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Another high-level Tesla engineering executive has hopped over to Apple. Steve MacManus, who was vice president of engineering at Tesla, is now a senior director at Apple, according to an update on his LinkedIn profile.

Bloomberg was the first to report MacManus had taken the position at Apple. MacManus, whose was in charge of interior and exterior engineering, is the third Tesla executive to leave and take a position at Apple this year. He had been at Tesla since 2015.

His hiring follows two other high-profile moves from Tesla to Apple, including former chief engineer Doug Field and Michael Schwekutsch, who worked on drive systems at the electric automaker.

MacManus has a deep background in industrial design, specifically vehicle interiors and exteriors. Prior to Tesla, MacManus was chief engineer of body interior and exterior of trim and hardware at Aston Martin Lagonda. He was functional manager seating and restraints at Bentley Motors and also once worked at Jaguar Land Rover .

This latest hire, and the ones before, suggest that Apple’s Project Titan, the company’s not-so-secretive effort to build a self-driving car, might be in the midst of a revival. In January, news emerged that Apple had reassigned 200 employees previously involved in its development.

At the time, an Apple spokesperson said the company had an “incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple” and explained that some groups were being moved to projects in other parts of the company to support machine learning and other initiatives.

Apple could not be reached for comment. TechCrunch will update the article with any new information.

Another high-level Tesla engineering executive has hopped over to Apple. Steve MacManus, who was vice president of engineering at Tesla, is now a senior director at Apple, according to an update on his LinkedIn profile.

Bloomberg was the first to report MacManus had taken the position at Apple. MacManus, whose was in charge of interior and exterior engineering, is the third Tesla executive to leave and take a position at Apple this year. He had been at Tesla since 2015.

His hiring follows two other high-profile moves from Tesla to Apple, including former chief engineer Doug Field and Michael Schwekutsch, who worked on drive systems at the electric automaker.

MacManus has a deep background in industrial design, specifically vehicle interiors and exteriors. Prior to Tesla, MacManus was chief engineer of body interior and exterior of trim and hardware at Aston Martin Lagonda. He was functional manager seating and restraints at Bentley Motors and also once worked at Jaguar Land Rover .

This latest hire, and the ones before, suggest that Apple’s Project Titan, the company’s not-so-secretive effort to build a self-driving car, might be in the midst of a revival. In January, news emerged that Apple had reassigned 200 employees previously involved in its development.

At the time, an Apple spokesperson said the company had an “incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple” and explained that some groups were being moved to projects in other parts of the company to support machine learning and other initiatives.

Apple could not be reached for comment. TechCrunch will update the article with any new information.

Weed may be legal in California, but the black market is still the top spot for buyers looking for bud on a budget.

Flower Co. graduated from Y Combinator’s latest class on the promise that they could cut customers better deals by focusing on partnering with growers directly to create their own house brands while pushing users to order ahead of time. The company calls itself the “Costco of cannabis.”

The company just announced the close of a $2.8 million seed round from investors including Slome Capital, Prehype, Rob Stavis, Adam Draper, Josh Abramson, and Camille Hyde.

Even in California where weed has been legalized, the black market is still king due to the high prices buoyed by high taxes, Flower Co.’s CEO Ted Lichtenberger says the regulated market is just 1/4 the size of the unregulated market. Flower Co.’s ultimate goal is less focused on getting people to ditch their existing dispensary as much as they are focused on getting black market regulars to go legit thanks to the better deals and conveniences of their platform.

Part of building allegiance to the Flower Co. brand is the company’s membership plan. Anybody can make a purchase on the site, but members save up to 40% on purchases, a number that makes a big sticker difference when you’re buying weed by the ounce. An ounce of “Forbidden Fruit” goes for $192 without a membership and $142 with one, for example. With a membership, the company’s “House Sativa” goes for $63 an ounce.

An annual membership to Flower Co. is $119, and in addition to the discounts, users get faster delivery and beta access to the company’s “private events and concert series.” The company just recently launched a two-day delivery service for customers in Sacramento.

The company is just flexing its muscles in a few city markets in California, but is hoping that by scaling slowly they can be ready to attack new opportunities as the regulatory environment shifts.

