It's a really great Wednesday, friend.Glad you're here. You know how Private or Incognito mode is supposed to hide you browsing online? It doesn't. Not even close. Websites don't need cookies to figure out who you are. They look at your specific combo of screen size, installed fonts, browser plug-ins, graphics settings and more. Put all those details together and they're as unique as an actual fingerprint. That means every site you visit can recognize you, even with tracking off.
šµ️ Think of it like walking into a store wearing a disguise, but your shoes, your walk and your height give you away every time. How many of these data points can websites combine to ID you without a single cookie? A) 5–10, B) 20–30, C) 50–100 or D) Over 200? Lock in your guess. Your future self gets the reveal at the end.
š½ Real quick before we get started. Yahoo, AOL and a few other email providers have been shoving my newsletter straight into your spam folder. Rude. It's not a glitch on your end, and it's definitely not on mine. It's their algorithms. The fix is easy: Go to your spam folder, find my email and mark it "Not Spam." Then add my email address to your contacts, so it doesn't happen again. That's it. Two steps, 10 seconds, and you won't miss a thing. Let's get to the good stuff. — Kim
A robotaxi ride in San Fran averages $8.17. A human Uber? $17.25.
Waymo is doing 400,000 fully driverless rides a week. Tesla, Uber and Amazon's Zoox are racing to catch up.
Here's how the tech works, who's winning and why car payments are going away.
š Read time: 2.75 minutes
Right now, in six American cities, you can open an app, and a car with no driver pulls up and takes you wherever you want to go. No small talk. No wrong turns. No tip. No perfume covering up the cigarette smells.
A driverless Waymo ride in San Francisco averages $8.17. A human Uber in the same city? $17.25. The robotaxi price war is here.
I live in Phoenix most of the time, and I see Waymos everywhere. At the grocery store. On the freeway. Sitting at red lights with nobody behind the wheel, just vibing. I still haven't gotten in one. But I'm giving myself two weeks.
Actually, you decide.
Should I get in a Waymo and report back?
If I survive, I'll share the ride. Mostly kidding.
Waymo (owned by Google's parent Alphabet) is the clear leader. It gave 15 million driverless rides in 2025, and today, it's about 400,000 per week. Valued at $126 billion. Available in Phoenix, SF Bay Area, LA, Austin, Atlanta and Miami. Coming in 2026: Dallas, Denver, D.C., London, Tokyo and more.
Tesla launched in Austin last June but is way behind. Roughly 31 cars. One tester took 42 trips, and every single one still had a safety monitor on board. So supervised.
Zoox (owned by Amazon) is the wild card. Their pod has no steering wheel and drives in both directions. Rides are free in Vegas and San Francisco while they wait for approval to charge.
š§ How do these things 'see'?
Waymo uses cameras, lidar (laser radar that builds a 3D map around the car) and traditional radar. It works in total darkness and heavy rain. Tesla uses cameras only. Eight of them, no lidar. Cheaper, which is how they offer rides at $1.99 per kilometer.
Now, are they safe?
Tesla has reported seven crash incidents to regulators since launching. Waymo says it has 80% fewer injury crashes than human drivers. But NHTSA has logged 1,429 Waymo incidents since 2021, 117 injuries, two fatalities. Three software recalls, including one last December for passing stopped school buses.
A friend of mine took a Waymo, and it dropped her off a full mile from where she was going. No way to change it. No human to flag down. Just a robot car that said, "You have arrived." She had not. So yeah. I'm curious. But I'm also cautious.
š” Here's where it gets spicy
When a robotaxi gets confused, a human in a remote center sees through the car's cameras and draws a path for it. At a Senate hearing on Feb. 4, Waymo admitted some of those helpers are in the Philippines. Senators were not amused. I wasn't either.
Your car sits parked 95% of the time. Robotaxis run 15+ hours a day. When a driverless ride costs less than gas and insurance, owning a car feels like a gym membership you never use.
