WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at 2020 - January through March 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.080 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.840 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:23.880 and I love all things tech and friends. It is 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.760 the end of twenty and I have to admit I 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.960 am very glad I did not do a tech Stuff 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.400 Predicts twenty twenty episode at the end of last year. 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.280 Long time listeners know that I used to do that. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.519 I used to make a predictions episode at the very 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.120 end of one year, at the very beginning of the 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.800 following year, to say what I thought was going to 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.080 unfold over the course of the following twelve months. But 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.240 I'm glad I didn't do it this time, because boy howdy, 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.000 there was no way I could have predicted what this 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.840 year turned out to be. But there's another tradition that 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.280 we have at tech Stuff, which is that we take 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.080 a look back at the year in tech and talk 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:03.880 about some of the big stories that happened over the 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.000 previous twelve months. And it's probably gonna take at least 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.000 a couple of episodes. I've only got this one finished 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:14.400 right now, transparency here, so I haven't written the rest 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.119 of this, but I will give you a spoiler that 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:23.360 this episode only gets through March, and uh, that's not 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.720 a strong start. I think, however, we're gonna take a 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:31.640 sort of a cliffs notes approach to the news stories. Obviously, 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.399 if I did a deep dive, that would probably get 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.600 us well into the middle of next year before I 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.440 finished out all of And also I should let you 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.560 know I am recording these episodes a little early. It's 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.360 not the end of December right now. It's fact it's 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.600 mid December as I record this. So it is entirely 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.840 possible that between the time I record this and the 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.840 time you hear it, even more crazy stuff will have happened. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.440 But we gotta do what we can. Right So, before 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.960 I started going more or less chronologically through the year, 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.040 I think it only makes sense for us to acknowledge 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:11.840 the viral elephant in the room. Coronavirus and COVID nineteen 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.280 have had a devastating impact on the world and every 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.400 aspect of our lives, and the tech industry was not 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.359 excluded from this by a long shot. The pandemic has 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:28.240 contributed to major issues from supply chain concerns to you know, 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.840 offices closing down to companies teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.000 and so we should be ready for a lot of 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.560 stories that I will cover to have you know, some 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.160 element of the pandemic in it and how the pandemic 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.160 affected the world of technology. It will come into play 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.240 over time, you know, as we go further into the year, 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.680 it will obviously become a bigger part of it um. 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.800 But we should also remember that COVID nineteen that nineteen 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.440 refers to the year two thousand nineteen, as it was 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.560 first for order to the World Health Organization on December 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:07.040 thirty one, two thousand nineteen. So even though we think 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.480 of it, or at least I think of COVID nineteen 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.480 as a twenty twenty thing, we do have to remember 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.000 that it all got started at the very tail end 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:19.040 of two thousand nineteen. There are a few other big 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.320 threads in tech. Stories of the elections in the United 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.800 States were under intense scrutiny. There are a lot of 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.320 stories in tech that intertwined with the elections and with 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.880 politics in general, and there continues to be some serious 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:38.160 discussion in governments around the world that revolve around big 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.080 tech companies and whether they represent monopolies or are otherwise 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.480 perpetuating anti competitive practices, and if they should be broken up. 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.240 But I'm sure we'll touch on all of these stories 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.640 several times as we go throughout the year. Early in January, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.680 we had c E S, also known as the Consumer 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.920 Electronics Show. Though we've slowly seen the event drift further 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.520 are away from a strictly consumer electronics focus, little do 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.160 we know at the time that the cs FOR would 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.640 be forced to shift to a virtual only event. Now. 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.560 I didn't attend c E S, which is a little 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.240 unusual for me, but I had just finished a year 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.320 of intense travel for work, and I felt like I 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.800 could probably cover most of the announcements from Atlanta. So 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.400 the question is what did I miss out on? Well, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.359 there were a lot of examples of the sorts of 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.200 stuff you expect at c S. For example, there were 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.479 robots somewhere really just toys meant to divert someone for 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:40.880 a little bit before you got tired of it and 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.840 then it takes up space. Others purported to be, you know, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.159 actually a practical use in some way. Samsung showed off 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.919 a rolling robot called Bali B A L l I 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.440 E and has a little camera in it, and it 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.960 allows the robot to roam around and follow people and 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.960 potentially help out with various chores. For example, let's say 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.200 you spill some salsa on the floor and Bali notices this, 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.240 and after it judges you for being a slob. I 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.840 might be projecting here. Bali would then alert, say, your 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.640 robot mop and vacuum cleaner to swoop in and take 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.200 care of that spicy mess. Well, you're left to think 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.040 about your life choices. There were a lot of other 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.520 robots too, but let's talk about some of the other 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:31.160 gadgets that grabbed headlines at c e S. Samsung did 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.719 it again with the unveiling of a display that can 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:39.039 rotate horizontally or vertically so in landscape or portrait mode. