Technology

Bloomberg A Chinese startup has developed a flying car that it plans to roll out as soon as next year. EHang Inc.’s E-184 drone can carry one passenger in its small cockpit, but the firm says it’s working on a model that can carry two. EHang’s CEO Hu Huazhi says they’ll be in operation as “taxi drones” in Dubai in ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. audio engineers had been working on an early version of the HomePod speaker for about two years in 2014 when they were blindsided by the Echo, a smart speaker from Amazon.com Inc. with a voice-activated assistant named Alexa. The Apple engineers jokingly accused one another of leaking details of their project to Amazon, then bought Echos so ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk is showing the world a big rig-worth of reason to take seriously his master plan to electrify all the major forms of “terrestrial transport.” The electric-car maker offered scant detail ahead of his remarks, saving information such as range, price and production plans for Musk to announce. The company did say the truck will offer ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG will spend more than 34 billion euros ($40 billion) over the next five years to develop automotive technology for an era of electric robo-taxis. With the unprecedented investment through 2022, Volkswagen is accelerating its push into battery-powered vehicles, autonomous-driving features and ride-hailing systems, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said in a statement. Volkswagen is seeking to defend its ...

Bloomberg AT&T Inc. has deployed a drone to act as a “cell tower in the sky” to help provide communication services in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, the first time the technology has been used to reconnect residents after a disaster, the company said. The Federal Aviation Administration announced its approval for the use of the vehicle, which resembles a small helicopter. ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. is working on a rear-facing 3-D sensor system for the iPhone in 2019, another step towards turning the handset into a leading augmented-reality device, according to people familiar with the plan. Apple is evaluating a different technology from the one it currently uses in the TrueDepth sensor system on the front of the iPhone X, the people ...

Bloomberg The components in Apple Inc.’s new iPhone X cost $115 more than the guts of the iPhone 8 due to its pricey new screen and facial recognition scanner, according to an analysis by IHS Markit Inc. The total bill of materials for the base model iPhone X with 64 gigabytes of storage is $370.25, according to IHS’s report, excluding ...

Bloomberg Zynga Inc. wants to be the go-to place for mobile card games. The San Francisco-based online gaming pioneer is acquiring the copyrights for mobile card game business of Turkish game designer Peak Games for $100 million in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. The Peak business is profitable and will add to earnings, Zynga Chief Executive ...

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd. has developed its own autonomous driving system, according to people familiar with the matter, becoming the latest technology player to dive into a crowded field that could become a $42 billion industry. The social media giant intends to leverage its mapping and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to compete in a sector that’s attracted investment from the ...

Bloomberg Navya Technologies SAS will roll its robot-driven automobiles onto the cobbled streets of Paris in the next few weeks to try and beat behemoths from General Motors Co. to Alphabet Inc. at proving autonomous cars are safe. The French startup’s 15-seater driverless shuttles have been dodging bankers and corporate executives in the capital’s business district of La Defense since ...