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Stellantis is launching a new business unit dedicated to turning all that vehicle data into marketable products — and revenue.

The business unit called Mobilisights, which was announced Thursday at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, is a key piece of the global automaker’s bid to generate 20 billion euro in annual revenue from software-related services by the end of the decade.

The intent is to grow the company’s data-as-a-service business by developing and licensing products, applications and services. Those Mobilisights products will be sold to private enterprises, public-sector utilities, education and research institutions, according to Stellantis.

The idea is to take data generated by its millions of connected vehicles (including information generated from sensors on its cars, trucks and SUVs) and turn it into applications and services that customers might want. For instance, the data could be used to provide personalized usage-based insurance, detect road hazards and provide information on traffic.

Other automakers have launched similar efforts in recent years. For instance, General Motors started in 2020 an insurance service leveraging the vast amounts of data captured through its OnStar connected car service.

The new Mobilisights unit is the latest move by the company to make revenue beyond selling, repairing and financing vehicles. In December 2021, Stellantis laid out the basic framework of a plan to generate billions in annual revenue from software in its vehicles, a vast portfolio that includes 14 brands such as Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Peugeot and Ram.

Stellantis has said it will invest more than $33.7 billion through 2025 into software and electrification. That investment will include employing 4,500 software engineers by 2024.

The end goal is to have 34 million connected cars on the road by 2030 that Stellantis can generate revenue from for years after they’re sold to consumers. To reach its target, Stellantis is leaning on partnerships with BMW, Foxconn and Waymo. Today, the company has more than 12 million “monetizable” connected cars globally. Stellantis defines “monetizable” as the vehicle’s first five years of life.

Mobilisights has exclusive access and rights to license vehicle and related data from all Stellantis brands to external customers, according to the automaker. Stellantis contends that controlling this volume and density of data will make it less reliant on other data suppliers.

Of course, collecting all of that data and turning it into products raises privacy questions. The company says it — and its partners — will operation “within a very strict data governance and privacy policy” that includes using anonymized and aggregated data, and only sharing personal data of customers with their consent and only for the specific services of their choosing.

The company added that customers are able to opt out of information being collected even if they had previously given consent.

“The foundation of this whole business is trust,” said Mobilisights CEO Sanjiv Ghate. “Trust in our custodianship of data and trust that we are here to create a better world.”

Stellantis launches new business unit to turn vehicle data into cash by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

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Hello, I hope it is a great Thursday for you so far. For me, it’s the little things that get me excited and today it is Delta Air Lines’ announcement that SkyMiles frequent flyers, including yours truly, will get Wi-Fi for free starting February 1. May you also find something that excites you today. Let’s get into the news. — Christine

The TechCrunch Top 3

Yet more layoffs: Yesterday it was Salesforce; today it is Amazon. Though these layoffs were foreshadowed in recent months, the amount of people being let go was today’s surprise. Knowing doesn’t take the sting away for employees, I imagine. Paul takes you inside the cuts.
Secret secrets hurt someone: Secret secrets are no fun. Just ask CircleCI customers, who were urged to rotate their passwords and private keys after a breach compromised the company’s system, Carly reports.
Take a bite out of this Apple: Apparently you all made a resolution to read more in 2023. Among the announcements Apple made today, the one that got a lot of clicks was the company’s new AI-powered book narrations for select titles on Apple Books, Ivan reports. If fitness is more your goal this year, Apple Fitness+ is adding new features, like kickboxing workouts and sleep meditation, Aisha writes.

Startups and VC

Continuing with what seems to be a trend in layoffs, Natasha M’s story is very important in getting perspectives from former employees laid off from startups to see how they are handling things and how their next jobs might evolve. She also asks the question, “Where do tech workers go from here?”I won’t spoil it for you, but there seems to be a cycle going on.

