Technology

Bloomberg The future of driverless driving looks like a giant toaster with a funny hat. That’s an approximation of a new autonomous vehicle by Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup that’s been cryptic about its business plan since it launched about 18 months ago. Nuro’s shiny, minimalist appliance on wheels doesn’t have doors or windows to speak of, because it will …

Bloomberg Porsche AG will pursue a three-pronged strategy to diversify its lineup as the German manufacturer gears up for the rollout of its first all-electric sports car next year to tackle a fundamental industry shift towards battery-powered vehicles. “There will be a triad: plug-in hybrids, emotional sports cars with combustion engines and sporty electric vehicles,” Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume …

Bloomberg Meituan is the kind of Chinese technology company few people outside the country understand. That’s because its services aren’t quite like anything you might find abroad. Meituan has a restaurant review feature sort of like Yelp, but its app also lets you order off the menu from your phone the minute you sit down. You can settle your check …

Bloomberg Flying cars will be zipping across US skies within the coming decade—at least that’s what Uber Technologies’ CEO Dara Khosrowshahi predicts. “There will be people flying around Dallas, Texas,” Khosrowshahi said at the DLD tech conference in Munich. “I think it’s going to happen within the next ten years.” Back down on the ground, the Uber CEO cited congested …

Bloomberg After Erin Hiscock’s mother and brother passed away, she resolved to tackle her own weight problem. “I was maybe 310 pounds at my heaviest and severely addicted to sugar,” she says. “Instead of a normal meal, I’d just eat carbs, sugar, nothing nutritious.” Hiscock, a 35-year insurance agent in Virginia, didn’t turn to diet books, Weight Watchers, or even …

Bloomberg In the corporate-bond market, even a few billion doesn’t get you a seat at the table. And Najib Nakad is so tired of settling for the scraps left by giants, he hardly bothers to bid for new issues anymore. “We are too small to have any hope of an allocation,” said Nakad, who helps oversee about $2.5 billion as …

Bloomberg Apple Inc. said it plans new features to help parents control how children use its smartphones, responding to criticism from two shareholders about the entrancing qualities and potential mental health impact of the company’s iPhone. “Apple has always looked out for kids, and we work hard to create powerful products that inspire, entertain, and educate children while also helping …

Bloomberg Mazda Motor Corp. stopped selling rotary engines in 2012 after spending nearly half a century trying to perfect them. The company is reviving the classic technology now in what seems like an unlikely place: battery-powered, self-driving vehicles it’s developing with Toyota Motor Corp. to deliver everything from pizza to people. Mazda will provide rotary engines to run generators that …

Bloomberg Even as we flirt with Jetsons-style bathrooms hooked up to digital assistants and breakneck races of flying “cars,” one thing remains clear: Despite ever-improving technology, our nostalgia-tuned minds remain glued to the rear-view mirror. At CES, Kodak made that abundantly clear when it revealed footage from its hotly-anticipated reboot of the Super 8 camera, which revolutionised amateur filmmaking when …

Bloomberg Next year, General Motors Co. will no longer need an engineer in the front seat babysitting the robot brain that controls its self-driving Chevrolet Bolt. The steering wheel and pedals will be gone, giving total control to the machine. When GM starts testing its autonomous electric sedan in San Francisco ride-sharing fleets, it’ll likely be the first production-ready car …