BEIJING — Chinese electric car brand Xpeng announced Thursday it received approval to start rolling out assisted driving tech to users in the nation’s capital city of Beijing.
The initial coverage only includes the “ring-road” highways that run in concentric circles around the city center and “main high-speed roads,” according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese-language release.
It was not immediately clear when the driver-assist tech could be used on all Beijing city streets.
Xpeng has said it plans to roll out the tech, called XNGP, to other Chinese cities this year. The system, available to drivers of certain models for a fee, claims to make driving easier with software that assists with smooth braking at traffic lights, turning at intersections and other tasks on city streets.
Xpeng is the only automaker in China to offer a similar level of driver-assist technology as Tesla. While Tesla offers assisted driving technology for use on highways, its “Full Self Driving” function for driver-assist on city streets isn’t yet available in China.
Xpeng claimed during its latest earnings call its driver-assist tech drove significant customer interest in cities where it can operate. The brand’s monthly deliveries have generally lagged behind competitors’.
An Atlas V rocket of United Launch Alliance (ULA) lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 23, 2025.
Gregg Newton | Afp | Getty Images
Amazon‘s second batch of Kuiper internet satellites reached low Earth orbit on Monday, adding to its plans for a massive constellation and ramping up competition with SpaceX’s Starlink.
A United Launch Alliance rocket carrying 27 Kuiper satellites lifted off from a launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6:54 a.m. ET, according to a livestream.
“We have ignition and lift off of United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation, continuing a new chapter in low Earth orbit satellite connectivity,” Ben Chilton, an ordnance engineer at ULA, said on the livestream following the launch.
Six years ago, Amazon unveiled its plans to build a constellation of internet-beaming satellites in low Earth orbit, called Project Kuiper. The service will compete directly with Elon Musk’sStarlink, which currently dominates the market and has 8,000 satellites in orbit.
Amazon in April successfully sent up 27 Kuiper internet satellites into low Earth orbit, a region of space that’s within 1,200 miles of the Earth’s surface.
The 54 craft currently in orbit are the start of Amazon’s planned constellation of 3,236 satellites. The company has to meet a Federal Communications Commission deadline to launch half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, by July 2026.
The company has booked more than 80 launches with several providers, including rival SpaceX, to deliver Kuiper its satellites into orbit.
A Tesla Inc. robotaxi on Oltorf Street in Austin, Texas, US, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. T
Tim Goessman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tesla‘s driverless robotaxi finally hit the road this weekend, sending shares of the electric vehicle maker up 10% on Monday.
The EV giant debuted autonomous rides in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, opening the service to a limited number of riders by invitation only. CEO Elon Musk said in a post on social media platform X that customers were charged a flat fee of $4.20.
“Super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!! Culmination of a decade of hard work. Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla,” he said in a post.
One tester wrote on X that they did 11 with the service with “zero issues.” Musk reposted numerous firsthand encounters with the services.
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Musk has long promised a driverless Tesla robotaxi fleet to investors, amping up the pressure to deliver.
The launch puts Tesla head-to-head with Alphabet‘s Waymo, which is already operating a fleet of robotaxis in several cities across the U.S. and reached 10 million trips last month.
Musk told CNBC’s David Faber last month that Tesla aims to have “Hundreds of thousands, if not over a million” self-driving cars in the U.S. by the end of next year. In May, Musk first announced plans to launch the service in Austin, with later debuts set for Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Heading into the launch, Tesla faced pushback from a group of Democratic lawmakers in Texas and public safety activists urged the company to delay the debut.
Tesla’s full-self driving capabilities, which feature a standard FSD or FSD supervised, include automatic steering and parking, but have been linked to accidents and fatalities, according to data tracked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews following a visit to North Carolina, in Maryland, U.S., June 10, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, Truth+, and the fintech platform Truth.Fi, said Monday its board has approved a stock buyback of up to $400 million.
Trump Media stock rose about 3% on the news premarket.
The Florida-based company, which trades under the ticker DJT on both Nasdaq and NYSE Texas, said the buyback could include both common stock and warrants, executed through open market transactions. All repurchased shares would be retired.
“Since Trump Media now has approximately $3 billion on its balance sheet, we have the flexibility to take actions like this which support strong shareholder returns, as we continue exploring further strategic opportunities,” said CEO Devin Nunes in a release announcing the move.
President Donald Trump, who indirectly owns more than 114 million shares of the company through a revocable trust, remains the largest shareholder.
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The announcement follows Trump Media’s $2.5 billion raise last month from institutional investors — one of the largest bitcoin treasury plays by a public company. The company said it would use those funds, which include $1.5 billion in equity and $1 billion in convertible notes, to buy bitcoin, with custody provided by Anchorage Digital and Crypto.com.
Calling bitcoin a “crown jewel,” Nunes said the move was designed to defend the company against what he described as “discrimination by financial institutions” against conservative businesses. The funds will also support the launch of Trump-branded exchange-traded funds and other crypto products later this year, pending regulatory approval.
Trump Media said the buyback will be funded independently and will not affect the capital already earmarked for its bitcoin treasury initiative.
In February, Trump Media reported a $400.9 million net loss for the full year on just $3.6 million in annual revenue. The company cited legal fees and a revised advertising revenue-sharing agreement as contributing factors.
Despite the losses, Trump Media said it ended the year with $776.8 million in cash and short-term investments.
The company, which went public via special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, last year, now trades with a market capitalization of around $4.9 billion.
The stock nearly doubled in 2024 as Trump won the U.S. presidential election in November. As of Friday’s close, the stock was down nearly 48% this year.