Here’s a reason for hope. The global economy is growing, but greenhouse gas emissions aren’t—which is exactly the kind of decoupling the Earth needs if we are to have any hope of avoiding the most catastrophic global-warming scenarios.
The Florida resort destination better know for boy bands and Disney World is vying to become the self-driving car capital of the world. Orlando has a smooth plan for embracing the new technology: Turn the city into the globe’s largest test track, and give the tourist, defense and tech industries a chance to participate.
The nonprofit started by former Patagonia executive Kris Tompkins and her late husband, The North Face co-founder Douglas Tompkins, has made what it says is the largest-ever land donation by a private entity to a country. Appearing with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet on March 16, Kris Tompkins announced that Tompkins Conservation plans to hand over more than 1 million acres (4,000 square km) to the nation of Chile.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the company would raise more money to scale up manufacturing for its first mass-market vehicle, the Model 3, due out in mid-2018. Now we know how much.
Over 12 years, Silicon Valley accelerator-turned-seed-fund Y Combinator has invested in more than a thousand companies. Its success stories include Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe, and recipients of its investments are altogether worth an estimated $100 billion today.
Silicon Valley’s giants are only going to get more powerful, and more ruthless about snuffing out—or snapping up—potential challengers. What does that mean for startups? Advises Y Combinator president Sam Altman: Watch your back.
Dubai believes the future of urban public transit is both electric and autonomous. On Feb. 13, the country’s transportation authority announced a deal to buy 200 Tesla Model S sedans and Model X SUVs for the city’s 10,000-vehicle taxi and limousine fleet.
If you’re still be on the fence about encrypting your text messages, here’s an easier sell: Definitely encrypt your sex tapes.
The idea of a universal basic income, a guaranteed minimum payment for all citizens, is gaining momentum as a potential solution for an increasingly stratified society—one in which technology and other forms of progress generate enormous wealth for some and unemployment and economic despair for others.
Racial discrimination may be alive and well in the technology industry.
Software engineers are among the highest-paid workers in the US: the average salary for a Silicon Valley developer is around $120,000, about three times the median wage in the rest of the country. (This is how good it is in this particular sector of the US economy: even summer interns in Silicon Valley get about $81,600 per year if you annualized their monthly take-home).
Unlike many of boldfaced names in the technology sector, investor Fred Wilson had been quiet for months on the topic of Donald Trump.
Political frustrations in Silicon Valley are boiling over. Protests and walkouts have erupted on Bay Area campuses ranging from Google to Palantir and while management is often in attendance—Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin have both participated in demonstrations—tech employees are leading the charge.
Tesla is showing no signs of slowing as it races to build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery factory.
All over the world, whales leap high into the air and crash back into the water, slapping their tails and fins on the ocean’s surface on the way down. Since breaching (as the behavior is called) demands so much energy—especially when whales are fasting during migrations—scientists assume it plays a crucial role in cetacean life, but what exactly that role is remains murky.
For skilled immigrants around the world, California’s Silicon Valley is the promised land. Over the last few decades, San Jose and San Francisco have become home to tens of thousands of people from around the world with degrees in science, engineering, and math. Many have built crucial new technologies at Facebook, Microsoft, and other companies. Some founded multi-billion-dollar companies, including Google, Uber, Intel, and Tesla.
The top digital officers working for US president Donald Trump say they want to retain the prized tech talent recruited into the government under Barack Obama. Most staffers and officials have said they plan to continue their non-partisan mission, but Trump’s federal hiring freeze and polarizing executive orders could decimate the ranks of the Silicon Valley-inspired teams.
Let there no longer be any doubt that entrepreneur Elon Musk sees Tesla’s future as an energy company, and not just an electric car company. Musk officially eliminated the “motors” from the company’s name in a Feb. 1 filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission, changing the name of the business from Tesla Motors to Tesla Inc.
When opportunity grows in America, people come to enjoy it—legally or illegally. For the past 15 years or so, that has meant millions from Latin America, especially Mexico, crossing the US border to work as laborers in construction, agriculture, and manufacturing. For the most part, American employers have welcomed them with open arms.
We are all one when it comes to getting cheap power from the sun. Amidst the political rancor roiling the United States, one bright spot is home solar power installation. It keeps going up, and a study by PowerScout, a company that helps people switch to renewable energy, finds that to be true for households on both sides of the political divide.
Say what you will about his hands, but Donald Trump now has the most powerful thumbs in the world. Even before he was sworn in as president, Trump tapping out tirades on Twitter regularly spooked investors and sent CEOs scurrying to save their stock price.
Elon Musk was never a fan of Donald Trump, but the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has started working with the new US president as he assumes power. Musk agreed to join Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group drawing on executives from multiple sectors, and was among the prominent technology leaders to meet with the incoming president at a high-profile gathering in December.
It’s no secret that there is no love lost between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump. Of every dollar given by the Valley’s technology workers to presidential candidates after the primaries last year, only one penny went to Trump.
Emotions are running high in America. At least if our GIF searches are to be believed.
