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Uber has rolled out fifteen self-driving taxis on London streets, marking the UK's first robotaxi service — though don't expect to ride alone just yet. Each vehicle carries a human safety driver, a reminder that fully autonomous transport remains a work in progress, however close it feels.
Shifting to the business of artificial intelligence, a startup called Afterquery has become Y Combinator's fastest-ever unicorn, with its valuation jumping more than tenfold in just five months. The company specializes in AI training data, and its meteoric rise tells you everything about where the real money in the AI boom is flowing — not always to the flashy models, but to the unglamorous infrastructure beneath them.
And speaking of AI infrastructure, Vodafone has announced something it's calling SuperMobile, a premium connectivity tier promising up to four times faster speeds than standard plans. The company is betting that devices like Meta's AI glasses will demand a new category of mobile network entirely — a bold wager on a future that hasn't quite arrived.
That's your Tech Beat for today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
