Technology

Uber announced a new program today called Profile Recommendations that takesadvantage of machine intelligence to reduce user error when switching between personal and business accounts.

Itnot unusual for a person to have both types of accounts. When you&re out and about, iteasy to forget to switch between them when appropriate. Uber wants to help by recommending the correct one.

&Using machine learning, Uber can predict which profile and corresponding payment method an employee should be using, and make the appropriate recommendation,& Ronnie Gurion, GM and Global Head of Uber for Business wrote in a blog post announcing the new feature.

Uber has been analyzing a dizzying amount of trip data for so long, it can now (mostly) understand the purpose of a given trip based on the details of your request. While itcertainly not perfect because itnot always obvious what the purpose is, Uber believes it can determine the correct intention 80 percent of the time. For that remaining 20 percent, when it doesn&t get it right, Uber is hoping to simplify corrections too.

Photo: Uber

Business users can now also assign trip reviewers — managers or other employees who understand the employeeusage patterns, and can flag questionable rides. Instead of starting an email thread or complicated bureaucratic process to resolve an issue, the employee can now see these flagged rides and resolve them right in the app. &This new feature not only saves the employeeand administratortime, but it also cuts down on delays associated with closing out reports,& Gurion wrote in the blog post announcement.

Uber also announced that itsupporting a slew of new expense reporting software to simplify integration with these systems. They currently have integrations with Certify, Chrome River, Concur and Expensify. They will be adding support for Expensya, Happay, Rydoo, Zeno by Serko and Zoho Expense starting in September.

All of this should help business account holders deal with Uber expenses more efficiently, while integrating with many of the leading expense programs to move data smoothly from Uber to a companyregular record-keeping systems.

Yesterday I speculated that Elon Muskhints that he wanted to take Tesla private with Saudi Arabiasovereign wealth fund backing it might not be as far-fetched as people think. Today Musk has published a statement claiming that he has been talking to the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund (known in the country as the Public Investment Fund) about taking Tesla private for almost two years.

Indeed, he says, they approached him &multiple times about taking Tesla private.&

He claims the Saudi PIF first met with him at the beginning of 2017 to express interest &because of the important need to diversify away from oil.& He also says they had several more meetings &over the next year&. Musk points out that &the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction.& As I said yesterday, the fund is projected to reach $2 trillion.

After the Saudi PIF bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, Musk says they asked for another meeting with him which, he says, took place on July 31st, during which he claims they ®retted& that he had ¬ moved forward previously& with a private transaction with them, and that the head of the PIF &strongly expressed his support& for funding a private transaction for Tesla.

Musk says he left the meeting &with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving.& He says this is why he referred to &funding secured& in his tweet on August 7.

Musk goes on to say that the deal is more or less done, with only the details and logistics to be worked out.

This statement must also be taken with a pinch of salt. The Securities and Exchange Commission is understood to be inquiring about Musktweets regarding the potential for the company to go private. Although an inquiry from the SEC does not necessarily mean an investigation will follow, if Musk were to be found guilty of misconduct for making such a public statement via Twitter, punishments could range from hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to criminal prosecution.

Critics might argue that this statement is a face-saving exercise. I doubt that. My personal knowledge of the traditions of the region leads me to surmise that these talks are almost certainly very real.

HereMuskstatement in full:

Update on Taking Tesla Private

As I announced last Tuesday, I&m considering taking Tesla private because I believe it could be good for our shareholders, enable Tesla to operate at its best, and advance our mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy. As I continue to consider this, I want to answer some of the questions that have been asked since last Tuesday.

What has happened so far On August 2nd, I notified the Tesla board that, in my personal capacity, I wanted to take Tesla private at $420 per share. This was a 20% premium over the ~$350 then current share price (which already reflected a ~16% increase in the price since just prior to announcing Q2 earnings on August 1st). My proposal was based on using a structure where any existing shareholder who wished to remain as a shareholder in a private Tesla could do so, with the $420 per share buyout used only for shareholders that preferred that option.

After an initial meeting of the boardoutside directors to discuss my proposal (I did not participate, nor did Kimbal), a full board meeting was held. During that meeting, I told the board about the funding discussions that had taken place (more on that below) and I explained why this could be in Teslalong-term interest.

