Author: azeeadmin

Ahead of its announcements of new TV partnerships at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Roku today shared some new numbers about the growing traction of its overall platform. The company said the number of active accounts grew 40 percent year-over-year in 2018, to top 27 million by year-end. In addition, its total streaming hours grew 61 percent year-over-year to 24 billion hours of movies, TV shows, sports and more being streamed across its devices.

In Q4 2018 alone, Roku users streamed an estimated 7.3 billion hours, up about 68 percent year-over-year.

Roku’s decision to release new numbers about active users and hours streamed comes at a time when the company itself is becoming more competitive with streaming services themselves, instead of just offering a platform on which their apps can run. In fall 2017 Roku began to aggregate the free content from the various channels across its platform in its own Roku Channel, then combined that with content it licensed directly from studios. This free, ad-supported content has given Roku a way to further grow its advertising revenues.

Since its launch, the channel has added more types of content, including sports, news and entertainment from both traditional and digital studios, and just last week launched its own set of premium subscriptions where it gets a cut of customers’ purchases.

Some analysts now believe the Roku Channel’s average revenue per user is now the fastest-growing contributor to overall revenue growth at Roku

Now Roku is working with more manufacturers to get its Roku OS – and therefore its Roku Channel – in front of more people.

At CES this week, Roku announced the Westinghouse Electronics was joining the Roku TV licensing program.

It also announced a partnership with TV brand TCL. The two companies will work together to make 8K TCL Roku TVs that will become available to consumers in late 2019. As a result of catering to TV makers, Roku said it’s updating its 4K and HDR hardware reference design to include far-field microphones for voice search and control. TCL will be the first to deliver these TV models in 2019.

Uber is expected to raise $10 billion later this year in one of the largest U.S. initial public offerings in history. The float will value the ride-hailing giant somewhere between $76 billion — the valuation it garnered with its last private financing — and $120 billion — a sky-high figure assigned by Wall Street bankers that’s had even early Uber investors scratching their heads.

A new report from The Information pegs Uber’s initial market cap at $90 billion. To develop the estimate, the site analyzed undisclosed documents Uber provided creditors in 2017 “in which the company projected it would double net revenue to $14.2 billion by 2019,” ran revenue multiples and compared Uber to GrubHub, which investors say is the business’s closest comparison.

Uber declined to comment on The Information’s analysis.

How we got here

Uber confidentially filed for its long-awaited IPO last month, marking the beginning of a race to the stock markets between it and U.S. competitor Lyft, which filed just hours before, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick, Uber has brought in about $20 billion in a combination of debt and equity funding. It counts SoftBank as its largest shareholder in a cap table that also lists Toyota, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, TPG Growth and many more. As for the skepticism surrounding Uber’s lofty $120 billion valuation, the eye-popping figure seems unachievable considering the company isn’t profitable and has and continues to burn through cash.

An IPO that large would certainly make its investors happy. First Round Capital, for example, seeded Uber with $1.6 million in the company’s first two funding rounds in 2010 and 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal. At a $120 billion valuation, First Round’s shares would be worth some $5 billion. The venture capital firm, however, sold some of its shares to SoftBank alongside Benchmark, which itself would otherwise own shares worth about $14 billion.

Bradley Tusk, an early Uber investor who signed on to help the company surmount political and regulatory barriers in 2011, own shares said to be worth $100 million, though he too gave up 42 percent of his equity in a secondary sale to SoftBank, he recently told TechCrunch.

“I’m quite happy with the 120 number,” Tusk said. “But … I am a little surprised by [it], it does seem to be a really aggressive number.”

“Any investment in Uber is obviously a long-term bet on the future, like someone who invested in Amazon in the early days,” Tusk added. “One thing [Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi] is doing well is really expanding Uber into a mobility company as opposed to just a ride-hailing company.”

