Technology
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation.” To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! The year in transportation started with a couple of bankruptcies — Canoo and Nikola — and now it’s ending with two more. Rad Power Bikes is coming…
Years ago, when venture capitalist Jon Medved took an interest in backing various health tech startups, he had no idea that one day, he would need them to improve his own quality of life. Israel tight-knit startup community received a blow in October when Medved, one of its most famous VCs, announced he was retiring…
ChatGPT users can now tweak the chatbot’s warmth, enthusiasm, and emoji use, according to a social media post from OpenAI. These options (as well as similar adjustments to ChatGPT’s use of headers and lists) now appear in the Personalization menu and can be set to More, Less, or Default. They allow users to further customize…
When iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Sunday, it marked the end of an era for one of America’s most beloved robotics companies. The Roomba maker, which had sold over 50 million robots since its 2002 launch, had survived 35 years of near-death experiences and technical challenges only to be undone by what founder…
Law firms representing Google and Apple have warned that employees who need a visa stamp to re-enter the United States should avoid leaving the country due to longer-than-usual visa processing times, according to Business Insider. BI says it has viewed memos from BAL Immigration Law (which represents Google) and Fragomen (which represents Apple). “Given the…
Building in regulated industries adds a massive hurdle to the already challenging journey of building a startup. And this week on Build Mode, Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen spoke to two founders who are working to make progress in industries ripe for disruption, despite the regulatory headaches that might have deterred many other people. In this episode, we’re talking about life and death and how regulatory clearance doesn’t have to be a damper…
Resolve AI, a startup developing an autonomous site reliability engineer (SRE), a tool that automatically maintains software systems, has raised a Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to three people familiar with the deal. The headline valuation for the fresh round is $1 billion, sources said. However, the company’s actual blended valuation was…
Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire is once again drawing unwanted attention to the prominent venture firm after falsely accusing a Palestinian student of being behind the December 13 Brown University mass shooting and the subsequent murder of an MIT professor. In since-deleted posts on X, Maguire speculated that “it seems very likely” the student was…
Rocket Lab has won an $816 million contract — its largest to date — with the U.S. Space Development Agency as the company continues to diversify beyond its “rocket company” label. The company said Friday that its subsidiary, Rocket Lab USA, was awarded a prime contract by the Space Development Agency (SDA) to design and…
When you tune in to a podcast, you’re probably not opening the Netflix app — at least for now. That might change, if Netflix gets its way. The streamer signed deals with iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports this week, in addition to a recent deal with Spotify, to gain exclusive video rights to select shows. The…
