Tesla encounters problems with first Model 3 deliveries in Europe

It is a year and a half after US Tesla customers began to receive their orders for the Model 3 until the first shipment of the models arrived at the beginning of this week at the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

Delivery problems

Some who arrived at the factory were disappointed when they were turned away with no car. Tesla confirmed to the news outlet Electra that it could not deliver as many cars as it had planned. Elon Musk the Tesla CEO tweeted: "Sorry, many unexpected challenges with cars coming through Zeebrugge first time. Cars will start moving out in volume tomorrow. 3:17 PM - 6 Feb 2019" Musk did not elaborate on what was involved in the "unexpected challenges".

Another shipment of Model 3s is expected within the next few days. Perhaps this time he will wait until the cars get to the Netherlands factory before he issues invitations to pick the cars up. As of this January, around 14,000 of the Model 3s have been preordered throughout Europe.

Preorders started in 2016

Preorders began in March of 2016 at the same time as the car was revealed. By April Tesla had as many as 325,000 preorders globally. The first deliveries began in July of 2017. Tesla had problems ramping up production during 2018 but ended the year with some stock not sold. As reported in a recent Digital Journal article Tesla customers were not able to begin configuring their Model 3s until this January.

Only more expensive versions available at present in Europe

At present only the higher end more expensive Model 3s all-wheel-drive and performance versions of the vehicle will be available not the basic cheaper rear-wheel-drive version which is now available in the US. The models are described, in French, here.

Higher production needed to make cheaper models profitable to make

Musk has noted that higher production is needed of the cheaper Model 3s. No doubt the margin of returns on the cheaper models is lower than the more expensive model 3s and other models. Tesla is set to introduce a new crossover type vehicle in March this year the Model Y as reported in a recent Digital Journal article. Perhaps, this will help the company's bottom line. Tesla is also building a large factory in China which will give the company an excellent foundation in a country that is pushing EVs and has a huge market.

The European models are at present without Autopilot which offers automatic cruise control, lane keeping and changing as reported in the LA Times. Although the Model 3 has been approved the Autopilot system has not been approved as yet.

Previously published in DIgital Journal

E-scooters caused over 1,500 injuries in the US just since late 2017

Consumer Reports recently put out a report that found since late 2017 until now electric scooters caused 1,542 injuries in the US. The data was collected from 110 hospitals and 5 agencies in 47 cities.

These were all cities where Bird or Lime, the leading tech-enabled scooter-sharing platforms operate.

UCLA study

This news comes a little after the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) also published a study which found that 249 people required medical care after accidents with the scooters. One third of those injured had to take an ambulance to the hospital.

Tarak Trivedi, an emergency doctor at UCLA, the lead author of the study said: “These injuries can be severe.These aren’t just minor cuts and scrapes. These are legit fractures.”

These reports may provide an incentive for those in the business of renting the e-scooters to show more concern about safety matters.

An accident example

Paul Grasso decided to rent a shared electric scooter through Lime, as he had many times before. He expected it to be a routine trip. As he was setting out Grasso noticed that there was construction ahead so he steered up onto the sidewalk to avoid it. However, as he did so the scooter hit a bump and he crashed head-first into the ground. He said "The whole unit just flipped forward and smashed my face into the cement walkway." Grasso was not wearing a helmet. Grasso, 50 years old, spent the next four days in the hospital recovering from his head injuries.

Despite contrary claims safety seems a low priority for e-scooter renters

Wearing a helmet is not required and not having one is the norm. Failed hardware in the scooters, access to the scooters even in the evening and irresponsible riding practices on the part of riders all are factors contributing to accidents. A tragic example of irresponsible riding happened recently in Austin Texas where a person riding a Lime scooter died when struck by an Uber driver. However, the person was driving the wrong way on an interstate. See this report.

Both Lime and Bird along with other leading providers do provide free helmets and don't encourage poor riding etiquette. Ensuring riders actually wear helmets or do stupid thinks such as the rider who died in Austin is impossible.

Previously published in Digital Journal;

An optimistic view of when autonomous vehicles will be widely available is a decade

While areas such as Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley are actively researching the development of autonomous vehicles, they are not likely to be seen actually carrying passengers or be released for sale for years to come.

How long will it take for release of autonomous vehicles?

Even an optimistic assessment puts general use of the vehicles at ten years. Some even think it will be decades. There are numerous obstacles facing the development of the vehicles.

Vehicles already operate in limited well laid out areas within cities. Their use will spread out from these areas. The fatal accident of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona last March damaged public perception of the safety of the vehicles. As a result research became more careful. Although in the Uber crash that car was in self-driving mode there was also a driver in the car as well. The accident may have been in part caused by the actions of the cyclist victim.

