SpaceX reportedly fired employees behind letter criticizing Elon Musk

SpaceX has fired employees who participated in writing and distributing an open letter criticizing Elon Musk, The New York Times has reported. First revealed yesterday, the letter called Musk’s behavior on social media “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment” and asked SpaceX to condemn his actions. 

According to three unnamed employees and an email from SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell seen by the NYT, SpaceX fired some of the letter’s organizers, but there’s no indication of how many were let go.

 “[SpaceX has] terminated a number of employees involved” with the letter, she wrote. “The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views. We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”

The open letter from the employees referenced recent accusations of sexual misconduct involving Musk that reportedly prompted a $250,000 settlement. Musk said the allegations were “utterly untrue” and made a crude joke about some of the details on Twitter. SpaceX defended Musk, with Shotwell saying she “personally” believed the accusations were false.

Another subject in the letter was distractions due to Musk’s Twitter use. In February, the SEC opened an investigation into Musk over possible insider trading, and a court recently ruled that Tesla company lawyers must continue to approve his tweets. (Earlier this week, Musk appealed that decision). Prior to the letter, Musk reportedly told SpaceX employees that they must spend at least 40 hours a week in the office or risk being fired.

In her email, Shotwell added that “blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable. Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.”

Employees are protected against retaliation by OSHA’s whistleblower rules, but those generally apply to issues like safety, fraud, environmental issues and health insurance. Still, the firings are likely to create another round of controversy involving Musk. 

Ferrari says 60 percent of its lineup will be electrified by 2026

Ferrari has announced at an investor presentation that it will 60 percent electrified by 2026, including the EV it promised last year. At that point, 40 percent of its cars will be combustion and 60 percent will be either hybrid or all electric. The eventual aim is to become carbon neutral by 2030, but even then, it will continue to develop internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. 

By 2026, Ferrari will offer “three powertrains with distinctive driving emotions,” it said. It’ll borrow hybrid powertrain tech from its F1 and other racing experience, while its electric engines will be “designed, handcrafted and assembled in Maranello to ensure a unique driving experience also derived from racing solutions.”

Ferrari unveiled its first production plug-in hybrid, the SF90 Stradale, back in 2019. It now has four separate model lineups with the Stradale and 296 GTB plug-in V6 hybrid, along with the pure ICE 812 Superfast V12 and Roma V8 models. So in effect, half its lineup is already electrified, as Autocar points out. That mix will soon change, though. The luxury automaker also confirmed that it’s much-anticipated Purosangue SUV will arrive in September as a pure ICE vehicle, to start with. 

As for the EV set to arrive in 2025, Ferrari is aiming to have “strong commonalities” with its current combustion engines. “The first electric Ferrari will be rooted in our racing heritage and will draw from a broader technical reservoir while preserving all its authenticity and consistency,” said CEO Benedetto Vigna, adding that it will be “really unique from many different points of view.” 

The batteries will also be assembled by Ferrari in Maranello in dedicated e-building facility “where electric engines, inverters, and batteries will be designed, handcrafted and assembled,” the company said. It also revealed that it would limit self-driving autonomy to “Level 2/2+” and that “connectivity is first and foremost provided to enhance the ownership experience and the relationship with the client.”

Sony Honda Mobility Inc. is the new name of Sony and Honda’s EV business

After Sony and Honda announced plans to form a separate company for their joint electric vehicle partnership, they’ve now given it a name. Yes, the new business is called Sony Honda Mobility Inc. and will be established in Tokyo before the end of 2022, with EV sales set to start in 2025, Sony said in a press release.

Each company holds an equal 50 percent share, with Honda executive Yasuhide Mizuno appointed chairman and CEO, and Sony EVP Izumi Kawanishi president and COO. As Sony detailed previously, the partnership will utilize “Honda’s cutting edge environmental and safety technologies, mobility development capabilities, vehicle body manufacturing technology, and after-sales service management experience.” Meanwhile, Sony will contribute “imaging, sensing, telecommunication, network and entertainment technologies.” 

