Science & Technology — July 9, 2026

Waymo expands robotaxis to four more cities. Waymo will bring fully driverless rides to San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Denver, extending its lead in the young U.S. autonomous vehicle market.

CNBC Top News · Read more →

Regulators demand self-driving cars stop blocking responders. NHTSA called it "unacceptable" that autonomous vehicles have repeatedly driven into emergency scenes and blocked ambulances and firefighters, demanding companies fix the problem immediately.

TechCrunch · Read more →

New weight-loss pill beats oral Ozempic. The once-daily pill orforglipron produced greater weight loss and blood sugar improvements than oral semaglutide in a head-to-head trial of type 2 diabetes patients.

According to Science Daily, the results matter beyond the trial itself: they could widen treatment options for patients who want alternatives to injectable GLP-1 medications, the format that has dominated this class of drugs. Because the study directly compared the once-daily candidate against the leading oral form of semaglutide in people with type 2 diabetes, physicians would have head-to-head evidence rather than findings from separate studies.

Science Daily · Read more →

Startup logs commercial nuclear first in space. Miami-based City Labs' BOHR mission achieved a first for commercial nuclear power in space, a pathfinder toward nuclear-powered spacecraft enabling longer deep-space missions.

Ars Technica · Read more →

Rival AI models debut same day. The Trump administration cleared OpenAI's GPT-5.6 for broad public launch the same day SpaceXAI released Grok 4.5, its first model since going public.

Axios, citing a source familiar with the situation, reported Tuesday that the administration had given OpenAI a green light for a broad release of the model, indicating restrictions had previously limited its availability. The timing sharpens the rivalry: Grok 4.5 is the first model SpaceXAI has shipped since going public, meaning the two leading U.S. AI competitors put major releases in front of users on the same day.

Axios · Read more →