A Cruise vehicle in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday Feb. 2, 2022.
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Kyle Vogt, CEO and founder of GM-owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise, announced Tuesday that the company’s robotaxis are now running around the clock in San Francisco.
The company’s paid, driverless service is a step towards broader commercial deployment of a long-promised autonomous alternative to ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft in the U.S.
The Cruise service is open to paying members of the public from 10 p.m. to 5:30am in the Northwest part of San Francisco, Cruise confirmed.
People who are eligible to ride in the Cruise robotaxis during the day, and in other parts of the city, are not charged a fee. They include what Cruise calls a “power user” cohort of riders, and “Cruisers” who are employees of the company.
Across San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, where Cruise is currently operating or testing its vehicles, there are around 240 driverless cars that run concurrently at night, with a majority in San Francisco.
The company did not disclose how many robotaxis are in use in a typical day or night in San Francisco.
Vogt said, in his announcement, “Operating robotaxis in SF has become a litmus test for business viability. If it can work here, there’s little doubt it can work just about everywhere.” He also teased Cruise robotaxi service poised to open up in other cities, and noted that the technology in the existing Cruise electric, driverless vehicles will also be used in the company’s larger shuttle, the Cruise Origin.
“There are still many challenges ahead for Cruise but this is a milestone worth celebrating,” Vogt wrote in an announcement posted to LinkedIn and Twitter.
Cruise is one of a handful of companies authorized to commercially operate their autonomous vehicles on San Francisco city streets without a human safety driver on board who can take over the driving task if there is a technical glitch or other need. Alphabet-owned Waymo and startup Nuro are also part of that cohort.
Other companies 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.
Like other robotaxi developers, Cruise’s autonomous vehicles have occasionally distressed San Francisco safety advocates, drivers and pedestrians after they have stalled in traffic or blocked streets. In one incident this spring, Cruise vehicles blocked a street with fallen trees and became tangled in power lines connected to the city’s MUNI transportation. No injuries or property damage occurred as a result, and Cruise sent teams to remove the vehicles.
A sign is posted in front of the 23andMe headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, on Feb. 1, 2024.
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23andMe said it will file a Form 25 Notification of Delisting with the SEC on or around June 6, which would subsequently remove the stock from listing and registering with the Nasdaq.
The company said the Nasdaq had originally informed the company that a Form 25 would be filed in March, but since the exchange has not yet submitted the filing, 23andMe is doing so voluntarily.
23andMe exploded into the mainstream because of its at-home DNA testing kits that allowed customers to examine their genetic profiles. At its peak, the company was valued at around $6 billion.
But after going public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, the company struggled to generate recurring revenue and stand up viable research or therapeutics businesses.
Regeneron’s deal is still subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Pending approval, it’s expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Elon Musk listens as reporters ask U.S. President Donald Trump and South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa questions during a press availability in the Oval Office at the White House on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Tesla shares gained about 5% on Tuesday after CEO Elon Musk over the weekend reiterated his intent to home in on his businesses ahead of the latest SpaceX rocket launch.
The billionaire wrote in a post to his social media platform X that he needs to be “super focused” on X, artificial intelligence company xAI and Tesla as they launch “critical technologies” on the heels of a temporary outage.
“As evidenced by the uptime issues this week, major operational improvements need to be made,” he wrote, adding that he would return to “spending 24/7” at work. “The failover redundancy should have worked, but did not.”
An outage over the weekend briefly shuttered the social media platform formerly known as Twitter for thousands of users, according to DownDetector. Earlier in the week, the platform suffered a data center outage. X has suffered a series of outages since Musk purchased the platform in 2022.
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Musk has previously indicated plans to step away from his political work and prioritize his businesses.
During Tesla’s April earnings call he said that he would “significantly” reduce his time running President Donald Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency.
In the last election cycle, Musk devoted time and billions of dollars to political causes and toward electing Trump in 2024. However, a story over the weekend from the Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the matter, said that Musk has grown disillusioned with politics and wants to return to managing his businesses.
Last week, Musk said in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum that he planned to spend “a lot less” on campaign donations going forward.
The comments from Musk precede SpaceX’s Starship rocket Tuesday evening. Pressure is on for the company after two Starship rockets exploded in January and March.
Ahead of the launch, Musk announced an all hands livestream on X at 1 p.m.
Tesla is still facing fallout from Musk’s political foray, with protests at showrooms and other brand damage.
In April, Tesla sold 7,261 cars in Europe, down 49% from last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Tuesday that the Trump administration does not want to “harm Apple” with tariffs.
“Everybody is trying to make it seem like it’s a catastrophe if there’s a tiny little tariff on them right now, to try to negotiate down the tariffs,” Hassett told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “In the end, we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what the update is, but we don’t want to harm Apple.”
Hassett’s comments come after President Donald Trump said in a social media post that Apple will have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the U.S. Apple has historically manufactured its products in foreign countries including China, India and Vietnam.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump wrote in the post. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!”
By some estimates, a U.S.-made iPhone could cost as much as $3,500.
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“If you think that Apple has a factory some place that’s got a set number of iPhones that it produces and it needs to sell them no matter what, then Apple will bear those tariffs, not consumers, because it’s an elastic supply,” Hassett said.
Hasset’s comments continue the administration’s push to pressure companies to shoulder the cost burden of Trump’s tariffs, instead of raising prices for consumers.
Earlier this month, Trump told retail giant Walmart to “EAT THE TARIFFS” after the company warned it would have to pass those added costs on.
Shares of Apple were up more than 1% Tuesday.
Apple did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.