Over two years after the Apple Car program was declared dead, Apple has offloaded its 5,500-acre Arizona proving ground to Waymo. It’s a sale that recoups $220M from the $10B Apple spent on the failed project.

The Apple Car project is a program believed to have been cancelled by Apple after about a decade of research and development. In what is the surest sign of it being dead, Apple has sold off a massive parcel of land used for self-driving vehicle testing.

In a filing reported by TechCrunch dated June 5, the property at Wittman, Arizona, has been acquired by Waymo. The sale, which was confirmed by Waymo, sees a payment of $220 million being handed over to Route 14 Investment Partners LLC.

Route 14 is a Delaware shell company believed to be connected to Apple. After renting the facility for a number of years, it Route 14 acquired it for $125 million in 2021.

The purchase gives Waymo yet another place to test out its vehicles. It already has locations in California and Ohio, but the Arizona lot will give it a massive amount of land for testing its fleet.

A Waymo spokesperson said the Arizona facility would be used to simulate driving scenarios in a controlled environment. This is to test its self-driving system, including rider-only testing, motion control, operational training workflows, and its future testing needs.

A self-driving playground

Apple’s renting and later purchase of the facility made sense at the time. It is a location that has a lot to offer companies in the automotive business.

The 5,458-acre site was previously used by Chrysler, again as a vehicle proving ground. It was then sold to a housing developer in 2005, but was later annexed by the City of Surprise and left alone.

A view of the facility – Image credit: Google Earth

In 2016, the city signed a development agreement with the then-owner SFI Grand Vista LLC, under the intention that it would be used by Route 14.

Despite being over 5,000 acres in size, only a small part of the facility has been set up for testing purposes. There is a 115-acre city course, as well as a freeway course geared towards autonomous vehicle testing.

It also has a 35-acre vehicle dynamics area and a four-mile oval track.

The sheer size of the facility provides ample opportunity for occupiers to build out the area for extended testing. All while still maintaining a safe distance from the edge of the lot, which also helps keep the testing private.

Cash back from an expensive project

The sale of $220 million in now-unused land sounds like a lot, and so does the $95 million in value the site earned in just five years. That is, until you remember that this involves Apple.

At Apple’s scale, the proceeds of the property sale will help fund other projects, but it’s pocket change compared to its other investments.

Indeed, compared to the $10 billion Apple has been estimated to have shelled out over a decade for Project Titan, it’s barely 2% of the outlay.

It is, however, an attempt by Apple to shed the last vestiges of the extremely expensive failure.

It’s no longer testing its self-driving system on roads, after cancelling the Autonomous Vehicles Program Manufacturer’s Testing Permit in September 2024. Holding onto private grounds for testing doesn’t make sense if there aren’t any planned for the future.

The work wasn’t entirely a bust for Apple, as the teams and research that went into it will have been absorbed by other parts of the company. It’s not hard to imagine some of the computer vision elements being incorporated into Apple Intelligence, or elements being used to push forward its robotics efforts.

The sale, two years after a very public funeral for a very secretive project, is merely Apple getting rid of a massive site that it has no use for anymore.

It’s a reminder of the costly mistake that hurt its wallet and with little to prove for it.

The Leadership Effectiveness Analysis best practices report explores the qualities that differentiate high-performing tech leadership professionals from their less effective counterparts.

Leadership skills in 2026 are a critical capability that enable professionals in all industries to navigate the highs and lows of the ever-changing global working environment. Whether a job announcement, acquisition, or restructuring, there is always a challenge to be overcome, and positive leadership is often the driving force towards success or a favourable outcome in a difficult situation.  

Touchstone Executive Assessment recently published the results of its Leadership Effectiveness Analysis best practices report. The company collected data from 142 senior professionals in advanced technology roles, across multiple European organisations, between March 2023 and March 2026. The aim was to determine the specific leadership attributes that differentiate highly effective and less effective leaders. 

The report said: “Many years of research and practice assert a direct connection between leadership effectiveness and organisational performance.

“Organisations, however, differ widely in terms of their culture, history, business strategy and people. Because organisations present unique cultural signatures, there is no one best model or profile of effective leadership behaviour.”

