Technology

Bloomberg The day after Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc.’s mid-year sale, a company drone took off from a playground in the city of Xi’an to deliver one of the orders in a football-sized box to a village in the mountains to the south. The six-rotor craft is one of about 40 JD.com designed to cut delivery times for items such …

Bloomberg Fully digital screens are replacing speedometres and dials in vehicles, making industry leader Japan Display Inc. optimistic about boosting sales to global carmakers. While most new models usually have a centre information panel for maps, entertainment and other functions, manufacturers are also increasingly replacing the dashboard facing the driver with a flat screen. Look inside the latest BMW or …

Bloomberg Baidu Inc. has unveiled an artificial intelligence(AI) chip to run intensive computing in everything from datacentres to autonomous driving, as the Chinese search giant prepares to launch its first self-driving vehicles in Japan. The AI chip, “Kunlun”, joins rival efforts from tech giants around the world, including local peers such as networking giant Huawei Technologies Co. search rankings. Baidu’s …

Bloomberg Byton, the Chinese electric-vehicle startup founded by former BMW AG executives, is forging ahead with plans to enter the US market even as the trade war casts a cloud of unpredictability for the push. The company plans to begin production of its $45,000 electric SUV in 2019 and still targets a US entry in 2020, CEO Carsten Breitfeld said. …

Bloomberg Apple Inc. will soon land a second supplier for the organic light-emitting diode screens used in high-end iPhones, according to people familiar with the matter, a key step in the US company’s push to reduce iPhone costs and its dependence on Samsung Electronics Co. South Korea’s LG Display Co. will initially supply between 2 million and 4 million units, …

Bloomberg Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd., the state-linked Chinese technology giant, is in advanced talks to acquire French smart-card components maker Linxens, people familiar with the matter said. The Beijing-based company could announce an agreement with Linxens’s owner, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, as soon as the next couple weeks, according to the people. Tsinghua Unigroup has been discussing a potential …

Bloomberg South Korea’s dominant message-app operator is considering a private placement next month to raise funds from partners interested in helping to build its crypto platform. Ground X Corp., a blockchain subsidiary of Kakao Corp., may initially seek capital and business alliances with consumer-service companies, Jason Han, the unit’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. Ground X is targeting …

Bloomberg A self-driving shuttle bus ferrying workers in Detroit from a parking garage to their office has become the first autonomous vehicle to ply the roads of America’s automotive capital. May Mobility, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based startup backed by Toyota and BMW, is deploying a small fleet of six-seat, electric-powered shuttles in downtown Detroit to transport the employees of Bedrock, …

Bloomberg Artificial intelligence is coming for the service economy, according to Allstate Corp. CEO Tom Wilson. “It’s going to rip through this economy like a tsunami,” Wilson said in an interview on Bloomberg TV from Aspen, Colorado. Automation will affect a wide swath of workers, from traders to taxi drivers. McKinsey & Co. estimates that more than 400 million people …

Bloomberg When Apple Inc. introduced AirPods earbuds in 2016, chief designer Jony Ive hailed the beginning of a new “wireless future”. The company’s devices would connect and charge without fiddly white cords and unsightly plugs and sockets. The next step was wireless charging for the iPhone, the ability to drop Apple’s flagship product on a charging mat and juice it …