“We understand that we’re in the first inning of what’s probably a pretty long game, because this industry, as it goes federally legalized is going to have another massive transition moment just like it’s having right now as it’s getting legalized and regulated in California,” Lichtenberger says. “So if we have a great understanding of our customers and stay focused on keeping them delighted, and then be nimble in the face of that change, then we can come out as the dominant player in the delivery market.”

Bird is raising a Series D round led by Sequoia Capital at a $2.5 billion valuation, TechCrunch has learned. Sources, however, did not indicate the size of the round.

This round follows reports from The Information that Bird was looking to raise $200 million to $300 million by the end of this summer, at a post-money valuation of more than $2.3 billion.

Bird declined to comment on the funding round, saying it does not comment on rumors or speculation.

Sequoia Capital previously led Bird’s $300 million Series C round back in June, with Roelof Botha joining Bird’s board at the time. Sequoia declined to comment on the round, but Botha did say the Bird team “exemplifies grit.”

“What they’ve accomplished in achieving both rapid growth and strong unit economics is rare for a company this complex and so early on,” Botha said in an email to TechCrunch. “Bird’s innovation across a spectrum of disciplines to achieve operational excellence at scale, including hardware design and manufacturing, vehicle maintenance and repair, optimization of Bird charging and deployment, and city-level regulatory affairs is unparalleled.”

Last week, Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden said Bird has positive unit economics on its new Bird Zero scooters, which accounts for more than 75% of its fleet. But based on one of the images VanderZanden tweeted, it seems that figure is based on a period of four weeks in the summer when scooter ridership is likely higher.

In June, Bird acquired Scoot in a deal worth less than $25 million. That acquisition marked Bird’s first expansion into traditional bicycles and mopeds. Shortly before that, Bird unveiled a two-seater hybrid bike/moped vehicle called the Bird Cruiser. In addition to offering shared vehicles, Bird is also selling scooters directly to consumers.

Prior to this round, Bird had already raised more than $400 million in funding and reached a valuation of $2 billion last June.

*An earlier version of this story said the round had closed. Bird is still finalizing the round with Sequoia.

I would have had a review of the WF-1000XM3s up sooner, but they arrived while I was traveling. That was a bummer for two reasons. First and most obviously is the fact that I hate being late with a review. Second and more selfishly, I really wanted to try them out on those 16-hour flights I just took to Hong Kong and back.

It’s a use case for Sony’s new fully wireless earbuds. The company’s clearly got the Bose market firmly in its sights with a pair of premium buds sporting plentiful battery life and active noise cancelling.

As I noted in our preview a couple of weeks back, companies tend to go in one of two directions with these devices. There are the more active fitness products (see: Jaybirds and Powerbeats) and the general lifestyle ones (Airpods, et al.). It’s clear which market Sony is going after here — it’s exactly the same one it went after with its QuietComfort-besting over-ear headphones.

The XM3s (as we’ll refer to them from here on to save our poor “0” key) lack obvious fitness features like waterproofing and ear stabilizers for those who like to take their headphones for a run. If that last bit applies to you, these will do in a pinch, but you’ll want to look elsewhere for a running partner (Sony’s got the equally pithily named WF-SP700N for that).Those looking for a travel buddy, on the other hand, could do much worse.

As Beats did with the Powerbeats Pro, Sony opted for battery life over portability with the XM3 case. Sony’s case isn’t quite as massive as Beats’, but it’s still probably too large for most pockets. The good news there, however, is that with a rated six hours of battery with active noise cancelling on (eight without), you should be fine leaving the case at home much of the time.

Add the charging case into the mix and that number comes out to a full day of music playback with ANC and 32 hours without. Using the USB-C port on the bottom should get you 90 minutes of playback with a 10-minute charge. There’s no wireless option for charging — much like AirPods, that’s got “gen two” written all over it.

The XM3s maintain a similar oblong design as the sportier 700N. They’re small and subtle in black or silver, unlike the attention-grabbing bright white AirPods. In fact, they look a bit like Bluetooth headsets. To get the right fit, insert them into the ear facing down and twist up 90 degrees. I admit that I left it facing down the first time I tried them on in a demo. Rookie mistake.