Leading in tech has undoubtedly become more complicated as professionals are working in a landscape that is being heavily impacted by political and social instability, threats to global supply chains and mass layoffs at major organisations. With that in mind, now more than ever, it is critical that tech leaders motivate and drive positive action in the workplace. To do that, a hefty arsenal of diverse skills is necessary. 

Steady skills

Among those identified by Touchstone Executive Assessment (TEA) as the most critical skills for a modern-day tech leader was significant cognitive ability. TEA’s research found that leaders depend on the ability to learn quickly, think strategically, see the bigger picture and embrace ambiguity. 

The report said: “Technical knowledge and domain expertise, while important in themselves, are not the factors that differentiate the best in class from the average. It is the ability of the individual to reason under uncertainty, in real time and in a very expansive manner.”

In blending domain expertise with the ability to view one’s industry through a strategic lens, TEA’s report found, professionals can take into account the long-term implications of decision-making, improve business aptitude and create that big picture perspective.

The data also suggested that operational and interpersonal skills are key areas to work on for professionals in demanding technology roles.

“This is where the worlds of technology and people really come together,” the research noted.

“While execution focus and a production mindset are important, leaders in advanced technology must also be able to manage stakeholder relationships, to communicate and influence effectively, and to drive accountability and engagement across their entire landscape. 

“This goes well beyond project management; there is a real sophistication in understanding the organisational environment, knowing the rules of the game and rallying people behind the mission as well as the person.” 

Strong leaders, it said, will have the ability to understand organisational dynamics, effectively lead organisational change and deliver results.

Long-term stability

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the current state of global instability and disruption, TEA’s report also indicated that professionals who show the ability to thrive under pressure and scrutiny perform better in leadership roles. 

“This talks to the characteristics of the person, not just the person in their role. Our research indicates that personal and professional resilience are increasingly important factors, bringing an ability to sustain performance when the going gets tough and to bounce back quickly from setbacks.”

People in this position are, according to TEA, tenacious, determined and better able to sustain their performance in landscapes impacted by uncertainty and pressure. It found that they are unlikely to take issues personally or emotionally, as they demonstrate resilience, effective decision-making and a tolerance for ambiguity. 

Commenting on the results of the study, David Ringwood, the head of assessment and executive coaching at TEA, said: “There is no single right or wrong way to lead – context is king. Technology and AI today are very different than they were 10 years ago, and leadership accordingly needs to recalibrate in line with that shifting context and the changing expectations of employees. The best technology experts don’t always make the best leaders.

“Hiring, developing and building a book of talent that includes those who have the headroom to grow is critical, not least in technology and AI where there is always competition for top talent. This is a ‘how do we’ question – how do we objectively know what predicts the greatest future potential, how do we measure what is exactly relevant and how do we know we’re being as objective as possible?

“Putting the wrong person in the wrong role or career path is an expensive way for everyone to find out. This research may contribute to the definition of what high potential looks like in the tech sector and gives organisations a much clearer sense of where to build performance for today and leadership for tomorrow.”

Notably, in May of this year, technology and consulting company Expleo released the results of its AI sentiment tracker, AI Pulse, for Ireland, a report which found that business leaders in Ireland, ahead of their contributing European counterparts, are far more likely to value empathy as a fundamental skill for managers in the age of AI.

Among Irish business leaders, human-centric skills were identified as the most critical abilities a manager can wield, particularly in the context of increased AI adoption. 

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

“Battery breakthroughs will lessen AI’s demand on the electricity grid,” argues The Washington Post’s editoral board, arguing that GM’s latest moves “offer a fresh reminder that resource constraints can be solved by innovation.”

Or As Fortune put it, “America’s electric grid is buckling under extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and an AI build-out that is quietly rewriting U.S. power demand — and General Motors wants to turn that crisis into a business.” They describe GM’s plan as offering itself “as a distributed utility in disguise… stitching together hundreds of thousands of battery-powered cars, new grid-scale storage, and a unified charging platform into what amounts to a virtual fleet of power plants.”

