Elon Musk plans to deploy 4,425 small satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide internet service in remote areas.
Source: CNET
No accidents and injuries have been reported in connection with the component, Tesla says.
Source: CNET
Uber has reportedly come to a fast settlement with the family of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was fatally struck last week by one of the company’s self-driving vehicles as she crossed a darkened street, pushing a bicycle.
Terms of the settlement are not being disclosed; Uber declined to comment when we asked the company for further information.
The move helps Uber avoid what could have been an ugly civil case against it, even while it isn’t clear how big or sophisticated a support system Herzberg had.
Reuters reported last week that Herzberg was homeless and close to getting off the streets, with friends describing her as someone who took care of those around her. She was reportedly known in the homeless community as “Elle” and “Ms. Elle.”
She did have a daughter and was apparently married. Indeed, according to a separate Reuters report, a Glendale, Arizona attorney who typically focuses on bankruptcy and debt negotiation, told the outlet “the matter has been resolved” between Uber and Herzberg’s daughter and husband. No further information about them was disclosed.
Presumably, the case was settled at a high cost to the company, but could have been higher had it dragged out. Personal injury lawsuits typically arrive at a settlement amount after both sides determine on their own what they think a case is worth; typically, that amount is reached by reviewing similar cases and seeing what juries have awarded past victims.
Given the unique circumstances of this case — Herzberg was the first person to be killed by a self-driving car — and given Uber’s unprecedentedly high private market value of $72 billion, determining the amount would be particularly tricky.
Uber is still facing fallout from all corners over last week’s incident, including, potentially, criminal charges. The Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is actively investigating the details of last week’s incident.
Uber also announced it wouldn’t reapply to test its self-driving technology on public roads in California in the wake of the accident, meaning that as of next week, after its current permit expires, it won’t be able to operate its self-driving cars on that state’s public roads.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey separately suspended the company’s right to operate autonomous cars on public roads in Arizona on Monday night, though emails have since surfaced that suggest Ducey himself enabled the program with limited oversight.
Pictured above: the type of vehicle that struck Herzberg.
Source: TechCrunch
SpaceX has a green light from the FCC to launch a network of thousands of satellites blanketing the globe with broadband. And you won’t have too long to wait — on a cosmic scale, anyway. Part of the agreement is that SpaceX launch half of its proposed satellites within six years.
The approval of SpaceX’s application was not seriously in doubt after last month’s memo from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was excited at the prospect of the first U.S.-based company being authorized to launch a constellation like this.
“I have asked my colleagues to join me in supporting this application and moving to unleash the power of satellite constellations to provide high-speed Internet to rural Americans,” he wrote at the time. He really is pushing that “digital divide” thing. Not that Elon Musk disagrees:
SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell echoed the sentiment in a statement provided to TechCrunch:
We appreciate the FCC’s thorough review and approval of SpaceX’s constellation license. Although we still have much to do with this complex undertaking, this is an important step toward SpaceX building a next-generation satellite network that can link the globe with reliable and affordable broadband service, especially reaching those who are not yet connected.
The proposed service, which will be called Starlink, was opposed by several existing satellite operators like OneWeb and Spire. They’re rightly concerned that another operator in space — especially one that wants to launch thousands of satellites — will crowd both spectrum and orbit.
Illustration of SpaceX satellite coverage from the FCC application
OneWeb, for example, said that SpaceX satellites shouldn’t be allowed to be deployed within 125 kilometers of altitude of its own. You do want to avoid interference, but really, it’s too much to ask for a 150-mile buffer zone around your gear.
One objection that did carry water, however, was the request for an extensive orbital debris mitigation plan.
The unprecedented number of satellites proposed by SpaceX and the other [non-geostationary orbit fixed-satellite service] systems in this processing round will necessitate a further assessment of the appropriate reliability standards of these spacecraft, as well as the reliability of these systems’ methods for deorbiting the spacecraft.
So SpaceX will have to provide more studies on this by the time it finalizes its designs and starts launching.