The earbuds ship with swappable silicone tips, though I found the default set to be a pretty good fit for my own ears. There’s no mechanism for keeping them in place, but they’re small enough that they shouldn’t move around much, even with some light jogging. Though, again, I’d caution against that, as Sony hasn’t offered up anything in the way of sweatproofing here.

Audio quality has come a long way since the earliest days of the Bluetooth earbud. I was impressed with what Sony was able to pack into such a small form factor. This latest generation of earbuds has made it clear that the smaller size no longer means having to compromise on sound. And indeed, the XM3s offer solid sound for a pair of Bluetooth buds, with a full and rich sound featuring a good balance and plenty of bass.

More impressive is the active noise cancellation — something that, up until recently, one assumed would have to be sacrificed on a pair of small wireless buds. A tap of the touchpad on the side will toggle in and out of noise cancelling and an ambient mode which lets in more sound for those instances when it’s required. The latter is probably another step toward a world where we carry on in-person conversations without taking the earbuds out. But we were heading that way anyway. At least Sony’s done a good job implementing the tech here.

Interestingly, the two earbuds form their own individual Bluetooth link to the synced device. That helps cut down on lag and also means they can operate independently from one another. In a few cases, I had issues with one bud cutting out, which was a bit annoying, but there’s something to be said for having the other one maintain its connection. The independence of left and right also means that audio reports like battery levels are reported separately.

At $230, the XM3s slot in between AirPods and Powerbeats. iPhone users will miss the lack of automatic pairing with the W2 chip, but NFC means quicker pairing for Android users. All told, there’s a lot to like from these buds. They’ve got good sound, excellent noise cancelling and a long battery life.

They’re not great gym companions like the Powerbeats — but they’re not really designed to be. For those who travel a lot or are simply looking for a solid day to day headphone, the XM3s are among the best out there.

VCRs didn’t really exist when the first men walked on the moon, but NASA was ahead of the curve and recorded the event for posterity on videotapes — which just sold at auction for $1.8 million. The Hasselblads may have captured more detail, but there’s nothing else in the world quite like these tapes.

On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Lunar Module and onto the surface of the Moon, under the watchful eye of a camera custom-made by Westinghouse for the purpose. It was mounted just outside the hatch so Aldrin could turn it on and establish a connection before he and Armstrong performed their famous descent of the LM ladder.

The camera, which was later detached and set on a tripod to capture the other surface activities, was transmitting 10 frames per second over the LM’s high-gain antenna back to Parkes Observatory in Australia. There they were recorded onto a set of large-format reel-to-reel videotape, then retransmitted to Houston, where they were recorded to 2-inch Quadruplex videotape on an Ampex VR-660B. Of course it was then formatted for TV and sent out to the world as well.

Sadly, the original Australian slow-scan tapes were apparently later reused for other purposes, in probably the most egregious taping-over incident of all time. That means the Ampex tapes were the best known motion picture recording of Apollo 11’s lunar EVAs.

Sadly again, those original tapes were sold for $217.77 at a government surplus auction in 1976 as part of a lot of over a thousand other reels of Ampex videotape obviously thought to be no longer needed. The purchaser, Gary George, was an intern at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and he had bought the tapes because he thought he could make a bit of scratch re-selling them to TV stations.

Fortunately for everyone, George noticed that three of the tapes had labels reading “APOLLO 11 EVA | July 20, 1969.” These, he reasoned, might be worth keeping. Turns out they were more than two hours of raw footage, including “One small step for man” and everything else that the world saw transpire live, but in better quality than any other copy on Earth. As Sotheby’s puts it:

The present videotapes are the only surviving first-generation recordings of the historic moon walk, and are sharper and more distinct than the few tapes that have survived from the contemporary network television broadcasts – all of which endured some loss of video and audio quality with each successive transmission from microwave tower to microwave tower.

Here’s a clip:

Fast forward 30 years and the tapes were finally brought out of storage for Apollo 11’s 40th anniversary, where they were shown for only the second time since he bought them in 1976, and digitized for posterity. They were played one more time by Sotheby’s experts while verifying these artifacts for auction over the weekend.

