The Download: China’s autonomous race, and Kiva’s controversial changes
Chinese car companies all seem fixated on one goal: launching their own autonomous navigation services in more and more cities as quickly as possible. In just the past six months, nearly a dozen Chinese car companies have announced ambitious plans to roll out Navigation on Autopilot products to multiple cities across the country.
But many of these features remain hard to access for those who don’t live in the pilot cities or own the high-end models. And the fierce competition the major players find themselves in is also having unintended side effects—confusing some customers and arguably putting other drivers at risk. Read the full story.
—Zeyi Yang
What happened to the microfinance organization Kiva?
Since it was founded in 2005, the San Francisco-based nonprofit Kiva has helped everyday people make microloans to borrowers around the world. It connects lenders in richer communities to fund all sorts of entrepreneurs, from bakers in Mexico to farmers in Albania. Its overarching aim is helping poor people help themselves.
But back in August 2021, Kiva lenders started to notice that information that felt essential in deciding who to lend to was suddenly harder to find. Now, lenders are worried that the organization now seems more focused on how to make money than how to create change. Read the full story.
—Mara Kardas-Nelson
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