Uber and Waymo are working together on long-haul autonomous trucking

Waymo and Uber have signed a long-term, strategic partnership to collaborate on long-haul autonomous trucking. They’ll blend Waymo’s self-driving tech with Uber Freight’s network. The idea is to help customers deploy autonomous trucks more efficiently.

Those who buy trucks equipped with the Waymo Driver system will be able to tap into Uber Freight’s marketplace technology, meaning they’ll be able to deploy vehicles on the latter’s network for deliveries. Uber Freight is essentially a version of the regular Uber app designed for shippers, which helps them find truck drivers for on-demand haulage.

Waymo Via — the company’s trucking division — plans to earmark billions of miles of goods-only driverless delivery capacity for the Uber Freight network. It will only make that mileage available “when shippers need it most.”

The companies will trial the integration on Waymo Via’s test fleet at the outset. The timeline for a broader deployment is not clear. The companies say that by letting autonomous systems handle the long-haul aspect of trucking, they foresee a future where drivers will be able to move into short-haul jobs.

Uber and Waymo haven’t always been on the same page. In 2017, Waymo owner Alphabet sued Uber over the alleged theft of trade secrets by former employees. The previous year, Uber bought a self-driving truck startup called Otto, which was founded by a number of ex-Alphabet employees, including engineer Anthony Levandowski.

Alphabet claimed Levandowski downloaded more than “14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo’s various hardware systems” a few weeks before he quit the company. Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2020 and pardoned the following January by outgoing president Donald Trump.

Uber and Waymo settled the suit in 2018. After the companies resolved their differences, it was reported that Uber was open to the idea of collaborating with Waymo.

TikTok launches a $5 subscription comedy series

TikTok is joining forces with Pearpop to launch a comedy docuseries hosted by creator Jericho Mencke, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It’s cost $5 for all eight episodes, each 30 minutes long, with the first two running for free for all TikTok users. 

Called Finding Jericho, the series will feature Mencke doing comedic interviews with characters like a clown from Craigslist. It’ll be executive produced by Pearpop executives Zack Bernstein and Austin Sokol, along with Mencke. 

Last month, TikTok unveiled the Live monthly subscription tool for creators on an invitation-only basis, after unveiling the service in January 2022. It allows creators to “increase their earnings while continuing to grow their communities” with perks like subscriber badges, custom emotes and a subscriber-only chat. 

In 2020, TikTok announced a $200 million fund to support creators, but the subscription service gives personalities a more direct stream of income. Pearpop, meanwhile, is a separate platform that allows creators to “monetize their influence” through challenges and brand sponsorships. The first episode of Finding Jericho premiered late yesterday at 9PM PST and following episodes will arrive Tuesday and Thursdays at the same time on the @Jercho1 and @pearpopofficial TikTok accounts.

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ will hit Disney+ on June 22nd

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has only been in theaters for a few weeks, but you won’t need to wait much longer to catch the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie at home. It will start streaming on Disney+ on June 22nd at no extra cost to subscribers.

In another example of the theatrical exclusivity window narrowing, the movie will be available on Disney+ just 47 days after its arrival in theaters. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Free Guy also landed on Disney+ just 45 days or so into their theatrical runs.

It used to be the case that movies would be in cinemas only for 90 days before they were available as home entertainment options, but the pandemic upended that. Some major studios, including Disney, started putting movies up on streaming services or made them available for digital rental on the same day they debuted in theaters. Netflix and some smaller studios and distributors adopted the day-and-date approach long before the onset of COVID-19 prevention measures.

Meanwhile, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t the only MCU property coming to Disney+ this month. The Ms. Marvel series will premiere on June 8th.

Amazon will give Cloud Cam owners a free camera when service shuts down

Amazon is shutting down service for the Cloud Cam, but you may not mind if you’re reluctant to buy a replacement. MacRumors and The Verge have learned Amazon will offer owners a free Blink Mini security camera and a one-year subscription to the higher-end Blink Subscription Plus service (normally $100 per year) before Cloud Cam functionality ends on December 2nd. Key Edition owners will also get a fourth-generation Echo speaker to serve as a replacement smart home hub. Ideally, you won’t have to pay a cent more to keep your home supervised in the near future.

In an email to customers, Amazon said it was shutting down Cloud Cam service to focus on Blink, Ring and other products that “make your home smarter.” The move will primarily end storage for video recording, but people using the Cloud Cam Key Edition as a Zigbee hub will also lose the ability to connect to smart locks until they get the Echo substitute.

The end of service doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Amazon stopped offering the Cloud Cam at the end of 2019 as Blink and Ring ultimately took over. We won’t blame you if you’re still upset, though. Amazon is joining Wyze and other brands in ending support for security cameras on relatively short notice. This could also leave some users paying more. Some of the Cloud Cam’s free features, such as quick video access and motion-based recording, require at least a $30 per year Basic subscription with Blink. That’s a small price, but it’s more than you might have expected to pay.

