How to choose which Apple Watch to buy

Image: Cath Virginia. / The Verge

Between the Apple Watch Series 10, the Ultra 2, and the second-gen SE, there are more options than ever. We’ll help you sort through them.

Read the full story at The Verge.

BuzzFeed is selling Hot Ones

First We Feast.

After months of searching for a buyer to take First We Feast — the production company behind Hot Ones — off its hands, BuzzFeed has finally secured an $82.5 million all-cash deal to sell First We Feast to “a consortium led by an affiliate of Soros Fund Management LLC” The consortium’s list of investors includes First We Feast founder Chris Schonberger and Hot Ones host Sean Evans.

In a press release, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said that selling off First We Feast “marks an important step in BuzzFeed, Inc.’s strategic transformation into a media company positioned to fully benefit from the ongoing AI revolution.”

“In the coming years, we will continue to invest in our most scalable and tech enabled services, launching new AI-powered interactive experiences, and delivering for our loyal audience and business partners,” Peretti said.

BuzzFeed acquired First We Feast in 2021 when it bought rival media outfit Complex, the production company’s original owner. Though BuzzFeed wound up selling Complex off to Ntwrk earlier this year for $108.6 million, it elected to retain control of First We Feast.

The deal comes after months of speculation about how BuzzFeed might go about paying down $123.5 million in debt and interest payments. Failed Republican presidential candidate and soon-to-be DOGE co-head Vivek Ramaswamy (who recently purchased a 9 percent stake in BuzzFeed) previously insisted that BuzzFeed wouldn’t be able to get on top of its debt problem and that he could somehow end up running the company.

However, with cash on hand plus $75.6 from this sale, Buzzfeed says it can pay down the debt, and end up with more cash on its books than debt.

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I saw Google’s plan to put Android on your face

Google didn’t let me take my own photos, but this is strikingly similar to the demo I saw with my own eyes. | Image: Google

I demoed Google’s new Android XR platform, Samsung’s Project Moohan, and prototype smart glasses. I felt as close to Tony Stark in a controlled demo as I’ll ever be.

It’s an ordinary Tuesday. I’m wearing what look like ordinary glasses in a room surrounded by Google and Samsung representatives. One of them steps out in front of me and starts speaking in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish. Hovering in mid-air, I can see her words being translated into English subtitles. Reading them, I can see she’s describing what I’m seeing in real time.

I mumble an expletive. Everyone laughs.

This is my first experience with Android XR — a new mixed reality OS designed for headsets and smart glasses, like the prototypes I’m wearing. It’s Google’s big bet to power a new generation of augmented reality devices that embody all our wildest dreams of what smart glasses can be.

Google is no stranger to augmented reality. Google Glass crashed and burned with the public more than 10 years ago before being repurposed for enterprise users and eventually discontinued. But things are different now. Apple has the Vision Pro. Meta has the Ray-Ban smart glasses, and their AI features have garnered positive buzz. That’s why Google is jumping back into the fray with Android XR.

Google wants everyone to know the time is finally right for XR, andit’s pointing to Gemini as its north star. Adding Gemini enables multimodal AI and natural language — things it says will make interactions with your environment richer. In a demo, Google had me prompt Gemini to name the title of a yellow book sitting behind me on a shelf. I’d briefly glanced at it earlier but hadn’t taken a photo. Gemini took a second, and then offered up an answer. I whipped around to check — it was correct.

On top of that, the platform will work with any mobile and tablet app from the Play Store out of the box. Today’s launch is aimed at developers so they can start building out experiences. The average person won’t be able to buy anything running Android XR right now, but in 2025, Samsung will be launching its long-rumored XR headset. Dubbed Project Moohan (Korean for infinity), the headset will be the first consumer product to ship with Android XR. Technically, it’s running the same software as the glasses I tried, but Project Moohan will also be capable of VR and immersive content — stuff that wouldn’t be suited to a pair of smart glasses. It’s essentially a showcase for everything that could be possible. Hence why Google is going with XR — a catch-all term that stands for “extended reality” and encompasses AR, VR, and mixed reality.

Image: Google, Samsung

Project Moohan felt like a mix between a Meta Quest 3 and Vision Pro headset.

Samsung’s headset feels like a mix between a Meta Quest 3 and the Vision Pro. Unlike either, the light seal is optional so you can choose to let the world bleed in. It’s lightweight and doesn’t pinch my face too tightly. My ponytail easily slots through the top, and later, I’m thankful that I don’t have to redo my hair. At first, the resolution doesn’t feel quite as sharp as the Vision Pro — until the headset automatically calibrates to my pupillary distance.

It’s at this point when I start feeling deja vu. I’m walked through pinching to select items and how to tap the side to bring up the app launcher. There’s an eye calibration process that feels awfully similar to the Vision Pro’s. If I want, I can retreat into an immersive mode to watch YouTube and Google TV on a distant mountain. I can open apps, resize them, and place them at various points around the room. I’ve done this all before. This just happens to be Google-flavored.

I want to ask: how do you expect to stand out?

I don’t get the chance to before I’m told: Gemini.

For the skeptic, it’s easy to scoff at the idea that Gemini, of all things, is what’s going to crack the augmented reality puzzle. Generative AI is having a moment right now, but not always in a positive way. Outside of conferences filled with tech evangelists, AI is often viewed with derision and suspicion. But inside the Project Moohan headset or wearing a pair of prototype smart glasses? I can catch a glimpse of why Google and Samsung believe Gemini is the killer app for XR.

For me, it’s the fact that I don’t have to be specific when I ask for things. Usually, I get flustered talking to AI assistants because I have to remember the wake word, clearly phrase my request, and sometimes even specify my preferred app.

“One thing I’m really confident about, something that’s not just different from before, is that Gemini is really that great,” says Kihwan Kim, EVP at Samsung Electronics, who nods furiously in agreement when I mention this. To Kim, it’s the ability to fluidly speak to Gemini and the fact that it understands a person’s individual context that opens dozens of different options for the way each person interacts with XR. “That’s why I clearly see that this headset will give more insight about what [XR] should be.”

I was shocked at how well my translation demos went, which were in the same spirit as the video here.

In the Moohan headset, I can say, “Take me to JYP Entertainment in Seoul,” and it will automatically open Google Maps and show me that building. If my windows get cluttered, I can ask it to reorganize them. I don’t have to lift a finger. While wearing the prototype glasses, I watch and listen as Gemini summarizes a long, rambling text message to the main point: can you buy lemon, ginger, and olive oil from the store? I was able to naturally switch from speaking in English to asking in Japanese what the weather is in New York — and get the answer in spoken and written Japanese.

