I never really believed self-driving cars would make it to the UK, so you can imagine my surprise when I found myself clambering into one of Wayve’s autonomous vehicles for a journey around north London a few weeks ago.
Technology
I rode in one of the UK’s first self-driving cars
In June, the company announced plans with Uber to begin trialing Level 4 fully autonomous robotaxis in the capital as soon as 2026, part of a government plan to fast-track self-driving pilots ahead of a potential wider rollout in late 2027. Alphabet-owned Waymo, now a staple fixture of US cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, also has its eyes on London, announcing plans for its own fully driverless robotaxi service in 2026, one of its first efforts to expand beyond the US.
My skepticism on whether self-driving cars will work in London isn’t unfounded. On many levels, London is a robotaxi’s worst nightmare. At every possible turn, the city is at odds with autonomy. Its road network is narrow, winding, and hellish to navigate, a morass of concrete that emerged over centuries, designed to be used by horses and carts, not cars. Tight streets make avoiding obstacles — potholes, parked cars, you know the drill — even tougher, and this is before we’ve even started to consider the flood of other vehicles, jaywalkers, tourists, cyclists, buses, taxi cabs, and animals (like rogue military horses) sharing the road. And the less said about roundabouts or the weather, the better.
Even if a robotaxi manages to successfully navigate London, it needs Londoners on board with the technology too. This might be tough. We’re a skeptical bunch and when it comes to putting AI in cars; surveys rank Brits among the world’s worst. There’s also been a lot of hype — and failure — surrounding the technology in the past, leaving a legacy of distrust and disbelief entrants must dispel. And there’s the iconic black cabs to contend with, and they’ve been known to drive a hard bargain. When Uber first came on the scene, cabbies repeatedly brought London to a standstill, and the group is still at war with the ridesharing company today. That said, they don’t seem too threatened this time around, dismissing driverless cars as “a fairground ride” and “a tourist attraction in San Francisco.”
Wayve’s headquarters didn’t feel like a San Francisco tourist attraction. The combination of undecorated brick and black metal fencing gives Wayve, which started life in a Cambridge garage in 2017 and is still led by cofounder Alex Kendall, the vibe of a random warehouse. Just 15 minutes away is King’s Cross, a reformed industrial wasteland now home to companies like Google and Meta, which many would consider a more conventional setting for a company that has raised more than $1 billion from titans like Nvidia, Microsoft, and SoftBank (and is reportedly in talks to raise up to $2 billion more).
Its cars — a fleet of Ford Mustang Mach-Es — didn’t look that futuristic either. The only real giveaway that they planned to replace human drivers was a small box of sensors mounted above the windshield, a far cry from the obtrusive humps on top of Waymos.
Inside, it was just as ordinary. As we rolled out of Wayve’s compound, the only thing that really stood out was the big red emergency stop button in the center console, a reminder that, legally speaking, a human driver needs to be ready to seize control at any moment. If it hadn’t been for the shrill buzz going off to indicate the robotaxi had taken over, I don’t think I’d have noticed the driver had given up any control at all.
It handled the city well — far better than I expected. Within minutes, we’d left the quiet side streets near Wayve’s base and joined a busier road. The car eased between parked cars and delivery vehicles, slowed politely when food couriers cut in front of us on electric bikes, and, mercifully, didn’t mow down any of the jaywalkers who treated London’s crossings more like suggestions than rules.
The ride wasn’t exactly smooth, though, and nothing like the ethereal calm I felt when I took my first Waymo in San Francisco this summer. Wayve was more hesitant than I’m used to, a little like when my sister took me out for the first time after earning her license a few years ago.
That hesitancy is especially odd in London. Friends, cabbies, bus drivers, and Uber drivers I’ve ridden with all seem to exude a kind of impatient confidence, a sense of urgency that Wayve utterly lacked. I’ve not driven since I passed my test 15 years ago — the Tube makes it pretty easy to do without in London — but its pauses still managed to test my patience. Our route took us past the high walls of Pentonville Prison in Islington, and we trundled behind a cyclist I was sure even I could safely overtake and any Londoner certainly would have.