Honda is far behind rivals in EV development, with its only electric car being the Honda E — but it’s accelerated its plans of late. Earlier this year it unveiled a partnership with GM to co-develop a series of affordable EVs using a global architecture and GM’s Ultium battery technology. The aim is to have Honda and Acura SUVs going on sale in North America by 2024. 

Honda also announced plans last year to shift its entire vehicle lineup to EVs and fuel-cell vehicles by 2040. As part of that, it’s going to invest $40 billion and launch 30 new EVs by 2030. Sony, meanwhile has already showed not just one but two electric vehicles of its own design, the Vision-S EV and Vision-S 02 electric SUV. It’s not clear how all Sony Honda Mobility fits into all these plans, but we should be learning more about it in the near future.

Tesla hikes prices across all of its models by up to $6,000

Tesla has significantly boosted prices across its EV lineup, according to changes in its online configurator spotted by Electrek. Most of the models affected are long-range versions, with the Model X AWD Long Range jumping the most, up $6,000 from $114,990 to $120,990. It’s the latest in a series of price hikes for Tesla EVs this year. 

The AWD Long Range Model S price also increased significantly by $5,000 from $99,990 to $104,990. The Model Y Long Range and Performance prices went up by $3,000 and $2,000 to $65,990 and $67,990 respectively. Just one Model 3 version was effected, the Long Range, jumping $3,500 from $54,490 to $57,990.

The Elon Musk-owned company didn’t explain the changes, but high inflation, electronics shortages and other issues could be to blame. Last week, CEO Elon Musk reportedly said he might reduce Tesla’s workforce due to to high inflation. Other EV manufacturers like Rivian and Lucid have also boosted prices recently. (GM, however, significantly lowered the price of its Bolt EV last week to $26,595.) 

DJI’s RS3 mirrorless camera stabilizer unlocks automatically and is easier to balance

DJI has significantly expanded its gimbal lineup with the RS3 and RS3 Pro models designed for mirrorless and cinema cameras. It also launched some other interesting cinema products derived from the innovative Ronin 4D camera gimbal, including a LiDAR f…

Elon Musk will answer questions from Twitter employees later this week

Elon Musk will attend a virtual Twitter meeting this Thursday (June 16th) to field employee questions about his potential purchase of the social network, according to a letter to workers from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal seen by Business Insider. It’ll be the first time Musk as addressed workers since he made an offer to acquire it earlier this year for $43 billion. 

Twitter employees will be able to submit questions starting tomorrow, and the company’s chief marketing officer and head of people, Leslie Berland, will moderate the call. Since the acquisition was announced, employees have been concerned about things like layoffs, stock grants and whether Musk will rescind the bans of people like Donald Trump. 

Those points and others will reportedly be addressed by Musk during the session, with Agrawal writing that “we’ll cover topics and questions that have been raised over the past few weeks.” Musk previously outlined changes he wanted to make, like getting rid of spam bots and authenticating users.  

The status of the purchase is currently in limbo, as Musk claimed that Twitter committed a “material breach” of the deal’s terms by refusing to disclose sufficient information about bot spam and fake account data. Last week, the company said it would comply with those requests by giving him access to its full “firehose” stream of data. 

The UK just eliminated its EV rebate incentive

The UK government has ended its plug-in car grant program effective immediately, it announced. The scheme first launched in 2011 with grants up to £5,000 ($6,089) or 25 percent of the cost of the car, but were gradually reduced to £1,500 ($1,827) where they sat until today. The grant ends on future sales, but will still be honored for any buyers that already applied for it. 

The program had achieved its goal of kickstarting the UK’s electric revolution, the Department for Transport (DfT) said in a press release. It noted that sales of EVs increased from less than 1,000 in 2011 to nearly 100,000 in the first five months of this year alone. It added that EVs now offer “significant savings” over ICE vehicles due to the high cost of gasoline and diesel, and that owners can still get tax and other incentives. 

“The government has always been clear the plug-in car grant was temporary and previously confirmed funding until 2022-23,” the government said. “Successive reductions in the size of the grant, and the number of models it covers, have had little effect on rapidly accelerating sales or on the continuously growing range of models being manufactured.”

