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The long road to driverless with Aurora’s Chris Urmson (Live at HumanX) | Equity Podcast

Self-driving has been “almost here” for over a decade. But somewhere between DARPA challenges and a handful of driverless trucks hauling freight between Dallas and Houston, Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson’s story changed. The self-driving truck company started commercial driverless operations last April and is now scaling from a handful of trucks to hundreds…

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Self-driving has been “almost here” for over a decade. But somewhere between DARPA challenges and a handful of driverless trucks hauling freight between Dallas and Houston, Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson’s story changed. The self-driving truck company started commercial driverless operations last April and is now scaling from a handful of trucks to hundreds this year.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, we’re bringing you a conversation Rebecca Bellan had with Urmson at the HumanX conference in San Francisco. The pair dug into the long road from lab to highway and how physical AI differs from the LLM boom everyone else is chasing.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:49 Urmson’s self-driving journey from DARPA to Aurora

03:30 How macro headwinds and supply constraints are shaping Aurora’s roadmap

06:08 Why trucking beats robotaxis as a business

13:46 How Aurora’s path diverged from Waymo’s

18:09 What 24 years in physical AI teaches you about building a startup

19:33 Why safety hits different when there’s no human in the loop

23:38 Verifiable AI vs. end-to-end systems: why it matters for safety

27:11 Other autonomy companies worth watching

29:04 Real-world data vs. simulation: do you still need both?

30:03 Outro

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CNET

Android 17 REVEALED: Pause Point Is My Favorite Feature

Android 17 is out, and if you have a Google Pixel phone, you can try it right away. Android 17 comes with a bunch of new features, including a new green-screen selfie tool, a Pause Point tool and loads of video and photo improvements for Instagram. 00:00 – Introduction to Android 17 00:11 – Screen…

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June 16, 2026

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Android 17 is out, and if you have a Google Pixel phone, you can try it right away. Android 17 comes with a bunch of new features, including a new green-screen selfie tool, a Pause Point tool and loads of video and photo improvements for Instagram.

00:00 – Introduction to Android 17
00:11 – Screen Reactions Feature
00:57 – Instagram Video Stabilization
01:27 – Pause Point: Mindful App Usage
02:05 – Smart Enhance for Photos and Video
02:35 – Sound Separation and Audio Extraction
04:07 – How to Download and Conclusion

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Science & Technology

Black Founders Had a Great Fundraising Quarter…With a Catch

On one hand, US-based, Black-founded startups have already raised $643M, 70% of what was raised in the entirety of last year. But dig a little deeper into the numbers, and you’ll find that in the words of Crunchbase’s head of research: “…data has shown a persistent decline in funding to Black-founded companies that outpaces the…

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June 15, 2026

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On one hand, US-based, Black-founded startups have already raised $643M, 70% of what was raised in the entirety of last year.

But dig a little deeper into the numbers, and you’ll find that in the words of Crunchbase’s head of research: “…data has shown a persistent decline in funding to Black-founded companies that outpaces the overall decline in startup funding.”

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CNET

The US Government Doesn’t Want You to Buy This Car

Xpeng brought Mashable reporter Amanda Yeo to China to experience the new VLA 2.0 autonomous driving model inside its P7 electric vehicle. 0:00 The Car the US Government Doesn’t Want You to Buy 0:18 Meet XPENG: China’s High-Tech Tesla Rival 0:39 How VLA 2.0 Autonomous Driving Works 1:43 Stress Testing Self-Driving in Hectic Traffic 2:21…

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3 days ago

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June 14, 2026

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Xpeng brought Mashable reporter Amanda Yeo to China to experience the new VLA 2.0 autonomous driving model inside its P7 electric vehicle.

0:00 The Car the US Government Doesn’t Want You to Buy
0:18 Meet XPENG: China’s High-Tech Tesla Rival
0:39 How VLA 2.0 Autonomous Driving Works
1:43 Stress Testing Self-Driving in Hectic Traffic
2:21 The Challenge of “Corner Cases” in Autonomy
2:43 Hands-Free Self-Parking Demo
3:00 Heads-Up Display and Interior Tech
3:24 XPENG’s Personal Flying Machines
4:22 Why Chinese EVs are Banned in the US

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#xpeng #electricvehicle #automobile #car #electricvehicle #china

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