I later learned this tentativeness is a feature, not a bug. Unlike Waymo — which uses a combination of detailed maps, rules, sensors, and AI to drive — Wayve employs an end-to-end AI model that lets it drive in a generalizable way. In other words, Wayve drives more like a human and less like a machine. It certainly felt that way; I kept glancing at the safety driver’s hands, half expecting to see them having already retaken control. They never had. Other drivers seemed convinced too. A policeman even raised his hand in thanks as we left him a space to turn into a petrol station, though maybe that was meant for the safety driver.
In theory, this embodied AI approach means you could drop a Wayve car anywhere and it would simply adapt, similar to the way a human driver might when navigating an unfamiliar city. I’m not sure I’m ready to test that myself, but the team said they’d recently been driving out in the Scottish Highlands and came back unscathed.
I later learned the company, which is targeting markets in Japan, Europe, and North America, has been traveling around the world on an AI “roadshow” this year to test its technology in 500 unfamiliar cities. Knowing this, it seems Wayve will have little need to take The Knowledge, a series of exams for London’s black cab drivers to show they have memorized thousands of streets and places, letting them navigate without GPS (it also makes scientists love their brains).
The approach means the technology is also designed to respond to the world more fluidly and react in a more human manner to those unexpected scenarios and edge cases that terrify autonomous carmakers. On my trip, it did just that. Roadworks, learner drivers, groups of cyclists, and London buses, even a person on crutches veering into the street — it handled each capably, albeit more cautiously than a London driver probably would have. The most nerve-wracking moment came when a blind man edged out with his cane between two parked cars — a scene so on the nose I had to ask the company if it had been staged (it hadn’t) — but before I could react, the car had already slowed and shifted course.
By the time we pulled back into Wayve’s compound, I realized I’d stopped wondering who was driving. It was only the repeat of the shrill buzzer that signaled our safety driver was back in control. My brain, it seems, has finally accepted autonomy, at least London’s version of it. It’s rougher around the edges, less sci-fi, more human. And maybe that’s the point.
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Valve has some good news and bad news about Steam Controllers. The good news: if you make a reservation for a Steam Controller, the company will now show you one of three estimates of when you’ll be able to actually order your gamepad: by September 2026, by December 2026, or sometime in 2027. The bad news: any reservations made today “indicate a 2027 date for shipping,” Valve says.
“We have no plans to stop making Steam Controller,” according to Valve. “But as we look at the current demand compared to how many we know we can make by the end of the year, we want to manage expectations as much as we can with regards to when folks can expect to receive their order.”
Valve’s very good new Steam Controller went on sale in early May, and the initial rush led some people to run into frustrating problems with trying to check out ahead of the controllers eventually going out of stock. A few days later, the company announced that it would be implementing a reservations queue for interested buyers so they could get on a waitlist. If you’re on the waitlist, when you get notified that a Steam Controller is ready for you to buy, you have 72 hours to actually make the order.
“When we launched Steam Controller last month, we quickly saw that initial demand exceeded our expectations,” Valve says. “Switching to a reservation queue has (hopefully) cut down on the headaches on the customer side, and for us it’s also been helpful as we plan ahead and try to get as many out as quickly as we are able.”
All three of Valve’s big hardware products were delayed from a planned early 2026 launch because of the component crisis, Valve still hasn’t announced when the Steam Machine PC or Steam Frame VR headset might go on sale. However, just yesterday, Valve officially launched its big SteamOS 3.8 update with support for the Steam Machine. It’s also been importing a lot of hardware into the US as of late.
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The next time you pull up to a McDonald’s drive-thru, the voice taking your order may not be human. McDonald’s is testing a new AI-powered system called ArchIQ at five U.S. locations. The company has not said where those restaurants are located. The voice assistant, nicknamed Archy, can take drive-thru orders and has shown it can handle both English and Spanish.
