Mobility

Uber ends Waymo hailing in app as Phoenix robotaxi pilot concludes

Waymo robotaxi hailing via the Uber app has ended in Phoenix, Arizona. CNBC reported that the two companies wrapped up the Phoenix pilot and will keep the vehicles operating locally for other uses. Uber said the Phoenix program was intentionally limited, with about 10 dedicated vehicles, and that lessons learned helped it scale quickly in Austin and Atlanta. Waymo said the pilot laid groundwork for global expansion and partnerships.

AI & Enterprise

Robotics AI model race pits world models against VLA

Moves to develop AI models optimized for robots are accelerating, with two camps competing for technological leadership: vision-language-action models derived from large language models, and world models trained mainly on video to predict what will happen in real environments. The Information reported growing Silicon Valley interest in world models, though critics say they still make frequent errors. Some say VLA remains too slow and unreliable for broad production use.