Tape is by no means indestructible and it’s amazing that these are in such great condition; that and the fervor surrounding all things Moon these days must have contributed to the tapes finally going for $1.82 million, nearly four times the half-million that the auction house had predicted. Gary George made out pretty well on that surplus buy.

Of course the purchaser has not yet revealed themselves, but perhaps in the near future we will find that it is one of the many billionaires afflicted with space madness who wanted to add this unique piece of media to their collection. And perhaps they will be generous enough to share it for public viewing — though honestly, the digital copy should be nearly indistinguishable.

Other items sold at auction for a total of hundreds of thousands more dollars are some signed Apollo 11 memorabilia, some original Apollo control panels from Kennedy’s Firing Room 1, and the first and last pages from the actual Apollo 11 flight plan that flew on the mission, which sold for about $300K by themselves. With luck those of us without disposable income in the 7-figure range will be able to view these as well.

Apple may have wrote a check and signed a deal with Qualcomm in order to ensure a 5G iPhone wasn’t late to market, but it’s clear the Cupertino hardware giant wasn’t interested in burying the hatchet too deep.

Apple is in “advanced talks” to buy Intel’s smartphone modem business for “$1 billion or more” according the a new report in The Wall Street Journal. Last month, The Information detailed that Apple was in talks to buy part of Intel’s modem business.

This latest report details that an agreement “could be reached in the next week” if the talks don’t fall apart.

This deal could potentially bring Apple hundreds of engineers and key patents from Intel that would allow them to build out technologies that they are currently licensing from Qualcomm for their cell network-connected mobile devices.

Any deal wouldn’t affect the near-term nature of Apple’s relationship with Qualcomm, as part of the companies’ settlement included a six-year licensing agreement, though full details of that agreement were not disclosed.

Apple has worked with Intel’s modem team closely, especially during their legal skirmishes with Qualcomm though Intel’s team was reported to be falling behind in scaling its 5G modem development.

An Apple spokesperson did not comment on the report.

Thanks to a rash of YouTube videos of traffic stops, wild crashes, and wacky antics, dashcams are becoming more and more popular with drivers. But does the world need one that shoots at 1080p and beams every minute of your drive back to a central storage device and can work as a Wi-Fi hotspot?

PureGear thinks so.

Their latest camera, the PureCam Connected Car Security System, shown at CES 2019, features front and back-facing cameras and 4G LTE connected. In the unit we tested, it used T-Mobile for data transfer.

The device connects to your car’s OBD port, a diagnostics port that sends data to the camera and powers it. It has a full 1080p camera in front, a small VGA screen, and a 720p rear-facing camera. It mounts to the window via a suction cup. It also can shoot in the dark and will sense when someone is breaking into your vehicle and begin recording.

This last part is critical. Because it is always connected, the PureCam will send footage of crashes and break-ins to the cloud. In this way, you have a video record inside and outside of the car.

The system requires a data plan so you’ll have to head down to the cellphone shop to pick up a spare SIM card, but it can also record footage to the included 16GB card.

The kit costs $249.99 and includes three months of wireless data and 7GB of cloud storage for 12 months. Because it has its data provider, you can connect up to three devices to the Purecam’s hotspot.

This camera is mostly designed for peace of mind. Because the screen is relatively small and automatically dims while driving, you won’t notice the system until you need it. Because it uses the OBD port you don’t have to run cables to a cigarette lighter power port or USB port, thereby freeing things up for phones and the like. Finally, because it wakes up when your car is parked, it adds an extra layer of security.

The PureCam is surprisingly easy to install – you have to find your OBD port – but you do need a modern car and be willing to spend a bit on the data plan. While it’s not a perfect system, it’s one of the cleverest and most useful dashcams we’ve tried.

Amid ongoing concerns about security risks posed by the involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in 5G supply, the UK government has published a review of the telecoms supply chain which concludes that policy and regulation in enforcing network security needs to be significantly strengthened to address concerns.

However it continues to hold off on setting an official position on whether to allow or ban Huawei from supplying the country’s next-gen networks — as the US has been pressurizing its allies to do.