Now here’s four more:

That next text might be from Fido: My dog has trouble telling me when he needs to go outside, so I am eyeing FluentPet’s talking button system that has programmable buttons that, when pressed, speak voice commands and text you. Sarah has more.
VR isn’t just for the youngins: Rendever, a big startup in the virtual reality space, acquired Alcove from AARP, showing “VR comes of age,” Ingrid reports.
Neighbors don’t shake hands; neighbors gotta hug!: Okay, well maybe not hug, but if you live in an apartment complex and want to get to know the others living nearby, you might want to check out my story on OneRoof grabbing some funding to help apartment dwellers cozy up to their neighbors.
Here’s a metaverse optimist: Conversational AI startup MeetKai is expanding its offerings with new room-scanning tech and a metaverse builder with a focus on capturing objects and spaces, Kyle writes.

Teach yourself growth marketing: How to set up a landing page

In the first article of a five-part series on growth marketing fundamentals, Jonathan Martinez explains how to create an essential part of every startup’s sales funnel: a landing page.

This overview includes basic steps for writing a clear headline, offering visitors social proof that builds credibility, and crafting calls to action that drive results.

Next week, Martinez, who helped scale startups like Uber, Postmates and Chime, will share his tips for launching a paid acquisition channel.

Three more from the TC+ team:

AI think not: We’re only five days into 2023 and just getting the hang of asking ChatGPT things, but investors are already thinking generative AI is the next bubble. Becca has more.
What settlement?: Coinbase had a hiccup to the tune of $100 million, but the company is humming a new song after a post-settlement stock bump. Anna goes over what happened.
Time to charge that EV playbook: Tim reports on Toyota’s tumble from being top EV dog and which carmaker was there to pick up the pieces.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

If you couldn’t tell by your Twitter feed, CES is happening. Brian introduces CES and how you can get all.the.juicy details for the rest of the conference. Kyle also helped you out by rounding up a list of the top AI-powered products seen at the conference.

One of the stories that particularly caught our eye today was Kyle’s story on Ring bringing back its Peephole Cam. It was something ahead of its time apparently, with Ring shuttering the product in 2021. Now it’s back in all of its glory and can be yours at the starting price of $129.

Here are a few favs from today’s batch of CES stories:

Haje has your look at Trova’s stylish hiding spot for your unmentionables.
Rebecca’s CES car talk got us all excited, including Sony and Honda revealing Afeela, their joint EV brand, and BMW unveiling its Dee prototype, promising “the next level of human-machine interaction.”
Ingrid reported on John Deere and its robotics-based fertilizer system and new electric excavator.
Meanwhile, Brian has a CES success story for you about Aeo’s robot designed to patrol and disinfect hospitals.

Our team wrote 51 Big Tech stories today, so I’m gifting you an extra one over the usual five:

Back in the saddle again: Who had Stitch Fix’s former CEO taking back the helm on their 2023 BINGO card? No one? Connie fills in some details surrounding Katrina Lake coming back for an interim stint, adding to a CNBC report that included another round of layoffs, this time 20% of the company’s 1,700 employees.
You gotta fight for your right to communicate privately: And WhatsApp is behind you 100%. Aisha reports that the messaging giant launched a proxy support for users globally to be able to maintain access even if their connection is blocked or disrupted.
Art is in the eye of the AI-powered beholder: Kyle reports on Picsart’s AI-powered SketchAI app that turns images and outlines into digital art.
And the streaming crown goes to…: Lauren writes about Roku ending 2022 with a new milestone — over 70 million active accounts. The streaming company is claiming it’s still No. 1 among TV streaming platforms in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by hours streamed.
Another bytes the crypto dust: Jacquelyn reports that the New York Attorney General sued Alex Mashinsky, the former Celsius CEO, for defrauding crypto investors. The crypto lender filed for bankruptcy over the summer.
Privacy ping: As Natasha L notes, Apple received a rare fine. France’s data protection watchdog group fined the consumer tech giant about $8.5 million related to Apple’s practice of “not obtaining local mobile users’ consent prior to placing (and/or reading) ad identifiers on their devices in breach of local data protection law.”

Daily Crunch: In layoff update, Amazon CEO tells workers ‘we plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles’ by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

Today at its special launch event, home backup power giant EcoFlow launched a flurry of new products, including a ‘Whole-home Backup Power Solution.’ The company also launched a battery-powered fridge and a portable battery-powered air conditioning unit, which both makes sense. There’s also a lawnmower, which makes me think that preppers will have delightfully pristine lawns, even as the apocalypse looms.