Google's Waymo, as an example of safety measures taken after the crash, decided it would not launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area. For now it is using human backup drivers in the service. Here are some of the problems researchers face.

Snow and weather

When snow becomes deep enough to cover the lane markings that the vehicle's cameras rely on to find their way, the vehicle cannot determine where it is in a lane very well. So far researchers have found no solution to this problem. This is why most research is being done in places with a warm climate such as Arizona or California.

Heavy snow, rain, fog and even sandstorms block the view of cameras that the vehicle use for sensing where it is. Light beams sent out by laser sensors can bounce off snowflakes mistaking them for obstacles. Although radar can penetrate the weather it cannot perceive shapes necessary for computers to decide what an object is.

Software is being developed that can differentiate real obstacles from heavy rain, snowflakes, fog and other conditions.

Pavement lines and curbs

From place to place markings on roadways vary and on many roads do not even exist. Even when there are lane lines they are not standardized. Vehicles must learn how to drive differently in various cities, countries, and conditions.

In addition to these problems, on many roads there are no curbs by which vehicles can judge lane width.

Dealing with human drivers

Human don't always obey the rules of the road. Autonomous vehicles are often not equipped to deal with the situation. Humans often double part for example. In Pittsburgh recently, an Argo self-driving vehicle stopped during a right hand turn and was blocking an intersection as the AI could not decide whether to go around a double-parked delivery truck. Fortunately the vehicle had a backup driver.

Some humans do not like autonomous vehicles. In Phoenix people have been reported harassing Waymo's autonomous test vehicles. Police in suburban Chandler have documented at least 21 instances in the past two years, and one includes a man who waived a gun at a Waymo van, and others in which tires were slashed and rocks thrown at vehicles. A jeep forced vans off the road six times.

Left turns

In places where there is no green arrow, it is often problematic for autonomous vehicles to decide if it is safe to turn left. Even humans find this a bit of a challenge. Waymo CEO John Krafcik said: "I think the things that humans have challenges with, we're challenged with as well."

Public acceptance of autonomous vehicles

Many people fear riding in autonomous vehicles and many others fear being on the road with them or worry as pedestrians or cyclists. Recently AAA found that fully 73 percent of Americans are too fearful to drive in an autonomous vehicle. This is up from just 63 percent in late 2017.

However Krafcik from Waymo pointed out that the more people ride the more they trust the vehicles. Passengers in the test vehicles are shown information on screens about where vehicles are headed and what their sensors are seeing. Krafcik said over time people looked less at the screens and were on their phones or even sleeping.

Cost

On website Quora, plant engineer Justin Culmo notes: "Price: will be the biggest inhibitor of adoption. Self-driving will only be in higher-end cars for a long time, and better versions (levels of autonomy) will come out, first, in the more expensive cars."

Culmo predicts that driving enthusiasts will stay away from self-driving cars. Many people will still treasure driving around in their older cars and sportscars. No doubt many will trust driving their own cars over riding in an autonomous vehicle.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken acquires Crypto Facilities

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken just pulled off its largest acquisition yet. Kraken is buying Crypto Facilities in a nine figure deal, at least a hundred million dollars.

Kraken

Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange that operates in several countries and is especially active in the EU. Wikipedia describes

Kraken as follows: "Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange operating in Canada,[8][9] the EU,[4] Japan,[10] and the US, and "the world's largest bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity".[11][12][13][14][15][10] Kraken provides Bitcoin pricing to the Bloomberg Terminal.[16] In April 2017, according to reports, Kraken launched fiat funding options to transfer denominated US dollars and government-issued currencies.[17]Throughout 2017, the Kraken exchange suffered from DDoS attacks and performance issues. In November 2017, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell apologized for the site issues, but praised security, citing its impeccable record.[18]" Kraken is named after a legendary beast somewhat like the real one depicted in the appended photo.

Kraken currently has 4 million users who traded the equivalent of $90 billion in 2018.

Crypto Facilities

Crypto Facilities is described as: "Crypto Facilities offers individuals and institutions regulated, transparent and secure trading 24/7/365. The firm is also the leading provider of cryptocurrency indices, calculating the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate and Real Time Index that power the CME Group’s Bitcoin Futures, and the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate and Ether-Dollar Real Time Index. Financial institutions, trading firms and data providers globally use Crypto Facilities’ indices and underlying data to optimise their cryptocurrency trading activity.

Crypto Facilities Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 757895) and registered in England with registered number 9172128 and registered office at 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP, United Kingdom."

