How many AI models is too many?
We’re seeing a proliferation of models large and small, from niche developers to large, well-funded ones.
And let’s be clear, this is not all of the models released or previewed this week!
Other large language models like LLaMa or OLMo, though technically speaking they share a basic architecture, don’t actually fill the same role.
The other side of this story is that we were already in this stage long before ChatGPT and the other big models came out.
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Ron has been working from home as a writer for almost as long as I’ve been alive.
Moar transpoLook, I’m trying my best to have a balance of everything here on Startups Weekly.
The Apple falls far from the car: Apple, after packing in its electric car project, let go of 600 staff who were reportedly working on the project.
I’d pay good money to see the prototypes …Apple, after packing in its electric car project, let go of 600 staff who were reportedly working on the project.
Sanctuary AI announced that it will be delivering its humanoid robot to a Magna manufacturing facility.
As is often the nature of these deals, the parties have not disclosed how many of Sanctuary AI’s robots will be deployed.
The news follows similar deals announced by Figure and Apptronik, which are piloting their own humanoid systems with BMW and Mercedes, respectively.
For its part, Magna invested in Sanctuary AI back in 2021 — right around the time Elon Musk announced plans to build a humanoid robot to work in Tesla factories.
The company would later dub the system “Optimus.” Vancouver-based Sanctuary unveiled its own system, Phoenix, back in May of last year.
Hours later, Musk posted on X that a “Tesla Robotaxi” will be unveiled August 8.
Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024Reports have swirled for years that Tesla was working on these two vehicles.
Musk has been promising autonomous capabilities in Tesla vehicles for years.
Tesla vehicles come standard with a driver-assistance system branded as Autopilot.
Tesla vehicles are not self-driving.
Apple is laying off 614 employees in California after abandoning its electric car project.
According to the WARN notice posted by California, Apple notified the affected employees on March 28 and the changes will go into effect on May 27.
Affected employees worked at eight locations in Santa Clara, roughly 45 miles south of San Francisco.
The company first started working on its car project, known internally as “Project Titan,” in 2014, and told employees that it was cancelling it on February 27.
Bloomberg reported at the time that some remaining employees who were working on the car project would be shifted to Apple’s generative AI projects.
With the Apple Car firmly in the rearview, the company is reportedly exploring yet another notoriously difficult path: home robots.
In spite of those efforts, however, the company has fared best when it focused its resources back into its robot vacuum.
The hockey puck design that’s prevalent across robot vacuums isn’t ideal for anything beyond the core functionality it’s built for.
That’s likely a big part of the reason the company is selling it as a development platform.
There’s nothing wrong with teleop in many scenarios, but it seems unlikely that people are going to flock to a home robot that’s being controlled by a human somewhere far away.
The great EV boom is fading a bit, but that’s not a concern if you take a long-enough view.
Sure, Tesla expects slower growth for its car sales this year, and there are some indications that other companies are trimming their electric car plans, but there’s also reason to be optimistic.
If you take a look at some upcoming EVs, you may notice that the don’t look precisely like the current, bestselling gas-powered cars out there.
I reckon that that is for the best — when you swap power sources, you can shake up the rest of a vehicles design, right?
So two cheers for Rivian’s R3 and what Telo is cooking up, because their plans have me hype.
Profitable car rental service Turo is still ready for an IPO, but its growth cratered in 2023Turo, the venture-backed, peer-to-peer car rental service reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial performance this week in an updated IPO filing.
The company has put the capital to good use, posting quick revenue growth since 2019, positive operating income since 2021 and net profit since 2022.
In 2021 Turo’s growth rebounded from 2020’s pandemic-driven woes impressively, rising 213% that year to $469 million.
However, triple-digit growth was short-lived at the car rental company, which saw its revenue growth slow to 59% in 2022 when it recorded $746.6 million worth of total revenue.
TechCrunch calculates that its Q3 2022 to Q3 2023 growth rate was 13.6%, while its Q4 to Q4 growth over the same time frame was a slightly sharper 14.3%.
The two new Dodge Charger EV coupes — the 2024 Charger Daytona Scat Pack and the milder Daytona R/T trim — are scheduled to enter production in mid-2024.
Gas-powered two-door and four-door Dodge Charger vehicles are also scheduled to begin production in the first quarter of 2025.
The 2024 Dodge Charger launch comes at a precarious time for U.S. and European automakers attempting to navigate an ever-changing EV landscape, where Chinese manufacturers continue to gain ground.
So that’s why we keep it flat out.”EV nuts and boltsThe 2024 Charger Daytona Scat Pack and Daytona R/T trim will come standard with all-wheel drive and a 100.5 kilowatt-hour battery pack.
Those driving modes, which are available in the Scat Pack trim, perform like they sound.
I was in Los Angeles earlier this week where I interviewed Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on stage at our StrictlyVC LA event.
The approval removes the last barrier for the Alphabet company to charge for rides in these expanded areas.
Yup, that’s right the Apple ended plans to build and sell an autonomous electric car.
Electric vehicles, batteries & chargingXiaomi showed off its first electric car, the SU7, at Mobile World Congress.
I’ve taken numerous rides in Waymo robotaxis, but never one in Los Angeles.
