Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Uber's all-hands shows the company's rattled state. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 2017 By Darrell Etherington

Uber's continued efforts to mitigate its HR problems, self-driving Ubers start AZ pickups and Boeing bets on cost reductions. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for February 22, 2017. And if you're SpaceX 's Dragon capsule (a regular reader, I know), here's hoping you get your bearings in time for tomorrow.

1. Uber's all-hands strikes raw nerves

Uber held an all-hands meeting yesterday, to address its failure to address legitimate sexual harassment claims as an organization. The meeting was, by all accounts, a raw and emotional affair.

One stern voice that addressed the situation after the all-hands was Arianna Huffington, who said she's personally hold Uber's management team's "feet to the fire" following the disastrous incident. The question remains whether Uber has or even can do enough to stamp out these cultural concerns.

2. Self-driving Ubers start pick-ups in Arizona

Meanwhile self-driving Ubers are starting their pickups of passengers in Arizona, after the fleet moved to the state from California because Uber wouldn't abide by CA's rules for licensing self-driving test vehicles. These self-driving cars have safety drivers on board, but they represent the next generation of Uber's autonomous vehicles system testing.

3. Boeing rethinks its approach to satellite building

Aerospace industry giant Boeing is shaking up the way it makes satellites, with a focus on 3D printing and modular parts to ensure higher efficiency and easier production of sats, including easing things like testing. It's a big effort, and will likely take years, but it's necessary in the face of upstarts who are looking to do space business cheaper.

4. Trump's new national security advisor is an anti-Flynn

Trump has a new National Security advisor, and he's very different from predecessor Michael Flynn, who was pushed out after it came to light that he had contact with Russia prior to Trump taking office. H.R. McMaster has been called the army's futurist, and is also often described as a scholar among soldiers. This could be Trump managing some actual bridge-building, but it remains to be seen how closely he'll keep McMaster's counsel.

5. Facebook's apparent attempt to explore more sensitive content

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg penned a manifesto that included asking users directly about what kind of content they're comfortable seeing, which seemed like a way to relax its very strict standards around things like adult content. But it's probably more about getting more info, data and use out of users to feed the advertising engine.

6. Apple's new spaceship is launching in April

Apple is finally opening its new campus for business, and the huge, circular sci-fi building also has a name for the first time – it's called Apple Park, which makes a bit of sense since there's a park in the middle. Still a spaceship at heart.

7. SpaceX's Dragon resupply capsule didn't meet up with the ISS

The SpaceX Dragon resupply capsule carrying 5,500 pounds of supplies and experiments for ISS astronauts didn't make its scheduled meeting with the ISS. A GPS error caused the mishap, but it'll try again tomorrow.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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