UK could introduce driverless cars in 2026, record number of EV chargers installed in 2023
Driverless cars could be on some UK roads by the end of 2026, the transport secretary has told the BBC. Mark Harper also said he expected to see the owners of those vehicles being able to travel without having to watch where they’re going by the end of that year. Last month the government announced plans for new legislation to bring automated driving to UK roads. But, critics argue if the tech is not ready it could cause serious accidents. BBC
Apple has said it would suffer “irreparable harm” after the White House allowed a ban on imports on some of its watches following a dispute over the devices’ blood oxygen technology. The tech giant is filing an emergency motion asking a court to allow it to sell two of its most popular watches – the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models – until the patent dispute against medical monitoring technology company, Masimo, is resolved. Sky News
Christmas is over, so here’s a OnePlus teaser to take the edge off. The OnePlus 12 isn’t the only phone getting an international launch on January 23rd. It’ll be joined by the OnePlus 12R, the first R Series device to release in the US and Europe (the likes of the 10R and 11R were exclusive to India and China). OnePlus’s new teaser image below shows off the 12R’s blue and gray colors below. It looks a lot like the OnePlus 11 and 12, but we’ll soon see what its internal specs bring. The Verge
Customers in the UK and Germany will see “limited” ads unless they pay £2.99 per month to remove them. Previously, rivals such as Disney+ and Netflix introduced cheaper ad-supported memberships amid price rises. Amazon said the move would “allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time”. BBC
The UK installed a record number of public electric car chargers in 2023 as the size of network of ultra-rapid chargers for longer journeys doubled. Almost 16,000 public chargers were installed in the year to 12 December, pushing the total above 53,200, according to the data company ZapMap. That represented a 43% increase on 2022, significantly faster than the last three years. Increasing the number of public chargers is one of the key challenges facing every country in the world in the switch from polluting petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles. The Guardian
The British taxpayer is sitting on a £200m paper loss from the bailout of satellite company OneWeb after it was rescued by the Government during the pandemic. The value of the Government’s stake in OneWeb has more than halved since it merged with Eutelsat, a Paris-listed space company, in an all-share deal. OneWeb was rescued by the Government in 2020 after it filed for bankruptcy. The surprise decision to bail out the satellite company was driven in part by Dominic Cummings, who was at the time a key adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Telegraph
A Tesla engineer was attacked by a robot during a brutal and bloody malfunction at the company’s Giga Texas factory near Austin. Two witnesses watched in horror as their fellow employee was attacked by the machine designed to grab and move freshly cast aluminum car parts. The robot had pinned the man, who was then programming software for two disabled Tesla robots nearby, before sinking its metal claws into the worker’s back and arm, leaving a ‘trail of blood’ along the factory surface. Daily Mail
