Uber is forming a fleet of driverless cars, Bitcoin reaches an all-time high, and SpaceX will start sending internet satellites into space in 2019.
First up we have news from Facebook that Uber will be buying 24,000 vehicles from Volvo to form a fleet of driverless vehicles. The ride sharing app company will be purchasing Volvo’s XC90 SUV, which starts at more than 45 thousand US dollars apiece and feature core autonomous driving technologies that will let Uber add its own automation features as well. The vehicles will be delivered between 2019 and 2021.
Trending on LinkedIn, Bitcoin has set another record for itself by surpassing the $8,000 mark today. The Cryptocurrency’s value hit $8,290 US Dollars, which is up more than 700 per cent this year. While it’s had a few slumps of more than 25 per cent, they have all given way to huge rallies. Even as many skeptics are waiting for the bubble to burst, CME Group, the world’s biggest exchange, will start offering futures trading on bitcoin next month, giving it even more of a boost.
And lastly, from Reddit, SpaceX plans to launch the first of its 4,425 internet satellites into space starting in 2019. The Elon Musk company will start testing the satellites themselves and launch one prototype before the end of this year. It will continue testing and launching the satellites in 2018, before officially beginning the launch campaign in 2019. The rest of the satellites will be launched in phases through to 2024. The satellites will operate in 83 orbital planes and provide high-speed internet for us earthlings, even in the most rural or underdeveloped areas.