Rivian is making its hands-free driver assistance system standard in ‘every vehicle’ it builds

Electric automaker Rivian will makes its hands-free driver assistance system standard in every vehicle it builds, including its first two vehicles — the RT1 pickup truck and R1S SUV — that are coming to market in 2021. Details about the system, which is branded as Driver+, was just one of numer

Daily Crunch: Google Photos will end free, unlimited storage

Google changes its storage policy, Facebook extends its political ad ban and Ring doorbells are recalled. This is your Daily Crunch for November 11, 2020. The big story: Google Photos will end free, unlimited storage Google is changing its storage policies for free accounts in a way

RIP Google Music, one of the company’s last examples of generosity

Google Music is dead, and with it one of the few remaining connections I have to the company that doesn’t feel like a gun to my head. The service, now merged haphazardly with YouTube Music, recalled the early days of Google, when they sometimes just made cool internet things. It made it nearl

Ring doorbells recalled over fire threat

Amazon-owned Ring devices have long been under scrutiny of privacy advocates. Now the brand is dealing with another issue entirely, as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has posted a recall notice for its second-generation doorbell. Some 350,000 units in the U.S. and 8,700 in Canada

Join us for a live Q&A with Bessemer’s Byron Deeter next Tuesday at 3pm ET, noon PT

The Extra Crunch Live series rolls along with a big new installment next week as Jordan Crook and Alex Wilhelm will welcome Bessemer Venture Partners‘ Byron Deeter to the conversation. Deeter is an obvious addition to the collection of investors, founders and tech luminaries that technewss h

Snap acquired Voca.ai, which makes AI-based voice agents for call centers

Snapchat is the quintessential consumer app: With an array of fun filters, it encourages people to send fun, disappearing messages to friends and has a large base of younger users. But could parent company Snap be eyeing up ways of leveraging its traction in the consumer world — with the app

Former Dropbox CFO Ajay Vashee is joining the powerhouse venture firm IVP in January

Ajay Vashee — who spent the last eight years at Dropbox, rising from the head of finance to CFO over his tenure and helping to take the company public in 2018 — is joining the Silicon Valley venture firm IVP in January. It’s the realization of plans established long ago by Vashee,

Dear Sophie: What does Biden’s win mean for tech immigration?

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies. “Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says

Come June 1, 2021, all of your new photos will count against your free Google storage

Come June 1, 2021, Google will change its storage policies for free accounts — and not for the better. Basically, if you’re on a free account and a semi-regular Google Photos user, get ready to pay up next year and subscribe to Google One. Currently, every free Google account comes with

Facebook extends its temporary ban on political ads for another month

The election is settled, but the nation is far from it. Before Election Day in the U.S., Facebook hit pause on all political and social issue ads. At the time, the company made it clear that the precautionary measure designed to turn off one potential faucet of misinformation would be temporary, bu

Europe puts out advice on fixing international data transfers that’s cold comfort for Facebook

Following the landmark CJEU ‘Schrems II’ ruling in July, which invalidated the four-year-old EU-US Privacy Shield, European data protection regulators have today published 38-pages of guidance for businesses stuck trying to navigate the uncertainty around how to (legally) transfer pers

Amazon’s new ‘Care Hub’ lets Alexa owners keep tabs on aging family members

Amazon today announced a set of new features aimed at making its Alexa devices more useful to aging adults. With the launch of “Care Hub,” an added option in the Alexa mobile app, family members can keep an eye on older parents and loved ones, with their permission, in order to receive

Only 72 hours left until early-bird savings end for TC Sessions: Space 2020

We're just about a month away from TC Sessions: Space 2020, a two-day conference dedicated to bold visionaries with the passion, audacity and technical skills to chart a new course in space. Fun fact: A bold visionary likes a good deal as much as the next one. But timing is everything. The dead

As edtech crowds up, Campuswire bets big on real-time learning

Campuswire was in a fortuitous spot when colleges and universities across the world shut down on short notice because of the threat of coronavirus. Founded by Tade Oyerinde in 2018, Campuswire is a virtual solution for any teacher who wants to digitize their internal classroom communications, from