2009 became a publicly available, commercial robotaxi service across multiple U.S. cities this year.
The project, rebranded as Waymo in 2016, has now completed more than 5 million autonomous trips in total, the company said last week. That's about a sevenfold increase from November 2023, when Waymo said it had completed around 700,000 driverless ride-hailing trips.
Ethereum set for a new year rally: Is $4,500 within reach?
\With Ethereum’s price holding firm above $3,400, the market is buzzing with speculation of a New Year rally that could send ETH soaring by 30%. Over the weekend, Ethereum saw significant buying pressure as investors rotated from Bitcoin. This shift, paired with Ethereum staking inflows of 59k ETH and net outflows from exchanges of 130k ETH, signals bullish sentiment.
Some analysts believe Ethereum could mirror its performance from early 2021, echoing previous market cycles. If the current trend persists, this top altcoin could challenge its yearly high of $4,093 and possibly breach its 2021 all-time high of $4,800.
Waymo's service now operates in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, covering more than 500 square miles of public roads.
The company dropped its digital velvet rope in June and opened its robotaxi service to all San Franciscans, allowing them to hail rides via the Waymo One app. Opening to the general public proved to riders, and internally, that the company's fleet of AVs can work well in the traffic conditions of a complex urban environment.
In July, Alphabet's then-CFO, Ruth Porat, announced a multiyear investment by Google's parent into Waymo on an earnings call, which amounted to $5.6 billion in total, with $5 billion of that coming from Alphabet.
Ethereum set for a new year rally: Is $4,500 within reach?
\With Ethereum’s price holding firm above $3,400, the market is buzzing with speculation of a New Year rally that could send ETH soaring by 30%. Over the weekend, Ethereum saw significant buying pressure as investors rotated from Bitcoin. This shift, paired with Ethereum staking inflows of 59k ETH and net outflows from exchanges of 130k ETH, signals bullish sentiment.
Some analysts believe Ethereum could mirror its performance from early 2021, echoing previous market cycles. If the current trend persists, this top altcoin could challenge its yearly high of $4,093 and possibly breach its 2021 all-time high of $4,800.
Waymo co-CEOs, Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, told employees at an all-hands meeting in November that they should scale up as aggressively as possible but do so with safety at the forefront of all their efforts, company insiders told CNBC.
A big focus for Waymo in 2025 will be expanding its robotaxi service to more cities, winning over riders and continuing research and development on newer technology that will allow the company's AVs to operate in more weather and traffic conditions.
Waymo plans to launch a commercial service in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, with rides available through the Uber app next year. It's also begun testing in Miami with plans to offer rides to the public there in 2026.
Can top altcoins follow Ethereum’s suit?
The spotlight on Ethereum’s rally is reigniting interest in top altcoins. Projects like Remittix capture investors’ imagination with its huge potential and unique PayFi solution. Remittix is a crypto-to-fiat cross-border remittance network that bridges crypto with local payment networks globally.
What sets Remittix apart is its versatility, it facilitates individual transactions and enables crypto enterprises to handle invoices, salaries, and merchant payments. This level of functionality marks a significant step forward in crypto adoption, particularly in emerging markets where traditional payment systems often face limitations.
Earlier this month, Waymo announced its first international testing destination in Tokyo. Waymo said it's partnered with the taxi app GO and one of Japan's largest taxi operators, Nihon Kotsu, and will commence test rides in early 2025.
Waymo showed off its next generation of self-driving vehicles, which it will be making with Chinese auto giant Geely, in August. Waymo's custom hardware and software will be integrated into the Geely Zeekr electric SUVs. For this new robotaxi, Waymo was able to reduce the number of cameras on board from 29 to 13 and lower the number of costly lidar sensors on board from five to four.
As Ethereum continues to advance with institutional support and use cases, it raises a critical question: Will projects like Remittix and other top altcoins ride the wave to new highs in 2025? Its ongoing presale is all the proof investors need. The presale accrued close to $500k in mere days, and price is still at just $0.0156.
Conclusion
Ethereum’s record-breaking inflows through BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF signal a powerful shift in market dynamics. As ETH pushes past key resistance levels, a new all-time high could be within reach. Meanwhile, top altcoins like Remittix are capturing attention with smart use cases and rapid presale momentum, hinting at a broader market resurgence. With 2025 on the horizon, the crypto landscape is primed for explosive growth, making now a pivotal moment for investors to watch closely.
The company also announced a partnership with Hyundai in October to integrate the automaker's Ioniq 5 SUV into Waymo's fleet of vehicles. The companies said they will begin testing the Waymo Ioniq 5s by late 2025.
