In-cabin sensing technologies watch for driver distraction and can also customize the occupant's experience.[Sensors inside the cabin of the car detect points on the body, infer movement, and thus assess possible driver impairment. AFFECTIVA]IT'S AN OLD-FASHIONED IDEA that drivers manage their cars, steering them straight and keeping them out of trouble. In the emerging era of smart vehicles, i...

In the next normal, consumer-goods companies can achieve profitable growth and outsize returns by renewing their focus on core execution capabilities.The COVID-19 pandemic drastically upended the consumer and retail landscape, forcing consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) companies into a largely reactive mode. In response to unprecedented shifts in consumer behavior and market dynamics, many CPG compa...

MIT's Roboats will find useful applications in Amsterdam canals. A silver robotic boat hangs from a yellow crane over an Amsterdam canal. MIT BOATS ROBOTICSIt's become painfully obvious over the past few years just how difficult fully autonomous cars are. This isn't a dig at any of the companies developing autonomous cars (unless they're the sort of company who keeps on making ludicrous promis...

Tesla has reigned supreme among electric car companies, ever since it first released the Roadster back in 2008.The California-based company headed by Elon Musk ended 2020 with 23% of the EV market and recently became the first automaker to hit a $1 trillion market capitalization. However, competitors like Volkswagen hope to accelerate their own EV efforts to unseat Musk’s company as the domina...

Symbl.ai, the Seattle-based company that provides APIs to developers to build apps capable of understanding natural human conversations, has raised a $17 million series A funding.Symbl.ai says its APIs unlock machine learning algorithms from a variety of industry partners and sources. The company helps developers ingest conversation data from text, voice, email, chat, video, and social, and pro...

Designed by the global architecture firm Gensler, the building is a neon-accented take on the A-shaped Atari logo—and it’s coming to Las Vegas in 2022.As technologies become obsolete, the brands behind them have to adapt or die. Take Kodak, the long-dominant camera film company that has pivoted to pharmaceuticals. Sometimes brands evolve what they offer based on their strengths, and sometimes...

Four in 10 Americans plan to travel over the holidays. Still, COVID-19 informs decisions across the journey and continues to prevent and curtail some travel.As the United States approaches its second holiday season in the pandemic and its first since COVID-19 vaccines have been available, Americans are doing their best to get back to normal. Four in 10 (42%) plan to travel between Thanksgiving...

The company released its first brand ad under its new name, and it is as mystifying as its pivot to the metaverse.As you may have heard last week, Facebook changed its name to Meta. Now it’s launched the first brand campaign under this new banner. A group of four students gather around Henri Rousseau’s 1908 painting Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo. As they stare into its tropical colors,...

Luxury brands like Burberry and Coach are cashing in on Singles' Day shopping in China by creating limited edition NFTs for the event.[Art installation "Machine Hallucinations - Space: Metaverse" by media artist Refik Anadol. Tyrone Siu/Reuters]Luxury brands are creating limited edition NFTs for Alibaba's Singles' Day sale event.Brands participating include British label Burberry, US handbag ma...