Crypto Facilities allows users of the exchange to trade futures on many different cryptocurrency pairs. With its acquisition of the company Kraken users will be able to have access to both spot and futures trading. Futures are limited to just six pairs as of now.

Kraken has made earlier buyouts

In the past Krakan has also bought out smaller exchanges including Coinsetter, Cavirtex, CleverCoin, Gildera, and Cryptowatch. While Coinbase is very popular in the US, Kraken is quite popular with European customers. Krakan does a large volume of business in the EU.

Kraken to obtain new funding

Fortune reports that Kraken is about to close a $100 million funding round. Instead of raising the money through venture capitalists, the usual route, Krakan is raising the money through emails to its most loyal customers. Using this method Krakan does not have to register the round with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Kraken has not provided any information about those investing during the new round although it is said to be working exclusively with accredited investors.

Previously published in Digital Jl

On Venezuela

The two tweets discussed show how imagining a somewhat similar situation happening in the US or elsewhere would show how a coup such as in Venezuela would be handled.

The first tweet is by Daniel McAdams:

Imagine if an American politician took foreign money and actively recruited the military to attack the elected US government with the intent of overthrow.

McAdams says on his Twitter page: "Executive Director, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Tweets are mine alone and often terribly rude. So yeah, there's that" There's nothing rude about his quoted tweet but it is certainly interesting.

The attempted coup against Trump

Imagine that Trump makes some disastrous policy mistakes that send the US economy in a tailspin. He keeps on as usual denying what actually is happening. However, his former corporate friends get tired of his antics and actions and so do many US allies such as Canada the UK and others. There is internal opposition as well.

Finally Nancy Pelosi the Democratic speaker of the House communicates with Canadian, UK and officials of several Latin American allies. They decide that Trump has to go. Not only is he making the US a laughing stock but also an economic disaster. They think not only that he probably won the election unfairly because of Russian interference but that he also has several times violated the constitution. This line is pushed by the foreign media and the Democratic opposition.

The Democracy Group as the foreign countries in opposition to Trump call themselves have secret meetings for almost a year planning what to do. Eventually they decide that they will declare that Pelosi is the legitimate interim president given that Trump violated the US Constitution and won the election illegitimately. The foreign members of the group also send money to help organize demonstrations.

After Pelosi declares herself interim president, they also send money to support her and the Democrats. Sanctions are levied against Trump and his officials.

Pelosi asks the armed forces to defect from Trump and accept her as Commander in Chief. She also gets the UK and other allies to freeze US assets or even turn them over to the Pelosi group.

The Trump administration would not wait around. It would arrest the leaders of the attempted coup. Ban demonstrations. If any happened they would be put down ruthlessly as being organized by traitors. Leaders of demonstrations would be arrested.

In this case it is Trump not the opposition that caused the economic chaos. However, this is the position that many interventionists argue happened in Venezuela through Maduro's policies. But surely one has to admit that in the Venezuelan situation it is even worse as the coup leaders such as the US deliberately through sanctions and otherwise made the situation worse.

Is a coup possible in the US?

The idea of a coup in the US may seem like complete fantasy but actually given certain conditions quite a substantial minority of Americans would support a coup. A recent article notes: In 2017, about 25 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans said they favored a military intervention if the country faced rampant crime or corruption.

Another article about a possible military coup in the US concludes: "Experts who study coups don't think one is in the cards for the US. Natasha Ezrow, a senior lecturer on government at the UK's University of Essex and a commentator on authoritarianism, emphasized that "a coup is completely unlikely." Tom Ginsburg, a scholar of coups and professor of law at the University of Chicago, felt the same way as Ezrow—he published a paper to that effect earlier this month. But, he added, "We're at this moment where it's very good to be considering these things."

So at least the possibility of a US coup is worth discussing and if there were such a coup it would have significant report if it was for corruption. With a very poor economic situation it would no doubt receive much more. Perhaps Americans would be against any foreign intervention but perhaps not if the circumstances were dire enough.

The failure of Maduro to arrest Guaido

A tweet by me in response to McAdams:

If Maduro had acted as most any other leader would against a person clearly committing treason there probably would be a civil war now. Guaido should be in jail awaiting trial. Ken Hanly added,

Daniel McAdams@DanielLMcAdams

Scenario playing out. Guaido clearly happy to green-light an American invasion of Venezuela. Need a few false flags - a massacre at an anti-Maduro rally would suffice. Guaido then formally requests US assistance as the "legitimate" head of Venezuelan government. Washington acts. https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1092083193187102720 …

2:14 PM - 3 Feb 2019

Can you imagine in any country in the world if an opposition leader announced they were the president and the existing president and his or her government was illegitimate that the actual president would allow the leader of the attempted coup roam free, lead demonstrations, and give interviews to foreign media? Yet the global press for the most part sees this as quite normal and get upset when any move against Guaido is taken such as forbidding him from leaving the country or freezing his bank accounts. They even fail to see this as an anomaly.

