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Cheers to Otto’s First Autonomous Truck Delivery: Beer
Uber’s self-driving truck division, Otto, recently completed the world’s first autonomous truck delivery, shipping 50,000 cans of Budweiser across Colorado from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs. The only caveat is that the fully Level 4 retrofit was only engaged while on the interstate. Otto’s self-driving strategy is to leave the local driving — the few miles to and from the interstate — to humans. While on the highway, Otto’s engineer was freed up for paperwork, exercise, or sleep. Otto’s six-truck fleet is still focused on smoothing out the ride and tweaking its software, but the technology is capable of being retrofitted onto any truck with an automatic transmission. Read more about the historic drive on Wired.

Conventional Banking Finally Tries Blockchain Trade
The financial technology that has driven efficient international bitcoin transactions since 2009 has finally been tried out by conventional bank leaders. Wells Fargo & Co. and Commonwealth Bank of Australia recently facilitated the first international blockchain transaction between banks for a shipment of cotton. The web-based technology that cuts out the need for third-party verification in order to process and settle transactions makes trades faster, more accurate, and more efficient, and the traditional transaction processing industry is “ripe for disruption.” Read more about the blockchain breakthrough from Reuters.

Airbnb Lightens Its Eco-Footprint With SolarCity Rebate
Environmentally friendly home sharing is headed for an ultra lightweight footprint through a partnership where Airbnb hosts and guests can get up to $1,000 off a SolarCity solar power generation system for their homes. On the flipside, all SolarCity customers can receive an $100 Airbnb travel credit. The partnership capitalizes on the growing move toward climate-friendly travel and aims to tap solar’s largely untouched millennial market segment, especially with SolarCity’s zero down financing. Read more about the innovative collaboration between Airbnb and SolarCity on TechCrunch.

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