For anyone who has repeated “no pickles” into a speaker box more than once, this could sound helpful. However, if you remember McDonald’s last AI drive-thru experiment, you may also wonder whether your burger order could somehow turn into a bag full of surprise McNuggets.
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WOULD YOU EAT AT A RESTAURANT RUN BY AI?
McDonald’s is testing an AI drive-thru system called ArchIQ at five U.S. restaurants. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What is McDonald’s AI drive-thru?
ArchIQ is McDonald’s new AI system for restaurants. It can take drive-thru orders and also help with operations behind the scenes.
In a post on X, McFranchisee, an anonymous McDonald’s franchisee account, said the system is currently in five test stores and has processed more than one million transactions. The account also said about 90% of orders were completed without a human stepping in. That number sounds promising. Still, McDonald’s has not confirmed a nationwide launch date. For now, this remains a limited test.
The system also appears to connect with a bigger McDonald’s plan called “McDonald’s > NEXT.” CEO Chris Kempczinski described the strategy as a way to bring in more customers and improve restaurant productivity. The plan also includes menu changes, restaurant redesigns, technology upgrades and more focus on hospitality.
Why McDonald’s is testing AI ordering
Drive-thrus can get chaotic fast. Someone changes an order after the total appears. A child calls out from the back seat. Road noise makes the speaker hard to hear. Then the driver remembers the extra sauce after everything has already gone through. That is the type of pressure McDonald’s wants AI to handle.
If ArchIQ works well, it could help restaurants move cars through the line faster. It may also reduce mistakes during busy hours. Workers could then focus more on preparing food, handling payments and helping customers who need a real person.
ArchIQ also appears to have a management role. In the same X post, McFranchisee described Archy as a tool that could alert managers to bottlenecks or other issues before they slow down operations.
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The AI assistant, nicknamed Archy, can take drive-thru orders and may also help managers spot restaurant slowdowns. (McFranchisee)
McDonald’s tried AI drive-thru ordering before
This new test follows McDonald’s earlier AI drive-thru experiment with IBM. That program involved more than 100 restaurants. McDonald’s ended the test in 2024 after customers complained about order accuracy. Some mistakes also went viral, creating an embarrassing moment for McDonald’s and raising questions about whether the technology was ready for the drive-thru. Customers reported wrong items, strange quantities and other order mix-ups. That history is why this new test will get extra attention.
This time, McDonald’s is working with Google technology. McFranchisee also claimed every McDonald’s in the U.S. is getting Google Edge Cloud hardware in anticipation of the rollout. McDonald’s seems to believe the newer system can perform better than the last one. The real test will come when regular customers use it during real drive-thru rushes.
How McDonald’s AI drive-thru could help customers
If McDonald’s gets this right, the most obvious benefit is speed. An AI ordering system does not get tired during a long shift. It may also help more customers order in the language they prefer. That could make a busy drive-thru feel less frustrating, especially during breakfast or late-night hours.
The system may also ask clearer follow-up questions and catch missing details before the order reaches the kitchen. That would be a win for customers who want to get in, get their food and get on with the day.
The biggest problem with AI drive-thru orders
The biggest concern is accuracy. AI can still misunderstand people. That gets frustrating fast when you are trying to grab lunch between errands or get your kids fed from the back seat. A wrong order wastes time. It also puts workers in the position of fixing a mistake the machine made.
There is also the customer service side. Some people like hearing a real person at the speaker. Others may find an AI voice cold or annoying, especially if the system gets confused.
Then there is the privacy question. If an AI system takes your order, customers may wonder what gets collected, how long it is kept and who can access it. McDonald’s has not publicly explained those specifics for this current ArchIQ test.
ALEXA+ LETS YOU ORDER FOOD LIKE A REAL CONVERSATION
A drive-thru menu board stands outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Hercules, Calif., on Oct. 23, 2024, amid an E. coli outbreak linked to onions in Quarter Pounder sandwiches that has sickened dozens and killed one person across the U.S. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
How to avoid AI drive-thru mistakes
Before you leave the drive-thru, take a moment to check the order screen. Make sure the items match what you said. Listen when the system repeats your order. Keep your receipt until you confirm the food is right.
