Author : zebethcontrol

Who is going to buy Cadillac’s $300,000 hand-built EV? • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Cadillac, Celestiq, EV, General Motors, TransportationNo Comments

The battery-electric Celestiq sedan, which starts “north of $300,000,” is tasked with more than restoring Cadillac to its former glory; it now must back executives’ bold claim to “reestablish the iconic brand as the standard of the world.” But with a price tag more than three times the average transaction price of a vehicle from General Motors’ luxury marque, it’s difficult to imagine many Cadillacs of that heft — no matter how highly customized — will be quietly charging behind suburban garage doors. As the market enters an age where lower priced EVs pack 300-mile ranges along eye-popping horsepower and torque, who needs a bespoke EV? Cadillac is betting on it. The GM luxury brand, which plans to follow the market in phasing out gas engines by 2030, is trying to zig where its luxury competitors are zagging. Executives boasted that the brand will build, on average, fewer than two Celestiqs a day, when it goes into hand-built production at GM’s Technical Center outside of Detroit in December 2023. But will customers bite? The specs Cadillac revealed Monday don’t seems spectacular enough to justify the price. Built on the same Ultium platform underpinning all of General Motors’ future EVs, the Celestiq will feature a 600-horsepower, dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup that can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds – a crawl compared with some Teslas, Porsches and the Ford Mach-E Mustang GT Performance model). Cadillac estimates that the sedan can travel around 300 miles on a fully charged battery, which will be the industry standard by the time the Celestiq arrives. High-tech features include a four-quadrant, adjustable smart roof, a 3D-printed steering wheel, and the latest iteration of Cadillac’s Ultra Cruise advanced driver assistance system. The car, available at certain Cadillac dealers “by waitlist only,” will come with a concierge to help decide upon colors, trims and materials. So far, the brand’s “whisper events” have shown a “broad spectrum of high-net worth individuals that would consider wanting to have a vehicle like this,” said Rory Harvey, global vice president for Cadillac. Cadillac has not specified how many “extremely low-volume” Celestiqs it will build but said it expects to sell the majority in North America, followed by China and the Middle East. Executives were emboldened this spring by high demand for its first-ever EV, the $60,000 Cadillac Lyriq SUV expected later this year, that forced it to close its 2023 order book earlier than expected. “I believe that we primed the pump,” Harvey said. “We have very solid foundations now to take the brand to the next level.” Still, is there demand for a Cadillac with fivefold the starting price? Executives said they believe buyers are willing to spend even more, noting that a fully loaded Escalade V, the high-performance version of Cadillac’s full-size SUV, pushes $150,000, and that some Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing models venture into six-figure territory. “We believe that we’ve got the ability to be able to generate customer demand at this higher price point,” Harvey said. Cadillac expects to begin delivering the Celestiq to customers in 2025, with high hopes for a revival. “Cadillac at a point in time was referred to as the standard of the world,” Harvey said. “We believe in terms of this vehicle that it gives us the ability to start to reclaim some of that position.”

SpaceX no longer seeking Pentagon funding for Starlink in Ukraine, Musk says • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Space, SpaceX, starlink, ukraineNo Comments

SpaceX has withdrawn its request to the Pentagon that it fund the ongoing use of Starlink internet terminals in Ukraine, CEO Elon Musk said Monday. His statement (made on Twitter – where else?) comes just hours after it was reported that the Pentagon was considering footing the bill using a fund that finances contracts for weapons and equipment for the Ukrainian military. Out of the 25,300 terminals that were sent to Ukraine, around 10,630 were paying for the satellite internet service, Musk added. This marks the latest chapter in the ongoing saga over the fate of Starlink in Ukraine – a service that Ukranian officials say has become critical to the war effort, allowing troops and civilians to stay connected despite widespread destruction of conventional communications infrastructure, like cellphone towers. As late as July, a top Ukranian military official sent a direct request to Musk for almost 8,000 additional terminals, CNN reported. CNN also reported that SpaceX had sent a letter to the Pentagon requesting it pick up funding for the Starlink service in Ukraine, news that generated major waves of controversy. Musk said the ongoing operation of the donated Starlink terminals has cost $80 million and will exceed $100 million by year’s end; meanwhile, in a letter SpaceX told the Pentagon, “We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.” But despite today’s news that SpaceX has withdrawn its request for funding, the long-term future of Starlink in Ukraine is by no means settled. Two days ago, Musk said “the hell with it […] we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,” but as ZebethMedia’s Devin Coldewey noted, this is by no means a long-term solution. Earlier today, Politico reported that U.S. officials were considering funding the service through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the financing fund mentioned earlier in this story. European Union foreign ministers also discussed the Starlink issue at a meeting today, Politico said. But whether the Pentagon – which has sent billions to support the war effort in Ukraine, funds which have gone to everything from ammunition to armored vehicles – will persist in picking up the tab now that SpaceX is no longer seeking financing is unclear.