Today at CES in Las Vegas, hidden among all its other news, a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch it is also planning to release full-house battery backup power solutions to go with its more portable battery backup systems, and its RV-focused solutions. The company was tight-lipped about exactly what it was releasing, or when, but it’ll be interesting to see what the battery backup powerhouse comes up with later in the year

Power backup

EcoFlow’s Whole-home Backup Power Solution is a backup power system that aims to keep a house running without noisy, gas-guzzling generators. The kit is available in three different kits to scale based on a user’s needs. The company has built the solution around its high-end Delta Pro portable power station.

“We’re excited to be showcasing our innovative Whole-home Backup Power Solution and our new smart devices at CES 2023. In recent years we’ve been through the pandemic which was a life-altering event, we’ve got electricity bills that are rising and extreme weather that is creating an ever more unstable energy situation,” said EcoFlow’s Head of Business Development, Brian Essenmacher, at the company’s press event at CES. “That’s why EcoFlow is providing power that’s easier than ever and helping users to make the most of life, whether that’s by saving users time and money to devote to the things that matter most to them, or by making life more enjoyable at home, outdoors and in mobile spaces.”

The Advanced Kit connects two Delta Pro units via the company’s Double Voltage Hub, resulting in an impressive 7,200W output. That should be plenty to power pretty much any device you have in the house. Take it easy on the power consumption, and the company claims you can keep an average home running for about a week. For folks who want to keep the party going for even longer can hook up a duel-fuel generator (powered by a propane tank or good old-fashioned gasoline) to further reduce grid dependence.

EcoFlow Wave 2: portable air conditioner and heater

It’s not exactly a powerhouse in terms of cooling or heating, but for a portable, battery-powered unit, the upgraded EcoFlow Wave 2 is a welcome breath of fresh (or hot) air. With the add-on battery, it can run for up to 8 hours on a charge, and at 14 kg (33 lbs), it’s reasonably portable as well.

The heating/cooling unit packs 5,100 BTUs of cooling and 6,100 BTUs of heating – on par with an entry-level window AC unit. It’s enough to cool or heat a room or a small space such as an RV – assuming the RV itself is well insulated.

EcoFlow Glacier: portable fridge with ice maker

The end of days just won’t be the same if you can’t enjoy it with an ice-cold margarita, so EcoFlow has you covered on that front as well. The Glacier has a high-capacity ice makers that the company says will produce 18 ice cubes four times per hour. The fridge can run for 24 hours on a single charge, and has an option for direct solar charging: Plug in a solar panel, and you’re good pretty much indefinitely.

The fridge has a 297Wh battery built in, and features a bunch of power saving features to stretch the cooling powers even further.

EcoFlow Blade: the robotic lawn mower

So far, EcoFlow’s marketing and messaging has been focused on disaster response and power cuts, with a side of ‘hey you want to live out of an RV, we’ve got power stations for that’. The lawnmower is operable via an app, and features automatic leaf collection, virtual boundary navigation and all sorts of other neat fully-robotic-lawnmower features.

The company says the device has advanced route planning and virtual boundary planning, obstacle climbing and avoidance, and theft protection. The device comes with 4G built-in, so it can merrily roam around your property out of Wi-Fi range.

The products will be available in April this year, pricing has not yet been set.

EcoFlow teases full-house battery backup coming later this year by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

New York City public schools have restricted access to ChatGPT, the AI system that can generate text on a range of subjects and in various styles, on school networks and devices. As widely reported this morning and confirmed to TechCrunch by a New York City Department of Education spokesperson, the restriction was implemented due to concerns about “[the] negative impacts on student learning” and “the safety and accuracy” of the content that ChatGPT produces.

“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch via email, adding that the restricted access came in response to requests from schools.

It’s not a ban per se. The New York City public school system is using the same filter forChatGPT that it uses to block other apps and websites — e.g. YouTube and Facebook — on school property. Individual schools can request to have ChatGPT unblocked, and the spokesperson said that the New York City Department of Education would “welcome” the opportunity to have a conversation with OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, about how the tool could be adapted for education.

