Category: UNCATEGORIZED

Amazon has amassed at least 1 million subscribers for its Prime loyalty service in India, the e-commerce giant revealed today in a long rundown of how its platform fared during last week’s Prime Day in the world’s second largest internet market.

More than a million Prime subscribers in India shopped from small businesses in the two weeks leading up to 48-hour Prime Day event last week, the company said in a blog post. Factoring in the ongoing global pandemic, Amazon last month chose India as the first market for Prime Day this year.

This is the first time Amazon has even vaguely disclosed how many of its users have signed up for Prime service in India, where the subscription costs $13.3 a year and bundles Prime Video and Prime Music services. Globally, Amazon has over 150 million Prime subscribers.

More than 91,000 small businesses (sellers) in India — a record for the company — participated in the local Prime Day, and sold to customers living in 5,900 zip codes (covering more than 97% of the country). Over 4,000 of these businesses clocked sales of more than $13,350 (slightly below 4,500 businesses during last year’s Prime Day), and overall 31,000 sellers reported the two-day period last week as their best selling on the platform.

Chinese firms continued to command sales in the smartphone category, one of the top three selling categories on Amazon, and also attracted customers to their accessories, laptops, and television sets, Amazon disclosed. The reception stands in contrast with the all-time high anti-China sentiments swirling across India in recent months.

Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Manager of Amazon India, said in a televised interview that last week’s Prime Day also illustrated an “increasing trend of local Indian sellers use Amazon as a starting point to launch products and reach customers globally” but he declined to share any figures.

“This Prime Day was dedicated to our small business (SMB) partners, who have been increasingly looking to Amazon to keep their businesses running. We are humbled that we were able to help as this was our biggest Prime Day ever for small businesses,” he said in a statement.

Prime Day is one of the biggest sales events for Amazon globally. In India, the e-commerce giant has historically sold more goods during sales events scheduled around the festival of Diwali, which is when local residents peak their spendings.

But the participation of 91,000 sellers in last week’s Prime Day is the highest Amazon has ever witnessed during any sales period in India. During the sale around Diwali last year, the company had reported the participation of 65,000 sellers, for instance.

Amazon, which competes with Walmart’s Flipkart in India, has visibly shifted its attention to winning the trust of more sellers in the country in recent quarters. Earlier this year, Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said the company would invest $1 billion in India to help digitize local small businesses and increase their cumulative exports on Amazon to $10 billion by 2025.

The company revealed today that it has amassed 650,000 sellers in India, up from 500,000 it disclosed in January this year.

Amazon has also been focusing on tie-ups with neighborhood stores across the country, leveraging their vast reach to drive more people to shop online. The company said over a thousand such shops from more than 100 cities made their debut on Prime Day last week.

Amazon also claimed that during Prime Day, the number of requests people made to Alexa exceeded one million. The company also shared a wide-range of other stats such as a claim that twice as many customers signed up for a Prime membership during last week’s Prime Day compared to last year’s. But without any concrete figures, these numbers are bereft of meaning.

Apple’s still-in-beta operating systems will automatically redirect News+ subscribers to the Apple News app when they click on links from a News+ publisher.

In other words, if you click or tap on a link to a paywalled story published by a News+ partner — including stories from our own Extra Crunch membership program — iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and macOS Big Sur will take you straight to the article page in the News+ app, even when the link ostensibly points to the publisher’s own website.

Tony Haile (who founded the ad-free subscription news service Scroll)  tweeted about the change this morning, and I’ve been able to replicate it myself.

The experience should be familiar to (for example) New York Times app readers who, when they click on a web link, are taken straight to the article page in the NY Times app. (In TechCrunch’s case, I noticed that Apple even prompts users to open the News app when they click on stories that aren’t paywalled.)

This addresses one of the more frustrating elements of being a News+ subscriber: Although your $9.99 monthly subscription gets you access to paywalled stories from publishers like The New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal, you only get access via the News app — not the publishers’ websites. So I’ve often seen something I want to read on Google or Twitter, but instead of clicking the link, I have to open the News app and track down the story.

So this seems like it should significantly improve the reader experience, even if it might be a little disconcerting at first. And it only applies to News+ subscribers, who are opted-in but will have the option to turn off the “Open Web Links in News” feature in their News settings.

But as Haile noted, publishers may be less excited about the change: “Any strategic rationale that Apple News+ represents a separate  channel/audience is now gone. This directly cannibalizes a publishers’ core subscription audience.”