Waymo is already conducting testing and validation drives in Detroit, Buffalo, New York, and at a test track in Columbus, Ohio, with its Jaguar I-Pace and newer Geely Zeekr vehicles to understand how these systems will perform in different types of traffic and weather.
Given its progress and increasing presence on U.S. streets, Waymo received plenty of social media and publicity in 2024, stirring delight and controversy.
Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru expressed concerns about Bitcoin’s volatility, warning that its price fluctuations could jeopardize Japan’s economic stability. He highlighted that the unpredictable nature of Bitcoin makes it unsuitable as a reliable reserve asset, prompting Japan to refrain from incorporating it into its national financial system. The Prime Minister stressed that Japan’s foreign exchange reserves aim to maintain stability, focusing on more predictable financial assets like bonds and foreign currencies.
In a Reddit channel, R/Waymo, users document every incident involving the company, including one in February where a crowd attacked a Waymo vehicle and set it on fire. The forum also dissected instances when Waymo vehicles were involved in collisions or backed up traffic.
A separate incident went viral when a woman posted on X in September that she was stuck in her Waymo robotaxi when two men stopped it by standing outside of the vehicle, asking for her phone number.
To maintain public trust in the safety of its service, Waymo has built a large public affairs operation, published more detailed safety reports in 2024, and is working closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, first responders and authorities in the cities where it operates.
Japan’s national adoption of Bitcoin could stimulate creativity in blockchain technology within the country, aligning with its broader cryptocurrency policies and encouraging technological development. To promote innovation, Japan plans to reduce regulations for non-exchange crypto intermediaries, such as gaming applications and self-hosted wallets. These new guidelines aim to ease compliance for these entities while maintaining a balance between investor protection and the advancement of blockchain technology.
Tesla unwraps its robotaxi concept
Musk, Tesla's CEO, has been promising "robotaxi-ready" cars for about a decade. Each year since 2016, he has declared the company is about a year away from making his vision a reality, but Tesla still doesn't manufacture robotaxis or run a driverless ride-hailing service.
While Tesla didn't deliver on its robotaxi promises in 2024, Musk revealed the look and feel of Tesla's "dedicated robotaxi" at an event in October held at a movie studio lot in Burbank, California. He called the vehicle the Cybercab and said Tesla wants to produce it by 2027 and sell it for under $30,000.
The Race for Bitcoin: U.S., Brazil, and Russia
Metaplanet, a Japanese investment firm, recently boosted its Bitcoin holdings by acquiring an additional 617 BTC. This substantial investment demonstrates Metaplanet’s positive outlook on Bitcoin and highlights the growing interest in cryptocurrency from Japan’s private sector.
In the United States, Senator Cynthia Lummis has advocated for the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, believing it would enhance the durability of the dollar and reinforce national leadership in the cryptocurrency sector. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has noted that the Fed is unable to hold Bitcoin. This ongoing discussion could potentially impact Bitcoin’s market price, which has already shown significant volatility influenced by investor sentiment.
The fan-pleasing robotaxi concept was a two-seater with butterfly doors and no steering wheel or pedals. The Petersen Automotive Museum already added a preproduction Cybercab to its collection earlier this month.
At the October event, Tesla also showed off the Robovan, a low-clearance autonomous bus with an art deco design aesthetic.
Musk has promised that Tesla's Model Y and other vehicles will be able to function as robotaxis as early as 2025 once their systems are upgraded. Model Y vehicles, without safety drivers on board, also circulated in the closed environment of the studio lot at the Burbank event, showing how Tesla envisions they will function as robotaxis.
Brazil is also pursuing similar initiatives, with legislators pushing for the inclusion of Bitcoin in their national reserves. These examples reflect a global trend where various countries are diversifying their financial strategies to incorporate decentralized digital assets. Concurrently, former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has proposed a plan to integrate Bitcoin into Phuket’s tourism economy.
In the meantime, Russia is making news with its latest moves in cryptocurrency regulation. Beginning in January 2025, the nation will enforce a six-year ban on crypto mining across ten regions to tackle power shortages and avert outages during times of high electricity demand. Additionally, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has announced that Russia has officially started using Bitcoin for international payments. This adoption of Bitcoin highlights the country’s broader strategy aimed at reducing its reliance on the dollar.
At the time of that "We, Robot" event, Tesla had not applied for licenses and permits that would allow it to operate a commercial robotaxi service in major U.S. markets where they are required by city or state authorities.
Despite the lack of permits and licenses, Musk told analysts in an October earnings call that Tesla had already built a "development app" allowing employees to request a ride that would take them anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bullish investors say Tesla will make good on its driverless technology promises as early as next year, but critics remain skeptical in part because of Musk's many missed deadlines on robotaxis.
