Musk's underground car mover makes an appearance. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH FRIDAY, JUNE 30 2017 By Darrell Etherington Tesla's CEO goes on another Twitter tear, macOS High Sierra enters public beta and Zillow steps back from a dangerous ledge. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for June 30, 2017. Get your weekend shoes on. 1. Musk's carlevator is coming along Elon Musk is building an elevator over the July 4 holiday – one that will be used to move cars and other transportation means below ground for his ambitious tunnel transport network project. The CEO said that his 'vator should be ready to operate next week, at least in demo form, so that's pretty cool. This weird tunnel side project is getting more serious all the time. 2. Meanwhile Tesla Model 3 news incoming... In case you're bored with Boring, Musk also promised some Model 3 news from Tesla coming this Sunday. We should hopefully find out when the first deliveries are arriving, which will also get us our first official look at the final design, and hopefully, configuration options. Sponsored By: TechCrunch Extra Early Bird sale ends today | Disrupt SF Save over $1200 when you book your Disrupt SF tickets with the Early Bird Rate. Every year, Disrupt debuts hundreds of game-changing startups showcasing the latest technology, and connects founders to a vast network of investors, press and users. Disrupt returns to SF on Sept 18-20. Get your tickets today! Learn More… 3. High Sierra's highlights MacOS's High Sierra update is available in public beta, and it looks like a good update for the Mac operating system. It's mostly about improving on existing features, rather than doling out new ones, but it seems like a solid improvement. 4. Zillow quashes conflict with McMansion Hell Zillow won no fans by sending a threatening legal letter to McMansion Hell, and it stepped back once the EFF jumped to the blogger's defense. She's agreed not to use their images in future, but that's more because she's nice than because of any actual legal obligation not to. 5. Netflix to provide on-demand closure for Sense8 fans Sense8, one of Netflix's biggest budget originals, got canceled after Season 2. But it's coming back for one final two-hour episode to wrap things up neatly, after fans clamored for closure. That's a lot more than TV fans usually get. 6. The iPhone's evolution The iPhone just turned 10, and its popularity is a testament to its ongoing improvements. Devin has a look at its defining upgrades across generations, painting a picture of what Apple saw as most important to its biggest customers. 7. Facebook's internet drone takes to the skies once again Facebook's huge, internet-beaming Aquila drone took flight for its second test run, and this time, it landed without any major incidents (although it still has to work out some bugs with those propellers). Looks good for FB's plan to blanket the world in accessible internet. Drones and more are on tap for discussion at TechCrunch's upcoming TC Sessions on robotics, which is taking place July 17 in Boston. Get tickets here: Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: Community Manager, Emerging Company Practice at WilmerHale (Palo Alto, CA, United States) Web/mobile application developer at TechEmpower, Inc (El Segundo, CA, United States) Technology Solutions Associate - Legal Services at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) (San Francisco, CA, United States) Senior Product Manager at Green Bits (San Francisco, CA, United States) Senior Writer/Editor, Electronics at Consumer Reports (Yonkers, NY, United States) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2017 AOL Inc. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service

                                                           

Uber's driverless trucks show signs of life. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH THURSDAY, JUNE 29 2017 By Darrell Etherington Uber's self-driving truck tech gets an update amid its various crises, Google tries some experimental VR advertising and Echo Dot suggests cheap and easy is the key to the smart speaker market. 1. Uber's autonomous trucking program rolls on Uber may be in the middle of a lawsuit regarding its acquisition of Otto, the autonomous trucking startup founded by a former Google self-driving car engineer, but it's still pushing forward on self-driving truck tech. The company just started deploying its second-generation autonomous truck tech stack on test vehicles. The new tech includes an advanced spinning LiDAR unit – but not one developed in-house, which is the subject being debated by the courts right now. This is an off-the-shelf unit, likely Velodyne's top-of-the-line spinning array. Uber ATG also took all the Otto branding off the trucks, which makes sense since Uber retired the name last month. 2. Meanwhile, Uber says no knowledge of Waymo data theft That court case isn't going away, however; Uber and Waymo are still trading filings in the matter, and the most recent is a filing from Uber that claims it wasn't aware of any data theft by Levandowski or others prior to the lawsuit being filed. Sponsored By: TechCrunch Startup Battlefield SF applications are open Get your early-stage startup on the world map at Disrupt SF's Startup Battlefield competition and enter for a chance to win $50K. Since launching on our Disrupt stage, companies have collectively raised over $6B! Put your hat in the ring - apply today! Applications close July 15th. Learn More… 3. Google's VR advertising project is probably premature I remain very skeptical about the potential of VR in the near-term, but it's probably still smart for companies like Google to put down a big bet on advertising in the new medium. Even just as a hedge, something like its Advr project makes a lot of sense. 4. Amazon's Echo Dot leads the way on smart speakers This is potentially bad news for Apple's forthcoming HomePod: Adobe data shows the Amazon Echo Dot leading the way for smart speaker sales. Overall the market isn't huge, but it seems like consumers are favoring affordability over sound quality, which is the exact opposite bet Apple is making with its product, set to launch this coming December. 5. Microsoft buys Cloudyn Microsoft has officially announced its acquisition of Israel's Cloudyn, a company that unifies management of cloud billing across multiple accounts. TechCrunch first reported the deal was going down in April. 6. Instagram is fighting trolls with AI Comment sections are generally swamps (that's why I like doing a newsletter). Instagram wants to help preserve its reputation as one of the nicer corners of the Internet by fighting hurtful, mean or harassing comments with an AI system that will automatically remove them (without telling the original poster). 7. Binary Capital sued by ex-employee Binary Capital, which is now all but defunct after a series of steppings down and resignations following revelations around partner Justin Caldbeck's bad behavior, is now also being sued. The suit, from a former employee, alleges that the firm harbored a "sexist and sexual" working environment. Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: Community Manager, Emerging Company Practice at WilmerHale (Palo Alto, CA, United States) Web/mobile application developer at TechEmpower, Inc (El Segundo, CA, United States) Technology Solutions Associate - Legal Services at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) (San Francisco, CA, United States) Senior Product Manager at Green Bits (San Francisco, CA, United States) Senior Writer/Editor, Electronics at Consumer Reports (Yonkers, NY, United States) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2017 AOL Inc. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service