It’s not just interactions with Gemini that linger in my mind, either. It’s also how experiences can be built on top of them. I asked Gemini how to get somewhere and saw turn-by-turn text directions. When I looked down, the text morphed into a zoomable map of my surroundings. It’s very easy to imagine myself using something like that in real life.

But as cool as all that is, headsets can be a hard sell to the average person. Personally, I’m more enamored with the glasses demo, but those have no concrete timeline. (Google made the prototypes, but it’s focusing on working with other partners to bring hardware to market.) There are still cultural cues that have to be established with either form factor. Outside of Gemini, there has to be a robust ecosystem of apps and experiences for the average person, not just early adopters.

The headset demos felt more familiar, though Circle to Search was unique to Android XR.

“It’s not going to be a singular product. It’s Android,” says Shahram Izadi, Google’s VP of AR and XR, noting that Google has a three-pronged strategy for Android XR: laying the groundwork with devs is one element; Gemini’s conversational experience is another; and the third is the idea that no one device is the future of XR. Headsets, for example, may just be “episodic” devices you use for entertainment. Glasses could supplement phones and smartwatches for discreet notifications and looking up information.

“The way I see it, these devices don’t replace one another. You’ll use these devices throughout your day, and if there’s consistency with Gemini and generative AI experiences across these form factors, people will get more comfortable with wearing computers on their faces. That’s the on ramp to get to more immersive devices,” says Izadi.

Listening to Kim and Izadi talk, I want to believe. But I’m also acutely aware that all of my experiences were tightly controlled. I wasn’t given free rein to try and break things. I couldn’t take photos of the headset or glasses. At every point, I was carefully guided through preapproved demos that Google and Samsung were reasonably sure would work. I — and every other consumer — can’t fully believe until we can play with these things without guardrails.

But even knowing that, I can’t deny that, for an hour, I felt like Tony Stark with Gemini as my Jarvis. For better or worse, this example has molded so much of our expectations for how XR and AI assistants should work. I’ve tried dozens of headsets and smart glasses that promised to make what I see in the movies real — and utterly failed. For the first time, I experienced something relatively close.

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Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses

XR stands for “extended reality,” which you should get used to explaining to lots of people. | Image: Google

Google is taking another run at making headsets work. The company just announced Android XR, a new operating system designed specifically for what Google calls “extended reality” devices like headsets and glasses. It’s working with Samsung and lots of other hardware manufacturers to develop those headsets and glasses, is making the new version of Android available to developers now, and hopes to start shipping XR stuff next year.

We don’t yet have a ton of details on exactly how Android XR will work or how it might differ from the Android on your phone. (The Verge’sVictoria Song got to try a few demos and prototypes — make sure you read her story.) Google is making immersive XR versions of apps like Maps, Photos, and YouTube and says it’s developing a version of Chrome that lets you do multiwindow multitasking in your browser. It will also support existing phone and tablet apps from the Play Store, much in the same way Apple supports iPad apps in the Vision Pro.

Google’s Gemini AI, of course, is at the very center of the whole experience. Google has been trying to crack headsets for more than a decade — there was Glass and Cardboard and Daydream, all of which had good ideas but none of which turned into much — and the company thinks AI is the key to making the user experience work. “We believe a digital assistant integrated with your XR experience is the killer app for the form factor, like what email or texting was for the smartphone,” said Sameer Samat, who oversees the Android ecosystem at Google, in a press briefing ahead of the launch. As Gemini becomes more multimodal, too, able to both capture and create audio and video, glasses and headsets suddenly make much more sense.

Image: Google

This is the kind of AR interface you’ll get with Android XR.

The choice of the term “XR” for the OS is maybe the most interesting part. There are a million terms and acronyms for this space: there’s virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, extended reality, and others, all of which mean different but overlapping things. XR is probably the broadest of the terms, which seems to be why Google picked it. “When we say extended reality or XR,” Samat said, “we’re really talking about a whole spectrum of experiences, from virtual reality to augmented reality and everything in between.”

Google imagines headsets that can seamlessly transition from virtual worlds to real ones — again like the Vision Pro — and smart glasses that are more of an always-on companion. It’s also interested in audio-only devices like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Some things might be standalone; others might be more like an accessory to your phone. We’ll see if Google ends up building its own XR hardware, but it’s clearly trying to support a huge spectrum of devices.

Android XR is still in its early stages, and most developers are only now going to start getting the software and hardware they need to build for the new OS. But Google’s trying to move quickly next year: a device it’s building with Samsung, codenamed Moohan, is apparently slated to ship next year. Android XR is, in some ways, a culmination of bets Google has been making in AI, the broader Android ecosystem, and the wearable future of technology. All of those bets are about to get the real test: whether anyone actually puts them on.

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The Indian audio app spinning its own stories

Image: Cath Virginia, Adobe Stock

The Indian storytelling app gives its audience an unending stream of audio stories about lucky individuals who become rich. It might as well be an allegory for its own creator economy.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Kia drivers are going to get Google Maps data soon

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge

Hyundai and Kia will integrate Google Maps data into their current vehicle infotainment platforms ahead of a switchover to the Android Automotive operating system, the automakers announced today.

Hyundai, Kia, and the luxury nameplate Genesis will use Google Maps Platform’s Places API to inject 250 million points of interest into the existing navigation software. Kia will be the first to get the new data integration in North America, with “subsequent expansions” to other Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models globally. Hyundai says the changes are part of an ongoing Google partnership that accelerates their development of what the automaker calls “software-defined vehicles,” or SDV.

We asked Hyundai if current models on the road will get Google Maps data through a software update and will update this story when we get a response. The current navigation app for the companies primarily uses points of interest data from digital mapping company TomTom. Tesla is also one of several automakers that has its own navigation software on a closed OS but uses Places API for mapping data.

However, Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis will soon follow the industry-wide trend of moving to Google’s Android...

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YouTube TV’s monthly cost soars to $82.99

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

I maintain that YouTube TV is the very best of the streaming TV services, but good grief is it getting expensive. Today YouTube announced the service’s latest price hike, which brings the monthly subscription to $82.99. The change is effective immediately for new customers and will be reflected starting January 13th for “most existing customers.” As usual, the company attributes this increase to “the rising cost of content and the investments we make in the quality of our service.”

YouTube TV last raised its subscription cost to $72.99 in March 2023. Before that, it was $64.99. The days when the service ran only $50 now feel like a lifetime ago. Some of you who got in early might even remember it costing a mere $35 per month.

But since then, YouTube has routinely found itself in carriage disputes with Disney, NBCUniversal, and other content owners, and those renegotiated agreements have led YouTube TV’s price to climb higher and higher. The YouTube TV of today is much different than it used to be; there are more channels, yes, but the service has also shed a number of regional sports networks.

