| Google and Uber start their court proceedings, Uber's self-driving program experiences fits and starts, and Instagram's underbelly sees some daylight. That and more in The Daily Crunch for March 17, 2017. 1. Google and Uber trade legal barbs Google and Uber have begun their in-court battle over self-driving tech. Google's Waymo says that Uber stole its confidential intellectual property around LiDAR specifically, which is a key ingredient in tis self-driving mix. That happened when Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski left Waymo, Google contends. In their first days in court, the two argued over whether Uber's lawyers should be allowed to see Google secrets, and whether this isn't a matter that Google and Levandowski should settle via arbitration, rather than in court. 
2. Meanwhile Uber's self-driving start has a lot of stops Leaked documents show that Uber's self-driving fleet stops a lot – much more than rival Waymo's vehicles. On average, they require a person to take over at least once per mile driven, which is not a great disengagement rate. Yet another sign our self-driving future is still way, way off. 3. Instagram plays host to latest Marine photo scandal The Marine Corps are facing a snowballing scandal involving the posting of photos of service members, typically women, without their permission. The latest venue is Instagram, which just shut down a group called Just The Tip of the Spear. Internet: Still awful. 4. Netflix heaves stars for thumbs Rating something 1 to 5 is too much choice, Netflix thinks – it has tested just using a thumbs up or thumbs down rating system, and that doubled the number of ratings given. Twice the ratings! Less than half the value. But you do you Netflix. 5. Tesla raises $1.2 billion to pad its balance sheet Tesla said it had enough cash to finish out Model 3 production preparations without bringing in fresh money, but it didn't want to risk it, so it raised $1.2 billion. The demand for Model 3 can forgive a lot of sins, however, including the need to raise via stock sale and convertible debt. 6. Nintendo is looking to produce more Switches The Switch is probably my favorite gadget of 2017, and it'll be hard to knock it off that perch. But many don't yet have the console, because it's sold out all over the place. Nintendo didn't anticipate demand this strong, and is looking to possibly double production. GameStop also revealed it's getting some soon, in case you want to harass your local store. 7. BMW is aiming for the top of the self-driving food chain Level 5 is the highest classification of autonomous vehicle tech, and it basically means a car can handle anything you can throw at it in self-driving mode. Most automakers are aiming for Level 3 or Level 4 at launch of their self-driving products, but BMW wants to high Level 5 right away with its first shipping autonomous car in 2021. | 
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