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Waymo received final approval to operate its driverless taxis in California last week and will start charging for its driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco starting Monday, August 21.

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission issued its final approval allowing Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise driverless taxi services to operate 24/7 in the state.

Both companies currently operate public rideshare services only in San Francisco, though Waymo is testing driverless rides with employees in LA, and Cruise will start doing so soon.

Last year, Cruise started charging for rides in San Francisco, but until now, Waymo has not. Waymo does charge for rides in Phoenix (and has since 2020), where it first began its public operations, but its SF rides have been free up until this announcement.

Today, Waymo emailed its current Waymo One users, letting them know about next week’s fare implementation. (Thanks to our reader Scott for tipping us off on this.) In Waymo’s announcement, it specified a few points about its fare system:

  • We’re transparent with our pricing — you’ll always know your trip cost before you book
  • We base the price of your trip on the most direct route. Even if the car reroutes, or adapts a route in an unexpected way, the cost will not change
  • During busier times, like nights and weekends, prices may be higher to help manage demand for rides
  • Our wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) service will remain free for now

Waymo has not yet listed its fare structure. A little more information is available on Waymo’s Help Center, but for actual fares, you’ll have to check the app. Until now, the app has shown an estimated price for each ride, but the price was struck through and replaced with “$0.” So we imagine pricing will stay similar to what the app has shown until now.

For comparison, Cruise charges a base fare of $5, with an additional 90 cents per mile and 40 cents per minute. But one big difference between the systems is that Cruise does not use surge pricing, whereas Waymo says that it will. As a result, Waymo’s “standard fares” will likely change, based on what time you’re ordering the service.

In comparison to other ride-hailing apps, we checked a sample ride on Uber, Lyft, and Waymo, and all three offered similar prices in the $11-14 range – though with Waymo, you don’t have to tip a driver, so there’s that. For reference, the sample fare was along a bus route with a fare of $2.50 and a free return trip within 2 hours.

Waymo says its busier times are generally weekday nights and all day on weekends, with exceptionally busy times on Friday and Saturday nights:

The system may be about to get busier, too, as Waymo rolls out to more users. While Waymo is currently open to the public, there is still a waitlist to get in as an approved user, which you can sign up for through the Waymo One app.

The app currently has 100,000 users on its waitlist and serves 10,000 rides a week between San Francisco and Phoenix. Those waitlist users will be invited “incrementally” as the service is expanded.

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Renewable giants shrug off Trump’s anti-wind policies: ‘Electrification is absolutely unstoppable’

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Renewable giants shrug off Trump's anti-wind policies: 'Electrification is absolutely unstoppable'

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. 

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Renewable energy giants appear relatively sanguine about U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anti-wind policies, describing the process of replacing fossil fuels with electrically powered products as “absolutely unstoppable.”

Trump, who promised a new “golden age” for America in his inaugural address on Monday, swiftly took aim at low-carbon energy initiatives.

In a standalone executive order, which had been widely expected, the president temporarily suspended new or renewed leases for offshore and onshore wind projects and halted the leasing of wind power projects on the outer continental shelf.

“We are not going to do the wind thing. Big ugly windmills, they ruin your neighborhood,” Trump told his supporters at the Capital One Area in Washington on Monday. He previously described wind turbines as an economic and environmental “disaster.”

The measures formed part of a much broader energy offensive designed to “unleash” already booming oil and gas production. This included declaring a national energy emergency, promoting fossil fuel drilling in Alaska and signing an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the landmark Paris Agreement.

Joe Kaeser, chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Energy, one of the world’s biggest renewables players, seemed unfazed by Trump’s sweeping energy agenda. In fact, Kaeser considered the policies a “slight plus” for the German energy technology group.

Shares of Siemens Energy jumped more than 8% on Wednesday morning, hitting a new 52-week high.

“We need to see what’s behind all the executive orders and the policies. So far, I believe there are many areas where actually Siemens Energy benefits a lot,” Kaeser told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.

There will be uncertainty for low-carbon energy sectors, such as onshore and offshore wind, Kaeser said, before adding that Trump’s measures were unlikely to directly impact Siemens Energy. That’s partly because roughly 80% of the firm’s wind market is in Europe, Kaeser said.

European Union is not prepared for Trump 2.0, top German business executive says

“So, I believe that doesn’t move the needle. I’m much more worried about the European economies and how they deal with a very powerful nation, with a very powerful concept. We may or may not like it, because it’s got some nationalistic type of things, but if we look at it from the view of the American people, we better get something going,” Kaeser said.

Beyond onshore and offshore wind, Kaeser said Siemens Energy was well positioned to capitalize from a “booming” electrification market.

“Think about the data centers, artificial intelligence, we have waiting times now on large gas turbines. Actually, customers are coming and saying, hey can I make a reservation and I’ll pay you for a reservation? Just think about that. It hasn’t happened for a long time,” Kaeser said.