Although Apple has not released News+ subscriber numbers, there have been several reports — including a November 2019 story from CNBC —suggesting that the service has struggled to attract new subscribers after signing on 200,000 users in the first 48 hours after launch. And Digiday reported that publishers have been underwhelmed with revenue.

Angel funding, seed investing and generally focusing on earlier stage investing is a huge business in the world of startups these days — it helps investors get in early to the most promising companies, and (because of the smaller size of the checks) allows for even the less prolific to spread their bets.

There was a time when it was immensely difficult for a founder to get a first check, not least because there were fewer people writing them. However, Jeff Clavier was an exception to that rule.

As the founder of Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC), he has been in the business of angel and seed investing for 16 years, popularizing the opportunity and highlighting the need for more support at this stage — well before it was cool. You could say he was early to early stage.

Clavier said that at the end of 2019, it was estimated that there were more than 1,000 firms focusing on seed investing in the market, but by the end of this year, there will be about 2,000. “Don’t ask me whether it makes any sense because when I started 16 years ago, I didn’t think would be a big deal,” he said. “But certainly that creates a bit of a conundrum for founders to try and understand.”

As of now, Clavier has made nearly 230 investments and counting.

TechCrunch Early Stage, our virtual conference highlighting that stage of startup life, was the perfect venue to hear from him on all things seed investing and building startups today. Below are some highlights, a link to the video and a pitch deck he put together for the chat. Questions were edited for space and clarity.

Not all VCs are created equal (so know who you are pitching)

First thing to understand is that not all VCs are created equal. There are a bunch of different firms, tons of them out there, and you as a founder need to understand what are the specifics of your pitch opportunity, how to match with the right firm, and to figure out what stage of “early” you happen to be.

Startups can be super early, or mid-stage, which is typically what we refer to as pre-seed. Then there’s the seed stage, where you have developed a product, with a demo. And there is post-seed, where you have product but are not quite ready to raise a Series A. So who are the firms that can actually be the right fit for me at those different stages? The qualification part of the targeting is really important. Especially in a COVID environment when you can’t spend the same kind of time with each other.

It’s useful for founders to try and understand investors better, maybe asking a couple of questions like, “When is the last time you made a brand new investment at seed stage?” And “How has your investment process changed as a result of COVID?”

For investors, you want to understand how you’re going to evolve your process to cope with the fact that you don’t spend time with those founders face-to-face. Some firms are still struggling with that.

At Uncork, we’re now past the point of portfolio triage that we had in the first few weeks of of the pandemic. What was surprising to me was the speed and velocity at which some deals actually.

Find an investment lead

Another thing that is important at seed stage is to understand the difference between the leaders and followers in the investment. Unfortunately for founders, you’re going to have a lot of people trying to very quickly come to a decision and say, “Oh, I’m gonna invest $100,000, $200,000, whatever,” in your round. But unfortunately, it’s really not useful at all to have a bunch of followers and no leads. And so as part of your targeting, you really want to think about which firms are going to write the larger check, set the terms and help me, the entrepreneur, put the round together.

If you work with a lead investor that has a very strong brand, then that will make your life much easier.

You want to have everything lined up: pitch deck, the backup slides, the references that investors will ask you for, which allow them to try and figure out who you are and how you work, with input from people that you’ve worked with. I won’t go too much into detail of the pitch deck because this is something that has been written about a lot but those are typically the questions that you want to highlight in the deck. You want to have clear answers around how much you would like to raise.

Prepare for your remote pitch

Having a remote pitch is a new thing, but we’re all doing it, via Zoom.

Even though there are many solutions, my advice is use Zoom because everybody uses Zoom. Everybody’s used to Zoom, people have Zoom installed… Don’t try and pitch from your phone — that’s horrible. Use a computer and if you can, have a fixed connection because Wi-Fi is the enemy. Make sure that you have a proper light environment, and turn off all notifications so that you don’t have Slack notifications coming in the middle of the conversation.

If you have it, go through the deck, but then some VCs prefer stories. In any case, don’t have them browse your deck, share your screen and take control of the conversation. It’s very hard, but try and make eye contact through the camera.

Don’t do what someone did to me a couple of weeks ago: They literally opened and shared the screen and so the calendar and their inbox with some emails from other VCs [were visible] … And if you’re pitching as a team, which you should because we’re trying to get to know the founders, try and figure out either the way you’re going to pitch or the cues you’re going to use to have the conversation involve everyone because you don’t want to have someone not being involved at all. So rehearsing is very important.

