(Thomas Fuller/Getty Images)

Tesla moved its “robotaxi” to the Bay Area and put a driver in the driver’s seat

Tesla doesn’t need a permit to have a human drive you around with supervised Full Self-Driving.

7/31/25 12:15PM

Tesla’s overhype machine continues to turn out the hits.

Earlier this month, when asked about Tesla’s autonomous ride service, CEO Elon Musk said the company’s limited Austin robotaxi service would be expanding to the Bay Area, pending regulatory approvals. Tesla doesn’t have those permits yet and correspondence between the company and California’s autonomous DMV branch viewed by Politico never use the word “robotaxi.” Tesla and Musk have made an announcement, nonetheless.

Today Musk said, “You can now ride-hail a Tesla in the SF Bay Area, in addition to Austin.” Pay attention to the language. People can now use Tesla’s Robotaxi app to ride-hail a Tesla. That Tesla will have a person in the driver’s seat touching the steering wheel. In other words, you can pay for a person to drive you around in a Tesla, using the company’s supervised Full Self-Driving software, which requires a driver to be in the seat, notably, and hold the wheel. That’s a far cry from true autonomous driving and something that basically already exists if you were to get in an Uber or a consumer’s Tesla that has enabled supervised Full Self-Driving in the state.

Below is a video posted yesterday from Tesla influencer Teslaconomics. Using the Robotaxi app, he summoned a Tesla with a driver in the driver’s seat. You’ll see the driver’s hands remain hovering on or near the steering wheel the whole time. It doesn’t have Robotaxi signage.

My first Tesla Robotaxi ride in the Bay Area, CA! 🔥 https://t.co/arZykKfNbZ
— Teslaconomics (@Teslaconomics) July 31, 2025

Also, the “you” who can now ride-hail in this case seems to mean friends and family of Tesla employees, or invited members of the public. The automaker’s Austin service was similarly not fully open to all potential customers. The Austin service was also not fully autonomous driving. Under the program Tesla operates there, a safety monitor who can stop the vehicle sits in the front passenger seat for every ride, and tele-operators can take over remotely.

Jon Keegan2h

EU calls for bids to build “AI gigafactories” in 2026

The European Union wants to shore up its domestic AI infrastructure, and reduce its dependence on American tech companies.

To further this goal, the bloc is planning on accepting bids to build EU-based “AI gigafactories,” according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

EU Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen announced that bids would begin in January or February, according to the report.

As the AI arms race heats up, countries are racing to secure their own sovereign AI infrastructure, including building their own AI models that reflect countries’ culture and language, and control over cloud computing resources.

Europe is lagging behind the US and Asia in AI infrastructure. But it may be hard for the EU to fully break free of American tech — unlike the US and China, there is no European alternative for the powerful GPUs needed to train and run AI models. It’s very likely that any AI gigafactories in the EU will be filled with GPUs from Nvidia.

EU to Open Bidding for AI Gigafactories in Early 2026

EU Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen announced that bids would begin in January or February, according to the report.

Jon Keegan4h

Google’s AI chip business could be a $900 billion boon for the company

Google may be sitting on a massive new business that it has yet to fully exploit.

Google’s custom tensor processing unit (TPU) AI chips have been getting a lot of attention recently, making the tech world wonder if there are other ways to power its AI dreams rather than just by using Nvidia’s GPUs.

Bloomberg spoke with analysts who estimate that, if it does decide to sell its chips to others, Google could capture 20% of the AI market, making it a $900 billion business. For comparison, Google Cloud pulled in $43.2 billion of revenue last year.

Even if Google just sticks with renting access to its TPUs, it will continue to drive down costs and increase margins as it ekes out performance improvements, such as the 30x improvement in power efficiency that the latest generation of TPUs has delivered for the company.

Alphabet’s AI Chips Are a Potential $900 Billion ‘Secret Sauce’

Rani Molla5h

OpenAI’s Sam Altman has explored bringing his feud with Tesla’s Elon Musk to space

Billionaires, they’re just like us: they want to bring their terrestrial beefs to outer space.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has explored buying or partnering with a rocket company to compete with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX, The Wall Street Journal reports. The two billionaires have had numerous public feuds over the years that have played out in the courts and on social media. They also both lead AI companies that have insatiable needs for data centers and have publicly discussed building data centers in space.

Altman seems like he thinks this could be more than science fiction. He reportedly reached out to rocket maker Stoke Space to potentially make equity investments in the company to get a controlling stake, though the talks are no longer active, WSJ reports.

Or perhaps he just wanted a Sherwood bobblehead of himself.

Jon Keegan6h

Report: Meta to slash metaverse, VR spending by up to 30%

Four years after changing its name to reflect its focus on the loosely defined “metaverse,” Meta is planning deep cuts to the company’s money-losing virtual reality efforts, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Meta’s Reality Labs division, home to the teams working on metaverse products — which include Quest VR headsets, Horizon Worlds, and its Ray-Ban Meta glasses — has lost about $70 billion since the company started breaking out the unit in 2020.

The company has struggled to get consumers to buy into CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of working and playing in virtual reality worlds, like the company’s Horizon Worlds platform.

Investors seem to love the news of the pivot, as shares shot up as much as 5% in early trading.

Meta’s recent hiring spree of AI superstars from competitors for its Meta Superintelligence Labs shows that the company’s attention is now all in on AI.

Meta’s Zuckerberg Plans Deep Cuts for Metaverse Efforts

The company has struggled to get consumers to buy into CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of working and playing in virtual reality worlds, like the company’s Horizon Worlds platform.

Investors seem to love the news of the pivot, as shares shot up as much as 5% in early trading.

Meta’s recent hiring spree of AI superstars from competitors for its Meta Superintelligence Labs shows that the company’s attention is now all in on AI.