Author: TechBrunch

Earlier this year, BASF was forced to postpone the opening of a battery materials plant in Finland after a court ruled in favor of environmental groups that the company did not have an adequate plan for wastewater treatment. As battery factories spring up around the world, wastewater issues have been a hindrance, but one startup claims the solution lies in recycling wastewater rather than disposing of it. Wastewater from these factories contains high amounts of sodium sulfate, a by-product of sulfuric acid and caustic soda, two chemicals used in battery manufacturing, copper smelting and other industries. “You can build an…

The European economy is in a precarious position, but there's a silver lining for enterprise startups: Companies building tools to help companies run their finances in a more stable and predictable way are seeing growth. In the latest development, Dublin-founded accounting technology company AccountsIQ has raised €60 million (about $65 million) to build the “treasury function of the future” for mid-sized businesses: a cloud-based, AI-powered automation service that will help accounting departments work faster and more intelligently. AccountsIQ was founded by accountants who had been in business (mostly bootstrapped) for almost 20 years and saw an opportunity to build the…

Android is losing one of its longtime engineering leaders: Android vice president of engineering Dave Burke announced Thursday that he is stepping down after 14 years in the role, but he is not leaving Alphabet and will instead explore “AI/bio” projects within the company. Burke has worked on significant Android projects, including the development of Nexus and Pixel smartphones, Chrome for mobile, the launch of Android TV, and leading the effort to build and ship developer tools. Burke's move follows a series of layoffs and restructurings at Alphabet this year. The company laid off more than 1,000 employees in January,…

When Jordan Nathan launched his direct-to-consumer nontoxic cookware company, Caraway, in 2019, he knew he wasn't the only founder trying to sell a new brand of pots and pans to Instagram-scrolling millennials. But he realized that launching later than his peers was a blessing in disguise in all respects except one. When Caraway launched, it joined companies like Our Place, Great Jones and Made In Cookware in an increasingly crowded category of online cookware startups. But being a bit of a late entrant gave Caraway exposure to those other brands' products and target audiences, Nathan said on a recent episode…

Could a humanoid robot behind the wheel hold the key to self-driving cars that don't hit pedestrians or crash into utility poles? A group of researchers from the University of Tokyo think so, and make their case in a new technical paper published this week. The researchers, one of whom works as a consultant for Toyota, developed and trained a “musculoskeletal humanoid” called “Musashi” to drive a small electric vehicle on a test course. Equipped with two cameras to replace human eyes, Musashi can “see” the road ahead and the scenery reflected in the car's side mirrors. Its mechanical hands…

iOS apps that build their own social networks based on the user's address book may soon be a thing of the past. With iOS 18, Apple is cracking down on social apps that ask users for permission to access their contacts, something they often do to connect users with friends or suggest people to follow. Now, Apple is adding a new two-step permission popup screen that first asks the user to allow or deny access to their contacts, as before, and then, if the user grants access, lets them choose which contacts (not all of them) to share. These changes…

Most of the coverage of humanoid robots has understandably focused on hardware design. Given how frequently developers toss around the phrase “general-purpose humanoid,” more attention should be paid to the first part. After decades of single-purpose systems, the leap to more general-purpose systems would be a big one. We're not there yet. Developing robotic intelligence that can take full advantage of the wide range of motion enabled by bipedal humanoid designs has become a hot topic for researchers. The use of generative AI in robotics has also been a hot topic recently, and new research from MIT points out that…

The modern world's most critical systems, from aviation and road networks to emergency and disaster response, from precision agriculture and power grids to weather forecasting and military defense, depend on GPS. And this reliance is becoming problematic. “The growing threat from foreign adversaries demonstrating the ability to jam, disrupt or spoof GPS signals is frightening,” Sean Moore, CEO and co-founder of Tern AI, a startup that aims to provide an alternative to GPS, told TechCrunch. “If that were to happen, the economic impact to the United States would be devastating.” Moore, who sold his previous company, Trueface, to Pangiam in…

Since its founding in 2017, fintech startup Brex has been run by co-founders Enrique Dubouglas and Pedro Franceschi, who serve as co-CEOs. But starting today, the San Francisco-based corporate credit card and expense management company is moving to a more traditional, single-CEO model that they say should be more agile, the two said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. Franceschi will become sole CEO, and Dubouglas will become chairman of Brex's board of directors. In an in-depth conversation, the two co-founders shared a bit about what the new structure will look like, the company's current financial situation, and how they've…

Hey everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, Apple took center stage. At its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino, Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence, its long-awaited ecosystem-wide generative AI effort that will power everything from an upgraded Siri to AI-generated emojis to photo editing tools that remove unwanted people and objects from photos. The company promised that Apple Intelligence is built with safety at its core and with highly personalized experiences in mind. “It has to understand you and be rooted in your personal context: your daily life, your relationships, your communications,” CEO Tim Cook said…