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.880 CNN called it the vertical TV no one has asked for, 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.279 but I beg to differ. Um, Maybe the CNN staff 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:51.039 can't see a need for vertically oriented display, but I 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.080 know plenty of video game streamers who have a vertically 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.919 aligned monitor that they used to keep track of stuff 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.240 like stream chat. The setup i've seen most freak only 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:04.359 includes one monitor for the actual gameplay footage, one monitor 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.080 to show the stream view for stuff like overlays and transitions, 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.919 and even a third monitor, the vertically one to to 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.520 follow chat and one day, my friends, I hope to 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.320 have a setup like that. I don't currently, I'm I'm 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.039 stuck with um Well, I've got three monitors in front 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.039 of me, but therefore two different computers and they're not 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.600 connected together. One gadget I heard about and kind of 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.480 wish I had seen in person was the Julia smart 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.760 processor from Cooking Pal. According to what I've read, it 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:36.040 could chop, mix, need way and cook stuff, which kind 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.680 of sounds magical to me. It looks a little bit 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.440 like a coffee maker, I think, but apparently it cannot 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:46.000 make coffee. Kitchen gadgets are always a huge category at CEES. 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.359 I think kitchens and home entertainment systems are sort of 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:54.480 the standard consumer electronics categories. Segue introduced a new personal 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.440 motorized vehicle at ce S. It was a chair on 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.400 two wheels, So other than standing on a on a 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.200 wheeled scooter, you sit in a two wheeled contraption and 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.400 those wheels are side by side. They're not front and back, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.479 it's left and right, so it's kind of like the 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.120 classic Segue scooter and rather than leaning to control it 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.680 the way you would a normal Segue, you use a 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.520 joystick that's on the right side of the seat and 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.480 it looks kind of cool. I would actually love to 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.880 give one a spin. And before I talk about a 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.720 few more ces gadgets, I do want to mention that 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:30.000 Segue wasn't the news. Later in in June, the company 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.200 announced that it was ending production on the original Segue 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.680 PT scooter. This was the line of vehicles that put 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.320 Segue on the map. I mean, I remember twenty years 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.120 ago just before the Segue was unveiled, and now all 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.680 the news channels had referred to it as it I 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:48.720 think maybe one of the code words was ginger. I 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:50.800 actually didn't look that up, but I want to say 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.240 that it's in my brain. I could be wrong, but 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.360 no one was really sure what it was. They only 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.640 knew that Dean Cayman, a true engineering genius, was going 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.800 to announce something interesting, and there was a lot of 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.200 speculation about what it could be, and some people were 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.320 actually really good at guessing what it would end up being, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.880 which when it was unveiled, was this motorized scooter that 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.960 could balance on two wheels uh, and when it was unveiled, 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.280 the media went bonkers for it. There were talks about 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.320 how it would lead to a complete redesign of cities 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.160 and would become the future of personal transportation for short distances, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.120 which never quite happened. But we did see some elements 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.720 of that vision come true many years later in a 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.280 different form, and we saw the introduction of you know, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.160 scooter rental services, for example, all over the place using 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.679 an app to unlock a scooter. I want to think 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.040 of that as sort of sort of a branched pathway 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.720 off of this vision of the segue, But I am 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.880 still waiting for cities to get redesigned totally to make 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:55.960 it easier to get around if you're not in a car. 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.680 Back at CES, there were plenty of other gadgets, from 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:05.439 smart watches, two drones, to flying car concepts to a 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.120 kitty litter box outfitted with AI. Now, if you ever 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.920 wondered if artificial intelligence was going to rebel against humans 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.200 and try to eradicate us, I think it's safe to 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.840 say the answer is they definitely will, and it's because 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.640 we made them stare at kitty litter in so we 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:24.720 deserve it. There were smart speakers. There were thin and 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.840 gorgeous television sets. There were led hexagon lights, which I 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.880 have since seen in the background of various YouTuber videos. 