Dara Kowsrowshahi, chief executive officer of Uber, looks on following an event in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A long-term bet on the future

Uber has opted to go public in a year poised to see the most high-flying unicorn IPOs in history. As we’ve reported in great detail on this site, both Lyft and Uber are planning to float, as are Slack and Pinterest . Many of these companies, however, made the call to make their public markets debut before the stock market took a quick turn south. Poor performing stocks may discourage unicorns from emerging from their cozy VC-protected stalls.

Uber will garner increased scrutiny from Wall Street investors as they begin to parse out its true value. Fortunately the company, which like Amazon has long prioritized growth over profit, has “’clear levers’ it could pull in order to turn on the cash spigots if it wanted to, by reducing its marketing spending both in the U.S. and developing markets and by finding partners to help finance its self-driving car development,” according to The Information. “Pulling those levers would slow revenue growth by a third—from a 33% growth in net revenue to 22 percent growth in net revenue in 2019 [but] it would save Uber $2 billion annually.”

In its third quarter 2018 financial results, Uber posted a net loss of $939 million on a pro forma basis and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $527 million, up about 21 percent quarter-over-quarter. Revenue for Q3 was up five percent QoQ at $2.95 billion and up 38 percent year-over-year.

“We had another strong quarter for a business of our size and global scope,” Uber chief financial officer Nelson Chai said in a statement. “As we look ahead to an IPO and beyond, we are investing in future growth across our platform, including in food, freight, electric bikes and scooters, and high-potential markets in India and the Middle East where we continue to solidify our leadership position.”

We can speculate on Uber’s valuation for days but ultimately Wall Street will determine just how high Uber will go. For now, all we can do is sit and wait for the company to relinquish its S-1 to the masses.

Let’s hope you’re not afraid of dogs, because if Continental gets its way, autonomous robot dogs are going to be delivering your packages. At the Consumer Electronics Show today, Continental unveiled its Black Mirror-esque vision for how driverless vehicles can autonomously deploy bots to facilitate last-mile deliveries.

But it’s not just to look cool while also horrifying you — it’s designed to increase availability, efficiency and safety in the realm of package delivery. The first part is the driverless vehicle itself, called the Continental Urban Mobility Experience (CUbE). Its specific purpose is to carry delivery robot dogs and deploy them to handle the last yards of the goods. So, imagine one of these CUbE pods dropping off a robot dog, and then seeing that robot dog run up to your door with your package.

“With the help of robot delivery, Continental’s vision for seamless mobility can extend right to your doorstep. Our vision of cascaded robot delivery leverages a driverless vehicle to carry delivery robots, creating an efficient transport team,” Continental Head of Systems and Technology, Chassis & Safety division Ralph Lauxmann said in a press release. “Both are electrified, both are autonomous and, in principle, both can be based on the same scalable technology portfolio. These synergies create an exciting potential for holistic delivery concepts using similar solutions for different platforms. Beyond this technology foundation, it’s reasonable to expect a whole value chain to develop in this area.”

It’s not clear if and when these will be deployed, but it’s undoubtedly an intriguing vision of the future. Segway is also at CES this week, showing off its new autonomous delivery bots. The idea is to use the bot to make autonomous deliveries for food, packages and other items.

The international electronics and medical device giant Philips is pushing further into pregnancy and childcare services by leading a $6 million early stage investment in the pregnancy-focused app-developer and device manufacturer, Babyscripts. 

The Washington, DC-based company works with hospitals and healthcare providers to distribute a medical device and mobile app for monitoring blood pressure and providing neonatal care information for expecting mothers.

According to Babyscripts co-founder and President Juan Pablo Segura, typical neonatal care follows a standard script with women seeing an obstetrician typically fourteen times over the course of the pregnancy. And most of those visits are just to monitor a woman’s weight and blood pressure during pregnancy.

Babyscripts can adjust the frequency and scope of treatment required through its blood pressure and pregnancy monitoring application, Segura said.

Using remote-monitoring devices to monitor blood pressure and weight, the company claims it can tailor treatments to risk profiles and allow healthcare providers to manage up to 90% of pregnancies virtually.

The company is already being used to monitor 160,000 pregnancies across 20 states. In the U.S. there are roughly 4 million pregnancies per year.

