Mind-reading technology 🔮

Lyft’s e-bikes are so hot they’re catching on fire and combine harvesters go autonomous.

Steph Newton

Published in

Hardware News

4 min readAug 21, 2019

What’s New In Hardware:

Facebook is funding research into a device that would theoretically let them read your mind. (MIT Technology Review)
Drone defense is turning out to be an increasingly crowded, confusing market. (Axios)
Lyft’s e-bikes are catching fire, so they’ve been pulled until the company can figure out what’s going on. (TechCrunch)
Limor Fried has ported machine learning to an Arduino-size platform. (IEEE Spectrum)
Autonomous combine harvesters are getting ready to roll on Russia’s farms. (New Atlas)

Offbeat tidbits you might’ve missed:

Researchers have built a contact lens that can zoom, activated by a mere blink of your eye. (TheNextWeb)
Personal air conditioning is now possible thanks to a device from Sony. (USA Today)
Haptics lets you build a vest that can remote-control a dog. (Gizmodo)

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Human engineering tissue startup Prellis Biologics has raised $8.7 million in a series A round as it revolutionizes the field of regenerative medicine. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by earlier backer True Ventures. The company has now raised $10.5 million altogether.
Computer vision startup Recogni has secured $25 million in series A funding led by GreatPoint Ventures with participation from Toyota AI Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Fluxunit, and DNS Capital.
Cambridge-based greentech company Sense has secured $10 million in series B funding. Investors include MacKinnon, Bennett & Company, and IDO Investments.
Robotic storage and retrieval system startup Attabotics has raised $25 million to fund hiring and expand its manufacturing and research & development capabilities. Investors in this recent series B funding round include Coatue, Comcast Ventures, and Honeywell, as well as earlier investors Forerunner Ventures and Werklund Growth Fund.
Smart access startup Latch has completed a $126 million financing round to accelerate its growth in the new construction and retrofit markets. The round was closed with a lead check from growth equity firm Avenir, alongside existing series B investors including Brookfield Ventures, Lux Capital, RRE, RxR Realty, Tishman Speyer, Third Prime, Camber Creek, and Primary Venture Partners.
UK-based developer of personal hemodialysis systems Quanta Dialysis Technologies has secured $48 million in a series C funding round with participation from Wellington Partners, Seroba Life Sciences, Btov Partners and a Swiss family office.
Ford has acquired Quantum Signal, a small robotics company focused on building remote control software for robotic vehicles. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.