AUTOMOTIVE
Ford, VW call off appearance
Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG (VW) on Monday called off a joint appearance at the Detroit auto show set for yesterday during which they were widely expected to announce an alliance. The two car giants have been in discussions over a partnership to develop self-driving and electric technologies. However, a source close to the talks said that they had so far only produced a deal over commercial vehicles. “We don’t have enough details yet to go out in front of more than 500 journalists, so we decided to call it off,” Ford spokesman Mark Truby told reporters on a conference call.
AUTOMOTIVE
Tesla dares hackers
Tesla Inc is offering cybersecurity researchers the chance to walk away with an electric Model 3 sedan if they can hack into the car and find vulnerabilities. Trend Micro Inc’s spring competition, Pwn2Own Vancouver, invites security researchers to expose flaws in Web browsers and corporate software. For the first time this year, the competition has added an automotive category, featuring Tesla’s latest car. Tesla, which can ship updates to customers via over-the-air software upgrades, launched a “bug bounty” program in 2014 to reward researchers who uncover and report flaws.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Tool signals ‘sell’ for ether
While cryptocurrencies began the week swinging between gains and losses, the outlook might not be too optimistic for some of the biggest digital assets. A tool used by technical analysts called the GTI VERA Convergence Divergence Indicator, which detects trend reversals, is flashing a “sell” signal for ether, with the longest buying trend since October ending for the third-biggest digital currency. The shift could foreshadow a negative turn for bitcoin, which is close to a trend reversal as well. Ether slipped as much as 9.5 percent to US$113.49 in New York, the fifth decline in six trading days, before moving higher.
TECHNOLOGY
Bytedance to take on WeChat
Bytedance Ltd (北京字節跳動科技), the world’s most valuable start-up, unveiled a new video-based messaging service designed to take on Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) dominant WeChat. Bytedance launched the new service, named Duoshan (多閃), during a live-streamed event in Beijing yesterday. Similar to Snapchat, the app lets users send short-lived videos, GIFs and images to each other. Bytedance is putting pressure on WeChat, which has more than 1 billion users and is considered a must-have in China. Tencent has used the popularity of WeChat to underpin its other businesses, including its gaming operations. In a move that will likely boost its popularity in time for Lunar New Year next month, Duoshan would facilitate the exchange of red packets — digital payments that have become a new-age tradition among Chinese.
UNITED STATES
Web gambling illegal: DOJ
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has said federal law bars all Internet gambling, reversing its position from 2011 that only sports betting is prohibited under a law passed 50 years earlier. The reversal was prompted by the department’s criminal division, which prosecutes illegal gambling. The opinion issued about seven years ago that the 1961 Wire Act only banned sports gambling was a misinterpretation of the statute, according to a 23-page opinion by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel dated on Nov. 2 and made public on Monday.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure