Autonomous driving startup Aurora announced on Tuesday that it has scored a partnership with Toyota to build self-driving taxis based on the Toyota Sienna minivan. Aurora says it's aiming to have a fleet of Sienna prototypes ready for testing on public roads by the end of the year. Denso, a major Japanese auto parts manufacturer, will also contribute to the project. This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's parent company, Condé Nast.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Tesla is making it possible to lease the Model 3 electric sedan for the first time while also making it harder to buy the much-hyped $35,000 base version of the vehicle. The automaker announced late Thursday that it would begin leasing the Model 3 "for a small down payment and competitive monthly payments." It's not the same as a standard auto industry lease, which typically gives leasees the option to purchase the vehicle when the lease expires. "Please note, customers who choose leasing over owning will not have the option to purchase their car at the end of the lease, because with full autonomy coming in the future via an over-the-air software update, we plan to use those vehicles in the Tesla ride-hailing network," Tesla said in a blog post.

Lyft has welcomed one more powerful ally to help it achieve its dreams of adding self-driving cars to its ride-hailing network: Ford. In his announcement post on Medium, Ford Autonomous Vehicle VP Sherif Marakby says the partnership will help them figure out how to tweak their autonomous AI platform to be able to seamlessly connect with the ride-hailing network's. By sharing data with each other, they hope to figure out the best cities to launch a ride-hailing fleet full of autonomous vehicles, as well as to conjure up the framework necessary to maintain that fleet. Their end goal is to give passengers a way to hail self-driving cars as easily as they would a normal one. Ford, which has been developing its self-driving tech for a while, joins the growing number of partners in Lyft's Open Platform Initiative, which already includes heavyweights like Waymo, General Motors, Land Rover and Jaguar.

AeroMobil released its flying car for consumer orders. As expected, the price tag will be hefty and you'll have to wait for a while before it comes home with you. In this sketch, a vertical take off and landing craft hovers above the skyline of Dallas, one of Uber's new partners aiming to develop a flying car network by 2020. SAN FRANCISCO -- Uber is targeting 2020 for a demonstration of ride-hailing technology that will take to the skies. The on-demand car service company -- facing a leadership crisis and lawsuits over its business practices -- announced Tuesday at its Elevate Summit in Dallas that it has formed partnerships with cities and companies to develop flying cars and the infrastructure needed by machines that take off and land vertically like helicopters.