Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this weekend

View this email online in your browser  August 16, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways: Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Read More What we know about the alleged Iranian hacks on US water utilities: Over the last couple of weeks, hackers have targeted and broken into the systems of several water plants in the United States. Here’s what we know and don’t know about this wave of attacks allegedly carried out by the Iranian government. Read More Read-it-later app Pocket shut down — here are the best alternatives: Pocket users have until October 8, 2025, to export their saved articles and other items, including lists, archives, favorites, notes, and highlights. Read More Sunday Must-Reads SpaceX officially closes its Cursor acquisition: AI coding startup Cursor is now officially a part of SpaceX. Read More Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery: The woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse." Read More Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work: How will the watermarking actually work? Can it be hidden with editing? And how does this affect code? Read More 7 desk gadgets that can make your workday better: The right desk gadgets can help you reduce clutter, stay focused, and add a little extra convenience to your day. Read More Google will now allow users to remove visible watermark from its AI generations: Turning off this setting won't affect invisible benchmarks used to identify an AI generated file. Read More Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum. Register Now! Last but Not Least Talks to sell PayPal to Stripe and Advent are heating up: PayPal is still reportedly negotiating a potential sale to Stripe and private equity firm Advent, as the fintech firm's new CEO attempts to turn the company around. 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