Many people still aren’t commuting to work in light of the pandemic, but Google Maps might give you more travel options when it is safe to return. As 9to5Google reports, app sleuth Jane Manchun Wong has discovered that Google is exploring “connections to public transit” route options that would cover the “first mile” transportation for certain trips, such as bikes, cars, motorcycles ridesharing services and even auto rickshaws. You could drive to a park-and-ride stop, hop on the bus and get directions through the entire trip.

Wong also learned that Google hopes to offer more accurate ridesharing fares by sharing route data with third-party apps like Uber. You wouldn’t have to switch apps just to know if it makes sense to hail a car.

It’s easy to see why Intel would be interested in Moovit, and not just because of existing financial backing. The startup uses a mix of AI and data analytics to monitor real-time traffic and offer transit directions to roughly 800 million people. That could be valuable for robotaxis and other driverless vehicles that need to consider live traffic to choose the fastest routes. If your Intel-powered ride avoids gridlock to reach your destination on time, you’ll know who to thank.

You may see these self-driving transporters on the road before 2022. Closed testing is poised to start in 2020, and trials could start in 2021. That is, of course, provided there are no setbcks.

There are already self-driving shuttle services in a number of cities. They aren’t always on this scale, though, and you haven’t seen a major automaker throw its weight into these projects in such a fashion. This could be a major opportunity for VW to show that its driver-free public transportation can work in real situations. Mind you, Qatar is also an ideal testing ground with well-maintained roads and an absence of snow. VW’s solution might have a tougher time in other parts of the world, at least until the technology is ready to handle adverse weather.

There are still plenty of features that will require pulling out your iPhone, including directions and Uber hailing. You can use Apple Maps and other navigation apps for that, though, and this arguably makes the Apple Watch considerably more useful for commuters who don’t drive.

Transit doesn’t necessarily herald a resurgence of Apple Watch apps. Many early apps disappeared in part because they weren’t very useful. Do you really need to check your Instagram feed on your wrist? It does represent renewed confidence, though, and it shows just how much the Apple Watch has matured as a platform in the four years since its arrival.

The firm’s transit integrations are still limited to nine major cities, including New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle. It could be a long while before you can assume you’ll have these directions in most urban hubs. The Bay Area addition is still huge, though. In addition to serving a large population (7.75 million as of 2018), it could be helpful for the many people who pass through the Bay.

The company’s Lilly Shoup told Bloomberg this was about fulfilling Lyft’s goal of offering the “world’s best transportation,” but it’s ultimately about keeping users within its ecosystem. If you only need one app for every aspect of your commute, you’re less like to drift to competitors. Uber has public transportation options in its app, and there’s a real possibility that a customer who switches to Uber for mass transit directions could be lost for good.

It’s certainly odd timing for Lyft. Although it does own Citi Bike, the company has lately been at odds with NYC over a myriad of issues, including the minimum wage for drivers and the ride-hailing vehicle cap. This shows that Lyft is still highly dependent on the city and determined to win over its residents, even if officials are concerned about its potential harm.

Work will start “immediately,” Volvo said. Staff from Volvo and NVIDIA will even share workspace at their respective headquarters in Gothenburg and Santa Clara. There’s no timetable for when you can expect to see the first fruits of the partnership on a road near you.

To some degree, this is about fast-tracking Volvo’s work to keep up with the competition. Waymo is testing self-driving big rigs, while a more direct rival like Daimler wants its autonomous trucks on the road within a decade. The NVIDIA team-up could save Volvo from doing as much work as it would if it had to develop systems largely from scratch.

Moreover, driverless trucks would simply be good business for Volvo. They can run around the clock without stopping for anything other than recharge or refill, and they’d be particularly helpful for mundane tasks like navigating some bus routes and offloading cargo. The sooner Volvo can get these vehicles on the road, the more trucks it can sell to companies that might have otherwise held back.

It’s not certain just when iOS 12.3 will arrive, although there have already been four betas as of this writing. A finished release may be a few weeks away, if not sooner.

Whenever it shows up, it would be part of a larger plan. Reported leaks claim that iOS 13 will support a much wider variety of mass transit cards, including different takes on cards that require loading value. It might just be a matter of time before your iPhone supports a local tap-to-ride service, whatever the format.

The odds are that service will be limited in addition to the coverage. The MTA will only support tapping on a per-ride basis until the feature is available across the entire subway and bus systems in late 2020, so you’ll still have to pull out a MetroCard if you use routes that aren’t covered. Still, it’s progress — and between this as well as rumored NFC upgrades later in the year, you might only need an iPhone to get around town in the future.