And that will have to be fairly soon. To move things along, the FCC requires SpaceX to get underway in a hurry or else, presumably, it will have to be reauthorized:
SpaceX must launch 50 percent of the maximum number of proposed space stations, place them in the assigned orbits, and operate them in accordance with the station authorization no later than March 29, 2024.
The company has already launched test versions of the satellites, but the full constellation will need to go out more than two at a time. SpaceX eventually plans to launch 12,000 of the things, but this authorization is for the high-altitude group of 4,425; a separate authorization is necessary for the remaining number, since they’ll be operating at a different altitude and radio frequency.
The Falcon 9 carrying SpaceX’s test Starlink satellites launches on February 22
Commissioner Rosenworcel, in a separate statement, also called for a general revisiting of regulations around commercial space.
“This rush to develop new space opportunities requires new rules,” she writes. “Despite the revolutionary activity in our atmosphere, the regulatory frameworks we rely on to shape these efforts are dated. Across the board, we need to prepare for the proliferation of satellites in our higher altitudes. In short, we have work to do.”
Source: TechCrunch
The social media giant Thursday outlined several attempts to help protect the midterm elections, but still has a long way to go.
Source: Wired
It goes from 0 to 60 in 4.1 seconds, and it has fatter tires and updated aerodynamics to match.
Source: Wired
When Hernan Lopez, the former chief executive of Fox International, started the podcast network Wondery roughly two years ago with a seed investment from his former bosses at Fox Networks Group, podcasting was still emerging as a media platform.
Now, with voice ascendant, and podcasting proving to be a breeding ground for new narratives that other storytelling mediums can latch onto — the move into the reinvention of radio for the 21st century seems prescient.
It’s not just Fox that is now backing the podcast business, new investors led by storied venture capital and private equity investor Alan Patricof’s Greycroft Partners are coming aboard with a $5 million commitment to expand the scope of Wondery’s wonder factory. Additional investors include Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Advancit Capital — the investment vehicle for Shari Redstone (daughter of billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone).
Previous investors BAM Ventures, Watertower Ventures, Fox Networks Group and BDMI also participated in the round.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wondery intends to add new shows to its stable including American Innovations, Dr. Death, and I, Survivor and has optioned Sward and Scale and Tides of History as projects for movies and television.
While traditional media companies are being forced to join forces and combine assets to protect their market from new competitors like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix coming from the tech industry — new media platforms like podcasting are opening up opportunities for different kinds of studios to emerge.
“I believe there’s a huge opportunity in audio,” Lopez says. “There isn’t anywhere close to enough quality audio content being produced.”
On average, the modern consumer listens to four hours of audio per day, according to Lopez. Even though most of that is music, an increasing number of Americans are turning to podcasts as a new form of entertainment. And podcasts are beginning to attract more advertising dollars.
“In the podcast world the ads seem to work. They’re native, they’re integrated into the shows. The listeners are welcoming,” says Wondery’s chief executive. That in itself would be a welcome change for media companies hungry for new ways to maintain their ad-supported business models.
Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu have trained a generation of consumers on subscription models that eschew advertising altogether — but podcasts still hold out promise, says Lopez.
Demographics are another key reason that advertisers are moving to podcasts, he says and Comscore research (funded by Wondery) seems to back up his assertions.
According to Comscore, nearly one in five Americans aged 18-49 said they’d listened to podcasts at least once a month — a number that increases when it’s restricted to the highly coveted demographic of men between the ages of 18 and 34. while nearly one in three men 18-34 do so. Podcast listeners are also more likely to have a college degree, make over $100,000 and be early adopters of electronics, consumer goods, and entertainment.
Advertisers are beginning to take notice, with $119 million spent on podcast advertising in 2016 and an estimated $220 million spent on podcast ads last year (according to estimated figures in a survey underwritten by major podcast networks).
Some of Wondery’s podcasts have already racked up impressive numbers. Dirty John has been dowloaded more than 20 million times; American History Tellers has been downloaded more than 3 million times; and Business Wars more than 2 million times, says Lopez.
Wondery is also bucking the media trend of serving up micro-content to audiences.
