According to a report from RBB, the municipal council of Grünheide in Germany has indefinitely delayed the vote on planned expansion of Tesla’s gigafactory in Berlin. In March, Tesla announced opening its first European Gigafactory located in Berlin.
Tesla wants to expand its almost 750-acre factory site by another 250 acres to build a freight depot, among other factory parts. The Grünheide central committee approved the plans in June and passed them to the local council to initiate the development plan.
Arne Christiani, the Grünheide mayor, removed the item from the council meeting agenda, stating the council needs more clarification and that he could not promise the plan would be voted on this year.
While it is not precisely clear what other information the local council needs from Tesla to move forward with the automaker’s expansion plans, it is possible that Russia’s efforts to turn off gas supplies to Europe in general and in particular, Germany, are preventing Christiani from approving a plan that will definitely require energy to see through.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had previously promised that his gigafactories and electric vehicles would be as sustainably as possible. Still, it will be difficult for Tesla to avoid the factory shutdowns sweeping Germany.
The news comes days after Tesla held an information day event at the facility. During the event, the company said its production ramp-up at the factory was progressing well, without providing specific details.
Tesla is suspending plans to make battery cells in Germany as it looks to qualify for battery and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing tax breaks in the United States (US), the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. In March, Tesla had announced the opening of its first European Gigafactory located near Berlin, Germany.
According to the report, the electric vehicle maker has discussed moving equipment used to make cells to the United States, initially intended for use in the German factory.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which US President Joe Biden signed last month, allows EV makers to source batteries from within the US with tax breaks. The law also allows some buyers a $7,500 tax credit if they buy EVs whose batteries meet specific sourcing requirements.
The company is looking to boost the production of its electric vehicles at its new factories in Germany’s Berlin and Austin, Texas, to meet rising demand. The company also told Texas officials that it was scouting regional sites for a plant that would refine lithium, a key battery input that today is primarily processed in China.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected the manufacturing sector by soaring energy costs in Europe. The geopolitical tension has also caused the prices of materials used in batteries to rise.
Sham Kunjur, General Motors’ executive director for EV raw materials, said discussions with outside companies to build a US battery supply chain have heated up since the law took effect.
On Thursday, Air India unveiled its future roadmap called Vihaan.AI, as part of which it plans to raise its domestic market share to 30% in the next five years. Moreover, it plans to grow international routes besides striving to reclaim its status as a global industry leader.
Air India will strive towards increasing its market share to at least 30% in the domestic market while significantly growing the international routes from the present market share over the next five years. The plan aims to put Air India on a path to sustained growth, profitability, and market leadership said Air India in a statement.
The Vihaan.AI plan includes milestones focussing on ‘dramatically’ growing both its network and fleet, developing a wholly revamped customer proposition, improving reliability and on-time performance, and taking a leadership position in technology, sustainability, and innovation, while aggressively investing in the best industry talent.
The immediate focus of the airline will be to fix the basics and readying itself for growth, while the medium-to-long term focus will be to aim for ‘excellence and establishing scale’ to become a global industry leader, according to the statement.
There are plans afoot to merge Air India with two other Tata Sons-owned airlines, viz. AirAsia India and Vistara.
Air India has made several important announcements on its flight and administrative operations in the past week. It has said that it will induct 30 new planes, including five wide-bodied, in the next 15 months and thereby increase its fleet by 25%.
It has also said that it will consolidate its workspaces to disband the regionalized organizational structure and turn it into a centralized one by moving its staff to an interim office space until they are relocated to a campus in early 2023.
Nuro, an autonomous technology developer, is collaborating with Uber Eats in a long-awaited agreement that will see the company’s newest robot take over food delivery to app customers. Just a few days ago, the two businesses agreed to a 10-year deal, opening the door for a larger rollout of Nuro’s driverless delivery robots, which have been used selectively in a number of cities.
Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, two former Google workers who worked on the self-driving car project that later became Waymo, founded Nuro in 2016. It was the first company to be granted a special exemption from several federal safety regulations, and it was also the first in California to start charging for its autonomous deliveries.