The company is quick to note that none of the service’s core benefits are changing. The base subscription still includes over 100 channels, cloud DVR with unlimited storage, up to six user accounts per household, and the flexibility of three concurrent streams. But YouTube TV still charges extra for 4K streaming, which seems harder to rationalize after this $10 price bump.

Customers are predictably none too pleased about the news and are weighing whether a service that now costs more than double its original price is still worth it.

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Sora’s AI video revolution is still a ways off

Prompt: “King Charles III UK eating a Greggs sausage roll on the throne.” There’s a lot wrong with these results... | Image: OpenAI / The Verge

The first version of OpenAI’s Sora can generate video of just about anything you throw at it — superheroes, cityscapes, animated puppies. It’s an impressive first step for the AI video generator. But the actual results are far from satisfactory, with many videos so heavily plagued with oddities and inconsistencies that it’s hard to imagine anyone finding much use for them.

Sora was released on Monday after almost a year of teasers heralding its capabilities. There are a few hurdles before you get to the video generation features, though. For one, account creation was closed within hours of launching due to the overwhelming demand. Those who did manage to sign up will find that its features also require a subscription to unlock: a $20 monthly “Plus” membership will let you generate videos at 480p or 720p, capped at either five or 10 seconds in length depending on the resolution. To unlock everything, including 1080p quality and 20-second-long videos, you need to cough up $200 a month for the “Pro” Sora subscription.

Prompt: “An indigo-colored cat lounging on a green armchair while wearing a pair of wireless headphones. A smartphone beside it is playing the Vergecast podcast.”

...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Warner Bros. Discovery restructures to split up streaming and cable businesses

Photo by Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Warner Bros. Discovery is reorganizing its business into two separate units: one for linear networks, and the other for streaming and studios business. The move, which is set to be complete by mid-2025, is meant to help the company “pursue further value creation,” potentially bringing it closer to breaking off its linear business entirely.

Over the summer, rumors suggested that WBD planned on severing its streaming business from its legacy networks completely, freeing Max from the company’s mountain of debt. The company’s linear networks have been struggling for a while now, with WBD taking a $9.1 billion writedown on its channels in August after TNT lost live NBA games to Amazon Prime Video.

WBD isn’t the only one shaking up its cable business. Last month, Comcast announced that it’s spinning off its cable TV channels into a new company. As noted by Deadline, Disney CEO Bob Iger also said last year that the company’s linear networks “may not be core” to its business.

WBD will move forward with the “foundational steps” of the new structure now, which CEO David Zaslav said will open up “potential future strategic opportunities across an evolving media landscape.”

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How to watch the 2024 Game Awards

Photo by Franziska Krug/Getty Images for game

It’s December, which means one thing: it’s time for another round of The Game Awards. As with last year — and every year — the awards themselves aren’t really the highlight of the Geoff Keighley-hosted event. Instead, the show has become a very long stream full of video game announcements, reveals, and trailers, punctuated by the occasional award and musical performance.

This year, we know at least a few of the major reveals, which will include the first gameplay trailer for Borderlands 4 and the next release from Hazelight Studios, the team behind surprise hit It Takes Two. Games like Palworld, Dying Light, and Mafia: The Old Country, are all confirmed to make an appearance, and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Hideo Kojima showed up as well, either to show off Death Stranding 2 or OD.

If you are interested in the awards, this year’s top prize features a solid lineup of competing games, including Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.

How and when to watch The Game Awards 2024

The ceremony kicks off at 7:30PM ET on December 12th and, as per usual, it’s streaming a huge bunch of places including YouTube, Twitch, X, Facebook, Instagram, and many others. (You can find the complete list right here.) It’ll also be streaming inside of Fortnite, if the metaverse is your thing.

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Character.AI has retrained its chatbots to stop chatting up teens

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

In an announcement today, Chatbot service Character.AI says it will soon be launching parental controls for teenage users, and it described safety measures it’s taken in the past few months, including a separate large language model (LLM) for users under 18. The announcement comes after press scrutiny and two lawsuits that claim it contributed to self-harm and suicide.

In a press release, Character.AI said that, over the past month, it’s developed two separate versions of its model: one for adults and one for teens. The teen LLM is designed to place “more conservative” limits on how bots can respond, “particularly when it comes to romantic content.” This includes more aggressively blocking output that could be “sensitive or suggestive,” but also attempting to better detect and block user prompts that are meant to elicit inappropriate content. If the system detects “language referencing suicide or self-harm,” a pop-up will direct users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a change that was previously reported by The New York Times.

Minors will also be prevented from editing bots’ responses — an option that lets users rewrite conversations to add content Character.AI might otherwise block.

Beyond these changes, Character.AI says it’s “in the process” of adding features that address concerns about addiction and confusion over whether the bots are human, complaints made in the lawsuits. A notification will appear when users have spent an hour-long session with the bots, and an old disclaimer that “everything characters say is made up” is being replaced with more detailed language. For bots that include descriptions like “therapist” or “doctor,” an additional note will warn that they can’t offer professional advice.

Character.AI

Narrator: it was not a licensed CBT therapist.

When I visited Character.AI, I found that every bot now included a small note reading “This is an A.I. chatbot and not a real person. Treat everything it says as fiction. What is said should not be relied upon as fact or advice.” When I visited a bot named “Therapist” (tagline: “I’m a licensed CBT therapist”), a yellow box with a warning signal told me that “this is not a real person or licensed professional. Nothing said here is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.”

The parental control options are coming in the first quarter of next year, Character.AI says, and they’ll tell parents how much time a child is spending on Character.AI and which bots they interact with most frequently. All the changes are being made in collaboration with “several teen online safety experts,” including the organization ConnectSafely.

Character.AI, founded by ex-Googlers who have since returned to Google, lets visitors interact with bots built on a custom-trained LLM and customized by users. These range from chatbot life coaches to simulations of fictional characters, many of which are popular among teens. The site allows users who identify themselves as age 13 and over to create an account.

But the lawsuits allege that while some interactions with Character.AI are harmless, at least some underage users become compulsively attached to the bots, whose conversations can veer into sexualized conversations or topics like self-harm. They’ve castigated Character.AI for not directing users to mental health resources when they discuss self-harm or suicide.

“We recognize that our approach to safety must evolve alongside the technology that drives our product — creating a platform where creativity and exploration can thrive without compromising safety,” says the Character.AI press release. “This suite of changes is part of our long-term commitment to continuously improve our policies and our product.”

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You can now use AirTags to expedite a lost luggage reunion through United’s mobile app

Apple’s new Share Item Location is already integrated into the latest version of United Airlines’ mobile app. | Image: United Airlines

Following the official release of Apple’s new Share Item Location feature with iOS 18.2 yesterday, United Airlines has announced it has integrated it into its mobile app. Passengers finding themselves at their destination without their luggage can now file a delayed baggage report through United’s app along with a Share Item Location link that will potentially expedite a reunion.

