The competition between voice assistants is moving into connected cars, James Damore takes on Google and Kate Spade unveils some smartwatches. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for January 9, 2018.

1. Amazon and Google bring their voice assistants into cars

There's been a lot of talk about this year's Consumer Electronics Show being all about the battle between Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Both companies had car-related announcements yesterday, with Google bringing Assistant into Android Auto and Anker putting Alexa into cars with the Roar Viva.

The Google announcement may be a bit confusing, since Android Auto already had a voice assistant, but that was the old-school Google Now technology, not the newer Android Assistant. The company says it will also enable Assistant-based drink orders from Starbucks and parking space reservations through SpotHero.

2. James Damore just filed a class action lawsuit against Google, saying it discriminates against white male conservatives

The lawsuit, filed by Dhillon Law Group, says it aims to represent all employees of Google who've been discriminated against due to their "perceived conservative political views by Google," due to "their male gender by Google" and "due to their Caucasian race by Google."

3. Intel shows off its new Loihi AI chip and a new 49-qubit quantum chip

The company announced that Loihi, its first "neuromorphic" chip — designed to mimic the way that a human brain learns and understands — is now "fully functioning" and will be shared with research partners this year.

4. Kate Spade gets into the smartwatch game

These watches are being launched in partnership with Fossil and are part of a larger push by Fossil Group to launch smartwatches across as many brands as possible.

5. August Access, an in-home delivery service first tested with Walmart, opens to all retailers

August Home, the smart lock startup that was acquired by lock giant Assa Abloy in October last year, is stepping up its delivery game. At CES, the company announced a service it's calling August Access, where retailers can work with August and its partner Deliv to open your front door and bring packages directly into your home when you are not there, if you use a smart lock from August, Emtek or Yale.

6. SpaceX says its rocket performed exactly as intended in Zuma launch

This follows reports from Monday that the Zuma spacecraft, a mystery payload SpaceX launched for client Northrop Grumman on behalf of the U.S. Government, was lost seemingly during the second stage separation process.

7. Europe keeps up the pressure on social media over illegal content takedowns

Currently there is a voluntary Code of Conduct on countering illegal online hate speech across the European Union. But the Commission has previously indicated it could seek to legislate if it feels companies aren't doing enough.