The future of driving is nobody driving. Steering us in a whole new direction.
š£️ TEXT/POST THIS STAT: A driverless Waymo ride in SF costs $8.17. Same trip with a human Uber driver? $17.25. No talk. No tips. No smelly air fresheners. GetKim.com.
Know someone who still thinks self-driving cars are science fiction? Forward this. They're in for a ride.
When Is the Right Time to Retire?
Determining when to retire is one of life's biggest decisions, and the right time depends on your personal vision for the future. Have you considered what your retirement will look like, how long your money needs to last and what your expenses will be? Answering these questions is the first step toward building a successful retirement plan.
Our guide, When to Retire: A Quick and Easy Planning Guide, walks you through these critical steps. Learn ways to define your goals and align your investment strategy to meet them. If you have $1,000,000 or more saved, download your free guide to start planning for the retirement you've worked for.
Investigators originally said there was no footage. Nancy Guthrie's Nest doorbell was disconnected, and she didn't have a paid subscription. Then the FBI stepped in. I break down how they recovered the video from Google's backend and what that means for your privacy.
š§ Or search "Komando" wherever you get your podcasts. I'm everywhere.
WEB WATERCOOLER
š Map fight club: Ever zoom in on Google Maps to snoop on an old boss's neighborhood, then feel weird about it? The ritzy North Oaks, Minnesota, turned that instinct into policy. Median home price: $1.1 million. The ultra-wealthy town spent years keeping itself off Google Maps, arguing its roads are privately owned, and threatened to sue Google in 2008 over Street View. But one creator got FAA approval, paid $10 for park access, flew a drone and mapped the place anyway. Voila, more legal action threats.
Car-ching:Your toaster doesn't upsell you mid-bagel, but your car thinks it's a rolling paywall. Audi, Volkswagen and BMW are locking navigation, Wi-Fi and hands-free driving behind monthly subscriptions, even features already installed. On top of the $50,000+ you paid. Oh, and your car might be selling your driving data to insurers, bumping your premium. It's only a matter of time before honking becomes ad-supported.
☕ 996 but worse: Walking into a coffee shop on a Sunday, have you noticed half the room tapping laptops like their mortgage depends on it? That's San Francisco, especially in AI startups. One founder's doing 12-hour days, seven days a week, and another employee described working 16-hour days in a two-bedroom apartment. The future is being built by sleep-deprived adults in slippers. No wonder it hallucinates.
š¤ Rap Sheet: A mom rapped Hamilton-style the Ten Tech Commandments at a school board meeting with a petition signed by 260 parents. Her beef? Always-on student Chromebooks loaded with AI chatbots that kids can access unsupervised. Now they print everything like it's 1998. Say what you want, but that mom went harder than most lobbyists. If your kid has a school-issued laptop, ask what AI tools are on it. You might not love the answer.
Your next influencer isn't human: Companies used to market to you. Today, they have to market to your chatbot. Brands are scrambling (paywall link) to make sure ChatGPT and Gemini say nice things about them, calling it GEO, short for generative engine optimization. Basically SEO for robots. One company scrubbed years of old web content after discovering chatbots were dredging up embarrassing stuff from 2015. First they came for your Google results. Now they're sweet-talking your AI. Next up: bribing Alexa.
šŖ¦ Post Mortem:Meta filed a patent for an AI that can act like you on their apps, liking, commenting and replying after you're gone, like permanently gone. It trains on your post history and could simulate audio or video calls. Nothing says closure like getting a typing bubble from someone who passed away in 2019. Rest in peace? More like rest in posts. Yikes.
DIGITAL LIFE HACK
How to replace your AirTag battery
The AirTag 2 is here, but hold your wallet. Try this $1 hack to make your old tracker good as new.
Not just a leaf blower. It clears off patio dust, garage debris and light snow. Live in a state where your old gas blower is banned (like California)? This is your sign to upgrade.