Tesla currently sells driver assistance systems, including its standard Autopilot option and a premium paid option called Full Self-Driving supervised. In correspondence with government agencies, Tesla calls these "partially automated" systems that are not robotaxi-ready. In fine print in its EV manuals, Tesla says FSD and Autopilot require a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times.
This year, Tesla corresponded with authorities in Austin regarding safety expectations for its autonomous vehicle technology.
Musk has repeatedly painted regulation as a hurdle that prevented Tesla from putting self-driving cars on U.S. roads. On a Tesla earnings call on Oct. 23, Musk said he would use his sway with now President-elect Donald Trump to establish a "federal approval process for autonomous vehicles."
Sentient AI has completed its first development phase, focusing on connecting and collecting human interactions. These interactions will serve as the core foundation for the current second phase, which aims to train and adapt the AI Agent model.
Agent Launchpad on Sui Network
A cornerstone of the Sentient AI team’s vision is the upcoming Agent Launchpad, designed to help investors optimize their AI tokens and gain exclusive early access to investment opportunities across the web3 space.
By integrating with the Sui Network, Sentient AI leverages Sui’s strengths: high speed for rapid interactions, horizontal scalability for large-scale tasks, and cost-effectiveness to drive widespread adoption. Investors can also benefit from advanced security powered by Sui’s Move language and a seamless user experience provided by this rising network.
However, AV policy expert Bryant Walker Smith rejected the notion that regulation has curtailed any robotaxi business in a post for Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. Pointing to Waymo as an example, Walker Smith wrote, "AVs can be — and in fact are — lawfully deployed and regulated under existing federal statutory law."
Zoox 'toasters' heat up
Well before Tesla showed off its Robovan and Cybercab designs, Zoox in February secured important permits allowing it to carry members of the public in its autonomous vehicles in Foster City, California, this year.
Founded in 2014 and acquired by Amazon in 2020 in a deal worth around $1.3 billion, Zoox has developed a unique self-driving shuttle that features big side windows, inward-facing seats and no steering wheel, driver's seat or traditional windshield.
The Agent Launchpad currently reports three projects under incubation, with the first product set to launch for token stakers in January 2025.
Strong Progress & Team Expertise
Sentient AI’s growth is bolstered by a diverse group of industry-leading investors, prominent VCs, KOLs, and blockchain pioneers, highlighting the product’s trendsetting potential.
The progress of Sentient AI is demonstrated through impressive metrics from early testing: over 1 million interactions and 100,000 users within two weeks.
Zoox in March expanded the environmental conditions its AVs can handle on public roads to include "nighttime driving, driving under light rain and damp road conditions, and at speeds up to 45 mph," a spokesperson told CNBC.
The company's vehicles can carry four adults and luggage comfortably, and the small shuttles feature calming lighting, ambient music and interior cameras to monitor what's happening inside the cabin. Some early riders have described the look of the Zoox vehicles as "futuristic hot dog toasters" or "toasters on wheels."
With a proven track record of delivering impactful and innovative products, the Sentient AI team is poised to sustain its remarkable growth trajectory, further solidifying its position as a leading innovator in the AI and blockchain space.
What’s Next for Sentient AI?
Sentient AI plans to accelerate development and expand its ecosystem following the successful raise. Key upcoming milestones include its Token Generation Event, the release of the AI Agent Launchpad, partnerships with industry leaders, and collaborations with AI developers across the tech space.
Led by CEO Aicha Evans, Zoox is aiming to offer free rides to more members of the public early next year, before opening up to paying customers and the general public.
The service will start in Las Vegas and expand to San Francisco, the company told CNBC. It will begin with an early rider program called Zoox Explorers, allowing select users to ride in a Zoox for free and provide feedback.
With its robotaxis currently on public roads in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Foster City, this summer, Zoox also began testing in Austin and Miami, where its test fleet is still driving.
About Sentient AI
Sentient AI (SETAI) is an advanced AI Agent capable of human-like thoughts and emotions. Functioning as both a chatbot and personal assistant, it generates creative life solutions through exceptional critical thinking and empathetic responses. By perceiving the world around it and responding with creativity, Sentient AI works to revolutionize the future of human-AI interactions.
Website: https://aisentient.net/
The company has also been attracting senior talent. One notable recent hire was Zheng Gao, previously the leader of Tesla's autopilot hardware design team, now director of hardware engineering for Zoox.
Cruise's closure
Despite clear demand for robotaxi rides in the U.S. market, GM surprised some longtime industry observers when it announced earlier this month that it was exiting the business.
"Cruise was well on its way to a robotaxi business, but when you look at the fact you're deploying a fleet, there's a whole operations piece of doing that," GM CEO Mary Barra said on a call announcing the strategic change.