Any way you spice it • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Max Q, SpaceNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Last week was one of those weeks where your head spins with the sheer amount of news/announcements/launches in the space sector. It’s a crazy time to be alive, folks! In this issue: A busy November for… the moon! Launch companies expanding to new continents News from SpaceX, Spire and more If all goes to plan, Florida’s Space Coast could see two separate lunar missions take off in November. Japanese startup ispace said Wednesday it is targeting a launch window of November 9-15 for its first lunar lander mission. Separately, NASA set a trio of possible November launch dates for Artemis I, the first in a series of planned launches to return humans to the moon by the middle of the decade. For NASA, these November dates are backup opportunities after the agency decided to scrub August’s initial launch attempts due to technical issues. The two missions are part of an increasingly widespread push amongst private industry and government space agencies to conduct more science and explore commercial activities on our large natural satellite. ispace’s Hakuto-R lander. Image Credits: ispace Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab are expanding their launch capacities as each company gears up for inaugural missions from countries that they have never flown from. For Rocket Lab, that’s the United States; for Virgin, that’s the United Kingdom (which has never seen an orbital launch, ever). Rocket Lab said Wednesday that the Electron rocket arrived at Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at Wallops Island, Virginia; Virgin’s Cosmic Girl 747 airplane touched down at the Newquay Airport in Cornwall, southwest England last week. Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket is expected to arrive in Cornwall soon. The missions are major milestones for the two companies. Until now, Rocket Lab has exclusively launched Electron from the company’s complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Meanwhile, Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl 747 airplane and LauncherOne rocket have only ever taken off from U.S. soil. Rocket Lab’s Electron arriving in Virginia. Image Credits: Rocket Lab More news from TC and beyond Astra landed two contracts for its spacecraft engines: one with Astroscale for use on its Elsa-M satellite bus; and with Earth observation company Maxar. (Astra; Astra) China launched a synthetic aperture radar satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China, marking the country’s 18th successful mission since August. (SpaceNews) Exotrail, a French startup developing in-space logistics, won a French government contract “worth several million euros” to demonstrate the Exotrail spacevan’s ability to change a satellite’s altitude and other capabilities. (Exotrail) Japan’s Epsilon rocket experienced a launch failure due to positioning issues, and the country’s space agency ordered the vehicle self-destruct seven minutes after take off. This is the first failure for the Epsilon rocket, which has been flying since 2013. (The Japan Times) NASA’s DART mission has officially been declared a success, after the space agency announced the target asteroid’s orbit changed significantly due to the impact. (ZebethMedia) Orbit Fab, the “gas stations in space” startup, was awarded $13.3 million to provide fuel for United States Space Force satellites in 2025. (Orbit Fab) Project Kuiper, Amazon’s broadband satellite project, will launch its first two satellites on United Launch Alliance’s under-development Vulcan Centaur rocket, and not ABL Space Systems’ RS1 rocket as originally planned. Kuiper’s agreement with ABL will stay in place for future satellite launches. (Amazon) Sierra Space is launching a new venture arm, Sierra Space Ventures, to invest in technologies that could be used on Sierra’s space platforms, including its planned private space station Orbital Reef. (Sierra Space) Skyrora’s launch ended in failure after the rocket tumbled into the Norwegian sea shortly after lift-off. This was the company’s first attempt to reach space with its suborbital Skylark L vehicle. (Skyrora) Solestial raised $10 million to take its space-grade solar panels from lab to orbit. (ZebethMedia) SpaceX is asking the U.S. governmement to pick up the bill it’s been paying for providing Starlink services in Ukraine; Elon Musk said monthly burn is approaching $20 million per month. (CNN; Elon Musk) SpaceX stacked Booster 7 and Ship 24 on the launch pad in preparation for more testing. Ars Technica’s Eric Berger tweeted he heard an orbital test flight may come in the second half of December, which would be a very nice Christmas gift for me! (SpaceX; Eric Berger) SpaceX will fly billionaire Dennis Tito and his wife on Starship’s fourth crewed launch, though it’s anyone’s guess when that mission might take place. (Bloomberg) Starlink’s roaming service, dubbed “Starlink for RVs,” now has more than 100,000 customers. (SpaceX) United Launch Alliance is targeting the first quarter of next year for the first flight test of the super-heavy Vulcan Centaur rocket. (ULA) Varda Space, a startup that wants to build factories in space, successfully executed a drop test of a re-entry vehicle in preparation for the first orbital test that will launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-8 mission. (Varda Space) Virgin Orbit signed a multi-launch agreement with Spire, with the first launch expected to take place next year. The two companies did not disclose the exact number of launches or the value of the deal. (Virgin Orbit) Photo of the week Stack stack stack stackedy stack. Image Credits: SpaceX (opens in a new window) Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.