The bet puts GM on a collision course with Ford’s newly branded Ford Energy unit as both Detroit rivals race to repurpose underused EV capacity for a more urgent problem: keeping the lights on in the AI era. GM’s case rests on three planks. The first is its existing fleet. GM says more than 250,000 of its EVs on U.S. roads can already charge bidirectionally — pulling electricity from the grid and sending it back. “Every evening, a quiet transformation occurs across the American landscape,” GM Energy vice president Wade Sheffer writes in an open letter to utilities and regulators, describing the EVs sitting in driveways as “a massive opportunity to aggregate energy storage capacity.”

A firmware update is rolling out to customers with GM Energy’s vehicle-to-home hardware, converting those systems into full vehicle-to-grid assets with no new hardware and turning home backup systems into grid resources when utilities need them. GM is piloting the idea in Michigan with DTE Energy at 30 employee homes, and has sketched a 2030 vision with Pacific Gas & Electric in which more than 52,000 GM EVs help balance the grid out of a projected 130,000 vehicles in the area.
GM is also “seeking partnerships with utility companies nationwide to assist in offering such vehicle-to-grid services for customers,” reports CNBC, noting it’s one of two moves “meant to address concerns about rising energy costs amid an artificial intelligence boom.”

Forbes reports that GM’s second goal “is to leapfrog the dominant battery cell tech used for energy storage packs right now” — right past the LFP (lithium-iron phosphate) stage, “which is dominated by China.”

Sodium batteries are cheaper to use than LFP because they don’t need an additional cooling system. They also have a 20-year usable life and are made from materials that can be sourced from within the U.S., the company said at a briefing in San Francisco on Tuesday.
“Sodium-ion actually is the better chemistry for that application. And when I say sodium-ion is better, I mean GM’s version of sodium-ion,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s battery chief and a long-time Tesla battery executive, told Forbes. He said GM is seeing great results from its prototypes, even at scorching temperatures of 55 Celsius (131 Fahrenheit).
“Sodium-ion-powered energy storage systems have the potential to operate without active cooling and with much less system complexity,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of battery and sustainability, said Tuesday in a blog post. “In large energy storage systems, that matters.” Not having to cool the battery cells could lead to lower upfront costs as well as operating costs, the automaker said.

TechCrunch reports on GM’s big new partnership with energy-storage startup Peak Energy to develop GM’s sodium-ion battery chemistry for grid-scale deployments:
GM wouldn’t share with TechCrunch how much money it is investing in this energy-storage effort. But we do know the company has committed $900 million to commercialize new battery chemistries, an investment that includes a new battery-development center. .. The first GM cells are expected to enter trial production at the company’s Battery Cell Development Center in 2028.
“Our next-generation sodium-ion cell development will drive energy density higher,” promises GM’s blog post, arguing they’re extending the company’s battery expertise and technical infrastructure “into the electrical grid itself. If we get this right, we will not just build better batteries. We will help create a more resilient, more affordable and more flexible energy future… Every improvement we make strengthens the development stack that supports both EVs and energy storage.”

“The message: GM isn’t just selling cars into a stressed grid; it’s supplying the batteries to stabilize it,” argues Fortune.

And GM also announced they’re augmenting their apps with an “Energy Pass” offering “seamless access to Tesla Supercharger, IONNA, Electrify America, and soon, ChargePoint and EVgo networks.” Their goal is to simplify the charging experience with an app “that covers nearly 70% of all DC fast chargers in the United States, plus many Level 2 chargers, all through one app.”

NASA this week announced the four-person crew that will lead its Artemis III mission in 2027: NASA astronauts Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio and Randy Bresnik along with ESA’s Luca Parmitano as the flight’s pilot. Plus, the Parker Solar Probe took another trip around the sun, solar energy overtook coal in May, and more. Here’s this week’s science news.

Parker Solar Probe’s 28th flyby

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made another close pass around the sun this week, getting 3.8 million miles from the surface and reaching a speed of 430,000 mph. This marked its 28th flyby, and matched the speed and distance records the probe first set back in December 2024. It’s hit those numbers five times since. The spacecraft began its latest approach on June 3, and transmitted a beacon tone on Thursday to signal to the team that all is well.

