Amazon spawns a Hunger Games of North American cities, Lyft gets to driving itself and SpaceX puts a secret spaceplane in space. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for September 7, 2017.

1. Amazon seeks a second home

Amazon is looking to build a second HQ somewhere in North America, and it's basically opening the door wide to suggestions. This should help it get cities to compete for its favors with heavy incentives.

This could become a very interesting case of one-upmanship on par with Olympic host city competitions, and will likely result in at least a few very entertaining marketing campaigns. Here's hoping for some stunts, prepare for the thirst.

2. Lyft is launching a self-driving ride-hailing pilot in SF

Lyft will launch a new ride-hailing pilot in partnership with Drive.ai in the Bay Area, to start later this year. It'll be very limited at first, but the hope is it paves the way for eventual nationwide expansion.

3. SpaceX launches its first military spaceplane

SpaceX has launched the X-37B, a U.S. Air Force experimental spaceplane made by Boeing. This is the first time the X-37B has been launched by anyone other than United Launch Alliance, so it adds another big launch capability and repeat client to SpaceX's roster.

4. Atlassian launches a Slack competitor

Enterprise collaboration software firm Atlassian has launched Stride, its take on a Slack-style chat platform with supposedly better features and a lower price. Also, in case you're going to call it a Slack clone: Slack was a HipChat clone in a lot of ways, and that's an Atlassian product.

5. Spotify and Hulu team up on discount entertainment bundle

Spotify and Hulu are joining forces to hook the kids early with a student plan for U.S. college attendees that will cost $4.99 per month and include both Spotify Premium and Hulu's commercial-light streaming TV plan. Wise union.

6. New battery tech is pressing the investor lever

Battery technology is garnering investment at a growing pace, according to recent stats. But that doesn't mean big battery breakthroughs are on the horizon – like the medical VC froth, I'd watch out for this one as a potential misleading indicator of value.

7. Jaguar wants the next car you own to be a talking steering wheel

That sounds like it doesn't make sense but it does make sense, honest. Just click through and find out, I can't explain here.