verge-rss

China’s Chang’e 6 ascender carrying lunar samples took off from the far side of the Moon on June 4th. | Image: China National Space Administration

China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft lifted off from the lunar surface today, bringing with it the first samples taken from the far side of the Moon.
Chang’e 6’s ascender launched from the back of the Moon, the side facing away from Earth, at 7:38AM Beijing time. The spacecraft had landed there, at the South Pole–Aitken Basin, around two days earlier. Its lander carried cameras, a soil structure detector, and a mineral spectrometer for analyzing geologic samples. The probe used its robotic arm and drilling tools to take samples. Chang’e 6 also carried payloads from the European Space Agency, France, and Italy for “scientific exploration.”
Governments want to know if they can use lunar minerals to set up bases on the Moon to facilitate long-term missions, Reuters reports. The samples collected are also expected to help researchers better understand how the Solar System and Moon formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago and how its far side differs from the side we see from Earth.

Mission accomplished! #ChangE6 has taken off from lunar surface after finishing the rapid intelligent sampling work & displaying China’s national flag for the first time on the far side of the moon. An unprecedented feat in human lunar exploration history! #ChinaTech pic.twitter.com/kGMxTFBrY4— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) June 4, 2024

It’s a lot harder to get to the Moon’s far side, which is bumpier. The Moon itself also blocks radio signals to the far side, which made it more difficult to collect samples there. China’s Chang’e 4 became the first spacecraft to successfully make it to the Moon’s far side when it landed in 2019. It launched a lunar satellite the year prior to facilitate communication between Earth and rovers on the far side of the Moon.
A second lunar satellite, Queqiao-2, that launched earlier this year sent data from the probe back to scientists, allowing them to make sampling decisions from Earth. That satellite also played a crucial role in the Chang’e 6’s ascender launching today. It lacks a fixed launch tower and ground control support. Instead, Chang’e 6 used its lander as a temporary tower and relied on its own sensors and the Queqiao-2 satellite to autonomously position itself before launch.

The Chang’e 6 ascender is supposed to rendezvous with a separate spacecraft in lunar orbit and then wait for the best time to return to Earth at a landing site in Inner Mongolia.

China’s Chang’e 6 ascender carrying lunar samples took off from the far side of the Moon on June 4th. | Image: China National Space Administration

China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft lifted off from the lunar surface today, bringing with it the first samples taken from the far side of the Moon.

Chang’e 6’s ascender launched from the back of the Moon, the side facing away from Earth, at 7:38AM Beijing time. The spacecraft had landed there, at the South Pole–Aitken Basin, around two days earlier. Its lander carried cameras, a soil structure detector, and a mineral spectrometer for analyzing geologic samples. The probe used its robotic arm and drilling tools to take samples. Chang’e 6 also carried payloads from the European Space Agency, France, and Italy for “scientific exploration.”

Governments want to know if they can use lunar minerals to set up bases on the Moon to facilitate long-term missions, Reuters reports. The samples collected are also expected to help researchers better understand how the Solar System and Moon formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago and how its far side differs from the side we see from Earth.

It’s a lot harder to get to the Moon’s far side, which is bumpier. The Moon itself also blocks radio signals to the far side, which made it more difficult to collect samples there. China’s Chang’e 4 became the first spacecraft to successfully make it to the Moon’s far side when it landed in 2019. It launched a lunar satellite the year prior to facilitate communication between Earth and rovers on the far side of the Moon.

A second lunar satellite, Queqiao-2, that launched earlier this year sent data from the probe back to scientists, allowing them to make sampling decisions from Earth. That satellite also played a crucial role in the Chang’e 6’s ascender launching today. It lacks a fixed launch tower and ground control support. Instead, Chang’e 6 used its lander as a temporary tower and relied on its own sensors and the Queqiao-2 satellite to autonomously position itself before launch.

The Chang’e 6 ascender is supposed to rendezvous with a separate spacecraft in lunar orbit and then wait for the best time to return to Earth at a landing site in Inner Mongolia.

