As the average cost of a ride on Uber, Lyft and other “rideshare” services has risen over the years, it’s become clear these companies were never entirely forthright about their business models. Now a pair of studies suggests even the investor-subsidized prices don’t tell the whole story, with costs being borne by drivers and communities. […]
Welcome debuts a smarter city guide app on iOS, backed by $3.5M led by Accel
When you’re exploring a city — whether one you’re visiting on your travels or your own — there are a number of tools that can help you find out where to go, what to see and what to do, like Google Maps, Yelp, TripAdvisor and others. But a startup called Welcome thinks that today’s set […]
Cruise plans to have ‘tens of thousands’ of Origin AVs on roads in coming years
Cruise expects to leap from a limited commercial robotaxi and delivery service that will start in earnest in 2022 to a business of “tens of thousands” of its purpose-built Origin AVs on the road over the next few years. The eye-popping projections will be reached, according to CEO Dan Ammann, through a combination of regulatory […]
Chronosphere raises $200M at a $1B valuation for cloud-native monitoring, adds granular, distributed tracing to its dashboard
Data observability — necessary to keep tabs on infrastructure performing as it should; to see if apps are returning errors; and to ensure that critical business data is getting to where it needs to go — is becoming an evermore complicated task as organizations’ cloud-native data demands and data usage grow. Today a startup that’s […]
Ex-Uber driver takes legal action over ‘racist’ face-recognition software
UK driver alleges his account was illegally deactivated when Uber software decided he was not who he said he wasAn Uber driver who lost his job when automated face-scanning software failed to recognise him is accusing the firm of indirect race discrimi…
Why MPG should matter for electric vehicles
We already have a common denominator for the EV age: the kilowatt-hour. A familiar, tangible energy unit that gives us an apples-to-apples way to think about cost, efficiency and pollution.
Uber adjusts third-quarter forecast in light of increased gross bookings
Uber said Tuesday that it could hit one measure of profitability in the third quarter, earlier than expected as the ride-hailing company saw gains in its delivery and mobility businesses. The ride-hailing service told regulators in a filing this morning that it anticipated an increase in gross bookings and stronger adjusted EBITDA in the quarter […]
A story about NYC delivery workers and the conditions they endure
Ride Like Hell. Exploited by apps. Attacked by thieves. Unprotected by cops. 65,000 strong, with only themselves to count on. Revolt of the Delivery Workers. Reportage by NY Magazine.
Confluent CEO Jay Kreps is coming to TC Sessions: SaaS for a fireside chat
As companies process ever-increasing amounts of data, moving it in real time is a huge challenge for organizations. Confluent is a streaming data platform built on top of the open source Apache Kafka project that’s been designed to process massive numbers of events. To discuss this, and more, Confluent CEO and co-founder Jay Kreps will […]
The network effect is anti-competitive
Social networks and online marketplace providers have become digital dictators with complete control over their territories.