As for OpenAI, when reached for comment, a company spokesperson said that OpenAI is developing “mitigations” to help anyone spot text generated by ChatGPT. That’s significant. While TechCrunch reported recently that OpenAI was experimenting with a watermarking technique for AI-generated text, it’s the first time OpenAI has confirmed that it’s working on tools specifically for identifying text that came from ChatGPT.

“We made ChatGPT available as a research preview to learn from real-world use, which we believe is a critical part of developing and deploying capable, safe AI systems. We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned,” the OpenAI spokesperson said. “We’ve always called for transparency around the use of AI-generated text. Our policies require that users be up-front with their audience when using our API and creative tools … We look forward to working with educators on useful solutions, and other ways to help teachers and students benefit from AI.”

ChatGPT has an aptitude for answering questions on topics ranging from poetry to coding, but one of its biggest flaws is its ability to sometimes give answers that sound convincing but aren’t factually true. That ledQ&A coding site Stack Overflow to temporarily ban users from sharing content generated by the AI, saying that ChatGPT made it too easy for users to flood the site with dubious answers. More recently, the International Conference on Machine Learning, one of the world’s largest AI and machine learning conferences, announced a prohibition on papers that include text generated by ChatGPT and other like AI systems for fear of “unanticipated consequences.”

In education, the debate has revolved largely around the cheating potential. Google “ChatGPT to write school papers,” and you’ll find plenty of examples of educators, journalists and students testing the waters by wielding ChatGPT to complete homework assignments and standardized essay tests. Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern used ChatGPT to write a passing AP English essay, while Forbes staffer Emma Whitford tapped it to write two college essays in 20 minutes. Speaking to The Guardian, Arizona State University professor Dan Gillmor gave ChatGPT one of the assignments he typically gives his students and said that he would’ve given the AI’s essay “a good grade.”

Plagiarism is another concern. Like other text-generating AI systems, ChatGPT — which is trained on public data, usually collected without consent — can sometimes regurgitate this information verbatim without citing any sources. That includes factual inaccuracies, as alluded to earlier, as well as biased — including blatantly racist and sexist — perspectives. OpenAI continues to introduce filters and techniques to prevent problematic generations, but new workarounds pop up every day.

Despite those limitations, some educators see potential in generative AI technologies like ChatGPT. In a recent piece for Stanford’s Graduate School of Education website, Victor Lee, associate professor of education at Stanford, noted that ChatGPT may help students “think in ways they currently do not,” for example by helping them discover and clarify their ideas. Teachers may benefit from ChatGPT as well, he posits, by generating many examples for students of a narrative where the basic content remains the same but the style, syntax or grammar differ.

“ChatGPT may [allow] students to read, reflect and revise many times without the anguish or frustration that such processes often invoke, [while] teachers can use the tool as a way of generating many examples and nonexamples of a form or genre,” Lee said in a statement. “Obviously, teachers are less delighted about the computer doing a lot of legwork for students. And students still need to learn to write. But in what way, and what kinds of writing? A … side effect of this new medicine is that it requires all of us to ask those questions and probably make some substantive changes to the overarching goals and methods of our instruction.”

As NYC public schools block ChatGPT, OpenAI says it’s working on ‘mitigations’ to help spot ChatGPT-generated text by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Update, 1/5/23, 4:30 PM ET: Twitch reports that the site is in the process of recovering, though some users are still experiencing issues.

The popular live streaming service Twitch is experiencing an outage for the second time this week. Around 3 PM ET on Thursday afternoon, many creators who were live on Twitch were cut off in the middle of their streams.

“We are aware of issues with the site and our teams are actively working on a resolution,” Twitch Support tweeted. “Thank you for your reports and patience whilst we work on it — we will keep you updated here.”

Through out the incident, Twitch’s status page indicated that all systems were operational.

Not all streamers were affected, and some were able to restart their streams within about twenty minutes of the outage. But the timing of these issues sparked frustration among fans.

