TechCrunch Mobility: Waymo makes its defense

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Earlier this month, Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee as part of a hearing on autonomous vehicles.…

Quantonation’s double-sized second fund shows quantum still has believers

Quantum computing will not be replacing supercomputers in 2026, let alone reaching industrial scale. And yet, investor appetite for companies pursuing the elusive quantum advantage has not dwindled—it has increased. Quantonation Ventures, a venture firm investing in quantum and physics-based…

China’s brain-computer interface industry is racing ahead

While Elon Musk’s Neuralink often claims to be pioneering brain-computer interfaces, China’s BCI industry is already quietly moving from research to scale. A new wave of startups is racing to commercialize both implantable and noninvasive BCIs, backed by stronger policy…

Sam Altman would like to remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently addressed concerns about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Speaking at an event in India, he dismissed widespread claims about AI’s water usage as completely false. Altman specifically refuted internet rumors that a single ChatGPT…

The 9,000-pound monster I don’t want to give back

Before heading on a trip to Tahoe last weekend, GM offered me the use of the company’s 9,000-pound monument to excess – the new electric Escalade IQL, starting at $130,405 – for a week to test-drive. Before you continue, note…

Sam Altman would like remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently addressed concerns about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Speaking at an event hosted by The Indian Express, Altman dismissed certain claims as exaggerated while acknowledging broader energy challenges. Altman specifically labeled concerns about AI’s…

Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today after alleged DDoS attack

Wikipedia editors have decided to remove all links to Archive.today, a web archiving service that has been linked over 695,000 times across the online encyclopedia. Archive.today, which also operates under domain names like archive.is and archive.ph, is widely used to…