Technology

Maybe you’ve seen this viral TikTok video: A young man lies in the back seat of his Tesla, covered in blankets, as the car cruises down the highway. The driver’s seat is empty. If you haven’t, perhaps you’ve seen another like it. Videos of Tesla owners gleefully abusing the Autopilot system, a set of driver-assist technologies including adaptive cruise control, have become … [Read more...] about Trump left a ‘massive’ traffic-safety mess for Biden. Item one: Tesla’s self-driving claims

The California Supreme Court threw out a constitutional challenge to Proposition 22, clearing the path for the voter-approved law allowing gig companies to keep treating their workers as independent contractors.The lawsuit that the state Supreme Court declined to hear was filed last month by a small group of app-based drivers and the Service Employees International Union, one … [Read more...] about California Supreme Court throws out challenge to Prop. 22

Anduril, the defense tech company started by virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey in 2016, is moving into a new corporate campus in Costa Mesa — in the shell of the former Orange County bureau and printing press of the Los Angeles Times.The 640,000-square-foot transaction is one of the largest office leases in Orange County history, the real estate brokers involved said, and … [Read more...] about Palmer Luckey’s Anduril builds huge new HQ in former Times printing plant

Amazon will pay more than $61.7 million to Flex drivers from whom it withheld the full amount of customer tips to settle a Federal Trade Commission investigation. The settlement comes nearly two years after the Los Angeles Times first exposed that Amazon was dipping into customer tips to cover the base pay guaranteed to Flex drivers, who deliver Amazon Fresh, Prime Now and … [Read more...] about Amazon will pay $61.7 million to delivery drivers after withholding tips

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano or Tom Brady going to the Super Bowl, there are some things you can just count on year after year.Unfortunately, annual increases in cable and internet charges are among them.More than a few consumers are probably thinking that the middle of a deadly pandemic, with millions of people out of work and the economy in tatters, is a pretty … [Read more...] about Column: You’re stuck at home. So, of course, cable and internet bills are rising (again)

“Boy, this could have changed my life as a kid.”That was my first thought when I heard that ordinary day traders were potentially making thousands off of GameStop stock — a struggling, not beloved company — due to, essentially, a running joke that had morphed into a meme-driven movement. It certainly delivered a lesson more clearly than any school program. For the record: … [Read more...] about GameStop and the fandom culture disrupting politics and Wall Street. What to know

When the invite-only, live-audio-chat app Clubhouse debuted in the spring of 2020, it was mostly an insular community for venture capitalists to talk about initial public offerings and return on investment. But over the last few months, as rappers, producers and music business executives flocked to it, Clubhouse became the central node for the hip-hop industry to talk shop, … [Read more...] about Black creatives helped turn Clubhouse into the next tech unicorn. But who stands to gain?

What are we going to do when the robots take over? When artificial intelligence gets good enough that your refrigerator knows when you’re running out of milk, and it silently orders more, and it gets delivered by drone? How will we spend our time?Some think we’ll write poetry, watch the sunset and play the zither. Others think we’ll get strung out on drugs and sit stupefied in … [Read more...] about Op-Ed: The internet makes it easy to get vaccinated, rent a car, activate your phone, right? Fat chance

The powers that be at UCLA thought it was a good idea at the time — using state-of-the-art technology to scan students’ faces for gaining access to campus buildings. Students thought otherwise.“The implementation of facial recognition technology would present a major breach of students’ privacy and make students feel unsafe on a campus they are supposed to call home,” the Daily … [Read more...] about Column: Millions of faces scanned without approval. We need rules for facial recognition

Robinhood. Gamestop. Gamma squeeze. Reddit.Names and jargon that were once the province of obsessive day traders have become the subject of small talk — and the source of major angst — in the last few days as a series of down-at-the-heels stocks have rocketed to previously unimaginable heights. With a money-losing video game retailer minting millionaires and showing the … [Read more...] about Controversial trading app Robinhood takes center stage in GameStop saga