The idea of a $25,000 Tesla has persisted for years — in part, perhaps, because CEO Elon Musk said he was “very confident” the company could do it at an event in 2020. But on Wednesday night, during Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, Musk said the idea of a $25,000 car with a steering wheel and pedals is “pointless,” and “silly.” He said he only wants to sell one car at that price: the “Cybercab” robotaxi he revealed a prototype of two weeks ago. It was the latest in a long line of public and private fli ...

Core Viewpoint - Pinterest is facing a complaint from the European privacy rights non-profit noyb for allegedly breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by not obtaining user consent for tracking and profiling for advertising purposes [1][2]. Group 1: GDPR Compliance Issues - The GDPR allows for penalties of up to 4% of global annual turnover for confirmed breaches, which could lead to significant sanctions for Pinterest [1]. - The complaint includes accusations that Pinterest failed to fulfill a GDPR data access request, not providing information on the categories of data shared with third parties [2][5]. - Pinterest is relying on a legal basis known as legitimate interest (LI) for processing user data for ad targeting, which noyb argues is non-compliant with GDPR [3][4]. Group 2: User Tracking Practices - Pinterest tracks all of its approximately 130 million regional users by default to personalize ads, requiring users to actively object to this tracking rather than being asked for consent [3]. - A complainant discovered that "ads personalization" was turned on by default and that Pinterest uses information from visited websites and other third parties for ad display [5]. - The complaint asserts that Pinterest's tracking practices are unlawful since the introduction of GDPR in 2018 [5][6]. Group 3: Legal Proceedings and Potential Outcomes - The complaint has been filed with France's data protection authority, but it may be passed to Ireland's Data Protection Commission due to Pinterest's regional headquarters in Dublin [7]. - The complaint calls for Pinterest to delete any data processed for ads, fulfill the data access request, and be fined to deter future GDPR breaches [6].

Elon Musk said he hopes to launch a service that will let people hail self-driving Tesla vehicles in California and Texas sometime in 2025 — and claims his company has already been testing the service in the Bay Area with employees.The comments, made Wednesday on Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, go farther than what Musk promised two weeks ago at its Cybercab unveiling event. On that stage, Musk promised that Model 3 and Model Y owners would be able to use an “unsupervised” version of Tesla’s Full Self- ...

Tesla’s Cybertruck was the third best-selling electric vehicle in the United States in the third quarter, beating out every other EV not made by Tesla. The only two vehicles that sold better were the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV.The polarizing truck notched this achievement despite selling at its most expensive trim model in the early going. It’s also a sign of just how much trouble major automakers like Ford and General Motors have run into in finding customers for their own EVs. To wit, Ford only sold a ...

In Brief In a move that could profoundly affect an already beleaguered global supply chain, Arm has reportedly issued Qualcomm a 60-day notice of cancelation for chip design licensing. The move, reported by Bloomberg, would have an impact on a majority of smartphone manufacturers who rely on Qualcomm chips.U.K.-based Arm, which licenses chip architecture, issued the notice as part of a protracted battle with the Snapdragon producer. Much of the issue can be traced back to a dispute over contracts and tradem ...

Apple on Wednesday released developer betas iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, delivering new Apple Intelligence features including Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, Image Wand, and ChatGPT integration.The software updates arrive the week before the public release of OS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, which brings writing tools, image cleanup, article summaries, and a typing input for the redesigned Siri experience to the platforms. Along with those updates comes APIs f ...

Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday. Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy, wrote in a blog post that some of the tests aim to bolster its existing anti-scam measures, such as the automated scans (using machine learning classifiers) run as part of its ad review system, to make it harder for fraudsters to fly under its radar and dupe Facebook and Instagram users to click on bogus ads. “ ...

Product Performance - The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are the top-selling product in 60% of all Ray-Ban stores across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa [1] - The product has significantly driven sales for EssilorLuxottica, as highlighted by the company's CFO during the earnings call [1] Market and Consumer Behavior - Despite the absence of multimodal AI features in Europe due to regulatory uncertainty, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses continue to perform well in the region [1] - Consumers may be more attracted to the glasses' speakers and cameras rather than their AI capabilities [1] Partnership and Future Outlook - The early success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses has exceeded Meta's initial expectations [2] - This success has likely contributed to Meta extending its partnership with EssilorLuxottica into the next decade [2]

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into the recent layoffs at Meta; the fallout from the battle between WordPress and WP Engine; and whether Cybertrucks are simply too big to exist in Europe. Let’s get into it.Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs this week. The company confirmed the layoffs in a statement to TechCrunch and noted that the changes were made to reallocate resources. The cuts reportedly impacted teams working on Reality Labs, Instagram, and WhatsApp, though Meta decli ...

In Brief How much equity in OpenAI will Microsoft get once the former becomes a for-profit company? That’s the multi-billion-dollar question — one the two parties are racing to answer ahead of a two-year deadline.The Wall Street Journal reports that both Microsoft and OpenAI have hired investment banks to negotiate Microsoft’s equity — which could be substantial. The tech giant is said to have sunk nearly $14 billion into OpenAI. As of October, OpenAI is the second-most valuable startup in the U.S. behind S ...