As a company with a global presence to the tune of at least a billion people, Google is taking both its immense tech capabilities and social responsibility role very seriously. Namely, it has pledged to provide tangible support to organizations wanting to help address societal challenges using artificial intelligence through its just announced “AI Impact Challenge”. Whether an idea needs coaching, grant funding from a pool of $25 million available, or credit and consulting from cloud services, Google will be there to help.
Towards this effort, the company has already provided an educational guide to machine learning, the primary tool it wants organizations to utilize in its problem-solving. It might seem counterintuitive for a proposer to need training on the very thing it’s proposing, but this is part of the point of Google’s support. To quote Google’s project page directly, “We want people from as many backgrounds as possible to surface problems that AI can help solve, and to be empowered to create solutions themselves…We don’t expect applicants to be AI experts.” Submissions are open until January 22, 2019, and winners will be announced in spring 2019.
Need inspiration for an idea? Or, perhaps, some examples of the kinds of problems that artificial intelligence can help solve? Google’s page dedicated to its “AI for social good” mission has featured projects that are already working towards societally beneficial goals. Here’s a breakdown of some of them:
- The “Smart Wildfire Sensor” is a device that identifies and predicts areas in a forest that are susceptible to wildfires. To do this, it uses data from tools measuring wind speed, wind direction, humidity, and temperature combined with Google’s open source machine learning tool TensorFlow for photographic analysis of biomass (accumulated fallen branches and trees).
- Protecting whales from preventable accidents such as entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with vessels is a challenge being addressed using whale songs and machine learning to locate where they’re singing from. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses underwater audio recordings to identify and mitigate the presence of dangers in the estimated areas where whales are present. The thousands of hours of recordings accumulated presented a data challenge well suited to Google’s existing sound classification AI to help meet NOAA’s needs with conservation efforts.
- As a top cause of infant mortality in the world, birth asphyxia is a serious threat needing all the tools available to new parents. Using machine learning trained to recognize the cries of a newborn with this condition, the company Ubenwa has developed a mobile app enabling a recording of a baby’s cry to be uploaded and diagnosed.
“With great power comes great responsibility” is a familiar motto that applies to the state of modern tech just as much as superheroes. For example, the fast-paced field of artificial intelligence brings frequent developments that challenge our security as a society, thus needing caution. However, the massive companies driving the primary innovations being used among the public on a grand scale are one of the larger demonstrations of this where this motto really applies in today’s world.
Google sharply felt the weight of its responsibility recently when its role in assisting the US Department of Defense to analyze drone footage (Project Maven) was revealed. The “Don’t be evil” part of the company’s Code of Conduct at the time appeared to be violated through the military assistance, and renewal of the contract has since been canceled. Google’s further work on its Chinese search engine with censorship in accordance with the communist government’s requirements has also drawn protest from both inside and outside the company. Given this background, a new project focused on doing “good” things for the benefit of society might be seen as possible damage control. The timing might be suspect, but it’s worth noting that, as seen in the projects described above, Google has been working to help with societal needs for quite some time already.
Overall, headlines in recent years have demonstrated just how flexible AI can be when it comes to solving challenges that face our world. While the fears brought on by future “intelligent” computers may have a foundation in reality, it may do us a great amount of good to turn our focus on the hope such technology can also bring. Whatever Google’s motivation is for launching its “AI for social good project”, if good is achieved, it may just be a win for us all.
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Tesla lands approval for Robotaxi operation in third U.S. state
On Tuesday, Tesla officially received regulatory approval from the State of Arizona, making it the third state for the company to receive approval in.
Tesla has officially landed approval to operate its Robotaxi ride-hailing service in its third U.S. state, as it has landed a regulatory green light from the State of Arizona’s Department of Transportation.
Tesla has been working to expand to new U.S. states after launching in Texas and California earlier this year. Recently, it said it was hoping to land in Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, expanding to five new cities in those three states.
On Tuesday, Tesla officially received regulatory approval from the State of Arizona, making it the third state for the company to receive approval in:
BREAKING: Tesla has officially received approval from the Arizona Department of Transportation to launch its Robotaxi service on public roads in the state!
I just confirmed directly with the Arizona DOT that @Tesla applied for a Transportation Network Company permit on Nov 13th.… pic.twitter.com/iKbwfGfiju
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) November 18, 2025
Tesla has also been working on approvals in Nevada and Florida, and it has also had Robotaxi test mules spotted in Pennsylvania.
The interesting thing about the Arizona approval is the fact that Tesla has not received an approval for any specific city; it appears that it can operate statewide. However, early on, Tesla will likely confine its operation to just one or two cities to keep things safe and controlled.
