Day: September 5, 2025

U.S. immigration authorities detained around 450 people from a Hyundai EV battery plant in Georgia, including more than 300 South Korean nationals.

• My daughters started full-time preschool and kindergarten at the same time.
• I was shocked by how difficult it was to send my younger daughter to preschool — for me.
• The transition was easy on her, and it made me feel a grief I wasn’t expecting.

All summer long, I had been preparing my older daughter — and myself — for kindergarten, that milestone transition that every parent under the sun warns parents of young children about. We read books about going to kindergarten, watched children’s shows on the topic, and went to family meet-ups organized by her new school.

Meanwhile, I spent so little time preparing my younger daughter for her own transition to full-time preschool, because she seemed so ready. She had already attended a half-day program four days a week, so she was fairly adjusted to the classroom environment. In addition, she was taking her sister’s place at her old school and was familiar with her teachers. She and her older sister also attended camp at the school this past summer, so I thought she’d basically feel like a returning student — and I wasn’t wrong.

But, oh, how I was wrong about how I’d feel.

After dropping my younger daughter at preschool, I was shocked by how sad I felt

When the first day of school arrived, I found myself teary — not because of my kindergartener going to school, but because her younger sister, likely my last child, was walking out the door, leaving our home, with pure enthusiasm and sheer excitement. It was now her time to “be a big kid” like her sister, and she was so cool, calm, and collected about it all.

Seeing that twinkle in her eyes and that beaming smile of hers did a real number on my heart that day. I was completely blindsided by my own big feelings — by that large wave of grief that crashed down on me.

Motherhood continues to teach me lessons that I don’t look for or expect, like how grief can arrive in the moments where all your hard work — and all your kids’ progress — reveals itself. I didn’t expect to feel the sting when I asked my little one if she was ready to go to school on that monumental morning, and she yelled in reply, “Yeah, Mama! Let’s go!” I didn’t expect my heart to sink so much — to physically ache for a time gone past far too quickly.

At that moment, I found myself questioning whether I’d soaked up every moment I could with her over the last three years. I wondered if I gave her an equal parenting experience to that of her older sister. I found myself yearning for the good ol’ days of just us two that had, at that very moment, ended so abruptly.

It made me look back on the last few years with my kids

As most parents of two (or more) kids understand, I’m constantly questioning how I’ve divided my time and attention between my children. After my second was born, I continued being a stay-at-home parent — with two under 2 — and found myself completely underwater, treading with postpartum anxiety and depression while breastfeeding a baby and entertaining a toddler.

I remember how every day felt like Groundhog Day, but within the folds of those days, it also felt like Christmas. It was both repetitive and remarkable. I also remember feeling so relieved that I had either had an “easier” baby, or I had just gotten better at the whole mom thing. Quickly, though, guilt ushered in and told me that my second child was not having the same experience as my first — because, well, she wasn’t, and that felt like a shortchange of some kind.

But, on the morning of that first day of school, I revisited and saw the beauty of that time, locked up in a capsule in the form of photos and videos on my phone. While I dried my tears and buried myself in cozy blankets, interrogative questions, and spiraling thoughts, I scrolled through the artifacts of that stressful yet sacred time with my baby and my toddler, and I realized I needed to be kinder to myself — a lesson that I am constantly reinforcing with my girls.

Through the capturing of all that goodness during that ephemeral time, I saw how my youngest had held my attention much longer than I had remembered. I also saw how influential her sister and I had been, together, in her development — how through the trial-and-error of first-child-rearing, she’d received and benefited from a much cooler, much calmer, and more collected mother with the added bonus of an additional educator in her life: a kind, smart, and patient sibling.

In parenting, we reap what we sow, and I am now reaping what I have sown — what I have poured my mind, body, and soul into — for the last three years. I’m beyond proud of my youngest, now blooming like the zinnias in our garden, but I’m also sad — grief-stricken, even. And, that’s OK. I now know that this, too, shall pass, and I’ll adjust to my “new normal.” I also know that I’ll never be ready for that next wave of grief that will inevitably come. I wonder what it will be? I wonder what old sweetness I will bid adieu? I wonder what new sweetness I will welcome?

South Korea has expressed “concern and regret” over a major U.S. immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto giant Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles

• Robotaxis are emerging as a new alternative ride-hailing option in limited US markets.
• Gridwise data shows how wages have fluctuated over the past year in AV-active cities.
• Experts say it’s still too early to tell whether robotaxis are directly impacting driver wages.