Kanye West reaches agreement to acquire social media platform Parler • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Daily Crunch, Startups, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Greetings from the ZebethMedia office! Yes, it turns out we have an office, even though we haven’t seen the inside of it for a good long stretch. We are here doing some stretches ahead of Disrupt kicking off tomorrow. Some of us have gotten to take a sneaky peek inside the venue, and it looks amazing. “Squeeeeee!” as (some of) the kids say these days. — Christine and Haje The ZebethMedia Top 3 “That, that, that don’t kill me, can only make me stronger”: Two of our top stories for today centered on the same topic — Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, surprising us all by announcing he was going to buy the conservative social media site Parler. Manish has the basics on the deal. More on Ye: Meanwhile, Darrell takes a look at how similar the deal for Ye to buy Parler is to Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. Hint: billionaire tantrums. Flipping over the metaverse: Manish had yet another chart-topper today. Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart unveiled Flipverse, its metaverse shopping experience that is even gamified so users can capture loyalty points called Supercoins. Startups and VC Can we just have a little moment and celebrate Mary Ann and her fantastic fintech newsletter, The Interchange? She puts the Daily Crunch team to shame with her deep analysis and summary of what’s moving and shaking in the world of finance, and it’s always an incredible read. This week’s edition (“Even decacorns have their challenge”) was particularly brilliant. Check it out, and if you want to see the whole backlog, there’s a clicky-link for that, too. We know we have a whole section for TC+ below, but we particularly wanted to highlight Natasha M’s piece about a slew of CFOs at high-profile companies quitting, and what that says about the overall ecosystem. In Are CFOs OK? (Answer: Yes, but CEOs? That’s complicated), she breaks it down in classic Natasha style. Ugh, we love our co-workers. Can you tell? Let’s dig through the pile of news and see what else there is: 2023 VC predictions: Finding an exit from the ‘messy middle’ Image Credits: Artur Debat (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Eric Tarczynski, managing partner and founder of Contrary Capital, says we are entering a “messy middle” era for venture capital: “Companies can no longer raise $5 million to $10 million seed rounds with nothing but a deck and the assumption that revenue multiples will skyrocket beyond historical norms,” he writes in a TC+ guest post. Looking ahead to 2023, Tarczynski foresees an environment where “the VC landscape has started to bifurcate” as “slow M&A activity and no IPOs” and “good companies in ‘safe’ industries” temper investor expectations. Three more from the TC+ team: ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. If you love shopping and love shopping with discounts, PayPal has some news for you. The payments giant replaces its Honey Gold rewards program with PayPal Rewards, which Sarah writes “allows customers to redeem their points for cash, gift cards or PayPal shopping credits. With the new PayPal Rewards, consumers will be able to track and redeem their points directly inside the PayPal app, and will have new ways to earn.” And we have five more for you:

Don’t let today’s software rally improve your mood • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in EC venture capital, Startups, stocks, tech stocks, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

After a rough year in the public markets, you might take today’s brilliant trading as good news. Any positive price movement is a win, right? Kinda. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index rose 3.4% today, while other major U.S. indices jumped smaller amounts in a hall-of-fame start to the trading week. (That the markets are turning up for Disrupt is rather kind, I must admit.) Even more important to the tech industry, however, is sector-specific news. Observe: Good news? Sure, but only if you are into squashy cats. Let me explain. When the value of a particular commodity or security falls sharply, it often follows up its declines by bouncing back a little. If the underlying forces that drove the security negative remain in place, such rebounds often prove short-lived, and not indicative of the actual “bottom” of any particular trading range. This is often called, somewhat inartfully, a “dead cat bounce,” or more specifically, the sort of modest rebound that a cat’s corpse might manage if it hit concrete after falling from a high window.