Giving a statement in parliament this afternoon, the UK’s digital minister, Jeremy Wright, said the government is releasing the conclusions of the report ahead of a decision on Huawei so that domestic carriers can prepare for the tougher standards it plans to bring in to apply to all their vendors.

“The Review has concluded that the current level of protections put in place by industry are unlikely to be adequate to address the identified security risks and deliver the desired security outcomes,” he said. “So, to improve cyber security risk management, policy and enforcement, the Review recommends the establishment of a new security framework for the UK telecoms sector. This will be a much stronger, security based regime than at present.

“The foundation for the framework will be a new set of Telecoms Security Requirements for telecoms operators, overseen by Ofcom and government. These new requirements will be underpinned by a robust legislative framework.”

Wright said the government plans to legislate “at the earliest opportunity” — to provide the regulator with stronger powers to to enforcement the incoming Telecoms Security Requirements, and to establish “stronger national security backstop powers for government”.

The review suggests the government is considering introducing GDPR-level penalties for carriers that fail to meet the strict security standards it will also be bringing in.

“Until the new legislation is put in place, government and Ofcom will work with all telecoms operators to secure adherence to the new requirements on a voluntary basis,” Wright told parliament today. “Operators will be required to subject vendors to rigorous oversight through procurement and contract management. This will involve operators requiring all their vendors to adhere to the new Telecoms Security Requirements.

“They will also be required to work closely with vendors, supported by government, to ensure effective assurance testing for equipment, systems and software, and to support ongoing verification arrangements.”

The review also calls for competition and diversity within the supply chain — which Wright said will be needed “if we are to drive innovation and reduce the risk of dependency on individual suppliers”.

The government will therefore pursue “a targeted diversification strategy, supporting the growth of new players in the parts of the network that pose security and resilience risks”, he added.

“We will promote policies that support new entrants and the growth of smaller firms,” he also said, sounding a call for security startups to turn their attention to 5G.

Government would “seek to attract trusted and established firms to the UK market”, he added — dubbing a “vibrant and diverse telecoms market” as both good for consumers and for national security.

“The Review I commissioned was not designed to deal only with one specific company and its conclusions have much wider application. And the need for them is urgent. The first 5G consumer services are launching this year,” he said. “The equally vital diversification of the supply chain will take time. We should get on with it.”

Last week two UK parliamentary committees espoused a view that there’s no technical reason to ban Huawei from all 5G supply — while recognizing there may be other considerations, such as geopolitics and human rights, which impact the decision.

The Intelligence and Security committee also warned that what it dubbed the “unnecessarily protracted” delay in the government taking a decision about 5G suppliers is damaging UK relations abroad.

Despite being urged to get a move on on the specific issue of Huawei, it’s notable that the government continues to hold off. Albeit, a new prime minister will be appointed later this week, after votes of Conservative Party members are counted — which may be contributing to ongoing delay.

“Since the US government’s announcement [on May 16, adding Huawei and 68 affiliates to its Entity List on national security grounds] we have sought clarity on the extent and implications but the position is not yet entirely clear. Until it is, we have concluded it would be wrong to make specific decisions in relation to Huawei,” Wright said, adding: “We will do so as soon as possible.”

In a press release accompanying the telecoms supply chain review the government said decisions would be taken about high risk vendors “in due course”.

Earlier this year a leak from a meeting of the UK’s National Security Council suggested the government was preparing to give an amber light to Huawei to continue supplying 5G — though limiting its participation to non-core portions of networks.

The Science & Technology committee also recommended the government mandate the exclusion of Huawei from the core of 5G networks.

Wright’s statement appears to hint that that position remains the preferred one — baring a radical change of policy under a new PM — with, in addition to talk of encouraging diversity in the supply chain, the minister also flagging the review’s conclusion that there should be “additional controls on the presence in the supply chain of certain types of vendor which pose significantly greater security and resilience risks to UK telecoms”.

Additional controls doesn’t sound like a euphemism for an out-and-out ban.

In a statement responding to the review, Huawei expressed confidence that it’s days of supplying UK 5G are not drawing to a close — writing:

The UK Government’s Supply Chain Review gives us confidence that we can continue to work with network operators to rollout 5G across the UK. The findings are an important step forward for 5G and full fibre broadband networks in the UK and we welcome the Government’s commitment to “a diverse telecoms supply chain” and “new legislation to enforce stronger security requirements in the telecoms sector”. After 18 years of operating in the UK, we remain committed to supporting BT, EE, Vodafone and other partners build secure, reliable networks.”

