Bloomberg has the details on some of the gnarlier aspects of a driverless car service, including finding blood, puke, and fecal matter in the vehicles. Emergency responders have received almost 100 calls about passengers falling asleep in their Waymos, and then failing to wake up at their destination. This story reminds me of one I helped report nearly six years ago about Waymo contractors discovering hypodermic needles in the cars. The more things change…

Everyone asks Verge reviewers if we get to keep the gadgets, and the answer is no — but I can give them to you! Our third Today I’m Toying With giveaway is live, and I’m making it a regular Wednesday thing. You have to enter to win each time; I do a weekly drawing. US residents only (sorry!)

Earlier this week, WinFuture reported it, and today, Bloomberg is reporting it too, saying that the move “will happen as early as this week.” The change is apparently happening as part of a broader shifts at Oppo, OnePlus’ parent company.

Applications open on July 22nd at 10AM ET, and you’ll need to have a Switch 2 and an active Nintendo Switch Online membership to participate. Applications will be accepted in “the order that they are received,” so if you want a chance to try it, be ready on this page that day.

On Pablo Torre Finds Out, comedian Dan Soder talks about the backlash that pushed EA to remove microtransaction paywalls it had added to single-player modes.

AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:

I love that we’ve got dueling MMO stories on The Verge this week. First, from Kallie, about the EverQuest revival: a wild comeback for one of the biggest and most important MMOs ever. Then, from Andrew, about the world’s tiniest MMO, called PointlessQuest. Are the quests endless or pointless? You decide.

Along with his usual morning tweets in support of right-wing politics, against certain immigrants to the US, and boosting data centers, the sometimes-trillionaire writes, “Once we have completed our review for security vulnerabilities, we will make the entire codebase of 𝕏 open source, with no exceptions.” (He didn’t mention how Grok Build had apparently made exposing your code a little too easy.)

Matt Reeves’ follow-up to The Batman has been delayed once again, and Warner Bros. now plays for the film to debut on Feb. 18, 2028. In the meantime, you can check out this new screen test from the film.

Spotify gave free users the ability to separate out their kids’ listening habits in May, but limited the initial rollout to Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, and Sweden. Now Spotify is expanding the feature to free users in the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

As Polygon reports, buying something from Crunchyroll’s store will require a Mega or Ultimate subscription, which got a price increase earlier this year. The basic Fan subscription tier isn’t included. Crunchyroll also says its updated store will focus more on convention-style products, like “collectibles, curated drops, and limited-release products.”

In an interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, the man who loves pushing technological boundries enough to anger his fans with controversial remasters had this to say about people who oppose artificial intelligence in film making:

The original 1080P Elfin Flip Plus mustered just 500 ISO lumens of brightness, but the two new models bump that to a more useable 1,600 ISO lumens thanks to an upgrade to a triple laser light source. The $799 Elfin Flip Laser is still limited to 1080P, but the $999 Elfin Flip 4K also gets a welcome boost in resolution.

Alongside an upgraded version of its towering Skelly, Home Depot is introducing several new animatronics this year, including a $179 six-foot-tall hipster bartender — err, mixologist — with tattoos and a well coiffed beard and mustache. John the Last Call Mixologist also stirs a drink in a hand while speaking one of five different prerecorded phrases.

Apple’s on-device generative AI service has officially been registered with China’s cyberspace regulator, clearing a major hurdle for device rollout. To navigate local regulations, Apple is tapping domestic tech giants, integrating Alibaba’s Qwen and Baidu’s AI models to power the experience for Chinese users, as reported last year.

If you are, Withings’ BodyScan 2 is available to buy starting today. Why is the scale $600? Well, it measures 60 biomarkers, and it’s positioned as a “longevity station.”

The $53 billion offer was submitted earlier this month, but Stripe and private equity firm Advent have yet to receive a response. They “are seeking to advance discussions in the coming weeks,” according to sources speaking to Reuters.

That’s the word from Nvidia today. Sega was already on Nvidia’s big partner list in May — see below — but you can add Virtua Fighter Crossroads to the list alongside Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Fortnite, Pragmata, League of Legends, Valorant, PUBG, Naraka Bladepoint and Alan Wake II. We don’t know which are built natively for Arm.

The largest US electrical grid operator, PJM, will add $6.3 billion in electricity costs for consumers across 13 states due to the booming energy demands of data centers. The rate hikes will hit millions of households and businesses over the next two years, adding to the $29 billion in costs that data centers have added to PJM regions since 2024.

OpenAI, on its status website, confirmed that there were “elevated errors” affecting ChatGPT. During the outage, when I tried to access ChatGPT on the web, all that loaded was an error message. The company confirmed impacted services had recovered at 8:39PM ET.

The “Whoop, but for the Apple Watch” app now integrates with Google Health. If you didn’t think the Fitbit Air was a Whoop competitor before, it sure might be now. Especially considering Whoop is suing them.

Apple’s lawsuit said that OpenAI “never responded” to outreach in February. But NBC News reports OpenAI did respond, though communication stopped after one of Apple’s lawyers apparently mixed up OpenAI staffers with the last names Wang and Chang.