Tech Digest daily roundup: Fiat to launch £3000 EV grant for electric 500
Fiat will launch its own EV grant as part of a nationwide incentive to encourage customers to buy its electric cars, making it the first manufacturer to do so. The grant, called Fiat E-Grant, which is immediately available for customers, is worth £3000 and is applicable to purchases of the electric Fiat 500 and Fiat 500C. The Italian brand hopes to increase demand for its EVs and in turn bring the cost of buying an EV down by taking advantage of economies of scale. The electric 500 and 500C are currently on sale from £28,195 and £34,195 respectively. After the grant reduction, the hatchback will undercut the £28,215 Honda E and £29,995 Renault Zoe. Autocar
The music industry has committed to improving metadata for tracking songs on music streaming platforms, following widespread criticism from artists. The writers, performers and producers of songs will now be consistently identified. These creators say they do not receive their fair share of royalties when tracks are played on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. It comes as the government launches a group to look into these concerns. Sir John Whittingdale, minister for the creative industries, said the move would help the UK to “offer viable career opportunities”. BBC
Facebook’s parent company Meta has revealed its latest virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest 3, which like its predecessor is a standalone device that requires no external hardware. With a starting price point of $499.99, the new unit is actually considerably cheaper than PSVR2’s $549.99 – especially when you consider the latter has to be hooked up to an expensive PS5. However, the company is being cagey about the device’s specifications. Officially it’s touting better displays and resolution, greater comfort, and twice the graphics performance using a “next-gen Qualcomm chipset” – but it’s unlikely this will compete with PSVR2 in terms of raw graphics performance. Push Square
Elon Musk is once again the world’s richest person after leapfrogging French billionaire Bernard Arnault, after a slump in the value of Arnault’s LVMH luxury goods empire. The 51-year-old maverick head of Tesla and owner of Twitter has seen his fortune recover to $192bn (£153bn) – up $55bn from the start of the year – while Arnault’s wealth has fallen by $5bn in the past 24 hours to $187bn according to Bloomberg’s daily updated billionaires’ index. The Guardian
Twitter’s head of safety has resigned hours after Elon Musk criticised staff at the social network for cracking down on a video that “misgendered” trans people. Ella Irwin, who has led Twitter’s trust and safety efforts for most of Mr Musk’s time there, confirmed to Reuters that she had resigned from the company. She did not elaborate on her departure, but it came after Mr Musk said staff at the company had mistakenly limited the reach of a video by the conservative news organisation The Daily Wire. Telegraph
Ai-Da is an accomplished artist who has shown her designs at the Venice Biennale and addressed the House of Lords about the future of the creative industries. She is also a robot. One that can talk, answer complex questions, paint, and create art currently on display at the London Design Biennale. She’s too lifelike to be called it, powered by cutting-edge AI technology, her designs of everyday items like cutlery and pots made using a 3D printer. Ai-Da’s work is beautiful, but flawed. Spoons have holes in them and cups are missing sides, making them completely nonfunctional. Sky News
