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The first major self-driving taxi service needed six months to reach 1,000 customers, another sign that growth may be slow as companies try to build businesses around autonomous vehicles.

Elon Musk described autonomous-driving technology as “transformative” to Tesla Inc. in a call aimed at ginning up interest in the electric-car maker’s debt and stock offering of about $2 billion, according to two people who dialed in.

As FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. beef up automation to keep pace with surging e-commerce and a potential threat from Amazon.com, they’ve been stumped at a crucial stage: loading and unloading trucks.

The Technology & Maintenance Council is evolving to contend with the necessary maintenance and specification issues that are arising as a result of two advanced technologies that are fast becoming part of today’s trucking scene.

Tesla Inc.’s calling used to be bringing affordable electric cars to the masses. Elon Musk is now ripping up the script, vowing to pair self-driving technology with a sharing service that will make it crazy for consumers to buy other cars.

UPS Inc. is counting on algorithms you can’t see to prove that investors were wrong to doubt its three-year, $20 billion technological makeover. It’s all part of CEO David Abney’s bet on squeezing out costs and becoming more nimble as UPS adjusts to surging e-commerce deliveries.

Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo has picked an idled American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. facility in Detroit as the site where it will equip vehicles made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive with self-driving technology.

An offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers.

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears poised to transform the company’s electric cars into driverless vehicles in a risky bid to realize a bold vision that he has been floating for years.