“We don’t produce much micro-content — if any,” says Lopez. “The stories that we tend to gravitate towards tend to work better in long-form. We have to keep their attention for as long as possible.”
Lopez’s Wondery isn’t the only company to rake in money from institutional investors for building a podcasting empire.
On the other side of the country in the borough of Brooklyn stands Gimlet Media, the $20 million king of the podcast market these days. Gimlet — which raised from a slew of investors including WPP, Betaworks, Stripes Group, Lowercase Capital, LionTree Parters, Emerson Collective, Cross Culture Ventures, and music manager turned investor Troy Carter.
Success among podcasts is also translating into options in other formats. As The New York Times noted yesterday, podcasts are getting “the Hollywood treatment“.
Wondery’s own “Dirty John,” is being turned into series for two networks — true crime stories on Oxygen — and as the basis for a scripted series on Bravo.Meanwhile, “Welcome to Night Vale”, “Alice Isn’t Dead”, “Up and Vanished” and “Crimetown” are all being turned into series by different production companies.
“In the last year or so, podcasts have been the thing,” Matt Tarses, the creator of “Alex, Inc.” (a new ABC show based off of Gimlet Media’s “Startup” podcast) told The New York Times.
Source: TechCrunch
AngelPad, an accelerator program that has launched more than 140 companies across 11 different “classes,” has raised a new, $35 million venture fund, shows a new SEC filing.
Its husband-and-wife cofounders, Thomas Korte and Carine Magescas, declined to comment on the filing.
The fund appears to be its first fund of substantial size, following a trial fund the duo had begun investing at AngelPad’s outset in 2010 with their own capital, and a second fund that was roughly $7 million in size and included some outside investors.
Korte has told us in the past that AngelPad also relies heavily on special purpose vehicles (or SPVs) to double-down on its breakout companies. In recent years, for example, the outfit and its investors have made an outsize bet on the delivery company Postmates, say our sources. (Postmates was among the earliest companies to pass through AngelPad’s program.)
We wrote about AngelPad last week, noting that it recently decided to do away with its twice-yearly demo days in San Francisco, in favor or organizing a day of one-on-one investor meetings with its startups instead. (Y Combinator, known for its very full demo days, also helps set up one-on-one meetings with investors and startups that want to meet each other over the course of one day.)
What hasn’t changed at AngelPad: it continues work with roughly the same, low, double-digit number of founding teams as it always has.
You can check out its newest batch of startups — 10 in all — right here. Others of its portfolio companies include the insurance comparison site Coverhound; Vungle, which helps developers insert video ads into their apps; Kinnek, a marketplace that helps small businesses find suppliers; the growth marketing platform Iterable; drone mapping and analytics platform Drone Deplo ; and Zum, a company offering on-demand rides for kids.
All have gone on to raise substantial rounds of follow-on financing, though Vungle had a rocky 2017, after its cofounding CEO was arrested and charged with shocking abuses that police officials believe may have taken place while he was under the influence of LSD. (Vungle quickly replaced him with the company’s former COO, Rick Tallman.)
AngelPad has also had numerous exits over the years. Its biggest win may be Mopub, a startup that helped mobile publishers manage their ad inventory and was acquired Twitter in 2013 for $350 million.
Other trade sales include the acquisition of shopping optimization startup Adku by Groupon in 2011, the sale of to-do app Astrid & Blik to Yahoo in 2014, and the sale of the social search engine Spotsetter to Apple.
Terms of these last three deals were not disclosed publicly.
Korte joined us on stage in Berlin at TC’s Disrupt event last December to talk about his penchant in particular for European founders willing to come to the U.S.
He said at the time that he admired the “fiscal responsibility that Europeans have, because they’re so used to building their companies with relatively little money or knowing they might not get another round.”
Source: TechCrunch
The newest vision from Hyundai’s Genesis luxury spin-off brand is a sexy electric supercar.
Source: CNET
The online seller of “magically charged” stones, Tibetan singing bowls and pricey clothing gets $50 million in funding, Forbes reports.
Source: CNET