Volkswagen leak exposed, Free Apple TV+, Samsung now largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics, and
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Volkswagen Group's troubled automotive software unit Cariad left terabytes of customer data on around 800,000 electric Audi, Seat, Skoda, and Volkswagen vehicles exposed to the internet for months, reports Der Spiegel in German, citing security researchers who learned about the data spill from an

unnamed whistleblower. The researchers, who gave their talk at the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg, Germany this week, said the exposed data also contained the precise location coordinates on more than half of the listed vehicles, around 460,000 cars. Some of the location data was accurate to a few centimeters, they said, with the data showing most of the vehicles found across Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, in descending order, among others.

Carriot fixed the bug that led to the exposure and said that it has no evidence to suggest anyone other than the security researchers had access to the exposed data. Carriot has struggled in recent years, plagued by delays to major software launches and a restructuring that has eliminated hundreds of jobs.

The Competition and Markets Authority, CMA, the UK's antitrust watchdog, has opened an investigation into whether IBM's planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorp would affect competition.

The CMA said Monday was inviting comment on the merger from interested parties by January 16. The regulator set a provisional February 25 deadline to decide whether to clear the deal or refer it for further review. As The Wall Street Journal reports, IBM announced it agreed to buy HashiCorp in April for around $6.4 billion.

The takeover, should it proceed, would extend IBM's push into cloud and AI and give the company access to HashiCorp's roster of about 4,400 customers. San Francisco-based HashiCorp, founded in 2012 by Mitchell Hashimoto and Arman Dadgar, provides tools to help manage cloud infrastructure and security. The CMA notified HashiCorp in August it would be reviewing the merger. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also investigating the deal.

Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV Plus streaming service for free this weekend from January 3rd to 5th. The company made the announcement on Monday alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including Severance, Slow Horses, Shrinking, and more.

It's worth noting that this is the first time that Apple has offered something like this. The announcement comes a few days after Apple TV Plus began teasing that it was planning to open up its content to non-subscribers. A weekend is enough time to binge-watch some of Apple's most popular shows, especially Severance, which is returning for its highly-anticipated second season on January 17th.

Although Apple's tweet announcing the promotion says Apple TV+ will be free to stream on January 4th and 5th, Apple's official press release says it will be available for free from January 3rd to 5th. By opening up access to its content, Apple is likely hoping that people will explore its TV shows and then eventually sign up for a subscription to keep up with the show or check out the rest of the streaming service's library of content.

The company says Apple TV+ will be free on any device where Apple TV+ is available and that all you need is an Apple ID to access the streaming service. Apple TV+ is priced at $9.99 per month and allows up to six members of a family sharing group to watch content under a single subscription.

Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has become the largest shareholder of South Korea-based robotics maker Rainbow Robotics, increasing its stake from 14.7% to 35% for 267 billion Korean won, about $181 billion.

The electronics giant, which paid 86.8 billion Korean won for the 14.7% stake in 2023, said it is acquiring the stake to bolster its robotics department and speed up development of humanoid robots. Rainbow Robotics will be integrated as a Samsung subsidiary, and the deal is expected to be completed in February 2025.

The company also said it would establish a future robotics office directly reporting to the chief executive officer. The deal enables Rainbow Robotics to expand to overseas markets by leveraging Samsung's reach. Rainbow, founded in 2011 by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KAIST, has developed dual-arm mobile manipulators and autonomous mobile robots for applications in manufacturing and logistics. It has 86 employees. The

The founding member of Rainbow, Dr. Junho Oh, the former largest shareholder of the robotics company before the deal and an honorary professor at Kai East, will stay on board to lead a new effort called the Future Robotics Office at Samsung and serve as an advisor. Samsung is only the latest to enter the race to develop humanoid robots that can do more autonomously.

Microsoft and OpenAI are planning to use their tech for a humanoid robot, and Tesla earlier this year showed off its own take on robots, Optimus. NVIDIA, too, has plans to release a new line of compact computers for humanoid robots called Jetson Thor next year.

In 2022, Samsung said that robotics, along with AI, 5G, and automotive electronics, would be a key part of its future initiatives, suggesting that potential acquisitions in these fields may be on the horizon. That's all for now. For more stories like this one, visit TechCrunch.com.