Practice the pitch to previous investors, friends who have been on the entrepreneurial side, friends who are on the investor side and try and get all their feedback together and rehearse until it feels right. Do this in the same environment where you’ll do the actual pitch.

Introductions matter more than cold emails

Introductions are also very important. Sometimes people will say, “Well, I’m just getting going and I don’t know how to get introduced.” The introduction is typically an important step for founders. It’s figuring out who is someone in their network who knows me, who can vouch for them with me and essentially, use the credibility I have for the person, and introduce them on their behalf.

As for email, I do read every single one I get. But to date, there’s only two cold emails that have led to an investment at Uncork. So just think about two investments out of 227 were cold emails and the rest was introduction. So it’s worth trying to figure out who knows people who know the VCs you want to try and connect to are so you can get those intros working.

Run fundraising like you might run your sales or CRM

Fundraising is basically a sales job. So like any CRM, you want to be able to track that figure out, who has said what, what the pushback was, what the questions were, so you can really be on point with your follow-ups. 

And be quick. If someone says, “Oh, send me this information, send me your references, send me your deck.” Literally, you should send that within a couple of hours of the meeting so that you can show that you’re on top of the ball, and that you’re good at following up because what we’re trying to assess when you pitch us is how good are you at selling your product? 

Make sure you track everything … [and] update the pitch as you get feedback from people. 

What if we do all of this, and it still doesn’t work?

If it never works, and nobody bites maybe you want to rework the pitch entirely. 

Maybe you want to think about what you should be doing. Some companies will pitch to a few firms and get three term sheets and they will say, “Oh, this fundraising thing was easy,” but, they’re really the exception. 

Most companies will pitch 50 firms and get one yes. And that’s what matters: to get one VC saying yes, to get to the next stage. It really only takes one investor to give you the push and the runway to get to the next round. 

I still remember Udemy pitching a bunch of people at seed stage many years ago and no one would bite. Then one, Keith Rabois, said yes, and suddenly the company was funded because everyone followed Keith’s lead. The other day I saw that they were raising $3 billion. So it just took one person, Keith, to give them the momentum. 

What is the impact on future fundraising if we received funds from either a crowdfunding site or an accelerator? 

It’s good if it’s an incubator that we have respect for in the sector that the company’s involved in, that’s the difference. The days of, “Oh, I have raised $5 million on whatever crowdfunding site for my product,” used to be exciting until a lot of the companies that were doing that failed. So these days it is, like, whatever. But I think it’s part of the funding ecosystem. So we’re more interested in the reasons why you picked doing YC or TechStars or others. Consumer hardware has become a very, very challenging category to get financed. Because there’s been so many failures, and also, we’ve had a hard time translating traction through crowdfunding to actually building big companies.

What kind of diligence questions do startups need to be prepared to answer?

Since it’s early stage, you don’t have much around customers and customer attraction and customer numbers. But if you have we’ll try and understand both the financial side. So unit economics, how much you spent to get those customers, how much you’re spending to service them. And have you lost customers or, why are they using this product? Things like that. What’s the competitive environment?

Has the shift to virtual pitching increased or decreased your due diligence?

Probably [increased]. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. So after awhile you develop some kind of a feel for things. It’s really hard to get the feel for things to translate online, right? So spending a bit more time on reference checks and trying to essentially use people we know, who know those founders, as proxies for us to figure out how they’re gonna behave and what if something challenging happens because it does. At the same time, because the velocity of deals has increased, it’s been challenging to take more time where there’s pressure to take less.

How do you feel about pitching with materials other than slide decks?

I think everything works, it’s really up to you. I like decks. I never take notes. So I always listen to the founder telling me the story and giving you a pitch deck. So the pitch deck is really useful to just get key data points and make sure everything is covered because then I can get back to it. If everything is just a story I can live with it. I would say be good at both is probably the way to think about it.

How much typically do you give up in equity if you’re taking a $2 million seed round?

It really depends, [but] I would say the standard these days is … $2 million [at] 20% dilution plus the option pool would be kind of a standard deal. But if you’re earlier than that, then maybe 25% two on six. If ever you’re a repeat founder with a track record or a very impressive founding team, you may be able dilute less, but what most founders will do is typically choose to dilute 20-ish percent and increase the size of the round if they can get a higher valuation.

What is the best way to get an introduction to an investor?

