General Motors‘ self-driving vehicle unit Cruise acknowledged that some of its cars stalled out on city streets in San Francisco following rainstorms that downed trees there on Tuesday night.
A witness to the Cruise robotaxi failures, John-Phillip Bettencourt, shared photos of the stalled vehicles on Twitter.
He told CNBC that around 1:45 p.m. on March 22, a large tree on the corner of Jones and Clay streets fell onto lines that power the city’s buses, “pulling them down.” After that, another tree on Polk and Clay streets fell into the street. In response, he said, the San Francisco Fire Department had blocked off Clay between Polk and Jones streets with caution tape.
By 9:45 p.m. Bettencourt saw and took photos of the two self-driving Cruise vehicles halted in the face of these unusual obstacles. He said the driverless Cruise vehicles did not appear to detect and avoid the caution tape and bus wires properly, and instead became “tangled in them.”
Bettencourt told CNBC via message, “The first car was a little in the path of the cross-street (about half way). Leavenworth & Clay are the cross streets. The second car was not blocking anything because behind it was all blocked off (to cars other than robocars evidently) I think the technology is very interesting. I mean it’s the stuff people my age only talked about when we were kids.”
After Bettencourt shared his photos on Twitter, the official Cruise account replied: “Given the damage caused by last night’s storms, some of our cars briefly entered areas with downed trees or power lines. Some were able to proceed autonomously, but where needed we immediately dispatched teams to remove the vehicles.”
Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro
A Cruise spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday the vehicles were not transporting any passengers, and that no injuries or property damage occurred as a result of the driverless cars coming to a stop.
Earlier this week, Cruise filed an application with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its robotaxis statewide, not just in San Francisco where it has been testing for more than two years.
A California DMV spokesperson told CNBC, “The DMV is aware of this incident and is in contact with Cruise LLC to better understand the circumstances. When applying for a deployment or driverless testing permit from the DMV, companies must identify their intended operational design domain, including the geographical area and specified conditions under which the vehicle may operate autonomously. Cruise has permits to test and deploy autonomous vehicles in San Francisco all hours of day and night, excluding heavy rain.”
Cruise is one of just three companies authorized to commercially operate their autonomous vehicles on San Francisco city streets, alongside Alphabet-owned Waymo and startup Nuro.
Others are authorized to conduct autonomous vehicle testing in California with no human driver in the car, including Amazon-owned Zoox and Chinese startup WeRide, according to the DMV website.
Bettencourt emphasized on social media and in messages to CNBC that he wasn’t trying to insult Cruise or be overly critical about Cruise. He took and shared photos of their cars halted on the streets of Nob Hill because he saw “something crazy that happened on my street on a crazy night,” he said.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Uber reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat on revenue and announced the authorization of a $20 billion stock buyback.
Here’s how the company did versus analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:
Earnings per share: 63 cents vs. 63 cents expected.
Revenue: $12.65 billion vs. $12.46 billion expected.
Here are the key segment numbers:
Mobility (gross bookings): $23.76 billion, up 18% year over year
Delivery (gross bookings): $21.73 billion, up 20% year over year
Uber’s revenue increased 18% from $10.7 billion a year earlier. For the quarter ending June 30, net income rose to $1.36 billion, or 63 cents per share,from $1.02 billion, or 47 cents per share, a year ago.
Gross bookings rose 17% to $46.8 billion, and the company reported adjusted earnings of $2.12 billion.
Uber’s “monthly active platform consumers” increased 15% to 180 million in the second quarter. The company said users booked around 3.3 billion trips during the period, up 18% from a year earlier.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in prepared remarks that Uber sees “enormous potential in better serving families across all stages of life.”
Read more CNBC tech news
In the second quarter, Uber launched Senior Accounts, including an “app experience” that features larger text and icons, and other features that allow family organizers to book and manage rides for others.
The company also recently started testing a new feature in the U.S. that allows women riders or drivers to avoid being paired with men in their ride when possible.
