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Elon Musk jumps for joy (Jonathan Newton/Getty Images)
Yay?

You* can now** ride in Tesla’s robotaxi ***

Read the fine print before you get too excited.

Rani Molla

* If you are a select Tesla employee.
** If you’re in the Bay Area or Austin.
*** If someone is sitting in the driver’s seat.

Yesterday, Tesla announced on X that it’s testing a supervised version of its upcoming ride-hailing service among employees in the Bay Area and Austin, ahead of what’s supposed to be a rollout of unsupervised driverless robotaxis to the public in two months in Austin. The company said it has completed more than 1,500 trips and 15,000 miles of driving.

The electric vehicle company is using Supervised Full Self-Driving technology on these rides, which the company says on its website requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. It doesn’t appear that the person in the driver seat in this video is holding the wheel (or at least not at the 10 and 2 position), but of course that’s closer to the company’s promised goal for the service.

While the caveats are large, this is a big step toward the company’s push for autonomous ride-hailing and at least suggests it has a working robotaxi app.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was mostly light on details about the June (or maybe July) launch during the company’s earnings call earlier this week, but said the program would start with 10 to 20 Model Ys and not Cybercabs, which are supposed to go into production next year. The rides would have remote support, but “it’s not going to be required for safe operation.” When pressed for more details, Musk said, “It’s only a couple of months away, so you can just see it for yourself in a couple of months in Austin.”

Rival Google-owned Waymo, of course, has been operating a driverless ride-hailing service in Austin along with partner Uber since early March.

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“Tesla killer” Slate Auto switches CEOs ahead of launch later this year

Just months before the expected launch of its $25,000 truck, so-called Tesla killer Slate Auto has swapped out its CEO. Former Amazon Marketplace Vice President Peter Faricy is the new leader of the Jeff Bezos-backed company, while the previous CEO, Chris Barman, one of the electric truck maker’s first employees, is now president of vehicles.

“ The marketplace component is really important to us. Being able to understand how to sell things in the 21st century is really important because we're gonna be direct to consumer, without dealerships,” Jeff Jablansky, head of communications at Slate, said of the change.  “The way Chris put it is, we are adding horsepower at a critical moment when people are going to be able to actually order their trucks.”

In a social media post just last month, then CEO Barman said the company would unveil the exact price tag for its Blank Slate, which goes on sale late in 2026, in June, but reaffirmed it will be in the mid-$20,000s.

“ The marketplace component is really important to us. Being able to understand how to sell things in the 21st century is really important because we're gonna be direct to consumer, without dealerships,” Jeff Jablansky, head of communications at Slate, said of the change.  “The way Chris put it is, we are adding horsepower at a critical moment when people are going to be able to actually order their trucks.”

In a social media post just last month, then CEO Barman said the company would unveil the exact price tag for its Blank Slate, which goes on sale late in 2026, in June, but reaffirmed it will be in the mid-$20,000s.

tech

Amazon’s autonomous ride-hailing service now testing in 10 markets

Amazon self-driving subsidiary Zoox announced Monday that it’s testing in two additional markets, Phoenix and Dallas, bringing its total to 10 US markets. The company will begin by mapping select neighborhoods using retrofitted Toyota Highlander SUVs with safety drivers behind the wheel, before progressing to autonomous testing and eventually rolling out its steering-wheel-less, purpose-built vehicles for public users.

The service is currently available to the public in Las Vegas and to select users in the Bay Area, where it’s served 300,000 riders.

Zoox is also opening a third “Fusion Center” facility, in Arizona after Las Vegas and the Bay Area, from which it will provide assistance and coordinate operations for its fleet.

Zoox’s expansion comes as Alphabet’s Waymo recently reached its 10th public market and as Tesla’s Robotaxi says it plans to open in six new markets in the first half of the year.

The service is currently available to the public in Las Vegas and to select users in the Bay Area, where it’s served 300,000 riders.

Zoox is also opening a third “Fusion Center” facility, in Arizona after Las Vegas and the Bay Area, from which it will provide assistance and coordinate operations for its fleet.

Zoox’s expansion comes as Alphabet’s Waymo recently reached its 10th public market and as Tesla’s Robotaxi says it plans to open in six new markets in the first half of the year.

tech

Microsoft will use Anthropic’s Claude to power “Copilot Cowork”

Microsoft is partnering with Anthropic to power its new agentic offering, Copilot Cowork. The AI world is abuzz with agents that can do your busywork for you, and Anthropic’s Claude Cowork is one of the most prominent and capable offerings in the field.

The tech giant wrote:

“Working closely with Anthropic, we have integrated the technology behind Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot. It is this multi-model advantage that makes Copilot different. Your work is not limited by one brand of models.”

Microsoft listed some examples of how Copilot Cowork could help with common tasks such as rescheduling meetings, sending emails, researching companies, working with spreadsheets, and making presentations.

It’s worth stepping back to note how wild it is that Microsoft, the productivity software behemoth that has absolutely dominated the business world for decades, has had to turn to an AI startup to control those apps.

“Working closely with Anthropic, we have integrated the technology behind Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot. It is this multi-model advantage that makes Copilot different. Your work is not limited by one brand of models.”

Microsoft listed some examples of how Copilot Cowork could help with common tasks such as rescheduling meetings, sending emails, researching companies, working with spreadsheets, and making presentations.

It’s worth stepping back to note how wild it is that Microsoft, the productivity software behemoth that has absolutely dominated the business world for decades, has had to turn to an AI startup to control those apps.

tech

China’s smartphone slump could strengthen Apple

China smartphone shipments fell 22% year over year in January, according to a new Bernstein research note. The drop was partly due to the timing of Lunar New Year and tough comparisons with last year, when government subsidies boosted sales, but rising memory costs are also weighing on demand — especially in the lower-end segment dominated by Chinese brands.

Low-tier shipments fell 37%, hitting brands like Honor and Vivo particularly hard, while high-end sales from Apple and Huawei held up better. Overall average selling prices rose 13%.

That could be good news for Apple, which sits at the more price-insulated upper end of the Chinese market and has been making a comeback in the country. Apple’s market share grew to 18% in January — in line with Huawei — from 14% a year earlier, while the rest of the market fell 2 percentage points to 65%.

With its scale and industry-leading margins, the iPhone maker is better positioned to absorb higher memory costs. To wit: it recently unveiled the $599 iPhone 17e, which keeps its entry price steady with its predecessor while doubling storage.

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