The Daily Crunch 08/24/16

Tesla's upgrading the Model S so that it's faster driving than in free fall, the nobody-gets-it encryption debate continues abroad and I'm genuinely not sure how many actual days are contained within Y Combinator's Demo "Day." All that and more in The Daily Crunch for August 24, 2016. And for the record, I like eggs just fine – just not generally the flying kind.

1. Tesla turns it up to 11

Tesla dropped some product news yesterday, and it's all about going fast. There's a new trim option for the Tesla Model S and Model X, the P100D, which adds Tesla's biggest ever battery at 100kWh, which provides 315 miles of max range based on EPA standards. Buying it for the added range is boring though – get it for the crazy speed, including a 2.5 second 0-60 mph time, which makes it one of the fastest production cars off the blocks ever. Tesla's calling it the speediest production car of all time because of its combined stats, which, believe it or not, makes it a relative steal at $135K.

2. Europe's turn for an encryption fight

The U.S. witnessed its own public fight over the value of encryption thanks to the legal proceedings around the San Bernardino shootings, which involved the FBI trying to force Apple to decrypt an iPhone and essentially provide it the keys to do so in the future. That ended up going away, but France and Germany are looking to push through their own law effectively outlawing end-to-end encryption, which is a terrible idea, even if put forward as something integral to the noble goal of fighting terrorism.

3. White House puts the focus on LGBTQ in tech and innovation

The White House held its third annual LGBT Tech and Innovation Briefing to a group of 300 attendees that included engineers from Google, Tesla, Hulu and more Silicon Valley all-star companies. United States CTO Megan Smith kicked things off, followed by a general solicitation for feedback and breakout sessions on how the White House could be doing better on LGBTQ community issues.

4. Under the hood at Hyperloop

The Hyperloop, a super-fast transport system that shoots passenger capsules around in low-pressure tubes, isn't yet a real thing, but it's also far from vaporware according to an inside look at Hyperloop courtesy of TC's Sarah Buhr and our excellent video team. Construction is in progress, and Hyperloop seems optimistic about their chances of moving closer to the next big step –passenger tests. That could happen "as early as" 2020 with tests running where people are inside.

5. All 48 startups at YC S16 Demo Day 2

The increasingly inaccurately named YC Demo Day extended into day 2 yesterday, and that means more startups! 48 more, to be exact. Which is so very many. Luckily, Josh, John and Matthew were in attendance, and they make parsing the class a breeze with neat summaries of each. One to watch in particular: Revio, an audience management tool for game live streamers that's probably going to get picked up by YouTube, Facebook or Twitch pretty quick. Or Microsoft. Wow, so many people want in on that game stream action it's hard to keep track.

6. Leap Motion jumps forward on tech to bring your hands into VR

I was talking to a friend who works in VR the other day about how the word "immersion" gets misused a lot, since what we have now is barely immersive at all. One reason? You can't really use your dang hands. Leap Motion has done a good job taking on the mantle of the company making that happen in VR, after a somewhat bungled launch as a gesture input device for regular old boring PCs. Now, it's launching a beta version of its interaction engine, a component that should make it a lot easier for developers to start including real-world hand physics in their software. Let's call it "semi-immersive."

7. You have $1,300 – do you buy a super cool fixed wing drone or a flying egg?

I mean, I know what I'd answer, but really, it could be a tough choice between PowerVision's weirdo rugby ball-shaped drone, which is actually called the "PowerEgg" and has a 4K camera built in – vs. Parrot's Disco, a fixed wing consumer drone built on the platform it previously used for agricultural flying bots. The fixed wing thing can go 50 mph, and has a battery life of 45 minutes (longer since it doesn't need to power four rotors and can use the wind). But maybe you're an egg person.