A Waymo robotaxi and a Serve delivery robot collided in Los Angeles ... and more Tech news
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On December 27th, a Waymo Robotaxi and a CERV Robotics Sidewalk Delivery Robot collided at a Los Angeles intersection, according to a video that's circulating on social media. The footage shows a CERV bot crossing a street in West Hollywood at night and trying to get onto the sidewalk. It reached the curb, backed up a little to correct itself, and started moving toward the ramp.

That's when a Waymo making a right turn hit the little bot. The person who posted the video said the served bot had run a red light before the collision, though that's not clear from the footage. One Reddit user commented on the video saying "Waymo computers? Doesn't appear to be a human or animal. No life form detected. BAM!" And while that comment was likely made in jest, the sentiment is not exactly wrong.

When TechCrunch asked Waymo whether the Robotaxi saw the bot, a spokesperson said that the Waymo driver's system correctly observed that the delivery robot was an inanimate object. The driver is designed to be a cautious, defensive driver that prioritizes the safest driving path with the information it has at any given moment, and its ability to classify and distinguish different types of road users and objects

informs its behavior around them. For example, the driver is programmed to be more cautious around children and pedestrians. This isn't to say that Waymo's driver will just bulldoze anything inanimate. In this case, the delivery robot had paused at the curb before driving into the vehicle turning lane just as the Waymo RoboTaxi entered the intersection. At that point, the Waymo driver applied hard braking before making contact with the delivery robot at 4 mph, according to the Waymo spokesperson.

Neither AV was damaged, and the two remained locked for a minute before going their separate ways. But as more autonomous vehicles hit public roads, there's a question to be asked about what happens when they collide. How do the companies decide which robot, and therefore which company, is liable in the case of damage? Based on previous information Waymo has given TechCrunch, when a collision occurs, the Waymo driver notifies the company's fleet response and rider support teams.

The fleet response team reviews the scene remotely and dispatches a roadside assistance representative if needed. The rider support team checks the status of the riders and, if appropriate, contacts first responders.

In this specific instance, there was no passenger inside the robo-taxi. It's not clear if the fleet response team was alerted to this collision or whether either the Waymo robo-taxi or the Serv bot required humans to assist in getting out of the jam remotely. A Serv spokesperson told TechCrunch that this is the first instance of one of its bots colliding with a robo-taxi and confirmed that the bot was under remote supervisor control at the time of the incident, since that is still part of Serv's playbook for intersection crossings.

TechCrunch was unable to get more concrete answers from Waymo or CERV regarding specifics around liability in the case of future incidents that might result in more damage. Spokespeople from both companies have confirmed that they have been in touch to work to avoid similar issues in the future.

Nearly a quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is gearing up to launch an orbital rocket for the first time and finally enter the competitive launch industry that is currently dominated by SpaceX. Company executives have maintained that they are planning to launch the towering rocket called New Glenn before the year is out. However, an air traffic advisory posted last week suggests that Blue Origin may conduct the launch no earlier than January 6th.

Regardless, there is little left for the company to do in terms of pre-launch tests or paperwork. Blue Origin received its launch license for New Glenn from federal regulators last week, which authorizes launches for five years. That same day, the company successfully conducted a launch dress rehearsal called a hot fire test. All that's left on the checklist, Blue Origin CEO David Lemp confirmed, is connecting the fairing, which carries the rocket's payload.

When the rocket does finally launch, seven of the Blue Origin-made BE-4 engines will fire up to generate over 3.8 million pounds of thrust and propel the rocket away from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 320-foot-tall rocket will carry demonstrator technology for Blue Origin's Blue Ring spacecraft, an orbital transfer vehicle that's designed to provide transportation, logistics,

and satellite servicing. New Glenn and Blue Ring are just two of several products Blue Origin has been developing to compete in multiple areas of the space industry. The company is ultimately looking to go up against several competitors, not just up against SpaceX's Falcon 9, which currently launches the lion's share of national security and commercial satellite payloads, that are developing lunar landers, private space stations, and

and more. Up until this point, Blue Origin has mostly been known for its New Shepard suborbital rocket, which carries space tourists and some cargo up to suborbital space and back in brief flights. If all goes to plan, New Glenn's booster will return to Earth and land vertically on a floating barge, to be refurbished and reused up to 25 times.

NASA also tapped Blue Origin to launch twin spacecraft to Mars. Those satellites were supposed to fly on this inaugural mission, but after the launch was delayed from October, the space agency decided to re-manifest them on a later New Glenn launch. Blue Origin has also signed launch deals with the Space Force, Amazon's Project Kuiper, and other commercial companies.

The U.S. Treasury told lawmakers in a letter Monday that it was hit by a cyber attack earlier in December, which the department has attributed to Chinese government hackers. In the letter shared with senior U.S. House lawmakers, which TechCrunch has seen, the Treasury said the hackers gained remote access to certain Treasury employee workstations and had access to unclassified documents in what it described as a major cybersecurity incident.

The Treasury said it was notified on December 8 by Beyond Trust, a company that provides identity access and remote support tech for large organizations and government departments, that hackers had gained access to a key used by the vendor for providing remote access technical support to Treasury employees. Beyond Trust disclosed the incident at the time but did not say how the key was obtained. The spokesperson for Beyond Trust did not respond to a request for comment at press time.

The letter said the department engaged U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA for assistance and, as of Dec. 30, it has no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information. The Treasury confirmed in the letter that it attributed the breach to a China state-sponsored

Advanced Persistent Threat Group, indicating backing from the Chinese government. It's not clear which group was behind the intrusion and a spokesperson would not say. In a brief statement, Treasury Spokesperson Michael Gwynne said that the hackers were able to remotely access several Treasury user workstations and certain unclassified documents maintained by those users.

Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems and the data it holds. Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors, the spokesperson said.

This is the latest cyberattack linked to China that has targeted the U.S. government in recent months. China-backed hackers dubbed Salt Tycoon were behind a wave of cyberattacks targeting U.S. phone companies and internet giants, including AT&T and Verizon, in a bid to get access to the private communications of senior U.S. government officials, including presidential candidates.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., denied the U.S. government's attribution of the cyberattack to the Chinese government, arguing that the United States did not present evidence of its claims. That's all for now. For more stories like this one, visit TechCrunch.com.