Just mind your network, LinkedIn is your best friend. I have a large, extensive network. So do most VCs. And so there’s always a bunch of people who are connecting you and us, right? The key challenge is to understand who knows us really well. So you have to make some kind of a bottom up and top-bottom approach. The bottom up is who is in your network who could know me and the top to bottom is who are the founders I work with who may be reachable to you. Because for us, strong signals are founders because our founders know us the best and if ever, they say, “Oh, you have to spend time with that person” then we will. [Also] co-investors, people we trust who we’ve co-invested with a lot. The problem is that there are a lot of people who know us. And I’m pretty good at only accepting LinkedIn invitations from people I actually have met face-to-face. I may have to revise that now because people are online, but you need to assess who’s out there who will vouch for you with me, and that I will pay attention to. And that takes a bit of time.

What’s your view on markets like Africa, now that we’re in this virtual world. Are you casting the net wider? 

We are really looking at the U.S. market at Uncork. It is a messy market, and you can build a multibillion dollar company on the U.S. market. Eventually they will open up to other geographies. We used to focus on founders in Silicon Valley, New York, Boston. But a couple of years ago, we started telling our entrepreneurs, it’s so expensive to build a startup in Silicon Valley. Just think about building remote-friendly companies. Think about hiring talent wherever it is, so it doesn’t have the same cost. San Francisco is incredibly expensive, and people just leave companies after a year or two. So think about cost of hiring and cost of retention. 

We have recently invested in a company called neo.tax where one of the founders is actually in Egypt. So we’re thinking much more broadly about geographies. But in terms of focus, our market focus is on the U.S.

What is the likelihood of getting pre-seed funding without a technical co-founder, but a very well-thought through idea or pitch? 

That’s where figuring out the firm’s service is important. Some people will say I really want to see someone who can build that and will try and assess execution capabilities. But I’ve recently done a pre-seed investment with a repeat founder [where] he doesn’t really have a technical co-founder yet, but I know we can hire because he’s done it four times. So it’s a massive idea, I’m super excited, and I know we will be able to attract the talent he needs because he’s done it before.

I funded my startup myself and proceeded to launch a minimal viable product. What optics does that send to an investor? 

That’s a massive commitment, right? You put your own time and money behind it. I invested some of my own money for three years before launching SoftTech and that was my commitment to the world that I was going to do it no matter what, and so, it sends a very strong message.

In the last four investments you made during the COVID-19 period, how long did it take you to get comfortable? 

We always have a very large funnel, so we typically fund like 1% of what we see. I don’t remember the number of meetings but probably four to six, with the founders or about the founders. Because there’s multiple people on the team as well. It’s a bunch of hours spent during a very short period of time, because they were all compressed decision times, like a few days compared to a couple of weeks maximum. Those were pretty intense days where we just spent all our time focusing on those companies.

We all just need to be comfortable with the process that we follow to assess those opportunities online. And if I can’t get comfortable, then I will pass. 

For a machine-learning healthcare SaaS startup still developing its prototype, do you suggest we pitch for seed money?

Well, then you just go back to why is this relevant? What’s going to be the return on investment for the target users or customers of that startup? What are they replacing? Why is it 100x better and make the make the argument and the pitch of why this makes a ton of sense. And then we’ll assess it. And we’ll either say yes, because we trust the founders or no, because we don’t agree with their assessment.

How long on average is an initial pitch? 

Oh, it’s 10, 12, 15 slides. I always allocate 50 minutes. So 50 minutes to an hour, I would say think about 25 to 30 minutes and then a bunch of questions, and I always ask a bunch of questions along the way. And the hour has gone by very quickly.

What are you doing to overcome challenges for minority founders?

We welcome minority founders and 30% of our portfolio is women. We’re working very, very hard on getting people of color in the portfolio. We will work very hard to figure out how to stretch the network. It’s harder, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an excuse for us not to do those.

Hyundai has launched a dedicated EV brand called Ioniq with plans to bring three all-electric vehicles to market over the next four years. The Ioniq brand is part of the Korean automaker’s broader strategy to sell 1 million battery electric vehicles — and take a 10% share of the EV market — by 2025.

If the Ioniq name sounds familiar, it’s because it already exists. In 2016, Hyundai introduced the Ioniq, a hatchback that came in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric versions. The Korean automaker is using that vehicle as the jumping off point for its new EV brand.

All of the vehicles under the Ioniq brand will have Hyundai’s underlying electric modular platform called E-GMP.

