Tag: shutting
Larry Page’s flying car startup Kitty Hawk is shutting down
Kitty Hawk, the ambitious “flying car” startup funded by Google co-founder Larry Page, is winding down, which the company confirmed in a brief post on LinkedIn earlier today.
According to a report from Insider, sources inside the company said Kitty Hawk had already shut down work on the 100-mile-capable Heaviside vehicle. Insider also reports that Page had become increasingly hands-off from the company but said he was more closely involved with its shift to research and development after the end of the Heaviside project.
Although Kitty Hawk is shuttering development of its own aircraft, at least one project will live on in its joint venture company with Boeing: Wisk Aero. “Today’s news does not impact Wisk. We remain in a strong…
Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk air taxi startup is shutting down
After more than a decade of trying to make flying cars a reality, Kitty Hawk is shutting down. “We’re still working on the details of what’s next,” the Larry Page-backed startup posted to LinkedIn on Wednesday afternoon. Before today’s announcement, the last time we heard from Kitty Hawk was in the spring of 2021 when it came out the company had parted ways with engineer Damon Vander Lind following “months” of infighting with Page and CEO Sebastian Thrun. Almost exactly a year earlier, the company canceled its original Flyer project and laid off most of the 70-person team that had worked on the aircraft.
It’s unclear why Kitty Hawk decided to call it quits, but comments Thrun made after the company ended development on Flyer may provide a clue. “No matter how hard we looked, we could not find a path to a viable business,” the chief executive said at the time. After Vander Lind’s departure the following year, it appeared Kitty Hawk was ready to double down on its Heavyside vertical take-off and landing aircraft. It acquired 3D Robotics and brought on the company’s co-founder, former Wired editor Chris Anderson, as chief operating officer.
Despite the demise of Kitty Hawk, this probably isn’t the last we’ll hear of Larry Page’s flying car ambitions. According to CNBC, Wednesday’s shutdown won’t affect Wisk Aero, the company that was borne out of a 2019 partnership between Kitty Hawk and Boeing.
“Kitty Hawk’s decision to cease operations does not change Boeing’s commitment to Wisk. We are proud to be a founding member of Wisk Aero and are excited to see the work they are doing to drive innovation and sustainability through the future of electric air travel,” Boeing told the outlet. “We do not expect Kitty Hawk’s announcement to affect Wisk’s operations or other activities in any way.”
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Babylon’s Fall is shutting down in February 2023, just before its first birthday
Troubled live-service action RPG Babylon’s Fall will close its doors on February 28th 2023, Square Enix and developers Platinum Games have revealed today. The game had struggled to make an impact since its launch on March 3rd earlier this year, with concurrent player counts dropping to zero at times. It hadn’t looked good from the early days when, as we pointed out, Platinum Games were tweeting statements that Babylon’s Fall’s wasn’t “in danger” just two weeks following its launch.
Despite promising that servers won’t shutdown, Babylon’s Fall is, in fact, shutting servers down
PlatinumGames has announced this morning that development will not continue on Babylon’s Fall, and that the game’s live services are being terminated. This also means, given that Babylon’s Fall is an online-only game, that no one will be able to play it once servers are shutdown.
The developer announced February 27, 2023 as the last day anyone will be able to play the online action RPG, meaning Babylon’s Fall will have lasted less than a year since its release in March this year.
“With the desire of delivering an exhilarating online multiplayer action RPG set in an elaborate high fantasy world, we launched the game’s official service on Thursday, March 3, 2022, and have continued to undertake additional development and operations,” said PlatinumGames in an official statement.
The first US video game studio to unionize is shutting down
The first video game studio in the US to unionize is shutting down. On Wednesday, Beast Breaker developer Vodeo Games announced it had failed to secure funding to produce an additional release beyond its debut title. “Despite a year of avid efforts, we’ve been unable to secure funding for our next project from publishers and investors,” Vodeo Games said in a tweet spotted by Polygon. “As such, we’ve run out of funds and aren’t able to keep the team together — and there simply is no Vodeo without our incredible team.”