When Uber and Lyft disrupted the taxi industry, many studies documented how wages for taxi drivers fell.

And with autonomous vehicles emerging in major ride-hailing markets, robots are poised to shake up the business model for Uber and Lyft drivers.

A new report from Gridwise, a rideshare and delivery platform that helps workers track their earnings, showed that driver wages have changed in the past year in AV-active cities. However, the report paints a nuanced picture in which wages can be impacted by many other factors, including the demand in a particular city.

“Right now, we are seeing some clear distinction of AVs having an impact on the pre-existing supply in those markets of human drivers,” Ryan Green, CEO of Gridwise, told Business Insider. “So we do see an impact on pay, but it’s too early to determine how this may play out in the long-term, in my opinion.”

Wages in robotaxi markets

The study compared driver wages through several different lenses — pay per trip, hourly pay, monthly earnings, etc. — between the month of July 2024 and July 2025. The report includes data from 500,000 Gridwise users over the course of the year, Green said.

Throughout the year, Alphabet’s Waymo made its robotaxis available to the public in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. The company has been operating in Phoenix since 2020.

Tesla’s robotaxi also began a pilot launch of its service in Austin in June.

When examining per-trip earnings and hourly pay, Gridwise data showed how the wage fluctuations went against the national trend.

Hourly pay dropped in every AV-active market, while the nationwide median hourly pay increased 1%: Austin (-5.3%), Los Angeles (-4.7%), Phoenix (-3.8%), and San Francisco (-6.9%).

“Because hourly pay reflects both earnings and ride volume, these declines may reflect shifts in rideshare demand, potentially influenced by early AV deployment as well as other factors such as rider mix, trip length, or incentive changes,” the study said.

For per-trip earnings, excluding tip, the nationwide number showed a 3.4% increase, while most AV markets saw a decline except for Los Angeles, remaining nearly flat at a .4% increase: Austin (-5.3%), Phoenix (-2.4%), and San Francisco (-3.1%).

The Gridwise report notes that “earnings pressure” is not the same across all AV-active cities.

Monthly earnings also show a different picture. While Austin (-7.0%), Los Angeles (-18.4%), and Phoenix (-9.0%) showed a decline, San Francisco remained resilient with a 7.8% increase, nearly keeping up with the nationwide increase at 8%.

The Gridwise report said that the declines in hourly pay and utilization — or the percentage of time spent on active trips — suggest that “drivers in that market may be working more hours to maintain overall income.”

Ride-hailing experts told Business Insider that the Gridwise report could provide early insight into how AVs are shaping driver earnings, but the data is limited.

Susan Shaheen, co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, told BI that there could be sample bias because Gridwise relies on data from drivers who opt in. There could also be other factors, including broader economic trends such as post-pandemic travel shifts.

“The methodological challenge is disentangling correlation from causation: Are lower earnings driven by robotaxis entering the market, or by simultaneous shifts in incentives, demand, and rider mix?” Shaheen said.

A spokesperson for Uber said that earnings in any city “can be influenced by many factors, including growth and new technologies like AVs.”

“Gridwise’s reporting is based on just a subset of drivers and isn’t representative of the broader Uber platform,” the spokesperson said. “We’re tracking this closely, talking with drivers about it, and believe the future will be hybrid for a long time. For now, both the need and opportunities for drivers remain strong.”

A Lyft spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

A hybrid future

Gad Allon, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who focuses on the gig economy, told BI that it’s “too early” to say definitively how AVs are impacting drivers’ wages.

In a future where more robotaxis are on the roads, Allon said some research has suggested that wages for human drivers could increase to incentivize them to work, especially if they’d help cover the demand during peak hours.

“The only drivers that will remain driving are those that you can pay enough to continue to drive,” he said. Allon added that we haven’t reached the “threshold” at which point drivers are saying “it’s just not worth it anymore.”

Uber’s robotaxi chief Andrew Macdonald said at a conference in May that he envisions autonomous cars will eventually take a “large percentage” of trips in city centers, but human drivers will still be required, especially in extreme weather.

Green, the Gridwise CEO, echoed the hybrid model vision.

“I think for years to come, Gridwise envisions a hybrid model,” he said. “As we look out to 2030, and probably beyond, we foresee human drivers will still be needed and necessary for the future state of mobility.”