The DfT now plans to focus on charging stations, but didn’t say if it planned to boost the £1.6 billion budget it had already set aside. It also pledged £300 million ($365 million) toward incentives on plug-in taxis, motorcycles, vans, trucks and wheelchair-accessible vehicles.

The UK promised to eliminate ICE vehicles by 2040 as part of its Road to Zero strategy designed to cut harmful emissions. However, some EU countries like Sweden or Ireland have more ambitious plans to hit that goal by 2030 and even earlier. 

After the maximum rebate was cut from £2,500 to £1,500 just six months ago and restricted to eligible EVs to models under £32,000, the plug-in car grant program appeared to be on life support. Critics decried the reduction at the time and are likely to be scathing toward the grant’s complete elimination. Potential EV buyers motivated by record gasoline prices are also likely to be unhappy about the decision.

“We need to move the market even faster… which means we should be doubling down on incentives,” an industry rep told Autocar late last year. “Other global markets are already doing so whereas we are cutting, expecting the industry to subsidize the transition, and putting up prices for customers. UK drivers risk being left behind on the transition to zero-emission motoring.”

Apple’s 2021 iPad Mini falls back to an all-time low of $400

Apple’s 2021 iPad Mini tablet is a popular choice thanks to its portability and excellent specs, but it’s not exactly an impulse purchase at $500. If you’ve been eyeing one, the 64GB model is now on sale at Amazon for $400 (20 percent off) matching the lowest price we’ve seen. And if you need more storage, the iPad Mini 256GB model is discounted by 17 percent, dropping the price to $540. 

Buy Apple iPad Mini at Amazon

The 2021 model has similar specs to the iPhone 13, with the same speedy A15 Bionic chip that delivers a big jump in performance over the fifth-gen model. It comes with a larger 8.3-inch display with higher 2,266 x 1,488 resolution and eliminates the physical home button, moving the Touch ID sensor to the power button. The volume buttons, meanwhile, are at the top to make room for Apple Pencil 2 that can be attached to the side magnetically.

Other features include USB-C charging and upgraded cameras with support from Apple’s Center Stage feature, keeping you in the center of the frame during video calls. The main downsides are the lack of a headphone jack, limited 64GB of storage on the base model and fairly high price compared to tablets with comparable specs. Amazon has certainly taken the edge off the price, but it’s best to act soon before the deal ends. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Google pays $118 million to settle gender pay discrimination lawsuit

Google has agreed to pay $118 million to settle a lawsuit first launched in 2017 over gender-based wage discrimination, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Three former female employees accused Google of segregating women into lower paying jobs that curbed advancement, while similarly-qualified men didn’t face those obstacles. 

The lawsuit was expanded to class-action status in 2021 and the settlement covers around 15,500 female employees who worked in Google’s California offices after September 2013. It includes a clause that independent experts must review Google’s hiring practices and pay-equity studies, according to the law office representing the plaintiffs. However, Google admitted no wrongdoing as part of the deal.

“While we strongly believe in the equity of our policies and practices, after nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we’re very pleased to reach this agreement,” Google spokesperson Chris Pappas told the WSJ.

Google ran a pay-equity analysis to see if salaries, equity awards and bonuses were fair since 2013. The co-counsel for the plaintiffs said that the settlement would be “precedent-setting” for the industry. 

“As a woman who’s spent her entire career in the tech industry, I’m optimistic that the actions Google has agreed to take as part of this settlement will ensure more equity for women,” said one of the original three plaintiffs, Holly Pease, in a statement from law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein. “Google, since its founding, has led the tech industry. They also have an opportunity to lead the charge to ensure inclusion and equity for women in tech.”

Google is far from the only tech company to face complaints over gender-based pay. Riot Games recently paid $10 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit while Microsoft, Uber and other firms have faced pay equity accusations. The gender pay gap in the US didn’t improve last year, according to the labor group SHRM — March 15 is still Equal Pay Day, the date that represents how far into 2022 women have to work to earn what men earned by the end of 2021.