Daily Pulse: The Unstoppable iPhone, Google Humanizes Self-Driving Cars, The Search for Water on Mars

iPhone Juggernaut: Apple sold a record number of first-weekend iPhones — 13 million — with the 6S. That easily topped the 10 million mark for the debut of the iPhone 6 last year. There is one biggish caveat: This year China was in on the initial action for the first time. But the important thing about this record isn’t comps but how many units Apple is moving. For perspective, it took Apple "just" (!) 74 days to sell one (1) million of the original iPhone back in 2007. So congrats, Apple! BTW, how many Apple Watches have you sold? We’ll hold.

***

Water, Water, ‘Everywhere’: Scientists published what they called “smoking gun” proof that water exists in liquid form on the surface of Mars. Said water hasn’t actually be observed, but a theory that it does flow (like teardrops, not a gusher) has now been validated by “concrete, mineralogical evidence.” In theory this means that Mars can support life — "including human life, if Earthlings ever figure out how to colonize the place," writes Chelsea Leu in Wired. Although we’ve known about subterranean Mars ice we don’t know yet where this surface H20 is coming from. But we can now tailor the Rover’s 2020 itinerary to check out hot prospects. Now, if they can only discover water in California.

***

Gone, but Not Forgotten: Disgraced former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn now faces a criminal investigation in Germany over “allegations of fraud in the sale of cars with manipulated emissions data.” In a way, this was inevitable: Under German law anyone can file a criminal complaint, and prosecutors are obliged to vet them for a possible formal investigation. Prosecutors in Braunschweig, near VW's Wolfsburg headquarters, have received about a dozen such requests.

***

I am Spock: How do you improve a car driven by a computer? Make it more ... human. That's the theory Google is employing as it tweaks its self-driving cars to "drive like people, by cutting corners, edging into intersections and crossing double-yellow lines," report Alistair Barr and Mike Ramsey for The Wall Street Journal. It's not crazy. Google has reported 16 minor accidents since 2009, and in 12 their cars were rear-ended because — the theory goes — they were too ready to brake to avoid "real, but marginal, risks." Unless they dumb them down, Google autonomous cars will probably never get through a four-way stop ...

#Quote

“Why is it getting rear-ended? It drives like a computer”

— Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Google autonomous car supplier Nvidia

*** 

The Corporate Two-Step: Alcoa announced it will split into two publicly-traded companies. This is all the rage: Hewlett Packard did it, and PayPal and Ebay got an amicable divorce. As Business Insider’s Nick Carey explains, this is acknowledgement that Alcoa’s “legacy aluminum operations and higher-value and automotive businesses were diverging and no longer compatible.”

***

Big Defeat for Big Oil: Shell has stoppedAlaskan Arctic drilling in the face of what it has privately admitted was a surprising degree of popular opposition. Helping ease the retreat is the reality that oil and gas discovery has been marginal and a desire by CEO Ben van Beurden not to undermine “his attempts to influence the debate around how to tackle climate change.”

*****

What you may have missed — and simply must read:

• "Dude! You're a woman!" What it's like being a female product manager. By Merci Victoria Grace, Product Management Lead, Slack
• Sure, failure can be a good thing—but Volkswagen's latest shows not all failures are equal. By Joel Peterson, Chairman, JetBlue Airways
• The Clinton Global Initiative's program director gives us an inside look at #CGI2015. By Alexandra Amouyel
• And, finally, this heartening entrepreneurial tale from Drizly CEO Nicholas Rellas: 'Why I Started An Alcohol Delivery Company In A City With No Happy Hours'

*****  

• Missed the last update? Check out 'White Collar Criminals Beware, Why Brazil is Junk, Income Inequality Worries Even Harvard Elite'
• Twice a day we share the news professionals need to know. Never miss one again: Download the Pulse app.

Cover Art: Waiting for Apple's Tokyo Ginza store to open on September 25, 2015 in Tokyo (Photo by Ken Ishii/Getty Images)