Read More 

Image: Sudhanshu Ambhore via X

It looks like Samsung is planning a cheaper, FE version of its Galaxy Watch. A set of leaked renders shared by @Sudhanshu1414 on X shows what appears to be the 40mm device in blue, black, and pink.
Along with the renders, the post also includes some leaked specs, including a 1.2-inch OLED display and a 30-hour battery life. The watch is rumored to feature the same Exynos W920 chip as the Galaxy Watch 4, in addition to 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It’s also expected to ship with Samsung’s One UI Watch 5 system.

Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy Watch FE renders! pic.twitter.com/Jtzp9eUIaC— Sudhanshu Ambhore (@Sudhanshu1414) June 4, 2024

Samsung has yet to release a FE — or Fan Edition — version of its smartwatch. It has instead reserved the budget-friendly branding for its smartphones. But if Samsung really is working on a Galaxy Watch FE, it will be cheaper than the $299 Galaxy Watch 6. In a post on X, leaker @MysteryLupin claims the new device will cost €199, which could translate to a similar $199 price point in the US.
Samsung is reportedly planning to launch three new smartwatches during its next Unpacked event that’s rumored to take place in July. The company could take the wraps off the Galaxy Watch 7, the Galaxy Watch FE, and a squircle-shaped Galaxy Watch Ultra — making its wearable lineup look a little more like Apple’s.

Image: Sudhanshu Ambhore via X

It looks like Samsung is planning a cheaper, FE version of its Galaxy Watch. A set of leaked renders shared by @Sudhanshu1414 on X shows what appears to be the 40mm device in blue, black, and pink.

Along with the renders, the post also includes some leaked specs, including a 1.2-inch OLED display and a 30-hour battery life. The watch is rumored to feature the same Exynos W920 chip as the Galaxy Watch 4, in addition to 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It’s also expected to ship with Samsung’s One UI Watch 5 system.

Samsung has yet to release a FE — or Fan Edition — version of its smartwatch. It has instead reserved the budget-friendly branding for its smartphones. But if Samsung really is working on a Galaxy Watch FE, it will be cheaper than the $299 Galaxy Watch 6. In a post on X, leaker @MysteryLupin claims the new device will cost €199, which could translate to a similar $199 price point in the US.

Samsung is reportedly planning to launch three new smartwatches during its next Unpacked event that’s rumored to take place in July. The company could take the wraps off the Galaxy Watch 7, the Galaxy Watch FE, and a squircle-shaped Galaxy Watch Ultra — making its wearable lineup look a little more like Apple’s.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI’s ChatGPT service keeps experiencing issues today. After an outage took down ChatGPT for a few hours earlier today, the service is experiencing its second major outage of the day. Many users of the ChatGPT mobile apps and the web service are not seeing responses to queries right now.
“ChatGPT is unavailable for some users,” says OpenAI in its status message. “We are currently investigating this issue.” The second round of issues started at around 10:30AM ET, with thousands of reports of issues showing up on Downdetector.
The last major outage to hit ChatGPT came in November, when the service was down for around 90 minutes that also impacted OpenAI’s API services. The API appears to be unaffected in this latest outage. OpenAI later revealed that the November outage was related to a DDoS attack.
A Microsoft outage also took down ChatGPT search features last month, alongside the software giant’s own Copilot service.

Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI’s ChatGPT service keeps experiencing issues today. After an outage took down ChatGPT for a few hours earlier today, the service is experiencing its second major outage of the day. Many users of the ChatGPT mobile apps and the web service are not seeing responses to queries right now.

“ChatGPT is unavailable for some users,” says OpenAI in its status message. “We are currently investigating this issue.” The second round of issues started at around 10:30AM ET, with thousands of reports of issues showing up on Downdetector.

The last major outage to hit ChatGPT came in November, when the service was down for around 90 minutes that also impacted OpenAI’s API services. The API appears to be unaffected in this latest outage. OpenAI later revealed that the November outage was related to a DDoS attack.

A Microsoft outage also took down ChatGPT search features last month, alongside the software giant’s own Copilot service.