Maduro is leery of taking any steps that could lead to more intervention and a civil war. He is trying to avoid a civil war. Meanwhile the US says the time for dialogue is over. The only peaceful means out seems to be surrender. DW, a prominent German news source, is one of the very few outlets that even discusses the issue. DW believes that Maduro is fearful of what the US will do if he arrests Guaido and charges him as shown on the appended video.

Previously published in Digital Journal

New research reports that just two groups are responsible for most hacks

New research suggests that just two groups are responsible for a majority of cryptocurrency hacks up to now. Chainalysis , a company that provides blockchain software, made the claim in a recent report.

Alpha and Beta

Chainanalysis calls the two prominent professional criminal groups Alpha and Beta and claims the two are responsible for at least 60 percent of all reported hacks of crypto exchanges. The hacks have netted the two groups about $1 billion in all.

The report says: “On average, the hacks we traced from the two prominent hacking groups stole $90 million per hack. The hackers typically move stolen funds through a complex array of wallets and exchanges in an attempt to disguise the funds’ criminal origins."

Alpha is described as a "giant, tightly controlled organization partly driven by non-monetary goals" while Beta is less organized and smaller and completely focused on money.

The two organizations operate rather differently

Chainanalysis analyzed the transactions of the two groups and as a result found that Alpha quickly moves it funds after stealing them with an extremely high number of movements of the funds. One hack involved up to 15,000 transfers. Within 30 days Alpha manages to convert up to 75 percent of the stolen cryptocoins into cash.

In contrast the Beta group is slow in transferring the stolen coins into cash taking between 6 and 18 months before turning the stolen coins into cash. When it does decide to cash out it does so through one crypto exchange, cashing out over 50 percent of the stolen coins within days. Once it cashed out about $32 million worth of coins in one go.

Ethereum scams

One part of the report deals with Ethereum scams. The report found that such scams are increasing in number though they are smaller in scale In 2018. However, $36 million of the coin ether were stolen in 2018 more than double the $17 million stolen in 2017.

Theft continues even in a bear market

Theft continues even during a bear market such as last year. Bitcoin lost about 80 percent of its value. Yet the report claims that darknet market activity almost doubled. I presume the thieves simply steal more of a coin.

The report said: “Cryptocurrency crime is evolving to become part of traditional crime, and we think this trend will continue in 2019. Cryptocurrency market participants will need cutting edge technology and investigative analysis to fight back.”

North Korea accused of hacks

Last October cybersecurity vendor Group IB suggested that a North Korean hacking group, Lazarus, had managed to steal $571 million in 14 different hacks on exchanges since January 2017.

Crime is a small portion of the total cryptocurrency market

The Chainanalysis report notes: "Crime makes up a small subset of a much larger cryptocurrency market, but it remains significant: In 2018, a record-setting amount of crypto crime took place. The types of crypto crime are diverse and increasingly sophisticated, from Ethereum-based scams rising and falling with cryptocurrency prices, to darknet markets showing resilience against market trends, to hacks being carried out by professional organizations with distinct modus operandi. We take a deep dive into three types of crypto crime and the implications for the larger cryptocurrency ecosystem."

The three types of crypto crime are treated in distinct parts of the report: Darknet Markets; Ethereum Scams; and Hacks.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Artificial intelligence is begin used to help save bee colonies

Machine learning and related types of Artificial Intelligence(AI) are used to work to help solve various problems but it still seems surprising that it could be used to help stop the alarming decline in bee populations across the globe.

The Varroa mite

Wikipedia describes the Varrao mite as follows: " The Varroa mite can only reproduce in a honey bee colony. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking fat bodies [1]. In this process, RNA viruses such as the deformed wing virus (DWV) spread to bees. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring. The Varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. Varroa is considered to be one of multiple stress factors[2] contributing to the higher levels of bee losses around the world."

A recent article claims that the mite rarely kills a bee outright but weakens the bee by sucking blood and weakening it making it susceptible to diseases and causes young to be born weak and deformed. In time this can lead to colony collapse. One problem is that you may not even see the mites as they are only a millimeter or so across. An infestation may not be discovered for some time.

