Street Fight Daily: Lyft Foresees All-Robotic Fleet by 2021, Oracle Launches Chatbot Dev Platform

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Lyft Says Robots Will Drive Most of its Cars by 2021 (Recode)
The third phase in the company’s self-driving implementation plan, to be realized in 2021 or 2022, will see all Lyft rides completed by a fully autonomous car. Shortly after that phase begins, car ownership will see a steep dropoff, according to President John Zimmer.

Oracle Launches a Chatbot Development Platform (VentureBeat)
Not surprisingly, Oracle is positioning its chatbot platform as a simple interface for enterprise applications. But the chatbots made with it can work in modern messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Kik.

How Apple’s Subtle AR Play Could Affect Local: Sights and Sounds (Street Fight)
Michael Boland: Apple just entered augmented reality, without anyone really noticing. Though the iPhone 7 was met with a collective ‘meh,’ the real impact is below the surface, where the world’s biggest company collides with tech’s biggest opportunity.

How Tech Companies Disrupted Silicon Valley’s Restaurant Scene (New York Times)
Silicon Valley technologists love to explain how they have disrupted the minutiae of daily life, from our commutes to the ways we share family photos. But along the way, they have also managed to disrupt their local restaurant industry. Business Insider: Dutch food delivery startup going public at $1B valuation

HomeAdviser CEO’s Top 7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Get Into the Home Services Market (Street Fight)
HomeAdvisor CEO Chris Terrill has been helping people find, furnish, decorate, organize and fix their homes since 2011. Before that, he helped people find mates, watch movies at home, and manage their weight. On Oct. 25th in NYC, he’ll take the stage at Street Fight Summit.

The Importance of Google-My-Business for Local SEO (MediaPost)
It’s free to set up and will enable you to appear in local search results for queries specific to your products or services, says the report. Even broad queries with large volumes are now showing local results that small business owners can capitalize upon.

AirBnB Acquires Travel Activities Marketplace trip4real (TechCrunch)
Airbnb has bought a Barcelona-based travel startup it was advising and partnering with. Trip4real offers a marketplace of experiences for tourists to browse and book ahead of time to lend their trip a little local color/flavor (via tapas tastings, paella cooking classes, barrio tours and so on).

Discounts Go a Long Way Toward Securing Customer Loyalty (eMarketer)
For the most part, US internet users would take simple actions to receive significant savings. For example, seven in 10 internet users said they would sign up for an email newsletter to receive 40% or more in savings. Additionally, more than half said they would “like” a page on for the same deal, and nearly half would fill out an online form.

Y&R CEO David Sable Explains Why Audience Targeting is Overrated (AdExchanger)
As the ad industry races to embrace mobile, social, data targeting and ad tech, Young & Rubicam (Y&R) CEO Davie Sable says it’s forgetting about the consumer. Audience targeting? Misses out on potential customers. Ad blocking? A reflection of the unchecked proliferation of ads. Sponsored content? It’s been around forever.

Brands Have Started Using Twitter’s Latest Customer Service Tools (Digiday)
Users searching for brand accounts or looking at a tweet or direct message which tags a brand can now see a “Provides Support” button that they can tap if they wish to start a conversation. The update, rolled out Thursday, is the latest step the social platform has taken to improve its customer-support functionalities for marketers in recent months.

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Joe Zappa is the Managing Editor of Street Fight. He has spearheaded the newsroom's editorial operations since 2018. Joe is an ad/martech veteran who has covered the space since 2015. You can contact him at [email protected]