The DMV of California has granted Nuro a permit that only authorizes it to operate its delivery service in areas of the counties of Santa Clara and San Mateo, which includes much of Silicon Valley but excludes San Francisco and Oakland. That implies that the company will need further DMV approval before extending its service area.
Apart from California, Nuro recently became the first autonomous vehicle business to be awarded a commercial license in Arizona and Texas. This implies that Nuro robots can operate on public roadways for commercial purposes rather than just for research, generating revenue for the firm with each delivery.
The potential of Nuro’s delivery robots to eliminate the need for a human driver, is something that Uber has been working toward as part of its core business for years. However, the slow progress of Level 4 and Level 5 autonomy, which was generally anticipated to come around 2020, had hampered Uber’s plans, since the company has had trouble making money from its regular operations with independent contractual drivers. Early on in the pandemic, Nuro delivery robots saw a surge in interest from corporate partners, but today, rather than being seen as a more sanitary delivery partner, the company’s technology is seen as a cost-saving measure for companies like Uber Eats. Hence, it makes it logical for Uber to partner with Nuro.
The collaboration will commence with autonomous deliveries in Houston, Texas, and Mountain View, California. In the future, service will be extended to the greater Bay Area. Unlike other regions that experience extremely unpleasant weather, these two allow delivery robots to work in favorable conditions. The sensors that allow autonomous vehicles to traverse roads can become confused by rain, snow, and fog. This is also why, Nuro’s California operating license only permits it to do so during fair weather.
It is reasonable to expect that limited deployment in two cities, with intentions to debut in the Bay Area, will not bring much savings to Uber Eats. Even with an endless supply of Nuro delivery robots, regulatory approval will create the main hindrance to achieving the goal of deploying delivery robots in the long run. In addition to local and county permissions, which were challenging enough for Nuro to get in the Bay Area, where Level 4 robotaxis are being tested, commercial driverless licenses are issued state-by-state. It will be necessary for Nuro to concentrate its efforts on areas with acceptable traffic for its robots.
Uber admits that customers won’t know whether a Nuro bot is delivering their order when they place an order. Regardless of the delivery method, they will be charged the same charges. If consumers decide to tip through the app and a Nuro robot arrives in place of a human agent, they will also receive a refund for their tip. But they do have to go outside to collect their own order, and in the rain, that could be quite a nuisance.
According to the company’s video, customers would need to enter a code to access the vehicle door and get their order to demonstrate what a Nuro delivery might look like. Earlier this year, Nuro unveiled its third-generation delivery vehicle, which has an exterior airbag to save pedestrians. Because it has yet to publicly unveil its new vehicle model, it will initially employ its second-generation automobile known as the R2 for the collaboration. The R2 robot, which is around 9 feet long and 3.6 feet broad and travels up to 45 miles per hour, was unveiled by Nuro in February 2020.
The autonomous R2 is powered by renewable energy and is outfitted with 360-degree coverage with thermal cameras, lidar, and radar to traverse roadways on its own successfully. All of this is supported by specialized HD maps and collision-avoidance-based machine learning systems. Furthermore, its modest size appears to help it avoid obstacles and cause less damage in the case of an accident.
Apart from Nuro, Uber Eats has collaborated with other autonomous delivery services, viz., Motional and Serve Robotics, to test robot deliveries. In contrast to Motional, which utilizes electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 SUVs with two safety drivers seated in the front, Serve Robotics manages delivery robots that move across sidewalks. Customers in the Los Angeles region can participate in the respective pilots of Motional and Serve using Uber Eats.
Using robots and autonomous cars for last-mile delivery is something that food delivery services have long considered. For instance, DoorDash became prominent during its delivery services during the coronavirus pandemic. In June, the self-driving robots firm Cartken and Grubhub, owned by Just Eat Takeaway, announced a deal to transport groceries to college campuses.
Overall, this new alliance might be seen as the beginning of a bright new age in the autonomous vehicle industry, delivery, and transportation via EVs.
