Work continues on developing MIT’s fully autonomous robot boats — “roboats” if you’d rather — and now they have a new trick, allowing them to change configurations and reassemble with one another to form a range of new structures. When last we checked in on the “roboat” project, the robots had achieved a basic level…
As cities in emerging markets grapple with increasingly traffic-clogged and dangerous streets, Urbvan, a startup providing private, high-end transportation shuttles in Mexico, has raised $9 million in a new round of financing. Co-founded by Joao Matos Albino and Renato Picard, Urbvan is taking the reins from startups like the now-defunct Chariot and tailoring the business…
After Hong Kong’s leader suggested she may invoke emergency powers that could potentially include limiting Internet access, one of city’s biggest industry groups warned that “any such restrictions, however slight originally, would start the end of the open Internet of Hong Kong.” While talking to reporters on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam suggested…
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Peloton files publicly for IPO Peloton previously filed a confidential S-1, but now its IPO documents have been revealed publicly, showing…
The moderators who sift through the toxic detritus of social media have gained the spotlight recently, but they’ve been important for far longer — longer than internet giants would like you to know. In her new book “Behind the Screen,” UCLA’s Sarah Roberts illuminates the history of this scrupulously hidden workforce and the many forms…
Software APIs help different tools communicate with one another, let developers access essential services without having to code it themselves, and are critical components for driving a platform-driven strategy. Yet they require solid documentation to help make the best use of them. ReadMe, a startup that helps companies customize their API documentation, announced a $9…
Trump said in July that some U.S. suppliers would be allowed to sell to Huawei while it remains blacklisted, but so far no vendors have been allowed to do so. Reuters reports that more than 130 applications have been submitted by companies that want to do business with Huawei, but the U.S. Commerce Department has…
A number of Uber and Lyft drivers are protesting outside Uber’s San Francisco headquarters today to demand the passage of Assembly Bill 5 and the right to unionize. “What do we want? AB-5! When do we want it? Now!” That was one of the phrases drivers chanted outside Uber’s HQ this afternoon. This was part…
Airship announced today that it has acquired Apptimize, an A/B testing company whose customers include Glassdoor, HotelTonight and The Wall Street Journal. Formerly known as Urban Airship, the more concisely named Airship has built a platform for companies to manage their customer communication across SMS, push notifications, email, mobile wallets and more. It says that by…
While Slack is trying to kill email, a new email startup backed by Kleiner Perkins is trying to make corporate email more like Slack. Consider is an email service for startups that balances some premium individual features with collaboration tools that it hopes will help them bring startups onboard. The founders of Consider both met…