As shown on the appended video beekeepers put a flat surface beneath the hive and pull it out to inspect it to find tiny bodies of the mites. It is painstaking and time-consuming work.

How machine learning can help

Machine learning models are good at sorting through data that is "noisy" such as the flat surface with the varroa mites on it but covered in all sorts of other debris. The machine can be taught to identify the shape of the mites, and count them.

Apizoom

Students in Switzerland at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale at Lausanne(EPFL) have created an image recognition device named ApiZoom. When trained on images of mites through a photo, the device can recognize any visible mite bodies in seconds. All a beekeeper has to do is take a photo with a smartphone and upload it to the EPFL system.

The EPFL project was begun back in 2017. The model has been trained with tens of thousands of images that have made it progressively better at its job. The success rate of detection is now about 90 percent about the same as humans achieve. The project now intends to distribute the app as widely as it can.

Alain Burgnon of the EPFL project said: “We envisage two phases: a web solution, then a smartphone solution. These two solutions allow to estimate the rate of infestation of a hive, but if the application is used on a large scale, of a region. By collecting automatic and comprehensive data, it is not impossible to make new findings about a region or atypical practices of a beekeeper, and also possible mutations of the Varroa mites.”

This kind of systematic data collection would be a major help for coordinating response to infestations at a national level. No doubt ApiZoom could be used globally not just in Switzerland. Apizoom is being spun off as a separate company by Bugnon.

There are many ways of dealing with an infestation as described in the Wikipedia article on the virus. Some bee types are resistant to the mite and perhaps more of those bees will be used to produce honey. However, the Apizoom app will no doubt help out to control the mite.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Huawei to introduce foldable smart phone at the Mobile World Congress

The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is known for mobile innovations. It will continue this tradition by introducing a foldable phone device promised for this year. The device will be introduced at the Mobile World Congress.

Huawei wants to release its foldable phone device before Samsung's

The Mobile World Congress(MWC) is traditionally the biggest show of the year for featuring mobile innovations. The foldable phone will be introduced on Sunday February 24th at 2PM local time in Barcelona according to a company tweet, beating out Samsung. In a separate tweet, the company notes that the phone will be "the world's first 5G foldable device".

A Verge article from July last year notes: "A Nikkei report out of China this week has revealed Huawei’s efforts to build and release a foldable smartphone ahead of Android arch-rival Samsung. Samsung has long held the display innovation lead thanks to its subsidiary Samsung Display, which just announced that its upcoming “unbreakable” flexible phone screen has been certified for being extra tough and durable. But Huawei, making use of flexible OLED panels from Chinese supplier BOE, is apparently planning to do a very limited run of foldable handsets, with analysts estimating they could come as soon as early next year."

Huawei device designed for 5G networks

However, 5G networks are not yet at maturity but even so the hype around them go ahead in 2019 as the company plans. Expect many quirky form factors to be on show at the congress. LG is said to be planning an attachable second screen in a refresh of its G line.

A recent article describes the LG second screen: "Apparently, the second screen will be an optional attachment, like a case, that will be designed to extend the screen size of the device. It’s not immediately clear how that would work or if it would be included in the box or sold as a separate accessory. But LG is expected to show off the device next month at the annual Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona, CNET reports."

The appended video describes the Huawei foldable phone in more detail.

Formerly published in Digital Journal

Trump celebrates Dow Jones breaking 2500 just a he did last year at this time

US president Donald Trump always celebrates when the stock market is doing well so it is not surprising that on Wednesday he tweeted in celebration as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose above the 25,000 mark.

From this January to last January the Dow Jones is now basically flat

On Wednesday the 29th of January 2019 Trump tweeted: "Dow just broke 25,000. Tremendous news! 1:54 PM - 30 Jan"

While this is positive for investors, since the Dow Jones has been doing badly lately, one needs to see how this compares with last year around this time. Investors want their investments to increase in value over time. A look at the history of Trump's tweets shows a forgetful approach to the fluctuations of the Dow Jones over an extended period.

On January 4, 2018 just after Trump signed into law his tax cuts that helped mostly businesses and the wealthy he tweeted: "@realDonaldTrump Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.

9:48 AM - Jan 4, 2018"

Trump tweeted a third time on July 14, 2018 that "The Stock Market hit 25,000" meaning the Dow Jones average. He also said that jobs were at an all-time record and that he had fixed some of the worst trade deals and conditions ever seen by any government.

2018 was a bad year for stocks

The year 2018 was actually the worst year for stocks since 2008, the year of the great recession. While some factors causing the slide were due to Trump, others were not.

