The start of mass production is a huge milestone in Tesla’s quest to electrify transportation, and it brings to America a manufacturing industry—battery cells—that’s long been dominated by China, Japan, and South Korea. More than 2,900 people are already working at the 4.9 million square-foot facility, and another 4,000 jobs (including temporary construction work) will be added this year through the partnership between Tesla and Panasonic.
By 2018, the Gigafactory, which is less than a third complete, will double the world’s production capacity for lithium-ion batteries
Beginning today, a select group of Pittsburgh Uber users will get a surprise the next time they request a pickup: the option to ride in a self driving car. Uber wants to learn and refine how self driving cars act in the real world. What do you guys think about Uber's approach to this?
Update: Uber started pickups in San Francisco. California DMV issued a notice to cease operations till it acquires the self-driving car permit from DMV first. More information here: Uber ordered to stop self-driving vehicle service in San Francisco
Yeah, their acquisition of Otto was pretty aggressive. This is going to be a very interesting market.
From what I know, it's supposed to drive on its own and be completely anonymous on a good day, but I think their technology is still far enough that the safety driver will have to be there for...
After losing mobile gaming to iOS and Android, Facebook is making a big push into playing on PC with today’s developer launch of its Gameroom Windows desktop gaming platform. After months of name changes, beta tests and dev solicitation, Facebook opened up the beta build for all developers and officially named it Gameroom....Gameroom let users play web, ported mobile and native Gameroom games in a dedicated PC app free from the distractions of the News Feed.
It is definitely super interesting to see Facebook go after the gaming community after its successes with developers like Zynga. Steam has a loyal following and as a company Valve has created a great atmosphere and community for gamers. There is a lot of money to be made if Facebook can capture a piece of the gaming market and in the end it just makes the entire FB platform more valuable. For example you could adapt Messenger/Whatsapp to be used for in game chats, etc.
Alphabet's X spun off the self driving car project as an independent company Waymo under Alphabet, along with a release of a drive taken with no backup drivers and a legally blind passenger last year. That level of confidence is what Google/Alphabet has been aiming for years, and it seems like it's getting there. What are your thoughts around this?