TechCrunch Industry News
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Waymo wants to chauffeur your kids, get paid to be a Robot, Mineral sold technology to John Deere, and DeepMind workers protest Google’s defense contracts
Soon, parents in range of Waymo robotaxis might not have to worry about picking up their kids from after-school activities — or anytime, really. The San Francisco Standard reports that Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary, is considering a subscription program that would let teens hail one of its cars solo and send pickup and drop-off alerts; Tesla is hiring individuals standing between 5’7 and 5’11 to carry up to 30 pounds for seven hours a day to train its Optimus robot; Citing a crowded market and profit concerns, Mineral ceased operation and pivoted to technology licensing; At least 200 workers at DeepMind, Google’s AI R&D division, are displeased with Google’s reported defense contracts — and according to Time, they circulated a letter internally back in May to say as much. The letter, dated May 16, says the undersigned are concerned by “Google’s contracts with military organizations,” citing articles about the tech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Harmonyze built AI agents that sit between franchisors and their franchisees
For some businesses, there is a clear path to growth that doesn’t involve acquiring other companies or expanding organically: franchising. The U.S. has more than 800,000 franchise businesses, according to Statista, and that number is predicted to keep growing year over year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple is bringing audio sharing to Beats Studio Pro, Deepfake scam costs Telecom $1M, Aviron branches out into bikes and more news
A firmware update is delivering multi-user audio sharing, allowing music to be streamed to multiple headphones at once; also Microsoft demonstrated its leadership in accessible gaming hardware again on Wednesday with the announcement of a new one-handed joystick controller for Xbox and PC. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick works with the company’s already robust accessibility hardware stack, and even includes support for custom 3D-printed parts; early this year, AI-powered fake audio of President Biden reached voters in New Hampshire. The FCC struck back swiftly, identifying the perpetrator as the Texas-based Life Corporation, which has been behind similar scams over the years, and whacked them and an associated individual with a $6 million fine; At around $2,000, the Fit Bike places the system between Peloton’s entry-level Bike ($1,500) and Bike+ ($2,500). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ford says a pickup truck will be the first EV built on its low-cost platform
The first vehicle that will be built on the low-cost EV platform Ford’s been developing in secret will be a mid-size pickup due out in 2027, the automaker announced Wednesday morning. The news comes as part of a much larger rewriting of Ford’s electrification plans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The banks that loaned Musk $13B to buy Twitter might be having regrets ... and more tech news
X looks like a pretty bad investment right about now. As readers might recall, billionaire Elon Musk borrowed $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and five other major banks to help finance the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, as it was then called; OpenAI signs deal to train on Condé Nast content, surface stories in ChatGPT; WeTransfer’s expiry dates haven’t gone away, but you can at least extend them; Is your company AI-washing? Rippling founder Parker Conrad thinks it might be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube takes on TikTok Shop with expanded Shopify partnership
As TikTok Shop gains traction, YouTube is expanding its partnership with Shopify to onboard more brands for its YouTube Shopping affiliate program, the company announced on Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
LiveNation lawsuit, a million on a Zoom call, and Waymo numbers are up
The United States Department of Justice filed a major lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster in May, arguing that the entertainment giant is acting as a monopoly. An additional 10 state attorneys general joined the suit this week, bringing the total to 39 states and the District of Columbia; also, Zoom on Monday announced a new single-user webinar feature that caps out at 1 million attendees. The addition comes less than a month after the #WinWithBlackWomen fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris peaked at 44,000 users before crashing; and Waymo disclosed Tuesday it’s now giving more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across its three main commercial markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Those figures were shared by Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in a social media post on X. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As CO2 emissions from supply chains come into focus, this startup is aiming at farms
Root helps food and beverage companies collect primary data on their agricultural supply chains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
GM cuts 1,000 software jobs as it prioritizes quality and AI
General Motors is cutting around 1,000 software workers around the world in a bid to focus on more “high-priority” initiatives like improving its Super Cruise driver assistance system, the quality of its infotainment platform and exploring the use of AI. The job cuts are not about cost cutting or individual performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rivian launches smaller $1,400 camp kitchen, five years after initial demo
The Rivian camp kitchen attracted buzz from almost the moment it appeared as a prototype in 2019 at Overland Expo West. Despite interest in the accessory, Rivian never actually sold the camp kitchen, which was kind of massive and designed to slide into the R1T pickup truck’s trademark gear tunnel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI shuts down election influence operation using ChatGPT
OpenAI has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election, according to a blog post on Friday. The company says the operation created AI-generated articles and social media posts, though it doesn’t seem that it reached much of an audience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meta axed CrowdTangle, a tool for tracking disinformation. Critics claim its replacement has just ‘1% of the features’
Journalists, researchers, and politicians are mourning Meta’s shutdown of CrowdTangle, which they used to track the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram. In CrowdTangle’s place, Meta is offering its Content Library – but is limiting usage to people from “qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TipRanks, an AI-based stock tip evaluator created after its founder got burned by bad advice, sells for $200M to Prytek
Prytek had already been a big investor in TipRanks since 2017, most recently leading a $77 million round in the company in 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The first post-quantum cryptography standards are here