The present economic expansion has been continuing for so long, until recently slowing a bit, that many investors have been wondering how long their luck would last. A combination of global and domestic events may have convinced many that as of now things will begin to decline.

Trump's trade war with China is one of their concerns, in that it could have a negative effect on some farmers such as those who grow soybeans and also raise consumer prices. Economic growth has slowed in the EU and is also expected to slow down in China next year. The drama in the UK over Brexit is causing worries as well. Some worry also that the Feds may raise interest rates slowing growth.

As markets dropped during the late fall, Trump stopped talking about it, but talked about such things as low gas prices and low unemployment. As stocks have risen in January, he is back at his old boasting. As usual, he does not place it in context which shows that the stock market actually had a very bad year in 2018.

The issue is also covered on CNN.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Chinese giant Tencent to partner with Chinese auto group

Some of China's Internet companies are forming partnerships with large state-owned auto manufacturers in order to deploy their artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing services across traditional Chinese industries.

Tencent to partner with the GAC group in new venture

Tencent is described by Wikipedia: "Tencent Holdings Limited is a Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate founded in 1998, whose subsidiaries specialise in various Internet-related services and products, entertainment, artificial intelligence and technology both in China and globally. Its twin-skyscrapers headquarters Tencent Seafront Towers (also known as Tencent Binhai Mansion) are based in Nanshan District, Shenzhen.

"The company surpassed the market value of US$500 billion in 2018, becoming the first Asian technology company to cross the valuation mark. It has since then emerged as one of Asia's most valuable companies, and among the world's top technology companies by market value. Tencent has been credited as one of the world's most innovative companies by numerous media and firms, including Boston Consulting Group. As of 2018, Tencent has the 5th highest global brand value."

The GAC group is a Chinese auto manufacturer: "GAC Group (officially Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese automobile maker headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong, and a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group. GAC sells passenger cars under the Trumpchi brand, passenger cars and commercial vehicles under the Gonow brand, SUVs under the Changfeng Motor brand, and buses under the GAC Bus brand. GAC produced 728,000 vehicles in 2012, and is the tenth largest in volume. It is the sixth-largest producer of passenger cars among Chinese automakers. While the company is primary focused on consumer vehicles, it does make large passenger buses and commercial trucks although it is outside the top ten commercial vehicle makers in China."

GAC has a joint venture with Honda, but it has five foreign partners altogether allowing it produce other brands including Fiat, Honda, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and Toyota in China.

GAC which is owned by the Guangzhou municipal government in south China announced in a filing that it will jointly establish a mobility company with Tencent, Guangzhou Public Transport Group, as well as other investors.

New partnership follows an earlier one

In 2017 Tencent and GAC also teamed together on internet-connected cars and smart driving. This allowed GAC to tap into Tencent's expertise on mobile payments, social networking, big data, and cloud services. Tencent is known for its instant messenger service "We Chat". The company restructured last October to concentrate on enterprise-facing services and the GAC partnership fits in with the new emphasis. The partnership is discussed in this earlier Digital Journal article.

New mobility venture will have a large capital infusion

The new partnership venture will have a capital infusion of 1 billion yuan or $149 million. GAC will own 35 per cent of the company, Tencent and Guangzhour Public Transport will hold 25 percent and 10 percent respectively with other investors the remainder.

Other Chinese Internet services entering partnerships with the automotive industry

The ride-hailing startup Didi Chuxing, which owns Uber China, announced earlier this week a new joint venture with state-owned BAIC. Huawei the telecommunications manufacturer and voice assistant startup iFytec has partnered with GAC to upgrade its vehicles. The search giant Baidu is operating an open platform has partnered with state-owned Honggi to test out its autonomous driving software. Finally the e-commerce giant Alibaba is producing a smart sedan together with the state-owned SAIC.

Previously published in Digital Journal

26.3 billion robocalls made in US last year 46 percent more than 2017

A newly released report compiled by Hiya, an app that monitors spam calls found that 26.3 billion robocalls were made to US phone numbers last year. This is a 46 percent rise from the 18 billion made in 2017.

The average person received 10 spam calls a month. The top area codes targeted were from Texas, with 214 Dallas, 817 Forth Worth, and 210 San Antonio at the top of the list.

Complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Though the data is alarming, the FTC Commission on the Do-Not-Call registry, reported a decrease in filed complaints in 2018. During the period from October 2017 to September 2018 the registry received about 5.7 million complaints, with 3.8 being robocalls and another 1.9 million live callers. In 2017 there were 7.1 million complaints with 4.5 being robocalls.

