Self-driving taxis are nothing new in California, where they have been picking up customers since last summer.

But are they about to head out of Silicon Valley and into the traffic chaos of Hyde Park Corner and the M25?

A spate of job adverts has appeared on the Careers section of robotaxi firm Waymo, recruiting for seven roles based in London.

They are for a Fleet Readiness Lead and Incident Response Manager, as well as for software engineers focused on machine learning.

One fulltime role, advertised with a base salary of up to £95,000, will be tasked with ‘ensuring the Waymo fleet is ready for service’ as well as keeping cars prepared for Ride-Hail services.

While the new employee will have to travel to the US for a month for training, the main role will be based in London, raising the question… exactly which fleet will they be maintaining?

Waymo began as as the Google self-driving car project, and is still majority owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. In 2019, it bought British AI company Latent Logic, which uses artifically intelligence to predict realistic human behaviour in simulations.

It’s no secret that the UK is an attractive future market for self-driving taxis.

Waymo’s first European engineering team is based here, with more investment intended to come.

Uber has said it’s ready to put robotaxis on the road as soon as the government agrees, and they already have driverless taxis in the US, China, the UAE and Singapore.

Tesla has also tested its self-driving software on London streets with the aim of launching its Cybercab here.

In July, ministers said they would fast-track pilots schemes for the UK’s first self-driving taxis and ‘bus-like services’, so they could start from spring 2026.

The government said it hoped the new technology could provide more accessible travel options and boost transport in rural areas, while ‘creating 38,000 jobs and unlocking a £42 billion industry’, and a consultation about it is running until September 28.

Driverless taxis will get the full green light in the UK from 2027, when the Automated Vehicles Act is implemented.

This week’s recruitment drive from Waymo indicates the company is preparing to hit the road driving as soon as the regulation is there.

We will have to get used to seeing robots in our daily lives: you might even spot them delivering your post in future.

Last month, we followed a robotic dog doing a round of deliveries in a trial for Evri in Leeds, somewhere residents are already used to mini robots on wheels bringing them their groceries from Co-op.

Waymo is currently available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, and says it has completed over ten million rides with a 93% satisfaction rate. It has not yet expanded outside the US however, so London could be one of its first overseas markets, alongside Tokyo, where it has also started test operations.

In a blog post last month, Waymo said: ‘We’re constantly asked ‘when will Waymo come to my city?’ The answer— we’re on our way to serving major cities across the U.S. and other global cities as we work to bring the Waymo Driver to more people.’

They claimed the driverless tech was making roads safer, with 91% fewer ‘serious injury or worse crashes’ compared to an average human driver over the same distance.

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It’s thirty years since one of the most famous films ever made about space travel came out in cinemas.

Apollo 13 was nominated for nine Oscars, and brought the true story of how three astronauts nearly died while whipping around the Moon to a new audience.

Ron Howard’s epic lost out on Best Picture to another Tom Hanks film, Forrest Gump, but has been recognised as a landmark in space cinema, laying the groundwork for works like Gravity and The Martian.

Those too young to remember it may still have seen another of its stars Kevin Bacon reprise his role as an astronaut, this time for an advert for EE in 2022.

But what actually happened during the Apollo 13 mission on April 11, 1970, and why is it seen as such a success story, despite the fact it never landed on the lunar surface as planned?

‘Failure is not an option’

Although these words were never actually spoken in the real mission, they became synonymous with the launch after NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz says during the film: ‘We’ve never lost an American in space; we’re sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.’

Losing an astronaut was a real possibility, after an oxygen tank exploded while the space craft was over two days into its journey to the Moon, around 200,000 miles from Earth.

Commander Jim Lovell, Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise were in danger of becoming lost in space, with dwindling oxygen and a malfunctioning ride home.

Remaining calm in the most stressful of circumstances (the near certainty of freezing or suffocating to death does make problems on the commute look tame), they crammed into the lunar module and used it like a ‘life boat’, improvising a filter for carbon dioxide.

