Month: May 2020

It would take up deliveries, not passengers. Waymo’s plan to resume self-driving operations will soon extend to San Francisco. A spokesperson has confirmed a report in The Verge that Waymo’s autonomous minivans will return to San Francisco Bay Area streets on June 8th. The company isn’t carrying passengers, however. It will instead carry out “charitable delivery support to community partners,” according … Continue reading Waymo’s self-driving vans will return to Bay Area streets on June 8th Continue Reading →

“Dragon SpaceX, you’re go for launch.” A new era of American spaceflight began Saturday as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke through Earth’s upper atmosphere carrying veteran astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley atop a pillar of flame. This marks both the first time that a commercial aerospace company has transported astronauts off-world and the first … Continue reading SpaceX’s historic launch succeeds on its second attempt Continue Reading →

The RAV4 Prime is the second fastest vehicle in Toyota’s lineup. Toyota’s RAV4 Prime will be available for purchase this summer, and its prices will start at $38,100, not including the company’s $1,120 fee for delivery, processing and handling. When it comes out, the plug-in hybrid will officially become the second fastest vehicle in the automaker’s lineup — only … Continue reading Toyota’s RAV4 plug-in hybrid will be available this summer for $40,000 Continue Reading →

Automation is affecting Workforce automation is about to cost dozens of news contractors their jobs. The Seattle Times and The Guardian report that Microsoft is letting go of dozens of news contractors (about 50 in the US, 27 in the UK) after June 30th due to a shift to AI news production on MSN. The workers were responsible for … Continue reading Microsoft cuts dozens of staff as it shifts to AI for MSN news stories Continue Reading →

Forged tokens would grant access to virtually any account. ‘Sign in with Apple’ is potentially more private than other login options, but it apparently included a serious security flaw. Researcher Bhavuk Jain recently received a $100,000 bug bounty for discovering (via Hacker News) a flaw in the sign-in service when available through third-party apps. If an app didn’t … Continue reading ‘Sign in with Apple’ flaw let attackers take over accounts Continue Reading →

The companies’ collaboration ‘came to its scheduled conclusion.’ OnePlus will no longer release McLaren editions of its phones in the future. The phonemaker and the British auto manufacturer have ended their partnership, a McLaren spokesperson has confirmed to Android Authority after reports about their split came out. Word started going around that the two were parting ways, … Continue reading OnePlus and McLaren have ended their phone partnership Continue Reading →

When news broke Friday morning that Britain is looking to propose an alliance of democracies to build a 5G alternative to Huawei, you might think that that was the worst thing to happen to the controversial Chinese telecoms giant this week. In fact, it just caps off a series of fast-moving events that surely makes this one … Continue reading Huawei’s terrible week Continue Reading →

Amazon’s policies aren’t working as well as they could. Amazon’s measures to prevent price gouging have a relatively simple workaround. The Verge has learned that some third-party sellers are marking products as “collectible” to evade Amazon’s automated price controls. The internet retailer reportedly has price ceilings that normally kick in when a product is listed as “new,” but that ceiling apparently … Continue reading Amazon sellers use ‘collectible’ label to dodge price gouging rules Continue Reading →

With dining rooms closed, more people are using Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash When Luke Edwards opened OH Pizza & Brew in 2014, the Columbus, Ohio, restaurateur thought delivery apps could help his business. His chicken wings and specialty pizzas—the most popular and appropriately named “Bypass,” topped with pepperoni, sausage, ham, salami, bacon, and extra … Continue reading Everyone’s ordering delivery, but apps aren’t making money Continue Reading →

Get this free weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7am PT). Subscribe here. Most tech companies base compensation on an employee’s local cost of living, in addition to their skills and responsibilities. The pandemic-era push to remote work seems to be reinforcing that — if you only … Continue reading Startups Weekly: Remote-first work will mean ‘globally fair compensation’ Continue Reading →