Just two days prior, on January 3, a Twitch outage temporarily made it seem as though some creators had deleted their accounts. This was because Twitch was having trouble loading followed channels on both desktop and mobile.

Twitch confirmed on its status page that the outage “could manifest in chat not working, login difficulties, search impaired, etc.”

At the time of publication, we have seem some affected creators reboot their streams, but Twitch has not indicated via Twitter or its website that Thursday’s issue is fully resolved.

Twitch did not immediately respond for comment about the cause of these issues.

Twitch experiences an outage for the second time in a week by Amanda Silberling originally published on TechCrunch

If you’re a gamer who plays on their Android phone a lot, the Razer Edge might be the dedicated platform you’re looking for — and the device will be available later this month starting at $400, the company announced at CES.

The last few years have been interesting for handheld gaming as, following the smash success of the twitch, companies have adopted various approaches to making something better than a phone but not quite as involved as a full-on console. Valve’s Steam Deck has been the most visible of these attempts, but phone gaming conversion kits like the Backbone have also gained in popularity.

Razer is a force in PC gaming but has had only mixed success in the mobile realm, with its branded phones and accessories not making much of a splash. The Edge is its biggest play yet, an Android handheld dedicated solely to gaming — no calls or texts here. It amounts to a modified version of its Kishi phone-mounted controller with extra features and the 5G “phone” permanently attached.

The device itself is definitely enticing for anyone who plays serious games on Android: with a 6.8″ 2,400×1,080 AMOLED screen running at a 144Hz refresh rate, it actually outstrips what most games on the platform support. But of course software tends to grow to fit the container it is put in, so we can expect games that natively support this display mode as well as the few that already do (like Steam Link, but that’s kind of cheating).

As a compact, dedicated gaming platform it seems promising, but the real question is whether, at $400 for the wi-fi version and more for the 5G one, anyone will shell out when for that price you could get a Steam Deck or Switch. Android has plenty of good games on it, but compared with the library available on PC and Switch it may come off as somewhat lacking. And of course you might already have dropped a few bills on your current gaming phone — which you could a controller for much more cheaply.

If, however, you are banking on the continued success of game streaming services like Geforce Now, perhaps a compact dedicated handheld like this, with a great screen and 5G (on Verizon only at present, though), is the way to go. You’ve got until January 26, when it ships, to make your decision.

We’ll see about getting ourselves a little hands-on time with the device at CES and see if it lives up to the hype.

Razer’s 5G Edge gaming handheld hits on January 26 for $400 by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

TikTok has quietly added video scrubbing thumbnails to its platform this week, as the company continues to beef up its video features. The new addition makes it easier for users to find a specific part of a longer video. The feature was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra.

Since the feature is starting to roll out this week, it might not be available for everyone just yet. It appears that the video scrubbing thumbnails are currently only available for newer uploads, as I was unable to see them on older videos. Although users have had the option to rewind or fast forward long videos on TikTok for quite some time now, the addition of video scrubbing thumbnails makes this process more intuitive.

For example, say you’re following a TikTok recipe video and want to get to a specific part of the video, in the past you would have had to blindly scrub through the video. Now, you will be able to see where exactly you want to fast forward to via the new thumbnails.

It was a matter of time before TikTok added this feature, given that it’s slowly been inching into YouTube’s territory. YouTube has had scrubbing thumbnails for what feels like forever, so it makes sense for TikTok to offer them on its platform as well, especially as it continues to present itself as a viable option for longer-form video creators who normally post content on YouTube.

Ever since TikTok rolled out the ability for users to upload videos up to 10 minutes in length, it has been working to improve the viewing experience for users. Last month, TikTok began testing a new horizontal full screen mode with select users globally.

Data has shown that kids and teens now spend more time watching TikTok than YouTube. This has been the case since June 2020, when TikTok began to outrank YouTube in terms of the average minutes per day people ages 4 through 18 spent accessing these two competitive video platforms. By continuing to enhance its viewing experience, TikTok is inching further into YouTube’s domain.

TikTok adds video scrubbing thumbnails to make it easier to find specific parts of videos by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch