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Waymo buys Apple’s abandoned self-driving car proving ground for $220M

9 June 2026 at 14:51

Waymo has acquired a massive 5,500-acre autonomous vehicle proving ground in Wittmann, Arizona, for $220 million β€” nearly double the $125 million Apple paid for it in 2021. The facility was the centerpiece of Apple’s now-dead self-driving car program.

The deal, recorded June 5 in Maricopa County filings, adds a world-class test facility to Waymo’s infrastructure as the company races to scale its robotaxi fleet to 1 million weekly rides by the end of the year.

Xpeng spends $500M/year on AI training to beat Tesla FSD

5 June 2026 at 14:58

Xpeng’s head of autonomous driving told Electrek that the company is spending roughly 300 million RMB (~$41 million) per month on AI training alone and believes it has already reached parity with Tesla’s FSD v13 β€” with v14 within reach before the end of summer.

I sat down with Dr. Xianming Liu, head of Xpeng’s General Intelligence Center, the day after he delivered a keynote at CVPR 2026 in Denver β€” sharing the stage with Tesla’s Ashok Elluswamy and leaders from Nvidia and Waymo at one of the world’s top computer vision conferences.

BYD will pay for crashes on its FSD competitor, something Tesla never has

1 June 2026 at 10:46

BYD says it will assume full financial liability for at-fault accidents that happen while its β€œGod’s Eye” urban driving system is active in China β€” with no cap on the payout.

It’s a commitment Tesla has never made for β€œFull Self-Driving,” and it flips the industry’s standard liability model on its head.

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