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Tech Rundown: Cruise-in for a bruisin'

Tech Rundown: Cruise-in for a bruisin'

Cruise has to pull the e-brake, Shein looks to IPO, and uni students don't date online. That and more in our tech rundown

Daily Tech
November 09, 2023

Hello there,

Here’s today tech rundown — everything you need to know in the world of tech in 3 minutes!

In today’s email:

Cruise hits the brakes
A new, tech-infused mayor in Bulgaria
German AI startup gets $500m

The Lead Story

Cruise control no more

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company, is having a forgettable 2023.

The GM subsidiary has had its license pulled in California, paused testing, and now recently recalled 950 of their vehicles.

But perhaps the most damming news, was a report that alleged Cruise’s software has a hard time recognising children.

I have been relatively bearish on autonomous cars in the past. Not because I don’t think they add value to our world, but because of the human condition.

When a human-driven car runs over a person we can empathise and understand that we may have acted in the same manner. Humans are different, but relatable.

It’s harder for us to comprehend when an algorithm does the same thing — even if this means fewer lives lost overall. Personal stories resonates more than statistics.

Looking ahead, I hope Cruise will take this as an inflection point and improve. The problem they’re looking to solve is real: an estimated 46,000 car-related deaths occurred in the US alone last year.

More Tech News

Airbn-fee: The short term rental platform is to have $835m seized by Italian authorities over tax evasion (more)
Shining Shein: Fast fashion startup Shein is reportedly looking to IPO at a $90b valuation (more)
Sofia’s choice: Meet Vassil Terziev — entrepreneur, investor, and the new mayor of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia (more)
Dating dilemma: College students are shunning dating apps; the most popular app was Tinder, with 12% of students using it monthly (more)
Constructive feedback: HBO CEO comes under fire after asking staff to create fake Twitter accounts to attack critics (more)

Startup Fundraising

Aleph Alpha is a German startup building large language models (and a new rival to OpenAI). Raised $500m (more)
Refurbed is a marketplace for refurbished tech items; has facilitated over $1b in sales. Raised $57m (more)
Kuva Space develops nano-satellites to survey & study crops, minerals. Raised $17m (more)
Forge is a gaming platform that connects and rewards users for their gameplay. Raised $11m (more)
Dashtoon uses Gen-AI to assist writers in turning their stories into comics. Raised $5m (more)