The Parker Solar Probe has been studying our star for eight years, incrementally getting closer and closer to the surface. It launched in 2018 and made its first close approach to the sun that fall, when it came within 15 million miles of the sun’s surface. For its first flyby, it reached a maximum speed of 213,200 mph. Despite the harsh conditions in the sun’s vicinity — the heat shield reaches an estimated 1,700 degrees F when the spacecraft is closest to the sun — the Parker team says the probe still appears to be doing well after all this time. Below the heat shield, the Parker probe is protected by thermal blankets which have kept the temperature of the spacecraft itself consistent during these flybys.

“That temperature consistency is a major indicator of spacecraft health,” said John Wirzburger, Parker Solar Probe mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “It tells us the heat shield isn’t degrading. If it were cracking or weakening, we’d see temperatures drift upward as more heat leaked through.”

Parker is observing solar wind and activity, keeping track of the changes that occur across the sun’s 11-year cycle. The space probe arrived at the sun near the quieter period known as solar minimum, and has been there long enough to see it reach solar maximum, which was confirmed in 2024. This is when solar activity peaks, giving rise to an increase in sunspots and events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Solar activity will soon begin to gradually decline as it moves through the next phase. The Parker probe has had a front row seat for all of this, gathering unprecedented data that will help us better understand our star and its effects on space weather.

Solar overtakes coal in the US for the first time

According to a report from the energy think tank Ember, May 2026 marked the first month on record in which solar accounted for more electricity generation than coal in the United States. Despite the Trump administration’s push to revive the coal industry, “Solar supplied a record 12.8 percent of US electricity, while coal fell to 12.2 percent, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever,” according to Ember. The total output from solar last month was a record 45.5TWh, making it the third-largest source of electricity in the country, Ember reports.

Coal was only slightly behind it at 43.4TWh in May, but this marked an 11 percent drop compared to the same time last year. And in April, it dipped to its lowest-ever monthly total on record, at 39.3TWh. “The share of coal generation in the US mix has nearly halved in the last five years, falling from 19.7 percent in May 2021 to 12.2 percent in May 2026,” according to Ember. “In contrast, solar power’s share of the mix more than doubled from 5.4 percent to 12.8 percent over the same period.”

Solar still fell behind gas and nuclear, but analysts at Ember say clean power is still ticking upward even as policy shifts in the other direction. In March, according to Ember, “renewables collectively generated more electricity than gas for the first time in the US.”

Enjoy this timelapse of the southern lights seen from space

Earlier this week, an astronaut on the International Space Station shared a breathtaking timelapse video of aurora australis (the southern lights). Jessica Meir, who is the spacecraft commander for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission, captured the footage from a Dragon spacecraft docked to the ISS. “As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show,” Meir wrote on social media. “I am in awe of this y [sic] evocative phenomenon.”

A timelapse view from our @SpaceX Dragon of the spectacular southern aurora seen in yesterday’s post, a result of a recent solar event. As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show. I am in awe of this… pic.twitter.com/ReztjH3x9H

— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) June 7, 2026

Astronauts may have some of the best views of auroras, but viewers down on the ground have been getting a pretty good show as of late, too. The NOAA’s National Space Weather Prediction Center last week issued G2 and G3 geomagnetic storm watches, giving enthusiasts a heads up that auroras may be visible in more regions than normal. In the Northern Hemisphere, auroras were predicted to be visible across Canada and the northern US, while viewers in Australia and New Zealand had a chance to catch the southern lights.

Before you go, be sure to check out these stories too:

• Alien: Isolation 2 will be built using Unreal Engine 5
• Creative Assembly is developing its own custom lighting and audio technology
• Creative director Al Hope says modern game development allows for “real-time feedback”

Creative Assembly has confirmed that Alien: Isolation 2 will be built with Unreal Engine 5, but the team is also developing custom technology for lighting and audio.

