Volkswagen Wants a Driverless Taxi to Take You Home
A new Silicon Valley start-up wants to make driverless vehicles accessible to the masses, and is teaming up with Volkswagen and Hyundai to do it.
“Our goal at Aurora is to provide the driver,” said Chris Urmson, the company’s CEO and the former technology chief of Google’s Waymo. “Our partners build vehicles. They understand their customers, and they understand the businesses they want to be in. And we are going to provide them the capabilities for their vehicles to drive around.”
“We think that by developing a driver with a variety of other companies, we can actually make it better and safer, quicker.”
Aurora plans to develop fleets of self-driving electric taxis to roll out across major cities. Urmson told Cheddar that the company will be working with city governments to ensure a reliable system.
Founded about a year ago by Urmson, robotics expert Drew Bagnell, and Tesla alum Sterling Adelson, Aurora also announced a partnership this week with Nvidia to use the chip maker’s products in its autonomous systems.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-the-worlds-biggest-automakers-are-turning-to-this-company-for-self-driving-technology).
The streaming wars could be peaking as platforms vie for a shrinking pool of new subscribers and services like Disney+ recalibrate their outlooks as the rate of new memberships slows. Jana Arbanas, the U.S. telecom, media, and technology sector leader at Deloitte, joined Cheddar to discuss the 2022 outlook for streaming platforms, expecting more than 150 million people to cancel subscriptions adding to the global churn trend. "People are signing up for a service for a very specific piece of original, compelling content, watching that, perhaps, season of content, dropping that service, and then re-upping the service again when the next season comes out," Arbanas noted.
TikTok isn't just for remixing the best trending sounds. The social media platform is having a positive impact on animal shelters and helping pets find forever homes, according to Katie Grissum, the communications and design coordinator for the non-profit animal shelter charity KC Pet Project. Grissum joined Cheddar to break down just how TikTok is being used to raise money and draw more eyes to animals in need of adoption.
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri is slated to testify this week in front of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee after a Wall Street Journal report that found the Meta-owned social media platform is negatively impacting the mental wellness of teen girls.
Elon Musk confirmed via Twitter that Tesla's eventual first Cybertruck will be updated to include 4 motors, 4 wheel steering, and a crab mode — like some of its competitors. Andrew Hawkins, a transportation reporter for The Verge, joined Cheddar to talk about how the new Cybertruck positions Tesla in the EV space as more automakers make up ground on the industry leader. "I think that this is actually Tesla saying, hey, if this is what the market wants, then we better put our best foot forward and respond as best as we can," he said, noting companies like Rivian and Hummer have already touted these features.