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Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
'Aspirational and Desirable' Van Life Pushed to New, Extreme Limits
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. For generations, adults have taken their kids camping. Those kids turned into adults who camp with friends, and eventually their own children. Along the way, some of them want to take escapism and adventure a bit further. Storyteller Overland is ready for them. The luxury recreation vehicle (RV) company sells models that build on the roots of overlanding in motorized vehicles, which stretches back to the early 1900s and runs through the much beloved era where vintage Westfalia vans and the Volkswagen Bus became common at campsites and California's coast. Storyteller reaches a more well-heeled, but no less adventurous audience. Seven years ago, the Storyteller team came together to remove barriers of entry for those who wanted an overlanding vehicle. "Before we came along, van life was very aspirational and desirable, but it was also pretty complicated, because you had to buy your own van and find a custom manufacturer, or get YouTube certified, or whatever, and figure out how to do it on the weekends," Jeffrey Hunter, Storyteller Overland's CEO, told Newsweek. Storyteller Overland's vehicle lineup. Storyteller Overland's vehicle lineup. Storyteller Overland "We just wanted to help people, solve for the complexity and [allow them to] start enjoying the life and lifestyle. In our mind, Storyteller was always a way of life, and we figured if we helped people have confidence in the level of rigs we were building for them, and do that at the world's greatest level, then we could help them live that life like sooner rather than like with all the hurdles in the house." That meant putting together a startup team that could see the vision. "In 2018 we just started with napkin sketches and daydreams, and a really rad team that had done a lot of these kinds of things before. We focused all that energy into being one core team with one vision in mind, and within four months, we had two fully functioning production-intent prototypes. We had multiple provisional patents that were filed and then ultimately granted domestically and internationally. By the end of 2019, we were in full production," Hunter said. Then, like so many businesses globally, Storyteller felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike other companies, like restaurants and movie theaters, Storyteller wasn't negatively impacted by the shutdowns. In fact, heading out on a self-sufficient expedition with your family was one of the few completely safe ways to experience life outside the house for many. Hunter explained: "It liberated a lot of people to be able to choose to adopt this way of life. Because, when you're legally forbidden to come into the office and you're federally mandated to social distance and all this kind of stuff, it just got a lot of people thinking: 'If I could truly work remotely, and we can do the distance learning with our kids and all that...' [RVs] became not just a symbol for that level of freedom, but it became like a real tool and a mode of making that happen." The company worked to quickly scale up to meet demand and build out a dealer network. From the original seven employees, Storyteller grew to close to 250 workers. From one or two vehicles on the road at the start of the pandemic, the company now has over 2,700. "Now, we've got a lot of these out on the road. We have the infrastructure to support the [ownership] experience. Building that infrastructure during that season, kind of in that Wild West era, it gave us a solid footing to continue to expand on new ways to innovate, new audiences to reach and new products [to develop] that inspire and equip the community to go farther and live free, explore endlessly and tell better stories," the CEO said. Three Storyteller Overland vehicles at the beach. Three Storyteller Overland vehicles at the beach. Storyteller Overland As it was putting more vehicles on the road, Storyteller began to consider what the full ownership experience would be like. "Our vehicles don't live conveniently in a 50-mile radius of the dealer network," Hunter said, explaining that purchasing from Storyteller means that, "You're not just buying from that dealer, you're buying into the entire Storyteller way of life that is meant to serve you through all phases of ownership and adventure and exploration." He said that it was "critical" to build out a service network and service infrastructure that expands past the dealer network, utilizing service providers and shops that meet Storyteller standards. "The infrastructure for all of that: the sales, the service, the branding, the community, all of that's grown pretty organically but scaled fairly dramatically," he reminisced. On offer for 2025 are three vans: Crew Mode 170, Mode XO (Full Bathroom) and Mode OG (Halo Shower). All vans are based on Mercedes-Benz Sprinters. Also available are Storyteller GXV Next and GXV Hilt trucks, based on the Ram 5500, and GXV Epic, built on a Kenworth 4x4 chassis. Pricing varies greatly by model, starting at over $187,000 and going up north of $799,000 before taxes and dealer fees. Unlike at a traditional car dealership, there is no haggling over price. Storyteller's prime customer base at the beginning was in the Pacific Northwest, Southern California and Big Sky Country in the U.S. "We've been really impressed by not just how geographically diverse the market has become, but also just in terms of lifestyle and demographics. So many people are adopting this more adventurous way of life," Hunter said. Storyteller GXV Epic driven through barren land. Storyteller GXV Epic driven through barren land. Storyteller Overland In 2022, the company announced that it acquired Global Expedition Vehicles. The acquisition allowed Storyteller to expand its offerings into larger trucks like its GXV line. Hunter said that the acquisition gave Storyteller more exposure, beyond North America. He gave an example of the company's expanded audience: "A global audience of people who will ship our vehicles and then spend two years traveling through West or Central or North Africa, or going all the way from Alaska down through the tip of South America."
