They say everything’s bigger in Texas––and apparently that includes robotaxi fleets.

There’s been a slew of recent news about plans to bring more driverless rides to Texas cities, including Lyft’s Monday announcement that it’s slated to bring AVs to its platform in Dallas “as soon as 2026.”

The plan (first reported by TechCrunch) is part of Lyft’s previously announced partnership with AV tech company Mobileye. “But the deeper story,” according to Lyft CEO David Risher, is the involvement of Japanese auto and fleet financing conglomerate Marubeni, which manages more than 900,000 vehicles.

“Amazing, safe technology is foundational to [robotaxis],” Risher wrote on LinkedIn. “But it’ll take financial partnership, fleet-management excellence, and 24/7 demand to commercialize them at scale. That’s what we’re putting together to create a customer-obsessed, financially strong AV business.”

Marubeni-owned vehicles equipped with Mobileye’s AV tech will be added to Lyft’s network, with plans to scale to thousands of vehicles across Dallas in the coming years.

“The collaboration shows the ‘Lyft-ready’ model in action––demonstrating how partners can seamlessly deploy AVs to Lyft’s platform, effectively commercialize these deployments, and optimize their efficiency,” Lyft said in a statement. “It also builds on Lyft’s work with industry leaders to execute on our vision of a hybrid rideshare model that combines fleet-owned AVs, personal AVs, and traditional vehicles to serve riders, drivers, and partners.”

Keep reading here.—JG

Sick of the word “tariff” yet? Auto execs sure seem to be.

President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, now delayed until next month, have prompted alarm in the automotive industry, which would be among the most significantly impacted because of long-standing free trade policy that has created a closely connected production ecosystem between the US and its northern and southern neighbors.

Executives had plenty to say about the potential impacts of tariffs during the industry’s Q4/2024 earnings calls.

Tariff talk: On Ford’s earnings call, CEO Jim Farley expressed confidence that the automaker would be well-positioned to weather “a few weeks of tariffs,” given that Ford’s production is heavily US-based and because Ford could “make sure nothing crosses the border for a couple of weeks.”

But it would be a different story if tariffs were in place for an extended period of time. Such a scenario “would have a huge impact on our industry with billions of dollars of industry profits wiped out and adverse effect on the US jobs, as well as the entire value system in our industry,” Farley warned. “Tariffs would also mean higher prices for customers.”

Ford’s US plants don’t have much extra capacity to shift production from Mexico and Canada, Farley said. “We would have to make some major strategy shifts in the US, build new plants, etc., if this persists. Obviously, it’s a devastating impact.”

Keep reading here.—JG

Over the next year, two companies plan to use the ocean to capture thousands of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Earlier this month, carbon removal company Captura began operations at its new Hawaii-based carbon capture plant, which will remove 1,000 tons of carbon annually. Additionally, carbon removal company Gigablue announced last month that it will sequester a whopping 200,000 tons of carbon over the next four years through a new deal with SkiesFifty, an aviation sustainability investment firm.

Though both companies sequester carbon using the ocean, their methods are different. Captura uses direct ocean capture (DOC), meaning it removes carbon from the water through electrodialysis and gas extraction. The company says it uses DOC on the “upper ocean” to enhance water’s “natural ability to absorb additional CO2 from the atmosphere.” The CO2 gas captured by Captura’s Hawaii plant will be given to local industries in need of carbon for their own operations.

Gigablue, on the other hand, uses marine carbon fixation and sequestration, which uses phytoplankton: The phytoplankton consume carbon while living on a nutrient-dense substrate the company provides. Once there are enough phytoplankton on the substrate, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where the carbon is then stored permanently.

“We are harnessing the basic building blocks of life on Earth—water and sunlight—to create a financially sustainable carbon removal solution,” Ori Shaashua, Gigablue’s co-founder and CCO, said in a press release.

Keep reading here.—TC

Two years in, ChatGPT’s 'black box' vs. 'white box' decision-making remains a mystery. Discover why transparency and clear explanations of these AI systems matter for building trust and ensuring reliable business applications.