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Weekly Tech and AI News Roundup: Waymo Recall, Akamai Growth, and Quantum Advances

Waymo Robotaxi Recall: 3,800 Autonomous Vehicles Recalled Over Software Flaw

Waymo has issued a voluntary robotaxi recall impacting nearly 3,800 of its autonomous vehicles after a driverless car navigated into a flooded roadway. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) identified a critical software defect causing these self-driving cars to slow down—rather than come to a complete stop—when encountering impassable, flooded lanes on high-speed roads.

This Waymo recall affects vehicles running on the company’s fifth- and sixth-generation automated driving systems. To mitigate risks, Waymo has deployed interim solutions, including:

  • Updating internal mapping systems.
  • Implementing weather-based operational restrictions to avoid flood-prone zones.

Waymo engineers are actively developing a permanent software patch to resolve this floodwater software flaw.

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Service Robotics: Richtech Robotics and SoundHound AI Partner on Voice-Enabled Robots

Richtech Robotics has signed a non-binding letter of intent to partner with SoundHound AI, integrating advanced agentic voice AI capabilities into its commercial service robotics. This strategic AI partnership focuses on delivering natural, real-time human-robot interactions across the hospitality and service sectors.

The collaboration will officially debut at the 2026 National Restaurant Association Show. Attendees will experience an interactive beverage service demonstration featuring Richtech’s Scorpion robot, fully powered by SoundHound’s conversational AI. This integration aims to elevate voice-enabled robots from simple task-oriented machines into highly engaging conversational assistants. Furthermore, both tech companies are exploring expanded commercial avenues, including scalable Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions.

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Perceptron AI Unveils Physical AI Model for Advanced Video Understanding

Perceptron AI has officially launched Perceptron Mk1, an innovative physical AI model engineered specifically for deep video understanding and embodied reasoning. This newly released artificial intelligence model offers performance metrics that rival leading frontier models from industry giants like Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Qwen.

The Perceptron Mk1 model achieves top-tier scores across major image, video, and spatial-reasoning benchmarks, all while maintaining the cost-efficiency of lightweight AI alternatives. Enterprise organizations can now scale high-accuracy video analysis without sacrificing capability or budget. Ultimately, this physical AI model is designed to bridge the gap between digital intelligence and physical action, unlocking new potential for both industrial and consumer AI applications.

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Cloud Infrastructure: Akamai Upgraded to ‘Buy’ Amid 40% Growth in AI and Edge Workloads

Bank of America has upgraded Akamai Technologies to a ‘Buy’ rating, recognizing the tech firm’s successful transformation from a traditional content-delivery network (CDN) into a powerhouse AI infrastructure platform.

Akamai’s Cloud Infrastructure Services division is currently driving a massive 40% year-over-year growth. This surge is fueled by rising enterprise demand for low-latency AI deployments and edge computing workloads that operate outside centralized hyperscale cloud environments. A landmark $1.8 billion, seven-year infrastructure contract further validates the commercial strength of Akamai’s distributed cloud architecture. This rapid acceleration in capacity-based cloud infrastructure sales is successfully offsetting revenue declines in Akamai’s legacy delivery sector.

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Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group Reports 38% Revenue Surge Driven by AI Adoption

Alibaba Group has announced a 38% revenue spike within its Cloud Intelligence Group, hitting 41.6 billion yuan for the quarter ending March 31. This impressive growth is heavily driven by the widespread enterprise adoption of its public cloud and AI products.

Notably, Alibaba’s AI-related product revenue has now achieved its eleventh consecutive quarter of triple-digit year-over-year growth. To maintain this dominant market position, the Chinese technology giant plans to surpass its initial 380 billion yuan, three-year AI investment pledge, aggressively accelerating capital expenditure on AI and cloud infrastructure. While this heavy funding into infrastructure expansion has temporarily pressured Alibaba’s overall quarterly profits, the long-term cloud computing outlook remains highly robust.

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Quantum Computing News: Google Launches REPLIQA and IonQ Opens Boulder R&D Lab

This week’s quantum computing news emphasizes the industry’s rapid shift toward practical applications and scalable hardware. Google Quantum AI and Google.org have officially launched REPLIQA, a $10 million research initiative that merges quantum computing with artificial intelligence to revolutionize the life sciences sector. This program will fund advanced research across five major universities, focusing on simulating complex molecular interactions and biological processes that traditional classical computers cannot effectively model.

In parallel quantum industry developments, platform leader IonQ has unveiled a new $100 million research and development (R&D) facility in Boulder, Colorado. This cutting-edge laboratory suite is dedicated to state-of-the-art quantum computing R&D and semiconductor chip testing, bolstered by local government support and Colorado’s growing deep tech workforce.

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