For many companies, this also means that now is the time to start implementing these algorithms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kiteworks captures $456M at a $1B+ valuation to help secure sensitive data
Search engine optimization (SEO) has been top of mind for brands for more than a decade to ensure their websites and products capture as many eyeballs as possible by ranking high up on search results pages. But search is changing, and as consumers increasingly turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SoundCloud launches its own merch store, will let artists create their own designs
Music streaming service SoundCloud has launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store. The store will sell SoundCloud-themed items, but will also act as a service for artists to put out their own designs. The first edition of the store features designs from Wiz Khalifa, Denzel Curry, wolfacejoeyy, Bk The Rula, and Armani White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
She grew up a gearhead — now her startup has raised $4M to cut CO2 from trucking
The irony was not lost on her. Growing up the daughter of a racing car enthusiast father, Danielle Walsh had become — in her late 20s — the head of HSBC’s ‘Future Cities’ project, the global banking giant’s effort to serve clients’ climate change mandates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As Alexa turns 10, Amazon looks to generative AI
While Amazon has continued releasing Echo devices, including an upgraded Spot announced last month, the company has taken its foot off the gas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Maybe Friend wasn’t crazy for spending $1.8M on a domain after all
Avi Schiffmann, the founder and CEO of Friend, told TechCrunch over email that the purchase has already paid for itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rocket Lab’s sunny outlook bodes well for future constellation plans
Rocket Lab surpassed $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 71% increase from the same quarter of last year. This is just one of several shiny accomplishments executives showed off to investors on Thursday — and a good omen for the space company’s medium-term ambitious plans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spotify and Epic Games call Apple’s revised DMA compliance plan ‘confusing,’ ‘illegal’ and ‘unacceptable’
Count Spotify and Epic Games among the Apple critics who are not happy with the iPhone maker’s newly revised compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Shortly after Apple announced the updated version on Tuesday, including loosened restrictions along with the addition of two more fees, Spotify shared a statement with TechCrunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
UK launches formal probe into Amazon’s ties with AI startup Anthropic
The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic, after Amazon recently completed a $4 billion investment into the AI startup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Airbnb details plans to expand beyond short-term rentals, including co-hosting and relaunching ‘experiences’
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky suggested on Tuesday’s Q2 earnings call with investors that the company will soon expand into new products and services, including co-hosting, a relaunch of Airbnb’s “experiences,” guest services, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lyft to ‘open up a can of whoop ass’ on surge pricing
Ride-hail giant Lyft will pilot a new feature called Price Lock that will let a rider purchase a monthly subscription “that caps the price for a specific route at a specific time,” according to CEO David Risher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Figure’s new humanoid robot leverages OpenAI for natural speech conversations
Figure 02 is outfitted with speakers and microphones to speak and listen to people at work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Uber highlights autonomous vehicle efforts with Tesla in its rearview mirror
Uber reported strong second-quarter results, with gross bookings and net profit both up decently. But the company has chosen to highlight the success of its autonomous vehicle effort, likely to assuage investors concerned about incoming competition from Tesla, which aims to reveal its first robotaxi in October. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AWS launches Mithra to identify and mitigate malicious domains across its massive system
When a company is the size of Amazon, a lot of bad actors will come after it and its customers, which makes defending the network a monster job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How the theft of 40M UK voter register records was entirely preventable
A scathing rebuke by the U.K. data protection watchdog reveals what led to the compromise of tens of millions of U.K. voters' information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
iPad sales help bail out Apple amid a continued iPhone slide
In spite of a drop for the quarter, iPhone remained Apple’s most important category by a wide margin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI music startup Suno claims training model on copyrighted music is ‘fair use’
Following the recent lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against music generation startups Udio and Suno, Suno admitted in a court filing on Thursday that it did, in fact, train its AI model using copyrighted songs. But it claimed that doing so was legal under the fair-use doctrine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google Cloud now has a dedicated cluster of Nvidia GPUs for Y Combinator startups
Google Cloud is giving Y Combinator startups access to a dedicated, subsidized cluster of Nvidia graphics processing units and Google tensor processing units to build AI models. It’s part of Google Cloud’s effort to cozy up with promising early-stage AI startups, in hopes some of them will evolve into massive, compute-hungry business Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Vast plans microgravity lab on its Haven-1 private space station
Commercial space station company Vast is building a private microgravity research lab as part of its wider Haven-1 station plans. The module is set to launch no earlier than the second half of 2025, the company said Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bumble and Hinge allowed stalkers to pinpoint users’ locations down to 2 meters
Badoo, Bumble, Grindr, happn, Hinge and Hily all had the same vulnerability that could have helped a malicious user to identify the near-exact location of another user, according to the researchers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Controversial internet bill KOSA passed by Senate
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that online platforms take reasonable steps to protect users from harm, and could become the most significant children’s online safety legislation to take effect since COPPA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Zoe, a microbiome-focused nutrition company, raises $15 million to expand in the U.S.
