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Waymo partners with Uber to bring robotaxi service to Atlanta and Austin.

Uber Technologies Inc.

Alphabet’s Waymo unit will begin test drives of its robotaxis in Denver and Seattle this week, with humans behind the wheel, the company said Tuesday.

“We will begin driving manually before validating our technology and operations for fully autonomous services in the future,” a company spokesperson said in an email. Waymo announced the tests in blog posts.

The autonomous vehicle venture aims to expand its driverless, ride-hailing service across the U.S. after already launching commercial operations in Austin, Texas, as well as Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

In some markets, including Austin and Atlanta, Waymo’s driverless rides can only be hailed through the Uber app. In others, riders must use the company’s stand-alone Waymo One app to book a robotaxi.

Safety drivers, who are employees of Waymo, will man the steering and braking behind the test vehicles in Denver and Seattle. The company is also running similar tests with its robotaxis in New York, having recently obtained permits in the biggest U.S. market.

The company’s test fleet in Denver and in Seattle will include a mix of their fully electric Jaguar iPace and Geely Zeekr AVs.

Waymo told CNBC that it will have up to a dozen cars each in Denver and Seattle to start testing.

Waymo’s primary competition on the global stage is Baidu-owned Apollo Go in China, which operates driverless ride-hailing services across Asia. Meanwhile, Tesla has obtained a permit to operate a ride-hailing business in Texas, and is testing a manned robotaxi service in Austin and another in San Francisco.

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Waymo begins testing self-driving cars with human drivers in New York and Philadelphia

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Airbnb CEO Chesky says ChatGPT isn’t ‘quite robust enough’ to integrate into travel app

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Airbnb CEO Chesky says ChatGPT isn't 'quite robust enough' to integrate into travel app

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on new product updates, integrating AI and state of AI tech race

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he wants to integrate ChatGPT artificial intelligence capabilities into the travel platform but the software isn’t ready.

“The [software development kit] wasn’t quite robust enough for the things we want to do,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.

Chesky said the company would “probably” want to integrate ChatGPT eventually.

Airbnb on Tuesday launched a series of new social features, such as direct messaging, to its platform. The update also included a personalized version of the company’s chatbot launched earlier this year that can cancel and change reservations for users in North America.

In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Chesky said that the OpenAI chatbot isn’t “quite ready” for integration with Airbnb. He said the model was made using 13 different chatbots and that Airbnb is depending heavily on Alibaba’s Qwen model.

Chesky, who is a close friend of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said it’s only the beginning of the AI revolution and he expects the technology to fuel a consumer app craze over the next few years.

“We’re all going to have to work together,” he said. “AI is going to lift up a lot of companies. If they want to vertically integrate every single thing, that’s going to be very, very difficult.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Meta lays off 600 employees within AI unit

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Meta lays off 600 employees within AI unit

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Meta will lay off roughly 600 employees within its artificial intelligence unit as the company looks to reduce layers and operate more nimbly, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday.

The company announced the cuts in a memo from its Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who was hired in June as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. Workers across Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit and other product-related positions will be impacted.

Axios was first to report the cuts.

Meta has been aggressively investing in AI as it works to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Google, pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects and recruitment.

On Tuesday, the company announced a $27 billion deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund and develop its massive Hyperion data center in rural Louisiana. The data center is expected to be large enough to cover a “significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post in July.

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Megacap AI talent wars: Meta poaches another top Apple executive

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Auto giant Volkswagen warns of output stoppages amid Nexperia chip disruption

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Auto giant Volkswagen warns of output stoppages amid Nexperia chip disruption

A new Volkswagen ID.3 electric car prepares to pass final inspection at the Volkswagen plant on May 14, 2025 in Dresden, Germany.

Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images

German auto giant Volkswagen on Wednesday warned of temporary production outages citing China’s export restrictions on semiconductors made by Nexperia.

The update comes shortly after the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the country’s main car industry lobby, said the China-Netherlands dispute over Nexperia could lead to “significant production restrictions in the near future” if the supply interruption of chips cannot be swiftly resolved.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen told CNBC by email that while Nexperia is not a direct supplier of the company, some Nexperia parts are used in its vehicle components, which are supplied by Volkswagen’s direct suppliers.

“We are in close contact with all relevant stakeholders in light of the current situation to identify potential risks at an early stage and to be able to make decisions regarding any necessary measures,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said, noting that the firm’s production is currently unaffected.

“However, given the evolving circumstances, short-term effects on production cannot be ruled out,” they added.

Shares of Volkswagen traded 2.2% lower at 2 p.m. London time (9 a.m. ET).

Last month, the Dutch government took control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor maker based in the Netherlands, in what was seen as a highly unusual move.

The Dutch government seized control of the company, which specializes in the high-volume production of chips used in automotive, consumer electronics and other industries, citing fears the firm’s tech “would become unavailable in an emergency.”

China responded by blocking exports of the firm’s finished products, sparking alarm among Europe’s auto industry.

A spokesperson for Germany’s Economy Ministry said the government is concerned about chip supply chain difficulties, according to Reuters.

— CNBC’s Dylan Butts contributed to this report.

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