Cruise robotaxis are back on the road… well, kind of. Though General Motors pulled the plug on its self-driving taxi business last year, the automaker has been quietly repurposing a few of the vehicles as it seeks to develop new driver-assistance technologies. This week, WIRED spotted a GM Bolt electric hatchback on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and later saw a similar vehicle on Interstate 880 near Oakland. In each instance, the car was being driven by a human. The vehicle had "Mint" written on the hood, but didn't include any visually apparent Cruise branding.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says his company wants to be the "Amazon for transportation." Friday, Amazon made clear that it intends to be the Amazon for transportation. The ecommerce giant said it had agreed to acquire Bay Area-based autonomous vehicle company Zoox, a deal reportedly worth more than $1 billion. Since its founding in 2014, Zoox has been known for its technical chops, its secretiveness, and its sky-high ambition. While Waymo is focusing on self-driving tech and leaving the car building to places like Detroit, Zoox has stuck to its plan to design a robotaxi from the ground up--and operate a ride-hail service.

Grab's ride-hailing business in its simplest form is about matchmaking Passengers looking for a comfortable mode of transport and Drivers looking for a flexible earning opportunity. Over the last 6 years, Grab has repeatedly fine-tuned its machine learning algorithms with the goal of ensuring that passengers get a ride when they want it, and that they are matched to the drivers that are closest to them. But drivers are constantly on the move, and at any one point there could be hundreds of passengers requesting a ride within the same area. This means that sometimes, the closest available drivers might still be too far away. The Analytics team at Grab attempts to analyze these instances at scale via clearly-defined metrics.

It's the question on the lips of just about everybody involved in the transportation business--and a few who aren't. The ranks of those offering ride-sharing services have swelled far beyond the likes of Uber and Lyft, past the self-driving gurus like Google sister company Waymo, past even the established automakers. Now they include companies like Bosch, the German company best known as an automotive parts supplier, which last week acquired American ride-sharing startup SPLT. And Sony, which just announced it will partner with Tokyo taxi companies, lending its artificial intelligence tech to the tricky business of dispatch. And even rental company Avis, which purchased car-sharing company ZipCar and is working with Waymo to support a self-driving taxi rollout in Arizona.

Elaine Chao previously served as secretary of labor. Elaine Chao shown arriving last month at Trump Tower, shortly before being told she would be the president-elect's nominee for Transportation secretary. SAN FRANCISCO -- On Wednesday, top tech CEOs are expected to sit down with president-elect Trump in New York to discuss what remains a mystery: how the new administration will treat the nation's high-tech engine. But at least one confirmed attendee -- Telsa CEO Elon Musk -- may be even more eager for a sit-down with Trump's Transportation secretary nominee, Elaine Chao. As the new head of the DOT, replacing outgoing secretary Anthony Foxx, Chao, 63, would take the wheel of a department just as it was beginning to corral the players shaping our self-driving car future under a cohesive national plan.