Just Realized
What robotaxis and gig platforms actually ship — Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Waymo, Tesla — with numbers, labor, and the boring edge cases.
All posts published in 2026.
Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash still run on contractor labor under Prop 22-era rules. Unions, EV subsidies, and robotaxis are three different answers to the same cost problem.
Waymo runs real driverless rides. Tesla still puts a human up front. Everyone else is partnering, pausing, or paying gig workers to close doors.
I was on an iPhone 14 and skipped two upgrade cycles. My wife is on a 14 Pro. I got the standard 17. Six months in, I think I made the right call.
Waymo's running a pilot in Atlanta that pays DoorDash drivers around $11 to close robotaxi doors left open by passengers—a perfect snapshot of where "full autonomy" really stands when a six-figure robot gets stuck because a door didn't latch
Lyft's weak first-quarter forecast blamed winter weather disruptions, overshadowing a $1 billion buyback program and sending shares down 17% in the biggest drop since February 2025
Amazon's Ring canceled its planned integration with police surveillance provider Flock Safety after backlash over a Super Bowl ad that showed AI scanning neighborhood cameras to find a lost dog—making the surveillance stack too visible to ignore
Cathie Wood's ARK sold nearly $75 million worth of Airbnb in February 2026 and rotated the capital into Robinhood, Shopify, and crypto-adjacent plays—signaling ARK's shift from mature consumer platforms to volatile fintech and AI bets
Amazon announced $200 billion in capex for 2026—a 50% increase over 2025—to fund AWS's AI buildout, triggering a 9% stock drop as analysts project free cash flow will swing negative for the first time in years
Uber reported 22% growth in bookings and record cash flow in Q4 2025, but missed EPS estimates by 9 cents due to equity investment write-downs, sending shares down 7% as investors repriced margin expectations