BusinessAnalysis

Robotaxi rides in San Francisco have taken on a whole new meaning

Planet Business: Hollywood’s crowded picket lines, a reshuffle at Bloomberg and the countries set to join Brics

A Cruise robotaxi self-drives on a street in San Francisco. But what's going on behind those darkened backseat windows? Photograph: John G. Mabanglo/EPA

Laura Slattery's face
Laura Slattery
Sat Aug 26 2023 - 06:30

Image of the week: A to B via a big O?

On the streets of San Francisco, some citizens have been finding a new way to guarantee the earth will move during sex: by hiring a “robotaxi” for the occasion. Yes, while some of us are just worried about the springs in our mattresses popping at the wrong moment, the San Francisco Standard reports that more adventurous types have been hiring self-driving cars operated by autonomous taxi service Cruise and, well, enjoying the ride every which way they can.

Robotaxis operated by Cruise, which is a subsidiary of General Motors, and Alphabet-owned Waymo were only this month permitted to expand their experimental test runs in San Francisco to a full day-and-night paying passenger service, backed by an approval from the California Public Utilities Commission despite vociferous opposition from residents and the city’s police and fire departments.

So far, this round-the-clock “infestation” of robotaxis is going about as well as the protesters expected. After a number of collisions, including one with a firetruck, authorities have told Cruise to cut its fleet by 50 per cent, while no one is ready to forget an incident in May in which a Waymo robotaxi killed a small dog.

Frankly, this brave new world is all a bit of a turn-off.

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In numbers: Lights, camera, strike

117

Days that members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike. The previous record length of strike action by the US screenwriters union, set back in 1988, was 153 days.

100

Length of the previous WGA strike in 2007-2008. When this threshold was crossed earlier in August, the guild’s negotiating committee co-chairs dubbed it a “milestone of shame” for the AMPTP, the producers’ body representing the big US studios and streamers.

44

Days that members of actors’ body SAG-AFTRA have also been pounding the picket lines in their fight for better pay and conditions and resistance against the advent of cheap AI-generated content. It’s a collective tour de force.

Getting to know: Vlad Kliatchko

As chief product officer of Bloomberg since January 2022, Russia-born Vlad Kliatchko has been responsible for leading a diverse team of technologists who are tackling complex technical challenges and building advanced systems and applications that serve financial market participants around the world.

This sounds like a lot of fun and it has obviously gone well for Kliatchko as he has now been promoted to chief executive of the New York-headquartered financial terminals business, which he first joined as a computer engineer in 2003.

The appointment was part of a reshuffle at the top of the company by its founder, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg (81), who started his second stint as chief executive in 2014. He wrote in an internal memo that he was not going anywhere: “I’ve never used a title in the company, so I won’t change what I’ll be called – just ‘Mike’.”

Earlier this year, Kliatchko was identified by a former Bloomberg executive speaking to the Financial Times as one of “only two people” who run the company, the other being chief commercial officer JP Zammitt, who will have to make do with his elevation to president.

The list: Brics joiners

“Bric” started out in 2001 as a term used in a Goldman Sachs report to refer to the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. But via the time-honoured tradition of holding massive summits, the countries then formed a proper organisation, adding South Africa – host of this week’s summit – to become Brics in 2010. Now six new countries have got their wish to become full members.

1. Argentina: China and Brazil supported Argentina’s successful bid to join Brics. Anyone for Bricas? Probably not, as that acronym is going to get unwieldy fast.

2 and 3. Egypt and Ethiopia: The two countries are not the only African nations that want to be part of an alliance that could potentially reduce the global dominance of the US dollar.

4. Iran: The diplomatically isolated home to about a quarter of the Middle East’s oil reserves was among those hoping for formal entrance criteria to be agreed upon this week. Like the others admitted this week, it will become a Brics country in June 2024.

5. Saudi Arabia: The country took a break from golf and football to participate in “Friends of Brics” talks in Cape Town earlier this summer. Its accession to Brics is a “pretty big deal”, said economist Jim O’Neill, who authored the original Goldman Sachs report.

6. The United Arab Emirates: Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE was regarded as one of the “front-runners” to be allowed into a club that – unsurprisingly given Russia’s involvement – is often quite fractious at the top table.

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