US self-driving startup Nuro, which is backed by the likes of NVIDIA, Toyota and Uber, has started testing its autonomous vehicles on Tokyo's challenging streets, Bloomberg reported. The company, which plans to launch a robotaxi service with Uber and Lucid in San Francisco this year, will be testing a "handful" of vehicles in the city. Human safety drivers will be at the wheel, as is required by Japanese law.
Tokyo presents a challenge for autonomous vehicles, given its narrow, crowded streets and left side of the road driving. "Testing the capability of the autonomy system in such an interesting market with some international complexity really is a good pressure test of what the system is capable of," said CEO Andrew Chapin. The company's ultimate goal is to achieve Level 4 autonomy, which allows full self-driving under limited conditions.
Waymo is the other major robotaxi operator testing vehicles in Tokyo in collaboration with Japanese taxi operators Nihon Kotsu and the country's leading taxi app, Go. It has been operating in the nation since April 2025 in collaboration with Toyota.
Nuro has yet to announce which operators or vehicle manufacturers it will be partnering with, but Chapin said it may not limit itself to autonomous rides. "A universal autonomy platform that can be extended to a lot of different applications and form factors is a bit different than the approach Waymo is taking," he told Bloomberg. The company previously teamed with 7-Eleven on autonomous deliveries in Mountain View, California.
Uber plans to have up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles including 20,000 robotaxis powered by Lucid and Nuro, with a rollout starting in 2027. It introduced its new vehicle design recently at CES 2026. Uber is also collaborating with Nissan and Wayve with the aim to introduce pilot cars in Tokyo by late 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/nvidia--and-uber-backed-nuro-is-testing-autonomous-vehicles-in-tokyo-081200366.html?src=rss
Anthropic has this week introduced new Claude capabilities for professionals using Excel and PowerPoint, aimed at streamlining workflows in data-driven projects. One key feature is Claude’s new Skill is to integrate these applications, allowing users to transfer data from Excel into PowerPoint with precision. For instance, financial analysts can pull data from Excel to automatically […]
Apple has apparently entered the production validation testing phase for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, signaling that the hardware design is nearing its final stages. This critical milestone confirms that the devices are on schedule for their anticipated September release. While the overall design remains consistent with the iPhone 17 Pro lineup, the […]
Claude is an AI assistant designed to help users manage tasks and workflows more effectively in 2026. According to AI Foundations, one of the key starting points for beginners is understanding its interface, which includes the Prompt Bar for entering instructions, the Model Selector for choosing the appropriate AI version and the Sidebar Navigation for […]
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a powerhouse of innovation, offering a range of features designed to enhance your smartphone experience. Whether your focus is on privacy, performance, or personalization, this guide provides 26 essential tips to help you unlock the full potential of your device. From configuring privacy settings to exploring advanced camera tools, […]
Proton Mail has become a cornerstone for privacy-conscious individuals in 2026, offering encrypted email services that prioritize user security. In a recent guide by CyberInsider, the focus is on how Proton’s ecosystem, spanning services like ProtonVPN, Proton Drive and Proton Pass, works together to protect your data. For example, Proton Mail employs end-to-end encryption, making […]
Apple has officially rolled out the fourth beta of iOS 26.4, marking a pivotal step toward the final release. This update focuses on enhancing performance, refining stability, and introducing new features to elevate the user experience. By prioritizing the optimization of existing functionalities, iOS 26.4 aims to deliver a seamless and efficient operating system for […]
Apple is gearing up to make its debut in the foldable smartphone market with a highly anticipated device, rumored to be named the iPhone Fold or iPhone Ultra. If the leaks and speculations hold true, this device could address some of the most persistent challenges faced by foldable phones, such as visible creases, awkward […]
Google Play has introduced a new feature called Game Trials, which will let you play a portion of paid games for free before you commit to buying them. It’s now rolling out to select paid games on mobile, and it’s coming soon to Google Play Games on PC. Titles that offer Game Trials will show a button marked “Try” on their profile pages. When you click it, you’ll see how long you can play the game before you have to buy it. In Google’s example, the survival and horror game Dredge will give you 60 minutes of free play time, after which you’ll get the option to either buy the game or delete it from your device.