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company would add Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, to its driverless ride service in the next ninety days. Cruise is a self-driving vehicle manufacturer that is majority owned by General Motors. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Vogt added that the loss-making Cruise unit hopes to generate US$1 billion in sales by 2025, or half of the amount of money that GM now invests annually.
In San Francisco this year, Cruise started charging for trips in its fully autonomous cars using a small number of Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles, but only after hours to lessen the risk of mishaps as it develops the system.
Vogt stated that its activities would first be on a limited scale and “revenue-generating” in Austin and Phoenix, with an aim to build up operations next year.
In Phoenix, where it has previously tested its self-driving delivery service with Walmart, one of its investors, Cruise has all the permissions required for employing autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing and delivery services.
This comes after Cruise’s fleet of 80 self-driving vehicles had received a software update following a crash in June. According to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), one of Cruise’s vehicles was struck by an approaching Prius while making an unprotected left turn at an intersection. When the Prius shifted lanes and proceeded straight, it struck the right rear of the Cruise car, which was in the right turn and bus lane. Police determined that the other car was mostly to blame for the collision as it was going 40 in a 25 zone.
According to a report Cruise filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, there were apparent minor injuries to people in both vehicles, and the Cruise car sustained significant damage and had to be towed away.
However, in a subsequent filing with the NHTSA, Cruise revealed that its software operated erroneously when the car tried the famed “unprotected left” maneuver that many companies have struggled with. The Cruise car assumed that the Prius would make a right turn and that it could make its turn before the Prius arrived. It is uncertain if the Cruise was certain that the Prius wasn’t a cab or made judgments based on that knowledge. It appears like the Cruise anticipated the automobile would slow down, giving it enough time to make the turn, and started its turn. The Prius did not stop, nor did it slow down, but a sequence of errors led to the collision. It is believed that by choosing not to stop and finish its turn or by opting not to try its turn in the first place, the Cruise Bolt could have avoided the disaster.
Adobe has acquired Figma, a web-first collaborative design platform, for US$20 billion to enhance collaborative creativity. The acquisition is a part of Adobe’s mission to revolutionize digital experiences with its tools and platforms. The company has a history of working towards advancement with its tools like Photoshop for creative expression, PDF for electronic documentation, and Adobe Experience Cloud for digital marketing.
Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO of Adobe, said, “Adobe’s greatness has been rooted in our ability to create new categories and deliver cutting-edge technologies through organic innovation and inorganic acquisitions.”
Figma helps enterprises and their teams to collaborate visually and make designs accessible to everyone. The company brings all interactive mobile and web application designers together under a single, sophisticated ecosystem.
Both companies share a common passion for creativity and productivity. Together, the companies plan to reimagine the future of productivity and advance product design to inspire communities globally. The merger will have an enormous, fast-growing market scope and shareholding in the entire industry.
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, said, “With Adobe’s amazing innovation and expertise, especially in 3D, video, vector, imaging, and fonts, we can further reimagine end-to-end product design in the browser.”
Enterprises and creators are challenged by increasing content volume in collaborations between multiple stakeholders. Figma’s multi-player capabilities will enhance Adobe’s Creative Cloud technologies to overcome this challenge.
Upon closing the agreement, Dylan Field will continue to lead the Figma team and report to David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Digital Media business.
On Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin officially instructed the government to come to a consensus regarding crypto regulation and set rules for cross-border crypto payments in Russia by December.
The prime minister called on the Duma and other state authorities to create coordinated policies to regulate the issuance and circulation of digital currencies in Russia. He also asked regulators to finalize on the regulations for cross-border transactions in digital currencies and cryptocurrency mining.
The official stressed that the upcoming draft of crypto regulations should be aligned with the anti-money laundering authority Rosfinmonitoring, Federal Tax Service, Russian Finance Ministry, Central Bank, and Federal Security Service.
The latest advancement confirms that Russia has been getting increasingly serious about the possibility of using cryptocurrencies for cross-border transactions.