Zoe sends customers at-home testing materials to collect blood or feces to test blood fat, blood sugar, and gut microbiome health. Following those results, the company scores every food (on a scale from 0 to 100), so people can make better choices of what to eat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Disinformation may ‘go nuclear’ rather than ‘go viral,’ researchers say
We say something “goes viral” because we tend to think of rumors and disinformation spreading the way that an infection spreads. But these days it may be more accurate to say something “goes nuclear,” according to a new paper that models disinfo as a form of fission reaction Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A tale of two foldables
Samsung is still foldables’ 500-pound gorilla, but the company successes have made the category significantly less lonely in recent years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
UK’s Zapp EV plans to expand globally with an early start in India
Zapp is launching its urban electric two-wheeler in India in 2025 as it plans to expand globally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Data breach exposes US spyware maker behind Windows, Mac, Android and Chromebook malware
Exclusive: The Minnesota-based spyware maker Spytech snooped on thousands of devices before it was hacked earlier this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lodestar’s robotic arm will be an orbital ‘first responder’ for satellites in need
Satellites are among our most critical infrastructure, providing everything from GPS to disaster coordination, yet their inherent inaccessibility leaves them vulnerable to relatively simple technical issues or attacks. London-based Lodestar is looking to change that with a “first responder” service in space using advanced robotic sentries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
GM-backed Addionics aims to make lithium-ion batteries cheaper with wavy foil
The startup has developed a way to create copper and aluminum foils that are laced with tiny holes and riddled with undulating peaks and valleys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spotify CEO says company is in ‘early days’ of hi-fi audio plans
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says the streaming service is still in the “early days” of its plans to bring hi-fi support to the platform. During the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, the executive offered details about an upcoming deluxe tier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How to prevent your software update from being the next CrowdStrike
There is no fool proof way to prevent a buggy update like CrowdStrike's, but there are best practices that could mitigate the fallout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rosotics wants to manufacture massive orbital shipyards using 3D printing
Mesa, Arizona-based Rosotics has kept a low profile. From the startup’s website, one would think they are solely focused on selling large metal 3D printers to aerospace and defense customers. For the past three years, the company’s been quietly architecting plans that involve launching multiple massive spacecraft, each containing dozens of smaller spacecraft Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Former Tesla humanoid head launches a robotics startup
In spite of maintaining stealth until now, Mytra has already drummed up interest with big names. The startup has a pilot with grocery giant Albertsons, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Linx emerges from stealth with $33M to lock down the new security perimeter: Identity
Identity management is one of the most common fulcrums around which security breaches have pivoted in the last several years, and one of the main reasons it’s the gift that keeps on giving to malicious hackers is that it’s a nightmare for organizations to track. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pesa unlocks new markets to keep remittances flowing to emerging economies
Founders of Pesa, a remittance fintech, know too well how costly, inaccessible and unreliable remittance services drive people to opt for risky informal channels — like WhatsApp groups — to transfer money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Waymo wants to bring robotaxis to SFO
Waymo would need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more
Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by The Weeknd, new series, films, concerts and more. The headset launched in February with more than 150 3D movies and immersive titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NASA cancels $450M Viper moon mission, dashing ice prospecting dreams
The now-scrapped moon mission would have been the U.S. space agency's first resource-mapping mission off planet Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices