Toyota saddles up for self-driving future with $400M investment into Pony.ai

One of the world’s largest car makers, Toyota, has further demonstrated its intent on supporting self-driving vehicles. The Japanese carmaker is planning to invest $400 million into Pony.ai, a Chiense self-driving car startup that’s based across Silicon Valley in the US and Guangzhou in China, Bloomberg reports. [Read: New algorithm for self-driving vehciles has a bold ‘collision-free guarantee’] With the latest round of funding, Pony.ai is reportedly now valued at around $3 billion. Alongside Toyota, existing investors injected an additional $62 million. Not only did Toyota make the largest cash injection in this round, it also didn’t request any kind…

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TNW Podcast: Boris comes over to co-host; Slack’s Cal Henderson talks European tech

Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s episode, Andrii is joined by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, co-founder, member of the board, and former CEO of TNW. The topics discussed include the jobs created by Dutch startups, giant state funding for energy projects, translations of the word ‘computer’, and a bunch of other things in between. In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Cal Henderson, co-founder and… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/jUgcNFD

The TickTime is a clever productivity gadget that just works

With so much of the world’s workforce shifting to remote labor, a whole lot of people are trying to figure out how to be productive at home for the first time. Well, I’ve been working from home for years, and I still haven’t totally figured out the puzzle. There are no shortage of apps designed to help you be more productive, but I’m not sure anything I’ve tried has had as much potential as a little gadget called the TickTime. The concept is simple but clever. If you’ve ever heard of the Pomodoro method, which asks you to work in… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/2ySFso4

Why is Venus so inhospitable? ESA launches new mission to find out

The European Space Agency (ESA) has embarked on a new mission to explore our closest planetary neighbour Venus in unprecedented detail. Known as EnVision, the spacecraft will study Venus from the planet’s inner core to its outer atmosphere, to help astronomers understand why the scorching, toxic world is so different from Earth. Work will begin on the spacecraft and its instruments later this year, following the selection of an industrial contractor. EnVision is set to launch on board an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana in 2031. “EnVision will answer longstanding open questions about Venus, arguably the… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/anZTFDP

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