Last week, Alexei Moiseev, Deputy Finance Minister, reported that the Bank of Russia is in consensus with the finance ministry to legalize cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. Despite its decision to authorize cross-border transactions, the Russian central bank still opposed the legalization of local crypto exchanges and legalizing cryptocurrency as a means of payment.
According to Maria Agranovskaya, a fintech expert in the Russian State of Duma, Russia might be the first country to authorize cross-border crypto payments while banning local crypto payments simultaneously. He added that this is not a common approach.
Tesla has installed almost 4,000 supercharger stations globally, growing 34% year-on-year. According to data compiled by Finbold, Tesla has 3,971 supercharger stations globally, recording a growth of 33.88% from the 2,966 recorded during the same period in 2021.
During the first three months of 2022, Tesla stations stood at 3,724, showing a growth of 7.13% since the previous quarter. In total, the company had installed 3,254 stations globally during Q3 2021.
Elsewhere, Tesla also witnessed a spike in supercharger connectors, which stood at 36,165 during Q2 2022, representing a 34.44% growth. During the first quarter of the year 2022, the connectors were at 33,657, growing 6.85% from 31,498 in Q4 2021.
According to the Finbold report, Tesla has managed to record supercharger growth despite facing difficulties mainly from the chip shortage. In recent years, charging infrastructure companies have been raising concerns about the chip shortage factors affecting the momentum of rolling out public charging alternatives.
Overall, Tesla is likely to boost the installation of supercharger stations as the company adopts technologies to reach more locations. Tesla is still facing rising competition as more EV makers continue unveiling new products.
Meta has announced that it will incubate 40 early-stage extended reality (XR) startups from India by providing a grant of ₹20 lakh to each as part of a new accelerator called the XR Startup Program. This will be in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY).
Moreover, Meta will also conduct a grand challenge for individual innovators from various sectors, including education, agri-tech, tourism, climate, healthcare, gaming, and entertainment. These innovators will be given support to get their XR products ready for the market.
At first, 80 innovators will be selected for a boot camp, out of which 16 will receive a grant of ₹20 lakhs each to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or prototype. Both the grand challenge and accelerator will also help support startups and innovators to build customer connections and acquire new partnerships and funding opportunities.
XR consists of all immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) that provide real-world experiences in a virtual world and virtual experiences through real-world objects and spaces using head-mounted displays or smartphones.
The startup program is being implemented in the AIC SMU Technology Business Incubation Foundation (AIC-SMUTBI), Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad Foundation (CIE IIIT-H), and IIT Delhi’s Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT).
According to Meta, the startup program is being supported by the company’s XR Programs and Research Fund, which will provide US$50 million in funding over two years to XR startups in collaboration with governments, non-profits, industry partners, and academia.
Meta has announced the rollout of a new way to encourage more engagement stemming from Facebook Groups via a new Community Chat option that will facilitate topic-based discussion groups within Messenger. With engagement in Meta’s apps seemingly in decline, this move is being seen as an effort to capitalize on its wins where it can.
Community Chats, launched today in testing with a limited number of users, will enable people to create a Facebook Group and start chats and audio channels. It will also allow users to invite others to join their new group, all from within Messenger.
According to Meta, the experience seamlessly blends Messenger and Facebook Groups to allow people to connect when, where, and how they want. Admins can start a conversation about a topic and get in-the-moment responses instead of waiting for people to comment on a post.
Also, rather than navigating multiple topics in a single Messenger group chat, the person who creates the Community Chat can organize chats into categories so group members can easily find what’s most interesting.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that most people use feeds to discover content and use messaging for deeper connections. He added that Meta is building Community Chats as a new way to connect with people who share your interests.
Friends post a lot more to stories and send a lot more DMs than they post to Feed. If you want to make sure you never miss a feed post from a friend, add them to your favorites and they’ll show up at the top.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said that Meta is trying to use this as a lever to fundamentally change its approach, migrating users from a feed of content driven by their social graph – i.e., the updates that they have explicitly chosen to see in each app by following and liking people and pages – to one that is more based on popular, trending content in related areas.