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.040 There were musical instruments. There were car gadgets and systems. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.880 There were new computers, There were new VR headsets, and 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.040 then there were all the really weird devices that would 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.440 prompt you to wonder why anyone ever thought it up 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.080 in the first place, And often that thought is followed 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.680 by when can I get one of those? So started 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.200 off with a big splash of consumer tech, some of 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.079 it awesome, some of it weird, some of it lame 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.080 on the social networking side of things. Facebook continue you 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.920 to field criticisms directed at the platform regarding misinformation, fake accounts, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.880 and politics, which would go throughout all of the company 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.760 was under fire because executives had acknowledged that there were 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.679 a lot of political ads on Facebook containing misinformation and 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.120 sometimes outright lies, but that Facebook was not going to 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.040 take any action to label or remove misleading political ads. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:25.920 While the company was bowing to pressure to remove other 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:30.520 types of content uh that contained misinformation or hate speech, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.120 the political ads would stay up, and as was an 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.120 election year here in the United states. This would become 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.240 a bigger story over the following months, and it was 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:44.439 exacerbated somewhat when a memo penned by a Facebook executive 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.680 named Andrew Bosworth back at the end of twenty nineteen 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:52.360 became public in and In that memo, Bosworth said he 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.240 believed Facebook's advertising policies were a contributing factor in the 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.240 outcome of the election, and that it might quote very 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.679 well lead to the same result end quote. Now, Bosworth, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.680 I should point out, was a Clinton supporter, but his 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.840 point was more about how the Trump campaign was able 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.880 to run a really effective digital ad campaign using Facebook's approach, 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:21.120 rather than arguing that there was some influence of Russian 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:26.839 interference or misinformation campaigns. Bosworth also dismissed Cambridge Analytica's influence 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.080 on the twenty sixteen election, something that I think is 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.440 probably accurate for the most part, but I feel Bosworth 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.720 was also dismissive of the very real, harmful impact Cambridge 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.839 Analytica had and the role Facebook played in making that possible, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:47.200 namely through the company's terrible management of app permissions, But 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.520 that's a matter for a different podcast. Facebook will pop 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.120 up more than a few times in this retrospective look 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.800 at the big stories, of which is no big surprise. 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.679 It continues to play a big part, sometimes a disruptive 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:04.679 part of people's lives, both online and offline. Over at Google, 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.400 David Drummond, who was the chief legal officer of Alphabet, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:13.440 the holding company under which Google exists, he retired amid 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.520 a growing concern at the company. Google, like a lot 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.160 of other tech companies, was struggling with revelations that came 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.160 to the public notice in the wake of the me 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:26.880 too movement. According to former Googler Jennifer Blakely, she and 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.720 Drummond had a year's long affair, and since Blakely reported 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.400 to Drummond originally anyway, this was in direct violation of 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.480 Google's HR policies, but Blakely would ultimately be moved to 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.760 a different department, one that she claimed was unrelated to 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.080 her background, her education, her work experience, and Drummond kept 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.240 climbing the executive ladder, and the message was that if 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.880 you were an executive, specifically a male executive at Google, 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.560 you had a level of protection around you that would 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.280 cushion you from stuff that what at the very least 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.240 earn you a sanction from the company, if not worse. 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.280 And this is a story we've seen happen again and 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.600 again in multiple companies, from Uber to Ubisoft, and also 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.640 in companies that you know, don't start with you. It 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.040 had been a real blight in the business world in 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.360 general for years and the tech world in particular. And 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:23.840 I suspect it's going to take a lot more time 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.760 and effort to uncover and address toxic work cultures and 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:32.719 policies because we've only really just scratched the surface. Gosh, 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.559 we're not even out of January yet. But um, let's 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.480 take a quick break and we'll come back and see 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.120 if we can get out of that first month. Okay, 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:57.040 uh see in a minute. Okay, January, Xerox initiated a 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:01.600 hostile takeover attempt for HP. This would be the branch 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.240 of HP that is the PC manufacturer, because if you remember, 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.880 HP itself had split into two entities a few years earlier. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.640 So the way a hostile takeover typically works is that 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.079 you've got company A in this case Xerox, buying up 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.880 shares of company B in this case HP, and it's 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.040 in an effort to gain enough leverage to force company 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.920 b's board of directors to agree to a merger or 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.640 acquisition deal, or to bypass the board of directors completely 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.800 by forcing a shareholder vote on the matter. If you 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.400 control enough shares, you can influence the vote and make 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.120 it go your way, and then Company A takes over 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.000 Company B. It is not always easy to do. It 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.560 was huge in the eighties. This was like the go 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.280 to method for one company to go after another company 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.800 in the eighties. But it is really expensive and it 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:57.040 can get really ugly. Xerox went hard after HP with 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.720 a campaign that was a thirty five billion dollar acquisition 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:06.200 campaign that is a princely sum. Ultimately, Xerox would end 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:10.920 this attempt in March of citing the Coronavis virus pandemic 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.120 as the main reason for dropping its pursuit. Interestingly, the 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:20.240 Xerox CEO was himself a former HP executive, so he 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.640 had worked at HP before, also worked at IBM before 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.040 came over, leads Xerox and then tries to take HP, 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.760 but it didn't work. In late January, Uber announced it 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.160 was preparing a test of its self driving vehicles in Washington, 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:38.680 d C. And I bring this up really to do 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.440 a quick fast forward on Uber's self driving car strategy 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:48.160 in t see. Uber has been incredibly bullish about pushing 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:53.880 autonomous cars, mean very aggressive in developing self driving car technology. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.760 The pursuit has had more than a few bumps in 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.200 the road. You could say there were allegations that Beer 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.040 was benefiting from research that was stolen from Google's way 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.840 Mo program. Uh. That is something that took a really 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:11.440 ugly turn a few years ago and continues to be 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.000 an issue today in various ways. And then you had 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.520 the tragic incident of an Uber self driving vehicle colliding 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.560 with a pedestrian. That was terrible, and the company has 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:27.120 had a dark and questionable record with self driving technology 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.880 while pushing it really hard. But despite all that, autonomous 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:35.520 vehicles remained a pillar of Uber's strategy, which in itself 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.400 is rough because the message you're sending to your driver's 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.920 is we need you right now, but eventually we won't 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.800 need you, So don't get too comfy, not not super 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.760 more like not a great way to raise morale among 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.640 your employees or i should say contract workers. Anyway, later 0:16:55.680 --> 0:17:00.480 in circulated that Uber was looking to sell off the 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.400 self driving division within the company, and it was pouring 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:10.240 around twenty million dollars every month into its autonomous car 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:15.159 research and development division. In an effort to move toward profitability, 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.240 Uber has pulled the trigger and sold off the autonomous 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:24.600 car division to a startup called Aurora. And Aurora itself 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.280 is headed by a former way Mo executive, so someone 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.480 who had worked on Google's self driving car company has 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.800 now moved over and created their own startup. Now, this 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.080 does not mean that Uber has actually given up on 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.360 autonomous cars. They haven't. The company will have a significant 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.480 ownership stake in Aurora, and this shift is likely more 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.840 about freeing up Uber of those massive monthly costs while 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.320 still eyeing the potential for a self driving fleet of 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.000 Uber vehicles in the future. So it would be premature 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.320 to say that Uber is done with autonomous vehicles. Really, 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.240 it's just done pouring millions of dollars every month into 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.920 the effort. Considering how far behind Uber is on its 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.840 original plans, that's probably for the best because the company 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.520 had hoped to have thousands of self driving taxis active 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.120 in a few different markets by the end of twenty 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.959 and that just hasn't happened. So I expect Uber's overall 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.879 plans haven't really changed. That much. It's just how the 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.760 company hopes to achieve them. That's what's changed. And one 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.119 of the reasons Uber is looking forward to a future 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.920 with robot drivers is that the company has really resisted 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.800 treating its human drivers as company employees. As I alluded 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:45.480 to just a minute ago, Uber, along with Lift, classifies 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.879 drivers as contract workers, not employees, and that gets around 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:55.520 some pesky issues like providing benefits to people. In California, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.280 legal cases challenging this had gone as far as the 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.639 California Appeals Court, and in fact that court ruled that 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.399 Lift and Uber should classify drivers as employees, or really 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:12.679 they should prepare to do that. Because some legislation was 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.720 being laid out for California voters. It was called Proposition 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:21.000 twenty two, and that proposition would create the legal standing 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:25.080 to call gig workers contract workers rather than employees if 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.760 it passed. So, in other words, if you vote yes 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.760 on Proposition twenty two, what you're saying is that people 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.919 who work for companies like Uber or Lift can be 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:40.240 called contract workers, they are not employees. That that legislation 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:44.200 passed with fifty eight percent of the vote. So Lift 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.040 and Uber and a few other similar companies had collectively 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:52.439 contributed more than two hundred million dollars to various ad 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:57.000 campaigns in California to convince voters to support that proposition, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.880 and it totally worked. So workers will be contract workers. 