Camper van rental startup Cabana shuts down | BMW uses Amazon’s Alexa AI for ‘car expert’

End of the road for travel startup Cabana: The 4-year-old Seattle company, which provided custom rental vehicles for so-called “vanlifers,” shut down at the end of 2023 after failing to find a buyer. Founder Scott Kubly blamed a number of macroeconomic conditions for stalling Cabana’s ability to scale. Read more. 

United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket lifted off for the first time, making use of booster engines built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture to launch what could be the first mission to put a commercially built lander safely on the moon. “Big kudos and congrats to the whole team!” Bezos said on Instagram. Read more. 

Can artificial intelligence replace the owner’s manual? BMW is demonstrating a future version of its in-car personal assistant that uses Amazon’s new Alexa large language model to answer questions about its cars, and change drive modes via voice commands. It’s part of a wave of AI announcements expected this week at CES in Las Vegas. Read more.

Amazon’s Spheres and other Seattle landmarks are lit up in Husky purple as the University of Washington faces the University of Michigan in today’s College Football Playoff championship. Here’s how the schools stack up when it comes to tech. (Photo above via UW)

• GeekWire is getting into the spirit with a custom version of our logo in honor of our hometown team. Go Dawgs.  

Recurrent juices up: The Seattle startup raised $16 million in a Series A round to fuel its software that provides scores for EV battery health. Read more. 

NuScale layoffs: The Portland, Ore.-based nuclear company is laying off 154 full-time employees, or 28% of its workforce. Read more. 

Astound Broadband customers in Seattle were left without internet this weekend after the company said power pole damage impacted its fiber network. Some said they still did not have a connection on Monday morning. Read more. 

Hot Links:

• Seattle-based Getty Images announced a new stock image service powered by generative AI. (The Verge)

• An iPhone that reportedly fell from Alaska Airlines 1282 after the aircraft lost part of its fuselage was still working when a game designer found the smartphone on the side of the road in the Portland area. (X)

• Microsoft and South Korea's Qcells announced a giant deal to supply the tech company with 12 gigawatts of U.S.-made solar panels. (Reuters)