Cruise robotaxis are headed to Japan
A press release from Cruise, GM, and Honda says that the three companies plan to launch a robotaxi joint venture in Japan starting in 2026. No word if the vehicles will play charming little MIDI tunes when they pick you up, but we can dream.
According to the statement, the yet-to-launch Origin — a dedicated-purpose robotaxi — will be the vehicle that debuts the service. Given the complexities of operating as a foreign business in Japan, it’s not exactly surprising that the three plan to start a new JV company in the market, one that will presumably be tailored and branded to the expectations of Japanese consumers.
As you’re likely aware, Japan operates some of the highest-throughput mass transit systems in the world. But at street level in a dense urban area, chances are most of the cars you’ll see driving around fall into one of two categories: taxis and commercial vehicles. Private car ownership is expensive and impractical in major Japanese cities for most residents, and taxis make up a critical part of mobility — whether last-mile or as transit to hubs like airports and train stations.
Ride-hailing services like Uber have struggled mightily to break into the Japanese market, both because of legal complexities and an extremely powerful domestic taxi lobby. While a venture like Cruise’s would be unlikely to offer major disruption at scale initially, there’s little doubt the aforementioned taxi lobby will try to derail any effort at autonomous rides. Today’s press release doesn’t get into any of the legal or practical hurdles — it’s just a statement that GM, Cruise, and Honda want to go forward with this.
As part of the announcement, an image of a Japanese-market version of the Origin AV was released (seen at the top of the article here). There appear to be some design tweaks to the front of the vehicle — slightly different headlights and a revised roof overhang — as well as an additional set of sensors or signaling devices on the sides of the vehicle not present in earlier renderings. The Japanese-market Origin will still be manufactured in the US, though it seems it will carry Honda badging in Japan.
You can find the press release here.
Electrek’s Take
Cruise unveiled the electric Origin AV back in 2020, and I’ll be the first to admit I thought this thing was a pipe dream at the time. But with both Cruise and Waymo offering reasonably functional (well, mostly) autonomous taxi services today, it doesn’t seem quite so farfetched. Launching in Japan, though? We’ll see how that goes.
From a strictly technical perspective, Japan may be better suited to vehicular autonomy than a country like the US. Road lanes and signage are extremely clear, drivers and pedestrians exercise great care, and roadworks are rigorously demarcated. For a computer, Japanese roads could offer a level of predictability that San Francisco would struggle to match.
But the power of the Japanese taxi lobby is hard to overstate. They successfully strongarmed Uber into working with existing taxi companies in Japan, and the company still doesn’t offer ridesharing in the country. So, the idea of cutting out drivers entirely is unlikely to go over well.
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Environment
U.S. Steel shares rally as Trump approves Nippon takeover with unique government ‘golden share’
Trails of Iranian ballistic missiles light up the night sky as seen from Gaza City during renewed missile strikes launched by Iran in retaliation against Israel on June 15, 2025.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
Tehran will “pay the price” for its fresh missile onslaught against Israel, the Jewish state’s defense minister warned Monday, as markets braced for a fourth day of ramped-up conflict between the regional powers.
Fire exchanges have continued since Israel’s Friday attack against Iran, with Iranian media reporting Tehran’s latest strikes hit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, home to a major refinery. CNBC has reached out to operator Bazan for comment on the state of operations at the Haifa plant, amid reports of damage to Israel’s energy infrastructure.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said overnight it deployed “innovative methods” that “disrupted the enemy’s multi-layered defense systems, to the point that the Zionist air defense systems engaged in targeting each other,” according to a statement obtained by NBC News.
Israel has widely depended on its highly efficient Iron Dome missile defense system to fend off attacks throughout regional conflicts — but even it can be overwhelmed if a large number of projectiles are fired.
The fresh hostilities are front-of-mind for investors, who have been weighing the odds of further escalation in the conflict and spillover into the broader oil-rich Middle East, amid concerns over crude supplies and the key shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Oil prices retained the gains of recent days and at 09:19 a.m. London time, Ice Brent futures with August delivery were trading at $73.81 per barrel, down 0.57% from the previous trading session. The Nymex WTI contract with July expiry was at $72.7 per barrel, 0.38% lower.
Elsewhere, however, markets showed initial signs of shrugging off the latest hostilities early on Monday.
Spot prices for key safe-haven asset gold retreated early morning, down 0.42% to $3,417.83 per ounce after nearly notching a two-year-high earlier in the session, with U.S. gold futures also down 0.65% to $ 3,430.5
Tel Aviv share indices pointed higher, with the blue-chip TA-35 up 0.99% and the wider TA-125 up 1.33%.
European stock markets opened higher Monday, meanwhile, and U.S. stock futures were also in the green.
Luis Costa, global head of EM sovereign credit at Citigroup Global Markets, signaled the muted reaction could be, in part, attributed to hopes of a brisk resolution to the conflict.
“So markets are obviously, you know, bearing in mind all potential scenarios. There are obviously potentially very bad scenarios in this story,” he told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Monday. “But there is still a way out in terms of, you know, a faster resolution and bringing Iran to the table, or a short continuation here, of a very surgical and intense strike by the Israeli army.”
U.S. response in focus
As of Monday morning, Israel’s national emergency service Magen David Adom reported four dead and 87 injured following rocket strikes at four sites in “central Israel,” reporting collapsed buildings, fire and people trapped under debris.
Accusing Tehran of targeting civilians in Israel to prevent the Israel Defense Forces from “continuing the attack that is collapsing its capabilities,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, a close longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a Google-translated social media update that “the residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”
The IDF on Sunday said it had in turn “completed a wide-scale wave of strikes on numerous weapon production sites belonging to the Quds Force, the IRGC and the Iranian military, in Tehran.”
CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.
The U.S.’ response is now in focus, given its close support and arms provision to Israel, the unexpected cancellation of Washington’s latest nuclear deal talks with Iran, and President Donald Trump’s historically hard-hitting stance against Tehran during his first term.
Trump, who has been pushing Iran for a deal over its nuclear program, has weighed in on the conflict, opposing an Israeli proposal to kill Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to NBC News.
Discussions about the conflict are expected to take place during the ongoing meeting of the G7, encapsulating Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., along with the European Union.
— CNBC’s Katrina Bishop contributed to this report.
A Tesla Model 3 got stuck on a train track and was hit, albeit slightly, by a train in Sinking Spring, PA. The driver claimed it was in “self-driving mode.”
According to the fire alerts in Berks County, a Tesla Model 3 drove around a train track barrier near South Hull Street and Columbia Avenue and got stuck in the tracks.
The driver was able to exit the vehicle, but a train hit the car, reportedly snapping off the side mirror.
The fire commissioner ordered to stop all train traffic as the emergency services worked to get the Model 3 off the tracks using a crane.
Spitlers Garage & Towing, performed the recovery and shared a few pictures on Facebook:
The Tesla driver reportedly claimed that the vehicle was in “self-driving mode” leading up to getting stuck on the train tracks.
Tesla claims that all its vehicles built since 2016 will be capable of unsupervised self-driving with software updates; however, this has yet to occur.
Instead, Tesla has been selling a “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) package for up to $15,000 that requires the driver to constantly supervise the vehicle, with the driver remaining responsible for the car at all times.
Electrek’s Take
There have been instances of Tesla drivers engaging in reckless behavior and then attributing it to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) features.
I’m not saying it’s the case here, but it’s a possibility.
On the other side, I’ve seen FSD try to navigate around construction barriers. It’s possible that it tried to do that in this case, here and then got caught on the tracks.
We would need more data.
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