Axios

Chinese search giant Baidu announced Tuesday that it will be partnering with Microsoft's Azure cloud computing services division to offer software and infrastructure for autonomous vehicles to firms outside China. The partnership is one of more than 50 that Baidu, known as the Google of China, has launched to create an open-source software platform that car makers can use to create autonomous vehicles of their own.

Why is Baidu giving its software away for free? Baidu President Ya-Qin Zhang tells Axios that it's attempting to be "the Android of the autonomous car industry," alluding to Google's smartphone platform, which it gives away for free as a means for selling more advertising. Zhang says that by making much Baidu's software available for free, it hopes to become the default autonomous driving platform that will open opportunities for profit down the road.

Robert Redford (age 80) and Bob Woodward emerged last night from Avra Madison on 60th Street in New York City. Redford played Woodward in the 1976 movie, "All the President's Men."

Asked if they're planning a Watergate-themed movie or documentary, Woodward said, with his customary mystique: "Yes."

The film's release date is unknown. But we're told: "soonest."

Uber announced today that it had launched in-app tipping across the U.S., a significant move to placate its huge workforce of drivers. The tipping feature was already in use in a number of U.S. cities.

To celebrate launch day, Uber also stated that it'd be matching all tips on rides taken today as a way "to thank our drivers for going the extra mile."

Why it matters: This was a feature that many drivers — considered independent contractors by Uber — have considered long overdue as a way to capitalize on good service, especially considering that, per TechCrunch, Uber's main rival, Lyft, has generated more than $250 million in in-app tips for its drivers since its launch in 2012.

A quarter of all financial services professionals are worried automation is going to negatively impact their job security, according to a LinkedIn survey.

Context: It's already happening. The Department of Labor projects employment for bank tellers will decline 8% from 2014 to 2024, for example.

The most worried finance professional: Retail bankers, with 34% saying automation was a significant concern.

Hedge your bets: 29% of financial advisors and wealth managers said the biggest threat to fintech is "reduced interaction" and less "feedback from human-client relationships."

Stephen Ketchum, principal of the hedge fund Sound Point Capital tells the FT that shorting traditional American retail stocks could ultimately be a better bet than shorting the subprime mortgage market.

Retail bears point to the S&P 500 retail index as proof. It has risen more than 10% this year, but only because Amazon stock now accounts for one-third of the gauge — other retail stocks have been flat since 2015.

Why it matters: Retail square footage will continue decline in the coming months, as retailers respond to consumer demand for online shopping. That's bad news for legacy retail firms, mall owners, and other commercial landlords. What's still up for debate, however, is what the larger economic and employment impact will be. Goldman Sachs estimates that ecommerce companies only require 0.9 employees per $1m of sales compared with 3.5 for bricks-and-mortar retailers, but other analysts argue that these estimates mistakenly don't count workers in ecommerce warehouses and fulfillment centers as retail employees.

One of the non-negotiable legal and cultural axioms across California is the right to change jobs — feelings and friendships can suffer, but tech workers especially can be loyal to a company one day, and working for its rival across town the next. Among the winners are workers, whose pay usually rises the most when switching jobs.

But not in Idaho, which has the strictest law in the U.S. hobbling such job promiscuity, per The New York Times. The law, signed last year, bolsters the enforceability of the "non-compete clause," language often inserted into the fine print of employment contracts — from tech workers to hair dressers — to make it harder for people to leave to a rival company.

Why it matters: Employers say such restrictions help protect their efforts to build their businesses. Worker advocates, however, say that they unfairly hold down wages and infringe on a basic freedom — the right to work where you want. The debate over non-competes comes amid a growing trend in which Americans are much less likely to move around for work — not from where they live, and not where they work.