Japan’s SoftBank leads largest investment to date in a European artificial intelligence company Business live – latest updates The UK self-driving car technology startup Wayve has secured more than $1bn (£800m) of investment to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence-powered vehicles, with the funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank. The $1.05bn investment is backed by the Japanese conglomerate along with the California chipmaker Nvidia and Microsoft, and is the biggest investment to date in a European AI startup ..read more

Deal to use mapping data from web search giant Baidu is a big step towards launching driver assistance tech in world’s biggest car market Elon Musk’s visit to China has reportedly reaped immediate rewards with a deal for Tesla to use mapping data provided by web search company Baidu, a big step in introducing driver assistance technology in the world’s largest car market. Musk made an unannounced visit to China over the weekend. The billionaire posted a picture of his meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, on X, the social network he took over in 2022 ..read more

Federal transportation agency finds Tesla’s claims about feature don’t match their findings and opens second investigation US auto-safety regulators said on Friday that their investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot had identified at least 13 fatal crashes in which the feature had been involved. The investigation also found the electric carmaker’s claims did not match up with reality. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosed on Friday that during its three-year Autopilot safety investigation, which it launched in August 2021, it identified at least 13 Tesla crashes invo ..read more

Tech company cuts employees from eight offices in Santa Clara in its first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts Apple is laying off more than 600 workers in California, marking the company’s first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts amid a broader wave of tech industry consolidation. The iPhone maker notified 614 workers in multiple offices on 28 March that they were losing their jobs, with the layoffs becoming effective on 27 May, according to reports to regional authorities ..read more

Do you have to brush your own hair, own an umbrella or keep at least one hand on your steering wheel? Don’t blame these visionary thinkers “Things can only get better”, D:Ream promised, but they were wrong, and so were most people in history who have tried to predict the future. It never stopped us from trying, though, and a few visionaries have been pretty good at it. There was Leonardo da Vinci, of course, with his helicopters and fridges, and Joseph Glanvill, who in 1661 suggested moon voyages and communication using “magnetic waves” might be a thing. Civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins, wr ..read more

Reports say tech giant made announcement during meeting and forecast layoffs, ending secretive and resource-heavy project Apple is canceling its plans to build an electric car, according to multiple outlets, ending a secretive project that has consumed immense resources over the past decade. Executives from the company made the unexpected announcement during an internal team meeting on Tuesday, forecasting layoffs and telling employees that many of them would shift to working on generative artificial intelligence, per reports. Apple is believed to have spent billions of dollars attempting to d ..read more

Electric cars might seem like a no-brainer on a warming planet, but there are plenty of people who remain sceptical about everything from their battery life to their carbon impact and the environmental and human rights costs of their parts. Madeleine Finlay consults Auke Hoekstra, known as the internet’s ‘EV debunker in chief’, to unpick the myths, realities and grey areas surrounding electric cars Clips: Joe Rogan, Global Radio Read Jasper Jolly’s EV mythbusters series here ..read more

California authorities investigating if attack on Google’s Waymo car is latest in series of protests targeting autonomous vehicles Authorities in California are working to determine if the destruction of a driverless taxi in an arson attack by a mob of lunar new year revelers was the latest in a series of protests targeting autonomous vehicles in the state. According to the San Francisco fire department, which posted images of the incinerated SUV on Twitter/X, a group of people jumped on the electric vehicle in the city’s Chinatown district on Saturday night, smashing windows and spraying it w ..read more

Councils in England will have to digitise all traffic regulation measures such as temporary speed limits or road closures Satnavs and Google Maps will soon include live data on road closures, parking restrictions and temporary speed limits in England under a UK government scheme aimed to ease drivers’ pain and pave the way for driverless cars. Councils will be ordered to digitise all traffic regulation orders (TROs), short-term traffic measures such as temporary speed limits or road closures ..read more

Laws in California have yet to catch up to autonomous vehicles, even though hundreds are already on the road Autonomous vehicles in San Francisco are exempt from traffic tickets if there is nobody in the driver’s seat, according to the San Francisco police department (SFPD), underscoring ongoing legal and safety concerns surrounding the expanding technology. California law has not caught up to the cars, even though they are already on the road, say public safety agencies and experts. SFPD policy states that officers can make a traffic stop of autonomous vehicles (AVs) for violations, but can o ..read more