| Amazon seeks to deliver even faster with Instant Pickup, UPS looks to VR for driver training and Trump's councils continue to shed members. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for August 15, 2017. 1. Amazon wants to cut delivery times down to mere minutes Amazon has a new model for delivery that puts it squarely in competition with traditional brick-and-mortar retail. Its new Instant Pickup Points offer pickups for orders within two minutes from when they're placed, for select impulse buy items like soda and phone chargers. The locations feature lockers for pickups, and are debuting first at select college campuses in the U.S. It's very easy to see Amazon extending this to Whole Foods locations eventually, however, and that should have brick-and-mortar retailers more than a bit unnerved. 
2. UPS will train drivers using virtual reality VR training for VR deliveries? For now at least, UPS seems to want to use its new virtual reality software to train drivers for real-world driving and delivery conditions. But in the future, when we're all plugged in 24 hours per day, they could be making virtual drop-offs of virtual goods. I realize that makes no sense. 3. Intel CEO quits Trump's manufacturing council Trump's manufacturing council is seeing quite the exodus, and Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, is the latest to go. He makes it clear that it's about deep differences of opinion on core issues, and at some point this has got to start being big trouble for the administration. 4. DJI adds offline mode to drones, basically for army ops DJI's drones will be able to use a local data-only mode to block any connections inbound or out to the internet, which is likely a way to address security concerns from the U.S. Army regarding potential vulnerabilities. DJI says it isn't, but the Army being concerned could have fallout for other customers so it's smart to get this in place. 5. Swift creator makes his way to Google Brain Swift creator Chris Lattner is at Google Brain, after a short stay at Tesla as head of Autopilot software. The iconic figure, who's behind a lot of fundamental programming firsts, will look to help Google with its AI and machine learning research. 6. Kano's kid-focused tools reviewed by its target demographic Kano says its tools are great for inspiring kids to learn to code and build technology, but what do kids actually think about its approach? Ask a kid: Ingrid Lunden's son Abel provides a first-person review from a nine-year-old's perspective. 7. Casper goes upmarket One of Casper's virtues as a mattress seller has been the simplicity of its lineup, but now Casper's offering a high-end option in the Wave, which is a softer option. One size clearly does not fit all in the mattress game, especially when you're likely targeting customer growth. | 
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