Read More 

A rendering of Climeworks’ Generation 3 direct air capture plant. | Image: Climeworks

The next generation of industrial plants to filter CO2 out of the air is on the way, and it’s getting closer to overcoming some of the biggest challenges of using this technology to fight climate change. Climeworks, one of the first startups to develop this tech, unveiled its Generation 3 plant today. It’s supposed to use half as much energy as older designs and slash costs in half, too.
It’s supposed to use half as much energy as older designs and slash costs in half
If Climeworks makes good on that promise, it could go a long way toward making this technology, called direct air capture (DAC), a viable way to reduce the amount of carbon pollution building up in the atmosphere. Right now, the technology is far too new and expensive to make a meaningful dent in those emissions. Nevertheless, a slew of big brands and the Biden administration are already placing a lot of faith — and funding — in developing the technology.
To date, there are about a couple dozen direct air capture plants around the world capable of drawing down about 0.01 million metric tons of CO2 cumulatively per year. Climeworks already provides this service to Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, BCG, and JPMorgan Chase, among others. But it’s a minuscule amount considering Microsoft alone released more than 15 million metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide last year. The International Energy Agency has predicted that DAC plants need to draw down 85 million metric tons of CO2 by the end of the decade to meet goals set by the Paris climate agreement.

Capturing that much CO2 would be fantastically expensive today since DAC costs upward of $600 per ton. A big chunk of those costs comes from the amount of energy it takes to run a DAC plant, which is another concern with the technology. Power grids in the US are already struggling to meet growing electricity demand from EVs, data centers, and manufacturing. Plus, DAC plants create their own carbon dioxide emissions if they run on dirty energy. And if they run on renewables, they risk siphoning that clean energy away from arguably more important uses, like keeping the lights on in homes.
Climeworks says its Generation 3 DAC plants can bring the cost of capturing CO2 down to $250–350 per ton by 2030, although there are additional costs for permanently sequestering the CO2 underground or under the sea so that it doesn’t escape back into the atmosphere. Across the industry, the goal is generally to get down to around $100 per ton to make the technology affordable enough to deploy widely.
Climeworks’ older DAC plants are made up of shipping container-sized modules lined with fans that suck in air. The air passes over a special filter that uses a base to attract and trap carbon dioxide, which is mildly acidic. Once the filter is fully saturated with CO2, the unit heats the filter to about 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) to release the gas. That creates a concentrated stream of CO2 that can be transported and stored elsewhere.

Climeworks says Generation 3 is more energy-efficient because it increases surface contact with CO2 and its filters are supposed to capture more than twice as much CO2 as older filters. The modules are also cube-shaped now to maximize CO2 capture.
The company has been testing the new filters in Switzerland over the past five years, finally running a full-scale test this month. Now, the plan is to deploy the technology at DAC plants in the US before expanding to other countries. The first will be in Louisiana, where the Biden administration chose Climeworks to be one of the first companies it’s giving funds to as part of a $3.5 billion program to develop at least four DAC hubs across the US.

A rendering of Climeworks’ Generation 3 direct air capture plant. | Image: Climeworks

The next generation of industrial plants to filter CO2 out of the air is on the way, and it’s getting closer to overcoming some of the biggest challenges of using this technology to fight climate change. Climeworks, one of the first startups to develop this tech, unveiled its Generation 3 plant today. It’s supposed to use half as much energy as older designs and slash costs in half, too.

If Climeworks makes good on that promise, it could go a long way toward making this technology, called direct air capture (DAC), a viable way to reduce the amount of carbon pollution building up in the atmosphere. Right now, the technology is far too new and expensive to make a meaningful dent in those emissions. Nevertheless, a slew of big brands and the Biden administration are already placing a lot of faith — and funding — in developing the technology.

To date, there are about a couple dozen direct air capture plants around the world capable of drawing down about 0.01 million metric tons of CO2 cumulatively per year. Climeworks already provides this service to Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, BCG, and JPMorgan Chase, among others. But it’s a minuscule amount considering Microsoft alone released more than 15 million metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide last year. The International Energy Agency has predicted that DAC plants need to draw down 85 million metric tons of CO2 by the end of the decade to meet goals set by the Paris climate agreement.