A new company called Flexit lets you pay for gym time by the minute, allowing you to walk into a nearby gym when you’re traveling, for example, and slam out thirty minutes of sweet glute action before dinner. The service is like Uber for gyms in that you only pay for the time you are inside the gym and you don’t need to pay monthly fees or a flat rate per visit.

Created by Michael Rojas, the co-CEO of Iron Grip Barbell Company, the service already has 400 gyms in the United States and plans to expand over the next year. They’ve raised $750,000 in notes.

The company launched today.

“FlexIt’s corporate team has superior industry reach, best-in-class technology and a concept unlike that of its competition,” said CEO Austin Cohen. “FlexIt’s corporate team has deep industry experience in fitness sales and marketing, fitness club ownership, and early-stage venture and venture capital aspects of the business. It’s relationships with C-level leaders at the largest gym chains in the country provide FlexIt with industry insights and access to best position it for success. These relationships have resulted in FlexIt having on-boarded a meaningful club base at a faster rate than any of the competition.”

The fact that Rojas has been selling barbells to gyms for 26 years definitely helped them scale up and the company has gyms in New York, DC, New Jersey, and Illinois as well as three other markets. They are launching an eighth market in two weeks.

Rojas has found that most modern gyms are amenable to the idea and they’re offering everything from classes to personal training via the app. Because it is paid by the minute they also get interesting new data that traditional gym membership plans don’t offer.

“Consumers seek more choice and control over how, when and where they consume, FlexIt is the logical solution to this pain point in the fitness space,” he said.

The self-driving vehicle evangelists are uniting.

A number of major automakers, technology companies and organizations with a stake in autonomous vehicles, including Audi, Aurora, Cruise, GM, Mobileye, Nvidia, Toyota, Waymo and Zoox has formed a coalition to spread the word about advanced vehicle technologies and self-driving vehicles. Their message: this tech can transform transportation and make it safer and more sustainable.

The Partners for Automated Vehicle Education, or PAVE, coalition was announced Monday at CES 2019 in Las Vegas. The aim of PAVE is educate the public and policymakers about the potential of automated vehicles.

“It is essential to engage the public and their elected representatives to shape an informed future of our roadways,” Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council said Monday. Hersman stressed during the conference that PAVE is not a lobbying group.

“It’s not about lobbying, it’s about education,” Hersman said. “We want people to understand the benefits and the limitations.”

Hersman, along with Audi of America, will serve as inaugural co-chairs of PAVE. A few automakers and tech companies including Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Aptiv weren’t included in the launch of the coalition. It’s probable that many more will join if the coalition gains momentum.

There’s also no shortage of other industry-led coalitions, organizations and lobby groups focused on autonomous vehicle technology such as the Automated Vehicle Coalition and the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, which includes Ford, Waymo, Lyft, Uber and Volvo.

PAVE says it will hold events across the country to introduce driver assistance and self-driving technology to consumers and policymakers, hold educational workshops aimed at federal, state and local officials, and develop educational materials to distribute to retail sales and customer service personnel.

The group wants to educate the everyday consumer as well. So, it plans to sponsor hands-on workshops in partnership with SAE International to give people the chance to see, touch and feel developing AV technology.

It will also hold policy workshops in partnership with academic institutions such as Stanford University’s Center for Automotive Research to help policymakers understand AVs and their potential. 

“Traditional automakers and newcomers are investing billions of dollars in the technology that will make automated vehicles possible,” said Mark Del Rosso, President, Audi of America. “PAVE recognizes the need to invest in public information — in making sure consumers and policymakers understand what’s real, what’s possible, and what is rumor or speculation.”

Harley Davidson released new specs for its electric motorcycle and pulled the covers off the concept designs for its electric bicycle and scooter as the company’s push into electrifying its product line continues.

And the company showed that going electric doesn’t mean losing any of the muscle that’s intrinsic to the Harley Davidson chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected brand. In fact, the 2019 EV debut can out-accelerate any of the company’s gas motorcycles, according to specs released today at CES.

