Uber's self-driving truck tech gets an update amid its various crises, Google tries some experimental VR advertising and Echo Dot suggests cheap and easy is the key to the smart speaker market.

1. Uber's autonomous trucking program rolls on

Uber may be in the middle of a lawsuit regarding its acquisition of Otto, the autonomous trucking startup founded by a former Google self-driving car engineer, but it's still pushing forward on self-driving truck tech. The company just started deploying its second-generation autonomous truck tech stack on test vehicles.

The new tech includes an advanced spinning LiDAR unit – but not one developed in-house, which is the subject being debated by the courts right now. This is an off-the-shelf unit, likely Velodyne's top-of-the-line spinning array. Uber ATG also took all the Otto branding off the trucks, which makes sense since Uber retired the name last month.

2. Meanwhile, Uber says no knowledge of Waymo data theft

That court case isn't going away, however; Uber and Waymo are still trading filings in the matter, and the most recent is a filing from Uber that claims it wasn't aware of any data theft by Levandowski or others prior to the lawsuit being filed.

3. Google's VR advertising project is probably premature

I remain very skeptical about the potential of VR in the near-term, but it's probably still smart for companies like Google to put down a big bet on advertising in the new medium. Even just as a hedge, something like its Advr project makes a lot of sense.

4. Amazon's Echo Dot leads the way on smart speakers

This is potentially bad news for Apple's forthcoming HomePod: Adobe data shows the Amazon Echo Dot leading the way for smart speaker sales. Overall the market isn't huge, but it seems like consumers are favoring affordability over sound quality, which is the exact opposite bet Apple is making with its product, set to launch this coming December.

5. Microsoft buys Cloudyn

Microsoft has officially announced its acquisition of Israel's Cloudyn, a company that unifies management of cloud billing across multiple accounts. TechCrunch first reported the deal was going down in April.

6. Instagram is fighting trolls with AI

Comment sections are generally swamps (that's why I like doing a newsletter). Instagram wants to help preserve its reputation as one of the nicer corners of the Internet by fighting hurtful, mean or harassing comments with an AI system that will automatically remove them (without telling the original poster).

7. Binary Capital sued by ex-employee

Binary Capital, which is now all but defunct after a series of steppings down and resignations following revelations around partner Justin Caldbeck's bad behavior, is now also being sued. The suit, from a former employee, alleges that the firm harbored a "sexist and sexual" working environment.