Google has also announced that it’s releasing more paid indie games over the coming months, including Moonlight Peaks, Sledding Game and Low-Budget Repairs. It has launched a new section in the Play store, as well, to feature games optimized for Windows PCs. You can wishlist the games from that section to get a notification when they’re on sale.
Finally, the company is rolling out Play Games Sidekick, the Gemini-powered Android overlay it announced last year, to select games downloaded from Play. Sidekick can show you relevant info and tools for whatever game you're playing without having to do a search query. But if you’d rather ask other people for gaming advice instead of an AI, you can also look at a game’s Community Posts, a feature now available in English for select titles on their Play pages.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/google-play-will-let-you-try-a-game-before-you-buy-it-051854016.html?src=rss
Low-profile mechanical keyboards have always had a bit of an identity problem. They look the part: slim, clean, desk-friendly. Set one beside a MacBook and it fits right in, at least until you start typing and the plastic keycaps remind you that the aesthetic only goes so far. It is not that PBT is bad. It is just that plastic has a ceiling, and once you have typed on a well-built board, you start to feel where that ceiling is. The sound is a little hollow. The surface wears down. For a form factor that sells itself on refinement, the keycaps have always been the weakest part of the pitch.
That gap is exactly what Awekeys Air is designed to fill. These are low-profile metal keycaps built from recycled cupronickel, a copper-nickel alloy most people know from coins rather than keyboards. Beyond the material upgrade, there is an immediate visual payoff. A set of Satin Copper or Satin Gold caps on a slim board transforms what was previously just a functional object into something that actually improves the desk around it, the kind of detail that catches the eye mid-conversation and holds it.
At 5 mm tall, the Awekeys Air is half the height of a standard keycap, which typically sits at around 11 mm. That gap matters more than it sounds. A slim keyboard paired with standard-height keycaps loses its whole visual argument, and any ergonomic board designed for low-profile switches defeats its own purpose if you pile taller caps on top. The Air keeps that geometry honest while upgrading what that geometry is made of.
As someone who writes for a living and codes on the side, I see the keyboard as less a tool and more a constant physical companion, and the I find that the Awekeys Air shifts that relationship in a way that is difficult to ignore. The cupronickel surface stays cool under extended sessions, the low profile keeps wrist angle natural, and the grip from the hand-brushed Special Edition means fingers land where they are meant to, without any of the slight drift that smooth plastic encourages over a long afternoon.
Finish is where the Awekeys Air earns a lot of its character. Seven keycap colorways cover the satin-style options: Satin Gold, Satin Silver, Satin Copper, Titanium Black, Obsidian Black in matte, Ivory White in matte, and Sakura Pink. Each of them reads differently on metal than on plastic. Satin Copper picks up warm ambient light in a way no dye-sublimated PBT can replicate. Titanium Black has that flat, composed surface that makes a keyboard look more like a precision instrument than a peripheral. Small distinctions, but they add up when the whole point is a desk setup that looks as considered as it feels.
The Special Edition hand-brushed finish takes things a step further, available in Gold, Silver, Copper, and Ti Black. Each keycap is brushed individually, which creates a directional texture that shifts under light and adds a grip that the satin versions do not have. It is the kind of finishing detail that is easy to overlook in a product photo and immediately obvious the moment you sit down to type.
Holding it all together is a second-generation nano-coating that Awekeys claims delivers twice the scratch resistance of its first version. For keycaps that will see thousands of actuations daily, surface protection matters more on metal than on plastic, where wear is expected and mostly forgiven. The coating is what keeps the finish consistent across the whole set over time, and on a metal that is this unforgiving of surface variation, that consistency is doing real work.
The recycled angle is worth taking seriously, too. Awekeys notes that processing recycled cupronickel requires roughly 15% of the energy needed for raw metal extraction. giving the material story a logic beyond a simple badge. The acoustic character completes the picture: denser, more planted, with a sound that leans satisfying rather than sharp. The slim keyboard has been waiting a long time for a keycap set built to match it, and the Awekeys Air makes a strong case that the wait is over.
