The electrification of cars on the road is sweeping the auto industry as pressure mounts to reverse the impact of climate change and now the Big Apple is getting in on the action.
New York City is proposing requirements for ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft to have 100 percent electric vehicle fleets by the year 2030. Mayor Eric Adams made the announcement and expects the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission to oversee the regulatory changes.
The move garnered some initial support from executives at both Uber and Lyft.
"We are excited to partner with New York City on our journey," Paul Augustine, director of sustainability at Lyft, said in a statement. "New York's commitment will accelerate an equitable city-wide transition to electric, and we're eager to collaborate with TLC on an ambitious plan for rideshare clean mile standard."
The announcement already aligns with Lyft's intentions for electrification. In 2020, the service shared plans to have a fully electric fleet — in more places than New York City — by 2030.
Two years ago Uber announced plans to electrify its entire global fleet by 2040 and by 2030 in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
"We applaud the Mayor's ambition for reducing emissions, an important goal we share," Josh Gold, senior director of policy at Uber, said in a statement. "Uber has been making real progress to become the first zero-emissions mobility platform in North America, and there's much more to do."
As both Lyft and Uber operate through independent contractors, the difficulty of getting drivers to switch to electric would be addressed with incentives such as bonuses offered by the companies and infrastructure investments by the city.
Waymo's self-driving taxis have been in the spotlight for both negative and positive reasons. This week, the automated ride-hailing taxis went viral after a San Francisco woman gave birth inside a Waymo taxi while on her way to the hospital. A Waymo spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed the unusual delivery. It said the company's rider support team detected unusual activity inside the vehicle and alerted 911. The taxi arrived safely at the hospital before emergency services. Waymo's popularity is growing despite heightened scrutiny following an illegal U-turn and the death of a San Francisco cat. The company, owned by Alphabet, says it is proud to serve riders of all ages.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
The end of 2025 is almost upon us. And it’s time to unpack Spotify Wrapped. On Wednesday, the music streaming giant delivered its annual recap — giving its hundreds of millions of users worldwide a look at the top songs, artists, podcasts and other audio they listened to over the past year. Spotify isn’t the only platform to roll out a yearly glimpse of data collected from consumers’ online lives. But since its launch about a decade ago, Wrapped has become one of the most anticipated. And Spotify is billing the 2025 edition to be the biggest yet, with a host of new features it hopes may also address some disappointments users had last year.
Elon Musk’s X unveiled a feature that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts, often posting in support of the U.S. MAGA movement with thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the U.S. This raises concerns about foreign influence in U.S. politics.
