Axios

Advanced Farm Technologies, a California developer of strawberry-harvesting robots, today announced $7.5 million in venture capital funding led by Yamaha Motor Ventures & Lab.

Why it matters: Automation is the future of fields, particularly as immigration crackdowns and an array of socio-economic factors have made it much harder for farms to find seasonal workers.

Some motorists are turning off driver safety systems because the technologies are "annoying or bothersome," a J.D. Power consumer study found.

Why it matters: Consumers who disable driver-assistance features are depriving themselves of the safety benefits of the technology, potentially putting themselves and others at risk. Their criticism could also be a red flag for consumer acceptance of self-driving vehicles, writes CNBC.

Tuesday's indictment of former Uber executive Anthony Levandowski for allegedly stealing trade secrets when he worked at Google puts his latest self-driving technology company, Pronto.ai, in a tough spot.

The big picture: The San Francisco-based startup, believed to be funded mostly by Levandowski himself, has been working on aftermarket kits to outfit heavy-duty trucks with driver-assistance technology.

Apple on Wednesday apologized for how it handled the audio files when customers accessed its Siri assistant, and announced a series of changes aimed at better safeguarding customer privacy.

Why it matters: In recent weeks it has come to light that several of the major tech companies, including Apple, Google and Amazon, had been letting workers access a portion of virtual assistant conversations as part of their efforts to assess and improve quality.

Smartphone sales continued their decline in the second quarter, dropping 1.7% from a year earlier, with demand for high-end phones dropping the most.

Why it matters: The data, from Gartner, suggests a tough environment as Apple, Google and Samsung all are set to introduce new high-end phones to the market. Samsung just launched its Galaxy Note 10, with Google set to introduce the Pixel 4 and Apple expected to debut a new crop of iPhones in the coming weeks.

For all the concern over the patchwork of regulations governing AVs from state to state, a similar issue has been largely ignored: idiosyncratic road rules that vary not only state to state but also city to city.

Why it matters: Human drivers in an unfamiliar city will use their knowledge of familiar road rules to determine whether a right turn on red is allowed, for example. AV developers face a much bigger challenge: how to program self-driving software to ensure compliance when the rules of the road vary from one place to another.

Aiming to make its signature bricks more accessible, Lego is testing the use of AI to translate its building instructions into spoken commands and braille so that blind users can get in on the fun.

The intrigue: The idea came from Matthew Shifrin, an expert Lego builder who was born blind. Matthew had a friend, Lilya, who would translate all of the Lego instructions from graphical steps into braille text.

As political ad spending for 2020 ramps up, Facebook is tightening its rules to make sure that groups running political or issue ads are legitimate and aren't gaming the system.

Why it matters: With some high-profile examples of such evasion already emerging, the changes will make it harder for groups to dodge Facebook's political advertising review program.

Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski was charged on Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California on 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Levandowski’s actions became well known during the now-settled civil case between Uber and Alphabet, but the criminal charges represent a new wrinkle.