[[{“value”:” Waymo now has more than 300 driverless vehicles zipping passengers around San Francisco, but while they follow traffic laws, parking is another matter entirely. According to city records cited by the Washington Post, these rolling robots racked up 589 citations totaling $65,065 in fines last year for parking violations that ranged from blocking traffic to […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Anti-aging zealot Bryan Johnson wants to start ‘foodome sequencing’
[[{“value”:” In the same way that genome sequencing determines the genetic makeup of an organism, Bryan Johnson — the investor and founder behind the Don’t Die movement – wants to start “foodome” sequencing. “We’re going to sequence the U.S. ‘foodome,’ which means test 20% of foods that constitute 80% of the American diet based on stuff […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Sesame, the startup behind the viral virtual assistant Maya, releases its base AI model
[[{“value”:” AI company Sesame has released the base model that powers Maya, the impressively realistic voice assistant. The model, which is 1 billion parameters in size (“parameters” referring to individual components of the model), is under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially with few restrictions. Called CSM-1B, the model generates “RVQ audio codes” from text […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Rad Power Bikes already has a new CEO
[[{“value”:” Rad Power Bikes has named a new CEO, just a few days after its previous leader stepped down. The e-bike company has tapped Kathi Lentzsch, who has spent the last few decades helping turn around underperforming companies in both the consumer and B2B spaces. The change comes as Rad Power continues to shift away from […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Y Combinator’s police surveillance darling Flock Safety raises $275M at $7.5B valuation
[[{“value”:” Flock Safety and one of its long-time VCs, Bedrock Capital, announced Thursday that the startup raised a fresh $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation. Flock makes computer vision-enabled video surveillance technology used by law enforcement as well as businesses, property management companies, and so on. It’s best known for its automatic license plate recognition […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Android is adding Auracast support, which allows hearing aids to connect to public audio broadcasts
[[{“value”:” Google announced on Thursday that Android phones will soon support Auracast, a new Bluetooth technology that uses a phone to enable a direct connection from hearing aids to audio broadcasts in noisy environments. With Auracast, compatible hearing aids and earbuds can receive direct audio streams, such as a PA system at a train station or […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Y Combinator urges the White House to support Europe’s Digital Markets Act
[[{“value”:” Y Combinator, one of the world’s most prolific startup accelerators, sent a letter on Wednesday urging the Trump Administration to openly support Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to crack open Big Tech’s market power. The DMA designates six tech companies as “gatekeepers” to the internet — Alphabet, Amazon, […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Oracle is reportedly a top choice for helping run TikTok
[[{“value”:” TikTok has until April to finalize a sale to a U.S.-based buyer, yet uncertainties about the future of the short-form video app remain. However, a new report has emerged, suggesting that Oracle is the leading candidate to serve as the cloud technology partner for managing TikTok in the U.S., according to The Information. Sources including […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Bluesky quickly sold out of the T-shirt its CEO wore to troll Mark Zuckerberg
[[{“value”:” When Bluesky CEO Jay Graber took the SXSW stage this week, she managed to make fun of Mark Zuckerberg without mentioning Meta at all. Her black T-shirt was emblazoned with black text stretching across the chest and sleeves, similar to the style of a T-shirt that the billionaire founder wore at an event last year. […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Google calls for weakened copyright and export rules in AI policy proposal
[[{“value”:” Google, following on the heels of OpenAI, published a policy proposal in response to the Trump Administration’s call for a national “AI Action Plan.” The tech giant endorsed weak copyright restrictions on AI training, as well as “balanced” export controls that “protect national security while enabling U.S. exports and global business operations.” “The U.S. needs […] © 2024 TechCrunch….