Image: Wolfmen
š¦ Floors galore: Hate lugging a bucket? Grab a spray mop(28% off, $18) that handles tile, laminate, hardwood and more. Bonus: microfiber pads
Like-new lights: A handy headlight restoration kit(10% off, $18) turns 'em back to clear with a ceramic coat that lasts for years. No drills, no mess.
✨ Spot the difference: A stainless steel squeegee(32% off, $10) keeps your shower glass spotless. Comes with adhesive hooks, so it hangs in seconds.
Every last drop: Flip-It!'s bottle emptying kit(27% off, $16, two-pack) makes sure nothing goes to waste. Screws onto almost any plastic bottle.
✍️ Write this down:Amazon Outlet is full of super-cheap overstock and clearance items. I really like the tech section.
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Found an old phone in a drawer? It can still save a life. Any phone can dial 911, even without a SIM card, even if it's locked with a passcode. From the lock screen, tap Emergency and dial 911. As long as there's any cellular signal, the call goes through. Toss one in your glove box or your kid's backpack. It's a free emergency phone you already own.
šØ Chrome alert: Google's rolling out a security update to patch the first zero-day vulnerability of 2026. "Zero-day" means hackers already know about it and may be exploiting it. This could let them crash your browser, corrupt data or worse. Open Settings > About Chrome, and it'll install automatically. Make sure you're on version 144.0.7559.177.
Are you addicted to Facebook? Have a look at the numbers. In the mobile app, head to Settings & privacy > Time management to see your daytime and nighttime averages, plus the days you scroll most. If it's … not great, tap Daily limit under "Manage your time" and choose an hour (or less). Facebook will start reminding you to close the app.
šµ️ Private browsing is a lie: You think opening a private window keeps you safe, but it doesn't. Your internet provider still tracks every site you visit and sells that data to advertisers. I use ExpressVPN to stop the snooping. It encrypts your traffic, so no one sees what you do online. Get 4 extra months right now with my exclusive deal.*
Get rid of email previews: You know how your inbox shows the first line or two of each message? You can hide that in case someone's peeking. On Gmail, go to Settings > General tab > Snippets > No Snippets. On Apple Mail, go to Mail > Settings > Viewing > List Preview > None. Now it only shows the subject line.
š️ Clean up voice recordings: Ever record a voice memo that sounds like you're inside a tornado? Adobe Podcast's Enhance Speech is a kinda free AI tool that strips out background noise and makes you sound like you're in a professional studio. It'll also transcribe your audio into text you can download and read later. The catch: The free plan only works with uploaded audio files and caps at 30 minutes. For quick recordings, that's plenty. Easy.
Paul bought it for $5.3M, then had it set in a custom 35-carat diamond, solid-gold pendant he wore at WrestleMania 38.
So yeah, he more than doubled his money on a trading card. You know your childhood hobby has gotten out of hand when it requires armed transport and a jewelry appraisal. Go check that shoebox.
LOGGING OUT …
š Tomorrow: Your daughter calls, panicking. She needs money. You send $15,000. One problem: that wasn't your daughter. It was AI. Scammers can now clone anyone's voice from three seconds of audio, then use it to impersonate your family, trick coworkers and break into bank accounts. Tomorrow, I'll tell you exactly how to protect yourself and your family. You'll want to forward that one.
The answer: D) Over 200. That's how many details your browser is giving away about you in a split seconds. Fonts, GPU type, screen resolution, time zone, audio quirks, even how your device renders invisible graphics. Stack all that together, and websites can identify you with scary-high confidence. No cookies. No login. No permission needed.
š¬š§ All websites use cookies, except UK websites. They use biscuits. (I'll see myself out.)
Today's $250 Amazon gift card has one name on it. Might be yours. A huge red box at the top of this email means jackpot. Not seeing red? There are more chances coming, and you can enter your email to see if you won in a past newsletter.
⬆️ Knowledge is the best upgrade you'll ever install. No subscription required. — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
š THE KIM CHALLENGE:Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.
Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein.
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Keep a civil tongue.