The battery powered LiveWire will do 0-60 mph in just over 3 seconds, go 110 miles on a charge, and be available in US dealerships in August for a $29,799 MSRP.

“It’s one of our fastest production bikes ever. We’re also announcing H-D Connect, which allows riders to monitor battery charge status remotely via their smartphone and enables features like a GPS enabled anti-theft system,” Harley Davidson’s Media Relations Manager Jen Hoyer told TechCrunch.

The specs bring greater detail to the company’s pivot to electric, which will also see HD enter the e-scooter/bicycle space. Through a series of announcements in 2018, Harley-Davidson—an American symbol of internal combustion, chrome and steel—indicated it’s going all in on two-wheeled EVs.

The Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer committed to release its first production e-moto last year. HD followed that up with announcements of an expanded EV line-up—including bicycles and scooters—and opened a Silicon Valley Based R&D center in late 2018.

“The LiveWire represents the future of Harley-Davidson, bringing high-performance electric propulsion…and cellular connectivity to today’s rider,” HD said today in a release. Beyond battery power, the 2019 EV production motorcycle also differs from the company’s gas line-up in offering an automatic drive-train: no clutch no gears; just twist and go.

The e-moto is equipped with an on-board Level 1 charger that plugs into a household outlet and can also be charged by a Level 3 DC Fast Charge. On charge times, the LiveWire gets 13 miles for each hour of charging using Level 1 and can reach 80 percent of charging capacity in 40 minutes at Level 3.

The new LiveWire also brings a signature sound — something of a hallmark on HD’s gas motorcycles — produced by the gear set between the motor and the drive belt.

Harley also released info on two new concept electric two-wheelers, resembling a mountain bike and a scooter, “that further explore the potential of urban mobility,” the company said. HD wouldn’t reveal any additional information on its non-motorcycle EV concepts or business plans, but it’s notable the historic motorcycle-maker also plans to enter the electric moped and bicycle space, where venture investors have deployed a great deal of capital recently.

“We’re at a historic juncture in the evolution of mobility…Our vision for the future is all encompassing….for all ages, from urban professional to exurban retiree, and from commute-minded to thrill-seeking,” said, Harley-Davidson’s CEO Matt Levatich on the LiveWire and e-concept releases.

Both are signs the 115 year-old U.S. company is willing to buck convention to appeal to a younger generation and remain relevant in today’s anything but static transit market.

Something needs to be done to revitalize a U.S. motorcycle industry that has been in the doldrums since the recession.

New U.S. sales dropped roughly 50 percent since 2008, with sharp declines in ownership by everyone under 40, with the exception of women—the only growing ownership segment. By and large, motorcycle manufacturers are now competing for an aging and shrinking American buying demographic.

E-motos could be a way to change that by bringing some segment of a more tech savvy younger generation back to motorcycles.

Some upstarts have entered the two-wheeled market with mixed success. Electric motorcycle startups Brammo and Mission Motors already tried and failed. And per TechCrunch’s reporting, California based Alta Motors—that had $45 million in VC—ceased operations late last year.

E-moto startups Energica and Zero Motorcycles have revved up U.S. promotion, distribution and sales. The two have extensive R&D facilities and roughly $90 million in VC among them.

The major gas names have been slower to embrace production EVs. Currently none of the big motorcycle manufacturers offer a street-legal, electric motorcycle for sale in the U.S.

With the LiveWire release—and subsequent two-wheel e-offerings—Harley Davidson will become the first major two-wheel player to do so. The market reaction and sales stats over the next several years will determine if the company’s e-motorcycle mobility bet pays off. HD’s entry into the e-scooter/e-bicycle space will also be a major development. Look for a TechCrunch update on that soon.

If you use wired headphones with your new iPhone, you’re probably familiar with the pain that comes along with trying to listen to music while you’re charging your phone via the Lightning port. Mophie unveiled its solution to this problem at the Consumer Electronics Show today.

