TechCrunch Industry News

Rock picking is probably not the first thing you think about when you think agricultural robotics. Understandably so. There are a number of companies out there looking to automate aspects like fruit and vegetable picking, weeding and field tending, but rocks are still a major issue for many farmers. They’re big, they’re heavy and they […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon, in its ever-growing desire to become a super app in India, is testing a new category to persuade users to spend more time on the shopping service: Feature articles. The American e-commerce giant has quietly launched “Featured Articles” on its shopping app and website in India that showcases feature articles, commentary and analysis on […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vidya Madhavan always wanted to be in business. Growing up in India, she thought she might be in the business of running a factory, given the power and influence of outfits like Tata Group, the Indian multinational conglomerate. She certainly had an affinity for school, graduating at the top of her high school class, nabbing […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla has installed its 200,000th Powerwall, the company’s home battery storage product, the company said in a tweet on Wednesday. Tesla’s CFO Zachary Kirkhorn told investors during a first-quarter earnings call in April that Tesla is continuing to work through a “multi-quarter backlog on Powerwall,” suggesting that the volume of installations will continue to soar […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whatnot exists with one primary goal in mind: to give people a place to buy and sell collectibles (like Pokémon cards, sports cards, pins, etc) in a safe, authenticated way. The company started out with intentions of being a GOAT/StockX-style resale marketplace, where the products up for sale lived on neat little pages with row […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flexibits, the company behind productivity apps Fantastical and Cardhop, is releasing a new version of Cardhop for both macOS and iOS. This is the second major version of the app and it adds new features, such as business card scanning, widgets, organizational charts and a deeper integration with Fantastical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber and Lyft have officially started to offer free rides to anyone traveling to get a COVID-19 vaccine, two weeks after the ride-hailing companies announced an agreement with the White House to offer the program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Germany has adopted legislation that will allow driverless vehicles on public roads by 2022, laying out a path for companies to deploy robotaxis and delivery services in the country at scale. While autonomous testing is currently permitted in Germany, this would allow operations of driverless vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel.  The […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How’s your Monday going? If you’re Apple, the answer is probably somewhere between “very busy” to “gaaaaaaah.” The company just dropped a whole bunch of new OS updates today, including iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, all ahead of the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off (virtually) on June 7. Indeed, iOS and iPadOS are […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

These days, the path of least resistance in laptop design is straight-up knocking off the MacBook. We’ve certainly seen our share of egregious cases over the years. Microsoft, however, has defiantly forged its own path with industrial design across the board. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices