The bike-sharing program rewards users who help redistribute bikes around New York City. A handful of hustlers have figured out how to turn that into profit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/nyregion/citi-bike-scam-nyc.html
Maximum load volume. Minimum footprint.
Launched in September 2024, ELM Mobility is a collaboration between Prodrive and Astheimer Design to create the first ground-up, fit-for-purpose last mile delivery platform, making a positive difference to cities around the world.
Identifying unmet and growing demand, ELM Mobility’s vision is to be the leader in zero-emission last-mile transport, delivering game-changing efficiency with small, lightweight vehicles.
https://www.elmmobility.com
Heads up drivers — Los Angeles Metro buses will install AI-powered cameras to ticket vehicles parked in bus lanes. There will be two cameras installed inside the windshield of the buses scanning the bus lanes in real time. Once they detect that a vehicle is parked inside a bus lane or in front of a bus stop, those cameras will take videos and photos of the license plate to create an "evidence package" to be sent to local parking enforcement agencies.
https://laist.com/news/transportation/las-metro-buses-will-use-ai-to-ticket-drivers-parked-in-bus-lanes
“In Q2 2024, the venture ecosystem showed modest signs of improvement, but not a drastic break, from Q1. …
The year got off to a slow start in Q1, but Q2’s positive movement along multiple metrics could mean that better days are coming for U.S.-based startups”
Investment in early-stage startups globally in the first-quarter actually grew, despite the overall funding dip, Crunchbase data shows.
Funding at this stage totaled around $29.5 billion, up 6% year over year, led by large Series B fundings in AI, electric vehicles and green energy.
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/startup-funding-q1-2024-charts/
Introducing the ultimate solution for dogs with never-ending energy and pet parents who wish they could do more. This is the first system to provide smart games for smart dogs. With the perfect blend of machine learning (artificial intelligence) and positive reinforcement training, Companion goes beyond any other system available on the market. Get ready to enhance your dog's life with our cutting-edge technology that combines a camera, treat launcher, and state-of-the-art computing. Plus, you'll receive personalized video summaries of your dog's games, learned skills, and behavior insights after each session.
Welcome to our Ultimate Guide to the New FightCamp Console Upgrade! In this video, we'll dive deep into everything you need to know about FightCamp's latest console enhancement. Whether you're a seasoned FightCamp user or new to the platform, this guide will walk you through all the exciting new features and improvements designed to elevate your home fitness experience.
“CIOs say they feel pressure to shoehorn the tech into areas better served by other forms of predictive AI—or perhaps just a spreadsheet”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-clamor-for-generative-ai-even-if-something-else-works-better-d9bd0257?mod=tech_feat1_ai_pos1
Prices for batteries in China are plummeting, and the implications are just starting to ripple outward for the global automotive market.
Over the last year, the price for lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery cells in China has dropped 51% to an average of $53 per kilowatt-hour. The average global price of these batteries last year was $95/kWh.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-07-09/china-s-batteries-are-now-cheap-enough-to-power-huge-shifts
Major American brands like Apple, Starbucks and McDonald’s are rapidly losing market share in China to new domestic rivals. WSJ’s Jonathan Cheng explores how Chinese brands are squeezing out their U.S. rivals. Photo Illustration: Liting Yen
https://www.wsj.com/video/series/news-explainers/top-american-brands-like-mcdonalds-and-apple-are-losing-ground-in-china/FF0D734A-40BA-42D4-B08F-3E0581150693?mod=hp_trending_now_video_pos1
Kernel, a New York City startup from Chipotle Mexican Grill founder Steve Ells, uses a robotic arm to flip plant-based burger patties and a conveyor belt to move dishes along the assembly line. Humans put on the finishing touches and package the meals for customers to pick up.
https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/restaurant-robots-flippy-chippy-autocado-9de44eeb
The meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/07/white-collar-meetings-more-frequent/678941/
"Battery-News.de" presents a current overview of planned and already implemented projects in the field of the production of lithium-ion batteries. As usual, the corresponding data comes from official communications from the respective actors and from sources for battery production.
https://battery-news.de/batterieproduktion/
https://fortune.com/2024/07/08/chinese-self-driving-cars-us-roads-data-collection-surveillance-national-security-concerns-investigation/
Mapping software is incredible. Having instant access to every storefront, building, park, and transit stop on every street, almost anywhere in the world, has changed my life as much as any other single innovation of the cellphone age. But also, mapping software is a little weird. Seemingly random places show up as landmarks in my neighborhood: a Bitcoin ATM, a nearby hotel I’ll never stay at. And when I need directions, my app likes to tell me things that no one ever needs to know, such as when to merge onto the freeway from an on-ramp. Why is it so obtuse? Or perhaps the better question is: What makes the software think that I’m obtuse?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/07/google-maps-apple-glitches/678904/
The Global Positioning System runs the modern world. But it is under daily attack. This year alone, researchers say, more than 60,000 commercial flights have been hit by bogus GPS signals, which can confuse pilots.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/02/world/gps-threats.html
“Today solar power is long past the toy phase. Panels now occupy an area around half that of Wales, and this year they will provide the world with about 6% of its electricity—which is almost three times as much electrical energy as America consumed back in 1954. Yet this historic growth is only the second-most-remarkable thing about the rise of solar power. The most remarkable is that it is nowhere near over.”
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/06/20/the-exponential-growth-of-solar-power-will-change-the-world
“Silicon Valley prides itself on disruption: Start-ups develop new technologies, upend existing markets and overtake incumbents. This cycle of creative destruction brought us the personal computer, the internet and the smartphone. But in recent years, a handful of incumbent tech companies have sustained their dominance. Why? We believe they have learned how to co-opt potentially disruptive start-ups before they can become competitive threats.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/opinion/big-tech-ftc-ai.html
“The robots are coming! In science fiction that is usually an ominous warning. In the real world, it is a prediction—and a welcome one. The field of robotics has made impressive progress in the past year, as researchers in universities and industry have applied advances in artificial intelligence (ai) to machines. The same technology that enables chatbots like Chatgpt to hold conversations, or systems like dall-e to create realistic-looking images from text descriptions, can give robots of all kinds a dramatic brain upgrade.”
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/06/06/three-reasons-why-its-good-news-that-robots-are-getting-smarter
“The number of Chinese websites is shrinking and posts are being removed and censored, stoking fears about what happens when history is erased.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/04/business/china-internet-censorship.html
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