Over the past few months, Robotaxi mules have been spotted in portions of Phoenix and surrounding cities, such as Scottsdale, as the company has been attempting to cross off all the regulatory Ts that it is confronted with as it attempts to expand the ride-hailing service.
It appears the company will be operating it similarly to how it does in Texas, which differs from its California program. In Austin, there is no Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat, unless the route requires freeway travel. In California, there is always a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat. However, this is unconfirmed.
Earlier today, Tesla enabled its Robotaxi app to be utilized for ride-hailing for anyone using the iOS platform.
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Tesla ride-hailing Safety Monitor dozes off during Bay Area ride
We won’t try to blame the camera person for the incident, because it clearly is not their fault. But it seems somewhat interesting that they did not try to wake the driver up and potentially contact Tesla immediately to alert them of the situation.
A Tesla Robotaxi Safety Monitor appeared to doze off during a ride in the California Bay Area, almost ironically proving the need for autonomous vehicles.
The instance was captured on camera and posted to Reddit in the r/sanfrancisco subreddit by u/ohmichael. They wrote that they have used Tesla’s ride-hailing service in the Bay Area in the past and had pleasant experiences.
However, this one was slightly different. They wrote:
“I took a Tesla Robotaxi in SF just over a week ago. I have used the service a few times before and it has always been great. I actually felt safer than in a regular rideshare.
This time was different. The safety driver literally fell asleep at least three times during the ride. Each time the car’s pay attention safety alert went off and the beeping is what woke him back up.
I reported it through the app to the Robotaxi support team and told them I had videos, but I never got a response.
I held off on posting anything because I wanted to give Tesla a chance to respond privately. It has been more than a week now and this feels like a serious issue for other riders too.
Has anyone else seen this happen?”
My Tesla Robotaxi “safety” driver fell asleep
byu/ohmichael insanfrancisco
The driver eventually woke up after prompts from the vehicle, but it is pretty alarming to see someone like this while they’re ultimately responsible for what happens with the ride.
We won’t try to blame the camera person for the incident, because it clearly is not their fault. But it seems somewhat interesting that they did not try to wake the driver up and potentially contact Tesla immediately to alert them of the situation.
They should have probably left the vehicle immediately.
Tesla’s ride-hailing service in the Bay Area differs from the one that is currently active in Austin, Texas, due to local regulations. In Austin, there is no Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat unless the route requires the highway.
Tesla plans to remove the Safety Monitors in Austin by the end of the year.
Tesla has officially opened Robotaxi access to everyone and everyone, but there is one catch: you have to have an iPhone.
Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin and its ride-hailing service in the Bay Area were both officially launched to the public today, giving anyone using the iOS platform the ability to simply download the app and utilize it for a ride in either of those locations.
It has been in operation for several months: it launched in Austin in late June and in the Bay Area about a month later. In Austin, there is nobody in the driver’s seat unless the route takes you on the freeway.
In the Bay Area, there is someone in the driver’s seat at all times.
The platform was initially launched to those who were specifically invited to Austin to try it out.
Tesla confirms Robotaxi is heading to five new cities in the U.S.
Slowly, Tesla launched the platform to more people, hoping to expand the number of rides and get more valuable data on its performance in both regions to help local regulatory agencies relax some of the constraints that were placed on it.
Additionally, Tesla had its own in-house restrictions, like the presence of Safety Monitors in the vehicles. However, CEO Elon Musk has maintained that these monitors were present for safety reasons specifically, but revealed the plan was to remove them by the end of the year.
Now, Tesla is opening up Robotaxi to anyone who wants to try it, as many people reported today that they were able to access the app and immediately fetch a ride if they were in the area.
We also confirmed it ourselves, as it was shown that we could grab a ride in the Bay Area if we wanted to:
🚨 Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing Service in Austin and the Bay Area has opened up for anyone on iOS
Go download the app and, if you’re in the area, hail a ride from Robotaxi pic.twitter.com/1CgzG0xk1J
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 18, 2025
The launch of a more public Robotaxi network that allows anyone to access it seems to be a serious move of confidence by Tesla, as it is no longer confining the service to influencers who are handpicked by the company.
In the coming weeks, we expect Tesla to then rid these vehicles of the Safety Monitors as Musk predicted. If it can come through on that by the end of the year, the six-month period where Tesla went from launching Robotaxi to enabling driverless rides is incredibly impressive.
Tesla lands approval for Robotaxi operation in third U.S. state
Tesla ride-hailing Safety Monitor dozes off during Bay Area ride