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.160 They are not employees, and thus they are not entitled 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.919 to employee benefits the way other employees are within the 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.400 state of California. They did get a few additional benefits 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.760 from that proposition, but not to the extent that they 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.320 would if they actually were granted full employee status. We 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.760 learned in January that a string of hotels branded with 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.800 a licensing agreement from Atari will be here at some 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.919 point in the future. I think the plan is to 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:37.320 have hotels in eight different cities and places like Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevada. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.080 I should say, I apologize, and I imagine those plans 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:45.560 in particular hit a pretty big snag with the pandemic, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.879 which has really affected everything from the hospitality industry in 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:54.040 general because fewer people are traveling and staying in hotels 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:59.720 to construction. A lot of construction projects are progressing very 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.639 lowly or not at all at the moment. But these hotels, 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.440 when they are completed, will cater to fans of video 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.879 games with a retro design and immersive experiences built into 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.320 the structures themselves, which sounds pretty nifty. I kind of 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:16.400 dig the idea of staying at a hotel that has 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.359 that sort of retro eighties style to it, especially if 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:27.240 it's very, very subtly influenced by specific video games. Um. 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.200 I think that could be a lot of fun. And 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.760 if if every room has its own arcade cabinet, that's 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:34.840 even better. I mean, I don't think that will happen, 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:39.119 but that would be cool. So I think now we 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.960 are finally ready to move into February. So that was 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.639 a lot. But we went through several stories as they 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:47.639 played out throughout the year, and we will continue to 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.600 do that in this episode. So while I might start 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.320 a story that began in February, some of those stories 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:56.679 do play out throughout the year. So let's see what 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.440 we have in store. Keeping in mind is also a 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.160 leap year, so we have an extra day in February, because, 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.280 of course we do, because twenties determined to get us down, 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:09.360 but dang it, I'm not gonna let that happen. February 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.320 was when we started seeing tech companies start to shut 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.159 down store fronts, and then a little later after that 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:19.640 manufacturing facilities that were located in China. While the coronavirus 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.840 had already spread outside of China, at this point, most 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:25.480 people in the United States weren't really concerned about it yet. 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.280 It was a very few number of cases in the 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.320 United States, and I think a lot of people, I 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.840 think even myself, thought, oh, you know, this is bad, 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.960 but at least it's containable. Little did I know. I 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.320 was so naive. But tech companies were already starting to 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:45.320 take a bit of a preventive approach, with Apple closing 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:50.959 all forty two of its stores in China. By early February, Facebook, Google, 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.000 and Twitter all announced that they were cracking down on 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:57.600 misinformation about the coronavirus, which I mean, I guess they 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:01.000 did do that, but holy cats, I think information and 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:05.000 baseless conspiracy theories about coronavirus can go toe to toe 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.640 with the misinformation and such regarding the U S election, 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:10.879 and to be fair, a lot of that stuff is 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.000 actually tied up together. The company said they were on 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.480 top of all of that, but it would turn out 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:20.400 that the tidal wave of misinformation was just too great 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.320 for the services to really handle. It. It just was 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.520 too tall of an order, I would argue. It is 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.280 interesting to me though, that as early as February they 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.600 were talking about this. We saw an escalation of the U. 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:39.760 S government's stance against Chinese manufacturing company Huawei in twenty 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:43.920 In February twenty uh Whahwei makes a lot of stuff, 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:47.679 including infrastructure components for five G networks, and I covered 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:50.480 a lot about five G myths in a recent episode, 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.440 so I'm not going to dive into that too much here. 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:57.720 But the overt reason for the concern about Whahwei was 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:02.399 that the Chinese government could deceivably forced Huahwei to serve 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:08.840 as a gateway for surveillance activities and you know, essentially leverage. 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:13.720 It's it's incredible power to force Hahwei to have secret 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.840 backdoor access to various communications networks. But if you look 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:20.120 at the full story gets way more complicated than that. 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:24.040 Involves things like trade disputes and stuff, and a lot 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.680 of posturing as well, so it's not as simple as 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:30.520