The robot swerved through the cafeteria of Rivian's Palo Alto office, shelves adorned with chilled canned coffees ' until it didn't. Five minutes later, a man carefully pushed it out of everyone's way, the words 'I'm stuck' flashing yellow on the poor droid's screen. It was an inauspicious start to Rivian's 'Autonomy & AI Day,' a showcase for the company's plans to make its vehicles capable of driving themselves. Rivian doesn't make the cafeteria robot and isn't responsible for its abilities, but there was a familiar message in its foibles: this stuff is hard. The EV equipped with the automated-driving software drove myself and two Rivian employees on a switchback route near the company's campus. As we glided past Tesla's engineering office, I noticed a Model S in front of us slow to turn into the rival company's lot. The R1S eventually noticed this, too, braking hard just before the Rivian employee nearly intervened. During my demo drive, there was one actual disengagement. The employee in the driver's seat took over as we passed through a one-lane section of road due to some tree-trimming. Minor stuff overall. But it wasn't exactly rare either; I spotted multiple other demo rides that had disengagements, too....

The robot swerved through the cafeteria of Rivian's Palo Alto office, shelves adorned with chilled canned coffees ' until it didn't. Five minutes later, a man carefully pushed it out of everyone's way, the words 'I'm stuck' flashing yellow on the poor droid's screen. It was an inauspicious start to Rivian's 'Autonomy & AI Day,' a showcase for the company's plans to make its vehicles capable of driving themselves. Rivian doesn't make the cafeteria robot and isn't responsible for its abilities, but there was a familiar message in its foibles: this stuff is hard. The EV equipped with the automated-driving software drove myself and two Rivian employees on a switchback route near the company's campus. As we glided past Tesla's engineering office, I noticed a Model S in front of us slow to turn into the rival company's lot. The R1S eventually noticed this, too, braking hard just before the Rivian employee nearly intervened. During my demo drive, there was one actual disengagement. The employee in the driver's seat took over as we passed through a one-lane section of road due to some tree-trimming. Minor stuff overall. But it wasn't exactly rare either; I spotted multiple other demo rides that had disengagements too....

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam of the Republic of Singapore visited MIT on Tuesday, meeting campus leaders while receiving the Miriam Pozen Prize and delivering a lecture on fiscal policy at the MIT Sloan School of Management. 'We really have to re-orient fiscal policy and develop new fiscal compacts,' said Tharman in his remarks, referring to the budget policy challenges countries face at a time of expanding government debt. His talk, 'The Compacts We Need: Fiscal Choices and Risk-sharing for Sustained Prosperity,' was delivered before a capacity audience of students, faculty, administrators, and staff at MIT's Samberg Center. Tharman is a trained economist who for many years ran Singapore's central bank and has become a notable presence in global policymaking circles. Presenting a crisp summary of global trends, he observed that debt levels in major economies are at or beyond levels once regarded as unsustainable. 'There is no realistic solution to putting government debts back on a sustainable path other than having to make major adjustments to taxes and spending,' he said. However, he emphasized that his remarks were distinctly not 'a call for austerity.' Instead, as he outlined, well-considered public investment can reduce the need for additional spending and thus be fiscally sound over time....

The web services provider will secure the funding through a liability management transaction designed to reduce leverage and bolster liquidity. Existing lenders, including Blackstone, GoldenTree Asset Management, and Pimco, will participate in the deal. Under the agreement, lenders have extended maturities on part of Newfold's debt to 2029. Other obligations will be discounted, while creditors receive tighter covenants in return. The financing is priced at 5.75 percentage points over the benchmark. Newfold has about $3.5bn of debt outstanding, equivalent to roughly six times earnings, according to people familiar with the matter. Moody's cut the company to Caa3 in October, citing weak liquidity and an approaching maturity on its revolving credit facility. The transaction follows months of negotiations and reflects a broader trend of private equity-backed companies using liability management to stabilise capital structures amid higher interest rates and slower operating performance. Subscribe to our Newsletter to increase your edge. Don't worry about the news anymore, through our newsletter you'll receive weekly access to what is happening. Join 120,000 other PE professionals today....