Happy Wednesday! Don't forget to imagine the best-case scenario, too.

☀️ Today's weather: Hotter than Matt Damon as Odysseus. High near 105.

🎵 Sounds like: "Sirens"

🎡 Situational awareness: Chocolate corny dogs, matcha-inspired cheesecake, burger tacos and a pineapple and watermelon agua fresca won this year's Big Tex Choice Awards. The dishes will debut at the State Fair of Texas next month.

Today's newsletter is 1,018 long lost words — a 4-minute read.

Everyone agrees the standard for self-driving cars is that they have to perform better than a human driver. Proving that is not so simple, however.

Why it matters: There is no common yardstick to compare safety claims, adding to the confusion and distrust surrounding autonomous vehicles.

State of play: Waymo says its robotaxis are already "more than 10 times safer than the average human driver."

• The company's peer-reviewed research — based on more than 220 million miles without a human driver — shows a 94% reduction in crashes involving serious injuries or worse, and 93% fewer crashes involving pedestrian injuries.
• A recent independent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) generally concurs, finding Waymo had 81% fewer injury crashes per mile than human drivers in four cities it studied.

Yes, but: IIHS highlighted a major blind spot in wider AV research, saying current data collection isn't good enough to monitor safety on an ongoing basis.

Zoom in: A pedestrian died in Dallas earlier this month after he was struck by an SUV and then by a Waymo.

• "The safety of our riders and other road users is our top priority. We are deeply saddened by what happened and our thoughts are with the individual's family and friends," Waymo said in a statement.
• Forbes reported that police determined no one was at fault for the crash.

The big picture: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires companies to report incidents involving automated and assisted-driving systems.

• The database is the only national archive for tracking AV safety but is insufficient as a research tool because it lacks context.

Between the lines: Nearly half of all crashes — and one-third of injury crashes — involving human drivers go unreported, IIHS says.

• Plus, human crash databases categorize injuries and crash severity differently, making apples-to-apples comparisons difficult.

What's next: Researchers say robotaxi crash data should mirror the standards in other federal crash databases, such as tracking airbag deployments and logging crashes according to established injury severity scales.

Data repository push

"The Odyssey" premiered a month ago and movie buffs are still flying or driving to Dallas to see the film in its purest form.

Driving the news: Cinemark Dallas is one of only two theaters in Texas showing the film in 70mm IMAX. The theater extended its showtimes through Sept. 16 to accommodate the demand.

Vibe check: The theater has shown several films on 70mm IMAX, including "Oppenheimer."

• The shows begin with a Cinemark employee explaining how film projection works and sharing fun facts about the theater. The screen, for example, is five stories tall. The reel for "The Odyssey" weighs 800 pounds.
• "It's a masterwork of engineering," general manager Howard Hoermann told Monday afternoon's crowd.

The intrigue: The 70mm film's picture quality is delightfully crisp, and the IMAX format adds gravitas to Odysseus' long journey home.

Yes, but: Christopher Nolan's preferred format comes with trade-offs.

• Forget about reclining seats, elbow room and matinee discounts — tickets cost $25.

What they're saying: Oak Cliff resident Elliot Argenbright bought tickets a month ago for his first-ever 70mm IMAX experience on Monday. He said while leaving the theater that the experience was worth the wait and the hype.

• "I'm definitely a bigger Nolan fan after having seen this. The colors are like nothing I've seen in a movie before," Argenbright said.

💭 Naheed's thought bubble: After seeing enough people take the walk of shame to their seat on Monday, I strongly advise you not to be late to a 70mm IMAX show.

What's next: "Dune: Part Three" comes out in December. Tickets to the special format are already on sale.

⚖️ Minnesota's attorney general sued Gov. Greg Abbott to force the extradition from Texas of an ICE agent who faces charges tied to the non-fatal shooting of a Venezuelan man. (KERA)

🚨 Three people died and two more were hospitalized after a wrong-way driver set off crashes on S.H. 121 in Fort Worth early Tuesday. (NBC5)

👀 The city of Rowlett is reviewing its policies around AI-edited content after using the technology to modify photos of the city's animal shelter. (WFAA)

🎥 Fort Worth's Coyote Drive-In will close next month after hosting outdoor movies for 14 years. (Star-Telegram)

Dallas will be one of the first U.S. cities to get drone delivery through Uber Eats under a new partnership between Uber and drone delivery company Zipline.

Why it matters: Drone delivery, once a novelty, is becoming more widely available as the technology and regulatory environment have advanced.

State of play: Uber is investing in drone delivery company Zipline, with the two companies aiming 1 million Uber Eats drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029. The companies did not disclose the deal's terms.

• Zipline drone delivery on Uber Eats will begin in Houston and Dallas before the end of the year, and then expand into dozens of U.S. cities.

Zoom out: The deal is part of Uber's effort to build a flexible hybrid delivery network of couriers, sidewalk robots and drones to match every delivery with the best mode of transportation.

• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described customer demand for rapid delivery as "insatiable," per the Wall Street Journal.

The intrigue: This is the first time Zipline will be fully integrated into a retailer's app. Currently, customers looking to take advantage of drone delivery must download the Zipline app.

Amazon's and Google's approach

This newsletter was edited by Bob Gee.

Our picks:

🤭 Naheed is obsessed with this TikTok trend.

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