December 16, 2025 • 7 mins
ABC's Mike Dobuski looks at the latest tech news including Ford getting rid of their electric truck the Ford Lightning and Roomba files for Chapter 11
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
At seven thirty nine over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot com phone line. That's where we find Mike Debuski,
ABC News Technology Reporter. It's Tech Tuesday. Michael, good morning.
So I see the robotaxi plan. This is Tesla's driverless
taxi is now going to in fact, indeed be driverless.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, that's right. So over the weekend we saw some
videos start circulating on social media that appeared to show
these completely autonomous Tesla model wise that the company has
been testing in a few cities, driving around Austin, Texas
without anyone in the front seats. And that's pretty significant
because when these tests started earlier this year in June,
Tesla had to have a human safety driver in one
(00:41):
of the front seats, either the driver or the passenger seat.
They were basically there ready to go in case the
car did something weird or in case there was a
failure of some kind. However, according to a post from
CEO Elon Musk on social media, those safety drivers are
no longer necessary and that marks a pretty big step
forward or when it comes to Tesla's goals. Tesla says
(01:03):
that these autonomous taxis are basically going to be the
future of the company. Musk wants Tesla to transition from
being a car company that sells like Sedan's and SUVs
into something more akin to Uber, where a fleet of
autonomous robotaxis operate all over the world to ferry people
around and run errands and do all sorts of things. However,
this move will also likely invite some closer scrutiny on Tesla,
(01:26):
especially given Tesla's track record when it comes to the
safety of its existing autonomous systems, and also just some
lingering safety questions in the broader robotaxi space.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You get the chance to test a lot of cool
technology out. Have you been into an autonomous vehicle yet?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So the Waimo electric vehicles, the autonomous vehicles that are
owned by Google. They are testing in New York City. However,
they're not available for public rides yet, so unfortunately I
haven't gotten a chance to have a go in them.
Briefly a few years ago, this is pre pandemic. There
is this company called Optimus Ride which operated a fleet
of autonomous kind of golf carts frankly in what we
(02:06):
call the Brooklyn Navy Yard here in New York City.
It's basically like a business park area, and that did
have a safety driver in it, but it was like
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen and they were still working on
this technology. For what it's worth, Alex Stone, one of
my colleagues here at ABC, did get a chance to
have a go in a Waimo when it debuted in
Los Angeles, and I think his big takeaway was really interesting,
(02:26):
which is that once you get over the initial surprise
and kind of novelty of getting into a driverless car,
it kind of fades quickly. Right You're taking an Uber
at the end of the day and there's an uber
with no one to talk to in it. So it's
like I can play my music, I can listen to
a podcast in these cars, you can like watch YouTube
and stuff like that. But after a while, it just
kind of becomes boring. And I think that's that's a
(02:48):
really interesting piece of this as well.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That is, and I just don't know how I would feel.
And you know, a lot of times, if I'm in
an Uber and I know the area better than the
Uber driver does, I'll tell them a different way to go, like, hey,
take a left here, actually quicker, and it is, but
you can't do that in a driverless taxi, I mean,
how do you sort of circumvent where the route it's taking.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Sure, well, I mean that's not to say that's not possible.
I mean, you know, at the end of the day,
these are kind of map based systems, and if you
want to go a different or choose a different route,
there's certainly the possibility that you could do that in
the same way that you do when you're navigating on
Google Maps. But is that you widely used or widely
available in Waimo cars yet. I don't really have the
(03:29):
answer for that. I do think a lot of people
have concerns about the potential safety questions around this as well, though,
And that is an interesting not to crack, right because
at the end of the day, it's not like you
can intervene and you know, drive this car over to
the shoulder if something goes wrong, like these are autonomous cars,
and that requires a lot of trust in the technology. Well,
Weimo is kind of the biggest player in this space
(03:50):
right now. They say they just completed fourteen million paid
rides in twenty twenty five alone. They're planning to expand
to twenty new cities next year and We just got
our hands on some safety data related to this company,
amid a lot of viral videos about these cars, like
you know, speeding or you know, making kind of weird
moves in various cities across the country. Well, apparently, way
(04:12):
most self driving cars were involved in ninety one percent
fewer serious injury or worse crashes when compared to human drivers,
and about eighty percent fewer crashes causing any injury at all,
which kind of goes to support Silicon Valley's line that
you know, computers are better at driving than people are,
oftentimes because people can be imperfect. And I don't know
if you've seen people drive in New York City recently,
(04:34):
but yeah, that's very pressive.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah some people. Yes, absolutely, the computer is a much
better driver. Speaking with Mike Debuski, ABC News Technology, not
surprising to me. Maybe it could have predicted this one.
Ford is pulling the plug on its electric pickup drop
the F one fifty Lightning.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I see what you did there with the point. Yes,
this all electric Ford F one fifty. They call it
the Lightning. This, debuted a few years ago to much fanfare,
is an all electric version of the F one fifty.
