Category: TECHNOLOGY
Silicon Valley Bets on New Transport
As Silicon Valley moves forward with measures to ease traffic and housing woes, real-estate developers expect big technology companies to expand their workplaces. …read more
TikTok’s chief security officer steps down amid increased scrutiny from US officials
TikTok announced today that its head of global security, Roland Cloutier, is stepping down effective September 2. Cloutier will be replaced by Kim Albarella, who has been appointed the interim head of TikTok’s Global Security Organization. Cloutier will move into an advisory role at the company to focus on the business impact of TikTok’s security and trust programs. The organizational change comes as the popular ByteDance-owned app has been facing increased scrutiny from U.S. officials.
“Part of our evolving approach has been to minimize concerns about the security of user data in the U.S., including the creation of a new department to manage U.S. user data for TikTok,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a statement. “This is an important investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the Global Chief Security Officer (CSO) role.”
The change follows the aftermath of a BuzzFeed News report that revealed TikTok staff in China had access to the company’s U.S. users’ data. At the same time, TikTok said it was moving U.S. users’ data to Oracle servers stored in the U.S. The BuzzFeed News report, which cites recordings from 80 TikTok internal meetings it obtained, claims that U.S. employees of TikTok repeatedly consulted with their colleagues in China to understand how U.S. user data flowed because they did not have the “permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own.”
The report came as U.S. officials have expressed concern for years that TikTok might let China’s authoritarian government have access to the data the firm collects from Americans and users from other nations.
In response to the report, numerous Republican senators wrote to TikTok to express concern about the company’s policies regarding data access. TikTok responded to the letter by admitting that some China-based employees have access to data “subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based security team.” The company also assured the senators by noting that it’s working on a program called “Project Texas” to bolster data security for U.S.-based users.
“The broad goal for Project Texas is to help build trust with users and key stakeholders by improving our systems and controls, but it is also to make substantive progress toward compliance with the final agreement with the U.S. government that will fully safeguard user data and U.S. national security interests,” Chew had said in the letter.
TikTok says ‘Project Texas’ will bolster security for US users in wake of China data access concerns
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/15/tiktoks-chief-security-officer-steps-down-amid-increased-scrutiny/
Meet the Startup Aiming to Take On Uber and Lyft
Alto has tapped investors with a ride-hailing model that includes owning vehicles and employing drivers. …read more
GM Robotaxi Unit Under California Scrutiny Over Launch Readiness
A California regulator said it is looking into claims made in an anonymous letter that the self-driving car company was preparing to launch its robotaxi service prematurely. …read more
Ericsson Boosted by Demand for 5G Equipment but Warns of Rising Costs
The Swedish telecom-equipment giant said its sales and profit rose in the second quarter as wireless carriers snapped up its 5G gear, but warned of higher costs stemming from geopolitical tensions and inflation. …read more
The Startups Predicting Climate Risk for Bond Investors
High-tech newcomers use satellite imaging, public databases and algorithms to map out threats of natural disasters for specific towns—and even buildings—that back bonds. …read more
Vektor Partners raises new €125M fund to look specifically at sustainable mobility
Some estimates put the future mobility market at $178.7 billion by 2026, up from $78.1 billion two years ago. And there has been $400 billion worth of investments made into the sector over the past decade, with $100 billion invested since 2020.
But most VC funds are not specialists in this area. So a space has opened up to look specifically at electric powertrains, batteries, and wider electric and fuel cell solutions for mobility.
That at least is the thesis behind mobility fund Vektor Partners which has raised a new €125 million fund to address areas like these.
Founded in 2020 as one of the few specialist VCs firms in mobility, Vektor invests in, it says, “deep tech startups employing AI and software that enable scalable and category-defining SaaS/MaaS-based businesses” which move people and goods from A to B more efficiently, in a greener and safer fashion.
Partners include Sebastian Bihari, who previously led automotive technology investment banking; Chris Riley, former startup CFO; Isabel Falkenberg, an ESG expert; and Valentin Menedetter, a former Palantir Technologies and Speedinvest senior executive
Together with Nielsen Ventures Vektor led a $17.5 million Series A funding round into NoTraffic – a platform that employs computer vision, machine learning, and cloud integration to for traffic management.
Other recent investments include German start-up Peregrine Technologies and Israeli technology firm GuardKnox.
Startups race to build a crypto-native, consumer-friendly messaging platform for web3
There’s no shortage of headlines about the onset of “crypto winter.” Amid a growing pile of bankruptcies, one of the buzziest startups in the business, the NFT marketplace OpenSea, announced a major layoff just today.
Behind the scenes, however, plenty of founders and VCs are doubling down on the promise of largely decentralized, blockchain-based outfits, and toward that end, one of the “more interesting parts of crypto right now” is at the “intersection of social messaging and web3,” says renowned entrepreneur and investor Elad Gil. In short, he thinks today’s messaging tools don’t cut it, and that there will be new opportunities for crypto-native startups to get it right.
Gil has already made an early bet, leading a $4 million seed round in Lines, a startup whose three co-founders studied philosophy at Harvard and whose CEO, Sahil Handa, boasts that the nascent company will become “web3’s messaging platform,” even while he and his former classmates are still developing its tech.
That it’s still a work in progress is apparently just fine with Lines’s backers, which also include renowned angel investors Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Gokul Rajaram. What they’re backing is a vision where every web3 native who wants to be is connected in some way to verifiable communications platform.