Capturing that much CO2 would be fantastically expensive today since DAC costs upward of $600 per ton. A big chunk of those costs comes from the amount of energy it takes to run a DAC plant, which is another concern with the technology. Power grids in the US are already struggling to meet growing electricity demand from EVs, data centers, and manufacturing. Plus, DAC plants create their own carbon dioxide emissions if they run on dirty energy. And if they run on renewables, they risk siphoning that clean energy away from arguably more important uses, like keeping the lights on in homes.

Climeworks says its Generation 3 DAC plants can bring the cost of capturing CO2 down to $250–350 per ton by 2030, although there are additional costs for permanently sequestering the CO2 underground or under the sea so that it doesn’t escape back into the atmosphere. Across the industry, the goal is generally to get down to around $100 per ton to make the technology affordable enough to deploy widely.

Climeworks’ older DAC plants are made up of shipping container-sized modules lined with fans that suck in air. The air passes over a special filter that uses a base to attract and trap carbon dioxide, which is mildly acidic. Once the filter is fully saturated with CO2, the unit heats the filter to about 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) to release the gas. That creates a concentrated stream of CO2 that can be transported and stored elsewhere.

Climeworks says Generation 3 is more energy-efficient because it increases surface contact with CO2 and its filters are supposed to capture more than twice as much CO2 as older filters. The modules are also cube-shaped now to maximize CO2 capture.

The company has been testing the new filters in Switzerland over the past five years, finally running a full-scale test this month. Now, the plan is to deploy the technology at DAC plants in the US before expanding to other countries. The first will be in Louisiana, where the Biden administration chose Climeworks to be one of the first companies it’s giving funds to as part of a $3.5 billion program to develop at least four DAC hubs across the US.

Read More 

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk ordered thousands of Nvidia-made AI chips destined for Tesla to be diverted to his social media company X, according to emails from the chipmaker obtained by CNBC. The move has the potential to delay Tesla’s acquisition of $500 million worth of processors by months, the outlet reports.
Tesla is supposed to be stocking up on Nvidia’s H100 artificial intelligence chips in order to power its transformation into “a leader in AI and robotics,” according to Musk. In an Tesla earnings call earlier this year, he said the company would increase its acquisition of H100s from 35,000 to 85,000 by the end of this year. And later, in a post on X, Musk said that Tesla would spend $10 billion “in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car.”

Tesla will spend around $10B this year in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car.Any company not spending at this level, and doing so efficiently, cannot compete.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2024

But emails by Nvidia employees obtained by CNBC suggest that Musk is exaggerating the purchase of AI chips for Tesla. Instead, many of those processors are now en route to X — and primarily its AI subsidiary, xAI.
“Elon prioritizing X H100 GPU cluster deployment at X versus Tesla by redirecting 12k of shipped H100 GPUs originally slated for Tesla to X instead,” an Nvidia memo from December said, according to CNBC. “In exchange, original X orders of 12k H100 slated for Jan and June to be redirected to Tesla.” In follow-up messages, Nvidia employees noted that Musk’s comments during the earnings call and in subsequent posts on X “conflicts with bookings.”
The move to divert AI chips from Tesla to X could rankle Tesla investors, who are betting on Musk delivering his promise of fully autonomous vehicles. The company plans to unveil its first robotaxi vehicle at an event in August. Meanwhile, Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving driver-assist features, which serve as a bedrock for the company’s autonomy work, have come under scrutiny for hundreds of crashes, dozens of which have resulted in fatalities.
Musk’s AI startup, xAI, is racing against OpenAI, Google, and others to produce useful applications for generative AI and their underlying large language models. Last month, the company announced a $6 billion funding round on the promise of advanced products and the infrastructure to support them.
Nvidia has become the third most valuable company in the world on the demand of its GPUs, which power much of the AI ambitions of other companies. With cloud computing and generative AI, customers “are consuming every GPU that’s out there,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on an earnings call in May, according to CNBC. The company reported 200 percent revenue growth during the last quarter.

