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Tech News
Academics led by Eindhoven University's Pavlo Bazilinskyy are hosting an industry workshop this week focused on deterring passengers from having sex in autonomous vehicles, which lack a human driver to enforce norms. The team, drawing from systems engineering, psychology and tourism studies, is using the topic to explore broader questions about behavior and design in shared robotaxi spaces.
Since the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions and other attacks on subsea infrastructure near Taiwan and the Arctic, governments and companies have sharply increased investment in technology to protect underwater cables and pipelines. Chatham House researcher Katja Bego says advances in AI, drones and autonomous vehicles are enabling new forms of seabed surveillance, reversing decades of neglect since the Cold War. Over 1.5 million kilometers of submarine communications cables now underpin the global economy, making their protection a growing strategic priority.
Joby Aviation flew a converted Cessna Caravan more than 3,100 miles across the U.S. using its autonomy software to handle taxiing, takeoff, navigation and landing without pilot intervention, though a pilot remained onboard for regulatory compliance. The flight was remotely monitored from Joby's California headquarters and Shaw Air Force Base, and the aircraft is set to continue touring cities like Louisville and Salt Lake City before returning to the West Coast.
Waymo announced plans to bring its autonomous vehicles to Singapore, marking its expansion beyond the US and into a second Asian market after Tokyo. Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will arrive soon so specialists can manually drive and map Singapore's roads throughout 2027, adjusting Waymo's systems for local road layouts and weather before public rides begin via its app in 2028.
San Mateo County's Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to advance an ordinance requiring businesses to obtain permits before deploying autonomous, battery-powered robots in workplaces. Companies must submit an Economic Impact Assessment and Workforce Mitigation Plan, choosing to redeploy displaced workers at equal pay, offer 60 days' notice with severance, or pay into a new county fund for retraining. The rule, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., still needs final adoption before taking effect 30 days later.
Waymo has started manually driving and mapping all regions of Singapore around the clock, gathering data it needs to seek approval from the Land Transport Authority for autonomous operations by 2027. Initial runs will use human specialists behind the wheel, with the company promising public notice before shifting to autonomous-specialist and eventually fully driverless operations. Data collected will be handled under Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act and Waymo's own privacy policy.
Waymo announced plans to bring its autonomous ride-hailing service to Singapore, with vehicles arriving within months to begin mapping and safety-driver testing in 2027 ahead of a public launch in 2028. The company must first pass safety assessments from Singapore's Land Transport Authority and its CETRAN testing center before carrying passengers, and it has already set up a local entity and joined the city-state's autonomous vehicle steering committee.
Waymo has relaunched paid robotaxi service in San Antonio five months after several of its vehicles got stuck in an April flash flood, with one car swept away by rising water. The company says it updated its software to better detect and avoid standing water, and will now operate dozens of vehicles across a 60-mile zone covering downtown and the airport.
Waymo says its robotaxi detected a terms-of-service violation involving a firearm, pulled over, and alerted emergency responders, leading police to arrest two teenagers after allegedly finding a loaded AR-style ghost gun inside the car. The incident adds to a growing list of episodes where Waymo vehicles have supplied footage or triggered law enforcement action, including hit-and-run evidence and protest surveillance concerns.
Autonomous ride-hailing company May Mobility is merging with special purpose acquisition company ACP Holdings Acquisition Corp., a deal that could raise over $300 million and value the combined company at $1.4 billion. May Mobility says it will become the first U.S. public company focused solely on autonomous ride-hailing, distinguishing itself from broader autonomy players like Tesla, Waymo and Aurora.
Tesla's driverless Cybercab, now operating as part of its Robotaxi service, lacks a steering wheel and brake pedals, letting occupants recline their seats. Tesla's own rider guide warns passengers to keep seat backs within 35 degrees of vertical and feet flat on the floor to reduce injury risk in a crash, while safety researchers note that reclined seating already correlates with worse crash outcomes in conventional vehicles.
Security firm Strix ran an unauthenticated scan against Baseten's public infrastructure and within 25 minutes uncovered a live GitHub personal access token with admin rights to Baseten's core product repo, GitOps repo, and Homebrew tap. The token, tied to a container image built in March 2023, had gone unnoticed for over three years and still granted read/write access to private customer repositories when discovered in July 2026. Baseten's security team confirmed the issue as critical and rotated the token within a day of disclosure.