A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar taxi drives along a street on March 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Waymo is setting its sights on its next location: the Sunshine State.
The Alphabet-owned company announced Thursday that it will be hitting the roads in Miami. Waymo said it will first begin cruising through the Florida city with human safety drivers in 2025 before opening doors to riders for its robotaxi service through its Waymo One app in 2026.
The expansion into Miami is indicative of Waymo’s growing confidence in operating its self-driving vehicles in harsher weather conditions in large metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Waymo first tested in Miami in 2019, which the company said helped improve the ability of its self-driving vehicles to navigate in wet and rainy conditions.
“We deepened our learning and understanding of the Waymo Driver’s performance in adverse weather conditions,” a company spokesperson said.
Waymo will use what it learned when it returns to the city with its all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs next year.
The company said its initial territory in Florida will include some parts of Miami’s larger metropolitan area, which has a population of more than 6 million people.
Waymo has been rapidly expanding its operations over the last year thanks to additional funding.
In November, the company announced it was removing its waitlist of about 300,000 people in Los Angeles, so anyone would be able to use Waymo One to hail a self-driving robotaxi throughout the nearly 80 square miles of Los Angeles County. The company’s ride-hailing service also operates citywide in Phoenix and San Francisco.
And in September, Waymo announced a partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. Through that deal, Uber riders will be able to access Waymo’s robotaxis through the Uber app starting in early 2025, and Uber will be responsible for fleet management and operations of the Waymo vehicles, including maintenance and infrastructure, such as vehicle charging, cleaning and repairs.
Additionally, Waymo on Thursday announced that it will partner with mobility company Moove to manage its fleet operations, facilities and charging infrastructure in both Miami and Phoenix. Moove will begin managing Waymo’s Phoenix fleet in early 2025, a Waymo spokesperson said.
Waymo closed a $5.6 billion funding round in October to expand its robotaxi service across the U.S. The autonomous vehicle venture’s parent company, Alphabet, which also owns Google, led the funding round alongside earlier backers, including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.
The robotaxi company said it now sees more than 150,000 paid rides per week via the Waymo One app across San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Waymo is the only autonomous vehicle developer that currently operates a commercial robotaxi service in several major metro areas across the U.S., but competitors are looming.
GM-owned Cruise is working on bringing its autonomous vehicles back into use on public roads after discontinuing its services following an accident where one of its self-driving cars injured a pedestrian in San Francisco.
Tesla, meanwhile, showed off design concepts for a self-driving Cybercab and Robovan at an event in October. However, Tesla still classifies the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving software in its vehicles as “partially automated driving systems,” which require a human to be ready to steer or brake at all times. In an October earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will launch a self-driving ride-hailing service in California and Texas as early as 2025.
SoftBank-funded Wayve is testing its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, and Amazon-owned Zoox is also testing its self-driving cars, which do not feature steering wheels, in several U.S. cities.
On Monday the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by nearly 1% at $106,622.54, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $109,350.72, after briefly dipping below the $100,000 mark Sunday.
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Bitcoin hits a new record ahead of Trump inauguration
Over the weekend, Trump launched the “Official Trump” meme coin, which has risen to a $10.6 billion market cap and surged more than 659% since Friday night, according to data from CoinGecko and Coinbase. On Monday it was down about 27% from its record price of around $73 a coin, after returning First Lady Melania Trump launched her own “Melania” meme coin Sunday — nearly halving the Trump coin in value at one point.
Melania Meme, which began trading Sunday evening, has hit a $1.3 billion market cap and 14% price increase since its launch. It has attracted $7.3 billion in trading volumes over the last day, compared to the Trump meme’s $31 billion.
Although meme coins are considered the riskiest corner of the already risky cryptocurrency market, the Trumps’ coin launches over the weekend gave traders further conviction that the incoming administration will be positive for the industry.
“The move highlights President Trump’s embrace of crypto and belief that Americans should have the freedom to operate in the emerging asset class,” said Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX.
