Amazon’s drive for efficiencies hits rural delivery partners

Driven away by Amazon: The closures of two independent delivery companies at an Amazon Delivery Station in rural Northern California reflect broader tensions between the tech giant and the business owners and drivers responsible for getting its packages to porches and doorsteps around the world. GeekWire’s Todd Bishop revisits Amazon’s operations in his hometown of Orland, Calif., examining the fallout from its larger push for operational efficiencies. Read more.

Seattle is searching for solutions to curb the epidemic of theft of electric vehicle charging cables. Slower charging cables can coil and retract into a machine to avoid being cut, but that doesn’t work for thicker, stiffer fast-charging cables. As EV adoption increases so does the urgent need for theft-proof designs. Read more. 

“It’s the Twilight Zone”: Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman is perplexed by the stagnant housing market, as mortgage rates dropped to a 15-month low but home sales haven’t budged. The Seattle real estate company reported second quarter revenue of $295.2 million, up 7% year-over-year, with net losses of $27.9 million. Read more.

What’s the best route to the Red Planet? Hundreds of people are converging on Seattle this week to consider that question at the annual convention of the Mars Society. And the answer may come, at least in part, from an array of tech startups.

Hot Links:

• Amazon Music launched an AI-powered feature called “Topics” that allows listeners to search podcast episodes by topics discussed in the episodes. (TechCrunch)

• “There’s no price” Microsoft could offer to Apple to get the company to use Bing rather than Google as Safari’s default search. That revelation and more are part of the recent antitrust ruling against Google. (The Verge)

• In the ruling, a U.S. judge cited Microsoft’s antitrust case from 1999. (CNBC)