The 18 pages of Google's recent US patent for an “autonomous delivery platform” aren't as boring or as deeply technical as most patents—if you're the kind of person who likes to read patents. If you're not that kind of person, here's the highlights of what the as-yet-to-be-built driverless delivery vehicle could do.

Last year, Tesla Version 7.0 was sent over the air to Tesla Model S computers as they were sleeping snug in their garages. When the cars woke up, they had Autopilot features that assisted their humans with highway driving, particularly lane keeping, lane changing, and active cruise control features. Version 7.0 had the ability to scan for an open parking space and parallel park on command.

The automation of cars has been a long time coming. Mechanized functions like anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, and even automated parallel parking have been mainstays in modern cars for decades.

It's been a few days since the big Musk-vs-Angry-Tesla-Customer flap livened up our Twitter feeds, and having spent that time mulling the brouhaha and reading—and rereading—the two Medium posts from venture capitalist Stewart Alsop about how Elon Musk personally canceled his Model X order over a bit of online snark, I have just one question: Is there something I'm missing?

The year 2016 is starting to feel a bit like 1916, given the number of new, niche car companies that are popping up. Tesla did it, so why can't everyone? Companies like Arcimoto, Elio, Jannarelly, and Faraday Future are all inching ever closer to production models built outside the traditional automotive manufacturing system. Now we can add Dubuc Motors to that list.

In a surprise move around 2:30 p.m. today, Tuesday, February 2, 2020, Uber changed its branding. That is not momentous, but the company has gone on a tear about two of their new obsessions: bits and atoms.