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk ordered thousands of Nvidia-made AI chips destined for Tesla to be diverted to his social media company X, according to emails from the chipmaker obtained by CNBC. The move has the potential to delay Tesla’s acquisition of $500 million worth of processors by months, the outlet reports.

Tesla is supposed to be stocking up on Nvidia’s H100 artificial intelligence chips in order to power its transformation into “a leader in AI and robotics,” according to Musk. In an Tesla earnings call earlier this year, he said the company would increase its acquisition of H100s from 35,000 to 85,000 by the end of this year. And later, in a post on X, Musk said that Tesla would spend $10 billion “in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car.”

But emails by Nvidia employees obtained by CNBC suggest that Musk is exaggerating the purchase of AI chips for Tesla. Instead, many of those processors are now en route to X — and primarily its AI subsidiary, xAI.

“Elon prioritizing X H100 GPU cluster deployment at X versus Tesla by redirecting 12k of shipped H100 GPUs originally slated for Tesla to X instead,” an Nvidia memo from December said, according to CNBC. “In exchange, original X orders of 12k H100 slated for Jan and June to be redirected to Tesla.” In follow-up messages, Nvidia employees noted that Musk’s comments during the earnings call and in subsequent posts on X “conflicts with bookings.”

The move to divert AI chips from Tesla to X could rankle Tesla investors, who are betting on Musk delivering his promise of fully autonomous vehicles. The company plans to unveil its first robotaxi vehicle at an event in August. Meanwhile, Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving driver-assist features, which serve as a bedrock for the company’s autonomy work, have come under scrutiny for hundreds of crashes, dozens of which have resulted in fatalities.

Musk’s AI startup, xAI, is racing against OpenAI, Google, and others to produce useful applications for generative AI and their underlying large language models. Last month, the company announced a $6 billion funding round on the promise of advanced products and the infrastructure to support them.

Nvidia has become the third most valuable company in the world on the demand of its GPUs, which power much of the AI ambitions of other companies. With cloud computing and generative AI, customers “are consuming every GPU that’s out there,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on an earnings call in May, according to CNBC. The company reported 200 percent revenue growth during the last quarter.

Read More 

Photo: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Max has announced a price increase on the streaming service’s ad-free plans. The standard ad-free plan will cost $16.99 / month instead of $15.99, while the 4K ad-free plan will cost $20.99 / month instead of $19.99.
The price increase will go into effect today for new subscribers. Existing subscribers can expect to see the increase from their next billing cycle on or after Thursday, July 4th. Max’s price hike also affects the service’s ad-free yearly plans, with the standard ad-free plan going up to $169.99 / year from $149.99 and the 4K ad-free plan going up to $209.99 / year from $199.99.
The service’s $9.99 / month (or $99.99 / year) ad-supported subscription will stay the same price. Warner Bros. Discovery raised the price of Max (then HBO Max) for the first time last year. We first heard about a potential Max price increase from a Bloomberg report last month.
Max isn’t alone in raising its prices, either. NBCUniversal is raising the price of Peacock by $2 in July, while Disney plans on making customers pay to share their passwords this month.

Photo: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Max has announced a price increase on the streaming service’s ad-free plans. The standard ad-free plan will cost $16.99 / month instead of $15.99, while the 4K ad-free plan will cost $20.99 / month instead of $19.99.

The price increase will go into effect today for new subscribers. Existing subscribers can expect to see the increase from their next billing cycle on or after Thursday, July 4th. Max’s price hike also affects the service’s ad-free yearly plans, with the standard ad-free plan going up to $169.99 / year from $149.99 and the 4K ad-free plan going up to $209.99 / year from $199.99.

The service’s $9.99 / month (or $99.99 / year) ad-supported subscription will stay the same price. Warner Bros. Discovery raised the price of Max (then HBO Max) for the first time last year. We first heard about a potential Max price increase from a Bloomberg report last month.

Max isn’t alone in raising its prices, either. NBCUniversal is raising the price of Peacock by $2 in July, while Disney plans on making customers pay to share their passwords this month.