It matters because there’s a “rapidly increasing number of people using crypto pseudonyms to purchase digital currency, swap NFTs, vote on proposals, and manage treasuries,” explains Handa. “But whenever someone tries to communicate with another person in this network, there’s no way of knowing whether or not they are talking to the right person.”
Lines meanwhile strives to enable users to send messages from wallet to wallet and to join group chats based on token ownership. Indeed, Handa describes a communication layer that’s both ambivalent about underlying blockchains and crypto wallets, and that, as a result, empowers users in a wide variety of ways. They can find the owner of a particular NFT they’d like to buy, say, or discover like-minded individuals based on the tokens they’ve acquired, or reach out to potential new contributors of a DAO (a kind of “group chat with a bank account,” as DAOs have been called).
Certainly, Gil thinks the timing is right for Lines as more people organize and transact as a group online. In earlier days, he notes, “Your bitcoin or crypto asset and mine were identical, so I would have less reason to ping an anonymous user via their wallet. But with DAOs, there is the need to coordinate with various members beyond just using Discord.” With NFTs and other collectibles, he adds, “I may want to be able to ping you to buy or sell or trade, so there are other incentives for a communication layer to be useful.”
The question is whether enough people will agree that Lines is offering the exact right solution. As with every messaging app, its value will largely be determined by how many people use it. And how many people use it will determine if the startup …read more
Hyundai to electrify high-performance N brand
Hyundai said Thursday it will begin building electric vehicles under its high-performance N brand created to compete with luxury sports cars from Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
The automaker said the Ioniq 5 N, high-performance version of its battery-electric SUV, will launch in 2023. Hyundai also premiered Thursday two high-performance concepts — RN22e and N Vision 74 – to test technology for future models. Neither concept is confirmed for production.
Hyundai shared details this week on its upcoming Ioniq 6 battery-electric sedan, which is designed to challenge the Tesla Model 3 for the sales crown. The Ioniq 6 will travel 610 kilometers on a fully charged battery, based on the European WLTP test cycle. That’s about on par with the Model 3’s Long Range version.
The RN22e concept uses the Ioniq 6’s body design as well as its Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) that enables its extended range. The N Vision 74 concept, which draws inspiration from both the Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo and 1974 Hyundai Pony Coupe concept, is a high-performance hydrogen fuel cell hybrid model.
Both are designed to showcase Hyundai’s vision for its future as it attempts to evolve from a budget-friendly mainstream automaker to a top global luxury EV maker. The first two models in the Ioniq brand – the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 – showcase eye-catching silhouettes and sleek, luxurious interiors trimmed with sustainable materials.
The N brand was created in 2016 to establish real performance credentials for Hyundai. The N stands for Germany’s famed racetrack in Nürburgring, where Hyundai’s Technical Center tests its N models. It was an unusual strategy for a mainstream brand to go head-to-head with cars from BMW M, Mercedes AMG, Audi RS and Cadillac V-series, but Hyundai is now making clear its aspirations to go upscale and compete in the luxury segment.
True N cars serve as low-volume halo vehicles. Hyundai declined to say how many Ioniq 5 Ns it will build.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/hyundai-to-electrify-high-performance-n-brand/
Cruise robotaxi service under review following anonymous letter
Someone claiming to be a Cruise employee sent an anonymous letter to a California regulatory agency raising concerns that the company is launching its robotaxi service too early. The employee cited the regularity of instances that Cruise robotaxis malfunction in some way and are left stranded on streets, often blocking traffic or emergency vehicles, as one of his main concerns, according to the letter that has been reviewed by TechCrunch.
The letter also claims that employees “generally do not believe we are ready to launch to the public, but there is fear of admitting this because of expectations from leadership and investors.” Cruise has responded to this with results from an April 2022 survey from over 2,000 employees, in which 94% of respondents agreed with the statement: “Safety is a top priority here.”
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which is responsible for issuing driverless car permits in California, said it is looking into the issues raised by the letter. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the CPUC’s intention to investigate the matter.
The CPUC awarded Cruise a driverless deployment permit, which will allow the General Motors-owned company to begin charging fares for autonomous ride-hail services in San Francisco, at the start of June. Cruise began commercial operations close to three weeks ago.
The commission has the authority to suspend or revoke an autonomous vehicle permit at any time if it finds that unsafe behavior becomes evident, according to the CPUC’s resolution to give Cruise the green light.
Cruise says it has a transparent relationship with regulators and that communication between the two is frequent and consistent. The company also said it strictly follows a variety of reporting requirements and provides CPUC with extra information as needed.
The employee’s concerns, which were originally sent to the CPUC in May, come to light just a couple of weeks after more than half a dozen of Cruise’s vehicles stalled on a street in San Francisco for close to two hours, blocking traffic and an intersection. Cruise didn’t say what caused the issue, but the vehicles needed to be recovered through a combination of remote assistance and manual retrieval.
“Currently (as of May 2022) with regularity there are incidents where our San Francisco fleet of vehicles individually or in clusters enter a “VRE” or Vehicle Retrieval Event,” wrote the employee, who describes himself as a father and an employee working on safety critical systems who has been at Cruise for many years.
“When this occurs, a vehicle is stranded, often in lanes where they are blocking traffic and potentially blocking emergency vehicles. Sometimes it is possible to remotely assist the vehicle with safely pulling over, but there have been some cases where fallback systems have also failed and it was not possible to remotely maneuver the vehicle outside of the lanes they were blocking until they were physically towed from their location to a facility.”
The self-identified Cruise employee also shed light on the potentially “chaotic environment” internally at Cruise, specifically …read more
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/cruise-robotaxi-under-review-following-anonymous-letter/