Hyundai said the new EV brand will begin with the Ioniq 5, a mid-size crossover that will launch in early 2021. The Ioniq 5 will be based on Hyundai’s Concept 45, a monocoque-style body crossover that the company unveiled in 2019 at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt. Designers of the Concept 45 leaned on some of the lines and characteristics from Hyundai’s first concept, the 1974 Pony Coupe. The “45” name comes, in part, from the 45-degree angles at the front and rear of the vehicle.

The Ioniq 6 sedan will follow in 2022 and will be based on Hyundai’s Prophecy concept that was unveiled in March. The Prophecy (pictured below) is a sleek, aerodynamic sedan with a long wheelbase and short overhangs that is reminiscent of a Porsche.

Finally, Hyundai said it will release its large SUV, the Ioniq 7, in early 2024.

The numeric number might be uninspired, but there is a formula worth noting. The Ioniq vehicles with even numbers will be used for sedans and the odd numbers will be for SUVs.

Hyundai has launched a dedicated EV brand called Ioniq with plans to bring three all-electric vehicles to market over the next four years. The Ioniq brand is part of the Korean automaker’s broader strategy to sell 1 million battery electric vehicles — and take a 10% share of the EV market — by 2025.

If the Ioniq name sounds familiar, it’s because it already exists. In 2016, Hyundai introduced the Ioniq, a hatchback that came in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric versions. The Korean automaker is using that vehicle as the jumping off point for its new EV brand.

All of the vehicles under the Ioniq brand will have Hyundai’s underlying electric modular platform called E-GMP.

Hyundai said the new EV brand will begin with the Ioniq 5, a mid-size crossover that will launch in early 2021. The Ioniq 5 will be based on Hyundai’s Concept 45, a monocoque-style body crossover that the company unveiled in 2019 at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt. Designers of the Concept 45 leaned on some of the lines and characteristics from Hyundai’s first concept, the 1974 Pony Coupe. The “45” name comes, in part, from the 45-degree angles at the front and rear of the vehicle.

The Ioniq 6 sedan will follow in 2022 and will be based on Hyundai’s Prophecy concept that was unveiled in March. The Prophecy (pictured below) is a sleek, aerodynamic sedan with a long wheelbase and short overhangs that is reminiscent of a Porsche.

Finally, Hyundai said it will release its large SUV, the Ioniq 7, in early 2024.

The numeric number might be uninspired, but there is a formula worth noting. The Ioniq vehicles with even numbers will be used for sedans and the odd numbers will be for SUVs.

Of the big three Apple operating systems, watchOS arguably gets the least love. That goes double in a year that sees macOS getting its biggest overhaul in recent memory. On the whole, the Apple Watch’s software is often overlooked, as smartwatch users tend to focus attention on the addition of new hardware sensors and the like. Still, watchOS 7, out today in public beta, brings a number of key additions, as Apple looks to keep from getting too complacent in its spot high atop the list of smartwatch manufacturers.

After all, the company has seen increased competition, particularly overseas from the likes of Huawei and Samsung. Likely software updates alone aren’t enough to drive the smartwatch skeptics to finally take the dive, but coupled with hardware updates and a focus on keeping lower-cost models on the market, it should help the company maintain comfortable positioning.

Updates include the new hand-washing featuring, cycling directions, new workouts and, most importantly, a number of sleep-tracking features. The last bit is, without question, the most requested addition to the watch — and equally important to Apple’s bottom line, a category the company had fallen behind on relative to the competition. That’s not for lack of available technology, however. The sleep tracking here works with the sensors already on-board existing devices and joins a number of third-party solutions.

That’s not to say that the company won’t be introducing additional sleep-tracking hardware on the Watch 6 later this year (in fact, that seems fairly likely), but it does mean that the much-requested feature will be available for the Watch Series 5, 4 and 3, which debuted back in late-2017 and is still kicking around the market, priced at $200.

The Sleep feature is multi-faceted. At its core, of course, is standard tracking, using the accelerometer to determine when you’ve fallen asleep, based on movement, including subtler cues like changes in breathing rate, which slows down as you enter non-REM sleep. Stats aren’t super deep yet, but do include key information like sleep times and heart rate, all saved in Apple’s Health app.

One of the more salient pieces of the puzzle is Sleep Mode, in which the watch enters Do Not Disturb, shutting off all notification and pausing the wake function when the wrist is lifted. You can turn it off by turning the digital crown and it will re-enter the mode when you fall back asleep.