Passengers will need to ensure the United mobile app is up to date, but once a report has been submitted with a Share Item Location link connected to an AirTag or a tracker that’s compatible with Apple’s Find My network, customer service agents will be able to determine its current or last known location using an interactive map, according to United Airlines. Having access to the Find My network data for a missing bag will allow the airline “to more quickly find delayed bags and reunite them with customers.”

Image: United Airlines

Sharing a lost bag’s location through United’s mobile app will potentially expedite its return.

You don’t actually need the app to take advantage of the new integration. After filing a delayed baggage report either in person at an airport, over the phone, or through United’s website, passengers will “receive an automatic text notification with information to track misplaced luggage and add a Share Item Location link for their AirTag or Find My network accessory.”

Once a passenger is reunited with a missing bag its shared location will be disabled automatically. The location sharing can also be manually stopped by the passenger at any time, and for added security and privacy the link will automatically expire after seven days — hopefully long after the luggage is located and returned.

Apple says that Air Canada has also integrated the feature, and in the coming months more than 15 airlines “will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service process for locating mishandled or delayed bags.”

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With iOS 18.2, Apple completes its AI starter kit

Plant identification — now powered by ChatGPT. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

I was about to okay my friend’s restaurant suggestion for lunch — an Indian place on 2nd — when Apple Intelligence swooped in with another idea. “How about The Ritz?” appeared above the keyboard as a suggested response, highlighted in that telltale AI rainbow glow. The other suggested response, “Sounds good!” was much more reasonable. But ignoring both, I typed out my affirmative answer, hopped on my bike, and headed to downtown Seattle, where there are, to my knowledge, zero Ritzes.

Suggested replies aren’t new in iOS 18.2, but they’re a piece of the Apple Intelligence feature set that’s falling into place with this week’s public release of 18.2. Those suggestions I got while planning lunch kind of sum up my whole experience with Apple’s AI up ’til now: occasionally helpful, sometimes way off base, and often good for a laugh. But once the novelty wears off, it’s easily ignored — just like the AI feature sets on every other so-called AI smartphone I’ve used this year.

Apple had to get something out the door for its “built for Apple Intelligence” iPhones

Apple took its time getting here. The first set of AI features dropped with iOS 18.1 at the end of October, including...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Epic and Lego have a long-term plan to make Fortnite more than battle royale

Image: Epic Games

A year ago, Epic kicked off a bold plan to turn Fortnite into a broader ecosystem for all kinds of games. And that plan was led by the launch of Lego Fortnite, a Minecraft-style survival game that sits alongside the likes of battle royale and the music-themed Fortnite Festival inside of Fortnite. Now, Epic is pushing into another new direction with the launch of Brick Life, a Lego-themed city where players can live virtual lives, much like in Grand Theft Auto roleplaying servers.

The ongoing goal, according to Devin Winterbottom, Epic’s executive vice president of game development, is to keep expanding in ways that make people rethink what Fortnite actually is. “The worst outcome for us is that everything looks like battle royale,” Winterbottom says. “That’s not what we want to do.”

For Brick Life, that takes the form of a family-friendly nonviolent space where players can explore and socialize inside of a Lego city. It launches today as part of a broader rebranding of Lego Fortnite; now, those two words refer to a hub that houses all of the Lego experiences in the game, while the survival title has been renamed Lego Fortnite Odyssey. In between those two major releases, Lego...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Palmer Luckey’s defense tech company will make next-gen military aircraft with Archer

Image: Archer

Electric aviation startup Archer Aviation signed an exclusive deal with Palmer Luckey’s defense contractor, Anduril Industries, to jointly develop next-generation aircraft for the military. Archer also announced a new funding round of $450 million to help propel its defense ambitions.

The first product will be a hybrid propulsion vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that will serve as the basis for the companies’ bid for a contract with the US Department of Defense. Archer is also formalizing its efforts to be an aircraft supplier to the military through the creation of a new internal division called Archer Defense.

While Archer has been racing to finalize the government certification process that it will need to get the necessary government approvals for its electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft, it’s also getting more deeply involved with the military-industrial complex. The San Jose, California-based company also recently delivered one of its Midnight eVTOL aircraft to the US Air Force as part of its evaluation program. Other advanced aviation companies have made similar moves.

The first product will be a hybrid propulsion vertical takeoff and landing aircraft

Archer also announced it will be the recipient of a fresh capital round, with $430 million coming from preexisting investors such as Stellantis and United Airlines as well as new funders like Wellington Management and Abu Dhabi investment holding company 2PointZero, a subsidiary of the United Arab Emirates’ largest listed entity, IHC. Archer says it has raised a total of $2 billion to date.

Archer came out of stealth in spring 2020 after having poached key talent from Wisk (formerly Kitty Hawk) and Airbus’ Vahana project. (Wisk later sued for alleged trade secret theft, which was finally settled last year.) The company has a $1 billion order from United Airlines for its aircraft and a deal to mass-produce its eVTOL craft with global automaker Stellantis.

Alongside Archer, other eVTOL companies hope to eventually win full Federal Aviation Administration approval. That got a boost recently when the agency published highly anticipated final regulations for eVTOL vehicles that it says will chart the path for the “air travel of the future.” Archer praised the FAA for “providing clear direction on what is required for the safe operation of eVTOL aircraft in the U.S.”

Air taxis, sometimes misidentified by the mainstream media as “flying cars,” are essentially helicopters without the noisy, polluting gas motors (though they certainly have their own unique noise profile). In addition to Archer, companies like Joby Aviation, Volocopter, and Beta Technologies have claimed they are on the cusp of launching services that will eventually scale up nationwide. But others have floundered; German company Lilium recently said that two of its subsidiaries were insolvent and could cease operations.

Meanwhile, Anduril is a military technology company, founded by Oculus creator Luckey, that makes surveillance and reconnaissance tech as well as military drones. The company recently teamed up with OpenAI to integrate the ChatGPT maker’s software into Anduril’s counterdrone systems.

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Pokémon TCG Pocket’s new expansion drops next week

The Pokémon Company

If you’ve been playing Pokémon TCG Pocketsince launch, you’ve probably already collected most of the cards from the game’s first expansion. But a new set is about to debut in just a few days.

Today, The Pokémon Company announced that Mythical Island, a new expansion set featuring the pokémon Mew, is coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket on December 17th. A trailer for the expansion reveals a handful of new Pokémon cards coming to the game for the first time like Purrloin, Serperior, and Marshadow. Previously, the only way to obtain a Mew card was by collecting cards featuring each of the 150 original pokémon from the Kantonian Pokédex, but it should be much easier to snag the new Mew EX card simply by ripping a few packs.

