Amazon’s Smart Shopping Cart; Softbank May Sell ARM Holdings; Germany-Tesla Autopilot Misleading; Salesforce Chief Scientist Leaves for Own Co

Amazon has bowed the Dash Cart, a smart shopping cart. According to theverge.com, the smart cart is bound for Amazon’s grocery store in Woodland Hills, CA. It features a touchscreen and other hardware to automatically detect what items you have put into the cart and even how many you have picked off the shelf. When shopping is complete, you can roll through a special lane that checks you out digitally without requiring a human cashier to ring up your total. Your Amazon account is automatically debited with the amount. The LA area store doesn’t have cameras and sensors like the smaller Amazon Go stores. It is in operation for online purchases right now, but the physical space has yet to open to the public. It is unclear at this point why Amazon hasn’t branded it as a Whole Foods, but apparently it will be a different animal from Whole Foods or Amazon Go.

Softbank, which owns chip designer ARM Holdings is looking at selling all or part of the investment. Macrumors.com reports that they are working with Goldman Sachs as an advisor. Apple licenses the tech from ARM for it’s A-series chips…those used in iPhones since 2006, and later iPads. The ARM tech is bound for Apple laptops…maybe as soon as late this year. Apple may even be a potential buyer for ARM Holdings, as it was one of the original investors that started the company.

A German court has ruled that Tesla’s Autopilot claims are misleading, and banned them from using them in ads. Businessinsider.com says the ban includes claims that the vehicles are capable of autonomous driving. Tesla can appeal the ruling. Elon Musk has famously hyped this feature, which has yet to actually exist. Right now, the vehicles are ‘Level 2,’ but not even near actual self-driving. The court bans include the phrases “full potential for autonomous driving” and “Autopilot inclusive” in Tesla’s advertising materials.

Richard Socher is leaving his chief scientist gig at Salesforce for his own startup. According to venturebeat.com, he came to Salesforce with the acquisition of MetaMind in 2016. He had overseen research and development and the rise of the Einstein cloud AI services. He will apparently retain a role as an advisor to Salesforce. No word on when he will separate from the company or who Salesforce might bring in as its new chief scientist.