The most popular pickup truck in the country, indeed the
most popular vehicle in the country of any kind, now
has an all electric variant. Well Ford yesterday announced that
(05:13):
they're getting rid of it. They're discontinuing that truck. They
had some production issues recently, there was a fire at
one of the plants that supplies this truck, so they
say it's going away after its first generation. And this
of course comes amid a pretty tough spot for the
EV space right now. The federal Electric Vehicle Tax Credit,
which knocked up to seventy five hundred bucks off the
cost of a new EV that expired at the beginning
(05:35):
of November, meaning that all these vehicles are now expected
to get quite more expensive. One of the big complaints
about the F one fifty Lightning when it debuted was
that it was a little pricey, so that is a
piece of this as well. However, Ford isn't backing off
electrification entirely. They are instituting what they call a strategy shift.
They say this is going to cost about twenty billion
(05:56):
dollars reinvest investing in internal combustion cars but also so
hybrid technology, and they now say that the second generation
of their electrified f one fifty will be an e
rev or, an extended range electric vehicle, basically a battery
operated vehicle, you know, the same. You know, you put
the accelerator down and you have the really fast electric acceleration,
(06:17):
but there's a gas generator in there as well that
can kick on, not to power the wheels, but to
recharge the battery, and that gives you, oftentimes several hundred
extra miles of range. We haven't seen pictures of this thing.
We don't really know many details beyond that, but they
say that's going to be the next iteration of this
so for it's not taking its foot off the gas,
if you will.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Ah, hey real quick. The company that makes the Rumba
automated vacuum is filing for chapter eleven.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, that's right. I Robot is this company. They make
the Rumba vacuum cleaner. They've sold fifty million Rumbas since
that thing debuted in two thousand and two, to again
much fanfare. However, now they say they are filing for
chapter eleven. They are calling this a strategic transaction to
drive long term growth. Everyone else would call that a bankruptcy.
As part of this plan, I Robot will be acquired
(07:07):
by its contract manufacturer, a Chinese firm called Paiscea, which
already makes its existing lineup of rumba devices. They also
make a robotic vacuum cleaners from Shark and anchor. I
Robot ows Pisicia quite a lot of money, including one
hundred and ninety million dollar loan that I Robot took
out earlier this month. However, if you have a rumba,
(07:28):
there is not a ton of need to fear. I
Robot says don't expect any disruptions to customers rumbas as
this transition is made. This is going to continue to
exist as a company, just now under the Pisia umbrella.
At seven thirty nine over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot com phone line. That's where we find Mike Debuski,
ABC News Technology Reporter. It's Tech Tuesday. Michael, good morning.
So I see the robotaxi plan. This is Tesla's driverless
taxi is now going to in fact, indeed be driverless.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, that's right. So over the weekend we saw some
videos start circulating on social media that appeared to show
these completely autonomous Tesla model wise that the company has
been testing in a few cities, driving around Austin, Texas
without anyone in the front seats. And that's pretty significant
because when these tests started earlier this year in June,
Tesla had to have a human safety driver in one
(00:41):
of the front seats, either the driver or the passenger seat.
They were basically there ready to go in case the
car did something weird or in case there was a
failure of some kind. However, according to a post from
CEO Elon Musk on social media, those safety drivers are
no longer necessary and that marks a pretty big step
forward or when it comes to Tesla's goals. Tesla says
(01:03):
that these autonomous taxis are basically going to be the
future of the company. Musk wants Tesla to transition from
being a car company that sells like Sedan's and SUVs
into something more akin to Uber, where a fleet of
autonomous robotaxis operate all over the world to ferry people
around and run errands and do all sorts of things. However,
this move will also likely invite some closer scrutiny on Tesla,
(01:26):
especially given Tesla's track record when it comes to the
safety of its existing autonomous systems, and also just some
lingering safety questions in the broader robotaxi space.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You get the chance to test a lot of cool
technology out. Have you been into an autonomous vehicle yet?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So the Waimo electric vehicles, the autonomous vehicles that are
owned by Google. They are testing in New York City. However,
they're not available for public rides yet, so unfortunately I
haven't gotten a chance to have a go in them.
Briefly a few years ago, this is pre pandemic. There
is this company called Optimus Ride which operated a fleet
of autonomous kind of golf carts frankly in what we
(02:06):
call the Brooklyn Navy Yard here in New York City.
It's basically like a business park area, and that did
have a safety driver in it, but it was like
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen and they were still working on
this technology. For what it's worth, Alex Stone, one of
my colleagues here at ABC, did get a chance to
have a go in a Waimo when it debuted in
Los Angeles, and I think his big takeaway was really interesting,
(02:26):
which is that once you get over the initial surprise
and kind of novelty of getting into a driverless car,
it kind of fades quickly. Right You're taking an Uber
at the end of the day and there's an uber
with no one to talk to in it. So it's
like I can play my music, I can listen to
a podcast in these cars, you can like watch YouTube
and stuff like that. But after a while, it just
kind of becomes boring. And I think that's that's a
(02:48):
really interesting piece of this as well.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That is, and I just don't know how I would feel.
