This company created a $25,000 RV travel trailer designed to be towed by an EV like a Tesla

<p><em>Hello, and welcome to this Wednesday's edition of the Insider Tech newsletter, where we break down the biggest news in tech. I'm your host Alexei Oreskovic.</em></p><h4><a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-tech">Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Get Insider Tech straight in your inbox by subscribing here.</a></h4><p><em><strong>Soundtrack:</strong> This week's newsletter has been specially designed to be consumed while listening to<a href="https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=J0J-TaqkTLs&amp;list=RDAMVMJ0J-TaqkTLskTLs">"Ring the Alarm" by Tenor Saw.</a></em></p><hr /><h2>This week: Silicon Valley is freaking out over audio tech</h2><p>If you needed any more proof that 2021 is the year of audio, have a listen to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-audio-mars-surface-2021-2">NASA's latest release</a>, direct from Mars' Jezero Crater! <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-audio-mars-surface-2021-2">The 60-second audio clip</a>, captured by the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-audio-mars-surface-2021-2">Perseverance Rover</a>, is the first-ever recording of sounds from the surface of another planet. The sound is basically just Martian wind (what did you expect to hear?), but <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-mars-perseverance-rover-provides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio">it's a pretty amazing thing to hear</a>. </p><p>Closer to Earth, audio tech is booming.</p><p><strong>Streaming music company <keyword id="685487" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Spotify">Spotify</keyword></strong> held <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-podcasts-advertising-hifi-audio-stream-on-event-announcements-2021-2">a big presser Monday</a> to unveil a bunch of new bells and whistles for its audio "creators."</p><ul><li><strong>These include new tools for </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-podcasts-advertising-hifi-audio-stream-on-event-announcements-2021-2"><strong>podcasters</strong> to integrate polls and other interactive elements</a> into their programs, and features for musicians to personalize their Spotify offerings. Also in the works is a new Spotify audio marketplace to let advertisers access different listening audiences, from podcast lovers to metalheads.</li><li><strong>Sadly,</strong> as far as I can tell, there was no update on the Spotify product I'm most excited for: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-car-thing-photos-details-user-manual-2020-1">Car Thing, the hardware audio player</a> which appears to be back from the dead and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/14/22231876/spotify-car-thing-fcc-design-screen-pictures-photos">potentially nearing a commercial rollout</a>.</li></ul><p><strong>Unless you've been living on Mars, you've probably heard of <keyword id="1293839" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="clubhouse">Clubhouse</keyword> by now. </strong></p><p>Insider columnist Adam Lashinsky <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-hype-about-1-billion-clubhouse-not-so-crazy-2021-1">has a smart take on the audio-based social network here</a>. And Melia Russell has written a great story chronicling how the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-are-clubhouse-founders-paul-davison-rohan-seth-2021-1">founders of Clubhouse rebounded from failure to a $1 billion valuation.</a></p><p>After weeks of positive press coverage thanks to cameos by <keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword> and Mark Zuckerberg, Clubhouse has hit a patch of negative press due to security lapses and revelations about its ties to China.</p><ul><li><strong>One of the takeaways</strong> seems to be a not-too-surprising recommendation: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/clubhouse-app-breach-audio-chatrooms-security-concern-conversations-streamed-2021-2">assume you're being recorded</a> when you have a discussion on Clubhouse.</li><li><strong>More surprising</strong> is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/clubhouse-to-review-policies-after-chinese-data-sharing-discovery-2021-2">the company's use of Shanghai company Agora</a> for its back-end audio processing, as <a href="https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/clubhouse-china#agora">researchers discovered</a>.</li><li>At a time when the US and China are embroiled in a tech cold war, and the protection of user data from the Chinese government has become a hot button issue (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-tiktok-ban-us-china-explained-in-30-seconds-2020-8">remember that whole thing about TikTok?</a>), it's odd that Clubhouse, and its sophisticated financial backers, chose to rely on a firm based in China for part of its back-end infrastructure. </li></ul><p>Meanwhile, the attack of the Clubhouse clones is already underway, with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-reportedly-working-on-clubhouse-competitor-2021-2">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/spaces">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-clubhouse-competitor-fireside-app-2021-2">Mark Cuban</a> all racing to develop their own <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-reportedly-working-on-clubhouse-competitor-2021-2">audio-based social networking services</a>. And Clubhouse itself, which now has 10 million weekly users of its iPhone app <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/23/clubhouse-hires-android-developer-work-on-android-app-has-begun.html">according to MSNBC</a>, may be getting <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/clubhouse-early-employees-hiring-plans-2021-2">closer to releasing an Android-version of the app.