Author: Editor-in-Chief

The founders who previously sold their livestreaming video startup Periscopeto Twitter are back with a new startup — and no surprise, it’s an AI-focused company this time around. On Wednesday, former Twitter head of product Kayvon Beykpour announced the launch of Macroscope, an AI system aimed at developers and product leaders that summarizes updates to a codebase and catches bugs, among other things. The startup was co-founded by Beykpour, now Macroscope CEO, in July 2023, along with childhood friend Joe Bernstein, also previously of Periscope and their prior enterprise startup, Terriblyclever, which was sold to Blackboard in 2009. They’re…

Tesla is “working on” redesigning its door handles so they are less likely to trap people inside the company’s cars, chief designer Franz von Holzhausen told Bloomberg News on Wednesday. The news comes just one day after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an probe into Tesla’s door handles, and one week after a Bloomberg News investigation highlighted multiple instances where owners or passengers were stuck in their cars following a crash. Von Holzhausen didn’t specify when Tesla made the decision to rethink how its door handles work, according to Bloomberg. China has already been pushing automakers to…

Luxury car-maker Jaguar Land Rover said Tuesday it will not resume vehicle manufacturing operations until at least September 24 due to a cyberattack earlier this month. In a new statement, the company said it informed colleagues, suppliers, and partners that the halt in production will extend into its third week. The company said this was due to “the controlled restart of our global operations, which will take time,” the company wrote. Laura Savvas, a spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by Indian giant Tata Motors, declined to provide more updates when reached by TechCrunch. The BBC reported…

 Regardless of whether one calls it soccer or football, the FIFA Men’s World Cup tournament underway in Qatar may be the most-watched sporting event ever. It’s predicted that by the time the month-long tournament ends on December 18, half the world’s population will have tuned in. One million fans are expected in this small, scorching desert peninsula in the Persian Gulf to watch teams from 32 nations compete. Since FIFA awarded Qatar the games back in 2010 (in a process suffused with corruption and bribery), planning and construction has occurred at a frantic pace. Seven massive new stadiums, a metro…

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing an always-on AI agent that will help sellers on its platform run their businesses. The company is updating Seller Assistant, its AI tool for third-party sellers, to help handle tasks on the seller’s behalf. “Our agentic AI capabilities are designed to work seamlessly throughout the entire selling experience, which means sellers can go from handling every task themselves to collaborating with an intelligent assistant that works proactively on their behalf around the clock, while always keeping sellers in control,” Amazon wrote in a press release. “Seller Assistant will be able to handle…

When most kids rebel against their families, they might become a ski bum, join a band, or go to art school. Shen Ming Lee decided to start a company. “I grew up in the conventional palm oil industry,” Lee told TechCrunch. “My family’s business is one of the top producers in the palm oil space. And so I grew up a little bit — I have to admit —ashamed of what my family does.” Palm oil has come to dominate the market for vegetable oils, with the raw ingredient and its derivatives appearing in everything from snack foods and cosmetics…

Urban Company, India’s largest home services platform, stormed onto the public markets on Wednesday, opening 58% above its issue price after delivering the country’s most subscribed IPO of the year. The Gurugram-based startup, which connects users to at-home services ranging from beauty treatments to appliance repair, debuted on the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange at ₹162.25 per share (approximately $1.84), up from its IPO issue price of ₹103. The offering, which opened last week, was subscribed over 100 times, meaning investors placed orders for 100 times more shares than were available, signaling robust demand from both institutional and retail investors.…

As robots increasingly enter human spaces, robotics companies will need to think about safety differently than they did when robots were largely siloed from their human counterparts. Sonair thinks its sensors can help robotics companies reach their safety goals — with a solution that is both better and cheaper than popular LIDAR technology. The Oslo, Norway-based company built an ADAR (acoustic detection and ranging) sensor for robots that uses high frequency sound. These sensors send out ultrasound waves and capture how the sound echoes back. These signals give robots a three-dimensional view of their surroundings. This data complements a…

 The bodies of drowned migrants are still washing up on the beaches of Crotone, Italy on the Mediterranean Sea. Their wooden boat crashed on the rocks just offshore from this Calabrian resort town, turning the beach, said one local, “into a graveyard.” The death toll reached 67 on Wednesday, with 80 survivors. It is assumed that many more died, as at least 200 people were aboard the boat when it departed Izmir, Turkey, a few days earlier. “I have been treating migrants for 30 years and have never seen anything like this,” Orlando Amodeo, a local doctor, told The Guardian. “These…

Twenty-five years ago, Al Gore was in the final stretch of his U.S. presidential campaign, just weeks away from an election that would ultimately slip through his fingers despite winning the popular vote. His platform included ambitious climate action, with America positioned as the natural leader of a global environmental transition. The irony of what has transpired since is not lost on him. “Looking from the standpoint of 25 years ago, I have to say no, I would not have seen this as the most likely outcome,” Gore admits when asked about China’s emergence as the world’s leading force in…