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New York City pushes Uber & Lyft fleets to be zero-emissions by 2030

Tesla Model 3 in NYC (Photo: Teslarati)

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that Uber and Lyft will be required to have a zero-emissions fleet by 2030 during his State of the City speech on Thursday. The plans are expected to affect the estimated 100,000 for-hire vehicles operating within the city.

Mayor Adams noted in his State of the City address that NYC is committed to making the city healthier and more sustainable, and one way to do that is to electrify the vehicles in the Big Apple. Both Uber and Lyft will be expected to support the transition of EVs, as the plan intends to help relieve NYC’s for-hire drivers of some costs. The New York City government’s release regarding the State of the City address includes language that seems to indicate the businesses will be responsible for supporting their employees “with no new costs for individual drivers.”

The Mayor noted that both Uber and Lyft are embracing the shift, as both companies have committed to long-term goals that will see drivers switch to EVs by the end of 2030. Additionally, Adams said that New York City residents should attempt to drive an EV. It plans to support this with plans to establish more EV charging infrastructure throughout all five boroughs.

Uber CEO sets deadline for drivers to move away from gas cars

With ride-hail drivers classified as independent contractors who use their personal vehicles to drive, convincing them to buy or lease a new electric car may not be easy. One solution to that problem is the partnership between Hertz and Uber, allowing Uber drivers to rent EVs at a discounted weekly rate.

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In January, Hertz expanded that partnership in Europe by making 25,000 EVs available to European Uber drivers. Similar plans could be utilized in the United States with proper funding. The fleets will be regulated through the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, according to The Verge.

In a statement to Teslarati, Josh Gold, Uber’s Senior Director, Public Policy & Communications, touched upon important goal with the city:

“We applaud the Mayor’s ambition for reducing emissions, an important goal we share. Uber has been making real progress to become the first zero-emissions mobility platform in North America, and there’s much more to do. We look forward to working with the TLC to achieve zero-emissions in New York City in a way that benefits drivers, riders, and the city.”

Teslarati also reached out to Lyft, but did not immediately receive a response.

Revel, the ridesharing service that launched a fleet of Tesla Model Ys in 2021, has provided drivers with vehicles and a platform to make money and have access to benefits. Revel CEO Frank Reig said that he commends Mayor Adams’ move to push Uber and Lyft to fully sustainable fleets:

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“As New York City’s first all-electric rideshare service, we know Mayor Adams’ ambitious plan to electrify the for-hire-vehicle industry is both doable and essential. This is what real leadership looks like. Revel will be increasing the amount of fast charging stalls six-fold over the next two years in neighborhoods where drivers live and work, making owning and operating an EV a reality for the industry.”

Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.

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Linda Yaccarino steps down as X CEO

Yaccarino highlighted the work that the X team has done over the past two years under her leadership.

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Credit: Linda Yaccarino/X

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has announced that she is stepping down as the social media platform’s chief executive. She shared her update in a post on X.

In her post, Yaccarino highlighted the work that the X team has done over the past two years under her leadership. As per the executive, the company has made significant strides towards its goal of becoming the Everything App. She also highlighted the company’s work in prioritizing the safety of its users, particularly children.

Following is Yaccarino’s statement:

After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏. 

When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App. 

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I’m incredibly proud of the X team – the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable. 

We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users—especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence. This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform. Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai

X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world. 

I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world. 

As always, I’ll see you on 𝕏.

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Elon Musk has issued a response to Yaccarino’s decision to step down as X’s CEO. In a reply, Musk thanked the executive for her work on the social media platform for the past two years. 

“Thank you for your contributions,” Musk wrote.

Under Yaccarino’s leadership, X traversed rocky waters and reestablished itself as a town square where the world’s most notable people are within reach of everyday users across the globe. She also helped lead the company through its acquisition by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI. At the time, the deal valued X at $33 billion, lower than the $44 billion paid by Elon Musk for Twitter but notably higher than estimates from firms like Fidelity, which valued the social media platform at below $10 billion in late 2024.