A Nasa account of the descent tells how after the oxygen tank exploded like a ‘bomb’, they had to ration out water to only around 170ml per day, as it would still take them four days to get back in the small capsule. All three of the of the crew lost a lot of weight, surviving on fruit juice and hot dogs.

The spacecraft had been on course to land on the Moon, so they had to work out how to change direction and go back to Earth instead.

Ground crews computed how long they would need to fire the descent engine to set them on a free return couse to Earth, and five hours after the explosion they fired a 35–second burn to allow them to swing around the Moon instead. After rounding the far side of the Moon and coming back towards it, they fired a longer five-minute burn to send them back on course to Earth, and a safe splashdown near Samoa in the Pacific Ocean.

This incredible feat was memorably described in the film by Jim Lovell’s mother Blanche, who said the line ‘If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it.’

The film also immortalised the line ‘Houston, we have a problem’, even if this was subtly different from the real words spoken, ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’.

While the film about Nasa’s attempt to land humans on the Moon for the third time is a classic, the real story is just as unbelievable – and not just the bit about astronauts surviving against the odds.

Another fact which regularly goes viral is that the woman who established the emergency system to guide astronauts back if things went wrong was also the mother of Hollywood star Jack Black.

His older brother Neil Siegel, who became an engineer ike his mother Judith Love Cohen, wrote in her obituary when she died aged 83: ‘She actually went to her office on the day that Jack was born.

‘When it was time to go to the hospital, she took with her a computer printout of the problem she was working on. Later that day, she called her boss and told him that she had solved the problem. And . . . oh, yes, the baby was born, too.’

He added: ‘My mother usually considered her work on the Apollo program to be the highlight of her career. When disaster struck the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely. Judy was there when the Apollo 13 astronauts paid a “thank you” to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach.’

While US audiences have the option of watching the film on a massive screen at IMAX cinemas for the 30th anniversary, in the UK it is limited to some independent smaller cinemas, or the Science Museum IMAX screen (be quick; that showing is tonight at 7.15pm).

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Pernilla Sjöholm is a scam fighter rather than a victim these days, but this week she is thinking about Simon Leviev again.

The man better known as the ‘Tinder Swindler’ was arrested in Georgia on Sunday, and you could say it was a celebratory moment for her.

She posted a video with a German flag, thanking Berlin police ‘for doing the work that apparently no other country could do!’

While the exact reason for his arrest has not been made public, he was detained on an Interpol Red Notice as he crossed the border, days after he boasted about publishing a book.

Speaking to Metro before this news broke, Pernilla, 38, told how she was near suicidal after learning of his betrayal, after first meeting him in 2018.

In the 2022 Netflix documentary which became the platform’s most watched until that point, she claims she lost tens of thousands of pounds to Leviev after he posed as her platonic ‘best friend’, gaining her trust by taking her on lavish holidays on a private jet before requests for money began.

In reality, these trips were partly funded in part by another victim, Cecilie Fjellhoy (who has now become one of her genuine best friends).

Despite his moniker becoming a household name, no criminal charges have yet been brought regarding what happened to them.

Until now, it had appeared that Leviev was facing little accountability for his alleged actions, aside from a five-month jail stint in Israel in 2019 for an unrelated fraud.

His Instagram account showed him on yachts and private jets, writing captions such as ‘Walk up to that girl who gives you butterflies. Take risks’ and appearing on podcasts discussing his infamy.

Pernilla, who has just published a book co-written with Cecilie, told Metro that it took her at least two years to recover from the impact of being scammed.

‘I lost everything and felt like there was no future,’ she said. ‘I got blamed quite a lot for not knowing that he wasn’t who he said he was.’

She lost friends as the deceipt unravelled, and the betrayal and shame weighed on her, as they do to many fraud victims, whose care and generosity has been preyed on. 

