With Waymo One last year, the Alphabet division finally began monetizing its decade-long work in autonomous vehicles. Another revenue source for Waymo is making its self-driving cars available on other ride-sharing networks. The company is now partnering with Lyft to provide self-driving cars for riders in Metro Phoenix.
In addition to operating a Lyft/Uber competitor, commercial trucks, and possibly licensing self-driving tech to carmakers, Waymo has another way to monetize its decade-long work on autonomous vehicles (AV). The Alphabet division will begin selling LIDAR sensors to robotic, security, and other companies that don’t directly compete with it.
One of the first applications of DeepMind at Google was to reduce and now control power usage at its data centers. Google is now leveraging machine learning to make more efficient wind farms by predicting wind power output 36 hours in advance.
In other energy-related developments today, Alphabet’s Makani energy kite project is graduating from the X Moonshot Factory. It is partnering with oil and gas giant Shell to expand to offshore environments as part of becoming an independent Alphabet company.
Projects in the X Moonshot Factory often graduate to independent companies within the Alphabet umbrella. Other times they leaves the research lab without any affiliation, as was the case with Dandelion Energy. GV and Comcast Ventures today announced a $16 million investment in the geothermal-based home heating and cooling solution.
Besides offering a Lyft and Uber competitor, Waymo is also exploring self-driving trucks as it makes its technology available to carmakers in order to monetize its decade-long work on autonomy. A report today revealed a possible partnership with the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance.
Late last year, Waymo One launched as Alphabet’s public self-driving car service in Phoenix, thus culminating an almost decade-long research project. Waymo now has to build more cars ahead of future expansion, with the company choosing Michigan to manufacture additional autonomous vehicles.
Solar race spawned Lightyear plans to partner with Dutch-based car leasing service LeasePlan to release the first consumer solar-based vehicle by 2020. Lightyear has been aiming to create a consumer version of an energy positive solar vehicle for years now, effectively meaning they produce more energy than they consume.
Further, today’s press release also details that Lightyear this week will open its primary production factory at the Automotive Campus in Helmond, Netherlands.
Last week, Audi flew us to Abu Dhabi to test drive their e-tron SUV. Electrek’s Fred Lambert wasn’t shy in expressing his favorable first impressions he had with the vehicle. Dubbing it “the best looking SUV they could make which just happens to be electric”, Audi looks to have a promising future in the EV space. Expand
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As electric airplanes seem riper than ever for takeoff, Air Race E is seeking to accelerate the adoption and acceptance of electric aviation with a (hopefully) highly-entertaining, high-speed, all-electric airplane race. Expand
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Earlier this month, Waymo announced that its autonomous vehicles have driven 10 million miles since 2009 across 25 cities in the United States. Now, California has just authorized the Alphabet division to begin driverless testing on public roads.
Amazon offers the Rain Bird 6-Zone Indoor Sprinkler Controller for $49.98 shipped. Originally selling for over $110, most retailers currently have it for around $65+. Today’s deal is a match of the Amazon all-time low. This sprinkler controller monitors the weather and creates schedules to help your save on unnecessary watering. Rated 4.4/5 stars.
Home Depot offers the Sun Joe 14-inch 9A Electric Chainsaw for $34 shipped. Also at Amazon with delayed shipping. Regularly $49, today’s deal is a $15 discount and the best that we’ve seen all-time. This model skips the gas and oil for an electric-powered setup. This is a #1 best-seller at Amazon with a 3.8/5 star rating.
Home Depot offers the Ryobi 13-inch 18v Electric Cordless Lawn Mower for $149 shipped. Regularly $199, today’s deal is a match of our previous mention and the best available. This model sports a 13-inch cutting deck, 18V battery and ships with a bundled charger. Rated 4.2/5 stars.
Patozon (99% positive feedback from 164,000) via Amazon offers a four-pack of Mpow 20 LED Solar Outdoor Lights for $29.99 Prime shipped when promo code 3GBZ7OU3 is applied during checkout. That’s good for $6 off the regular going rate and $2 less than our previous mention. These outdoor solar lights are perfect for warmer weather as a way to illuminate your walkways or outdoor spaces. Rated 4.7/5 stars.
Home Depot offers the Sun Joe 24V Cordless Lawn Care System for $89.99 shipped. Regularly up to $180, this is the lowest price that we’ve tracked historically on Sun Joe’s latest outdoor care bundle that includes a hedge trimmer, pole saw and blower. Today’s deal is $27 less than our previous mention. Rated 4.1/5 stars.
We haven’t done a Talking Schmidt in a while, not because the former Google CEO and current Alphabet Board member Dr. Eric Schmidt has been quiet with his sometimes outlandish commentary, but because of his reduced role at Google and its now parent company Alphabet. In February Schmidt stepped down as Chairman, taking an innovation role at MIT and was replaced by John Hennessy.
But back to the matter at hand…
Apple has continued to ramp up its self-driving car testing over the last few months, and now a report from The New York Times says the company has inked a deal with Volkswagen. As part of the deal, Apple will turn Volkswagen’s T6 Transport vans into self-driving shuttles…
Update 5/21: Amazon offers the Sun Joe 9-Ft. 6.5A Electric Pole Chain Saw with Adjustable Head (SWJ802E-GRY) for $49.99 shipped (Reg. $65+). Also at Home Depot. Rated 4.3/5 stars at Amazon where it’s a #1 best-seller.
The WORX official eBay storefront offers its 20V 10-inch Cordless String Trimmer and Blower Combo Kit for $93.49 shipped when you use code PMEMDAY at checkout. Currently $130 from WORX, this is one of the best prices we’ve tracked and is the lowest currently available. Perfect for getting the lawn cleaned up as summer approaches. WORX is well-rated at Amazon.
eBikes seem to be taking the world by storm lately. We just recently reviewed a budget-focused eBike, and now it’s time to take a look at one that’s a little higher up on the price and feature scale. We covered the launch of Rad Power Bikes’ 2018 lineup, and have since had a chance to go hands-on with the 2018 RadCity.