Developers pour into crypto space despite stagnant markets • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Crypto, developers, EC Blockchain, EC Cryptocurrency, ethereum, Polygon, sdk, SolanaNo Comments

This year was huge for the crypto developer space even though the digital asset market continues to wallow in a downturn, according to a new report by web3 developer platform Alchemy. Although the crypto market capitalization is down about 58% year to date, web3 developers are pouring into the space. The report found that developer activity increased based on the number of crypto software developer kit (SDK) libraries being downloaded, smart contracts being stored on blockchains, and the growth in the number of decentralized applications (dApps) in the market. “It’s a really exciting time in web3 overall and especially in the web3 development space,” Jason Shah, head of growth at Alchemy, said to ZebethMedia. “We were shocked at the results [because they run] counter to the narratives out there with token prices being down, pullbacks in investments, and even layoffs. But in the data with libraries, smart contracts, and dApp growth, all those numbers are up year over year.” Despite the bear market, crypto has become a “builder market,” with many clearly undeterred, Shah said. “Crypto bear markets are often when the best projects get built,” Francesco Melpignano, CEO of layer-1 blockchain Kadena, said to ZebethMedia.

Apple is bringing Spatial Audio to cars, starting with Mercedes-Benz • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Apple, Mercedes-Benz, spatial audio, TransportationNo Comments

Apple is bringing its immersive surround-sound audio product to vehicles through a partnership with Mercedes-Benz and Universal Music Group, the latest example of the tech company’s push into automotive. For the first time, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos from Apple Music will be natively integrated into the car, starting with the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as well as its growing electric portfolio the EQE sedan, EQE SUV, EQS sedan and EQS SUV. Spatial Audio, which adds space, clarity and depth to music, debuted in spring 2021. It was initially enabled by default on Apple hardware supported by Dolby Atmos, devices that includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac models, AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip. Spatial Audio on Apple Music later expanded to Android devices. Now, Mercedes-Benz owners can access what Apple calls the “gold standard of sound” — for a price. Owners will need two items: a $9.99 monthly subscription to Apple Music and a Mercedes vehicle equipped with either the Burmester high-end 4D and 3D sound system. That’s where it gets really pricey. The Burmester 3D system costs $4,550. The higher-end Burmester D sound system, which is priced at $6,730, includes 31 speakers, including six 3D speakers that emit their sound from above, 4 near-ear speakers in the front seats, an 18.5-liter subwoofer, 8 sound transducers (two per seat) and 2 amplifiers. “Sound quality is incredibly important to Apple Music which is why we are so excited to be working with Mercedes to make Spatial Audio on Apple Music available natively in the car for the first time,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats said in a statement. As part of the agreement, Universal Music Group will let recording artists base their song approval process on how the final mix sounds in a Mercedes-Benz and is introducing a seal “Approved in a Mercedes-Benz” as “a gold standard of sound,” the companies said. The collaboration, which was announced Sunday at the Paris Motor Show, is yet another signal of Apple’s car ambitions. Earlier this year, Apple said its next-generation CarPlay system will power the vehicle’s entire instrument cluster, putting it, once again, directly in competition with Google’s in-vehicle operation system Android Automotive OS.

Chinese chipmakers, U.S. suppliers caught in crosshairs of new export restrictions • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in China, export laws, Government & Policy, Hardware, semiconductorsNo Comments

