The U.S. Navy deploys a few drone boats, First Round’s annual holiday video gets released, 7-Eleven and Flirtey get us closer to drone delivery and cyclists don’t like Uber’s self-driving cars. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
After months of hinting, Blizzard finally revealed which member of Overwatch’s colorful cast of characters counts themselves part of the LGBTQ community. The much-anticipated reveal came in a seasonal digital comic centered around Tracer, the spritely Londoner with gravity-defying hair who proved to be an early fan favorite and the literal face of the game.
The comic… Read More
BMW has already staked its claim in the self-driving production timeline, with plans to release an autonomous electric car by 2021. To help meet that goal, the carmaker is opening a dedicated facility aimed at developing connected and automated driving tech in Unterschleissheim, Germany near Munich. The facility is designed to begin operations in mid-2017, and will host more than 2,000… Read More
In light of the assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov, Turkey further tightened its already restrictive limits on certain forms of internet use. The most recent censorship thrust followed the revelation that the state now blocks Tor within its borders. Turkey appears to have clamped down on social app use for a roughly 12-hour period following the international incident. According… Read More
The White House has issued a sequel to its October report on how the U.S. should approach artificial intelligence and its effects on various groups and institutions. Today’s report focuses on the potential economic effects of AI, and while it’s far from a dark outlook, it does warn that with improper handling, automation could drive further inequality in this already deeply… Read More
Uber is going to meet with California’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the state’s Attorney General’s office on Wednesday afternoon, as first reported by San Francisco Business Times and confirmed by TechCrunch via the DMV. The meeting’s specific purpose wasn’t shared, but it’s definitely going to involve discussions around the company’s deployment… Read More
Artificial intelligence is a phrase on everyone’s lips, but when you think about it, it’s rather hard to define, isn’t it? Turns out people have been trying for a long time, and it has as much to do with how we define thinking as what a computer can actually do. Read More
Tribune Media Company announced today that it has agreed to sell Gracenote (which provides metadata around TV, music and other media) to Nielsen. Gracenote says it provides the data for 12 million movie and TV listings and more than 200 million music tracks. It was first acquired by Sony in 2008, then sold to Tribune Media (not to be confused with its spinoff Tribune Publishing, now known… Read More
There are more plug-in vehicles available now than there were a decade ago, and the sales of those vehicles are growing. Sales of electric vehicles are up about a third this year over last year, and November 2016 marked 14 consecutive months of record-setting EV sales in the U.S.
And yet the grand total of all plug-in vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2016 (not counting December) was just shy of… Read More
James Slavet says he has been trying to recruit entrepreneur Josh McFarland for eight years. That’s just two years after Slavet joined the early-stage venture firm Greylock Partners as a partner in 2006. Apparently, Slavet’s charm offensive is finally paying off. The firm is announcing today that McFarland is becoming Greylock’s 10th partner. (There are now 19 people… Read More
Symantec, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies, closed its giant acquisition of Blue Coat Systems in August, ushering in a new regime under incoming CEO Greg Clark. He hasn’t wasted much time in disparaging upstarts in the market, either, including the well-funded, venture-backed companies Cylance, Tanium and Carbon Black. Now, lawsuits may be next. To wit,… Read More
Search, Google’s crown jewel, and humanity’s way of finding the world’s information, has big problems. These problems threaten the internet as we know it; if they’re allowed to continue developing, unchecked, the consequences will be far-reaching and severe. Collectively, these threats are called Dark Matter. Read More
Twitter CTO Adam Messinger, who has been the company’s CTO for almost four years and with the company for five years, said today he was leaving the company. Twitter VP of product Josh McFarland is also leaving to join Greylock Partners.
Messinger made the announcement in — no surprise — a tweet:
After 5 years I’ve decided to leave Twitter and take some time off. Read More
When it comes to headphones — particularly those of the in-ear variety — DIY repairs are generally a no-go. If it’s a frayed wire shorting out, sure, grab your soldering iron and get to tinkering… but if it’s anything more complicated than that, you’re probably looking at buying a new pair. It’s no surprise, then, that Apple’s itty-bitty… Read More
Honda is going to reveal a number of announcements around its forthcoming “cooperative mobility ecosystem” at this year’s CES in January, and the car maker just dropped a teaser to preview some of what it’s going to talk about. Three new features are teased in the short video, including “Safe Swarm,” a trademark Honda applied for in November this year. It… Read More
If you wanted to see in the dark, you could do worse than follow the example of moths, which have of course made something of a specialty of it. That, at least, is what NASA researchers did when designing a powerful new camera that will capture the faintest features in the galaxy. Read More
Listen, it’s not only your fault that The Emoji Movie is a thing that exists; but you’re at least partly to blame. And so am I. We all have to deal with the fact that this movie got greenlit because of what we’ve done.
Your fist act of penance is to watch the above. Then, watch it again – that’s no less than we deserve. Read More
Book readings, interviews, and news radio are coming to Facebook thanks to its new Live Audio feature launching today with a few publishers and authors before opening up next year. A complement to its Facebook Live video streaming, it could bring audio-first content like podcasts to the News Feed, and provide a low-bandwidth real-time broadcasting options to publishers in low-connectivity… Read More
In the most brand synergistic accomplishment of all time, convenience chain 7-Eleven has completed 77 drone deliveries during month one of its commercial service in Reno, Nevada. Yes, that’s Triple 7s in America’s Other Big Gambling Town. The drone service is operated by Flirtey, a commercial drone service provider startup that started working with 7-Eleven on a commercial launch… Read More
Should Uber’s self-driving taxis be allowed on the road? If Uber’s shrewd strategy plays out, we’ll never even ask. Instead, Uber wants to divert everyone’s attention to a much less consequential question: Does Uber even need a permit to test self-driving taxis? The genius here is that it doesn’t matter if it wins or loses this fight. If it wins its… Read More