The Pokémon Company also announced that TCG Pocket has exceeded 60 million iOS and Android downloads since the game launched at the end of October. The ability to actually trade cards with other people hasn’t come to the game just yet, but it’s going to be very useful given that there’s a bunch of fresh cards on the way.

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Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

OpenAI worried that ChatGPT would be a dud two years ago. Now, the stakes have never been higher.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Voicemod launches its voice-changing dongle for Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch

Image: Voicemod

Voicemod has released a hardware solution that enables its popular soundboard and voice-changing desktop software to work on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles. The Voicemod Key dongle is now available in the US after initially being teased in July, with Voicemod planning to launch it in additional countries “soon.”

Universal voice changers have previously been limited to desktop PCs and Macs, with software limitations preventing Voicemod from building an app for consoles. The Voicemod Key serves as a workaround — it sports a USB-C connection that plugs into a tablet or smartphone (including older iPhones thanks to an included lightning adapter), and two audio jacks that connect to your console and a wired gaming headset. The Voicemod mobile app can then be used to access the platform’s soundboard and real-time voice-changing features in console chats.

Image: Voicemod

Here’s an example of how the setup works — it’s worth noting that Voicemod Key will only work with wired headsets.

The Voicemod Key is supported on iOS 16 and Android 8.1 or higher. Availability is restricted to paid Voicemod subscribers, and the Key price will depend on your...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Epic’s dream is starting to come true — its store will be preinstalled on ‘millions’ of Android phones

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

Telefónica, one of the largest carriers in the world serving the UK, Spain, Germany, and Latin America with the O2 and Movistar networks, will begin preinstalling the Epic Games Store on every new compatible Android phone it sells — including Samsung phones.

It’s part of a “long term partnership” to bring the store and smash hit Fortnite to “millions” of the carrier’s devices, according to Telefónica and Epic. It’ll be the first time the Epic Games Store is preinstalled on consumer phones, and it could be the next big step in realizing Epic’s dreams of challenging Google’s app store monopoly and increasing its cut of revenue.

Last December, a federal jury unanimously sided with Epic Games in Epic v. Google, finding that Google had turned its Android app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly. Epic originally sued in 2020, alleging that Google had “blocked” or “bribed” phonemakers and cellular carriers to keep games like Fortnite and alternative app stores from being preinstalled on phones.

But now, roughly a month after Judge James Donato barred Google from any further potential blocks or bribes, one of the world’s largest carriers will begin those preinstalls, adding an entire rival game store (one that may also carry non-game apps in the future) to Google’s own.

Technically, Epic only launched its Epic Games Store on mobile this past August. Previously, it wanted nearly every phonemaker and carrier to preinstall one of a couple different types of Fortnite installer apps to bring the game to their phones. It offered a variety of deals to tempt them, and Samsung, LG, OnePlus and Huawei all initially agreed to do so.

But OnePlus only ever managed to do so in India, allegedly because it needed permission that Google wouldn’t grant. (Google disputes that reasoning.) LG apparently backed out because of a Google contract as well.

Telefónica wasn’t one of the carriers that Google “bribed,” Epic spokesperson Natalie Muñoz confirms to The Verge, so it’s not like Judge Donato’s order is making this newly possible.

In fact, Telefónica has partnered with Epic in the past. In 2020, it began letting Movistar customers in Spain tack their Fortnite purchases onto their phone bill. That year, court documents revealed Telefónica could expect to earn five percent of the proceeds from those Fortnite players as a result. Verizon and Hutchison (Three, Wind Tre) were offered similar deals, but we don’t know if they’ll now follow suit.

I wonder what Samsung thinks about Telefónica preinstalling the Epic Game Store on its phones — this September, Epic sued Samsung as well.

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The best deals on Apple Watches right now

The latest Apple Watch SE is an entry-level smartwatch if there ever was one. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In September, Apple launched its latest smartwatch, introducing the Apple Watch Series 10 alongside a black rendition of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE, but the recent introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 11, launched in September on the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, ultimately leaving those still using an older Series 4 or Series 5 behind.

Picking up a watch from the latest (or a recent) generation ensures you’re getting a smartwatch with an updated design, a robust number of features, and plenty of sensors. Now, let’s get to the deals.

The best Apple Watch Series 10 deals

The Apple Watch Series 10 represents the latest wearable in Apple’s flagship Series lineup. It features the new S10 SiP chip, faster charging, and a wide-angle OLED display that’s brighter, larger, and easier to read than that of previous models. It weighs half as much as the Ultra, too, and is about 30 percent thinner despite its new 42mm and 46mm sizing. Other upgrades include an added depth and water temperature sensor, as well as a new FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection feature, the latter of which is also available on the last-gen Series 9 and Ultra 2.

While the improvements are certainly welcome, the Series 10 isn’t a vast departure from the prior model, the Series 9. That being said, you can already pick up Apple’s latest wearable at Amazon in the 42mm sizing with GPS starting at $329.99 (about $69 off) thanks to an on-page coupon. The GPS-equipped model is also on sale at Amazon in the 46mm variant for $359.99 (about $69 off), while the LTE models can be had at Amazon starting at $429.99 (about $69 off). Both of the latter discounts also require you to clip the on-page coupon.

Read our Apple Watch Series 10 review.

The best Apple Watch Series 9 deals

In 2023, Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 9 alongside the second-gen Ultra. It uses Apple’s last-gen S9 SiP chip and a second-gen ultra wideband chip, which allow for onboard Siri processing and precision finding with select iPhone models. It also features a brighter, 2,000-nit display and support for Apple’s nifty “double tap” feature — two minor additions that are also present on the Series 10.

The Series 9 has been out for more than a year, but certain configurations have become increasingly difficult to find with the arrival of Apple’s latest watch. Luckily, the GPS-equipped Series 9 is still on sale at Target in the 41mm sizing starting at $299.99 ($100 off), or in the 45mm configuration at Walmart and Target starting at $329 ($100 off). There are also a handful of deals to be had on the LTE models with cellular connectivity, though none of them undercut the current price of the LTE-equipped Series 10 model by much, hence their exclusion here.

Read our Apple Watch Series 9 review.

The best Apple Watch SE deals

The Apple Watch SE received a refresh in late 2022. It has the same chipset as the Series 8, which is great, but with fewer sensors, no always-on display, and a slightly outdated design compared to the Series 8, Series 9, and Series 10. Those omissions might take this out of the running for some people, but it still may be exactly what you’re after. Best of all, it starts at $249 for the 40mm Wi-Fi / GPS model, which is $30 less than the previous generation’s baseline cost. Opting for cellular connectivity bumps the starting price up to $299 for the 40mm size (44mm adds $20 to each configuration).

