AIMotive, a Budapest-based startup that recently changed its name from AdasWorks, is revolutionizing self-driving car technology. Rather than putting all their energy into covering autonomous miles and sifting through data, which is what Tesla and Google are doing, AImotive has created a game engine that let’s the company’s software drive a simulated car for testing purposes. This allows the car to be tested at all times without risking a human driver’s life....

DADA is an online, collaborative drawing platform for visual artist professionals. On DADA, artists can produce digital drawings and collaborate with artists peers from across the globe to create entirely new and unique visual narratives. It provides artists with a way new way to connect with fellow artists, as well as develop their own personal styles and visual storytelling. Founded by Beatriz Helena Ramos, an artist herself and the owner and founder of animation studio Dancing Diablo, DADA is meant to give visual artists an interactive medium through which they can interact not only with other artists but also with potential clients....

Of course, there are plenty of other variables for those trying to determine where to set up their startup basecamp: The startup’s industry and the team’s connections need to be weighed against where the company is in its lifespan. And the Bay area might not be the best option: Plenty of that funding is merely going to the firmly established giants like Uber and Palantir. Given this data, Funders Club offers a more comprehensive chart....

Here are this week’s Tech Cocktail Top Stories:

TrackMaven provides digital marketers with data and insights across multiple marketing and social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, email, content marketing, paid ads, organic search, web traffic, and earned media. Currently the company has 40 full-time employees. According to the company, the new financing will help them expand their team in engineering, customer success, and sales, as well help enable them to accelerate their product....

Just a few short months ago, social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch banned the controversial president from their platforms after violent protestors stormed the US Capitol because of claims that the election was stolen. Since then, conservatives have scrambled to find a social media site that fits their unique brand of “free speech.” Now, they may have found their saving grace, as Donald Trump is poised to announce his own social media network that will, in all likelihood, cater to the MAGA ideology more than any iteration so far....

The whistleblower sent his disclosure to Congress and federal agencies last month, alleging that Twitter’s massive security problems were a meaningful threat both to users’ data privacy and to national security. Also among the allegations? Claims that top Twitter executives are covering up deep vulnerabilities in the social platform, that the company has misled the FTC, and that at least one current employee might be in working for foreign intelligence....

That new guidance? It’s actually more of a revival as the legislation brings back the not so controversial requirement to register drones. Effective immediately, hobbyists flying a drone with a weight between .55 and 55 pounds must once again register their drone at a cost of $5. On May 19 of this year, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacated the initial law put in place in 2015 that required both hobbyist and commercial drone pilots to register drones with the FAA....

But then that never happened. 2015, the setting of Back to the Future II and its famous flying cars, has come and gone with barely even a functioning hoverboard. But don’t despair! Uber can finally get us those flying cars we think are so special. Uber has revealed that it is looking into tech that would allow it to create automated drone taxis. Like self-driving cars, the self-driving drones could ferry customers who call them in the Uber app....

While the report is a recommendation for tech companies as a whole, Facebook comes in for the most criticism. According to the UK government report, Facebook knowingly broke privacy and competition laws. Throughout the report, Facebook is frequently named and shamed, taking the brunt of the negativity and used as the poster child for how social media companies have dodged culpability to date. If Facebook and other companies don’t shape up, “democracy is at risk,” says Damian Collins, chairman of the UK’s Culture, Media and Sport select committee....

In all these cases, the startups—and their impressive public benefits—could not have done it alone. One venture fund, Urban.Us, is working behind the scenes to improve the world one city at a time. Urban.Us dubs itself “the venture fund for startups that make cities better,” on its site, where it explains that it’s often the initial investor in worthy startups with the goal to not just earn money, but to help the environment, the economy, and the various infrastructures that the world’s increasing population depends on....

As it turns out, there is a service using big data to provide better analytics to insurance companies. Driveway is a smartphone-deployed telematics platform designed to reward safe driving. Its iOS and Android apps, paired with powerful cloud analytics, automatically and objectively scores driver behavior. Driveway is good for the insurance industry, because the platform yields increased profits by attracting safer drivers who are segmented and priced more efficiently based on individually measured risk profiles....

Romotive moved to downtown Las Vegas from Seattle after launching out of the TechStars Seattle accelerator in 2011, where they also participated in Tech Cocktail’s Hottest Seattle Startup poll. They grew their team from just a small handful of people to 20 employees over the past year, and secured Sequoia as an investor. Romotive’s connection to Sequoia was a connection that was probably nurtured through the company’s involvement with the VegasTechFund as Sequoia was also an investor in Zappos....

At the very first Innovate! and Celebrate conference, cofounder of Malartu Funds and the TechCo Index Fund, Jon Spinney, sat down with panelists to talk all about funding: how to get it, where to get it, and when to get it done. The biggest takeaway from the panel: Stop focusing too much on venture capital — there are many other options out there. Take Venture Funding Off the Pedestal The panelists included Cheryl Foil, principal at Kidder Capital; Ari Newman, partner at Techstars; and Sarah Kunst, founder and CEO of Proday and an investor....

“You can set your dreams to whatever you want them to be and chase them,” said Armbruster. This is one of the motivating factors behind his New Orleans based accelerator, VetLaunch. Unlike other accelerators in the area, VetLaunch specifically works with veteran entrepreneurs of all backgrounds and is tied to his coworking space The Landing Zone. Armbruster is a graduate of the Naval Academy and an 8 year Marine Corps veteran....

Diacarta is unlike any other planner because it allows you to create a picture of your day. Rather than using a grid of hours to schedule tasks, Diacarta offers two 12-hour periods–AM and PM–for each day. What’s cool is that these two periods are presented as clocks, which makes checking your schedule simpler. Here’s how Diacarta works: Choose from a library of more than 50 graphic icons including a golfer, a party hat, a dog and more....

Granted, Highway1 focuses on the hardware side of things while 500 Startups lives in the world of software. They’re incredibly strong independent of each other, and when you put the two together you get something special: the Syfy network’s newest show. Today at SXSW V2V Forrest and McClure formally announced that this new show, The Bazillion Dollar Club, will be airing on live TV September 22 at 10pm. It’s billed as a high adrenaline, high stakes docu-series that’s set in the cutthroat world of today’s most forward thinking innovators as they search for the next great tech idea....

Mission Possible The Mission Possible initiative is designed to empower companies with a higher purpose through substantial startup support. Recently launched in cities all over the country including Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and many more. Creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs can apply to get the support they need to make their social responsible ideas out into the world. And that’s just the start of it. Startups that are selected for this new initiative will be privileged to so much more than free office accommodations....

It’s a question without a clear answer. Which you might have been able to guess based on how I titled this article: One truism about clickbait internet articles states that if any article title is asking a question, the answer is “no.” The tease that a nonsensical possibility could be true is enough to justify the article’s existence. People are starting to really hate it. Backlash against articles that hold their audience’s attention hostage to drive up clickthrough rates is strong in 2016....

According to research compiled by Ooma, there are a lot of adverse effects to prolonged smartphone use that may have gone unnoticed by avid users. From digital eye strain and poor posture to hand pain and headaches, these little devices are making it hard to justify checking Facebook every 20 minutes. Particularly when you know you aren’t going to have any more notifications. What’s worse is that the physical effects of prolonged smartphone use aren’t even the biggest problem....