AV/EV

The Non-Sporty Transportation News

Even tech newsletter writers get self-driving and electric vehicle fatigue. But Robinhood traders, blank-check companies, and auto suppliers never tire. So let’s go around the world of new mobility in 331 words. 

Automated driving

Intel’s Mobileye is a dominant supplier of processors, sensors, and software for driver assist systems in passenger cars. At the Beijing Auto Show yesterday, Mobileye said it will be the tech provider for Geely Auto Group, one of China’s largest automakers. 

• The deal will involve hundreds of thousands of vehicles, Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua said on a call with reporters. 
• “The pandemic has created a shrinking of activity in Europe and the U.S., and the opposite in China....China is much more ambitious and advanced,” Shashua said. 

In Europe, Volkswagen’s truck division announced Wednesday that it has taken a minority stake in TuSimple. The two companies will jointly develop self-driving trucks. Pure speculation: TuSimple goes public via SPAC in the next 18 months. 

Electric vehicles

Heading over to the Golden State...Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that would ban internal combustion engine cars in the state by 2035. Ford said it’s “proud to stand with California.” 

Also this week, VW unveiled the ID.4, a $40,000 crossover built on the carmaker’s new modular EV platform. Elon Musk, who held his own EV event this week, recently commented on another new VW EV, the ID.3: “For a non-sporty car, it’s pretty good.”

California-based ChargePoint, an EV charging infrastructure startup, announced yesterday that it will go public via...this one’s really gonna shock you...SPAC. Even after the Nikola drama, traders’ enthusiasm for electric stocks remains high. 

• Case in point: SPI Energy, a photovoltaic solar company, announced Wednesday that it was forming EdisonFuture, an EV subsidiary. The company’s market cap briefly rose from $15 million to ~$460 million... 

Big picture: Companies are fond of making bold pronouncements about EVs and self-driving. But the real action happens at the margins, with deals, shipments, pricing, and real-world performance.

CRYPTO

The Great Stabilizer

Stablecoins are growing up: They officially got the sit-down talk on house rules.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrency created to minimize price volatility relative to a “stable” asset. On Monday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posted the first regulatory guidance for stablecoins. Before this week, there was no federal clarity around the cryptocurrency. 

• In this case, the OCC and SEC are referring to the type of stablecoin that’s backed by fiat money. 

The OCC letter clarified that financial institutions can hold “reserves” for stablecoin issuers, as long as the stablecoins involved are held in wallets hosted by a trusted third party. Translation: Stablecoin issuers get clout due to the fact that regulated financial institutions are holding their reserves. 

Big picture: The OCC’s release comes on the heels of other efforts to blend crypto into the traditional financial system—like allowing banks to provide services to crypto companies and proposing a national payments charter. 

• Still, permission doesn’t mandate action: “These are slow-burn types of things,” Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, told CoinDesk. “Banks don’t move at the speed of crypto.”

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SMART HOME

Ambience Everywhere

Yesterday, Amazon previewed updates to the Echo product line, Alexa machine learning improvements, and other smart home devices. Let’s break down the best of the rest. 

Ambient computing: Amazon envisions tomorrow’s home as a streamlined oasis, where tech completes tasks in the background. Google also sees this future. Apple too-ish, but with more privacy. 

Surveillance: Amazon’s Ring is a top vendor of home security devices, which critics consider the footsoldiers of a privatized surveillance network. Undeterred, Ring revealed the Always Home Cam, an indoor drone that autonomously flies around and films your home. 

Ring’s also hitting the road with three new car security products. It’s developed an API for automakers that will allow car owners to receive alerts for break-ins, view footage, and check if their vehicle is locked. Consider this Amazon’s answer to Tesla’s Sentry Mode. 

Games: Amazon announced Luna, its $5.99/month cloud gaming service that integrates with Alexa and Twitch. The controller connects directly to Amazon Web Services, which could cut latency. Early access opens next month. 

Bottom line: It’s always day one?

GIVEAWAY

How to Win a Macbook Air and Influence People

You could be the next owner of this Macbook Air just by sharing the Brew. It looks just like this stock photo but you could make the background anything you want...and slap a Brew sticker on the back. 

How it works: When you share Emerging Tech Brew, you’ll be entered in the raffle to win a Macbook Air. The more shares, the better your chances (1 referral = 1 ticket). 

Where to begin: Click the share button below to grab your unique referral link. Tell your friends, family, and blockchain book clubs so they can read tech news they won’t get elsewhere.

Reminder: The Daily Brew recently ran a similar giveaway, but their email list is 10x the size of ours. The odds are more in your favor here.

Deadline: next week. Get sharing.

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BITS & BYTES

Stat: Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek is launching a $1.2 billion fund for European tech startups working on “moonshots” in machine learning, materials science, and biotech. 

Quote: "We want to apologize upfront that this will be in limited supply on launch day.”—Nvidia, discussing its new powerful graphics chip. 

Read: Retail Brew’s Halie LeSavage drops some knowledge on Allbirds’ new shopping app. Why is this here? Because 1) the app includes a virtual try-on feature and 2) the shoes are a Silicon Valley staple. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Gemini, a crypto exchange, is expanding to the U.K. 
• Spotify, Epic, Tile, and more formed a coalition against Apple’s App Store policies. 
• A network of fake Facebook accounts based in China used AI-generated faces.
• YouTube will use machine learning to place automatic age restrictions on certain videos.

GOING PHISHING

Three of the following news stories are true, and one...we made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. A 60-foot-tall Gundam robot showed off its moves in Japan. 
2. The International Space Station dodged a drone that got stuck in orbit. 
3. The Air Force is building an “internet of things” for war.
4. Germany’s space agency revealed an EV concept car for Earth.

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For argument’s sake: If you’ve always wanted to be a star debater, now’s your (indirect) chance: A new debate show powered by IBM Watson premieres next month, and anyone can submit their argument ahead of time for AI analysis. Current topic: whether the U.S.-China space race is good for humanity. 

For expert training: On Sept. 29 and 30, Skillsoft is holding a free interactive bootcamp on understanding bias in data. Speakers include a Harvard data scientist, an associate professor of African American Studies at Princeton, and the co-founder of Data Society.

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Microsoft exclusively licenses OpenAI’s GPT-3 
• Unity Software goes public 
• AR/VR updates from Facebook

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

The ISS didn’t dodge a drone stuck in orbit, but it did recently perform an emergency maneuver to avoid space debris.