‘Back in 2019, being defrauded meant I have lower intelligence. I am a stupid person and it’s just embarrassing to be seen with me,’ she said. ‘So that was very hurtful.’

But the experience has given her life purpose, as she has launched a tech business called IDfier designed to help ‘make sure you’re speaking to a real person’.

When she met Leviev online, it was just up to her to try to work out if there were red flags.

She had seen his passport, met his friends and apparent family, and seen him check into hotels under his assumed name (he changed his name from Shimon Hayut, allegedly so he could claim he was the son of diamond dealer Lev Leviev and heir to his fortune).

‘He had a verified Instagram account. I really thought that I had done my due diligence,’ she said. 

‘What else could I have done? I can’t send a private detective to every new person I meet.’

She now thinks that a verified badge on social media is not enough evidence that someone is who they say they are, showing me examples of profiles which are clearly fakes.

Typing in ‘Kevin Costner’ on Instagram, an account with a photo of his face and a blue tick appeared within seconds.

The verification badge, used by the Meta-owned company, was meant to show the user is authentic and notable; that you can trust what they post.  

But private account @k_evin_c_ost_ner1, based in Italy, had nothing to do with the American actor in reality, despite the profile photo showing his rugged jaw line and sandy blonde hair. Did his 231 followers realise this?

Showing me a screenshot of another verified but clearly fake profile registered to Nigeria – which had by then been removed after it was flagged  –she said: ‘This is not Kevin Costner. How come he passes through an identification process?’

The loophole seems to have been that users were able to change their details after getting verification for something obviously fake.

And Pernilla says the problem is not restricted to Instagram alone, but is an epidemic across the internet.

While celebrity impersonation scams are common, it’s also easy for people to fall victim to a persona entirely made up by AI.

Facebook took action on over a billion fake accounts in the third quarter of 2024 alone, and it is estimted that as many as 10% or more of dating profiles are fake.

‘We need to normalise identity verification,’ Pernilla said, so checking the identity of strangers when we first meet becomes commonplace. 

She doesn’t just see this as important for dating, but in any interaction where we are meeting strangers, such as for a job interview, or for a potential flatmate.

Comparing it to tech for a quick money transfer, like ‘Monzo me’ or its Swedish equivalent ‘Swiss’, she said: ‘In the beginning we didn’t realise we needed it, and now we can’t really be without it,’ she said. 

Now married, Pernilla ‘loves’ being a mum to toddler twins, and says she is the happiest she’s ever been.

But the experience has clearly had a huge impact, and she says she still regularly gets messages from others who have fallen victim to scams.

‘It absolutely breaks my heart and to see that when these fraudsters, even if they get caught, only get caught for money loss,’ she said.

‘They don’t get caught for the mental, emotional abuse that they do, especially when it comes romance scams or emotional scams in general. It wasn’t just the money that I lost.’

Denying any wrongdoing, Leviev told Metro before his arrest: ‘Perenila [sic] never was my girlfriend, I never dated her and I never took money from her or any other woman. She is a liar which made millions out of it and trying to victimise herself to gain free publicity as you do.’

Fake celebrity content brought to the attention of Meta has been removed.

Impersoning others on Facebook and Instagram violates the policies of the social media platforms, and the company is investing in technology to improve detection of scams.

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A completely new style of iPhone is launching in the UK today – and it’s so thin you could almost get away with posting it as a letter.

At 5.6mm, the iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest ever, and it’s pretty sleek, with CEO Tim Cook calling it ‘unlike anything you’ve experienced before.’

If you can’t wait any longer, you can get your hands on the new iPhone 17 range at the Regent Street flagship store in London from 8am.

To avoid disappointment on the launch day, many have opted to pre-order the new phone, so be prepared it might have sold out at many retailers.

The ultra-thin design has become controversial, but even other tech moguls like ChatGPT boss Sam Altman have praised it, posting that it’s the ‘first new iphone upgrade i have really wanted in awhile! looks very cool.’