TechCrunch
an hour ago
- TechCrunch
Following YouTube, Meta announces crackdown on ‘unoriginal' Facebook content
Meta announced on Monday that it will take additional measures to crack down on accounts sharing 'unoriginal' content to Facebook, meaning those that repeatedly reuse someone else's text, photos, or videos. This year, Meta has already taken down around 10 million profiles that were impersonating large content producers, it said. Plus, it has taken action against 500,000 accounts that were engaged in 'spammy behavior or fake engagement.' Those actions have included things like demoting the accounts' comments and reducing the distribution of their content to prevent the accounts from monetizing. The update from Meta follows only days after YouTube said it was also clarifying its policy around unoriginal content, including mass-produced and repetitive videos — things that have become easier to generate with the help of AI technology. Like YouTube, Meta says it won't penalize users who are engaging with other people's content, doing things like making reaction videos, joining a trend, or adding their own takes. Instead, Meta's focus is on the reposting of others' content, either on spam accounts or those that pretend to belong to the original creator. Accounts that abuse the system by repeatedly reusing someone else's content will lose access to Facebook monetization programs for a period of time and see reduced distribution of their posts, the company said. When Facebook detects duplicate videos, it will also reduce the distribution of the copies to ensure the original creator gets the views and credit. In addition, the company said it's testing a system that adds links on duplicate videos that point viewers to the original content. Image Credits:Meta The update arrives as Meta weathers criticism from users across its platforms, including Instagram, about erroneous, over-enforcement of its policies through automated means. A petition with nearly 30,000 signatures asks Meta to fix the issue with wrongfully disabled accounts and its lack of human support, which has users feeling abandoned and has hurt many small businesses. Meta has not yet publicly addressed the issue, despite attention from press and other high-profile creators. Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW While Meta's newest crackdown is focused more on accounts that steal others' content for profit, issues around unoriginal content are growing. With the rise of AI technology, platforms have become flooded with AI slop, a term referencing low-quality media content made using generative AI. On YouTube, for instance, it's easy to find an AI voice overlaid on photos, video clips, or other repurposed content, thanks to text-to-video AI tools. Meta's update seemingly only focuses on reused content, but its post suggests that it may be taking AI slop into consideration, too. In a section where the company offers 'tips' for making original content, Meta notes that creators shouldn't just be 'stitching together clips' or adding their watermark when using content from other sources, and they should focus on 'authentic storytelling,' not short videos offering little value. Without directly saying so, these types of unoriginal videos are also things that AI tools have made it easier to produce, as low-quality videos will often feature a series of just images or clips (either real or AI), with added AI narration. In the post, Meta also warns creators not to reuse content from other apps or sources, which has been a longstanding rule. It also notes that video captions should be high quality, which could mean cutting down on the use of automated AI captions that aren't edited by the creator. Image Credits:Meta Meta says these changes will roll out gradually over the months ahead, so Facebook creators have time to adjust. If creators think their content isn't being distributed, they can view the new post-level insights in Facebook's Professional Dashboard to see why. Creators will also be able to see if they're at risk of content recommendation or monetization penalties in the Support home screen from their Page or professional profile's main menu.
CNBC
3 hours ago
- CNBC
Meta removes 10 million Facebook profiles in effort to combat spam
Meta on Monday said it's removed about 10 million profiles for impersonating large content producers through the first half of 2025 as part of an effort by the company to combat "spammy content." The crackdown is part of Meta's broader effort to make the Facebook Feed more relevant and authentic by taking action against and removing accounts that engage in spammy behavior, such content created using artificial intelligence tools. As part of that initiative, Meta is also rolling out stricter measures to promote original posts from creators, the company said in a blog post. Facebook also took action against approximately 500,000 accounts that it identified to be engaged in inauthentic behavior and spam. These actions included demoting comments and reducing distribution of content, which are intended to make it harder for these accounts to monetize their posts. Meta said that unoriginal content is when images or videos are reused without crediting the original creator. Meta said it now has technology that will detect duplicate videos and reduce the distribution of that content. The action against spam and inauthentic content comes as Meta increases its investment in AI, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announcing plans to spend "hundreds of billions of dollars" on AI compute infrastructure to bring the company's first supercluster online next year. This mandate comes at a time when AI is making it easier to mass-produce content throughout social media platforms. Other platforms are also taking action to combat the increase of spammy, low-quality content on social media, also known as "AI slop." Google's YouTube announced a change in policy this month that prevents content that is mass-produced or repetitive from being eligible for being awarded revenue. This announcement sparked confusion on social media, with many users believing this was a reversal on YouTube's stance on AI content. However, YouTube clarified that the policy change is aimed at curbing unoriginal, spammy and repetitive videos. "We welcome creators using AI tools to enhance their storytelling, and channels that use AI in their content remain eligible to monetize," said a spokesperson for YouTube in a blog post to clarify the new policy. YouTube's new policy change will take affect on Tuesday.
