It's Facebook Messenger Day Day! Also Didi Chuxing makes a move in Uber's home turf, but not in ride sharing. That and more in The Daily Crunch for March 9, 2017.

1. Facebook Messenger Day is not a fake holiday invented by a social network

Messenger Day is a dumb name for Facebook's newest Snapchat clone, but perhaps they're so busy meticulously aping their social networking rival they don't have time to come up with good product names.

The global launch of Messenger Day will see it added to the top of the Messenger app on iOS and Android, which lets you share photos and videos that expire after 24 hour, which you can decorate with virtual stuff. There's a feature built around making plans with friends that makes it somewhat distinct from Snapchat Stories, but it honestly doesn't seem that compelling. Still, copy hard has proven effective for FB overall.

2. Didi Chuxing opens U.S.-based AI and self-driving lab

Uber's China-based rival Didi Chuxing is launching a new U.S.-based research lab, which will operate in the Valley and work on AI and autonomous driving technology specifically. The Mountain View office will be lead by security expert Dr. Fengmin Gong, and will include Charile Miller, a security expert who comes from Uber and who will help Didi make its self-driving tech resilient to hacking.

3. Uber says it will stop monitoring regulators

Uber says it won't monitor regulators anymore after a New York Times reported exposed its practice of doing so via a program called 'Greyball' which it uses to track individuals who violate its terms of service and prevent them from being able to successfully hail rides.

4. Google also says CIA leak isn't such a big deal

Google has joined Apple in saying that the CIA leak from Wikileaks this week, which exposed a lot of methods the intelligence agency uses to hack and monitor smartphones, is NBD. Like Apple, Google says most of the flaws described have already been patched. Most – not all.

5. Tesla wants to show what real power can do

You could call it Tesla and SolarCity's big debutante ball – the merged companies launched a new solar facility in Kauai this week, which is the largest of its kind to gather power during the day and then store it until peak demand puts a strain on the existing grid, which relies on a lot of diesel fuel burning today. It's also a sales pitch, with Tesla very much saying "now let us do this for you, too."

6. Udacity does the robot

Udacity now offers a robotics nanodegree, which is a sure sign it's very in-demand among the big tech companies. It also have 21 new hiring partners, and those include major automakers and suppliers, as well as robotics concerns like iRobot.

7. Pinterest picks up some Jelly

You'd be forgiven if you'd forgotten that Jelly exists – the social Q&A startup founded by Biz Stone never really caught fire in terms of user numbers. Pinterest brought Biz Stone on board as well as co-founder Ben Finkel as part of the deal, however, so that's something.