Technology

We&re verrückt aufgeregt — crazy excited — to host Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. This marks our sixth visit to this great city, and iteasy to understand why. Berlin represents the racing heartbeat of Europestartup scene, which continues to innovate and evolve at a rapid pace. Our 2-4-1 deal on Innovator passes lets you take it all in for the best price: €695 for two! We&ll release a limited number of passes soon, so sign up for our newsletter, and we&ll let you know when they&re available.

An international hub, Berlin is the perfect place to introduce your early-stage startup to Europe — and the world beyond. Disrupt Berlin draws participants from more than 50 countries, including European Union members, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, India, China and South Korea.

Last year we welcomed a record-breaking 2,600 attendees, and Startup Alley was packed with 416 exhibitors. It ranks as our largest international Disrupt conference, and we expect this year to be even bigger. If you want to get your early-stage startup in front of the top international tech founders, innovators, influencers and investors, come and experience Disrupt Berlin.

And what an experience it is. Along with exploring all the new tech products, services and companies on display in Startup Alley, you&ll get to watch — or maybe even compete in — Startup Battlefield, the most exciting startup pitch competition, bar none. Since the first Battlefield back in 2007, 748 companies have competed and gone on to collectively raise $800 billion in funding — and 100 of them have either gone public or been acquired. At Disrupt Berlin 2017, Lia Diagnostics took Startup Battlefield by storm, winning the Disrupt Cup along with the $50,000 grand prize.

You also can expect to hear awesome speakers representing the best of the startup tech and investor scene. We&re in the process of confirming this yearroster, but last yearevent included the likes of Gavin Wood of Parity Technologies,Cal Henderson of Slack,Ida Tin of Clue andFrederic Mazzella of BlaBlaCar. Think you know the perfect speaker for this yearDisrupt Head on over to our speaker nomination page.

Thereso much more to Disrupt: media exposure, workshops, networking and after parties. An Innovator pass provides access to all that, along with: speakers on the Main Stage, the Next Stage and the Q-A Stage, full viewing of the Disrupt attendee list, the ability to contact attendees using the Disrupt Mobile App and, after the event, access to the Disrupt Berlin event video library.

Disrupt Berlin takes place on November 29-30, 2018 at the Arena Berlin. We&re offering a limited number of two-for-one Innovator passes for €695. They&ll be available soon, but they won&t be available long. Sign up for the newsletter now, and we&ll let you know the minute the passes are available.

Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here.

The success of the autonomous vehicle revolution relies on complicated systems of sophisticated sensors working in harmony to provide the magic of sight to machines.

OmerKeilaf, chief executive, Innoviz

In Tel Aviv, we&ll hear from experts in the field as they discuss the technological marvels that are the driving force behind the transformation of mobility in the modern world.

Omer David Keilaf, the chief executive of Innoviz, comes to us with some significant recent wins under his companybelt. The Innoviz LIDAR technology has been selected by BMW to power its Level 3 to Level 5 autonomous vehicle systems.

The companysolid-state LiDAR sensor, available as a built-in device beginning next year, is much smaller than traditional LIDAR and is stationary.

Before founding Innoviz, Keilaf led the system and product definition efforts at the worldfirst handheld molecular sensor for mobile devices with ConsumerPhysics. Previous roles include leading the system architecture and engineering teams at bTendo (acquired by ST Micro) and Anobit (acquired by Apple) .

Rani Wellingstein, chief executive, Oryx Vision

No less impressive is the work of fellow panelistRani Wellingsteinof Oryx Vision,whose company is developing its own novel LIDAR technology.OryxLiDAR uses antennas in place of photodetectors to retrieve both range and velocity information for the points of light in its high-resolution scans of its surroundings. The company claims that its technology is a million times more sensitive than existing LiDAR systems, and is better able to deal with interference from sunlight, and from other LiDARs in operation on the road.

A serial entrepreneur, Wellingsteinlast company, Intucell, was sold to Cisco for $475 million in 2013. At Cisco, Wellingstein served as the vice president and business unit manager of Ciscoself optimized networks business unit.

Israel is driving autonomous innovation and we&re excited to talk to the folks behind the wheel of the nationinnovative companies. Join us. You have just 48 hours left to score the early-bird ticket price — 265 ILS. So buy your tickets now.

Didi Chxuing is making big changes to Hitch, its inter-city carpooling service, following the murder of a passengerat the hands of a driver earlier this month.

Last week, Didi — Chinadominant ride-hailing service by some margin — expressed its &deep remorse& for the murder, andsuspended Hitch for a week to conduct a review of the service.

Hitch, as the name suggests, is a hitchhiking-style service that groups people who are headed in the same direction together. Unlike Didiother services, it isn&t commercial; passengers give the driver their share of fuel and any other costs they want to cover. That makes it affordable and hugely popular, but it has also made the service less professional than Didiother modes of transport. Indeed, many in China have claimed the service is ‘sleazy,& with many comments left about passenger appearances, particularly those who are female.

The primary change will see Hitch available limited to daytime when the service resumes, with no new rides able to start between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

In an apparent nod to the unsavory elements, Didi is scrubbing all Hitch driver and passenger reviews and ratings. Personal information for users will no longer be public, and profile photos will be replaced by generic images, Didi said.

Beyond Hitch, Didi is also making changes to its driver authentication program.

Thatdown, in a large part, to the fact that the suspect in the murder of the passenger was not a verified Didi driver. He was able to use the app (on more than one occasion) by taking the smartphone belonging to his father, who is a verified Didi driver. Didifacial recognition technology, which verifies a driveridentity before granting them access to the service, failed in this instance — Didi said it was &defective& that day.

Didi is closing down the option for its drivers to use other peoplecars with their permission, and implementing a &zero tolerance policy& on matching cars with their registered owners — a strange loophole that drew concern.

The Didi service added an SOS button two years ago, and now it is aiming to refine that further by introducing automatic audio recording which is passed in real-time to a customer support agentonce an SOS is activated. The firm said it is also weighing up adding video in the future. Conscious of privacy concerns, the company said the audio would be stored remotely, not on a passengerdevice, and deleted within 72 hours if not needed for longer.

&We understand that not everyone is comfortable with having their trips recorded.Additional user authorization may also be needed if in-vehicle video monitoringwere to be introduced in the future,& the company said.

&Nevertheless, this could be a most effective means to enhance safety standards,and to ensure adequate evidence support for potential dispute resolution,& Didi added. &Wouldthis be an acceptable solution in the eyes of our users&

Thatone of a series of questions put out by Didi, which said it will solicit opinions for potential safety measures. The company said it has booked &proactive consultation sessions with relevant authorities and experts& and it will also put out a call for comment on its social media channels.

Didi is facing pressure from rival Meituan Dianping, which started out in local services but recently introduced ride-sharing services andmoved into dockless bikes with the acquisition of Mobike.

This is not the first time that Didi, which became Chinasingle-largest ride-hailing company whenit bought out Uberlocal business in 2016, has dealt with the murder of a customer. Two years ago,a woman in Shenzhen was robbed and murdered by a Didi driver.