In some San Francisco neighborhoods, automobiles with no driver behind the wheel have develop into a standard sight. Most of the metropolis’s ghostly driverless automobiles are industrial robotaxis, straight competing with taxis and ride-hailing firms. 

I spent the previous 12 months protecting robotaxis for the San Francisco Examiner and have taken practically a dozen rides in Cruise driverless automobiles over the previous few months. Throughout my reporting, I’ve been struck by the shortage of urgency within the public discourse about robotaxis. It’s excessive time for the general public and its elected representatives to play a extra lively function in shaping the way forward for this new know-how. Prefer it or not, robotaxis are right here. 

Now comes the tough work of deciding what to do about them. Learn the total story.

The chip patterning machines that may form computing’s subsequent act

After we discuss computing nowadays, we have a tendency to speak about software program and the engineers who write it. However with out the {hardware} and the bodily sciences that enabled their creation—disciplines like optics, supplies science, and mechanical engineering—trendy computing would have been inconceivable.

Semiconductor lithography, the manufacturing course of accountable for producing pc chips, stands on the heart of a geopolitical competitors to regulate the way forward for computing energy. And the velocity at which new lithography techniques and elements are developed will form not solely the velocity of computing progress but in addition the steadiness of energy and income inside the tech business. Learn the total story.

—Chris Miller