Waymo riders can now get $2.85 back when pairing a ride with public transit

This one is about ride-hailing, not home energy upgrades, but here's the news in brief. Waymo, the self-driving taxi service, is now giving riders a $2.85 credit when they pair a Waymo trip with a public transit ride. To get it, you link a Visa card to your Waymo app, and if you use that same card for both a transit ride and a Waymo ride within two hours of each other, you get $2.85 back as "Waymo Cash" that can be used for a future ride. The credit only works with Visa cards right now, though Waymo says it wants to add other payment processors later.

The idea is to make it easier to combine transit and robotaxi rides — for example, taking a train most of the way somewhere and then a Waymo for the last stretch. Waymo says more than half of its riders in its most established markets (San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix) already use public transit too. The program is rolling out to all 14 cities where Waymo operates, though how useful it is will depend a lot on how much transit service exists in your particular city.

This doesn't connect to home energy costs or upgrades, so there's nothing here that affects heating, cooling, insulation, or rebates for your house. It's simply a transportation discount for people who already use both Waymo and public transit.