Morning Report

Fully-self driving cars are legal in New Zealand, so long as they're supervised by a driver, who is still responsible for ensuring they obey the rules of the road. But with the vehicles linked to multiple fatal crashes overseas, and reports here of the technology making some strange driving decisions, are we ready? Matthew Theunissen took a ride with a Tesla owner, Mike Jones, to find out what it's like.

1 News Sports Editor Abby Wilson and All Black and Manu Samoa player, Lima Sopoaga join Morning Report for this week's sports panel.

Since July, Australia's competition regulator has had the power to examine the big supermarkets' books to see how much they are paying suppliers, and what they're charging customers. From there, it can assess whether a supermarket has excessive profit margins...if so, they could face a fine of up to A$10 million dollars. To explain how it's working in Australia, and what New Zealand can learn from it, Dr Meg Elkins spoke to Guyon Espiner. She's a cultural and behavioural economist, and an associate professor at Melbourne's R.M.I.T. University.

Auckland Transport's Director of Public Transport, Richard Harrison spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss about the CRLs first week of operation.

For years, firefighters and their union have been sounding the alarm about Fire and Emergency New Zealand. Now, a select committee report backs that up, finding that FENZ leadership misled select committee and has mismanaged the purchase of new fire trucks. National MP Tim Costley, deputy chair of the Governance and Administration Committee spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Aucklanders have been celebrating the opening of the City Rail Link this week, but work on a critical part of the rail system has barely started. It will cost about $3 billion and take 30 years to make level crossings safer across West Auckland alone. Residents in one community have been pleading for changes now. Erin Johnson reports.

An early morning sports news update.

The latest market updates and news from RNZ's business team.

It's do-or-die for the Warriors when they take on the Knights on Sunday, and they'll be playing in front of their biggest home crowd ever, at a sold out Eden Park. Former Kiwi Ferns captain and Sky Sport commentator Honey Hireme-Smiler spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

New Zealand's gross domestic product figures released yesterday show one industry is bucking the trend. Construction was up 2.7 percent in the last quarter and is the largest contributor to the overall increase in GDP. It's also the largest increase in construction activity since the June 2023 quarter. Chief Executive of New Zealand Certified Builders Malcolm Fleming spoke to Guyon Espiner.