Citing a crowded market and profit concerns, Mineral ceased operation and pivoted to technology licensing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

When you really probe venture capitalists about investing in AI startups, they’ll tell you that businesses are experimenting wildly but are very slow to add AI solutions into their ongoing business processes.  But there are some exceptions. And one of them appears to be an area known as AI sales development representatives, or AI SDRs. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

Until today, we’ve seen exactly 40 seconds of Boston Dynamics’ new electric Atlas in action. The Hyundai-owned robotics stalwart is very much still in the early stages of commercializing the biped for factory floors. For now, however, it’s doing the thing Boston Dynamics does second best after building robots: showing off in viral video form. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary, said it has signed a multi-year partnership with ride-hailing giant Uber to bring its robotaxis to the ride-hailing platform in 2025.  Cruise didn’t say when exactly customers would see its vehicles on Uber’s platform, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch that this partnership will follow the re-launch of Cruise’s own driverless […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

Tens of millions of customer dollars remain unaccounted for at his previous startup, fintech Synapse. But that’s not deterring Sankaet Pathak from forging full steam ahead with his new robotics venture. Foundation is a robotics startup with a self-proclaimed mission “to create advanced humanoid robots that can operate in complex environments” to address the labor […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

Here is a timeline of Synapse’s troubles and the ongoing impact it is having on banking consumers.  © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Soon, parents in range of Waymo robotaxis might not have to worry about picking up their kids from after-school activities — or any time, really. The San Francisco Standard reports that Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary, is considering a subscription program that would let teens hail one of its cars solo and send pickup and drop-off […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

America’s space industry seems mature, but the supply chain that provides all the parts and components for rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft is considerably less so. Gimbal Space is aiming to change that, starting with components in the crucial subsystem that enables a spacecraft to orient itself in space — but delivered cheaper and a whole […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

NASA officials will announce their final decision on Saturday as to whether two NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — will return to Earth on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft or hitch a ride home with SpaceX instead — a decision that could have a huge impact across the rapidly evolving space industry. Here’s the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …

At least 200 workers at DeepMind, Google’s AI R&D division, are displeased with Google’s reported defense contracts — and according to Time, they circulated a letter internally back in May to say as much. The letter, dated May 16, says the undersigned are concerned by “Google’s contracts with military organizations,” citing articles about the tech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All …