As the pandemic is gradually brought under control in a growing number of countries and we return to using public transportation, many of us want to take the opportunity to make this option attractive to everybody, including those who can afford to drive and park in cities, and through ambitious investment plans find a solution to congestion and air pollution.
Green public transportation policies could play a major role in defining our post-pandemic future: we desperately need to abandon fossil fuels, but even if we start transitioning toward electric vehicles for private use (responsible for 75% of urban emissions), emissions…
Amazon has announced that as of June 8, all the company’s devices (Echo home assistants, Ring cameras, etc.) in the United States will automatically connect with each other, forming a vast wireless mesh network via Bluetooth and radio signals in the 900MHz band, to create Amazon Sidewalk, its IoT service provider. …
Palantir is one of the most sinister companies in the world. Founded in May 2003 by ultra-conservative Peter Thiel after his departure from PayPal, the company has been under his leadership for 17 years, during which it has amassed the largest collection of personal data worldwide on behalf of governments, immigration agencies and police departments around the world, even collaborating with the United Nations on projects that usually impacted negatively on those subjected to its spying.
The company, which embodies all that is wrong and unethical about data science, has never turned a profit, despite signing multi-million dollar contracts with…
As the vaccination campaigns around the world gain traction and companies start thinking about a post-pandemic future, the possibility of returning to the office looms.
The pandemic and the changes it imposed on how we work now provide a unique opportunity to take a more flexible approach to work; but not all companies and managers are capable of taking advantage of it. For many of them, the fact that 65% of people who have experienced distributed work during the pandemic want to continue working that way, and that 33% like the idea of hybrid models that combine distributed work with…
Twitter is launching its Twitter Blue subscription service, for the moment in just two markets, Canada and Australia, priced at $3.49 Canadian and $4.49 Australian dollars, with the idea that in the United States it will cost $2.99.
This premium version of Twitter offers some additional features, such as an Undo button for tweets that will offer up to 30 seconds to undo an update and correct it if desired, a folder for storing tweets into subfolders, a reading mode that makes it easier to view threads, some color customization options, and an exclusive technical service. …
This week has produced a spectacular batch of news stories highlighting the many contradictions facing us as we embark on the greatest technological transition in our history: abandoning fossil fuels.
Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies, has been forced by a Dutch court to cut its emissions much faster than originally planned: 45% by 2030, with the court arguing that the company’s decarbonization targets were incompatible with the Paris Agreement.
The news, which could (and should) trigger a wave of similar cases around the world, coincides with increased pressure on the boards of two other of the world’s…
It will probably take a few months to know the verdict of the Epic Games vs. Apple case, which came to a close on Monday, and although it looks like Apple will win the case, it could have implications for the future of the App Store, most of them probably positive for developers, leading some analysts to claim that Apple may win the battle but lose the war.
The case, which has a European spin-off that has managed to align a few companies that are opposed to App Store policies, pits Apple, a company that tends to polarize opinions, against…
Last Monday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo presented a $52 billion investment proposal aimed at chip manufacturing, which she said should stimulate private investment and lead to the construction of between seven and 10 factories on U.S. soil.
The ongoing shortage of chips worldwide, which is causing disruption to a range of industries, notably consumer electronics and vehicle manufacturing, has made them the resource that increasingly defines countries’ competitiveness. …
David Belliard, a former leader of the French Green Party and now a member of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s team, in charge of the transformation of public spaces and transportation, has announced in a Twitter thread a consultation on the Quiet Zone project for the city center and north of the Boulevard Saint-Germain which aims to pedestrianize these areas and ban through traffic in them as of 2022. Streets in these zones would be reserved for residents’ cars, public transport or delivery vehicles, with priority for pedestrians, bicycles and scooters.
By eliminating through traffic, the initiative would reduce traffic and…
The state of California has unanimously approved a regulation that will force all drivers of ride-hailing vehicles and the companies that operate them to transition to electrification over the present decade: by 2030, 90% of the distance traveled by them in the state must be electric.
The resolution won’t pose too much of a problem for companies like Uber or Lyft, which only anticipated the move and had set 2030 as their target for total electrification, and had even launched programs to help their drivers achieve it, but it could pose a problem for smaller companies or independent drivers with…
Enrique Dans
Professor of Innovation at IE Business School, blogger at enriquedans.com and Senior Contributor at Forbes
