• Google announced a partnership with Warby Parker for smart glasses, challenging Meta's Ray-Ban line.
• The collaboration includes an investment of up to $150 million, with up to $75 million toward development.
• Google's Android XR platform includes see-through headsets and glasses that support AR and AI.

Google is taking aim at Meta's Ray-Ban glasses with a version of its own AI eyewear line, styled by Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

"We want you to be able to wear glasses that match your personal taste," Google's Android XR lead Shahram Izadi said at Google I/O.

The glasses are part of Google's Android XR platform and are a partnership with Samsung, the company announced at its Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday. The platform includes see-through headsets, as well as glasses that support augmented reality and AI.

Google and Warby Parker plan to launch a series of products, with the first line of smart glasses with multimodal AI set to launch after 2025, an announcement from the lifestyle vision brand said. Android XR will also include Project Moohan, the first Android XR headset device, which will come out later this year.

Google has committed up to $150 million to the partnership, with as much as $75 million going toward product development and commercialization costs, and up to $75 million in equity, the announcement said. Warby Parker's stock is up nearly 15% following the news about the collaboration.

At the event, Izadi said the glasses prototypes "are already being used by trusted testers." The Google VP didn't share further details on availability or pricing. While Gentle Monster defines itself as a luxury eyewear brand, Warby Parker is better known for offering stylish but affordable options.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg projected in January that 2025 could be a "defining year" for the brand's Ray-Ban smart glasses, even if it's not a breakthrough.

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which don't yet include AR capabilities, have become one of the company's few mainstream hardware hits. They allow users to take photos, livestream, and access Meta AI via voice.

During the company's latest earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said sales of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had "tripled" over the past year. Meta's Ray Bans cost between $300 and $500.

Later this year, Meta is expected to release a new version of the Ray-Bans with a built-in display, its first step toward augmented reality in a mass-market product. According to Bloomberg, the upcoming model could cost between $1,000 and $1,400.

Meanwhile, Meta is developing a separate, more ambitious line of AR glasses, internally codenamed "Artemis," which it aims to release by 2027. These are distinct from both the Ray-Bans and "Orion," an early prototype Meta unveiled last year as a preview of its AR ambitions.

Google is taking aim at Orion with its own "Project Aura" glasses, part of its broader Android XR platform. Google's Aura glasses include a built-in camera, microphone, speakers, and in-lens display, and they are already being tested.

Google has been exploring the concept of smart glasses for over a decade, and it's had some flops along the way — like Google Glass, which was discontinued in 2023, after launching in 2013. Last year at I/O, Google teased Project Astra, a vision of what Google Assistant could be like if it could hear and see around you. Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted that Google was "working on prototypes" for the AI assistant that could be glasses.

Google did a live demo of the Project Aura glasses on Tuesday at I/O, showing how users could message friends, make appointments, ask for directions, and take photos. It also demoed a live language translation, which appeared a bit glitchy in the onstage demonstration, but still offered an impressive first look at what the tech could offer.

Google I/O also included a series of other product rollouts and AI updates, including a conversation version of Search called AI Mode, as well as gen-AI media models like Veo 3, and Imagen 4.

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• Business Insider tested Tesla's FSD Supervised software ahead of the launch.
• Tesla's FSD ran a red light at a complex intersection in San Francisco.

Elon Musk said Tesla's robotaxis will be limited to certain parts of Austin and avoid intersections the company deems unsafe after the CEO was asked on TV about Business Insider's reporting on a critical error made by Tesla's Full Self-Driving Supervised software.

In a May 17 story, two BI reporters took rides in a Waymo and a 2024 Tesla Model 3 equipped with the latest FSD software to compare both companies' autonomous driving technologies. Toward the end of the test, Tesla's FSD ran a red light at a complex intersection in San Francisco.

During a discussion about Tesla's robotaxi launch, which is set for June in Austin, CNBC's David Faber asked Musk about BI's report.

"I guess my question is, is that a concern at all for you in terms of it encountering things that are still sort of a crucial test, and perhaps it fails," Faber said.

Musk said BI's test "made no sense" because it compared Tesla's FSD Supervised, which he said assumes a driver is behind the wheel and ready to take over, rather than FSD Unsupervised.

BI noted in the story that the test compared a piece of Tesla technology that could be different from the software that will power the company's robotaxis. BI reported one of the test's goals was to see how far FSD had come since its beta rollout in 2020.

Musk and a Tesla spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. A Tesla spokesperson also didn't respond to a request for comment to BI's previous story about the driving test on May 17.

In the CNBC interview, Musk didn't address specific details in BI's reporting. However, he said Tesla's robotaxis will be geo-fenced to certain parts of Austin.

Alphabet's Waymo also uses geo-fencing to limit its autonomous cars to certain parts of a given city, including, for the moment, highways.

"When we deploy the cars in Austin, we are actually going to deploy it not to the entire Austin region but only to the parts of Austin we consider to be the safest," Musk said on CNBC. "So we will geo-fence it."

He added: "It's not going to take intersections unless we are highly confident it's going to do well with that intersection. Or it will just take a route around that intersection."

BI's test showed that Waymo appeared to avoid the same intersection where Tesla FSD made the error. Instead, Waymo took BI through a route that was farther and less time-efficient, based on estimated time arrivals provided by Google Maps.

During the CNBC interview, the Tesla CEO reiterated his prediction that Tesla's robotaxis will see a quick ramp-up after a limited rollout next month.

"We'll start with probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40," Musk said. "It will probably be at 1,000 within a few months."

• Elon Musk on Tuesday told CNBC there's "no need" for Tesla to buy Uber.
• Tesla owners could one day be able to earn money by lending their car to Tesla's autonomous fleet, he said.
• Tesla will debut its invitation-only robotaxi service in Austin next month, BI previously reported.

Elon Musk on Tuesday dismissed a hypothetical Tesla-Uber deal, saying there's "no need" for Tesla to buy the ubiquitous rideshare app.

Musk told CNBC that he envisions a world where, instead of calling an Uber, you can call an autonomous Tesla to get you to your destination without a dedicated driver.

"We have millions of cars that will be able to operate autonomously," Musk told CNBC's David Faber. "And I should say that it's a combination of a Tesla-owned fleet and also enabling Tesla owners to be able to add or subtract their car to the fleet, so that existing Tesla owners will be able to earn money by adding their car to the fleet for autonomous use."

Musk's proposed business model would allow Tesla drivers to rent out their cars for autonomous ride-hailing, "just like" one can rent out a spare bedroom through Airbnb.

Representatives for Tesla and Uber did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

After years of delays, Tesla plans to debut its much-anticipated robotaxi service in Austin next month, Business Insider previously reported. Musk confirmed the plans in the CNBC interview Tuesday.

"We'll start with probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40," he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. "It will probably be at 1,000 within a few months."

Tesla has not yet unveiled the commercial version of its Full Self-Driving software, called FSD Unsupervised. This software will be used in its robotaxi fleet and does not require a driver behind the wheel like its personal vehicles.

When asked by Faber whether Tesla needed to make any improvements or changes to its technology or fleet in order to prepare to launch a large-scale robotaxi service, Musk demurred.

"I don't think we're missing anything," Musk said. "Tesla has all the ingredients necessary to offer a vast self-driving fleet."

Although Uber and Lyft have long bowed out of developing autonomous cars in-house, both companies plan to offer robotaxis on their platforms through partnerships with other self-driving-focused companies.

Uber, for example, already offers Alphabet's Waymo on its app in Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.

Lyft said it has partnered with companies like May Mobility, Mobileye, and Japan's Marubeni to begin offering autonomous vehicles as soon as summer of 2025.

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