The Detroit automaker will now focus on the development of what it calls "personal autonomous vehicles" instead of robotaxis. GM has yet to determine how many of Cruise's 2,300 employees will move into its broader tech team.
"In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies," Cruise founder Kyle Vogt, who sold Cruise to GM in 2016 and left the company in November 2023, posted on X after the automaker's exit announcement.
An early entrant in the U.S. robotaxi market, Cruise grounded its driverless operations in October 2023, shortly before Vogt's departure. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined Cruise $1.5 million after the company failed to disclose details of a serious crash that month involving a pedestrian.
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That meeting set the stage for what would be a year of contrasting takes from the company's vocal workforce. As Google faced some of the most intense pressure its experienced since going public two decades ago, so too did CEO Sundar Pichai, who took the helm in 2015.
Pichai oversaw a steady stream of revenue growth this year in key areas like search ads and cloud. The company rolled out groundbreaking technologies, rounded out its AI strategy despite a slew of embarrassing product incidents and saw its stock price rise more than 40% as of Thursday's close, ahead of the S&P 500 but trailing rivals Meta and Amazon.
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Over the course of 2024, many staffers questioned Pichai's vision following product mishaps in the first half of the year as well as internal shake-ups and layoffs, according to conversations with more than a dozen employees, audio recordings and internal correspondence.
As the second half of the year progressed and Google rolled out a number of eye-catching AI products, Pichai's standing improved, though some skepticism remains, sources told CNBC.
Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis (L) and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai open the tech titan's annual I/O developers conference focusing on how artificial intelligence is being woven into search, email, virtual meetings and more.
The AI race pressure cooker
After the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022, the tech industry saw an influx of AI products from Microsoft, with its Copilot AI assistant, and Meta, which placed its Meta AI chatbot in the search functions of its apps, as well as from hot startups like OpenAI and Perplexity.
The popularity of those tools has eaten into Google's grip on U.S. search. The company's share of the search advertising market is expected to dip below 50% in 2025, which would be the first time falling below that mark in more than a decade, according to research firm eMarketer.
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Google responded to the pressures from new AI tools with offerings of its own. The company in 2024 rebranded its family of AI models as Gemini and released a number of products that were well received. But in its scramble to play catch-up, the company also released a pair of AI products that initially proved embarrassing.
In February, Google launched Imagen 2, which turned user prompts into AI-generated images. Immediately after it was introduced, the product came under scrutiny for historical inaccuracies discovered by users. Notably, when one user asked it to show a German soldier in 1943, the tool depicted a racially diverse set of soldiers wearing German military uniforms of the era.
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The company pulled the feature, and Pichai told employees the company had "offended our users and shown bias," according to a memo. Google said it would take a few weeks to relaunch Imagen 2, but it ended up being six months before it was revived as Imagen 3 in August.
"We definitely messed up on the image generation," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told a small crowd at a hacker house in March, in a video posted to YouTube. "It was mostly due to just not thorough testing."
The launch of AI Overview in May caused a similar reaction.
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That product showed users AI summaries atop Google's traditional search results. Pichai hyped the product, calling it the biggest change to search in 25 years. Once again, users were quick to find problems.
When asked "How many rocks should I eat each day," the tool said, "According to UC Berkeley geologists, people should eat at least one small rock a day." AI Overview also listed the vitamins and digestive benefits of rocks.
Google responded by saying it would add more guardrails to AI Overview for health-related queries but said the mistakes weren't hallucinations, and were rather just rare edge cases. Search Vice President Liz Reid told employees at an all-hands meeting in June that AI Overview's launch shouldn't discourage them from taking risks.
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"We should act with urgency," Reid said. "When we find new problems, we should do the extensive testing but we won't always find everything and that just means that we respond."
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Beyond its AI blunders, Google also saw its greatest regulatory challenges to date in 2024.
In August, a federal judge ruled that the company illegally holds a monopoly in the search market. The Justice Department in November asked that Google be forced to divest its Chrome internet browser unit as a remedy for the ruling
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The DOJ's request represents the agency's most aggressive attempt to break up a tech company since its antitrust case against Microsoft, which reached a settlement in 2001.
The remedies are expected to be decided next summer, and Google has said it will appeal, likely dragging out the situation a couple more years, but the company faces more antitrust hurdles.
In a separate case, the DOJ accused the company of illegally dominating online ad technology. That trial closed in September and awaits a judge ruling. In October, a U.S. judge issued a permanent injunction that will force Google to offer alternatives to its Google Play app store for Android phones. After the ruling in October, Google won a temporary pause on the ruling, meaning it won't have to open up Android to more app stores yet.