Read More 

Photo: David Pierce / The Verge

The M2 iPad Air doesn’t come with the 10-core GPU that Apple originally advertised — it actually comes with a nine-core one. In a statement to 9to5Mac, an unnamed Apple spokesperson says it has updated its website “to correct the core count for the M2 iPad Air” but that “all performance claims for the M2 iPad Air are accurate and based on a 9-core GPU.”
The correction from Apple comes after a report from 9to5Mac revealed that the company had quietly changed the core count for its new M2 iPad Air from 10 cores to nine on the page outlining the product’s specs. Apple has also changed the device’s core count on its press release and support page. The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
As Apple tells 9to5Mac, this doesn’t mean the M2 iPad Air’s listed performance is wrong. Apple’s claim that the M2 iPad Air is 50 percent faster than its M1 predecessor still stands.
It’s rare for Apple to issue such a correction, and it’s not clear why the company would change the iPad’s listed specs without telling customers first. Last month, Apple waited a week before acknowledging a bug that resurfaced deleted iPhone photos.

Photo: David Pierce / The Verge

The M2 iPad Air doesn’t come with the 10-core GPU that Apple originally advertised — it actually comes with a nine-core one. In a statement to 9to5Mac, an unnamed Apple spokesperson says it has updated its website “to correct the core count for the M2 iPad Air” but that “all performance claims for the M2 iPad Air are accurate and based on a 9-core GPU.”

The correction from Apple comes after a report from 9to5Mac revealed that the company had quietly changed the core count for its new M2 iPad Air from 10 cores to nine on the page outlining the product’s specs. Apple has also changed the device’s core count on its press release and support page. The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

As Apple tells 9to5Mac, this doesn’t mean the M2 iPad Air’s listed performance is wrong. Apple’s claim that the M2 iPad Air is 50 percent faster than its M1 predecessor still stands.

It’s rare for Apple to issue such a correction, and it’s not clear why the company would change the iPad’s listed specs without telling customers first. Last month, Apple waited a week before acknowledging a bug that resurfaced deleted iPhone photos.

Read More 

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Netflix says it’ll no longer be available on second- and third-generation Apple TVs, which came out more than a decade ago.
The company said in an email to customers that the move is meant to “maintain the best possible Netflix experience.” The change is expected to happen after July 31st, AppleInsider and MacRumors report. Netflix also updated its support page with the news.
The first three generations of Apple TVs are already considered “obsolete” by Apple, which discontinues service for hardware seven years after it has stopped selling a product.
Netflix has stopped support for other old devices, including aging Samsung and Vizio smart TVs and first-generation Roku boxes in 2019. That happened because Netflix had switched from Windows Media DRM to Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM.
Netflix didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Verge about why it made the decision to end support for second- and third-generation Apple TVs now. But both generations are so old that they don’t have Apple’s App Store.
For anyone looking to upgrade, Verizon is currently offering a $40 discount on the latest Apple TV 4K.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Netflix says it’ll no longer be available on second- and third-generation Apple TVs, which came out more than a decade ago.

The company said in an email to customers that the move is meant to “maintain the best possible Netflix experience.” The change is expected to happen after July 31st, AppleInsider and MacRumors report. Netflix also updated its support page with the news.

The first three generations of Apple TVs are already considered “obsolete” by Apple, which discontinues service for hardware seven years after it has stopped selling a product.

Netflix has stopped support for other old devices, including aging Samsung and Vizio smart TVs and first-generation Roku boxes in 2019. That happened because Netflix had switched from Windows Media DRM to Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM.

Netflix didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Verge about why it made the decision to end support for second- and third-generation Apple TVs now. But both generations are so old that they don’t have Apple’s App Store.

For anyone looking to upgrade, Verizon is currently offering a $40 discount on the latest Apple TV 4K.

