The plot thickens with respect to the story last week where Bloomberg reported that Chinese spies had used tiny microchips to infiltrate over 30 tech companies including Apple and Amazon. Apple and Amazon (as well as the hardware company Supermicro, which was named as the company that spread the infected hardware) have all refuted the Bloomberg story. Now, the US department of Homeland Security says there's no reason to doubt Apple, Amazon, and Supermicro's denials. Bloomberg is still sticking with their story.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel sent out a 6000 word memo to Snapchat employees detailing how they would turn the company around as Snapchat's stock hit an all-time low of $8 per share. He says that the redesign from earlier this year was a mistake, that the company needs to focus on being a chat app instead of a newsfeed app, and that Snapchat should beat Facebook by being about your best friends instead of your broader social graph. He also believes that the company needs to focus on users in older demographics and in developing markets. He gives the company, which lost $353 million last quarter, a goal to be profitable by the end of 2019.
NASA has announced that it will be sending the first manned flight with a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station in June 2019. They will also be sending a similar manned flight in a Boeing rocket in August 2019. The crews will be using new lighter space suits designed by SpaceX and Boeing. These flights are considered tests, and astronauts will only be at the ISS for a couple of weeks. If all goes well NASA will be sending astronauts regularly for 6 months at a time.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California, has drafted an "Internet Bill of Rights" to provide a broad set of user-friendly principles under which tech companies should operate. Users should have access to and knowlege of all data tech companies have and how the data is used. Opt-in should be the default for information collection. Data should be portable from one network to another. The list also includes net neutrality, affordable and clear pricing for internet service, and transparency and accountability for protecting privacy and personal data. This is not current legislation, it's just an early version of a long term vision for the internet.
Currently, cars in the US are required to have steering wheels, mirrors, and foot pedals. The US Department of Transportation issued a statement saying that it "intends to reconsider the necessity and appropriateness of its current safety standards" to accommodate autonomous vehicles. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao believes that the new technology could save many lives, citing a statistic that 37,000 died in car crashes last year in the US. The DoT is also removing the 10 "official test site" designations created by the Obama administration, now self driving cars can be tested anywhere and still qualify for the $60 million in congressional grants set aside for autonomous driving technologies.
Tesla has a new referral program, where if you convince a friend to buy a Tesla, they will blast a laser-etched photo of your choice into space, presumably on a SpaceX rocket. If you refer a second friend, you can get a wall connector with Elon Musk's signature, or a children-sized drivable Model S. There are even better perks all the way up to five referrals, where you get a week with a Tesla Electric Semi truck for free.