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Amazon is gearing up to make as many as 10,000 robotaxis annually at a sprawling plant near Silicon Valley as it prepares to challenge self-driving cab leader Waymo. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also vying to join the autonomous race. The 220,000-square-foot (20,440-square-meters) robotaxi factory announced Wednesday heralds a new phase in Amazon’s push into a technological frontier that began taking shape in 2009, when Waymo was launched as a secret project within Google. Amazon began eyeing the market five years ago when it shelled out $1.2 billion for self-driving startup Zoox, which will be the brand behind a robotaxi service that plans to begin transporting customers in Las Vegas late this year before expanding into San Francisco next year. Zoox, conceived in 2014, will be trying to catch up to Waymo, which began operating robotaxis in Phoenix nearly five years ago then charging for rides in San Francisco in 2023 before expanding into Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. Waymo says it has already more than 10 million paid rides while other would-be rivals such as Amazon and Tesla are still fine-tuning their self-driving technology while tackling other challenges, such how to ramp up their fleet. Amazon feels like it has addressed that issue with Zoox’s manufacturing plant that spans across the equivalent of three-and-a-half football fields located in Hayward, California about 17 miles (27 kilometers) north of a factory where Tesla makes some of the electric vehicles that Musk believes will eventually be able to operate without a driver behind the wheel. Since moving into the former bus manufacturing factory in 2023, Zoox has transformed it into a high-tech facility where its boxy, gondola-like vehicles are put together and tested along a 21-station assembly line. For now, Zoox is only making one robotaxi per day, but by next year hopes to be churning them out at the rate of three vehicles per hour. By 2027, Zoox hopes to make 10,000 robotaxis annually in Hayward for a fleet that it hopes to take into other major markets, including Miami, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Although Zoox will be assembling its robotaxis in the U.S., about half of the parts are imported from outside the country, according to company officials. Waymo is also planning to expand into Atlanta and Miami and on Wednesday took the first step toward bringing its robotaxis in the most populous U.S. city with the disclosure of an application to begin testing its vehicles in New York. It’s an exciting time to be heading on this journey, Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said during a Tuesday tour of the robotaxi factory that she co-hosted with Jesse Levinson, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer. Although Zoox will be lagging well behind, it believes it can lure passengers with vehicles that look more like carriages than cars with seating for up to four passengers. Waymo, in contrast, builds its self-driving technology on to cars made by other major automakers, making its robotaxi look similar to vehicles steered by humans. Zoox isn’t even bothering to put a steering wheel in its robotaxis. As it continues to test its robotaxis in Las Vegas, Zoox recently struck a partnership to give rides to guests of Resorts World. It’s also still testing its robotaxis in San Francisco, where Waymo already has turned driverless cars into an everyday site in a city that has been renowned for cable cars since the 1870s. While testing in San Francisco last month, a minor collision between a Zoox robotaxi and a person riding an electric scooter last month prompted the company to issue a voluntary recall to update its self-driving technology. No injuries were reported in the incident. Tesla is still angling to compete against Waymo too, although it remains unclear when Musk will fulfill his long-running promise to build the world’s largest robotaxi service. Musk still hasn’t given up on the goal, though his current ambitions are more modest than they were in 2019. when he predicted Tesla would be running a fleet of 1 million robotaxis by now. He is currently aiming for a limited rollout of Tesla robotaxis in Austin this Sunday, although that date could change because Musk is being super paranoid about safety. Zoox, in contrast, is planning to operate 500 to 1,000 of its robotaxis in small to medium-sized markets and about 2,000 robotaxis in major cities where it eventually operates, according to Evans. The company thinks each robotaxi produced in its Hayward plan should be on the road for about five years, or about 500,000 miles. Michael Liedtke, AP technology writer
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E-Commerce
Federal Reserve officials expect inflation to worsen in the coming months but they still foresee two interest rate cuts by the end of this year, the same as they projected in March. The Fed kept its key rate unchanged for the fourth straight meeting Wednesday, and said the economy is expanding at a solid pace.” Changes to the Fed’s rate typically though not always influence borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and business loans. The central bank also released its latest quarterly projections for the economy and interest rates. It expects noticeably weaker growth, higher inflation, and slightly higher unemployment by the end of this year than it had forecast in March, before President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs April 2. Most of those duties were then postponed April 9. The Fed also signaled it would cut rates just once in 2026, down from two cuts projected in March. Fed officials see inflation, according to its preferred measure, rising to 3% by the end of this year, from 2.1% in April. It also projects the unemployment rate will rise to 4.5%, from 4.2% currently. Growth is expected to slow to just 1.4% this year, down from 2.5% last year. Despite the gloomier outlook, Fed chair Jerome Powell and other officials have underscored that they are holding off from any changes to their key rate because of the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the tariffs and economic outlook. Many of the Fed’s policymakers have expressed particular concern that the duties could boost prices, creating another surge of inflation just a couple of years after the worst inflation spike in four decades. