Tesla launches robotaxi rides in Austin with no human safety driver

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  January 22, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Tesla launches robotaxi rides in Austin with no human safety driver: Not all of Tesla's fleet in Austin will be fully driverless. Per Tesla's AI lead Ashok Elluswamy, the company will be "starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time." Read More Microsoft 365 hit by outage, preventing access to emails and files: An hours-long outage is preventing Microsoft's enterprise customers from accessing their inboxes, files, and video meetings. Read More Google now offers free SAT practice exams, powered by Gemini: Students can prompt Gemini by typing "I want to take a practice SAT test," and the AI will provide them with a free practice exam. Gemini then analyzes the results, highlighting strengths and identifying areas that need further review. It also offers detailed explanations for any incorrect answers.  Read More Be the first to know when news breaks Subscribe to our News Alerts, and you won't miss a thing. Breaking news, exclusives, and special reports—straight to your inbox. Sign up for News Alerts! A message from AWS Marketplace Unlock agentic AI potential Discover how Agentic AI transforms operations with AWS Marketplace solutions. Learn to build, buy, and deploy AI agents that streamline workflows and boost efficiency. Download the eBook today and transform your AI journey. Download Now Afternoon Must-Reads Ring is adding a new content verification feature to videos: Ring says the new feature will identify if video edits have been made, even if they're minor. Read More Here's what you should know about the US TikTok deal: A number of investors are competing for the opportunity to purchase the app, and if a deal were to go through, the platform's U.S. business could have its valuation soar to upward of $60 billion. Read More Tiger Global, Microsoft to fully exit Walmart-backed PhonePe via its IPO: Tiger Global and Microsoft are offering up their full stakes in the company, while Walmart is choosing to retain its majority stake, and selling up to 45.9 million shares. Read More Meta seeks to limit evidence in child safety case: Meta is set to go on trial in New Mexico for allegedly failing to protect minors. The company is requesting a broad swath of information not be allowed to be presented in court. Read More Google snags team behind AI voice startup Hume AI: Google has hired the CEO and top engineer behind voice AI startup Hume AI, signaling that voice is increasingly becoming the preferred interface over screens. Read More A message from TechCrunch Events Disrupt 2026 tickets are live and at the lowest rates Disrupt tickets are officially on sale at the lowest rates of the year. Lock in Super Early Bird pricing plus 50% off a second ticket of the same type, available to the first 500 registrants or until Jan 31. Join 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators for curated networking, hear from 250+ speakers across 200+ sessions, and demo innovations for 300+ startups Oct 13–15 in San Francisco. Register Now You missed these chats from Disrupt: Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens. Watch on Cheddar.com Watch on Streaming Last but Not Least Google DeepMind CEO is 'surprised' OpenAI is rushing forward with ads in ChatGPT: Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says the tech giant isn't pressuring him to insert ads into the AI chatbot experience. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107

Spotify brings AI-powered Prompted Playlists to the U.S. and Canada

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  January 22, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Spotify brings AI-powered Prompted Playlists to the U.S. and Canada: Now available in the US and Canada, Spotify's AI-powered Prompted Playlists let users describe what they want to hear using natural language commands. Read More From invisibility cloaks to AI chips: Neurophos raises $110M to build tiny optical processors for inferencing: Neurophos is taking a crack at solving the AI industry's power efficiency problem with an optical chip that uses a composite material to do the math required in AI inferencing tasks. Read More Former Google trio is building an interactive AI-powered learning app for kids: Big tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with their generative AI-powered interactive app, Sparkli. Read More Be the first to know when news breaks Subscribe to our News Alerts, and you won't miss a thing. Breaking news, exclusives, and special reports—straight to your inbox. Sign up for News Alerts! A message from Fidelity Start Scrappy. Scale Smart Managing your equity in a spreadsheet might work, until you're raising your next round, onboarding new hires, or navigating your first SAFE. Fidelity Private Shares' free cap table template can provide you with a clean start. And when you're ready to ditch the manual updates, we'll help you scale with confidence. Download Now Morning Must-Reads Not to be outdone by OpenAI, Apple is reportedly developing an AI wearable: Should this wearable materialize, it could be released as early as 2027, according to a report on the device. Read More Google reportedly snags up team behind AI voice startup Hume AI: Google has hired the CEO and top top behind voice AI startup Hume AI, signaling that voice is increasingly becoming the preferred interface over screens. Read More Here's what you should know about the US TikTok deal: A number of investors are competing for the opportunity to purchase the app, and if a deal were to go through, the platform's U.S. business could have its valuation soar to upward of $60 billion. Read More Under Armour says it's 'aware' of data breach claims after 72M customer records were posted online: TechCrunch obtained a sample of the stolen data, which contained names, email addresses, dates of birth, and the user's approximate geographic location. Under Armour confirmed some sensitive information was taken in the breach. Read More Anthropic has to keep revising its technical interview test so you can't cheat on it with Claude: Since 2024, Anthropic's performance optimization team has given job seekers a take-home test to make sure they know their stuff — but as AI coding tools have gotten better, the test has had to change a lot to stay ahead of AI-assisted cheating. Read More A message from TechCrunch Events Disrupt 2026 tickets are live and at the lowest rates Disrupt tickets are officially on sale at the lowest rates of the year. Lock in Super Early Bird pricing plus 50% off a second ticket of the same type, available to the first 500 registrants or until Jan 31. Join 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators for curated networking, hear from 250+ speakers across 200+ sessions, and demo innovations for 300+ startups Oct 13–15 in San Francisco. Register Now You missed these chats from Disrupt: Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens. Watch on Cheddar.com Watch on Streaming Last but Not Least Tiger Global, Microsoft to fully exit Walmart-backed PhonePe via its IPO: Tiger Global and Microsoft are offering up their full stakes in the company, while Walmart is choosing to retain its majority stake, and selling up to 45.9 million shares. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107