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Tech News
DoorDash has agreed to acquire Instacart in a deal valued at $17 billion, combining the two largest grocery delivery platforms in the US. The deal still requires regulatory approval and follows earlier, unsuccessful acquisition talks between the companies in 2021.
A wounded Ukrainian soldier stranded in a contested 'kill zone' was reportedly airlifted to safety by attaching himself to the winch of a hexacopter drone, which carried him roughly 39 miles. The operation is described as a pioneering use of drone technology for battlefield medical evacuation.
Under the Trump administration, the FCC has moved beyond its longstanding restrictions on Chinese telecom gear to block future imports of foreign-made drones, routers, robots (including robovacs) and power inverters unless companies secure a waiver. The agency cites national security risks but has not published evidence supporting the claims, nor addressed devices already in use in American homes.
Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council, working with National Cheng Kung University, has completed simulations of two autonomous drone fleets of 10 units each flying in coordination without human control. The system is intended to help the Coast Guard Administration monitor undersea cables and track Chinese vessels engaged in grey-zone activity, with plans to move next to hardware testing and real sea trials.
Amazon Prime Air is expanding its drone delivery operations to nearly 500 US cities and towns and has launched service near Darlington in England, while smaller drone delivery operators are also spreading across US cities for food and treats. Residents near these operations are reporting that drone noise, though often quieter than traffic overall, stands out sharply because of its pitch and low-altitude, direct-overhead flight paths.
Ukrainian drones struck a government data center near Gorodets, about 230 miles from Moscow, that reportedly processes data for Russia's Federal Tax Service. The facility is one of two geo-distributed centers handling tax records, and Russian media cited by Data Center Dynamics warned the damage could affect state information systems. The Finance Ministry reportedly operates two other data centers, in Dubna and Yerzovka.
Florida Polytechnic University's campus police, working with Swedish company Jetson, unveiled the Astro, a single-seat electric vertical-takeoff aircraft based on the Jetson ONE. The 154-pound vehicle cost $150,000, flies for only about 20 minutes, reaches speeds near 65 mph, and has not yet received FAA approval, according to local station Fox13.
OpenAI announced it has acquired Orchestra Bio, with details shared in a post by Jay Rughani and Jorge Conde. The announcement accompanies a broader essay arguing that frontier AI models are rapidly improving at generating CAD files, designing PCBs, and sourcing components, even as physical assembly and testing remain harder to automate.
Ukrainian officials claim a drone was used to evacuate a wounded soldier from the battlefield, describing it as a world first. Details on the drone type, mission location and the soldier's condition were not specified in the available report.
Ukraine's 92nd separate assault brigade used a Heavy Shot AYUDAG 6 hexacopter drone, supplied free by manufacturer Gurzuf Defence, to evacuate a wounded soldier suspended in a harness from a battlefield position where Russian drones and mines made ground rescue too risky. The soldier, from the 30th separate mechanized brigade, had spent nearly 500 days at the position before the flight, which took about 1 hour 14 minutes, according to Gurzuf Defence and The Kyiv Independent. Ukraine's Army published video of the evacuation on October 19.
Ukraine's 92nd Assault Brigade and 30th Mechanized Brigade say they completed the first known drone evacuation of a wounded soldier, using a Gurzuf Defence hexacopter to lift an infantryman, callsign 'Kostya,' from a mined area roughly 11 miles behind enemy lines. The soldier was clipped into a harness and flown out while operators stayed in radio contact and accompanying drones guarded against Russian kamikaze UAVs.
Antigravity is launching a new $799 version of its A1 drone that replaces the company's FPV goggles and motion controller with a wristwatch and ring for control. The 'Follow Me' kit lets users launch the drone by hand, then have it autonomously follow and film them while dodging obstacles, with manual adjustments possible via the watch's touchscreen or arm gestures using the ring. This is half the price of the original $1,599 complete headset-based setup.