Month: November 2017

Enlarge (credit: Uber)

Uber has signed a deal with Volvo for 24,000 XC90 sport-utility vehicles for delivery between 2019 and 2021. With this deal—worth about $1 billion—Uber is essentially betting the company on a self-driving future.

It's a big, risky bet for Uber, which lost $2.8 billion in 2016 and is locked in a legal battle with Waymo over self-driving technology that could cost it more than $1 billion.

When Recode's Johana Bhuiyan talked to company insiders about Uber's self-driving car project in March, she found that "many think it is at a technological standstill and plagued by significant internal tension." Around the same time, Uber temporarily suspended public testing of its driverless cars after one of its cars collided with another car and flipped over on its side. The company says another driver was at fault in the incident, and it has since resumed testing.

(credit: Valentina Palladino)

Jawbone may have switched gears to medical devices but there are some Up fitness trackers still out there. Those who use the Up4, Jawbone's most advanced tracker and one of the last it debuted before pulling out of the consumer-wearable market, won't be able to use its NFC payment feature for much longer. American Express customers who paired a card with their device are receiving notices that the partnership will end on January 31, 2018; the Up4 will no longer be able to make payments using American Express cards after that date.

The notice states that American Express will automatically disconnect the paired American Express card from the Up4 device on February 1, 2018, if not done so by the user beforehand. To disconnect your American Express card before the cutoff date, go to the Amex Payments section of the Up4 app, tap "Manage," and then tap "Disconnect." American Express will be issuing a $10 credit to these accounts once the partnership officially ends.

Jawbone had a partnership with American Express that allowed Up4 users to pair an Amex account with the device to use with contactless payment readers. It worked well when the Up4 first debuted back in 2015, but it was relatively limited because users could only pair an American Express card to the device. Other contactless payment systems, including the new Fitbit Pay on the $300 Ionic smartwatch, allow for more than one connected credit card or bank per account.

Ford

Drop the word "exoskeleton" into conversation, and you typically conjure up images from Aliens, or Iron Man foiling whoever it is he's supposed to foil with augmented power. Fanciful as that may seem, exoskeletons are finding their way into everyday manufacturing.

But they're not being used to perform "feats of strength." Reality is more mundane—and much more repetitive.

ULA

The Delta II rocket first launched in 1989, making it the oldest US orbital launch system still flying today. However, the heritage of this launch system is much older still. The Delta II rocket's first stage is derivative of the Thor intermediate range ballistic missile—the first operational ballistic missile used by the United States Air Force in the 1950s. Thus, the Delta II rocket can trace its roots to the beginning of US rocketry.

But now the end is near for the Delta II rocket. For United Launch Alliance, it is costly to keep supply lines open for the medium-lift rocket (three to six tons to low-Earth orbit) that has flown just three times since 2012. On Saturday morning, the Delta II made its penultimate launch by carrying the first Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft into orbit for NASA and NOAA. The flight occurred from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.