| Uber takes the friction out of account deletion, rival Didi raises a ton of cash and Alexa gets some human characteristics. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for April 28, 2017. 1. Uber makes it easy to delete your account ahead of the inevitable next #DeleteUber campaign Uber is making it easy to delete your account from within the app, and it's also adding transparency and easier fine-tune control regarding your privacy settings for the service. This is great because it shows the company is actually learning valuable lessons from all of its recent missteps, and putting them into practice – in product, at least. Who knows if that applies to workplace culture; we're still waiting on former U.S. AG Eric Holder's report. 
2. Didi Chuxing confirms $5.5B raise, global ambitions Uber rival (and strategic partner) Didi Chuxing confirmed it has raised a new round of funding worth $5.5 billion, which values it at over $50 billion, so it's approaching Uber's worth. The Chinese company is also talking more about its global agenda, which means we could have a big ride hailing clash on our hands very soon. 3. Uber's head of ATG steps aside Uber's head of its Advanced Technologies Group, former Google self-driving car team member and Otto founder Anthony Levandowski, is no longer in that role at Uber. He's currently in the middle of a legal fight between his current and former employers, and so Uber thought it best he not be involved in anything related to lasers or LiDAR, the tech he's accused of purloining from Google according to Waymo. 4. Alexa can whisper now Alexa is evolving into something more human-like, which is good or scary depending on your perspective. That's via new Alexa developer tools designed to help the virtual assistant better mimic human speech quirks, including things like pauses and the expression of emotion. 5. Apple's autonomous test car in pictures This robot car emerged from the belly of an Apple facility in Silicon Valley. At this point, if Apple wasn't at least testing autonomous vehicle tech and preparing for a future in which it's omnipresent, that would be more newsworthy. 6. Nintendo's not done with the 3DS line yet Nintendo introduced a new 2DS XL console late Thursday, which is basically a New 3DS XL without the 3D. It looks like a smart, good value product and will probably help raise Nintendo's holiday sales considerably after it ships on July 28 in the U.S. 7. MIT 3D prints houses now Establishing space bases can be tough, but if you can 3D print entire structures relatively quickly, that helps. So MIT made that possible. Thanks, MIT. No 3D printed structures present, at least as far as I know, but Disrupt NY 2017 from May 15 - May 17 will still be out of this world. It's better in person though so get your tickets now. 
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