News

Waymo, the autonomous driving leader owned by Alphabet, has reached a new milestone with 450,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S., as reported in a letter from investor Tiger Global. This figure is nearly double the 250,000 rides per week reported in April, solidifying Waymo’s position as a top player in the self-driving industry. The letter also highlighted Waymo’s impressive safety record, being 10 times safer than human drivers according to Tiger Global’s analysis.

Aside from its increased ride volume, Waymo has made significant expansions this year, including launching in additional cities and introducing autonomous driving on freeways. This progress sets Waymo apart from competing companies like Tesla, which has conducted limited self-driving pilots but still relies on human drivers or safety supervisors in their vehicles. With Waymo’s continued growth and innovation, the company remains at the forefront of the autonomous driving industry.

McDonald’s is updating its global franchising standards to focus on ensuring value leadership in its restaurants. Starting January 1, 2026, franchisees will be assessed on how well their pricing decisions deliver value to customers. This move comes as the company aims to attract cash-strapped diners and maintain consistency in value offerings across all locations.

With franchisees running 95% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide, the company is emphasizing the importance of pricing decisions in providing a consistent and reliable customer experience. The new standards will allow franchisees to bring local insight into their pricing strategies, while also providing support with tools and resources to help them elevate the guest experience. This change aligns with the restaurant industry trend of focusing on value to attract customers, amidst lingering consumer pressures and economic uncertainties.

The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against AI search startup Perplexity for copyright infringement, joining other media outlets in taking legal action against the company. The Times claims that Perplexity is using its content without permission or compensation, even as several publishers are negotiating deals with AI firms. The lawsuit aims to leverage negotiations and ensure that AI companies properly license content to compensate creators and support original journalism. Perplexity attempted to address compensation demands with programs like the Publishers’ Program and Comet Plus, but the Times remains firm in holding the company accountable for using its content without authorization.

The Times’ lawsuit alleges that Perplexity’s AI technology gathers information from websites and databases to generate responses, often replicating or summarizing copyrighted works from outlets like The Times. This unauthorized use of content has caused damage to the Times’ brand and economic viability. This legal battle is not the first for The Times, as the outlet is also suing OpenAI and Microsoft for training AI systems with its articles without compensation. The lawsuit against Perplexity adds to mounting legal pressure on the company, as other media outlets have made similar claims against it.

Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass seized a unique marketing opportunity when Beyonce name-checked the brand in her song “Levii’s Jeans.” This led to a global campaign featuring the superstar, sparking a denim war as competitors rushed to catch up. Smaller brands also benefited from celebrity endorsements, with Kylie Jenner’s post boosting True Religion sales.

The denim market has grown to $101 billion, prompting retailers like Levi’s, Gap, and American Eagle to invest heavily in advertising campaigns. These efforts reflect their strategies to attract different demographics and remain relevant in a competitive market. Levi’s focus on female shoppers has seen success with the Beyonce campaign, while Gap and American Eagle aim to reintroduce themselves to younger consumers through their star-studded ads. Despite controversies and challenges, these companies continue to push the boundaries of denim marketing to engage consumers and drive sales.

A desire for deep discounts motivated 202.9 million U.S. consumers to shop during the five-day period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, exceeding the National Retail Federation’s forecast. This shopping turnout marked the largest since NRF began tracking in 2017, with shoppers spending a total of $44.2 billion online during the period. Despite economic uncertainties, retailers remain optimistic about holiday spending, with consumers prioritizing holiday purchases over other expenses and taking advantage of sales and promotions. With online shopping on the rise, retailers are seeing increased digital sales, with consumers spending $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday alone, a 7.1% year-over-year increase.

Delta Air Lines announced that the recent government shutdown resulted in a significant financial impact, with an estimated loss of $200 million in pretax profit. Despite continued healthy travel demand and strong bookings for 2026, the airline expects the shutdown to affect its current quarter earnings by approximately 25 cents per share. The shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history, caused disruptions in air traffic control operations and forced airlines to trim their schedules to alleviate pressure on controllers. This led to higher delays and cancellations than anticipated, putting additional strain on already stretched air traffic controllers who were required to work without pay during the shutdown.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian and other airline executives have been advocating for measures to ensure that essential air travel personnel, such as air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers, are paid in the event of another shutdown. The airline industry is hoping for legislative actions to prevent similar financial setbacks and operational challenges in the future.

A new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, highlighted by The Economist, raises concerns about the potential use of AI to judge individuals solely based on their facial characteristics. The study aimed to determine if AI could detect trustworthy people by analyzing their facial features. This research builds on previous studies that suggest personality traits can be determined from facial features, a highly controversial and ethically problematic concept. The UPenn team claims that AI can accurately predict important characteristics such as respectfulness and trust linked to financial success by analyzing facial scans.

The study used an AI system trained on face-based personality detection to extract traits from headshots of 96,000 MBA graduates from LinkedIn. The researchers inferred a correlation between the identified traits and the graduates’ success in the labor market. For example, extroversion was identified as the strongest positive predictor of compensation, while openness suggested lower earnings.

The potential implications of this research are alarming, as it suggests a future where decision-making processes for job applications, loans, or rentals could be influenced by facial analysis alone. The Economist points out that corporations may find a ‘strong incentive’ to deploy such technology in a society where financial success reigns supreme.