San Francisco police officers were faced with a new challenge after stopping an autonomous vehicle with no-one inside.
Officers approached the car, operated by Cruise, because it had been driving without headlights.
In the incident, captured on film, an officer remarks that there “ain’t nobody in it” before the car moves to what Cruise said was a safer location.
The company said the headlights issue was a result of human error.
While the cost of capital remains relatively inexpensive and consumers keep their foot on the pedal of the economy, the recent inflationary surge will likely drive the Federal Reserve to act to cool the economy. The big question: Can the Fed apply the brakes without slowing the economy into a recession.
In March, inflation rose 8.5 percent, a 40-year high, according to the latest reading of the Labor Department’s consumer price index, or CPI. Meanwhile, groceries surged 10 percent in March from a year ago, while food overall rose 8.8 percent. Used car prices are more than 35 percent higher than they were a year ago, dropping slightly since January, and nationally a gallon of gas is currently hovering at around $4, up 18.3 percent in March and nearing a record set in 2008.
YouTube today confirmed the site is experiencing a variety of issues that are impacting users worldwide. The company acknowledged the service’s problems after numerous users reported error messages when trying to watch videos or noted various site elements weren’t available — like the sidebar navigation or the Setting menus, for example — among other things.
Some users also found they couldn’t sign in to their YouTube account or switch between profiles. Others said they were unable to cast YouTube to their TV or use the app on their gaming console.
When trying to play videos, some would see an error that said “No Internet Connection” even though they weren’t otherwise having connectivity issues.
Etsy’s reputation as the feel-good home of whimsical goods and small businesses is being put on blast — by Etsy sellers themselves.
On April 11, thousands of Etsy sellers, many of whom work full-time selling their merchandise on the site, plan to go on strike by putting their shops in “vacation mode” and not selling their goods for a week.
The shop owners are protesting a number of business changes Etsy has made over the past few years that sellers say have degraded the platform and made it harder for them to run their businesses and earn a profit. Most directly, the strike is in response to a bump in the fee Etsy charges sellers: On April 11, it goes from 5 percent to 6.5 percent — a 30 percent increase — as announced in February.
Americans got into a lot more debt in February as rampant inflation kept up the pressure, the Federal Reserve’s consumer credit report showed Thursday.
Debt levels jumped by nearly $42 billion to a total of almost $4.5 trillion. That’s an annual increase of 11.3%, seasonally adjusted, far outperforming economists’ expectations and setting a new high. In January, total credit had grown only 2.4%.
The Fed’s historical consumer credit data goes back to the early 1940s.
Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, jumped by 20.7% to about $1.1 trillion. The category increased by only 4% in the prior month.
This spring, if your face smells like donuts and your outfit comes from a farmers market stand? Congratulations, you’re bang on-trend. As fashion and beauty brands seek to engage new customers in a social media-driven, post-pandemic economy, partnerships and collaborations teams are increasingly turning to food—including iconic restaurant brands and flavorful experiences—to lure shoppers back to brick-and-mortar retail.
Last month, when British bakery chain Greggs debuted a collaboration with fast fashion retailer Primark in the UK, fans of pasties queued up for hours to score the logo-emblazoned loungewear. Not long after Coach announced its Zabar’s capsule collection—comprising bagel-printed luxury tees, sweaters, and totes—nearly every single item sold out online. And this week, two megabrands in the beauty and fashion space enter the fray with retail concepts and in-store activations themed around food.
The US has agreed to ease Trump-era tariffs on UK steel and aluminium shipments, resolving an issue that had strained relations between the allies.
The move follows earlier deals with the European Union and Japan over the controversial taxes, which were imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 in the name of national security.
In exchange, the UK will suspend extra taxes it had put on US products such as bourbon and Levi’s jeans.
Business groups welcomed the decision.
In a blog post today titled “Moving Forward, With Gratitude,” Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan announced that he is stepping down from his leadership role at the crowdfunding platform. After three years, April 4 will be his final day as chief executive. In his stead, the company’s COO Sean Leow will fill the role as interim CEO as the company’s board of directors searches for a more permanent replacement.
“I am so proud of the work we’ve done together,” Hasan writes. “Leading such a passionate, skilled, and dedicated team through intense moments of change, milestone victories, and complex challenges has been a humbling and rewarding experience.”
The executive spoke with Fast Company about the decision, citing “personal reflection” as a motivator, as well as a desire to spend more time with his young family. As Hasan notes, his tenure has seen strong growth for the service, though the last several years have also had their share of controversy.
GABE ETS-HOKIN HAS been picking up Bay Area Uber and Lyft passengers in electric vehicles since 2018, and he says he is never going back to petrol. “The day-to-day reality of driving an electric vehicle is like a gasoline car, except it’s quieter, more fun to drive, more comfortable, and passengers love it,” he says.
EVs, he explains, are an especially good fit for the stop-and-start of driving in dense cities because they use regenerative braking, which captures the energy used to slow to a stop and “reinvests” it in charging the battery. Instead of tracking down public chargers, he hooks his car up to the charger he’s installed at his house.
If diabetes progresses too far, it can result in a potentially blinding condition known as retinopathy. And while existing treatments are invasive and often painful, there may be new hope in the form of an LED-equipped contact lens.
Diabetic retinopathy occurs when the disease damages tiny blood vessels in the eye, reducing blood flow to nerve cells in the retina, starving them of oxygen and causing them to die.
The body tries to compensate by growing new blood vessels in the retina, although the diabetes often causes these to be imperfectly formed, resulting in their bleeding and damaging the retina. That damage is repaired via the growth of scar tissue – not new nerve cells – so over time, the patient loses their sight.
Dispatches From The Front 