A series of robots-are-dumb incidents in San Francisco this week has prompted local officials to try to halt the recently approved expansion of self-driving taxis in the city.

General Motors-owned Cruise and Alphabet-owned Waymo have been offering driverless rides in the city for a while now, but service was limited until last week, when the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted their request to boost capacity and offer 24/7 commercial rides.

But after a week of Cruise vehicle mishaps that would land them in the Repair Ward if this were the WALL-Everse, the San Francisco City Attorney is asking the CPUC to press pause. Since the robotaxi expansion got the green light on August 10…

• Ten driverless Cruise cars came to a stop and clogged an intersection near the Outside Lands Music Festival. The company said the vehicles stopped working because concertgoers overwhelmed cell networks, interrupting the cars’ communications.
• Another Cruise car drove through a construction site and, in cartoon gag fashion, got stuck in wet concrete.
• A person was injured when the autonomous Cruise car they were riding in failed to yield to an oncoming fire truck, which was responding to an emergency.

Waymo has had its fair share of incidents, too: Cars blocked a firehouse in May, struck and killed a dog the same month, and stopped in front of a public bus in March. But since last summer, autonomous car accidents have reportedly become rarer, likely because the vehicles learn how to react to certain situations as they encounter them.

The cab hail of the future: Even if the CPUC agrees to postpone the recent expansion, it would likely just be a road bump. App downloads for Cruise and Waymo surged this week, and the companies are gearing up to roll out fleets in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, and Miami.—ML

Stuck in a perpetual “I’ll do it tomorrow” mindset when it comes to getting your finances on track? You’re not alone. But the market remains challenging and unpredictable—and now’s the time to finally ace your money game.

Luckily for you, we worked with Discover^® to help you do just that. We put together a 30-day financial literacy calendar that covers the ins and outs of money management and shows you how to achieve top-notch financial health.

Curious about what’s included? We’ve loaded this calendar with all kinds of tips and info on subjects like:

• boosting your credit score
• tracking expenses
• planning for retirement

Say hello to 30 days of financial health.

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Hurricane Hilary appears headed for California. The storm swirling off the coast of Mexico yesterday prompted the first-ever tropical storm watch for Southern California. If it makes landfall in California (rather than slamming Mexico first) it’ll be the first such storm to hit the area since 1939. As the storm moves through over the coming days, more than a year’s worth of rain is predicted to fall in California, Arizona, and Nevada, creating a risk of flooding and other dangers.

Another day, another ominous sign for China’s economy. Chinese real estate megafirm Evergrande, which said in July it had lost $81 billion in the past two years, filed for US bankruptcy protection as it seeks to restructure its debt around the globe. It’s not the only major Chinese real estate firm to suffer as the country struggles to recover economically from the pandemic. Plus, analysts questioned whether China was having its “Lehman moment” when asset manager Zhongrong Trust missed payments to corporate investors. China instituted new measures to try to shore up its stock market, but investors still sent Hong Kong (which has its own trading rules but includes many mainland companies) into bear market territory.

The US, Japan, and South Korea deepened ties. In more news that won’t prompt smiles from China, the leaders of the US, Japan, and South Korea emerged from their first trilateral summit at Camp David with pledges to increase military and economic cooperation in response to moves from China and North Korea. The three pledged to consult each other in the face of security threats, set up a new hotline for communication, and coordinate on ballistic missile defense. They also agreed that the nations’ leaders should meet annually. President Biden stressed that the relationship framework was being established for the long term, saying “This is about decades and decades.”

The Panama Canal increasingly resembles a Taco Bell drive-thru on a typical Taco Tuesday. More than 200 ships are waiting their turn to glide through the global trade artery, and the Panama Canal Authority extended traffic restrictions this week, citing a historic lack of rainfall.

• The usual 36 ships-per-day limit was slashed to 32 last month to save water, creating a backlog of idling vessels.
• Wait times for large container ships have risen to 16 to 17 days—longer than it takes them to traverse the Pacific Ocean, one analyst told Seatrade Maritime News.

Your shopping budget might get dried out, too

The canal carries a third of the maritime trade between the Americas and Asia, per the Wall Street Journal. Delays and a rule limiting some ships’ weight are already pushing up cargo costs, right as many companies ramp up delivery orders in preparation for this year’s holiday season. And those costs could get passed along, steepening your gift-giving bill.

Looking ahead…Droughts in the region are becoming more frequent, prompting the Panama Canal Authority to explore engineering solutions to protect its longtime status as a go-to shipping shortcut.—SK

We thought we were the only ones enjoying the sounds of thunder while we wrote this newsletter. But it turns out white noise podcasts are so popular that Spotify considered nixing them from the platform to bring in an extra $38 million a year, according to an internal memo Bloomberg viewed.

Spotify’s document said that as of January 2023, white noise and ambient podcasts (think rainforest mixes, static, or even lawn mower sounds) made up “3 million daily consumption hours on the platform.”

But Spotify wasn’t making much money off these sounds, even as calming noise makers were raking in ~$18,000/month from the platform’s ads. All while Spotify’s algorithms were sending listeners their way thanks to an effort to push users to the talk-based programs (versus music) that Spotify was investing in heavily to boost subscriptions.

Ethereal box fans can rest easy (for now). While Spotify did consider a plan to thwart bird sound-looping freeloaders by removing white noise and banning future uploads, it didn’t end up going through with the plan to leave you with nothing to fall asleep to but Joe Rogan. Still, some static makers have complained in Reddit threads recently that their content occasionally disappears from the platform.—MM

Stat: While Beyoncé might be responsible for inflation in Sweden, neighboring Denmark has a different superstar impacting its economy: Novo Nordisk. The company, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, has grown so much this year that its $419 billion market value eclipsed the nation’s $406 billion GDP, the Wall Street Journal reports. And it’s affecting Danish currency. Per the WSJ, the weight-loss drugs’ strong US sales meant the company was converting unusually large amounts of dollars into kroner, raising the local currency’s value relative to the euro and spurring the central bank to lower interest rates to keep the exchange rate steady.

Quote: “If I win, well, I’ll stop wearing the bulletproof vest.”

When Ecuadorians vote in their presidential election tomorrow, Christian Zurita hopes they’ll pick Fernando Villavicencio, who remains on the ballot even though he was assassinated at a campaign rally last week. Zurita, who was a close friend of the late presidential contender, is now running in his stead, although he and the other candidates are mostly refraining from public campaign events to avoid further violence. Despite the chaotic present, Zurita is looking to the future: “In Ecuador, we must be able to live without bulletproof vests,” he told Bloomberg.

Read: What romance novel tropes have to do with Elon Musk’s popularity. (Vox)

Add it up: This TikToker tallies how much those Bama Rush outfits cost.

Eat: There’s still time to bake these summer fruit desserts before we hit apple and pumpkin pie season.

Watch: Find out why this 15th Century portrait of a woman features a fly on her head.

Learn: We should all start using these medieval words anon.

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Brew crossword: Make sure to pack your sunscreen, because Mary is taking you to the beach in today’s crossword. Play it here.

Open House

Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section that is genuinely worried about all the vases it might knock over. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price.

Today’s listing is in Miami, Florida, and was built in 1924. The home, named “Le Jardin,” has so much perfectly manicured greenery you’d think Frances Hodgson Burnett designed it herself. Amenities include:

• 6 beds, 6 baths
• Spanish barrel tile roof
• Human-sized checkerboard yard

How much for this classically overdressed home?