An announcement. pic.twitter.com/qGxD6iEu8g
— Vodeo Games (@VodeoGames) September 7, 2022
Vodeo Games was founded in 2021 by Threes! designer Asher Vollmer. The studio released its first game that same year. According to Vodeo’s website, it had been working on a new project before today’s announcement. The studio will complete work on the Steam version of Beast Breaker before closing shop.
At the end of last year, Vodeo’s all-remote team of 13 successfully unionized with Code-CWA, the Communication Workers of America’s Campaign to Organize Digital Employees. Despite the management of Vodeo Games recognizing the studio’s union, the two sides never came to a bargaining agreement. According to Vodeo Workers United, negotiations came to an end when it became apparent the studio could not secure additional funding. The group said it would share what it learned with other industry workers to help them organize their workplaces.
Vodeo Games has announced that it has closed its doors. Vodeo Workers United (CODE-CWA) were in the process of collective bargaining but had not yet reached an agreement when it became clear the studio was no longer financially viable. Therefore we decided to halt bargaining.
— Vodeo Workers United (@vodeoworkers) September 7, 2022
Since workers at Vodeo unionized, employees at other studios have attempted to follow suit. Most notably, there’s the QA division at Activision’s Raven Software, which voted in May to form the Game Workers Alliance. More recently, quality assurance staff at Blizzard Albany, formerly Vicarious Visions, filed for a union election.
Amazon is shutting down its telehealth service
Amazon plans to discontinue its Care telehealth service by the end of the year, reports The Washington Post. The company reportedly told employees of the decision during a meeting on Wednesday. It’s expected “dozens” of employees will lose their jobs as a result.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. “This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration,” Amazon senior vice president of health Neil Lindsay told employees in a memo the company shared with The Post. “Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term.”
Amazon’s decision to shutter the service is surprising given that the company only last year announced it was expanding its availability to more workers and companies across the US. What’s more, Amazon CEO Adam Jassy highlighted Amazon Care in his 2021 letter to shareholders, citing the platform as an example of the “type of iterative innovation” that was driving the next chapter of the company. More recently, the company struck a deal to buy healthcare provider One Medical for $3.9 billion.
Uber is shutting down its free rewards program this fall
Uber is discontinuing its free loyalty program. On a support page spotted by The Verge, the company said it would shut down Uber Rewards on November 1st. Users have until the end of August to earn points, with the final day to redeem rewards falling on October 31st.
Announced in 2018, Uber Rewards gave customers the opportunity to earn points on every Uber and Uber Eats transaction. The program has four membership levels, with members unlocking new perks at each stage. Platinum level, for instance, includes protection against price surging and priority pick-ups at airports. Uber won’t offer a direct replacement for Uber Rewards. Instead, the company plans to promote its paid Uber One membership program. The $10 per month service comes with perks like free Uber Eats deliveries and five percent off rides from top-rated Uber drivers.
“Thank you for being part of Uber Rewards,” the company said in email about the shutdown. “It’s been a great ride, but we’ve decided to end Rewards soon, as we shift our focus to our new Uber One membership program.” Uber will give existing Rewards users a free one-month trial to Uber One. Once that period is over, you’ll need to subscribe if you want keep the benefits associated with the program.
Uber is shutting down its free loyalty program later this year
Uber is ending its free loyalty program, Uber Rewards, so it can turn its attention to its subscription-based Uber One membership. In an email sent to customers, Uber explains that users can still earn points until the end of August, and that the last day to redeem points is October 31st.
“Thank you for being part of Uber Rewards,” the email reads. “It’s been a great ride, but we’ve decided to end Rewards soon, as we shift our focus to our new Uber One membership program.”
Uber has since posted an update about the loyalty program’s imminent shutdown, which will take place on November 1st, 2022. Launched in 2018, Uber Rewards is a free…