Read More 

Image: Joby

Leading electric aviation company Joby Aviation said it has acquired the autonomy division from Xwing, an aviation startup that’s been working on pilotless flight projects for several years. The terms of the deal, which involve an amount of Joby stock, were not disclosed.
Joby’s electric air taxis are still a couple years away from launch, but the company says it wants to position itself to take advantage of autonomous flight when the technology is ready for commercial application.
Joby’s electric air taxis are still a couple years away from launch
Xwing, which was founded in 2016, has conducted 250 autonomous test flights as well as 500 auto-landings. And, in April 2023, it was the first company to receive an official project designation for the certification of a large unmanned aerial system from the Federal Aviation Administration, Joby says.
The acquisition could also help Joby expand its business with the Department of Defense, which has been a partner for the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company since 2022. The Pentagon has been eyeing eVTOLs and autonomy as it seeks to improve its mission safety.
Xwing is the latest startup to be absorbed by Joby, which is working to solidify its leadership in the nascent eVTOL space. In 2021, the company acquired Inras GmbH, a company developing lightweight, high-performance radar sensor technology. And earlier this year, Joby signed a deal to launch an air taxi service in Dubai in 2026. The company recently performed a few exhibition flights in Manhattan and plans to start flying commercial passengers in cities like New York and Los Angeles in 2025.
Xwing is the latest startup to be absorbed by Joby
Joby’s all-electric aircraft has six rotors and seats five, including the pilot. The vehicle can take off vertically, like a helicopter, and then shift into forward flight using tilt rotors. Joby says it can reach a top speed of 200mph, travel 150 miles on a single battery charge, and is 100 times quieter than a conventional aircraft.
Several air taxi companies plan to launch their services in the coming years, including Archer, Lilium, Beta Technologies, and Wisk Aero. Most will operate with pilots in the cockpit, although they say autonomous flight remains a stretch goal.
“The aircraft we are certifying will have a fully-qualified pilot on board,” JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, said in a statement, “but we recognize that a future generation of autonomous aircraft will play an important part in unlocking our vision of making clean and affordable aerial mobility as accessible as possible.”

Image: Joby

Leading electric aviation company Joby Aviation said it has acquired the autonomy division from Xwing, an aviation startup that’s been working on pilotless flight projects for several years. The terms of the deal, which involve an amount of Joby stock, were not disclosed.

Joby’s electric air taxis are still a couple years away from launch, but the company says it wants to position itself to take advantage of autonomous flight when the technology is ready for commercial application.

Xwing, which was founded in 2016, has conducted 250 autonomous test flights as well as 500 auto-landings. And, in April 2023, it was the first company to receive an official project designation for the certification of a large unmanned aerial system from the Federal Aviation Administration, Joby says.

The acquisition could also help Joby expand its business with the Department of Defense, which has been a partner for the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company since 2022. The Pentagon has been eyeing eVTOLs and autonomy as it seeks to improve its mission safety.

Xwing is the latest startup to be absorbed by Joby, which is working to solidify its leadership in the nascent eVTOL space. In 2021, the company acquired Inras GmbH, a company developing lightweight, high-performance radar sensor technology. And earlier this year, Joby signed a deal to launch an air taxi service in Dubai in 2026. The company recently performed a few exhibition flights in Manhattan and plans to start flying commercial passengers in cities like New York and Los Angeles in 2025.

Joby’s all-electric aircraft has six rotors and seats five, including the pilot. The vehicle can take off vertically, like a helicopter, and then shift into forward flight using tilt rotors. Joby says it can reach a top speed of 200mph, travel 150 miles on a single battery charge, and is 100 times quieter than a conventional aircraft.

Several air taxi companies plan to launch their services in the coming years, including Archer, Lilium, Beta Technologies, and Wisk Aero. Most will operate with pilots in the cockpit, although they say autonomous flight remains a stretch goal.

“The aircraft we are certifying will have a fully-qualified pilot on board,” JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, said in a statement, “but we recognize that a future generation of autonomous aircraft will play an important part in unlocking our vision of making clean and affordable aerial mobility as accessible as possible.”

Read More 

Image: Andrew Marino / The Verge

Say this for Sonos: the company is remarkably consistent. It has spent decades building audio products that look and sound great… and are almost always initially hampered by some kind of weird software and usability issue. When Sonos stuff works, there’s nothing like it, but it doesn’t always seem to work.
The Sonos Ace headphones fit perfectly in that lineage. In The Verge’s review, Chris Welch found them to be comfortable, attractive, well-made, great-sounding, and hampered by just a few too many bugs. Even still, the Ace is a strong first effort from Sonos.