Thanks to Qi wireless charging, Mophie’s new battery case for iPhone X, Xs Max, Xs/X and XR gives you full access to your iPhone’s Lightning port. That means you can listen to music with wired headphones while wirelessly charging your phone.

To charge the pack itself, you plug it in with a USB-C input or place it on a Qi-based wireless pad. The case provides up to 25 hours of talk time for iPhone Xs/X and up to 31 hours of talk time for the iPhone Xs Max and iPhone XR. This particular juice pack will be available this quarter for $119.95.

Self-driving technology company Torc Robotics is partnering with Transdev, the public transportation giant, to deploy fully autonomous electric shuttles designed to provide free connections to existing transit like trains and buses.

The companies, which made the announcement Monday at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, are integrating Torc’s self-driving software stack and sensor suite into an autonomous shuttle known as i-Cristal that was unveiled earlier this year by Transdev and French manufacturer Lohr. Torc is licensing its Asimov self-driving software and sensor suite to Transdev.

The shuttles, which can seat up to 16 passengers, will operate in a dedicated lane offering a shared-ride mobility service at night and off-peak hours between the Massy transit station and the Paris-Saclay campus. Another autonomous shuttle service will operate on public roads offering a shared-ride mobility service throughout the business park and connecting to the tramway station in Rouen.

The partners are testing on closed courses and public roads before launching the public service trials in Paris-Saclay and Rouen.

The aim is integrate autonomous shuttles into Transdev’s public transportation networks, which are considerable. The public transportation company operates in 20 countries and its transit services provide 11 million passenger trips per day.

“At Transdev, we believe the future of mobility is increasingly P.A.C.E.: Personalized, Autonomous, Connected and Eco-Friendly,” Yann Leriche, Transdev’s North America CEO and head of autonomous transportation systems said in a statement. “We believe that public transport will lead and be the first place real autonomous services will be developed.”

The electric i-Cristal shuttles have Level 4 autonomous capabilities, a designation by the SAE that means these vehicles are able to operate fully autonomously in certain conditions or geographic areas. The shuttles, which operate without a steering wheel or pedals, can travel up to 19 miles per hour.

Torc Robotics’ specialty has been in automated heavy machinery and commercial equipment. But the company shifted its attention to consumer products in recent years. The company has integrated its Asimov self-driving car technology into Lexus RX and Chrysler Pacifica vehicles. Torc says it has tested these vehicles in more than 20 U.S. states while operating on both public roads and closed courses. 

Last year, at CES 2018, Torc announced a partnership with AAA to work on a set of safety criteria for using self-driving cars.

Alexa may be front and center for Amazon’s play this CES, but the just unloaded a whole bunch of news about Amazon Key. The list includes a name change to the more passive Key By Amazon, a title designed to reflect the broader scope of the line.

Alongside the vague rebranding, Key is getting a whole bunch of new features this week. In addition to the standard home and car delivery, the company is adding Key for Garage into the mix. Using the Key app, customers can remotely monitor the door and accept deliveries while they’re out.

It’s a nice addition to the existing offerings, for those looking to thwart package thieves or missed deliveries. Of course, the standard issue of how much access you’re willing to give Amazon and delivery services is still very much an open question — for some, however, garage access may ultimately be less invasive than a house or car.

This week also sees the addition of Key for Business, which is, well, pretty much what it sounds like. The fob lets building owners/staff manage deliveries, including hours and entry. The system has already begun to role to to a handful of apartment properties and is compatible with most building access systems, according to Amazon.

There’s a new WiFi deadbolt designed specifically for Key by Schlage, as well. That goes by the unwieldy name, Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Deadbolt. That ought to make it easier for interested parties to incorporate Key into their home. It will hit the States in Q1 of this year. Price is still TBD.

One last bit: Ring is always getting Key access for a bit of inter-brand synergy. Ring towers will be able to lock and unlock compatible locks via the Ring feed. “For example,” the company writes in the release, “when your dog sitter arrives, you can pull up the live feed using your Ring Video Doorbell, verify it’s your sitter, and unlock your Yale, Kwikset, or Schlage lock with the push of a button right in the Ring app.”