Among other things, it should help save on battery life — that’s going to be a key issue as the company gets serious about sleep. The Watch is currently rated at 18 hours, by Apple’s account, which is an issue if you plan to use it for tracking both day and night. Extended battery is another feature to keep an eye out for with the arrival of the Series 6, but in the meantime, a new Charging reminder will pop up when you wake up, reminding you to charge the watch before you get going. It will also alert you if the level falls below 30% prior to sleeping.

The other big element is Sleep Schedule, which sets a goal and a sleep and wake time. By default, it’s set to eight hours — which feels overly optimistic in my own experience, but that’s the point of goals, I guess. Wind Down creates a window of time for pre-sleep activities, like meditation apps and soundscapes, designed to get you off your devices and ready for bed. Wake Up, meanwhile, borrows sounds from iOS’s Bedtime app and uses haptic feedback as an alarm. If you’re moving half-an-hour before your set wake time (the worst), it will ask you if you’d like to shut off the alarm and just start your day.

Hand washing is a serendipitous addition here. As I noted in an earlier feature, it’s something the company has been working on for years now, and happened to arrive when everyone is hyper-focused on keeping their hands clean. The feature is off by default and needs to be enabled by the user. Once on, it starts a 20-second count with animated bubble numbers and gives you a little congratulatory buzz when you’ve washed them the whole time.

It’s designed to automatically trigger when hand washing is detected through a combination of movement sensed by the accelerometer and the on-board microphone, which is listening for the sound of running water and soap. Apparently detecting hand washing is surprisingly complicated, but the feature does a pretty decent job in this version of the beta — though I did still get a few false positives while washing the dishes.

The other key addition is hand-washing reminders, which can be set to pop up when you arrive at home. Again, a nice addition in an error with a super contagious, air and surface-borne virus currently rampaging across the globe. Hand washing doesn’t have its own standalone app at the moment, but metrics for the feature are built directly into the health app, showing your activity over time.

There are four new workout types now tracked by the OS: dance, core training, functional strength training and cool down, which involves stretches and other post-workout activities. The additions are a bit more in the weeds than early tracking features, as Apple works to position the wearable as a more complete fitness tracker. The accompanying iOS app also gets a redesign, consolidating all of the activities into a single view.

As ever, there are a couple of new watch faces. Chronograph Pro adopts a design inspired by a distance-measuring tachymeter. It’s a bit busy for my tastes, but it’s not a bad-looking design. The X-Large takes things in the opposite direction, with just a large digital time and a massive complication right in the center of the screen. Also new on the face front is the ability to share Watch Faces with friends via text message.

The coolest addition here might very well be one that didn’t get a lot of stage time. Along with the other operating systems, watchOS gets a translate feature. Click into Siri, ask for a translation and then pick from one of the following: Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Chinese (Mandarin). Speak the words and it will read aloud the translation and show it on the screen. In case of a language like Chinese with a distinct alphabet, the text will be displayed in both Chinese and an English transliteration.

The process requires a few steps, but as someone who spent a lot of time handing his phone back and forth to people during a trip to Asia last year, this could be really useful. Especially during a time when I really have no desire to hand my phone to anyone.

A handful of other features warrant a quick mention:

• Cycling directions for Apple Maps
• Increased Hearing Health/Noise metrics and the ability to control maximum volume on headphones
• Siri Shortcuts imported from the iPhone

The final version of watchOS 7 is due out this fall.

We’re excited to announce an update to an existing Partner Perk from design platform Canva . Starting today, annual and two-year members of Extra Crunch can receive 20% off an annual plan for Canva Pro.

Canva empowers users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast library of templates and design ingredients such as fonts, illustrations, stock photography, video and audio content, and the power to include content from the web such as Giphy and Google Maps, anyone can take an idea and create something beautiful. Canva is available on the web, iOS and Android. Learn more about your secret design weapon for social media, print materials and beyond with Canva.

The offer is only valid for new subscribers of Canva Pro who do not have an existing Canva subscription. The offer is also restricted to countries where Extra Crunch is currently available.

Extra Crunch is a membership program from TechCrunch that features how-tos and interviews on company building, weekly investor surveys, private market analysis, discounts on TechCrunch events and several partner perks like the one mentioned in this article.

Faraday Future has yet to produce a production vehicle. The company burst out of nowhere in 2015 with wild claims of upsetting the electric vehicle market ruled by Tesla. That hasn’t happened yet, either. Instead, the company has fallen flat with its founder declaring personal bankruptcy, the company losing most of its founding team, and has yet to secure enough capital to produce production vehicles.