That’s according to Creative Director Al Hope, who, alongside Animation Director Simon Ridge, discussed the technological advancement of the upcoming sequel in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Summer Game Fest (SGF) 2026.

Consumers are often misled by these color schemes.

Purple USB (unofficially) means fast charging and data speeds

How to be sure about a cable’s data and charging speeds

Every time someone checks out with Apple Pay, trying to tap the card shown on the payment sheet to switch to a different one, they end up getting confused. In iOS 26, that tap does not switch your card. 

It opens an address-editing screen instead. The real card switcher is a different, easy-to-miss button near the bottom of the screen. If you’ve ever fumbled through Apple Pay at checkout, wondering what’s going on, Apple just fixed it with iOS 27. 

So what exactly was wrong with Apple Pay’s card switcher?

The instinct to tap the card itself makes sense, but it didn’t on Apple Pay. The confusion also ended up in people paying with the wrong card. 

Someone trying to switch from a debit card to a rewards card would tap, land on the address screen, go back, do the entire thing again, and end up paying with whatever was already selected. 

With Apple Wallet holding debit cards, credit cards, and pay later accounts, that flaw only got more noticeable over time.

What does the new Apple Pay checkout look like?

iOS 27 lets you choose between the cards on the main Apple Pay sheet, by swiping on them, the gesture people were already trying anyway. Tapping a card now opens a grid view showing every eligible card. 

The new design also shows details like rewards, account balances, and pay later options, so that buyers can compare before paying. Even though merchants and developers still control the details that show up, iOS 27’s Apple Pay checkout page is much better and clear than that on iOS 26. 

For those catching up, this card switcher tweak is a small piece of a much bigger Apple Wallet push from WWDC 2026, which includes bill splitting through Apple Cash using Visual Intelligence, the ability to turn physical loyalty and membership cards into digital Wallet passes, and an expanded hotel key experience with trip details and activity updates.

You may also need to upgrade your wiring and electrical panel and get permission from your local authority. In my case, here in Scotland, that meant asking my distribution network operator. The US equivalent is an electric distribution utility or local distribution company. They may have to upgrade your connection. I needed a new cut-out with a bigger fuse to handle my EV charging, battery, and air-source heat pump, but the upgrade was free. Your mileage may vary, and it can take a while to hear back. Your installer will likely handle this process for you.

You also need to choose an installer. I recommend shopping around, reading reviews, and getting multiple quotes. The Greener Energy Group installed my battery, and they were excellent. There was a site visit to discuss the work, and the installation was completed in a day. The installers need a suitable location for the battery (mine was installed in the garage, but they are weatherproof, so they can also be installed outside), and they must run cable to your main fuse board.

The EcoFlow PowerOcean system stood out because of its 15-year warranty, modularity (expandable to 45 kWh), stylish design, and accessible smartphone app. I went with a 6-kW hybrid inverter (thinking we may get solar panels down the line) and two 5-kWh batteries. With hindsight, I should have gone for three or four, but I’ll get into that later.

The EcoFlow PowerOcean sports a sleek gray metallic design, and it’s only 188 millimeters deep (around 7.5 inches). It’s pretty unobtrusive, but it’s better if you can tuck it away in a garage or basement because that will also help with operating temperatures, though the PowerOcean also has built-in heating to avoid reduced performance when it’s very cold.

Powering Up

EcoFlow via Simon Hill

EcoFlow via Simon Hill

Configuring my EcoFlow PowerOcean was a breeze. My current EV tariff (Intelligent Octopus Go) offers cheap electricity between 11:30 pm and 5:30 am, so I have the battery fill up during those hours, and it starts to discharge every morning at 5:31 am. We are a family of four, and I work from home.

I came to this Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini with admitted baggage. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it; I did not like Bluesound’s original Pulse Soundbar. It had an awkward design, it sounded cold and clinical, and it was very expensive when compared to alternative products.

The Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini is company’s latest model, and is still on the pricey side, but where its predecessor disappointed, the Cinema Mini impresses. There’s powerful, rich, and detailed sound, an elegant design that will complement most rooms, and a wealth of features you won’t find from brands like Sonos and Bose.