Autonomous-driving company Pony.ai and Toyota say they’re teaming up with the goal of one day cranking out a bunch of fully driverless robotaxis.
The two companies intend to kick off their partnership sometime this year with around $139 million in capital from GAC Toyota Motor Co. — a joint venture between Toyota China and GAC, a Chinese state-owned automaker.
The investment follows Toyota’s move to pump about $400 million into Pony back in 2020.
Toyota says it’ll give Pony an unspecified number of its EVs, while Pony will outfit them with autonomous-driving tech and the firm’s robotaxi network platform.

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Poland-based spyware LetMeSpy is no longer operational and said it will shut down after a June data breach wiped out its servers, including its huge trove of data stolen from thousands of victims’ phones.
LetMeSpy confirmed the “permanent shutdown” of the spyware service and that it would cease operations by the end of August.
The notice said LetMeSpy is blocking users from logging in or signing up with new accounts.
LetMeSpy’s app no longer functions, and the spyware maker’s website no longer provides the spyware app for download.

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The government has shut down Senegal’s internet again after an internet shutdown in June and the awarding of a 5G licence two weeks ago, following Friday’s arrest of opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko.
The minister of Communications, telecommunications, and Digital Economy, Moussa Bocar Thiam, shared on Twitter, that telephone operators were required to comply with the shutdown. Moussa Bocar Thiam says due to the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages relayed on social media in a context of disturbance to public order, the internet’s mobile data is temporarily suspended during certain time slots from Monday, July 31, 2023.

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The Commission again reiterates that the activities of Binance, and any such other platform through which the Company solicits investors is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal.
The Commission says any member of the investing public dealing with the entity, making such solicitation is doing so at his/her own risk.
The Commission hereby warns the public that investing in crypto-assets has a high level of risk and may result in total loss of investments.
The Commission therefore urges the investing public to be wary of investing in crypto- assets and other products offered or operated by entities not registered or regulated by the Commission.

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The Kenya government has suspended WorldCoin in Kenya after thousands of people joined long queues to scan their irises in exchange for a $54 token.
The Kenyan government has suspended the operations of WorldCoin, a blockchain product co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
WorldCoin also operates a crypto wallet called World App and recently began onboarding Kenyans onto its platform.
Kithure Kindiki, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for Interior and National Coordination says the Government has suspended forthwith, activities of ‘WorldCoin’ and any other entity that may be similarly engaging the people of Kenya until relevant public agencies

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South Africa’s streaming service platform is getting bigger and the South African government is considering licensing these platforms.
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies released a white paper that seeks to create broader regulations for streaming services in the country.
The country became the first African country to get Disney+ and one of the few African countries in Uganda where AppleTV is available.
This proliferation means that local streaming services like MultiChoice or eTV have seen their subscribers decline in recent times.
While local streaming services face regulatory hurdles to operate in the country, international services have been exempted from obtaining a licence in the country.

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President Bola Tinubu announced ₦75 billion to fund 75 enterprises in the manufacturing sector. ₦125 billion has also been earmarked to support micro and small businesses.
President Bola Tinubu has announced a plan to support small businesses and startups in Nigeria in response to the country’s current economic challenges. In a nationwide broadcast on Monday evening.
Tinubu disclosed that his government intends to spend N75 billion between July 2023 and March 2024 to strengthen the manufacturing sector.
According to the president, the fund will support 75 enterprises, each accessing “N1 billion credit at 9% per annum with a maximum of 60 months repayment for long-term loans and 12 months for working capital”. However, how this policy will be implemented wasn’t stated.

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Walmart paid $1.4 billion to buy out Tiger Global’s remaining holding of Flipkart shares as the retail giant further expands its stake in the Indian e-commerce startup.
The transaction took place in recent days and Tiger Global, which has cashed most of its Flipkart shares earlier, overall made a gain of $3.5 billion on an investment of $1.2 billion.
Flipkart is the only Indian startup in which Tiger Global has invested more than $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The U.S. investment giant, one of the earliest investors in Flipkart, has poured over $6 billion into Indian startups altogether.
Tiger Global’s investment in Flipkart supercharged the Indian startup community and put the South Asian nation’s ecosystem on the world map

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Worldcoin, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s bid to sew up the market for verifying humanness by convincing enough mobile meatsacks to have their eyeballs scanned in exchange for crypto tokens only started its official global rollout this week but it’s already landed on the radar of European data protection authorities.
Pop-up locations where willing humans can get some Worldcoin “digital tokens” in exchange for feeding their biometric data into its proprietary Half-Life-esque orbs have sprung up in four markets in Europe so far: The U.K., France, Germany and Spain.
Privacy regulators in at least three of those markets are already expressing concerns and/or actively investigating what Worldcoin is doing with Europe’s sensitive personal data.
The ICO’s remarks also emphasized the need for a clear lawful basis to process personal data.

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The Namibian government has begun the process of setting up a regulatory authority to oversee the virtual asset industry, acting on the provisions of one of the major mandates of the newly passed law.
The authority will be responsible for licensing virtual asset service providers and overseeing, supervising, and monitoring activities related to the provision of virtual asset services.
Individuals or entities engaging in virtual asset services without proper registration with the regulatory authority may face penalties of up to N$10 million in fines, imprisonment for a maximum period of 10 years, or both.
The country’s central bank, the Bank of Namibia warns the public that because virtual assets like cryptocurrencies are not legal tender, people who transact with them do so at their own risk.

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