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Recode Daily: Meet Uber’s new CEO

Plus, documenting the chaos of Hurricane Harvey on Snapchat, Australia is spotting sharks with AI-powered drones, and Netflix and bake.

Dara Khosrowshahi smiles and gives two thumbs up on the set of a TV new program.
Dara Khosrowshahi
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After a weekend of maneuvering, Ubers board selected Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to be its next CEO. Here’s some background on the 48-year-old executive, who has spent a decade mastering a different part of the travel economy. Khosrowshahi was Uber’s unnamed third candidate — after Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman and former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt — and is considered the “truce” choice for the board, which has been riven by ugly infighting between ousted CEO Travis Kalanick and one of Uber’s major investors, Benchmark. Khosrowshahi is expected to meet Uber employees today or tomorrow — but first he has to formally tell Expedia he is leaving. [Kara Swisher / Recode]

Meanwhile, Uber has abandoned plans to move into a massive building in Oakland, Calif., and is considering a sale of the former Sears department store, which it paid more than $123 million for. Related: Here’s a history of “adult supervision” in Silicon Valley. [Shona Ghosh / Business Insider]

As hurricane-turned-tropical-storm Harvey hit Houston, killing at least five people, locals documented the chaos on Snapchat. The app’s new Snap Maps feature lets you see videos from anyone — including people trapped by torrential flooding. Before Harvey made landfall, wireless carriers lobbied against upgrades to a national emergency alert system. [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Australia is deploying drones with AI-powered shark-detection software to patrol some of its beaches. The drones provide a live video feed to an operator, who uses the shark-spotting software, which have been shown to be 90 percent accurate at spotting sharks, while humans are 20 percent to 30 percent accurate. [James Redmayne / Reuters]

Venture capital is headed for a “huge, rude awakening,” says Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya on the latest episode of Recode Decode. And this week, Kara Swisher and Lauren Goode will interview Forward CEO Adrian Aoun for our Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast. Have questions about the future of health care and tech? Email them today to TooEmbarrassed@recode.net. [Eric Johnson / Recode]

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Netflix and bake

Cannabis strains inspired by “Bojack Horseman,” “Orange Is the New Black” and other Netflix hits were sold over the weekend at a West Hollywood pop-up dispensary to legal medical marijuana card-holding customers. “The Netflix Collection” also features three varieties based on new sitcom “Disjointed,” which stars Kathy Bates as the owner of a weed dispensary. Netflix does not profit from sales. [The Guardian]


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.