Latest news with #selfDrivingTaxi
Telegraph
24-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Mothers-to-be called ‘pregnant participants' in Government report
Expectant mothers have been described as 'pregnant participants' in a Government report. The study into how passengers would react to emergencies in a self-driving taxi used the phrase nine times. Similar wording, including 'pregnant passengers', 'pregnant users' and 'pregnant individuals' was used throughout the Department for Transport (DfT) report. Neither the phrase 'pregnant woman' nor the word 'mother' were mentioned. However, the word 'transgender' was written 14 times while 'woman' featured just twice – and one of those times was in the phrase 'transgender woman'. It's prompted critics to claim the report was an example of the public sector attempting to erase women's rights. The Conservatives urged the Government to 'get a grip', while DfT insisted the study did not affect anyone's legal rights. Written by Dr Clare Mutzenich of Lacuna Agency, a consultancy, the study looked at how expectant mothers, among other groups, reacted to various simulated emergencies while in a robot taxi. It found that pregnant women felt more vulnerable than other groups when travelling in a driverless taxi during an emergency, such as a stranger trying to get in or a fire starting inside the car. Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at the human rights charity Sex Matters, described the study's deliberate avoidance of the phrase 'pregnant women' as forming 'part of a broader erasure of women's needs'. 'It's very telling that the DfT refers to 'pregnant passengers' rather than pregnant 'women' in a study looking at how people with different protected characteristics may respond in an emergency situation,' Ms Joyce said. 'Only women can have the protected characteristic of 'pregnancy and maternity', and this study both obscures that fact and fails to consider the protected characteristic of 'sex' in its own right. The word 'woman' appears just twice, one of which refers to a 'transgender woman' – that is, a man who identifies as trans. 'This official, publicly funded research is part of a broader erasure of women's needs. It places pandering to gender ideologues ahead of objectively considering the specific safety needs of one of the largest groups of passengers – that is, women.' Gareth Bacon, the shadow transport secretary, said: 'It says everything about this government that a Department for Transport report can't bring itself to call pregnant women what they are – women. 'This is what happens when ideology overrides common sense, and it's women who get erased. The Supreme Court has now made clear what we already knew, but rather than lead with clarity, Labour are still twisting themselves in knots. They need to get a grip.' A think tank previously warned that public sector workers were refusing to accept the Supreme Court ruling, made earlier this year, on the legal definition of a woman. Policy Exchange, a think tank, said in its Biology Matters Compendium, published earlier in June, showed that 'there is still a great deal of ideological capture in the policy and practice of many public institutions'. 'The defence of sex-based rights does not end with a court ruling. It requires persistent scrutiny, open debate, and the courage to challenge ideological orthodoxy wherever it may reside,' it said. The Supreme Court's April judgment overturned a previous interpretation of the law, which had been promoted within the public sector by lobby groups such as Stonewall. Under what these groups insisted was correct, trans-identifying men had to be treated as if they were born female, including giving them access to women's toilets and changing rooms. Some public sector workers felt bound to support this because of Labour's Equality Act 2010, which contains the legally binding 'public sector equality duty' that forces them to promote and fund pro-diversity initiatives. A DfT spokesman defended the Lacuna Agency driverless taxi report by saying it included 'more than 30 references to 'female'.' 'The language used in the report, which was prepared by an external agency, does not impact any relevant legal obligations applying to women,' he said. Lacuna Agency failed to respond to a request for comment. It comes after a recent DfT U-turn on driverless car technology, with Uber announcing this month that it would be trialling such vehicles from spring next year. Previously, the Government had said that fully-driverless car technology would not be introduced until 2027 at the earliest.
Globe and Mail
23-06-2025
- Automotive
- Globe and Mail
Why Alphabet Stock Slipped Today
On Monday, an Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) rival took a turn in the spotlight, draining attention and sentiment from the tech giant. The Google parent's two publicly traded stocks ended the day around 1% lower in price, comparing unfavorably to the nearly 1% gain of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC). Here comes competition That rival is Alphabet's peer in the self-driving taxi space, Tesla. On Sunday, the high-profile auto company officially launched its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. Although rides were limited to selected users, the event went off smoothly, without any reported accidents. While Alphabet's great strength and the source of its wealth is the advertising it sells for its omnipresent search engine, the company has been pushing into other cutting-edge tech ventures for much of its corporate life. One of the more prominent of these is its own autonomous taxi service, Waymo, which has been operational in a handful of U.S. cities for months, even years. With the launch of the Tesla service, Alphabet now has a competitor in the self-driving taxi space. Investors rarely like when one of their companies suddenly loses a big competitive advantage. King of the road for now Yet the reactive hit to Alphabet's stock was minimal, most likely because many investors realize that the self-driving taxi segment isn't (yet) large enough to seriously impact either their company or Tesla. On top of that, Tesla hasn't revealed when, where, or to what degree it'll expand its Austin Robotaxi rollout. This suggests that the company is being cautious -- as it should be -- about widening the service. So far, the auto-taxi space has been developing more smoothly than many expected; if it maintains the pace, such services will be commonplace before long. While Alphabet's Waymo now has competition (and more will surely come), it's not getting knocked off its perch as No. 1 in the near future. Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now? Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $664,089!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $881,731!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to172%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
