Technology

Uber head of policy for autonomous vehicles and urban aviation, Justin Erlich, has left the company to join self-driving car startup Voyage, TechCrunch has learned.

&I was really excited at the prospect of joining such a great early stage team, and by its initial focus on deploying in communities who stand to benefit among the most from this technology & senior citizens,& Erlich told TechCrunch via email.

To lead its policy efforts for autonomous vehicles, Uber recently brought on Miriam Chaum, previously of Philanthropy University.Erlichdeparture comes a couple of months after Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden, who oversaw Uber Elevate, left the company.

&We wish Justin all the best with his new opportunity at Voyage,& an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch.

At Voyage, Erlich will lead the companystrategy, policy and legal efforts. Voyage, led by CEO Oliver Cameron, spun out of Udacity last year and has since deployed Level 4 autonomous vehicles in retirement communities in California and Florida.

&From our very first meeting I knew we had to find a way to bring Justin to Voyage,& Cameron told TechCrunch via email.&Justin is one of those rare entrepreneurs who can duck and dive into any world and do a world-class job. We&re excited to have someone of his experience, from his time at Uber ATG and more, as a key leader at Voyage.&

Erlich previously worked under Attorney General Kamala Harris, where he focused on emerging technology and the key policies that the government will want to have in place to ensure technology helps the people of California. During his time, autonomous vehicles were becoming more and more exciting, he told me back in February. You can hear that full conversation below.

AppleApp Store continues to outpace Google Play on revenue. In the first half of the year, the App Store generated nearly double the revenue of Google Play on half the downloads, according to a new report from Sensor Tower out today. In terms of dollars and cents, that$22.6 billion in worldwide gross app revenue on the App Store versus $11.8 billion for Google Play & or, 1.9 times more spent on the App Store compared with what was spent on Google Play.

This trend is not new. AppleiOS store has consistently generated more revenue than its Android counterpart for years due to a number of factors & including the fact that Android users historically have spent less on apps than iOS users, as well as the fact that there are other Android app stores consumer can shop & like the Amazon Appstore or Samsung Store, for example. In addition, Google Play is not available in China, but AppleApp Store is.

Last year, consumer spending on the App Store reached $38.5 billion, again nearly double that of Google Play$20.1 billion.

As the new figures for the first half of 2018 indicate, consumer spending is up this year.

Sensor Tower estimates it has increased by 26.8 percent on iOS compared with the same period in 2017, and itup by 29.7 percent on Google Play.

The growth in spending can be partly attributed to subscription apps like Netflix, Tencent Video, and even Tinder, as has been previously reported.

Subscription-based apps are big businesses these days, having helped to boost app revenue in 2017 by 77 percent to reach $781 million, according to an earlier study. Netflix was also2017top non-game app by revenue, and recently became ranked as the top (non-game) app of all-time by worldwide consumer spend, according to App AnnieApp Store retrospective.

Many of the other all-time top apps following Netflix were also subscription-based, including Spotify (#2), Pandora (#3), Tencent Video (#4), Tinder (#5), and HBO NOW (#8), for example.

And Netflix is again the top non-game app by consumer spending in the first half of 2018, notes Sensor Tower.

Game spending, however, continues to account for a huge chunk of revenue.

Consumer spending on games grew 19.1 percent in the first half of 2018 to $26.6 billion across both stores, representing roughly 78 percent of the total spent ($16.3 billion on the App Store and $10.3 billion on Google Play).Honor of Kings from Tencent, Monster Strike from Mixi, and Fate/Grand Order from Sony Aniplex were the top grossing games across both stores.

App downloads were also up in the first half of the year, if by a smaller percentage.

Worldwide first-time app installs grew to 51 billion in 1H18, or up 11.3 percent compared with the same time last year, when downloads were then 45.8 billion across the two app stores.

Facebook led the way on this front with WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook and Instagram as the top four apps across both the App Store and Google Play combined. The most downloaded games werePUBG Mobile from Tencent, Helix Jump from Voodoo, and Subway Surfers from Kiloo.

Google Play app downloads were up a bit more (13.1 percent vs iOS10.6 percent) year-over-year due to Androidreach in developing markets, reaching 36 billion. Thataround 2.4 times the App Store15 billion.

Despite this, Appleplatform still earned more than double the revenue with fewer than half the downloads, which is remarkable. And it can&t all be chalked up to China. (The country contributed about 31.7 percent of the App Store revenue last quarter, or $7.1 billion, to give you an idea.)

Sensor Tower tells TechCrunch that even if China was removed from the picture, the App Store would have generated $15.4 billion gross revenue for first half of 2018, which is still about 30 percent higher than Google Play$11.8 billion.

The FCC has been under serious scrutiny by citizens, advocates and politicians alike due to its laissez-faire attitude toward, in particular, the proposed Sinclair Broadcasting merger with Tribune. But the agency is showing some backbone today with a no-nonsense declaration that the merger can&t go through unless a few &serious concerns& are addressed. Itnot the outright disapproval many have recommended, but itbetter than an unconditional green light.

In a short memo posted to the agencysite, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai explained that even under his notoriously (or blessedly, depending on your politics) deregulatory regime, the proposed deal is not acceptable as is. Here it is in full:

Based on a thorough review of the record, I have serious concerns about the Sinclair/Tribune transaction. The evidence we&ve received suggests that certain station divestitures that have been proposed to the FCC would allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law. When the FCC confronts disputed issues like these, the Communications Act does not allow it to approve a transaction. Instead, the law requires the FCC to designate the transaction for a hearing in order to get to the bottom of those disputed issues. For these reasons, I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would designate issues involving certain proposed divestitures for a hearing in front of an administrative law judge.

The issue is that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger would result in a company that controls a huge amount of TV stations — far more than is healthy for a single company. This was demonstrated effectively by a viral video demonstrated earlier this year showing news anchors at Sinclair stations reading the exact same script without acknowledging that it was under the direction of their owner. (Ironically, the script was regarding ethics and accountability in the media.)

In order to make the deal more palatable, Sinclair offered to divest itself of a number of stations. But these promises appear to have been &less than candid,& as former FCC counsel Gigi Sohn put it; &This transaction would place far too many free over-the-air broadcast stations and far too much power in the hands of one company,& she concluded.

Chairman Pai, surprisingly, appears to have come to the same conclusion. Perhaps Sinclairplans to puppeteer these stations were transparent, or perhaps there are too many eyes on the commission right now to let something like this slide, but whatever the case, the merger can&t go forward without FCC approval — and now FCC approval won&t go forward without this hearing and revised divestiture plans.

This is a pleasant surprise for critics of the FCC who have repeatedly argued that the agency isn&t just soft on broadcasters and other big cable and internet businesses, but may be effectively in bed with them.

&As I have noted before, too many of this agencymedia policies have been custom built to support the business plans of Sinclair Broadcasting,& said Commissioner Rosenworcel in a statement accompanying and applauding the chairman&s. &With this hearing designation order, the agency will finally take a hard look at its proposed merger with Tribune. This is overdue and favoritism like this needs to end.&

The FCCmulti-part &modernization& of rules governing media companies has contributed powerfully to the feeding frenzy of consolidation we&ve seen over the last couple of years, and the Sinclair-Tribune merger is just one of many deals that watchdogs have warned about. But it seems that this one at least will get some consumer-positive checks in the near future.