Photo courtesy of Zoox, Inc

• Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• Zoox opened its first serial production facility to build robotaxis in the Bay Area.
• The new facility measures 220,000 square feet and has the capacity to assemble over 10,000 robotaxis per year.
• The company expects to expand its services across Las Vegas, San Francisco, Austin, and Miami.

According to the press release , this is Zoox’s second facility in the Bay Area and is located in Hayward. What makes the new location special is its size, 220,000 square feet, and its capacity to assemble over 10,000 robotaxis per year.

Zoox expects to produce more robotaxis to match the demand for its services in multiple cities in the United States. The company will focus first on Las Vegas, then San Francisco, Austin, and Miami.

“This facility is used for a myriad of different operations, including robotaxi engineering and software/hardware integration, robotaxi assembly, storage of robotaxi components, shipping and receiving, and end-of-line testing required before the robotaxis are deployed,” explained the company.

The new facility combines the work of robots and humans to assemble the robotaxis. The robots focus on tasks such as applying the adhesive for glass installation and transporting the vehicles, while humans handle the rest of the work.

As part of its expansion, the company emphasized that its mission to scale production and services will soon create hundreds of new jobs in the region.

The automotive company also expressed its commitment to reducing air pollution and noise, and added that, compared to traditional facilities, it has a low power draw.

Zoox is a major competitor in the dynamic robotaxi market in the United States. It faces competition from similar services, such as those offered by Waymo—which recently partnered with Uber to launch its services in Austin —and Tesla, which announced a new robotaxi service called Cybercab a few months ago.

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

BBC To Take Legal Action Against Perplexity For Scraping Its Content

• Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The BBC is threatening the AI company Perplexity with legal action if it continues to use its content without permission. The British broadcaster has accused the startup of scraping content from its website to train its “default AI model.”

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• The BBC threatened Perplexity with legal action if it continues to use its content without permission.
• The broadcaster accused the AI company of scraping its content to train its AI model.
• The BBC requested that Perplexity delete the copyrighted material and submit “a proposal for financial compensation.”

According to the Financial Times (FT) , the BBC sent a letter to Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity’s CEO, saying that it has evidence of its content being used to train the company’s AI model.

The BBC has requested the American startup to stop scraping its content, delete the material already used, and submit “a proposal for financial compensation.” If Perplexity does not comply, the broadcaster has threatened to seek an injunction.

The BBC is not the only media organization threatening Perplexity with legal action over the unauthorized use of copyrighted content. Last year, in October, the New York Times also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity , while the Wall Street Journal and The Post filed a lawsuit against the company.

This marks the first time the BBC has taken legal steps against an AI company for using its content without permission, although it has previously voiced concerns about AI. A few months ago, the BBC raised issues about AI chatbots struggling to provide accurate news information , naming Perplexity among the models analyzed.

Perplexity, on the other hand, considered the BBC’s latest threat “manipulative and opportunistic.” The AI company claimed the BBC does not understand how the internet and technology work.

“[The claims] also show how far the BBC is willing to go to preserve Google‘s illegal monopoly for its own self-interest,” said Perplexity to the FT.