Also, avoid sharing extra personal details at the speaker box. Your order should only require your food choices and payment.
If the AI gets confused, ask for a crew member. You do not need to keep going back and forth with a machine over fries.
What this means for you
For now, you probably will not notice a change at your local McDonald’s. The ArchIQ test appears limited to five U.S. restaurants, and the company has not said when it could expand.
Still, this gives customers a preview of where fast food may be heading. AI could soon play a bigger role in how restaurants take orders and manage the kitchen. That may speed up the line, though it could also make the experience feel less personal.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
McDonald’s clearly wants AI to play a bigger role in its restaurants. From a business point of view, the idea makes sense. Shorter drive-thru lines could help franchisees and customers. Better restaurant data could also help managers fix problems faster. But I still want the human backup. Food orders can be messy because people are messy. We change our minds. We talk over each other. We forget the extra ketchup until the last second. AI may handle much of that one day. For now, I would treat it like any busy drive-thru interaction. Speak clearly. Check the order. Do not pull away until you know your food is right.
Would you trust an AI voice to take your McDonald’s order, or do you still want a real person on the other end of the speaker? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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Midjourney CEO David Holz just showed off the company’s first hardware product and plans to build a San Francisco spa, which he admitted is a bit different from the “cat pictures” produced by its AI image generator. Dubbed The Midjourney Scanner, it’s an ultrasound-based full-body scanner that uses a ring of sensors to capture vertical slices of the inside of your body, looking at the composition of your muscle, fat, bone, and organs to start. Holz said ideally, you could do this once a year or every single day, as it “aims for image quality comparable to MRI in many ways.”
He mentioned that one way he’d like to use it would be to see how his body changes in response to diet and workout changes, saying, “I’m not the most measured man on Earth yet, you know, but maybe I want to have that daily [measurable information].” A set of job listings advertises the company’s goal as trying to “build and launch the world’s first full-body ultrasound CT scanner, ultimately bringing safe, fast, and high fidelity preventative scanning to billions via a magical spa experience.”
The Midjourney Scanner was developed in a partnership with ultrasound tech company Butterfly Network, which said it uses “40 Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules per system.”
The scanning process starts with stepping onto a platform that drops down into the water on rails through a ring of thousands of transducers that create ultrasonic waves. It then records the ripples passing through your body to analyze them and create detailed 3D images. The scan takes about 60 seconds. Holz said about a dozen people have been scanned so far.
It starts by stepping into a shallow pool of golden light. You then begin to descend into the water. Your body passes through a ring of underwater sensors, each acting like a dolphin, using its echolocation. The sensors send ultrasonic sound waves through your body from every angle. With enough waves, and enough angles, we form an image of what’s happening inside your body.
It combines those sensors with two petaflops of processing power. But after watching the livestreamed reveal, I’m still unclear on what Midjourney’s AI image generation tech exactly has to do with the Midjourney Medical effort, beyond an alternative business for otherwise-unused AI compute.
Holz hopes to put 10 of the scanners into a Midjourney Spa location in San Francisco’s Union Square that will open before the end of 2027 and offered to scan the hands of attendees at its launch event. The Midjourney Spa will have a gym, saunas, and cold plunges to go along with the hot tub–equipped scanning rooms where visitors will get into the water to be scanned.
He did mention that various medical applications would require FDA clearances, but for now, Midjourney Medical says it’s working on “body composition maps” that don’t require the same level of clearance as diagnostic imaging. It also says the “library of scans” users create can be shared with doctors, AI health tools, or others, and that, “We take data privacy seriously — more details on our data policies will come as we get closer to launch.”
Holz suggested that eventually these scans could become better than an MRI, without radiation, powerful magnets, or other complicating factors, to get a look at what’s going on inside people’s bodies “real fast.” In response to a question, he imagined a future where the FDA had a class of devices to look at “weird” things and allowed people to “just try to get as much data as we can.”
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