Nissan commits to 2030 EV deadline – despite government U-Turn
Nissan has vowed to go all-electric in Europe by 2030 as the Japanese car giant’s chief executive said “there is no going back now”. Its commitment to the 2030 deadline comes less than a week after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed back a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars to 2035. Makoto Uchida reiterated Nissan’s EV timeframe at an announcement in London on Monday, where he unveiled the manufacturer’s latest battery-powered car design. Nissan employs more than 7,000 staff across the UK at three sites, including its flagship factory in Sunderland, which accounts for 6,000 employees. Telegraph
Britain’s decision to delay a ban on new fossil fuel car sales may make little difference to the pace of a shift to electric vehicles (EVs), even though the news drew anger from automakers worried about supply chains and investment uncertainty. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is expected to face a tough election in 2024, said the five-year delay to 2035 was not political and was about “doing what’s right for the country”. Following polarised debate over emissions charges on older more polluting vehicles, he said he was seeking to help those stung by the cost-of-living crisis and unable to afford expensive EVs. Reuters
Amazon is to invest up to $4bn (£3.2bn) in the startup Anthropic, which has created a rival to ChatGPT called Claude, as the Silicon Valley giant seeks to keep pace with rivals including Microsoft and Google in the race to dominate the artificial intelligence space. Under the terms of the deal, Amazon will invest an initial $1.25bn into Anthropic, which was founded about two years ago by former research executives from the ChatGPT developer OpenAI, and take a minority stake in the business. Amazon said its investment in Anthropic, which recently announced its new AI chatbot Claude 2, can be increased to up to $4bn. The Guardian
Within the next two weeks, Google and its Fitbit brand will release two new wearables: the Pixel Watch 2 and an unnamed Fitbit that’s almost certainly the new Charge 6. Each should come with 6 months of free Fitbit Premium to tempt fitness fans. The question is, after such a rough stretch for Fitbit since its Google acquisition, can these trackers turn things around for frustrated long-time users? Fitbit will announce a new “mystery” device this Thursday, but it’s not much of a secret. Its recent Twitter/X post shows a glimpse of a fitness tracker that looks a heck of a lot like the Charge 5. Android Central
The iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max are now out in the wild, and there have been reports of some discoloration appearing on the new titanium frames on these handsets – an issue Apple has now officially acknowledged. In an updated support document (via MacRumors), Apple goes on the record to say that “for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the oil from your skin might temporarily alter the color of the outside band”. No need to panic though – because wiping the frame of the handset with a “soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth” will “restore the original look” and your phone will look as good as new. That said, you might want to invest in a case. Tech Radar
The CEO of the company that made ChatGPT has said he is concerned about the “under-regulation” of artificial intelligence (AI). Sam Altman, CEO of the startup OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, said: “People in our industry bash regulation a lot. We’ve been calling for regulation, but only of the most powerful systems. “Models that are like 10,000 times the power of GPT4, models that are like as smart as human civilization, whatever, those probably deserve some regulation.” Sky News
