All posts tagged: Slate

TechCrunch Mobility: Uber enters its assetmaxxing era

TechCrunch Mobility: Uber enters its assetmaxxing era

Published by skeptic

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Uber seemed to be everywhere, all at once in the emerging autonomous vehicle technology sector. The Financial Times has now put a number on it. The FT calculated that Uber has committed more than $10 billion to buying autonomous vehicles and taking equity stakes in the companies developing the tech, according to public records and discussions with folks behind the scenes. About $2.5 billion of that is in direct investments, with the remaining $7.5 billion to be spent on buying robotaxis over the next few years, the outlet reported. We’ve reported on Uber’s numerous investments and deals with autonomous vehicle companies across drones, robotaxis, and freight. Some of its investments include WeRide, Lucid and Nuro, Rivian, and Wayve.  This rather large number (and particularly that $7.5 billion) got me …

Slate Auto raises 0M to fund its affordable EV truck plans

Slate Auto raises $650M to fund its affordable EV truck plans

Published by skeptic

Jeff Bezos-backed electric vehicle startup Slate Auto has raised another $650 million as the company prepares to put its first affordable pickup trucks into production by the end of 2026. The carmaker said Monday that the Series C funding round was led by TWG Global, a firm run by Guggenheim Partners chief executive (and Los Angeles Dodgers owner) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull. Slate Auto’s press release thanked “visionary investors” but the company did not name any others who were involved in the fundraise. The new round means Slate Auto has raised roughly $1.4 billion to date. Previous investors have included General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co., and former Amazon executive Diego Piacentini, as TechCrunch first reported last year. The company is also loaded with Amazon DNA. Beyond its investors, it was co-founded by Amazon’s former Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke. The heads of Slate’s mobility, user experience/user interface, e-commerce, fleet sales, and HR teams all used to work at Amazon. And, the company recently installed former Amazon Marketplace VP …

Slate Auto: Everything you need to know about the Bezos-backed EV startup

Slate Auto: Everything you need to know about the Bezos-backed EV startup

Published by skeptic

In April 2025, a new company called Slate Auto came out of stealth and shocked the car industry. Not only was this startup focused on making an ultra-cheap, customizable electric pickup truck with funding from Jeff Bezos, but it had also been operating in secret for three years in Troy, Michigan — the backyard of major automakers like Ford and General Motors. TechCrunch was first to the story, reporting in early April about the company’s existence, its involvement with the Amazon founder, and its curious and unique business model. The weeks between our report and Slate’s official coming out party in late April provided a whirlwind of news, with prototypes of the startup’s truck popping up around California. Slate is an aberration in the U.S. EV sector, where bankruptcies, failed product launches, and pivots have become commonplace. And while its current backers, executive lineup, first product, and business model provide a compelling path forward, the road is still riddled with potential hurdles as it pushes toward production in late 2026.  Here’s a timeline that charts …

Y Combinator-backed Random Labs launches Slate V1, claiming the first ‘swarm-native’ coding agent

Y Combinator-backed Random Labs launches Slate V1, claiming the first ‘swarm-native’ coding agent

Published by skeptic

The software engineering world is currently wrestling with a fundamental paradox of the AI era: as models become more capable, the “systems problem” of managing them has become the primary bottleneck to real-world productivity. While a developer might have access to the raw intelligence of a frontier model, that intelligence often degrades the moment a task requires a long horizon or a deep context window. But help appears to be on the way: San Francisco-based, Y Combinator-backed startup Random Labs has officially launched Slate V1, described as the industry’s first “swarm native” autonomous coding agent designed to execute massively parallel, complex engineering tasks. Emerging from an open beta, the tool utilizes a “dynamic pruning algorithm” to maintain context in large codebases while scaling output to enterprise complexity. Co-founded by Kiran and Mihir Chintawar in 2024, the company aims to bridge the global engineering shortage by positioning Slate as a collaborative tool for the “next 20 million engineers” rather than a replacement for human developers. With the release of Slate V1, the team at Random Labs …

House panel advances slate of kids online safety bills along party lines

House panel advances slate of kids online safety bills along party lines

Published by Sam Flores

A GOP-led package of kids’ online safety bills, including the landmark Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), advanced out of a House committee Thursday amid heavy pushback from Democrats and technology safety advocates. In a lengthy bill markup Thursday, House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and his Republican colleagues faced repeated criticism from Democrats… Source link

Slate EV pricing coming in June, still expected to mid-k range

Slate EV pricing coming in June, still expected to mid-$20k range

Published by skeptic

EV newcomer Slate Auto just shared an interesting new video on its social media, setting the stage to reveal pricing of its flagship “Blank Slate” electric pickup in June. From what the American startup is saying, it sounds like the bare-bones model will still be one of the most affordable EVs on the market. If you don’t know already, Slate Auto is an American EV startup that is rewriting the rulebook on how to design, develop, scale (and promote) an all-electric truck. That strategy revolves around the startup’s “Blank Slate” design, starting with a bare bones pickup that is about as basic you can get in a passenger vehicle, but with the ability to fully customize and upgrade your build how you like, whether that’s through the Slate “Maker” on the company website, or at home with your own 3D printer. When Slate emerged from stealth in 2025, we initially learned that this flagship model was targeting pricing below $20,000 after US tax incentives. Since then, however, the current administration has eliminated most of those federal …

