Uber says it plans to list all NYC yellow cabs to its app by 2025, Mercedes will accept full legal responsibility for the vehicle whenever Drive Pilot is active, and Netflix’s new price officially comes into effect.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Friday, March 25, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Uber has announced it has reached a deal to list New York City’s yellow cabs on its app. With this, the company attempts to overcome a driver shortage in its biggest U.S. market. The deal, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would see Uber work with two taxi software companies, namely Creative Mobile Technologies and Curb, which said its goal was to expand the collaboration U.S.-wide.The company said Thursday that it planned to included every taxi on Uber by 2025 and last year added 122,000 new taxis to its platform. The New York City collaboration could add as many as 13,600 cabs to Uber’s app if all of the city’s registered cab drivers participate, Reuters reported.
Source: The Wall Street Journal and Reuters
Mercedes becomes the first company to accept full legal responsibility for a vehicle whenever its autonomous driving software is active. This means, once you engage Drive Pilot, you are no longer legally liable for the car’s operation until it disengages. You can look away, watch a movie, or zone out. Drive Pilot is a semi-autonomous piloting system that can take control of the car’s speed, steering and brakes to move you along in traffic. The program only works on certain highways below 40 mph. The software is already in operation on all German highways and Mercedes says it hopes to offer the system in the U.S. by the end of 2022.
Source: Road & Truck
Netflix’s latest price hikes in the U.S. are starting to come into effect, The Verge reported. A Netflix spokesperson told the publication that the price increases are rolling out to existing subscribers “over weeks,” adding that some subscribers may have already been notified and seen the changes applied. The subscription streaming service and production company first alerted subscribers to its coming price increases in late January. The service’s basic plan now costs $9.99 per month (up from $8.99), its standard tier costs $15.49 per month (up from $13.99), and its 4K tier costs $19.99 per month (up from $17.99).
Source: The Verge
And now for something a bit different. Apple, Microsoft, Dell are among the honourees in Ethisphere Institute’s 2022 edition of most ethical companies in the tech industry. This year’s edition saw Apple named as one of the most ethical tech companies in its field for the first time ever, while Microsoft was honoured for the 12th time since the award was created in 2006. Based in Arizona, Ethisphere Institute is a for-profit company that defines and measures corporate ethical standards, recognizes companies that excel, and promotes best practices in corporate ethics.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.