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These Tesla, X, and xAI engineers were just poached by OpenAI

The news is the latest in an ongoing feud between Elon Musk and the Sam Altman-run firm OpenAI.

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Credit: OpenAI | YouTube

OpenAI, the xAI competitor for which Elon Musk previously served as a boardmember and helped to co-found, has reportedly poached high-level engineers from Tesla, along with others from xAI, X, and still others.

On Tuesday, Wired reported that OpenAI hired four high-level engineers from Tesla, xAI, and X, as seen in an internal Slack message sent by co-founder Greg Brockman. The engineers include Tesla Vice President of Software Engineering David Lau, X and xAI’s head of infrastructure engineering Uday Ruddarraju, and fellow xAI infrastructure engineer Mike Dalton. The hiring spree also included Angela Fan, an AI researcher from Meta.

“We’re excited to welcome these new members to our scaling team,” said Hannah Wong, an OpenAI spokesperson. “Our approach is to continue building and bringing together world-class infrastructure, research, and product teams to accelerate our mission and deliver the benefits of AI to hundreds of millions of people.”

Lau has been in his position as Tesla’s VP of Software Engineering since 2017, after previously working for the company’s firmware, platforms, and system integration divisions.

“It has become incredibly clear to me that accelerating progress towards safe, well-aligned artificial general intelligence is the most rewarding mission I could imagine for the next chapter of my career,” Lau said in a statement to Wired.

READ MORE ON OPENAI: Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit clears hurdle as trial looms

At xAI, Ruddarraju and Dalton both played a large role in developing the Colossus supercomputer, which is comprised of over 200,000 GPUs. One of the major ongoing projects at OpenAI is the company’s Stargate program,

“Infrastructure is where research meets reality, and OpenAI has already demonstrated this successfully,” Ruddarraju told Wired in another statement. “Stargate, in particular, is an infrastructure moonshot that perfectly matches the ambitious, systems-level challenges I love taking on.”

Elon Musk is currently in the process of suing OpenAI for shifting toward a for-profit model, as well as for accepting an investment of billions of dollars from Microsoft. OpenAI retaliated with a counterlawsuit, in which it alleges that Musk is interfering with the company’s business and engaging in unfair competition practices.

Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event

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SpaceX share sale expected to back $400 billion valuation

The new SpaceX valuation would represent yet another record-high as far as privately-held companies in the U.S. go.

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A new report this week suggests that Elon Musk-led rocket company SpaceX is considering an insider share sale that would value the company at $400 billion.

SpaceX is set to launch a primary fundraising round and sell a small number of new shares to investors, according to the report from Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous due to the information not yet being public. Additionally, the company would sell shares from employees and early investors in a follow-up round, while the primary round would determine the price for the secondary round.

The valuation would represent the largest in history from a privately-owned company in the U.S., surpassing SpaceX’s previous record of $350 billion after a share buyback in December. Rivaling company valuations include ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, as well as OpenAI.

Bloomberg went on to say that a SpaceX representative didn’t respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing. The publication also notes that the details of such a deal could still change, especially depending on interest from the insider sellers and share buyers.

READ MORE ON SPACEX: SpaceX to decommission Dragon spacecraft in response to Pres. Trump war of words with Elon Musk

SpaceX’s valuation comes from a few different key factors, especially including the continued expansion of the company’s Starlink satellite internet company. According to the report, Starlink accounts for over half of the company’s yearly revenue. Meanwhile, the company produced its 10 millionth Starlink kit last month.

The company also continues to develop its Starship reusable rocket program, despite the company experiencing an explosion of the rocket on the test stand in Texas last month.

The company has also launched payloads for a number of companies and government contracts. In recent weeks, SpaceX launched Axiom’s Ax-4 mission, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 14-day stay to work on around 60 scientific experiments. The mission was launched using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a new Crew Dragon capsule, while the research is expected to span a range of fields including biology, material and physical sciences, and demonstrations of specialized technology.

SpaceX secures FAA approval for 25 annual Starship launches

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