Along the way, Faraday Future managed to produce several prototypes and one of them is available for sale soon through an auction. It’s said that the example up for auction is the same one that Faraday Future speed tested to run to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds. It’s also the same vehicle that the company used to race in the challenging Pike’s Peak race. The auction listing also says that, at one time, the EPA rated the vehicle of a 378 mile range.

The prototype’s interior is bare with limited fit and finish. The seats are bolted to the floorboards and the door panels are covered in the same material as used on the floor. But that said, there’s a steering wheel and a large screen, but it’s unclear if the screen works.

Obviously this is not a car someone should buy for use as a daily driver. Or to drive at all. There’s no warranty.

Early prototypes are often highly-coveted by vehicle collectors. They tell stories and carry different provenance than production vehicles. At one time Faraday Future was the loudest rival of Tesla. The California-based startup made wild claims, which never seemed to materialize in a substantial fashion and that seems to be the case still in 2020. Because of that, this prototype will likely become an interesting footnote in the history of electric vehicles rather a priceless vehicle akin to the first Model T.

 

 

The Polestar 1 is stunning inside and out. But it drives even better than it looks.

This is a driver’s car. The Polestar 1 is an electric hybrid sports car, and yet it doesn’t feel like a hybrid. The power plant in the Polestar 1 is fascinating and delivers power in a way that’s different from any other electric or hybrid sports car I’ve driven. It feels like a proper gas-powered grand tourer that can keep up with the best from BMW, Mercedes, and Audi .

You’ll swear there’s a V8 in the Polestar 1. And that’s a good thing. Put your foot down, and the car plows forward with the confidence of internal combustion. The power delivery is not digital with an on-or-off feeling familiar in electric vehicles, but rather, it’s organic and fluid. Hit 45, and the torque seemingly increases, mimicking the soul of a balanced gas engine. The Polestar 1 feels more like a Corvette than a Tesla Roadster. And to me, for the first time, I have hope that the future of motoring can be efficient and enjoyable.

The Polestar 1 is a fantastic vehicle full of dumb flaws, but it gets one thing right: The hybrid powertrain in the Polestar 1 is genius. It’s spectacular and foreshadows a future where cars can change their identities to match a driver’s tastes better.

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Review

The Polestar 1 is surprising ways. During my time with the vehicle, I found myself lost in its balanced power. It’s smooth off the line and confident at speed. The 600 hp power plant is bottomless and yet restrained where needed. This car won’t beat a Tesla Model S to 60 mph, and to me, that’s ideal. As I learned from Polestar, the engineers used clever software to restrain the 737 ft-lb of torque and allow the powertrain to deliver the power pleasingly.

But first, some context: Polestar is an off-shoot of Volvo designed to explore the possibilities of electric vehicles. The company’s first car is the Polestar 1 featured here. The company’s second vehicle, Polestar 2, is a pure electric sedan that will compete with the Tesla Model 3. The Polestar 2 will be available in the coming months and has an electric range of 275 miles with a starting price of $59,900. The Polestar 1 is a hybrid vehicle and starts at $155,000.

Polestar is following a similar strategy used by Tesla. Like Polestar, Tesla’s first vehicle was a limited-run sports car, the Roadster. From the Roadster, Tesla expanded its line to more accessible vehicles like the Model S, Model X, and finally, the Model 3. Essentially, Tesla (and now Polestar) built the sexy sports car for attention, and an affordable car people need.

And much like the Tesla Roadster, the Polestar 1 has a bunch of quirky shortcomings. In the Polestar 1, the sun visor only tilts down — it cannot pull out and twist to the side. The Polestar 1’s door handles pop-out when the driver approaches the vehicle — sometimes, other times, they do not, and occasionally, they remained popped out from the car after I closed the door.

I experienced a random assortment of error messages from the Polestar 1. Sometimes, the car would beep to have the passenger buckle their seat belt, even though the passenger seat was empty. Other times, the check engine light flashed. And when one of the tires lost air, the vehicle flashed a warning, but I was unable to see the exact tire pressure to help gauge the urgency of the notice.

One more complaint: The trunk is tiny, and I don’t think it can hold more than one set of golf clubs.

And even with these shortcomings, the Polestar 1 is fantastic. It feels alive in a way that’s missing from most hybrid or electric cars. It’s balanced and controlled and has endless potential.

The Polestar 1 is a tourer. It’s designed to be comfortable and controlled on endless road trips. Tourers like the Polestar 1 are among my favorite types of cars. Most are broad and sweeping. In the best, the driver feels like a part of the massive machine, working in tandem with engines, motors, and gears, to achieve a common goal. This is often achieved through a competent chassis and potent powertrain, which is the same formula used in the Polestar 1.