In some international markets, Uber Eats’ food delivery service is more popular than ride hailing, and the company is working to increase “cross-platform activity” to drive sales growth, Khosrowshahi said.
Uber shares are up 48% this year as of Tuesday’s close, while the Nasdaq has gained about 8% over that stretch.
Executives will go over results and the company’s outlook on a call with analysts at 8 a.m. ET.
Tesla is now training a new Full Self-Driving model boasting “big” video improvements and size upgrades, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday on social media.
“Tesla is training a new FSD model with ~10X params and a big improvement to video compression loss. Probably ready for public release end of next month if testing goes well,” the tech billionaire said in an update on the X social media platform.
FSD is a partially automated driving system that seeks to enable Tesla vehicles to navigate and maneuver in driving situations with minimal driver assistance. Owners must keep their hands on the wheel, and remain ready to take over steering or braking at any time. It also serves as an upgrade to the company’s Autopilot driver assistant, which is already available in Europe and China.
The system is based on an artificial intelligence model that helps the car’s cameras and sensors perceive the world around it. Musk’s comment on “10X params” refers to a larger parameter size. In the case of AI models, that usually means it is a bigger model that is trained on more data and is more capable.
FSD has been a central pillar of Musk’s strategy for Tesla’s revenue growth and tech advancement in the increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, where Chinese automakers have stepped up to the plate.
Tesla bulls expect the company’s future will be in autonomy as Musk’s automaker focuses on ramping up its offering of self-driving features.
But right now, the market is focused on how Tesla’s core business of selling cars is doing. And it has been challenging. Tesla most recently reported a 16% decline in automotive revenue in the second quarter and has also been notching steep declines in its European sales.
The company’s stock has taken a bruising this year that has been exacerbated by reputational damage from Musk’s now-severed relationship with the White House administration. Tesla shares were down 23.55% this year as of Wednesday morning.
China is one of Nvidia’s largest markets, particularly for data centers, gaming and artificial intelligence applications.
Avishek Das | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Two Chinese nationals in California have been arrested and charged with the illegal shipment of tens of millions of dollars‘ worth of AI chips, including from Nvidia, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Chuan Geng, 28, and Shiwei Yang, 28, exported the sensitive chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining the required licenses, the DOJ said.
The illicit shipments included Nvidia’s H100 general processing units, according to a criminal complaint provided to CNBC. The H100 is amongst the U.S. chipmaker’s most cutting-edge chips used in artificial intelligence applications.
The Department of Commerce has placed such chips under export controls since 2022 as part of broader efforts by the U.S. to restrict China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor technology.
This case demonstrates that smuggling is a “nonstarter,” Nvidia told CNBC. “We primarily sell our products to well-known partners, including OEMs, who help us ensure that all sales comply with U.S. export control rules.”
“Even relatively small exporters and shipments are subject to thorough review and scrutiny, and any diverted products would have no service, support, or updates,” the chipmaker added.
Geng and Yang’s California-based company, ALX Solutions, had been founded shortly after the U.S. chip controls first came into place.
According to the DOJ, law enforcement searched ALX Solutions’ office and seized phones belonging to Geng and Yang, which revealed incriminating communications between the defendants, including those about evading U.S. export laws by shipping sensitive chips to China through Malaysia.
The review also showed that in December 2024, ALX Solutions made over 20 shipments from the U.S. to shipping and freight-forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which the DOJ said are commonly used as transshipment points to conceal illicit shipments to China.
ALX Solutions did not appear to have been paid by entities they purportedly exported goods to, instead receiving numerous payments from companies based in Hong Kong and China.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and the FBI are continuing to investigate the matter.
The smuggling of advanced microchips has become a growing concern in Washington. According to a report from the Financial Times last month, at least $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s chips entered China after Donald Trump tightened chip export controls earlier this year.
In response to the report, Nvidia had said that data centers built with smuggled chips were a “losing proposition” and that it does not support unauthorized products.