The all-electric Ford Explorer has had a tough time of it. Back in 2022, WIRED was invited to a secret look at the Europe-only, all-electric Explorer which the company had been working on for some time. In March of 2023, the wraps were finally taken off, and it was announced that the US might get a version of the midsize crossover too, such was the enthusiastic response of dealers stateside to the winning design. A brand-new factory was opened in Germany in June 2023, the Cologne EV Center, Ford's dedicated 'home of a new generation of electric vehicles.' Then, just two months later, it was announced that the sale of the Explorer EV was to be delayed until summer 2024'not ideal when the pace of advancement in EVs these days is rampant, with tech being superseded so quickly that residual values of electric cars are disastrous. By the time Ford's EV Explorer eventually hit the roads in 2024 perhaps its biggest threat, the Kia EV3, was no longer on the horizon but just about to arrive. In July, Ford Europe plowed on with the reveal of the Capri, a 'relaunch' of the classic 1960s car that is remembered fondly for being Europe's version of the original Mustang. If fact it was exactly the same car as the Explorer, just with a different exterior design. It seemed half-hearted, somehow, especially as both the Capri and Explorer sit on Volkswagen Group's MEB platform'the result of a technology-sharing deal that apparently shaved two years off Ford's development time....
Everyone these days, from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson, is either launching a venture firm or is in the process of backing the next hottest company. Robinhood, Uber, and Klarna all have some glitzy names on their cap tables, paving the way for the rise of 'Hollywood angels.' For founders, having celebs on the cap table can bring a lot of buzz to the startup ' and bonus points if the celeb knows what they are doing, too. Here are some of the top celebs investing and what they typically look to invest in. (This list will be updated periodically). The famous rapper and personality is a prolific angel investor and is also a founder of Casa Verde Capital, a firm focused on cannabis investments. As an angel investor, according to PitchBook, he's backed companies such as Cameo, Reddit, Klarna, Robinhood, and the fintech MoonPay, alongside other celebs on this list. He's made at least 26 investments, according to PitchBook. The managing partner of Casa Verde Capital is Karan Wadhera and the firm closed a $94 million Fund II in 2020....
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we're looking at OpenAI's last ' and biggest ' announcement from its '12 Days of OpenAI' event; Apple's potential entrance into the foldable market; and why Databricks is choosing to wait to go public. Let's get into it. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the successors to its o1 reasoning model family: o3 and o3-mini. While the models are not widely available yet, safety researchers can sign up for a preview. The reveal marks the end of the company's '12 Days of OpenAI' event, which saw announcements for real-time vision capabilities, ChatGPT Search, and even a Santa voice for ChatGPT. You can catch up on everything you missed here. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses got a big upgrade this week. Members of Meta's early-access program can now download firmware v11, which adds 'live AI.' The feature lets wearers continuously converse with Meta AI to reference things they discussed earlier in the conversation ' and it works with real-time video. Live translation between English and Spanish, French, or Italian, as well as functionality with Shazam are also included in v11....
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