Editors’ Picks

Who needs to save for a down payment when you could, instead, stay three nights at a three-star hotel in the heart of San Francisco — breakfast not included. Airbnb and hotel bookings in the San Francisco Bay Area are truly, utterly insane at the moment. NFL Media Week is in full swing, and tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of football fans are flooding into the regions ahead of Sunday’s 60th Super Bowl. Business is booming. Utterances of “San Fran” by visitors are at nauseating highs. Foot traffic is, indeed, stomping. And, predictably, Airbnb hosts and major hotel companies — particularly the latter — are taking advantage of the demand, price gouging in deep and visceral and gross ways. KTVU and NBC Bay Area have covered the economic boom echoing ahead of the Se...

For about $200, you can rent a six-hour Waymo ride — which can double as your own mobile hotel nook, if you let your imagination go wild. San Francisco’s expectation as the robotaxi capital of the world continues its gravitational pull, complete with an ever-growing (and ever-changing) case of characters (read: companies) vying for a monopoly. General Motors-owned Cruise, which was once SF’s foremost robotaxi and autonomous driving player, officially folded earlier this year; its technologies, research, and product were all reabsorbed into its parent company. Tesla has promised its robotaxi services for years; its final implementation has left much to be desired — and remains, frankly, unsafe — and isn’t yet authorized for driverless rides; this past summer’s invite-only program in San Fr...