For the important question of whether you could risk your new device by posting it, Royal Mail thinks something is thin enough to be in a regular envelope if it’s under 5mm. Nearly there, although given it weighs 165g, it will also have to work on getting under the 100g limit.

Here’s how the new iPhone Air looks:

Given how thin it is, you might be worried it would snap if you sit on it.

But Apple say it is strong, made from Grade 5 spacecraft titanium, as well as using Ceramic Shield 2 on both sides, making it the ‘most durable design yet’ and showing a video of it being dropped on the floor and surviving.

It has an A19 chip and Apple boast of its battery life, but the compromise may come in the single 48-megapixel camera, whereas the other models all have multiple lenses.

Last night’s Apple Event in Cupertino was the biggest date in the company’s calendar, when they released the next series of iPhone too, the iPhone 17.

The company has got a bit of bad rep for the latest iPhone launches being uninspiring compared to their heydey, more minor tweaks than any big overhauls.

But this year, tech geeks are more excited, with some major changes making this phone a real step up.

The iPhone 17

This year, the eSIM-only iPhone 17 models are designed with more processing power, using A19 or A19 Pro chips. They are easily able to support Apple Intelligence features in the latest iOS, as well as being prepared for future updates. Its cameras now span the whole of the back in Pro models, looking more similar to Google Pixels.

Given that the teaser image for the event showed a heat map, some thought part of the theme will be a cooler iPhone, literally.

They were right, as the Pro models switched back to aluminium rather than titanium, a metal which lets heat dissipate more quickly. They also contain a vapor chamber to disperse heat, improving performance and battery life. To do this, liquid in the chamber turns to vapour when the phone heats up, which draws heat away from internal parts like the chipset.

This time, you can get a Cosmic Orange Pro Max if that’s your style, but controversially you won’t be able to get a standard black one, as the only other colours announced were Silver and Deep Blue.

If you insist on black, you’ll have to go for a standard or Air model.

Apple’s Store went down yesterday afternoon ahead of the ‘awe dropping’ event.

The site going down has become something of a tradition, as it is typically taken offline before major launches to update product listings and prices.

While a folding iPhone may take longer to reach our pockets, there was plenty to get excited about if you’re an Apple fan.

Live translation with AirPods Pro 3

Apple unveiled its next generation of AirPods, with live translation and a heartrate sensor for workouts their most eye (ear?) catching features at a starting price of £219.

Translation is available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, while Italian, Japanese, Korean and a simplified version of Chinese should be on offer by the end of the year.

The hands free feature quickly became a topic of chatter online, with people excited by the opportunities to eavesdrop.

It works as a user speaks naturally with AirPods, according to the tech giant.

Apple say: ‘To interact with someone who doesn’t have this hands-free capability, there’s an option to use iPhone as a horizontal display, showing the live transcription of what the user is saying in the other person’s preferred language.

‘When the other person responds, their speech is translated into the user’s preferred language with AirPods.

‘It’s even more useful for longer conversations when both users are wearing their own AirPods with Live Translation enabled from their iPhone.’

This feature is not only available with Apple: you can also do something similar with Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy buds.

Blood pressure monitoring on Series 11 Apple Watches

A highly anticipated feature was announced last night, which is the ability for their newest smart watches to monitor blood pressure over extended periods.

This has been in development for some time, and adds to the suite of health monitoring features.

Apple say it won’t be able to detect all hypertension,but can look for chronic high blood pressure over 30 day periods.

The company said it thinks it will alert over a million people with undiagnosed hypertension in the first year of availability.

You can also now get your hands on the Apple Watch Ultra 3, with a brighter screen as well as 5G and satellite connectivity.

Thinking of buying the iPhone 17? Here is the release date and all the new models

You will be able to pre-order the new models from 1pm on Friday September 12. They will be available on general release from today.

