Former Tesla contractor rejects $15 million payout in racial abuse lawsuit

Last year Owen Diaz, a former contracted elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont assembly plant, successfully sued the automaker for creating a hostile, racially abusive work environment, and was awarded $137 million by the jury. That award was winnowed down to just $15 million by a judge who gave Diaz two weeks to accept or reject the new amount. As reported by Bloomberg, lawyers for Diaz have taken the latter option.

“In rejecting the court’s excessive reduction by asking for a new trial, Mr. Diaz is again asking a jury of his peers to evaluate what Tesla did to him and to provide just compensation for the torrent of racist slurs that was directed at him,” wrote Diaz’s lawyers in a statement to NBC News.

The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2017, described a work environment where Black workers were regularly subjected to racial slurs and other abuse, with at least one supervisor allegedly telling Diaz to “go back to Africa” — issues which he also claims the company was negligent in addressing. Tesla has pushed back against some of Diaz’s claims, arguing that it took timely action to stop the harassment, as well as claiming these racial slurs were “used in a “friendly” manner and usually by African-American colleagues.” It also argued that it was not liable for how Diaz was treated given his status as a contractor.

Last year a jury awarded Diaz a total of $6.9 million of compensatory damages and $130 million of punitive damages, which likely would have amounted to one of the largest payouts in a corporate racial discrimination lawsuit. US District Judge William Orrick, in an opinion filed in April, rejected Tesla’s claims that it was not liable for a contract employee, but also slashed the award amount, calling it “excessive.” He reduced the amount of compensatory damages to $1.5 million and punitive damages to $13.5 million. Since Diaz’s lawyers have now rejected the award, the case will proceed to a new trial.

The automaker is also facing another lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on the behalf of more than 4,000 former and current Black Tesla employees. According to three former Tesla workers interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Black workers at the Fremont facility were segregated, given the most difficult tasks and subject to more discipline than other workers.

Arizona wildfire may spare Kitt Peak National Observatory’s telescopes

Located in the mountains outside Tucson, Arizona, the Kitt Peak National Observatory was threatened last week by the ongoing Contreras Fire. While the blaze has affected more than 20,000 acres and disrupted work at the facility, the major scientific equipment seems to be thus far unscathed.

The scientific community feared the worst, but over the weekend, the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the organization that operates the site, had good news to share. “All physical scientific observatory structures are still standing,” NOIRLab said in a tweet spotted by Gizmodo. However, in a later press release, the organization said the fire destroyed four support buildings on June 17th.

The facility’s official Twitter account said NOIRLab staff would have to conduct a thorough assessment of the observatory grounds to determine the extent of the full damage caused by the inferno. “This process will likely take weeks,” the account tweeted. “Restoration of services (power, etc) may take even longer.” 

The telescopes aren’t safe just yet. The Contreras Fire continues to blaze in and around the area of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. As of Monday, 350 firefighters were working to contain the fire, according to the Arizona Emergency Information Network.

The potential destruction of Kitt Peak comes a little more than a year after the Arecibo Observatory’s receiver platform collapsed into its iconic 1,000-foot wide antenna. Puerto Rico has pledged $8 million to rebuild the telescope, but the future of the facility is unclear. Kitt Peak may be less famous than Arecibo but it’s no less important. The facility’s Mayall telescope is the seventh-largest optical telescope in the US and was used to discover methane ice on Pluto back when it was considered a planet.

Watch scientists discuss the latest research on killer asteroids

Astronomers, astronauts and other near-Earth object experts from around the world are gathering next week in Luxembourg to talk about asteroids. If you tune in to the Asteroid Foundation’s live event on International Asteroid Day (which is June 30), you can hear about the latest in space rock research. The four hour event will consist of panel discussions on future missions, advances in technology, how scientists track and discover asteroids and what resources might be gleaned from asteroids. It will be moderated by Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project, the astronomer Phil Plait, Asteroid Day’s editorial director Stuart Clark and Patrick Michel, director of research at CNRS of the Côte d’Azur Observatory.

“Asteroid Day reminds the world of just how important these celestial objects are. They hold the keys to understanding the formation of the Solar System, provide stepping stones we will utilize to explore our solar system, and occasionally they hit our planet,” said Dr Dorin Prunariu, Vice-Chair of the Asteroid Foundation in a press release. The Asteroid Day event will also feature pre-recorded interviews from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which is currently on its way back to Earth after collecting samples from the asteroid Bennu.

Detecting asteroids is a tricky science, and scientists still manage to miss a large number that are potentially dangerous. NASA has detected nearly 16,000 near-Earth objects, which are objects within approximately 45 million kilometers of our planet’s orbit. As The Conversation notes, while extinction-level asteroids are very rare, smaller space rocks such as the one that hit Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 or the 10,000-ton space rock that hit the Russian city of Chelyabinsk are also capable of doing damage. And there have been plenty of near misses. Scientists estimate that in 2029, a 1,120 feet asteroid known as Apophis will miss Earth by a mere 19,000 miles.

You can stream Asteroid Day’s program on June 30 at 11 am CET (or 5 am EDT) on Asteroid Day’s website, TwitchTV or YouTube.

Robots learn to shape letters using Play-Doh

Humans aren’t the only ones working with Play-Doh. MIT CSAIL researchers have created a system, RoboCraft, that teaches robots how to work with the kid-friendly goo. The platform first takes the image of a shape (in this case, a letter of the alphabet) and reinterprets it as a cluster of interlocking particles. The bot then uses a physics-oriented neural network to predict how its two “fingers” can manipulate those spheres to match the desired outcome. A predictive algorithm helps the machine plan its actions.

The technology doesn’t require much time to produce usable results. It took just ten minutes of practice for an robot to perform roughly as well (and in some cases better) than humans remote-controlling the same hardware. That’s not the same as having a human shape the Play-Doh by hand, but it’s no mean feat for a machine discovering how to perform the task for the first time. Robots frequently struggle with soft objects where they tend to thrive with firm shapes.

RoboCraft-trained bots aren’t about to produce elaborate sculptures. The results are still imprecise, and the machine works slowly using just two fingers. The team is already developing a method of making dumplings, though, and plans to teach robots to use additional tools (such as a rolling pin) to prep the food.

The CSAIL scientists already have an idea of where the technology might be deployed. Kitchen robots could take over more responsibilities, while artistic automatons might create pottery. Eventually, technology like this could help the elderly and people with mobility issues by taking over household duties that require subtle motor skills.

The Obamas are leaving Spotify for Audible

Barack and Michelle Obama are heading to Audible. On Tuesday, the Amazon-owned company announced an exclusive multiyear first-look production deal with the former first couple’s Higher Ground media company.The deal comes after it was revealed Spotify h…