“There is a logic here that would suggest that putting a stamp of approval on what could be perceived as the wildest of crypto assets, meme coins, is the best way to send a message of just how supportive the market should expect the administration to be when it comes to embracing crypto and making America a major player in the space.”
Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter, echoed that sentiment, calling the meme drops net positive and “a sign he is very much in favor of new ideas [and] new markets.”
Bitcoin started gaining steam last week as speculation started to build that Trump might announce an executive order on crypto early in his new term. Gracy Chen, CEO crypto exchange Bitget, said that optimism is having a greater effect on its price.
“Rumors that cryptocurrency may be declared a national interest by the United States during the inauguration are having a positive effect on the price of bitcoin,” she told CNBC. “I don’t believe the rise in bitcoin’s price is due to the launch of new meme tokens. Rather … without the release of the Trump family tokens, bitcoin’s price would have grown more. Instead, capital shifted to new coins, limiting overall growth.”
The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, fell 1% on Monday and has gained less than 1% since Saturday. The token tied to Solana is down more than 7% on Monday but up 15% since Saturday, benefitting from the Trump meme coin being launched on the popular Ethereum alternative network. Ether has lost 5% since Saturday.
Bitcoin’s new record opens the door to a possible upside extension to $130,000, LMAX’s Kruger added.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has accused Taiwan of “stealing” his country’s chip industry. But Taiwan’s biggest chip company is confident the Trump administration will continue funding its projects in the U.S.
Speaking to CNBC’s Emily Tan in an exclusive interview, TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said the funding was expected to continue to roll in gradually under Trump as the fabrication plants pass construction and production milestones.
“As a matter of fact, in the fourth quarter, we already received the first batch of government support,” Haung said, revealing the contract chip manufacturer had got $1.5 billion in funds.
Following some production delays, the first fabrication plant in Arizona started producing advanced chips in the fourth quarter of last year, Huang said. He added that the construction of two plants in Arizonawas on track, with the second expected to be operational in 2028.
TSMC’s first investment in Arizona was announced in May 2020, with the company’s total investment in the its three projects there eventually standing at over $65 billion.
Much of the investments were committed after the Biden administration signed the bipartisan CHIPS Act in August 2022, committing almost $53 billion to invest in the domestic semiconductor supply chain and counter China.
While the incoming President is also expected to make competition with China and onshoring manufacturing a priority in his second term, there has been debate as to whether Trump and the Republican-led House would re-examine the CHIPS Act.
During his campaign for the White House, Trump publicly criticized the bill and its price tag, arguing instead that tariffs were a more effective strategy to onshore chip manufacturing. The President-elect also accused Taiwan of “stealing” U.S. chip business.
However, industry experts have told CNBC that they expect Trump to leave the policy mostly intact due to its bipartisan support in Washington.
TSMC on Thursday reported record profit for the fourth quarter on strong demand for its AI chips, sending its shares up nearly 4%. Shares closed 1.36% higher on Friday.
In an earnings call following the esults, CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei highlighted TSMC’s “long-standing and good relationship” with the U.S. government and the commitment and support it has received on the federal, state and city levels.
“Let me assure you that we have a very frank and open communication with the current government and with the future one also,” he said in response to an investor question.
On Thursday, Wei also said that the company would not attend Trump’s inauguration as it prefers to keep a low profile.
TikTok was available to some U.S. users on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump said that he would sign an executive order on Monday to delay a federal ban of the app.
In a statement on X, the company wrote that it would bring back access to its American users.
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” TikTok wrote. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
The decision is “a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” the company added. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
This came after Trump wrote on his social media app Truth Social he would “issue an executive order on Monday” to extend the period of time before the ban was set to take place.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote on Sunday morning.
Although TikTok was shut down for American users late Saturday night, and also removed from Apple and Google’s app stores, some were able to log on to the platform on Sunday through their desktops.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.