At the end of that meeting, it was agreed that as a next step, I would reach out to some of Teslalargest shareholders. Our largest investors have been extremely supportive of Tesla over the years, and understanding whether they had the ability and desire to remain as shareholders in a private Tesla is of critical importance to me. They are the ones who believed in Tesla when no one else did and they are the ones who most believe in our future. I told the board that I would report back after I had these discussions.

Why did I make a public announcement The only way I could have meaningful discussions with our largest shareholders was to be completely forthcoming with them about my desire to take the company private. However, it wouldn&t be right to share information about going private with just our largest investors without sharing the same information with all investors at the same time. As a result, it was clear to me that the right thing to do was announce my intentions publicly. To be clear, when I made the public announcement, just as with this blog post and all other discussions I have had on this topic, I am speaking for myself as a potential bidder for Tesla.

Why did I say &funding secured& Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private. They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil. They then held several additional meetings with me over the next year to reiterate this interest and to try to move forward with a going private transaction. Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction.

Recently, after the Saudi fund bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, they reached out to ask for another meeting. That meeting took place on July 31st. During the meeting, the Managing Director of the fund expressed regret that I had not moved forward previously on a going private transaction with them, and he strongly expressed his support for funding a going private transaction for Tesla at this time. I understood from him that no other decision makers were needed and that they were eager to proceed.

I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to &funding secured& in the August 7th announcement.

Following the August 7th announcement, I have continued to communicate with the Managing Director of the Saudi fund. He has expressed support for proceeding subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals. He has also asked for additional details on how the company would be taken private, including any required percentages and any regulatory requirements.

Another critical point to emphasize is that before anyone is asked to decide on going private, full details of the plan will be provided, including the proposed nature and source of the funding to be used. However, it would be premature to do so now. I continue to have discussions with the Saudi fund, and I also am having discussions with a number of other investors, which is something that I always planned to do since I would like for Tesla to continue to have a broad investor base. It is appropriate to complete those discussions before presenting a detailed proposal to an independent board committee.

It is also worth clarifying that most of the capital required for going private would be funded by equity rather than debt, meaning that this would not be like a standard leveraged buyout structure commonly used when companies are taken private. I do not think it would be wise to burden Tesla with significantly increased debt.

Therefore, reports that more than $70B would be needed to take Tesla private dramatically overstate the actual capital raise needed. The $420 buyout price would only be used for Tesla shareholders who do not remain with our company if it is private. My best estimate right now is that approximately two-thirds of shares owned by all current investors would roll over into a private Tesla.

What are the next steps As mentioned earlier, I made the announcement last Tuesday because I felt it was the right and fair thing to do so that all investors had the same information at the same time. I will now continue to talk with investors, and I have engaged advisors to investigate a range of potential structures and options. Among other things, this will allow me to obtain a more precise understanding of how many of Teslaexisting public shareholders would remain shareholders if we became private.

If and when a final proposal is presented, an appropriate evaluation process will be undertaken by a special committee of Teslaboard, which I understand is already in the process of being set up, together with the legal counsel it has selected. If the board process results in an approved plan, any required regulatory approvals will need to be obtained and the plan will be presented to Tesla shareholders for a vote.

Taken from Update on Taking Tesla Private

Chrome OS has come a long way in the past few years. Even so, itstill not the full-fledged operating system many of us require on our desktop machines. Google is reportedly looking to address that, in part, by adding the ability for users to dual-boot in Windows 10.

According to XDA-Developers, the company is actively courting Microsoft hardware certification for its flagship Chromebook, the Pixelbook. The &alt OS mode& codenamed &Campfire,& is said to be coming to the Pixelbook in the not-too-distant future, with more Chromebook support down the line.

Which devices would actually be able to support Microsoftonce ubiquitous operating system is dependent on, among other things, system specs. Microsoftworked to make Windows compatible with low-end systems, but even by those standards, some super cheap Chromebooks don&t boast the built-in storage required to run both Chrome OS and Windows 10. For all of its faults, maybe Windows 10S would be a decent secondary platform.

Windows 10 on the Pixelbook is a compelling proposition. The high-end Chromebook is a lovely piece of hardware, but even with the addition of Android apps, there are still some software gaps. I took the device on a recent trip to China and was disappointed by some of the limitations I ran into on an otherwise fine device.

Itsuggested that all of this could come as soon as Googleupcoming Pixel 3 event. Given a number of recent leaks, it does appear that the companygot something big planned for the near term.