There are four versions: the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The lower selling ‘Plus’ model didn’t get taken forward for the new series, in favour of the Air which brings the phone into line with MacBooks and iPads, which both have lightweight Air models.

Although the iPhone 16 Pro Max was top of the range just a few days ago, now you can’t even buy it as a lower cost new option, as it has been scrapped.

There have been big price cuts on the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus though.

So, if you’re still trying to coax an old iPhone XR into keeping its battery going long enough to check CityMapper on the way home, maybe it’s time to upgrade.

How much does the new iPhone 17 cost?

Here are the starting prices for the base 256GB storage variants:

iPhone 17: £799

iPhone Air: £999

iPhone 17 Pro: £1,099

iPhone 17 Pro Max: £1,199

When is iOS 26 released?

The latest iPhone software update was released on Monday, September 15.

You didn’t somehow forget iOS 19, 20, and 21: this time we are skipping ahead to iOS 26, because the naming system has changed.

Now, the operating system is taking the name of the year it will be most used in, 2026, which also means it can have a consistently named iOS with other Apple products.

As the new iOS was already available in beta form, there weren’t many surprises here, but we did get an official release date for the operating system featuring a ‘liquid glass’ display and the rollout of deeply integrated Apple Intelligence.

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A South Korean court has ruled that online insults directed at a K-pop band can be considered defamation.

Except, this boy band doesn’t technically exist. PLAVE consists of five men in their 20s with brightly coloured hair who are completely virtual.

Yejun, Noah, Bamby, Eunho, and Hamin are digital avatars designed in the style of manhwa, the term for Korean comics and webtoons.

The real identities of the band members are unknown and they use motion capture technology to perform, chat with fans and accept music awards.

A K-pop fan website even lists each PLAVE member’s birthday, height, hobbies, likes, dislikes, personality type and ‘representative emoji’.

On July 19 last year, a social media user said the people behind the avatars could be ‘ugly in real life’ and said they have a ‘typical Korean man vibe’.

The X user ridiculed Hamin, saying he is ‘not tall or handsome’ and has a’rotten’ body, so he has to ‘hide behind’ his avatar, according to court documents.

In a sixth post on July 26, he called the band ‘bastards’.

PLAVE – as in, the people, not the avatars – filed a lawsuit against the user, saying the remarks caused them emotional distress and sought 6.5 million won each (about £3,400).

The defendant, named in court documents as ‘B’, said that as the group is made of fictional characters, their comments don’t count as defamation.

But a court in Gyeonggi ruled in favour of the band in May, saying that to insult an avatar is to insult the person behind it.

The verdict added: ‘The avatar in the era of the metaverse is more than a virtual image, but a way of expression of the user, one’s identity and one’s way of communicating with society.’

The real identities of PLAVE have ‘become information readily available to the masses’, the judgment said, with tabloid journalists and message board users regularly claiming to have tracked them down.

‘When considering the fact that B also committed the offences in question with that information in mind, it must be concluded that B specifically targeted the plaintiffs,’ the ruling added.

The defendant was ordered to pay 100,000 won per plaintiff, having dismissed some of the band’s claims.

The judgment was confirmed in a court bulletin notice last week.

The ‘virtual entertainment company’ behind the band, VLAST, warned in a statement last March that it would take legal action against people who comment on the band’s true identities.

It added: ‘Our findings revealed that around 20,000 reported cases and proofs were discovered by VLAST and fans. There are also approximately 30 incidents deemed for trial since November 2023.’

But whether a ruling of this kind could happen in the UK is doubtful, Iain Wilson, libel lawyer and managing partner of the London firm Brett Wilson, told Metro.

‘While in the UK a fictional character could not bring a legal claim, a performer might, if the attack was understood by some of the readership to be against them rather than the character,’ he said.

‘However, on the reported facts of the PLAVE case, a UK defamation claim would likely fail. Recourse to English defamation law only applies if there is a likelihood of serious reputational harm. Insults or abuse, however hurtful, are insufficient.’

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