Cruise recently received a permit to transport passengers in its autonomous vehicles in California. Granted by the California Public Utilities Commission, the permit is part of the state’s Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service pilot. As part of the program, Cruise must provide data and reports to the CPUC regarding any incidents, the number of passenger miles […]

It’s the golden age of design for software companies. Designers are becoming more visible and popular on engineering teams, figuring out everything from the visuals of color palette and fonts to the deeper interaction flows and user experience journeys that underlie products. As my colleague Jordan Crook recently described, that popularity has translated into one […]

Target’s investments in store remodels, same-day delivery and drive-up services are paying off. The retailer, which used to rank No. 11 in U.S. e-commerce sales, is now forecast to jump three spots to break into the top 10 list as the No. 8 retailer, according to a new report from analyst firm eMarketer. This puts […]

Where are we today in the startup business cycle? We'll summarize a few different perspectives on the question, and then come up with our best synthesis of the group.

Disney is offering a discount on its new streaming service for select European markets ahead of its March 24th launch, the company announced on Monday. Customers who pre-order Disney+ before March 23rd will get £10 or €10 off a full year’s subscription, bringing the cost down to around £49.99 or €59.99 per year (~$64 USD). […]

Fears over the potential impact of the coronavirus spreading in Europe, Asia and the Middle East have sent stocks plummeting in Monday’s open — with tech stocks among the hardest hit. The reason for the declines are clear: Over the weekend, cases outside of China swiftly rose in Europe and other parts of Asia, indicating […]

It’s been a few months since Microsoft announced the impending arrival of the Xbox Series X. The somewhat redundantly named console made cameo during the Game Awards, getting a late 2020 date in the process. We got at glimpse at the big, boxy design and peek into a handful of features, including the new wireless […]

Good morning friends, and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a short-form audio hit to kickstart your week. Regular Equity episodes still drop Friday morning, so if you’ve listened to the show over the years don’t worry — we’re not changing the main show. (Here’s last week’s episode with Danny Crichton if you want to listen; I also just […]

Waiting in a service station waiting room purgatory one day, Victor Darolfi had a simple thought. “I sat at America’s Tires for three hours and thought, hey, we use robots to put tires on at the factory,” the founder explains. “Why don’t we bring robots into the service industry?” The notion was the first seed […]

Databricks today announced the launch of its new Data Ingestion Network of partners and the launch of its Databricks Ingest service. The idea here is to make it easier for businesses to combine the best of data warehouses and data lakes into a single platform — a concept Databricks likes to call “lakehouse.” At the […]

So far this year, one of the most eye-popping startup exits has been Visa’s $5.3 billion acquisition of fintech data services platform Plaid. It’s a major exit in the white-hot fintech space, and while that transaction is still going through regulatory reviews, already some current Plaid employees are becoming alumni and fanning out into the […]

“What Karius is good at is identifying those novel microbes before they become an outbreak like coronavirus,” says Mickey Kertesz, a chief executive whose life sciences startup just hauled in $165 million in new funding. While the new money may have been raised under the looming threat of Covid 19, the company’s technology is already […]

Sony has announced its first 5G smartphone: The Xperia 1 II. (For the curious or confused, it is pronounced ‘Xperia One, Mark Two.’) “No one understands the entertainment experience better than Sony,” said president of mobile communications, Mitsuya Kishida, claiming the company is “uniquely positioned” in the era of 5G cellular technology to offer its […]

Petnet, the smart pet feeder backed by investors including Petco, recently experienced a week-long system outage affecting its second-generation SmartFeeders. While the startup’s customer service tweeted over the weekend that its SmartFeeders and app’s functionality have been restored, Petnet’s lack of responsiveness continues to leave many customers frustrated and confused. Petnet first announced on Feb. […]