Even though the total number of complaints went down the percentage of robocalls increased from about 63 percent of the total to 66 percent. The most common robocalls dealt with debt reduction, medical prescriptions, and impostors.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) claims it had more than 52,000 complaints about caller ID spoofing in 2016 alone. Wikipedia describes called ID spoofing as follows: "Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. For example, a caller ID display might display a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed. The term is commonly used to describe situations in which the motivation is considered malicious by the originator."

The Do-Not-Call registry has not helped stop robocalls

The Verge reports: "While the Do Not Call Registry was established in 2003, the volume of calls has still grown significantly in recent years. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed to The Verge last year that it’s fielding an average of around 500,000 complaints a month over robocalls. The problem has led to some consumers filing lawsuits under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) if they receive calls when they’re listed on the Do Not Call Registry."

Attempts to solve problem

There has been some pressure on the US federal government to solve the problem. However both the FTC and the FCC had been affected by the partial government shutdown. However, a Senate bill has been introduced that could hit robocallers with a $10,000 fine for every robocall. In November 2018 Ajit Pai, FCC chair called on carriers to adopt the SHAKEN/STIR protocol which functions as a type of caller identification. T-Mobile has been the first US carrier to implement the protocol. On mobile phones users will see a "caller verified" notice in supported phones.

Previously published in DIgital Journal

EBay shares fall on lower earnings outlook

((January  30) Even though eBay Inc. did well in the fourth quarter and also introduced its first ever dividend this was overshadowed by the forecast for the March quarter which was below estimates and disappointing growth in revenues during the holiday quarter.

	1 of 2

The negatives

The shares were down a full one percent in after hours trading subsequent to a move up after the company announced it would be paying a dividend of 14 cents a share each quarter.

The company is facing demands from activist shareholders that they sell some divisions and restructure as the company is facing fierce competition from other online retailers such as Amazon.

Even though more buyers are using the eBay platform the company reported consumer spending was slow during the busy shopping period.

Detailed figures presented a bit more optimistically can be found here, with the article pointing out: "Gross revenues of $2.87 billion increased 6.3% year over year (up 6% on an Fx-neutral basis) and were within the guided range of $2.85-$2.89 billion. Moreover, revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.86 billion. The company continues to leverage its structured data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve user experience on its platform. Notably, this aided in growth of active buyers on its platform, which drove GMV. Further, robust growth of Advertising and Payment platform drove eBay’s top-line growth."

CEO claims company to boost volume in the longer term

Although eBay CEO Devin Wenig predicted that there would be pressure on the company's gross merchandise volume (GMV), that is the value of all the products sold on its website because it had reduced some marketing expenditures, he was sure that the company would benefit from new sales and a payments initiative that would boost GMV over the longer term. Wenig said in a conference call with analysts: “We believe that the actions we’re taking in ‘19 will set us up well."

Some figures

The company forecast revenue of $2.55 billion to $2.60 billion for the current quarter. Analysts had a target of $2.66 billion.

GMV rose just one percent in the December quarter again missing analysts' estimates. Also, it dipped in the US.

However, it was not all bad news as the last quarter of 2018 showed that eBay's sales actually climbed 6.8 percent year over year reaching $2.88 billion actually bettering estimates.

The number of users of eBay also has grown. At the end of December the company had 179 million active buyers, an increase of about 2 million above the previous quarter. The company also increased its share buybacks by a huge $4 billion after pressure from activist investors.

eBay’s quarterly profit reached $763 million, compared with a loss of $2.6 billion a year earlier, when eBay recorded a one-time expense of more than $3 billion.

Tom Forte, an analyst at D.A. Davidson said: “The hope for eBay, in my opinion, is their ability to supplement the marketplace with advertising and a growing payments business, but I think the core marketplace is still a challenged business.”

Previously published on Digital Journal

Mainstream press often leaves out key background information about Venezuela situation

The mainstream press reports some false or misleading information about Venezuela. Sometimes this is just because the mainstream reports officials without comment even though what they say is false.

The Moon of Alabama deals with some of these false claims. However the mainstream media also leaves out key background information necessary to understand what is going on in Venezuela. I will give just a few examples.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court dissolved the General Assembly

The General Assembly had been in contempt of the court for some time after the Assembly seated three members which the Supreme Court claimed had been involved in invalid elections. The Assembly ignored the ruling. In response the Supreme Court dissolved the Assembly and ruled that all its powers would be transferred to it. The CNN report at the time not surprisingly slants towards the opposition views of what happened.

Of course the Assembly and its supporters were up in arms calling the move a coup. The ruling did result in Maduro's party ruling all three branches of the government. There are grounds to question the move no doubt, but the mainstream press does not even bring the matter up. This makes it impossible to understand the Maduro government position. Is that the idea?

