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Waymo, Avis plan Dallas robotaxi launch in multiyear deal
Waymo, Avis plan Dallas robotaxi launch in multiyear deal

Miami Herald

time3 days ago

  • Automotive
  • Miami Herald

Waymo, Avis plan Dallas robotaxi launch in multiyear deal

Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo plans to launch robotaxi service in Dallas next year in partnership with Avis Budget Group Inc., a push by the autonomous car company to diversify beyond its relationship with Uber Technologies Inc. to further expand across the U.S. In a first, Waymo said Avis will serve as the fleet partner for its robotaxis in Dallas. Customers can order rides on Waymo's app while Avis will provide car management services, including infrastructure, vehicle readiness, maintenance and general depot operations, the companies said Tuesday in a statement. The Dallas deal marks a multiyear partnership that Waymo and Avis plan to expand to more cities over time, according to the statement. Avis' foray into robotaxi fleet management sets it up as a competitor to Uber and Lyft Inc., which are positioning themselves to provide similar services for driverless cars in addition to their customer-centric rideshare program. "Our partnership with Waymo marks a pivotal milestone in our evolution, from a rental car company to a leading provider of fleet management, infrastructure and operations to the broader mobility ecosystem," Brian Choi, Avis chief executive officer, said in the statement. The announcement also underscores that Waymo and Uber are partners and rivals as robotaxi programs are introduced across the U.S. In the five cities where Waymo vehicles are currently available, it offers rides via its app in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, while partnering with Uber in Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta. In the latter two markets, where Waymo rides are only available on the Uber app, Waymo is utilizing fleet services with Uber-backed partner Avomo. For its planned Miami launch next year, Waymo is providing the service through its app, but using operations from Uber-backed fleet management company Moove. Dallas will be a competitive robotaxi market with Uber and Lyft also planning to offer rides with their respective driverless technology partners. Uber is working with Austin-based Avride for a launch later this year, while Lyft plans to offer them with Intel Corp. spinoff Mobileye Global Inc. as soon as next year. Alphabet has been aggressively expanding Waymo's operations, which may also face increased competition from Tesla Inc. Earlier this month, Waymo more than doubled its service area in Austin, Tesla's home base. It also recently began testing in New York City and announced it will be doing the same in Philadelphia. (With assistance from Julia Love.) Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.

Google seeks licensing talks with news organisations, following AI rivals
Google seeks licensing talks with news organisations, following AI rivals

Business Standard

time22-07-2025

  • Business
  • Business Standard

Google seeks licensing talks with news organisations, following AI rivals

The company plans to launch a pilot project initially with about 20 national news outlets, according to one of the people Bloomberg By Julia Love and Hannah Miller Google is seeking to recruit news organizations for a new licensing project related to artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign the company wants to strengthen strained ties with the industry. The company plans to launch a pilot project initially with about 20 national news outlets, according to one of the people, who works at a media outlet that was contacted and asked not to be identified discussing private talks. 'We've said that we're exploring and experimenting with new types of partnerships and product experiences, but we aren't sharing details about specific plans or conversations at this time,' a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Getting Alphabet Inc.'s Google to pay for content for AI projects could be a big win for struggling media companies, which have lost readers and advertisers to digital outlets for years and view artificial intelligence as a new, potentially existential threat. With the exception of a partnership with the Associated Press earlier this year and a 2024 pact with Reddit, Google has mostly sat on the sidelines while AI rivals strike deals with publishers. Startups Perplexity AI Inc. and OpenAI have both started paying publishers to use their content in their chatbots, giving the media companies a much-needed infusion of revenue. Google's licensing project is tailored to specific products, according to another person familiar with the plan. They didn't share additional details of the program, such as possible terms. Google cites articles and online outlets in its AI Overviews, which are short, AI-generated responses that top many search results. While publishers believe those summaries have cut traffic to their websites, they have been hesitant to shield their content from Google's AI tools for fear of hurting their visibility in the company's search results. Silicon Valley and the media industry have been at odds over tech companies' use of news content to build AI programs, with publishers worried it will further erode their relationship with readers. In late 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI, alleging that the startup and its largest investor, Microsoft Corp., relied on copyrighted articles to train the popular ChatGPT chatbot and other artificial intelligence features. Yet as the media industry increasingly speaks out about the need for compensation, technology companies seem to be recognizing they must come to terms with news outlets, said David Gehring, chief executive officer of Distributed Media Lab, a company that works with publishers and advertisers. Gehring said he had no knowledge of Google's latest talks with publishers. 'Google and the other platforms realize that — if not by virtue of public policy then by virtue of technology — the platforms' access to unlimited web data is about to end,' said Gehring, who previously worked on news partnerships at Google and the UK newspaper the Guardian. 'And so they need to have licensing relationships in place, or there won't be any blood to put in the veins of the AI monster.' In July, Cloudflare Inc., a web infrastructure and security company, announced a 'pay per crawl' program that lets creators bill AI services for access to their content. 'Google still thinks they're special and that they don't have to play by the same rules that the rest of the industry does,' Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said in an interview. 'Eventually, Google will get in line with what the large AI companies have been saying for a long time, which is that ultimately content providers need to be paid for their content.' Google has long engaged in a delicate dance with news outlets. Many publishers depend on the search engine for traffic when news breaks. Yet industry leaders have cried foul about the tech giant's use of their content in products such as Google News, which displays headlines and short snippets of articles. In the past, Google has offered programs such as Google News Showcase to compensate publishers without undermining its core argument that the copyright doctrine of fair use permits use of their material. The company has also been more open to striking deals with wire services such as the AP, which are in the business of licensing content. Earlier this year, Google announced a partnership with the AP to provide news for its Gemini chatbot, its first deal of that nature. The tech giant has also explored an audio AI news product under its Gemini brand that leverages the content it's licensing from the AP, according to a person familiar with the matter. For the long-term health of the news business, Danielle Coffey, president of the News/Media Alliance trade group, said she is focused on ensuring the industry has 'a legally sustainable right to compensation and protections that will provide a fair market exchange for our valuable content across the board.'

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