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below. The inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve are expected to keep their key interest rate unchanged Wednesday for the fourth straight time. That’s likely to shift attention to how many interest rate cuts they forecast for this year. It’s widely expected that the 19 Fed officials that participate in the central bank’s interest-rate decisions will project two rate cuts for this year, as they did in December and March. But some economists expect that one or both of those cuts could be pushed back to 2026. The Fed will almost certainly keep the short-term rate it controls at about 4.3%, economists say, where it has stood since the central bank last cut rates in December. Since then, it has stayed on the sidelines while it evaluates the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other policy changes on the economy and prices. Inflation has been cooling since January, and many economists say that without the higher import taxes, the Fed would likely be cutting its rate further. According to the Fed’s preferred measure, inflation dropped to just 2.1% in April, the lowest since last September. Core inflation which exclude the volatile food and energy categories was 2.5%. Those figures suggest inflation is largely coming under control, for now. Yet the Fed’s short-term interest rate remains at an elevated level intended to slow growth and inflation. Some economists argue that with inflation cooling, the Fed could resume its rate reductions. When the Fed reduces its rate, it often though not always leads to lower costs for consumer and business borrowing, including for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. Yet financial markets also influence the level of longer-term rates and can keep them elevated even if the Fed reduces the shorter-term rate it controls. But Fed officials have said they want to see whether Trump’s tariffs boost inflation and for how long. Economists generally believe a tariff hike should at least lead to a one-time increase in prices, as companies seek to offset the cost of higher duties. Many Fed officials, however, are worried that the tariffs could lead to more sustained inflation. While theory might suggest that (the Fed) should look through a one-time increase in prices, I would be uncomfortable staking the Feds reputation and credibility on theory, Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Fed’s Kansas City branch and a voting member of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee, said earlier this month. The Trump White House has sharply ramped up pressure on Powell to reduce borrowing costs, with Trump himself calling the Fed chair a numbskull last week for not cutting. Other officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, are also calling for a rate reduction. The Bank of England has cut its rate twice this year but is expected to keep it unchanged at 4.25% when it meets Thursday. Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
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E-Commerce
As anti-ICE protests intensify across the country, kids are turning Roblox into a protest ground online. Last week, thousands took to the streets to protest the Trump administrations immigration policies. Meanwhile, on Roblox, avatars faced off with players dressed in police SWAT gear in the popular Brookhaven roleplay world (based on the real city of Brookhaven, Georgia), as Taylor Lorenz first reported in User Mag. After her story published, Lorenz shared an update that Roblox protesters are now facing police violence. A screenshot of a text shared with Lorenz (which she then posted on X) reads: I was in a Roblox ice protest but then we all got shot. By the police. On Monday I reported on anti-ICE protests taking over Roblox. One of the kids I interviewed texted me this morning to share that the Roblox protesters are now facing police violence. https://t.co/bmGLJmKXd0 pic.twitter.com/0qvdZvwGv7— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 18, 2025 Players have been sharing updates across TikTok and Discord, posting dates and times for upcoming protests. Some Roblox players are even enacting their own ICE raids. One TikTok video shows a player dressed as an ICE agent, barging into another players Roblox home and violently arresting him. @riobandzblox Know your rights #iceraids #ice #scared #skit #besafe #robloxskit #dahood i was only temporary – my head is empty Roblox hosts around 85 million daily active users globally, about 40% of whom are under the age of 12. Brookhaven is Robloxs most-visited experience ever, with over 65 billion visits, and recently won two Roblox Innovation Awards 2024 categories: “Best Roleplay/Life Sim” and “Best Social Hangout.” A study published earlier this year in Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv found that in-game roleplay and avatar customization help kids aged eight to 13 explore their identities. As the iPad generation grows up, gaming platforms like Roblox are becoming spaces where they process major world events. Virtual protests arent new. In 2016, young users took to Club Penguin to protest President Donald Trumps victory in an election they were too young to vote in, declaring not my president and penguins of color matter in the speech bubbles above their penguin avatars. In 2020, gamers staged virtual sit-ins in Habbo and held demonstrations in Toontown during the Black Lives Matter protests amid lockdown restrictions. These protests may be virtual, but that doesnt make them any less real. Gen Alpha has grown up online, and with many still too young to vote or take their activism to the streets, it makes sense theyre showing up in droves in the spaces they inhabit every day. As one TikTok user shared, her younger sister couldnt attend the anti-ICE protests in person because of safety concerns. Instead, her sister told her: Its ok I protested on Roblox yesterday.
Category:
E-Commerce
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