‘Willow’ TV series comes to Disney+ on November 30th

Disney+ is finally ready to share more details of its Willow revival. The streamer has revealed that the TV series (simply titled Willow) will premiere November 30th. The accompany teaser trailer doesn’t show much, but it has an older Willow Ufgood returning to save a future empress from the clutches of evil. He’ll join an eclectic band of adventurers, but this time he’s clearly more experienced than in the 1988 movie.

The show sees Warwick Davis reprise his role as Willow. At least a few familiar actors are joining the cast, including Ellie Bamber (most recently in Netflix’s The Serpent) and Disney alumnus Erin Kellyman (Solo and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Jon Chu was originally slated to direct, but was replaced by multiple directors when he had to step down due to pandemic restrictions. Willow movie director Ron Howard is involved as an executive producer.

The announcement comes just as Disney shared a wave of details about its next Star Wars shows, including Andor and Skeleton Crew. The company isn’t shy about its Disney+ strategy, then. The service is packing its schedule with ever more originals in a bid to keep people watching, and it’s not afraid to mine multiple old franchises in the process.

Injury rates of Amazon’s delivery contractors climbed 40 percent last year, new report claims

Drivers for Amazon’s rapidly growing third-party delivery partner network are being hurt on the job with shocking frequency according to data compiled in a new report by the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) — and the rate of injuries increased dramatically between 2020 and 2021.

Among the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) drivers it found OSHA data for, SOC claims there was “nearly one injury per five full-time-equivalent workers” in 2021 — an incident rate of 18.3. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’s most recent incident rate average among “couriers and express delivery services” stands at just 7.5 per 100. According to SOC, the 2021 injury numbers represent an approximately 40 percent increase from the previous year.

There are some important limitations to the findings SOC — which itself is a collaboration between Service Employees International Union, Teamsters, Communications Workers of America and United Farmworkers of America — published however. Because DSPs are subcontracted, their injury data is submitted individually to OSHA; SOC was able to obtain incident logs for 201 such delivery companies that work with Amazon, but estimates that pool represents just ten percent of the total DSP workforce. Still, given the wealth of reporting on injury rates among Amazon’s warehouse staff, the report indicates that trend may be broadly applicable to the company’s workforce.

Working for a DSP, according to a lawsuit filed by one such company earlier this year, involves assenting to “near complete control” by Amazon without the ecommerce giant providing the “required safeguards.” DSP drivers are also regularly monitored by Amazon through the company’s Mentor app and surveillance cameras installed in their vehicles. According to one driver in Indianapolis that SOC spoke to in March, Amazon uses a system of scores that rank drivers against their own co-workers in terms of delivery speed and completion rate; the driver said she knew of 15 drivers who were terminated for not meeting Amazon’s performance demands. The aforementioned lawsuit notes that “exceedingly aggressive time limits that could rarely be safely met” are a mainstay.

“This report cherry-picks data from less than 10% of our delivery partners to tell an inaccurate and misleading story,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, told Engadget. “Safety is a priority across our network, which is why we’ve rolled out technology like innovative camera systems that have helped lead to an overall reduction in accident rates of nearly 50%, and we’ll keep investing in new safety tools to try and get better every day.” It’s not clear if DSPs are obligated to share their injury data with Amazon as well as OSHA; Engadget has reached out for clarification.

The DSP program — which Amazon first launched in 2018 to reduce its reliance on USPS, UPS and Fedex — has grown rapidly since then to a network of over 2,000 companies. As Bloombergnoted, many DSP operators are veterans, retirees, first-time business owners and other neophytes to the logistics business. The same productivity demands placed on drivers are similarly leveraged against DSP owners who have reported razor-thin margins, and a feeling of being trapped in the program by “exit fees” if they choose to leave.

Starlink launches satellite internet for RVs that costs $25 more

Starlink has launched a new product meant specifically for RV dwellers and those who can’t wait to get connected to the satellite internet service. While applying for a regular Starlink dish and service will put customers in a waitlist until 2023, Starlink for RVs is immediately available and will ship out to buyers right now. The downside? Network resources are always de-prioritized for it, and the service costs $135, which is $25 more than a regular Starlink connection. 

In other words, the RV option costs just as much as a regular Starlink connection with the Portability feature introduced back in March that allows customers to use the service while they’re away from home. A regular connection requires one to have a home service first, though, and that may not be possible for some people. Another difference is that the product for RVs gives customers the ability to pause and un-pause service, so they can control when their billing starts and ends. 

Since the network is de-prioritized for the RV service, though, users’ connection might be slow and intermittent in congested areas and during peak hours. “Stated speeds and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed,” the company wrote in its Help page, clearly making sure interested customers understand that it’s prioritizing at-home users. One important thing to note for those looking into the RV option is that they can’t use Starlink while in motion at this time. SpaceX chief Elon Musk also added on Twitter that the dish is too big for cars, though that didn’t stop at least one user from bolting it onto their vehicle’s hood.