“I believe the electrification age has just begun. Whether that’s gas turbines or wind or solar or something else, we’ve got everything, and the customers decide in the end. And one thing I believe one should not underestimate, the White House is not buying much [but] the customer does,” he added.

‘Very, very optimistic’

Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola was similarly bullish about the road to full electrification, describing the transition away from fossil fuels as “absolutely unstoppable.”

“We are seeing that probably we are in the best moment for electrification,” Ignacio Galán, executive chairman of Iberdrola, told CNBC at WEF on Tuesday.

Galán cited soaring global demand for electrically powered data centers, low-emission vehicles as well as cooling and heating applications.

A logo on the nacelle of a wind turbine at the Martin de la Jara wind farm, operated by Iberdrola SA, in the Martin de la Jara district of Sevilla, Spain, on Friday, April 21, 2023.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“All of those things require more electricity 24 hours a day. Our business in the United States is mostly in this area, which is networks … and the regulation depends on the state authority, so I think that is not really affected at all,” Galán said.

“Depending on the legislation, we will make more or less investment in another part of our business,” he added, referring to Trump’s energy policy.

“We are very, very optimistic about the United States and the future,” Galán said.

Wind power woes

Shares of some European wind power giants fell shortly after Trump took aim at wind power plans.

Denmark’s Orsted, which recently announced a roughly $1.7 billion impairment charge on U.S. projects, dipped 4.4% on Wednesday morning, extending steep losses from the previous session.

The rapidly growing offshore wind sector has endured a torrid time in recent years, hampered by rising costs, supply chain disruption and higher interest rates.

Windmills pictured during a press moment of Orsted, on Tuesday 06 August 2024, on the transportation of goods with Heavy Lift Cargo Drones to the offshore wind turbines in the Borssele 1 and 2 wind farm in Zeeland, Netherlands. 

Nicolas Maeterlinck | Afp | Getty Images

Artem Abramov, head of new energies research at Rystad Energy, said Trump’s energy agenda essentially means the likelihood of any new offshore developments in the U.S. has fallen to zero — at least for now.

“The US currently has around 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of advanced-stage offshore wind developments that have reached final investment decision and are under construction, which are unlikely to be impacted by the order,” Abramov said in a research note published Tuesday.

“Moderate risk amid the unfavorable investment climate is present for 10.5 GW of projects which secured necessary permits but have not reached investment decisions,” Abramov said.

“The remaining 25 GW of early-stage projects are unlikely to see any progress under the current administration,” he added.

— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.

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Trump’s first day, Hyundai lease deals, and Volvo’s EVs arrive in the US

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Trump's first day, Hyundai lease deals, and Volvo's EVs arrive in the US

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, President Trump has a wild first day in office, but it’s not ALL bad, either. Plus: Tesla gets diner integration, Hyundai keeps the deal train rolling, and it’s dad’s 80th birthday.

We also look ahead to some possible discounts for Tesla insurance customers, some news on the upcoming “cheap” Cybertruck, and wonder out loud if Puerto Rico’s billion dollar solar project is going to see the light of day. All this and more – enjoy!

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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Stripe cuts 300 jobs in product, engineering and operations

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Stripe cuts 300 jobs in product, engineering and operations

The Stripe logo on a smartphone with U.S. dollar banknotes in the background.

Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images

Stripe cut 300 jobs, representing about 3.5% of its workforce, mostly in product, engineering and operations, CNBC has confirmed.

The payments company, valued at about $70 billion in the private markets, still expects to increase headcount by 10,000 by the end of the year, which would be a 17% increase, and is “not slowing down hiring,” according to a memo to staff from Chief People Office Rob McIntosh. Business Insider reported earlier on the cuts and the memo.

A Stripe spokesperson also confirmed to CNBC that a cartoon image of a duck with text that read, “US-Non-California Duck,” was accidentally attached as a PDF to emails sent to some of the employees who were laid off. Some of the emails mistakenly provided affected employees with an incorrect termination date, the spokesperson said.

McIntosh sent a follow-up email to staffers apologizing for the “notification error” and “any confusion it caused.”

“Corrected and full notifications have since been sent to all impacted Stripes,” he wrote.

In 2022, Stripe cut roughly 1,100 jobs, or 14% of its workers, downsizing alongside most of the tech industry, as soaring inflation and rising interest rates forced companies to focus on profits over growth. The Information reported that Stripe had a few dozen layoffs in its recruiting department in 2023.

Stripe’s valuation sank from a peak of $95 billion in 2021 to $50 billion in 2023, before reportedly rebounding to $70 billion last year as part of a secondary share sale. The company ranked third on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

In October, Stripe agreed to pay $1.1 billion for crypto startup Bridge Network, whose technology is focused on making it easy for businesses to transact using digital currencies. 

Brothers Patrick and John Collison, who founded Stripe in 2010, have intentionally steered clear of the public markets and have given no indication that an offering is on the near-term horizon. Total payment volume at the company surpassed $1 trillion in 2023.

WATCH: Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

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