tech

Tesla’s Robotaxi app is now actually “open to all” — if you’re in Austin or the Bay Area and have an iPhone

Those of us who’ve been on Tesla’s Robotaxi waitlist, which became “open to all” in early September, were finally welcomed in yesterday. That means people with an iPhone in Austin or the Bay Area can now hitch a ride in a Tesla Robotaxi. In Austin, that Robotaxi ride comes with a safety monitor in the passenger’s seat and in the Bay Area a driver sits in the driver’s seat and uses supervised full self-driving tech.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company would start removing safety monitors in Austin and would expand to 8-10 cities by the end of the year. Just yesterday it got approval for the service in Arizona and previously named five cities it plans to expand to in the coming months. The company hasn’t released a current vehicle count but Musk recently said on a podcast the service would expand to 500 cars in Austin and 1,000 in the Bay Area by year’s end.

People are reporting wait times as high as 30 or 40 minutes in both areas, depending on the time.

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tech

Google soars on positive reception for Gemini 3

Google is surging today, on track for its third-biggest daily gain this year, after its release of Gemini 3 on Tuesday.

The latest update to its flagship model includes significant improvements to reasoning, agentic tasks, and “vibe coding,” and is currently topping the leaderboards on LMArena for text, web development, and vision.

Gemini is currently No. 2 in Apple’s free App Store, right behind ChatGPT.

The stock was recently up 5.6% amid a generally green day for tech stocks.

Google has been on a tear lately, after posting Q3 revenue and earnings that blew past expectations. On Friday, the stock jumped after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed a $5.1 billion stake and after the company announced a $40 billion investment in Texas data centers.

Google has been by far the best performer of the Magnificent 7 stocks this year, up nearly 60% in 2025. The next best is Nvidia, which is up 39%, followed by Microsoft, which is up 17%.

tech

Report: xAI raising $15 billion for a $230 billion valuation

xAI is looking to raise $15 billion at a $230 billion valuation, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

xAI is still burning through cash as it races to build its Colossus 2 data center in Tennessee. Last month, it was reported that the company needs to spend $18 billion to purchase another 300,000 Nvidia GPUs.

For all that cash, xAI is still in third place when it comes to its Grok chatbot. A September report found that Grok had only 64 million monthly users, compared to ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly users.

40% of middle and high school students spend about half the school day on devices

A recent NYT survey of US teachers reveals how much screentime American students get in class.

laptop with School textbooks popping out of the screen on a spring

tech

Larry Summers resigns from OpenAI board

Former Harvard President Larry Summers has resigned from OpenAI’s board, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Summers’ email exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein surfaced last week when a House committee released a cache of 20,000 documents from the Epstein estate.

The OpenAI board told the WSJ: “Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision.”

This week Congress passed a bill to release the full Epstein files, and other prominent tech figures are likely to make appearances in the documents.

Larry Summers Resigns From OpenAI Board Amid Epstein Revelations

Larry Summers Resigns From OpenAI Board Amid Epstein Revelations

This week Congress passed a bill to release the full Epstein files, and other prominent tech figures are likely to make appearances in the documents.

tech

Tesla gets approval for autonomous ride-hailing in Arizona with a safety monitor

Tesla has received permission from the Arizona Department of Transportation to operate an autonomous ride-hailing service with a safety monitor in the state. On its last earnings call, Tesla said it planned to expand its robotaxi service to 8 to 10 markets by the end of this year.

Currently Tesla operates the service autonomously in Austin with a safety monitor in the passenger’s seat, and in the Bay Area with a driver using supervised full self-driving tech. Google’s Waymo operates a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in both those markets.

Tesla Gets Approval for Autonomous Rideshare Service in Arizona

Tesla Gets Approval for Autonomous Rideshare Service in Arizona

Currently Tesla operates the service autonomously in Austin with a safety monitor in the passenger’s seat, and in the Bay Area with a driver using supervised full self-driving tech. Google’s Waymo operates a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in both those markets.

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