Urban Mobility
Google began a pilot program around its California headquarters in May that enables several thousand area workers at specific firms to use the Waze app to connect with fellow commuters. It plans to open the program to all San Francisco-area Waze users this fall. Waze wants to connect riders with drivers who are already headed in the same direction. The
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Good news for car dealers, the search giant rolled out changes to its search-ad format in late July that give dealers more characters to work with; meaning more descriptive in their sales ads. Instead of having one 25-character headline, the new Google AdWords format now has two headlines of 30 characters each that will allow dealerships to write more attention-grabbing
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Hyundai Motor Co. is in discussions with Google about further partnerships as South Korea’s largest carmaker seeks external expertise to remain competitive. Hyundai has been among the most aggressive automakers adopting Apple Inc.’s CarPlay and Alphabet Inc.’s Android Auto, which integrate iPhone and Android handsets with car dashboards. Any potential collaboration between the two companies may be aided by John
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For autonomous vehicles to function, they need to be able to react to changes in their surrounding environment. That’s where a sophisticated high definition solid-state LiDAR (laser sensor system) comes into play, and why Israel-based Innoviz Technologies announced Monday it had secured a $9 million Series A investment led by Magma Venture Partners and Vertex Venture Capital. Other investors included Zohar Zisapel, Amiti
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Lalamove, one of a number of companies offering logistics on-demand in China and across Asia, has closed $10 million in funding as it targets profitability this year. The round was led by existing investor MindWorks with other existing investors, including China’s Crystal Stream (China), AppWorks (Taiwan), Aria Group (Hong Kong), taking part. In addition, Asia Plus from Thailand, where Lalamove
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As Uber Technologies Inc. turns away from China, a competitor is raising funds to cement its dominance in Southeast Asia and fend off the tech titan based in San Francisco. Uber’s decision to sell its China business to Didi Chuxing Technology Co. is giving Singapore-based Grab renewed confidence it can take on Uber and win on its home turf. Grab
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Both Alphabet and Amazon have committed to developing autonomous drones that can deliver packages with minimal human oversight. As part of a White House initiative aimed at bolstering the drone industry, Alphabet’s Project Wing has announced that it will begin testing its delivery drones, or UAVs, at one of the six FAA-approved test sites here in the US. Development of
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