Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Wednesday, June 26, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, the rumors were right. Apple has bought Drive AI. The days of the phone notch might be numbered, the first

solar-powered electric car is here. Fighting over the streaming rights for the office and why

streaming music hasn't exactly been kind to classical music.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

Apple announced that it has indeed acquired autonomous driving startup Drive AI, hiring

dozens of Drive AI engineers and, per sources, actually taking over the operation of Drive AI's existing autonomous vehicles.

Quoting Axios, the purchase price was not disclosed.

Apple was expected to pay less than the $77 million drive AI raised in venture capital to say nothing of the $200 million it was valued at two years ago after its series B round.

Aixios' Dan Dan Primac reported recently.

Drive AI's Highlighter Orange Vans,

ferried workers around a business park in Frisco, Texas,

and shuttled fans in nearby Arlington to Cowboys games.

Drive AI is laying off 90 workers in California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported,

and the company employed many more in Texas." End quote.

Apparently several different companies were interested in acquiring the assets of Drive AI,

which was on the verge of a bankruptcy filing.

As we said before about this, this is likely, largely an aquahire on Apple's part to scoop up that engineering talent. Drive AI was one of the first AV startups on the AV scene.

But also, look, what can I tell you?

This is noteworthy because it seems to suggest, again, that Apple hasn't given up on autonomous vehicles

yet.

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai Shanghai, phone maker Apo has demoed the world's first under the screen

...