At the moment, the best deals on the latest Apple Watch SE can be found at Amazon and Walmart, where you can pick the 40mm model with GPS in select styles starting at $189 ($60 off). The 44mm configuration, meanwhile, is available in select styles at Amazon and Walmart starting at $219 ($60 off). If you want the LTE configuration, the 40mm configuration is currently on sale at Walmart for $229 ($70 off), or in the larger 44mm sizing at Walmart for $259 ($70 off), its usual sale price.

Read our Apple Watch SE (second-gen) review.

The best Apple Watch Ultra 2 deals

The latest Apple Watch Ultra launched at $799 in September of last year with GPS and LTE support, much like the original model. The ultra-capable smartwatch has the most features, sensors, and ruggedness of any Apple Watch model available thus far, along with a display that’s 50 percent brighter than the first Ultra. The 49mm smartwatch also packs Apple’s S9 SiP and second-gen ultra wideband chips, just like the Apple Watch Series 9, while maintaining long-lasting battery life, precise GPS tracking, and a bevy of diving-friendly sensors.

In recent months, we saw the Apple Watch Ultra 2 dip to as low as $642 ($157 off) in select configurations. Right now, however, it’s only on sale at Amazon and Best Buy with a Trail Loop starting at $719.99 (about $79 off) or Amazon with an Alpine Loop starting at $759.99 (about $39 off). You can also pick it up with an Ocean Band at either Amazon or Best Buy, though neither retailer is currently discounting the burlier configuration.

Read our Apple Watch Ultra 2 review.

A note on the more premium models

While all of the Apple Watch models and colorways covered here are encased in aluminum (except the Ultra 2, which has a titanium build), Apple does make a more premium range built out of stainless steel and titanium. These offerings are functionally and aesthetically similar to their aluminum counterparts, with slightly refined colors and finishings — polished for the stainless steel and brushed for the titanium. However, they start at much steeper prices of $699 and above. They, too, can often be found on sale, but they’re never discounted as low as the standard base models, so we don’t include them here.

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Steam is adding a new default option for game updates

Illustration: The Verge

Valve is testing an option in the new Steam client beta that will force games by default to only download updates when you launch them.

Currently, Steam by default decides what game updates to download based on a few different things. As explained by Valve:

For games you recently played, Steam will download game updates shortly after they are released. For games that you haven’t played in a while, Steam might wait a few days to bundle multiple updates together or choose to download the update while you are asleep.

This new default option to wait to download an update gives players more control; as Valve points out, it means that users can hold an updating a massive game until they actually want to play it, which could be a relief for people with bandwidth caps.

You’ll find the new option in the beta Steam client settings under the Downloads section. “You can set the default to: let Steam decide when to update the game (based on factors like when you last played the game, bandwidth availability, etc.) or wait to update until the game is launched,” Valve says.

You can still set per-game download settings in a game’s Properties that override the global setting, but those options have “cleaned up descriptions,” according to Valve. And with the beta, you can also manage the per-game overrides in the overall Steam client Downloads settings.

Image: Valve

The Steam client Updates settings with “cleaned up descriptions.”

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Deals on Apple’s latest slates are finally worth springing for. | Screenshot: Apple

While the best iPad deals usually land during major sale events like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, many great iPad deals are attainable outside those times. The day-to-day discounts may come and go like changing winds, but there’s often something to be saved, particularly on the more affordable iPads. The most recent iPad Pro and iPad Air are also starting to see substantial price reductions, and now that Apple has a new iPad Mini, we’re seeing regular discounts on the last-gen Mini as well.

It’s difficult to know where exactly you can find the most notable iPad deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available, from the cheapo ninth-gen iPad of 2021 to the latest models equipped with Apple’s powerful M2 and M4 chips.

The best iPad (2021) deals

Announced alongside the iPhone 13 way back in 2021, the ninth-gen iPad is Apple’s aging entry-level tablet, one that’s still great at carrying out everyday tasks despite having been discontinued. The ninth-gen model originally started at $329 with Wi-Fi and 64GB of storage, which arguably makes the newer 10th-gen model the better deal if you don’t need a home button or a headphone jack, as it now starts at $349 and is often on sale for even less.

The last-gen iPad has been receiving a steep discount for quite a while, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find in most configurations. That being said, Walmart is still selling the 64GB base model with Wi-Fi for $249 ($80 off), which is about $50 shy of its all-time low. As for the step-up 256GB variant, Amazon has it in silver for $359 ($120 off), which is $10 more than its lowest price to date.

A last-gen model is still worth considering

The last-gen iPad uses an A13 Bionic processor and a 12MP wide-angle camera with Center Stage, a feature designed to keep you framed up and centered while on video calls. The tablet also carries over a number of features from its predecessor, such as the 10.2-inch display, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, and a smart connector for connecting a smart keyboard.

The best iPad (2022) deals

Although the newer 10th-gen iPad came out in late 2022, it’s still an excellent tablet — one we consider to be the best value for most people (once Apple dropped its price). The latest iPad modernizes the design with a switch to USB-C, uniform bezels with no home button, a side power button with a fingerprint sensor, and a larger display, but it eliminates the 3.5mm headphone jack.

In the past, you could often buy Apple’s latest entry-level iPad for $349 ($100 off its initial launch price) — which is now the MSRP. Right now, however, the base model with 64GB of storage is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart for $279 ($70 off), which is about $30 more than its lowest price to date. Amazon and Best Buy are also selling the 256GB model starting at $429 ($70 off), which nearly matches its all-time low.

The best iPad Mini (2021) and iPad Mini (2024) deals

The new iPad Mini is similar to the outgoing 2021 model but comes with faster Wi-Fi and USB-C speeds, support for the Apple Pencil Pro, and a newer processor that supports Apple Intelligence. That said, the sixth-gen iPad Mini could still be worth a look if prices continue to drop. It has an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display, an A15 Bionic processor, a USB-C port, and options for 5G. It lacks the 3.5mm jack and dedicated home button found on the prior model, but so do all of the tablets in Apple’s current lineup.

Despite its age, the 2021 iPad Mini still technically starts at $499 with 64GB of storage (the seventh-gen model starts at the same price with 128GB of storage). Electing for 256GB of storage brings the price up to $649, while the 5G cellular models are $649 for 64GB and $799 for 256GB. These are some big numbers for a small iPad, and the larger iPad Air might be worth considering if you prefer your dollar to go further with more screen real estate. But if you want an Apple tablet in the smallest possible form factor, this is where the action is.

Although the seventh-gen iPad Mini is now widely available, it’s not worth the upgrade unless you want to leverage Apple Intelligence or the newer Apple Pencil Pro. Thankfully, you can still pick up the 64GB iPad Mini from 2021 at Walmart for $389 ($110 off), which misses its all-time low by $40. The 256GB sixth-gen Mini is also on sale at Walmart in select colors for $549 ($100 off), which is $50 more than its lowest price to date.

