The Daily Crunch 09/12/16

Musk gives Autopilot a new way of thinking, funding focuses on fridges and printer business is big business. All this and more in The Daily Crunch for September 12, 2016. And if you're a founder, hope you're part of Google's Project Sand Hill.

1. Tesla trusts radar to help avoid accidents like the fatal Model S crash

On Sunday, Elon Musk finally revealed details of the Autopilot 8.0 update rolling out in the next couple of weeks to 2014 and newer Tesla vehicles. The update will use existing radar hardware to detect dense objects, and they don't at all depend on the cameras to do so, which should mean braking for things that are hard for even human drivers to spot. Musk sounded somewhat emotional unveiling the news via a press conference, but if it does what it claims, there's good reason for him to be.

2. LinkedIn targets India with a Lite mobile version

LinkedIn is doing its best to expand its global appeal, and to do that, it's working on its product-market fit. The professional network, now owned by Microsoft, showed off three new products in India today, including a resource-light version of LinkedIn itself, as well as LinkedIn Placements, a skill test for job seekers, and a starter pack which includes growth tools to help businesses grow on the platform.

3. HP wants all the printers

In the post-paper era, HP wants to be the king of the old world. The company has acquired Samsung's printer unit, in a deal worth $1.05 billion. The acquisition is designed to "disrupt" the stodgy printer biz, according to HP, which seems like a description that is a tough fit for one legacy dinosaur buying another.

4. Refrigeration innovation

What was the last big advancement in refrigeration tech? That it existed to begin with? I honestly have no idea, but Phononic, a California startup, just raised $30 million to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of refrigeration systems. Again, not understanding this in the slightest, I think the biggest risk here is that they accidentally invent Ice-nine and freeze the oceans of the world.

5. Michelle Obama calls for girl-built education tools

First lady Michelle Obama is asking girls between the ages of 15 and 17 to build new tech that will help enable access to education for girls like themselves. The project, called Let Girls Build, ended in a pitch day at Twitter HQ recently.

6. G'day, $250 million Australian VC fund

AirTree Ventures just revealed the biggest fund ever raised in Australia's VC history. The $250 million fund will be dedicated half to early-stage, and half to opportunity investments. It's not all necessarily earmarked for Australian companies, but it's still going to be good for the startup scene down under.

7. Startups: Google is tracking you

Google has a tool to help it identify early-stage "rocket" startups, at home in the U.S. and abroad, before they hit the big time, and then help them build Android apps and use Google services in their products. For Google, it's probably also a nice pipeline for acquisition targets. And it was all built during an engineer's 20 percent time originally, before becoming an actual going concern.