Amazon just put Tesla on notice. Last month, Amazon announced a surprising new blockbuster acquisition: It's buying Zoox--a self-driving car startup--for $1.2 billion. Amazon's surprising move got the full attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Immediately after the deal, he jokingly called Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos a "copycat." The obvious question here is: Why is Amazon getting into cars?

Xiao Jianxiong never visited a beach until he was 18, despite the fact his childhood home was only 20 miles from the sea. His hometown of Chaoshan, in China's Guangdong Province, was a poor fishing village until recently. Growing up without much money, Xiao's family couldn't afford a car trip to the beach. Today Xiao is hopeful that his company -- AutoX -- will give kids the opportunities he didn't have by making it easier and cheaper for them to get around by car, even if their parents are not able to drive them. "Autonomous driving should not be a luxury," Xiao said in a 2017 speech when he was named one of the "35 Under 35" by the MIT Technology Review.

More than a third of U.S. jobs could be at "high risk" of automation by the early 2030s, a percentage that's greater than in Britain, Germany and Japan, according to a report released Friday. The analysis by accounting and consulting firm PwC focused primarily on the economic outlook in Britain, but it included a section on automation in Britain and elsewhere. In the U.S., 38% of jobs could be at risk of automation, compared with 30% in Britain, 35% in Germany and 21% in Japan. The automation of factories is a big factor for job loss in the U.S. The automation of factories is a big factor for job loss in the U.S. The report emphasizes that these estimates are based on the anticipated capabilities of robotics and artificial intelligence by the early 2030s, and that the pace and direction of technological progress are "uncertain." The key issue is not that the U.S. has more jobs in sectors that are universally ripe for automation, the report says; rather, it's that more U.S. jobs in certain sectors are potentially vulnerable than, say, British jobs in the same sectors.

Two driverless buses will be hitting the streets in Helsinki for some real-world testing for the next month or so, reports Finnish news outlet YLE. The EasyMile minibuses have previously been tested on public roads in Finland and elsewhere, but this is the first time they'll be mixing it up with everyday traffic there. It may seem old hat to Valley-dwellers who see Google's self-driving cars zooming around the streets of Mountain View, but different vehicles, with different purposes, in different countries, following different traffic rules may as well be a whole different industry. I've asked EasyMile for more information on what specifically the company will be testing for, and will update this post when I hear back.