Over the last week and a half, the Chinese semiconductor industry’s circumstances have taken a sharp turn for the worse. The Biden administration announced on October 7 a sweeping set of export restrictions that prevent the export of certain chips and, more important, the sale of tools using certain technologies to Chinese chipmakers. The rules go well beyond those introduced during the Trump administration and are likely to keep Chinese companies several generations behind the leading edge. The goal of the new rules is to “protect our national security and prevent sensitive technologies with military applications from being acquired by the People’s Republic of China’s military, intelligence, and security services,” Alan Estevez, Undersecretary of Commerce for industry and security, said in a statement. Previously, semiconductor equipment manufacturers were prevented from supplying companies that sold to Huawei, which had the effect of cutting the device maker off from the most advanced chips. The Trump administration also barred the sale of EUV lithography tools that are required to make chips with features under 10 nanometers in size. Leading edge chips today are at least two generations more advanced than that. The new rules leverage the United States’ dominance of the semiconductor equipment market, using it as a choke point to prevent Chinese firms that supply the country’s military from advancing too rapidly. Specifically, the rules restrict companies using U.S. technology from selling to factories and R&D centers that focus on a handful of technologies, including so-called non-planar designs like FinFET and GAAFET at 14 to 16 nanometers, which have enabled increasingly denser transistor counts, DRAM memory made at the 18-nanometer node or smaller, and NAND flash memory with 128 layers or more. The export restrictions prevent sales to any Chinese facility by default. Foreign companies that operate factories in China, like Intel, TSMC, or SK Hynix, must apply to receive exemptions from the rules. Both Intel and SK Hynix have reportedly obtained exemptions, and other companies from the U.S. and its allies that have Chinese factories will probably receive waivers, too. Already, U.S. suppliers including KLA and Lam have halted deliveries and support for existing tools provided to Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., also known as YMTC, The Wall Street Journal reported. YMTC and 30 other companies were added to the “unverified list,” which doesn’t explicitly prevent U.S. companies from dealing with them, but it does heighten scrutiny of any deals and transactions. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, also known as SMIC, is also thought to be a key target of the new rules. Already, Apple has reportedly pulled out of plans to use YMTC’s memory chips in upcoming iPhones, despite having completed a lengthy certification process, according to Nikkei Asia. American executives at Chinese chipmakers may also fall in the crosshairs. The Wall Street Journal said that at least 43 senior executives might be barred from working at 16 publicly listed Chinese companies. The financial ramifications could be far-reaching, and not just for Chinese companies. Applied Materials, for example, cut its fourth-quarter sales projections by $400 million as a result of the new rules. Semiconductor makers and suppliers have long said that revenues from sales to Chinese firms help bankroll R&D efforts that help keep American companies on the leading edge. But critics have said that those sales risk American competitiveness by helping Chinese firms more quickly climb the ladder. Exemptions may temper the blow somewhat, and while the breadth of the new restrictions caught the industry by surprise, they continue the trend of using U.S. chip prowess as lever to control the rate of progress at Chinese semiconductor companies.

Watch two Mini Cheetah robots square off on the soccer field • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Hardware, mini cheetah, robot, Robotics & AI, SoccerNo Comments

Some robotics challenges have immediately clear applications. Others are more focused on helping systems solve broader challenges. Teaching small robots to play soccer against one another fits firmly into the latter category. The authors of a new paper detailing the use of reinforcement learning to teach MIT’s Mini Cheetah robot to play goalie note, Soccer goalkeeping using quadrupeds is a challenging problem, that combines highly dynamic locomotion with precise and fast non-prehensile object (ball) manipulation. The robot needs to react to and intercept a potentially flying ball using dynamic locomotion maneuvers in a very short amount of time, usually less than one second. In this paper, we propose to address this problem using a hierarchical model-free RL framework. Image Credits: Hybrid Robotics Effectively, the robot needs to lock into a projectile and maneuver itself to block the ball in under a second. The robot’s parameters are defined in an emulator, and the Mini Cheetah relies on a trio of moves — sidestep, dive, and jump – to block the ball on its way to the goal by determining its trajectory while in motion. To test the efficacy of the program, the team pitted the system against both a human component and a fellow Mini Cheetah. Notably, the same basic framework used to defend the goal can by applied to offense. The paper’s authors note, “In this work, we focused solely on the goalkeeping task, but the proposed framework can be extended to other scenarios, such as multi-skill soccer ball kicking.”

Good morning! We regret to inform you that the wealthy are at it again • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in ambi robotics, Equity Monday, Equity podcast, Kanye west parler, Startups, VentureNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money on Disrupt tickets and ZebethMedia+ access. And it makes us here on the show look good! Hell yeah, this is our Monday show. And heck yes, we are recording Equity live tomorrow morning at Disrupt. Get super stoked, because we are hype. That said, we did have a lot to get news done for you this morning. Here’s what Theresa and Alex went through this morning: Stocks are up in many parts of the world, including the United States, where software shares are ripping north as the week begins. Very kind of the market to kick off Disrupt with some good news. Crypto is quieter, with prices not changing much and the general vibe of the market not evolving a whit. Kanye West, also known as Ye, is buying niche social network Parler in a deal that will see the musician, fashion mogul, and controversy generator buy the service — but not the infrastructure that powers it. Parler is not very popular at the moment and has stiff competition from other various celebrity-owned (or soon-to-be celebrity-owned) social networks Truth Social and Twitter. It is worth noting that West bought Parler after running into trouble with mainstream social services over his antisemitic posts. Ambi Robotics raised new capital, as did Byju’s, and the Chinese chip industry is in turmoil after the United States kicked it in the shins. Woo! That’s our show. We will see you tomorrow morning at Disrupt! Come and get an Equity pin and be The Coolest. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m. PT on Fridays, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. ZebethMedia also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together, and more!