The evidence shows excluding Huawei would cost the UK economy £7 billion and result in more expensive 5G networks, raising prices for anyone with a mobile device. On Friday, Parliament’s Intelligence & Security Committee said limiting the market to just two telecoms suppliers would reduce competition, resulting in less resilience and lower security standards. They also confirmed that Huawei’s inclusion in British networks would not affect the channels used for intelligence sharing.

A spokesman for the company told us it already supplies non-core elements of UK carriers’ EE and Vodafone’s network, adding that it’s viewing Wright’s statement as an endorsement of that status quo.

While the official position remains to be confirmed all the signals suggest the UK’s 5G security strategy will be tied to tightened regulation and oversight, rather than follow a US path of seeking to shut Chinese tech giants out.

Commenting on the government’s telecoms supply chain review in a statement, Ciaran Martin, CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, said: “As the UK’s lead technical authority, we have worked closely with DCMS [the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport] on this review, providing comprehensive analysis and cyber security advice. These new measures represent a tougher security regime for our telecoms infrastructure, and will lead to higher standards, much greater resilience and incentives for the sector to take cyber security seriously.

“This is a significant overhaul of how we do telecoms security, helping to keep the UK the safest place to live and work online by ensuring that cyber security is embedded into future networks from inception.”

Although tougher security standards for telecoms combined with updated regulations that bake in major fines for failure suggest Huawei will have its work cut out not to be excluded by the market, as carriers will be careful about vendors as they work to shrink their risk.

Earlier this year a report by an oversight body that evaluates its approach to security was withering — finding “serious and systematic defects” in its software engineering and cyber security competence.

Uber and Lyft aren’t designed to transport people who need a little help getting out of the house or need someone to help get them from the doctor’s waiting room back to their home. While Uber, for example, has launched Uber Health to help patients get to their appointments, the drivers are not vetted with patient assistance in mind. This is where Onward comes in.

Onward, with $1.5 million in seed funding from Royal Street Ventures, Matchstick Ventures and JPK Capital, launched a few months ago in the San Francisco Bay Area to help seniors safely get from point A to point B. Unlike Uber and Lyft, Onward offers roundtrip, door-to-door rides and aims to provide freedom for older adults who may feel isolated, Onward co-founder Mike Lewis told TechCrunch.

The idea for Onward emerged from Lewis’ experience with his mother-in-law who had Alzheimer’s. It got him and his co-founder, Nader Akhnoukh, thinking about the idea of aging in place and how older people may feel isolated as they become unable to do the tasks they’ve spent their whole lives doing, like driving.

“The minute you can’t do that, it’s sad and scary,” Lewis said.

Onward has three types of customers: older adults who are no longer able to drive, someone who can’t drive for medical reasons (surgeries, eye exams, etc.) and caregivers who are unable to provide transportation to their loved ones.

Similar to Uber and Lyft, Onward drivers are 1099 contractors but a key difference is that they are paid hourly — at least $20 per hour. Currently, there are more than 25 drivers on board who are all trained in CPR, dementia, and have gone through a background check and car inspection.

Onward also ensures its drivers know how to fold wheelchairs, though, only some drivers have the ability to transport those in powered wheelchairs. This time next year, Onward expects to have hundreds of drivers. Lewis says he also expects the number of vehicles with the ability to transport people in powered wheelchairs to increase as the company grows.

For riders, they can expect to pay $35 per hour. The minimum charge for the trip is one hour, so this is definitely geared toward people who may need the driver to wait for them during a doctor’s appointment, for example. After the first hour, Onward charges by the minute.

That hourly fee gets riders round-trip rides with the driver waiting for you at the destination, door-to-door assistance at each stop and the ability to request favorite drivers.

Onward completed its first ride in March in the San Francisco Bay Area.  For the rest of the year, Onward plans to focus on San Francisco for the rest as well as one other launch market. To date, Onward has completed more than 500 trips.