Waymo Announces 2026 London Launch for Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service
Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving division, has officially announced its plan to launch a fully driverless ride-hailing service in London by 2026. This strategic move represents a major international expansion for the company, which currently operates in several U.S. cities. Waymo will initiate testing with safety drivers on London’s complex streets before transitioning to fully autonomous operations. The company is partnering with vehicle financing firm Moove for its fleet operations and is actively working with UK regulators to secure all necessary approvals. The service will feature an all-electric fleet of Jaguar I-PACE vehicles equipped with Waymo’s advanced autonomous driving technology, signaling significant growth in the global autonomous vehicle industry.
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Caltech and TII Reveal Groundbreaking Humanoid and Transforming Drone Robotics Team
In a significant advancement for robotics, researchers from Caltech and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi have developed a novel multirobot response team. This system features a humanoid robot collaborating with a transforming drone that can launch from the humanoid’s back and also drive on surfaces. The result of a three-year project, this integrated approach combines the unique strengths of different robotic platforms to execute complex tasks. The project is a key part of a larger initiative to advance autonomous systems, with a strong focus on safety-critical control to ensure the reliability and security of these emerging technologies.
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MIT Develops Generative AI Method to Locate Personalized Objects
Researchers at MIT have engineered a new training method that enables vision-language generative AI models to locate specific, personalized objects within a new scene. This technique allows a model to identify a unique item, such as a specific family pet, after being shown just a few training images. In performance tests, models retrained with this method significantly outperformed existing state-of-the-art systems in object localization tasks. A key advantage is that the training preserves the model’s other general capabilities. This research could pave the way for future AI systems that can track personal items, like a child’s backpack, or assist visually impaired users in finding objects in their environment.
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Kubernetes v1.35 Reaches Enhancements Freeze, Release Set for December
The Kubernetes development team has officially reached the “Enhancements Freeze” milestone for the upcoming v1.35 release as of October 17, 2025. This critical deadline in the DevOps release cycle signifies that all planned enhancements for this version have met the required criteria. Any features that failed to meet the deadline will be deferred to a future release unless an exception is granted. According to the release timeline, the next major deadline is the Feature Blog Freeze on October 31, 2025, followed by the Code and Test Freeze on November 7, 2025. The final release of the Kubernetes v1.35.0 container orchestration platform is scheduled for Wednesday, December 17, 2025.
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Quantum Computing Breakthrough: New Technique Reduces Errors by 100x
A major breakthrough in quantum computing has been achieved with a new method called Algorithmic Fault Tolerance (AFT), which promises to reduce errors by up to 100 times. Developed by researchers at QuEra Computing in partnership with Harvard and Yale, the technique restructures quantum algorithms to detect and correct errors in real-time. As detailed in the journal Nature, this approach could dramatically accelerate the development of practical, large-scale quantum computers by lowering the immense computational overhead traditionally needed for error correction. The AFT framework, tested in simulations of neutral-atom quantum computers, demonstrated its potential to significantly speed up the execution of logical algorithms.
China Opens ‘Zuchongzhi 3.0’ Superconducting Quantum Computer for Public Use
China has made its third-generation superconducting quantum computer, based on the ‘Zuchongzhi 3.0’ design, commercially available to the public. The powerful system is now accessible via the ‘Tianyan’ quantum cloud platform. Developed by a collaboration between China Telecom Quantum Group and QuantumCTek, the computer boasts 105 readable qubits and 182 couplers. This launch marks a significant step in moving quantum computing from academic research to real-world, practical applications. The ‘Zuchongzhi 3.0’ is reported to perform quantum random circuit sampling tasks a quadrillion times faster than the world’s most powerful classical supercomputers.
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New Method Allows Complex Quantum Simulations on Standard Laptops
Researchers at the University at Buffalo have developed a novel method that enables complex quantum simulations to be run on ordinary laptops, a task that previously demanded the power of supercomputers. The breakthrough is an extension of a computational technique known as the truncated Wigner approximation (TWA), which simplifies the complex mathematics of quantum mechanics. Published in PRX Quantum, this advancement offers a user-friendly framework that could make high-level quantum simulations more accessible, faster, and cheaper. By enabling the study of complex quantum problems on consumer-grade hardware, this approach could free up supercomputing resources for the most demanding quantum system simulations.
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Cisco Releases Open-Source Framework to Secure AI-Generated Code
Cisco has introduced a new open-source framework designed to tackle the growing security challenges associated with AI-assisted coding. As AI tools become integral to modern software engineering, this initiative aims to help developers ensure the security and integrity of code generated by artificial intelligence. The framework provides tools and best practices for DevOps pipelines, addressing a critical need as AI skills become increasingly vital for developers.
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