If you do want the newest Mini, you can get the 128GB base configuration with Wi-Fi at Amazon and Best Buy for a record low of $449 ($50 off). You can also get the Wi-Fi model with 256GB of storage for $549 ($50 off) at both Amazon and Best Buy, though Amazon currently does not provide a shipping estimate for the tablet.

The best iPad Air (2024) deals

Apple just recently launched the 2024 iPad Air, which features several small upgrades. The newer model doesn’t feature any groundbreaking changes compared to the 2022 release, but notably, there is now a 13-inch configuration in addition to a base 11-inch model. Apple also added Wi-Fi 6E radios and upgraded the chipset to M2, which enables the hover feature when using Apple’s latest styluses. You can use the newer iPad Air with the Apple Pencil Pro and both previous-gen Magic Keyboards, too. The 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599, while the comparable 13-inch model starts at $799.

Deals for the 2024 iPad Air started to appear before the latest model even hit store shelves. Right now, you can pick up the 11-inch base model with 128GB of storage and Wi-Fi at Amazon and Best Buy starting at $499 ($100 off), which is its best price to date. The 13-inch iPad Air with 128GB of storage, meanwhile, is on sale at Best Buy for an all-time low of $699 ($100 off).

The best iPad Pro (2024) deals

Compared to the latest iPad Air, the 2024 iPad Pro is a far more impressive upgrade. The 11- and 13-inch models start at $999 and $1,299, respectively, and they are the first Apple devices to feature the company’s latest M4 chip, which brings moderate performance gains and dedicated hardware for on-device Apple Intelligence processing. The new Pro models can claim other firsts, too, such as being the first iPad models with OLED displays and the lightest Pros yet, which is true for both sizes. They also feature repositioned front-facing cameras that sit along the horizontal edge, which prevent you from looking as though you’re staring off into space on a video call.

As for deals, the 11-inch iPad Pro with Wi-Fi / 256GB of storage is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $899 (about $100 off), which is only $2 more than the lowest price to date. The sleek and super-thin 13-inch model, meanwhile, is on sale in its 256GB base configuration at Amazon and Best Buy for $1,099 ($200 off), which is an all-time low price.

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The best MagSafe and Qi2 chargers for your iPhone

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Thanks to Qi2, there are way more great chargers for your MagSafe phone than ever before.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Verge’s 2024 holiday gift guide for tinkerers

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Whether you’re assembling a PC, planning an epic Etsy crafts store, or just fixing a squeaky old chair, we found some handy tools that anyone can appreciate.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sonos plans return-to-office push for its product teams

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Sonos will soon encourage employees on its various product teams who live near its US office locations to come in for at least two days per week, The Verge has learned. That’s a notable break from the company’s history, throughout which Sonos has enthusiastically supported fully remote and hybrid work. Job listings at Sonos routinely state that “it’s about impact, not location.” Glassdoor reviews have long backed this up, with employees reporting no pressure to come into the office.

But that lax stance is set to change slightly as Sonos continues its effort to right the ship following this year’s app mishap and stay on track with upcoming products. It’s adopting a stricter policy that will call for product employees within proximity of Santa Barbara, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco to regularly be present at those offices. The Santa Barbara location is where Sonos is headquartered. The company also currently operates international offices in Paris and the Netherlands

“Flexibility has been a core tenet of how Sonos has operated since our founding. Flexibility is not going away, but like many companies, we are evaluating the impact that in-person collaboration has on the...

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Android is making it easier to find unknown trackers to prevent stalking

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is rolling out two new updates to its unknown tracker alerts feature that should make it easier for Android device owners to detect unfamiliar trackers, the company announced on Wednesday. Introduced in July 2023, the safety feature automatically sends notifications if an unwanted Bluetooth tracker is traveling with you.

The first update lets Android phone owners temporarily stop sending location updates to the Find My Device network if an unknown compatible tracker is detected. Google will pause these updates for up to 24 hours, so your location will no longer be visible to whoever could be monitoring your location via the tag.

Second, anybody who receives an unknown tracker alert will be able to locate the unwanted Find My Device-compatible tracker using the “Find Nearby” feature. Once you’ve found it, Google will also offer instructions for how to physically disable the tag.

Over the years, Bluetooth trackers have been increasingly misused. Domestic abusers and stalkers have, for example, used it to keep tabs on victims, with one class action lawsuit claiming AirTag stalking had contributed to “multiple murders.” In response, Apple and Google have made various efforts to combat stalking, including an announcement earlier this year indicating support for a new industry specification, Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers, that works on both iOS and Android.

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How to responsibly get rid of the stuff you’ve decluttered

Graphic by James Bareham / The Verge

While we’re always being told how to simplify our cramped living spaces and get rid of all the stuff we’re no longer using or wearing, it’s often hard to figure out just how to do it responsibly without adding to the world’s excess trash.

Because just dumping them isn’t an option, reusing and recycling old and unneeded stuff has become an important aspect of the push to preserve the world’s environment. Many states and urban areas have mandated the recycling of tech, metals, paper goods, or other substances, but even if you live in an area where the law doesn’t require it, you probably still want to do the right thing.

The problem is finding how and where you can get rid of your stuff with the greatest advantage to you and the least amount of damage to the environment. This may have been more difficult than usual over the past few years because many resources for recycling were suspended during the covid-19 pandemic, and some were slow to come back — or never did. However, there are still a number of online services that can help you figure out how to responsibly get rid of things — and possibly make some money in the process.

Here are some resources to check out, depending on...

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NYT tech workers win tentative union contract after election week strike

Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

The NewsGuild of New York announced Wednesday that it has reached a tentative deal with The New York Times on behalf of the Times Tech Guild. The tentative three-year contract would be the first for the guild, which was initially formed in 2021.

The tentative deal follows a strike that kicked off the day before the US presidential election in November and lasted for just over a week. During the strike, the guild asked people not to play NYT games like Wordle and Connections and made a page dedicated to strike-themed versions of games to play instead. In its press release, the NewsGuild says that the site saw “more than a half million page views and more than 320,000 active users.”

The guild will vote to ratify the contract on December 19th. Here are some of the highlights of the contract, from the NewsGuild’s press release:

Enhanced job security with ‘just cause’ protections

Guaranteed wage increases for the first time of up to 8.25% (plus additional base rate discretionary compensation) that prioritize the largest wage increases for the lowest paid members over the life of the contract

Additional compensation for on-call work

Important protections that lock in guardrails on additional variable compensation (including stocks and bonuses)

Improved protections for workers on visas

Language guaranteeing flexible hybrid work schedules

Process and transparency protections related to career growth, performance reviews and other workplace issues

“We’re pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the Tech Guild,” NYT spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha says in a statement to The Verge.