Netflix Reveals 2026 Slate of Australia, New Zealand Originals

Netflix Reveals 2026 Slate of Australia, New Zealand Originals

Published by Daniella Wilson

Netflix has revealed its full slate of 2026 original films and series from Australia and New Zealand. Leading the way is the third and final season of Gen Z high school drama Heartbreak High, which drops on the streamer on March 25. A soft reboot of the incredibly popular 90s drama, the Sydney-set Heartbreak High has been a massive critical success in Australia, including winning several AACTA Awards, as well as winning an International Emmy in 2023. Returning for the final year at Hartley High is the large ensemble cast that includes Ayesha Madon, James Majoos, Chloé Hayden, Asher Yasbincek, Thomas Weatherall, Will McDonald, Gemma Chua-Tran, Bryn Chapman Parish, Sherry-Lee Watson, Brodie Townsend, Chika Ikogwe, Kartanya Maynard, Aki Munroe, Ioane Sa’ula, Ben Turland, William McKenna and New Zealand national treasure Rachel House. ‘Heartbreak High’ Netflix Coming in 2026, although the release date is still TBC, is the period drama, My Brilliant Career. Based on the book by Miles Franklin, the six-part series is set in rural Australia in 1901, and tells the story of an …

Slate Auto shares progress update of manufacturing plant [Video]

Slate Auto shares progress update of manufacturing plant [Video]

Published by skeptic

Screenshot EV newcomer Slate Auto may not have launched its flagship truck to market yet, but it has done an excellent job of keeping the public up to date on the progress of reconfiguring a manufacturing plant in Indiana, as detailed in its latest video, seen below. It’s only been about 9 months since Slate Auto emerged from stealth mode, promising a bare-bones, no BS electric work truck that’s fully customizable. The American startup’s “Blank Slate” design centers on an all-electric pickup with over 100 accessories and a five-seat SUV configuration kit. At the time, Slate promised this new model would start below $20,000 after US tax incentives, but that target seems damn near impossible since the current administration nixed those incentives. Regardless, American consumers still appear excited about the Slate Truck. In May 2025, a representative for Slate told Electrek that it had already secured 100,000 reservations. But where would these US trucks be built? Advertisement – scroll for more content Last summer, Slate announced it had acquired a manufacturing plant in Warsaw, Indiana, alongside plans to …

Chris Pine and Jenny Slate in Tender Romantic Drama

Chris Pine and Jenny Slate in Tender Romantic Drama

Published by Daniella Wilson

Whether playing sexy comedy or hostility, raw emotional agita or hollowness, Chris Pine and Jenny Slate are so damn fine in Carousel that you keep wondering why we seldom get to see these gifted actors bite into characters of such substance and complexity. Rachel Lambert’s latest is a strange and beguilingly lovely relationship drama. Eventually. But first, the writer-director needs to get out of her own way, peeling away the fussiness and frustration of her oblique approach and finally cutting back on her overbearing use of a cascading score to give us unfettered access to characters about whom it’s clear she cares deeply. Not to pile onto composer Dabney Morris, who presumably is doing what was asked of him, but the wall-to-wall music of the opening scenes is almost a deal-breaker. Even before the title card appears, we get that the plinky-plonky melodies are meant to suggest the merry-go-round of life, with the rise and fall of the horses mirroring the ups and downs of our relationships. It’s a trite metaphor, and a movie as …

Netflix Unveils Stacked Korean Content Slate of 33 Series and Films

Netflix Unveils Stacked Korean Content Slate of 33 Series and Films

Published by Daniella Wilson

Netflix has revealed a full look at its much-anticipated Korean content lineup for 2026. The streamer unveiled a slate of 33 Korean films and series titles on Wednesday afternoon from Seoul, noting that “K-content remains the most-watched non-English content on Netflix.” The lineup includes everything from a tart romantic comedy starring Blackpink’s Jisoo (Boyfriend on Demand) to a star-studded superhero drama (The Wonderfools, with Park Eun-bin and Cha Eun-woo), returning seasons of unscripted hits like Singles Inferno and Culinary Class Wars, and even some prestige cinema from the great Lee Chang-dong (Possible Love). The new lineup arrives after a huge 2025 for Korean storytelling on the platform, following the final season of Squid Game, reality favorites like Physical: Asia and K-drama breakthroughs such as When Life Gives You Tangerines. “Over the past five years, more than 210 Korean titles have been ranked in the global top 10,” notes Don Kang, Netflix’s Korean content lead. Other new titles expected to drive viewership and engagement on the world’s dominant streaming service include The East Palace, an action-fantasy …