And you know, a lot of times, if I'm in
an Uber and I know the area better than the
Uber driver does, I'll tell them a different way to go, like, hey,
take a left here, actually quicker, and it is, but
you can't do that in a driverless taxi, I mean,
how do you sort of circumvent where the route it's taking.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Sure, well, I mean that's not to say that's not possible.
I mean, you know, at the end of the day,
these are kind of map based systems, and if you
want to go a different or choose a different route,
there's certainly the possibility that you could do that in
the same way that you do when you're navigating on
Google Maps. But is that you widely used or widely
available in Waimo cars yet. I don't really have the
(03:29):
answer for that. I do think a lot of people
have concerns about the potential safety questions around this as well, though,
And that is an interesting not to crack, right because
at the end of the day, it's not like you
can intervene and you know, drive this car over to
the shoulder if something goes wrong, like these are autonomous cars,
and that requires a lot of trust in the technology. Well,
Weimo is kind of the biggest player in this space
(03:50):
right now. They say they just completed fourteen million paid
rides in twenty twenty five alone. They're planning to expand
to twenty new cities next year and We just got
our hands on some safety data related to this company,
amid a lot of viral videos about these cars, like
you know, speeding or you know, making kind of weird
moves in various cities across the country. Well, apparently, way
(04:12):
most self driving cars were involved in ninety one percent
fewer serious injury or worse crashes when compared to human drivers,
and about eighty percent fewer crashes causing any injury at all,
which kind of goes to support Silicon Valley's line that
you know, computers are better at driving than people are,
oftentimes because people can be imperfect. And I don't know
if you've seen people drive in New York City recently,
(04:34):
but yeah, that's very pressive.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah some people. Yes, absolutely, the computer is a much
better driver. Speaking with Mike Debuski, ABC News Technology, not
surprising to me. Maybe it could have predicted this one.
Ford is pulling the plug on its electric pickup drop
the F one fifty Lightning.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I see what you did there with the point. Yes,
this all electric Ford F one fifty. They call it
the Lightning. This, debuted a few years ago to much fanfare,
is an all electric version of the F one fifty.
The most popular pickup truck in the country, indeed the
most popular vehicle in the country of any kind, now
has an all electric variant. Well Ford yesterday announced that
(05:13):
they're getting rid of it. They're discontinuing that truck. They
had some production issues recently, there was a fire at
one of the plants that supplies this truck, so they
say it's going away after its first generation. And this
of course comes amid a pretty tough spot for the
EV space right now. The federal Electric Vehicle Tax Credit,
which knocked up to seventy five hundred bucks off the
cost of a new EV that expired at the beginning
(05:35):
of November, meaning that all these vehicles are now expected
to get quite more expensive. One of the big complaints
about the F one fifty Lightning when it debuted was
that it was a little pricey, so that is a
piece of this as well. However, Ford isn't backing off
electrification entirely. They are instituting what they call a strategy shift.
They say this is going to cost about twenty billion
(05:56):
dollars reinvest investing in internal combustion cars but also so
hybrid technology, and they now say that the second generation
of their electrified f one fifty will be an e
rev or, an extended range electric vehicle, basically a battery
operated vehicle, you know, the same. You know, you put
the accelerator down and you have the really fast electric acceleration,
(06:17):
but there's a gas generator in there as well that
can kick on, not to power the wheels, but to
recharge the battery, and that gives you, oftentimes several hundred
extra miles of range. We haven't seen pictures of this thing.
We don't really know many details beyond that, but they
say that's going to be the next iteration of this
so for it's not taking its foot off the gas,
if you will.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Ah, hey real quick. The company that makes the Rumba
automated vacuum is filing for chapter eleven.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, that's right. I Robot is this company. They make
the Rumba vacuum cleaner. They've sold fifty million Rumbas since
that thing debuted in two thousand and two, to again
much fanfare. However, now they say they are filing for
chapter eleven. They are calling this a strategic transaction to
drive long term growth. Everyone else would call that a bankruptcy.
As part of this plan, I Robot will be acquired
(07:07):
by its contract manufacturer, a Chinese firm called Paiscea, which
already makes its existing lineup of rumba devices. They also
make a robotic vacuum cleaners from Shark and anchor. I
Robot ows Pisicia quite a lot of money, including one
hundred and ninety million dollar loan that I Robot took
out earlier this month. However, if you have a rumba,
(07:28):
there is not a ton of need to fear. I
Robot says don't expect any disruptions to customers rumbas as
this transition is made. This is going to continue to
exist as a company, just now under the Pisia umbrella.
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