History was just made — Solar Impulse 2 completes U.S. flight

By Lulu Chang Published June 11, 2016

The city that never sleeps had another reason to stay awake early Saturday morning, as the Solar Impulse 2 touched down in New York City, completing a historic flight across the United States. The solar powered plane has been making history throughout the past year as it makes its way around the world, showcasing the possibilities of green flight and just as impressively, human and machine endurance. Already, the Solar Impulse 2 holds the record for the longest non-stop flight in the world (at four days, 21 hours, and 52 minutes), and now it’s finally made it to its final destination in the U.S.

Done! #Si2 is safe in the JFK @NY_NJairports hangar in #NYC! Where will our journey take us next? #futureisclean pic.twitter.com/s51E6oxA4W

— Solar Impulse Foundation (@solarimpulse) June 11, 2016

For more than a year, this 100 percent solar-powered aircraft has been traversing the globe, and while it hasn’t been completely without its hiccups (there was a dead battery and the arrival of winter grounded the plane for nine months), the journey still represents a historic and impressive demonstration of what travel of the future might look like.

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The trip to New York City from Allentown, Pennsylvania took around five hours, and before making his landing, pilot Andre Borschberg took a trip around the Statue of Liberty. Speaking with the BBC via satellite phone, the Swiss adventurer said, “The U.S. is a country where you meet a lot of entrepreneurs and pioneers, and so to end our American crossing at the Statue of Liberty — which represents for me the freedom of enterprise and the freedom to innovate that is the spirit you can find in this country — is so symbolic.”

Borschberg’s partner and co-pilot, Bertrand Piccard, will be taking on the next segment of the trip, which will send them back over the Atlantic. This journey will be yet another marathon, with flight director Raymond Clerc noting, “Patience will be the word. I expect the flight to take 3-4 days.”

And while all eyes are on Borschberg and Piccard as they make their way across the Earth, the adventurers stress that it’s not about them, but rather about the environment. “The most important thing isn’t to make world records,” Piccard said last year. “It’s to show what we can do with clean technologies.”

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Entertainment

Star Wars legend Ian McDiarmid gets questions about the Emperor’s sex life

Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

This weekend, the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary re-release had a much stronger performance than expected with $25 million and a second-place finish behind Sinners. Revenge of the Sith was the culmination of plans by Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) that led to the fall of the Jedi and his own ascension to emperor. Because McDiarmid's Emperor died in his first appearance -- 1983's Return of the Jedi -- Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be his live-action swan song. However, Palpatine's return in Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker left McDiarmid being asked questions about his character's comeback, particularly about his sex life and how he could have a granddaughter.

While speaking with Variety, McDiarmid noted that fans have asked him "slightly embarrassing questions" about Palpatine including "'Does this evil monster ever have sex?'"

Cars

Waymo and Toyota explore personally owned self-driving cars

Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

Waymo and Toyota have announced they’re exploring a strategic collaboration—and one of the most exciting possibilities on the table is bringing fully-automated driving technology to personally owned vehicles.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has made its name with its robotaxi service, the only one currently operating in the U.S. Its vehicles, including Jaguars and Hyundai Ioniq 5s, have logged tens of millions of autonomous miles on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.
But shifting to personally owned self-driving cars is a much more complex challenge.
While safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far taken a cautious approach to the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. General Motors-backed Cruise robotaxi was forced to suspend operations in 2023 following a fatal collision.
While the partnership with Toyota is still in the early stages, Waymo says it will initially study how to merge its autonomous systems with the Japanese automaker’s consumer vehicle platforms.
In a recent call with analysts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai signaled that Waymo is seriously considering expanding beyond ride-hailing fleets and into personal ownership. While nothing is confirmed, the partnership with Toyota adds credibility—and manufacturing muscle—to that vision.
Toyota brings decades of safety innovation to the table, including its widely adopted Toyota Safety Sense technology. Through its software division, Woven by Toyota, the company is also pushing into next-generation vehicle platforms. With Waymo, Toyota is now also looking at how automation can evolve beyond assisted driving and into full autonomy for individual drivers.
This move also turns up the heat on Tesla, which has long promised fully self-driving vehicles for consumers. While Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, it remains supervised and hasn’t yet delivered on full autonomy. CEO Elon Musk is promising to launch some of its first robotaxis in Austin in June.
When it comes to self-driving cars, Waymo and Tesla are taking very different roads. Tesla aims to deliver affordability and scale with its camera, AI-based software. Waymo, by contrast, uses a more expensive technology relying on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar), that regulators have been quicker to trust.

Cars

Uber partners with May Mobility to bring thousands of autonomous vehicles to U.S. streets

uber may mobility av rides partnership

The self-driving race is shifting into high gear, and Uber just added more horsepower. In a new multi-year partnership, Uber and autonomous vehicle (AV) company May Mobility will begin rolling out driverless rides in Arlington, Texas by the end of 2025—with thousands more vehicles planned across the U.S. in the coming years.
Uber has already taken serious steps towards making autonomous ride-hailing a mainstream option. The company already works with Waymo, whose robotaxis are live in multiple cities, and now it’s welcoming May Mobility’s hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna vans to its platform. The vehicles will launch with safety drivers at first but are expected to go fully autonomous as deployments mature.
May Mobility isn’t new to this game. Backed by Toyota, BMW, and other major players, it’s been running AV services in geofenced areas since 2021. Its AI-powered Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) tech allows it to react quickly and safely to unpredictable real-world conditions—something that’s helped it earn trust in city partnerships across the U.S. and Japan.
This expansion into ride-hailing is part of a broader industry trend. Waymo, widely seen as the current AV frontrunner, continues scaling its service in cities like Phoenix and Austin. Tesla, meanwhile, is preparing to launch its first robotaxis in Austin this June, with a small fleet of Model Ys powered by its camera-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. While Tesla aims for affordability and scale, Waymo and May are focused on safety-first deployments using sensor-rich systems, including lidar—a tech stack regulators have so far favored.
Beyond ride-hailing, the idea of personally owned self-driving cars is also gaining traction. Waymo and Toyota recently announced they’re exploring how to bring full autonomy to private vehicles, a move that could eventually bring robotaxi tech right into your garage.
With big names like Uber, Tesla, Waymo, and now May Mobility in the mix, the ride-hailing industry is evolving fast—and the road ahead looks increasingly driver-optional.