Negotiations to solve the conflict

There have been at least three sets of negotiations designed to solve the conflict. One in the Dominican Republic last February supposedly reached an agreement as reported in this article: "The Venezuelan government claimed on Wednesday that it had reached a preliminary agreement with the country's main opposition coalition during ongoing talks in the Dominican Republic, lauding the milestone as a triumph over US efforts to bring about regime change in the South American country.

"Today Donald Trump has been defeated… Today the opposition and government of Venezuela signed a pre-agreement,” stated Communications Minister and delegate to the talks, Jorge Rodriguez." However the agreement was never ratified by the opposition and the talks broke down. Yet there is no talk of negotiations now as indicated in Pompeo's address to the UN a portion of which is on the appended video. In most reports there are no mention of prior negotiations nor of negotiations being a solution even though they avoid violence and involve Venezuelans themselves solving the issues.

Maduro himself has continually requested negotiations. Last January the National Assembly controlled by the opposition also had called for the negotiations held in the Dominican Republic but the Assembly was divided on the issue.

The Constituent Assembly

Probably most people have never heard of the Constituent Assembly but without some knowledge of it and its role it is impossible to understand how the Maduro government functions. Of course many reject the Assembly as shown in this Wikipedia article on the Assembly. However, it has assumed the powers that originally resided in the National Assembly.

There is some criticism of the Constituent National Assembly from within as noted in this article by Julio Escalona a member of the constituent national assembly (ANC): "The problem, from my point of view, is that even though the ANC has approved open debates in the street, in the barrios, in rural areas, etc., that hasn’t happened. A void exists, and it has to be filled soon! The debate internally within the ANC cannot remain inside the four walls of the Assembly chambers. The leadership, the heads of commissions, the delegates… everybody must go out to debate in public squares, in the barrios."

There are numerous other omissions that could be talked about some about the presidential election but perhaps what I have noted is enough to at least show how the mainstream press is guilty of sins of omission. While there is much to be legitimately debated with respect to all three issues, my point is that the mainstream media no longer bothers even to admit basic information necessary to understand the Maduro government position.

Tesla fined over $29,000 for violating California labor laws

The EV maker Tesla has had a fine of $29,365 imposed on it for violating California labor laws in its parking lot tent, GA4, where the company has been assembling the popular Model 3.

The fines were imposed by California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA)

The six violations

According to Business Week the six violations were:

Obtain a permit prior to building GA4

Inspect GA4 for potential safety hazards

Cover or guard an opening in the floor of GA4 that was 22 inches wide, 14 inches long, and 8-inches deep

Train enough employees to help evacuate workers from the facility in the event of an emergency

Properly train employees to prevent and respond to heat illness

Protect workers from exposed metal rods and rebar that posed a "hazard of impalement"

Laurie Shelby, Tesla's vice-president of environmental, health, and safety said that the company would challenge the findings and fine: “Nothing is more important to me or to Tesla than the health and well-being of our employees. My EHS team and operational leaders have been intently focused on [the tent assembly line] over the past six months, implementing safety protocols throughout the new line that not only keep Tesla in compliance with existing standards but also reduce risks to associates.”

Shelby also claims that the inspections were not a result of any incident or injury, and that Cal-OSHA performed them while the tent was still under construction. The report claims that the incidents cover the period between June and December last year so surely there must have been more than an inspection before the tent was fully built.

The Tesla tent at Fremont California

The assembly tent was set up in a parking lot outside the Tesla factory in Fremont California in the summer of 2018. It was intended to boost production of Model 3s to thousands per week. The idea was a huge departure from by-the-books automotive manufacturing. However, it increased production of the Model 3s by 50 percent helping to meet CEO Elon Musk's production targets. According to Musk it not only helped the company avoid death but to reach its first profitable quarter in two years. It still has not had a yearly profit.

Tesla has had safety problems in the past

Tesla has been accused of workplace safety issues repeatedly before. Cal-OSHA is reported to be running multiple investigations of the company. Recently, the on-site health clinic has been accused of underreporting injuries. Tesla said that in 2017 its injury rate dropped by 25 percent. In 2018 it claimed that the rate had dropped further, but without specifying how much.

Thomas Armstrong, a professor at the University of Michigan said that the violations were not surprising as Tesla built the facility, GA4, very quickly, but said the violations do not necessarily mean that the facility is unsafe,

Tesla is no stranger to fines nor is Elon Musk, as each paid fines of $20 million in the past.

Previously published in Digital Journal