Connect with us

Tech

Ford cuts price of BlueCruise hands-free driving feature

Ford is slashing both the monthly and annual cost of its hands-free driver assistance feature, BlueCruise, for new and existing owners in response to “customer and dealer” feedback, the company tells TechCrunch.

The automaker announced Tuesday that it will now charge $49.99 per month or $495 annually for BlueCruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on pre-mapped highways across the United States. That’s down from the previous pricing of $75 per month or $800 per year.

Ford is also now offering what it’s calling a “one-time purchase” option for BlueCruise. Buyers can purchase BlueCruise for $2,495 when ordering a new vehicle and Ford promises to keep it active for at least seven years. The company says that owners won’t have to pay another cent after the seven years “if the service is available.” Owners cannot transfer their BlueCruise subscription to another vehicle.

The price drop comes as BlueCruise is currently the subject of a federal investigation after two fatal crashes happened earlier this year where the feature was active. A driver in one of those crashes was recently charged with DUI homicide.

Announced in 2021, BlueCruise uses a camera-based driver monitoring system to check if drivers are watching the road while the system is active. The company declined to share what percentage of owners have activated the feature. Ford’s change to BlueCruise pricing also comes one day after the company announced it is offering a complimentary home charger and covering installation in a bid to boost adoption of its electric vehicles.

source

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tech

The 12-month window

In a recent episode of “No Priors” — the excellent podcast co-hosted by AI investors Sarah Guo and Elad Gil — Gil made a point about exit timing that’s undoubtedly familiar to founders who’ve spent time with him but seems particularly useful in this moment of go-go dealmaking.

For most companies, Gil said, there’s roughly a 12-month period where the business is at its peak value, “and then it crashes out.” The companies that capture generational returns are often the ones where someone spies that moment instead of assuming the good times will get even better. Lotus, AOL, and Mark Cuban’s Broadcast.com all sold at or near the top, and all are held up by Gil as outfits that foresaw what was coming and smartly pulled the ripcord.

To catch that window, Gil offered a practical suggestion: pre-schedule a board meeting once or twice a year specifically to discuss exits. If it’s a standing calendar item, it drains the emotion out of the equation.

This matters more now than it might have a few years ago. A lot of AI startups exist partly because the foundation models haven’t expanded into their category yet. But as many founders — like Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz –have jokingly begun to acknowledge, that won’t last forever.

As Gil put it: “As you see shift[s] in differentiation and defensibility and all the rest, it’s a good time to ask, ‘Hey, is this my moment? Are these next six months when I’m going to be the most valuable I’ll ever be?’”


source

Continue Reading

Tech

Tesla brings its robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston

Tesla is expanding its robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston, according to a social media post from the company.

The post says simply that “Robotaxi is now rolling out in Dallas & Houston 🤠” and includes a 14-second video showing Tesla vehicles driving without human monitors or drivers in the front seat.

The company now offers robotaxi service in three cities, all of them in Texas, after launching in Austin last year and starting to offer rides without safety drivers in January 2026. In a February filing, Tesla said that its Austin robotaxis have been involved in 14 crashes since launch.

It also offers a more limited ride service with human drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Tesla may not be running many vehicles in either of these new markets yet, with crowdsourced data on the Robotaxi Tracker website only registering a single vehicle in each city (compared to 46 active vehicles logged in Austin).

source

Continue Reading

Tech

Netflix plans to add a vertical video feed, use AI for recommendations

Netflix is going to launch a TikTok-like vertical video feed within its apps this month, and plans to use AI broadly for content creation and recommendations, the company said on Thursday.

Netflix has been testing a vertical video feed since last year. The short video feature could aid users with discovering video podcasts, along with the current slate of shows and movies. The company is also leaning more into using AI for recommendations after launching a ChatGPT-powered search feature last year.

“We have been in personalization and recommendation for two decades, but we still see tremendous room to make it better by leveraging newer technologies,” Netflix co-CEO Gregory Peters said during the company’s first-quarter conference call. “Recommendation systems based on new model architectures not only improve current personalization but also let us iterate and improve more quickly — adding support for different content types much more efficiently.”

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said he sees AI tools improving the entire content creation process. “In general, we expect GenAI to make content better; better tools, better processes […] It takes a great artist to make great art, and AI won’t change that. But AI will give those artists better tools to bring those visions to life,” he said.

Last month, Netflix bought Ben Affleck’s AI creation company InterPositive, which, Sarandos said, has garnered interest from creators.

“With our acquisition of InterPositive, we think it accelerates our GenAI capability because it is proprietary technology created specifically for filmmakers and filmmaking, different from other GenAI video applications. While our ownership of InterPositive is very new, we have generated interest with creators who have spent time with the tools, and we are seeing momentum build around adoption,” he noted.

Netflix also mentioned that it wants to use AI to improve its ad suite, and allow for new formats and customization to get better returns. The company expects to generate ad revenue of $3 billion this year.

Techcrunch event

San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026

Netflix reported revenue of $12.25 billion in Q1 2026, up 16.2% year-year-year, and said profit jumped 83% to $5.28 billion. Alongside the first-quarter results, Netflix said its co-founder and chair, Reed Hastings, is leaving the company’s board this summer.

Notably, the company hiked subscription prices in the U.S. late last month, which could have a positive impact next quarter. The company said it ended 2025 with 325 million paying subscribers.

source

Continue Reading