</a></p><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-29-gen-z-vcs-changing-venture-capital-2021-2">Gen Z goes VC</a></h2><p>You need to be 35 years old to be President of the US according to the Constitution. But no such rule governs when a person can become a <keyword id="6357097" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Venture-Capital">venture capital</keyword> investor. And Gen Z - those youngsters born between 1995 and 2010 - are already getting into the VC game, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-29-gen-z-vcs-changing-venture-capital-2021-2">as Insider's Margaux MacColl reports.</a></p><p>The VCs on the list range in age from 19 to 25 and followed a variety of paths to venture capital, from launching their own <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> to working in finance. All are incredibly ambitious and have leveraged social <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> in innovative ways.</p><h1><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-29-gen-z-vcs-changing-venture-capital-2021-2">Meet the top 29 up-and-comers changing the world of venture capital</a></h1><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-29-gen-z-vcs-changing-venture-capital-2021-2"><div type="image" title="gen z vc " height="3600" width="4800" msid="81190820" hostid="261"></div></a></p><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-dig-washington-post-ownership-2021-2">Quote of the week: </a></h2><h3><em>"Give my regards to your puppet master"</em></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-dig-washington-post-ownership-2021-2"><div type="image" title="Elon Musk phone" height="1877" width="2828" msid="81190830" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p><strong>- <keyword id="107096" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tesla">Tesla</keyword> CEO Elon Musk,</strong> responding to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/23/musk-tesla-texas/">Washington Post article</a> about how his various endeavors, including running a space exploration company and frequent travel, may be affecting Tesla's operations. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-dig-washington-post-ownership-2021-2">Musk's comment appeared to be a jab at arch-rival Jeff Bezos</a>, who owns the Washington Post and whose Blue Origin space company competes with Musk's SpaceX.</p><hr /><h2>Snapshot: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polydrops-travel-trailer-p17a-designed-electric-vehicles-like-tesla-2021-2">How to get your EV hitched</a></h2><p>Towing a trailer with an electric car has an obvious drawback: all that extra weight will drain your car's battery.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polydrops-travel-trailer-p17a-designed-electric-vehicles-like-tesla-2021-2">The sleek-looking, aluminum trailer pictured below</a> is specially designed for use with Teslas and other EVs to solve that problem. According to Polydrops, the maker of the P17A trailer, a 2018 Model 3 Tesla was able to tow the 1,200-pound trailer for 245 miles on one charge during its tests.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polydrops-travel-trailer-p17a-designed-electric-vehicles-like-tesla-2021-2"><div type="image" title="P17A travel trailer polydrops" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81190835" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>The trailer can accommodate a full size mattress, and has a built-in battery and rooftop solar panels that can supply 260 to 520-watts of solar energy - enough to power the interior lights, heater and air conditioner, power outlets and optional fridge for up to six nights off the grid. </p><p>If you splurge for all the options, the P17A will run you about $36,000 - about the cost of buying another Tesla.</p><hr /><h2>Recommended Readings:</h2><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-supreme-court-defeat-drivers-gig-econony-regulation-disruption-2021-2">3 takeaways from Uber's Supreme Court defeat, which shows the dangers of tech getting creative with regulation</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/modern-health-messy-cofounder-breakup-2021-2">They launched a $1 billion startup together. Then they broke up. How the relationship between Modern Health's cofounders died.</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-takeaways-from-the-senate-hearing-on-solarwinds-attacks-2021-2">Here are the 5 most important takeaways from the US Senate's grilling of SolarWinds, Microsoft, CrowdStrike and FireEye over what could be the biggest cyberattack in history</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-gaia-video-streaming-website-conspiracy-theories-2021-1">Gaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreams.</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-change-winners-losers-andy-jassy-bezos-aws-consumer-2021-2">Amazon insiders predict which of their peers will gain - and lose - the most power now that Andy Jassy will be CEO</a></p><hr /><h2>Not necessarily in tech:</h2><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-healthcare-strategy-health-clinics-2021-2">2 years ago, Walmart secretly signed off on a plan to build thousands of health clinics. Now it's slowing its ambitious push into healthcare.</a></p><hr /><p>Thanks for reading, and if you like this newsletter, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-tech">tell your friends and colleagues they can sign up here to receive it</a>.</p><p>And as always, please reach out with rants, raves, and tips at aoreskovic@businessinsider.com</p><p>- Alexei</p>

You Searched For "polydrops" and got 2 results

This company created a $25,000 RV travel trailer designed to be towed by an EV like a Tesla

Brittany Chang

Why Silicon Valley is freaking out over audio tech

Alexei Oreskovic