On this episode of The Vergecast, Chris joins to tell us all about his experiences with the Ace. He explains how he tests headphones, how these stack up to Bose, Sony, Apple, and others, and what Sonos needs to do to make its headphones something truly special. He also gives us a hint about how his Roam 2 review is going. (Spoiler alert: buttons!)
After that, we chat with Stacy Spikes and Muta’Ali about the new documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash. (Spikes is the co-founder and current CEO of MoviePass, and Muta’Ali directed the documentary.) They tell us about what it’s like to be cut out of your own company and story, how and why MoviePass imploded, the future of the movie theater, and why Spikes thinks MoviePass still has a future.
Finally, we grab Jennifer Pattison Tuohy to answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) all about the smart home. You’ve got lights, you’ve got speakers, what’s next?

If you want to know more about everything discussed in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Sonos:

Sonos Ace review: was it worth it?
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign
Sonos’ Roam 2 speaker is easier to use and available today for $179
The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy
Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’

And on MoviePass:

MoviePass, MovieCrash review: a damning account of corporate greed
MoviePass, MovieCrash | Official Trailer
Why MoviePass really failed
Former MoviePass execs are now facing criminal fraud charges
MoviePass is officially coming back
The struggles of MoviePass, the film subscription service

And on the smart home:

Aqara kick-starts its first Matter-over-Thread smart lock with a promise of Home Key support
The new Yale Keypad Touch brings fingerprint unlocking to the August smart lock
Yale launches its first retrofit smart lock — the Yale Approach with Wi-Fi
From Derek Seaman’s Tech Blog: Home Assistant: Setting up the Aqara FP2 Presence Sensor

Image: Andrew Marino / The Verge

Say this for Sonos: the company is remarkably consistent. It has spent decades building audio products that look and sound great… and are almost always initially hampered by some kind of weird software and usability issue. When Sonos stuff works, there’s nothing like it, but it doesn’t always seem to work.

The Sonos Ace headphones fit perfectly in that lineage. In The Verge’s review, Chris Welch found them to be comfortable, attractive, well-made, great-sounding, and hampered by just a few too many bugs. Even still, the Ace is a strong first effort from Sonos.

On this episode of The Vergecast, Chris joins to tell us all about his experiences with the Ace. He explains how he tests headphones, how these stack up to Bose, Sony, Apple, and others, and what Sonos needs to do to make its headphones something truly special. He also gives us a hint about how his Roam 2 review is going. (Spoiler alert: buttons!)

After that, we chat with Stacy Spikes and Muta’Ali about the new documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash. (Spikes is the co-founder and current CEO of MoviePass, and Muta’Ali directed the documentary.) They tell us about what it’s like to be cut out of your own company and story, how and why MoviePass imploded, the future of the movie theater, and why Spikes thinks MoviePass still has a future.

Finally, we grab Jennifer Pattison Tuohy to answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) all about the smart home. You’ve got lights, you’ve got speakers, what’s next?

If you want to know more about everything discussed in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Sonos:

Sonos Ace review: was it worth it?
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign
Sonos’ Roam 2 speaker is easier to use and available today for $179
The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy
Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’

And on MoviePass:

MoviePass, MovieCrash review: a damning account of corporate greed
MoviePass, MovieCrash | Official Trailer
Why MoviePass really failed
Former MoviePass execs are now facing criminal fraud charges
MoviePass is officially coming back
The struggles of MoviePass, the film subscription service

And on the smart home:

Aqara kick-starts its first Matter-over-Thread smart lock with a promise of Home Key support
The new Yale Keypad Touch brings fingerprint unlocking to the August smart lock
Yale launches its first retrofit smart lock — the Yale Approach with Wi-Fi
From Derek Seaman’s Tech Blog: Home Assistant: Setting up the Aqara FP2 Presence Sensor

Read More