Update, December 11th: Added NYT statement.

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The best doorbell cameras

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

We picked the best video doorbell cameras for keeping an eye on people, packages, and anything else that comes across your front porch.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The end of Cruise is the beginning of a risky new phase for autonomous vehicles

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

Eight years and $10 billion later, GM has decided to pull the plug on its grand robotaxi experiment.

The automaker’s CEO, Mary Barra, made the surprise announcement late on Tuesday, arguing that a shared autonomous mobility service was never really in its “core business.” It was too expensive and had too many regulatory hurdles to overcome to make it a viable revenue stream. Instead, GM would pivot to “privately owned” driverless cars — because, after all, that’s what the people really wanted.

“Customers like to drive,” Barra said in a call with investors. “And there’s times they don’t like to drive.”

If some of this sounds familiar, Ford essentially made the same decision two years ago when it pulled its funding for Argo AI, the autonomous driving startup it had financed since 2017. It cited as one of its reasons a belief that partial autonomy — often described as Level 3 or Level 3-plus — will have more near-term payoffs.

Automakers are tapping out of the robotaxi business

Automakers are tapping out of the robotaxi business. With all the money being spent on electric vehicles, the auto industry has decided to cut its losses on autonomous mobility. Only one transformational, prohibitively expensive, once-in-a-generation shift at a time.

“I think this is more a recognition that autonomous vehicle technology is going to take a decade or more to provide driverless rides at a national scale,” said Phil Koopman, an AV expert from Carnegie Mellon University. “GM decided that they would rather make money selling private cars while waiting for the technology to mature than continue to invest billions of dollars standing up robotaxi businesses city by city.”

Turmoil behind the scenes

To be sure, there’s been a lot of technological progress. Not too long ago, Cruise had driverless cars ferrying passengers across San Francisco. The company even said it was on the cusp of winning government approval to deploy its steering wheel- and pedal-less Origin shuttles in a bid to move even more people.

But Cruise moved too aggressively, and it paid the price. The company had 5 million miles of real-world testing under its belt, but the embarrassing incidents were starting to pile up. Its driverless vehicles were blocking traffic or running into emergency vehicles in San Francisco. The city’s fire chief said that the vehicles were “not ready for prime time,” citing over six dozen incidents in which robotaxis interfered with fire trucks.

“GM decided that they would rather make money selling private cars while waiting for the technology to mature”

Behind the scenes, Cruise was also a mess. The company’s first CEO, Dan Ammann, was sacked after sparring with Barra over the future direction of the company. Barra thought GM should be using Cruise’s technology to power everything from luxury self-driving Cadillacs to commercial vans, according to Bloomberg. Ammann wanted to get the robotaxi service right before spreading resources to other parts of the company. He also wanted to take Cruise public so it could use its public stock to lure in top talent. Barra wanted to keep it in-house, so GM could eventually reap the rewards.

Meanwhile, Cruise was continuing to rack up huge losses. The robotaxi subsidiary lost a staggering $3.48 billion in 2023. Kyle Vogt, Cruise cofounder and Amman’s successor as CEO, was under mounting pressure to expand the service and bring in more money to help cover the losses. Plus, he was directly competing with Alphabet’s Waymo, which had more vehicles and seemingly better technology. And Google’s parent company was more willing to spend billions of dollars, without any near-term profits, to win the robotaxi race. With the screws tightening, Vogt publicly drew a line in the sand: Cruise would bring in over $1 billion in revenue by 2025.

Instead, Cruise never made it to the end of 2024.

Drag and drop

It all culminated in an incident on October 7th, 2023, when a Cruise vehicle in San Francisco struck and dragged a pedestrian over 20 feet, seriously injuring her. The victim was initially struck by a hit-and-run driver, which launched her into the path of the Cruise car.

Cruise disclosed to regulators that its vehicle had struck a pedestrian but omitted key details about the accident. As a result, the California DMV suspended the company’s permit to operate self-driving cars in the state, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission launched separate investigations. Cruise later agreed to a $1.5 million penalty.

But more importantly, the incident damaged Cruise’s effort to win the public’s trust. San Francisco residents were already annoyed by the frequency with which the company’s cars were blocking their intersections and bumping into their emergency vehicles. Urbanists and supporters of car-free transportation were peeved at the suggestion that robot cars, and not fewer cars altogether, were what was needed to improve street safety. And regulators didn’t like being misled about a dangerous incident.

The incident damaged Cruise’s effort to win the public’s trust

But even in the aftermath of the pedestrian-dragging event, GM still stuck with Cruise. It wasn’t until the automaker realized it going to have to take a $5 billion hit on restructuring its business in China that Cruise was ultimately cut loose.

“Total ownership by a century old manufacturing giant controlled by stock buyback-seeking value investors was never going to be successful,” Ray Wert, former communications director at Cruise, said on Bluesky.

Ex-CEO Vogt was even more succinct: “In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies.,” he wrote on X.

Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP via Getty Images

What’s next?

With Cruise out of the picture, Waymo is one of the only ones left aiming to prove that robotaxis can work in the real world. (Amazon’s Zoox and Hyundai’s Motional are also still in the game, albeit far behind Waymo.) Tesla is also pursuing its own robotaxi project, which it claims will launch in 2026.

Meanwhile, GM will tackle a new risky experiment: personally owned autonomous vehicles. GM knows how to sell cars to people, and the company already has a hands-free highway driving feature called Super Cruise. Why not just leverage Cruise’s fully autonomous technology to make Super Cruise even better?

GM may have scrapped its “Ultra Cruise” branding to develop a partially autonomous system that covers “95 percent” of driving scenarios, but it still thinks that people want a fully autonomous car of their own — on their own terms.

“I think the application of what the customer wants in a privately owned vehicle is very different,” Barra said on Tuesday. “But I also think... there’s a lot of commonality [with Cruise’s technology]. How it seamlessly moves back and forth, I think is something different in a personal autonomous vehicle.”

“I think the application of what the customer wants in a privately owned vehicle is very different”

Driver-assistance technologies, especially so-called Level 3 systems, carry their own risks. There have been studies that show that the handoff between a partially automated system and a human driver can be especially fraught.

When people have been disconnected from driving for a longer period of time, they may overreact when suddenly taking control in an emergency situation. They may overcorrect steering, brake too hard, or be unable to respond correctly because they haven’t been paying attention. And those actions can create a domino effect that has the potential to be dangerous — perhaps even fatal.

The safety implications are enormous, as are the liability concerns. GM may eventually decide that robotaxis aren’t such a bad bet after all.

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