The Polestar 1 powers off the start line with the torque pushing the riders into their seats. As speed increases, the torque increases, much like a small-block V8. At speed, the Polestar 1 settles into a grove, seemingly able to maintain any cruising speed. It carves through curves, with balanced steering and capable corning.

The hybrid powertrain comes alive on open stretches of roads. It’s not rowdy or boisterous, but understated and robust. It’s not jerky, but sublime. It’s intoxicating.

Representatives from Polestar explained to me that engineers used several techniques to deliver an enjoyable driving experience. For one, the software is used to restrain the instantaneous torque generally produced by electric motors. Second, the car’s gearbox utilizes gearing designed for long hauling, not drag racing. Because of this design, the Polestar 1 is slightly slower to 60 mph than some competitors, and yet, it’s fast enough with a 0-60 time of 4.2 seconds.

Like most cars, the Polestar 1 has several different driving modes. In pure electric, the vehicle has a range of 60 miles — the longest such range of any gas-electric hybrid on the market. In this mode, the Polestar 1 is silent and effortless. In hybrid mode, the power is plentiful but not overflowing. In Power mode, the Polestar 1 transforms into its true self as one of the best grand tourers available.

Car bros often lament about the coming age of the electric vehicle. I understand the pessimism. Electric cars often feel digital, and for most people, driving is an analog experience. Electric motors provide a thrilling experience but often lack a sporty enjoyment. The Polestar 1 achieves both.

Polestar knows the Polestar 1 will not sell in large numbers. With a starting price of $155,000, it’s selling against the best from Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes. For one, I wouldn’t get a Polestar 1 over a fully-equipped Porsche 911 or BMW 8 Series. That said, Polestar is only making 1,500 of this initial vehicle.

The Polestar 1 is beautiful and looks like nothing on the road. The hood is long and wide with the back-end stout and robust. The design is clean and straightforward. Hints of Volvo’s involvement are evident throughout the expansive front-end to the sweeping taillights to the infotainment system.

The future of motoring is electric, but that’s miles down the road. That’s okay with me. Cars like the Polestar 1 prove that gas engines still have a place in a world striving to be more energy efficient. Automotive development is evolutionary rather than revolutionary and in the case of the Polestar 1, it’s a big step in the right direction. The software used to tune the hybrid powertrain foretells a future that’s as pleasing as what’s currently available from Europe’s best.

The Polestar 1 sits in an odd spot. It’s not a mass market vehicle thanks to it very high price, and it’s hardly competitive against vehicles in its price range, too. That doesn’t stop it from standing tall as a fantastic vehicle regardless of its price. It’s exciting as a technical marvel more so than an obtainable commodity and in the world of motoring, it’s cars like this that stand the test of time. The Polestar 1 is a future classic.

Electric truck maker Nikola announced an order for 2,500 garbage trucks, which sent the startup’s stock soaring today. The order is expected to begin construction in 2023, with on-road testing scheduled for 2022.

Republic Services placed the order, which is expandable up to 5,000 trucks. The company is said to be the second-largest recycling and waste service provider in the United States.

News of the order caused Nikola’s stock to surge 22% on open and is currently trading at 14%, as of writing. Nikola hit the market earlier this year and became a darling as it popped from its initial public offering of 10.16 to 93.99 in a few weeks.

According to a press release, the electric trucks are expected to use Nikola’s Tre powertrain system and offer 150 miles on a charge in this implementation. The battery pack is said to carry up to 720kWh of energy storage, while the powertrain will be software limited to 1,000 HP. Nikola is tasked with building and assembling the truck chassis and body.

“This is a game changer,” said Nikola CEO Mark Russell, in a released statement. “Refuse truck customers have always ordered chassis from truck OEMs and bodies from other suppliers. Nikola has fully integrated the chassis and body, covering both with a single factory warranty. Trucks will include both automated side loaders and front-end loaders — all of which will be zero-emission.”

Industrial markets such as the garbage trucks offer electric vehicle makers a large area of opportunity where companies can implement technology with less stringent design requirements. Garbage companies care more about ability than form factor.

Along with the industrial Tre powertrain, Nikola has plans for a consumer pickup named the Nikola Badger. This vehicle is currently available for pre-order and available in two flavors, the battery version with a purported 300 mile range, and the fuel cell version with a range said to be up 600 miles.