theverge--2020-06-18--Turning off political ads on Facebook could have unpredictable consequences

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Programming note : The Interface is off on Thursday .
Back on Monday .
It seems hard to believe now , but there was a time when political advertising was relatively uncontroversial .
Sure , individual ads regularly proved to be controversial , from the nuclear provocations of Lyndon B. Johnson ’ s “ Daisy ” to racist fear-mongering of George H.W .
Bush ’ s “ Willie Horton.
” And the economics of political advertising , which depend heavily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opaque front groups , have been the subject of sustained and valid criticism since well before the Citizens United decision .
But the basic idea that a politician ought to be able to buy space in a media outlet and show it to a bunch of people — that was something we mostly had learned to live with .
And then social networks came along , and the calculus changed .
Buy an ad in a newspaper or on a TV station and your potential reach is relatively limited , at least compared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ad on a social network and its reach is potentially infinite — and it can acquire massive scale in an incredibly short period of time .
The old thinking was , a politician ought to be able to address their constituents — and if they say horrible things , that ’ s something the public ought to know .
The new thinking was — well , sure , but what if he says that Election Day is a week later for the other party ?
What if he says that members of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to eat your babies ?
What if he tells his army to go shoot a bunch of protesters and buys an ad to brag about it ?
Suddenly that combination of scale and speed feels dangerous , in a concrete way .
The lie gets halfway around the world before the fact-checkers even see it , and that ’ s if your social network will even let them fact-check the lies to begin with .
All of that is prelude to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing this on Tuesday evening in an op-ed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon , you ’ ll be able to remove political ads from your Facebook feed .
( Most political ads , anyway : Facebook can not perfectly identify every remotely “ political ” ad , and so you may see some anyway . )
This approach had been announced in January , but honestly who remembers January , and anyway now it ’ s here .
This optional feature brings Facebook ’ s approach a step closer to that of Twitter , which banned political ads outright in November .
( Google allows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advertisers to “ microtarget , ” or show ads to people based on fine-grained demographic or location information . )
How big a deal is all this ?
Perhaps not as big as Facebook ’ s intention , also announced in that op-ed , to register 4 million new voters over the next several months — double what the company estimates it managed to achieve during the last election .
And a new voter information hub modeled on a similar module that Facebook created for COVID-19 could also be useful as an island @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the usual polarized provocations .
But I always think it ’ s worth noting when , in a democracy , a major media outlet enables the restriction of political speech — even when its intentions are good .
Sure , there ’ s the journalist ’ s tendency to favor more speech in most contexts .
But there ’ s also an awareness that placing limits on one kind of political speech can often benefit other forms of political speech .
Limiting political speech in ads , for example , could favor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advertising .
It could also change the kinds of political speech people see on Facebook .
Advertising executives there have told me in the past that political ads tended to be less inflammatory than regular posts on the whole , because fewer people want to see inflammatory messages and thus they can be more expensive to distribute .
But unpaid partisan engagement bait circulates widely through Facebook echo chambers .
The New York Times ’ Kevin Roose does a regular bit on Twitter where he posts the day ’ s top Facebook posts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ skew heavily toward the conservative side .
You can imagine a world where partisans disable political ads , see nothing but links to articles that flatter their worldview , and withdraw further into their echo chambers .
You can also imagine a world where politicians take the hint , and stop threatening to send in the military to trample peaceful protesters , or falsely suggest that voting by mail is illegal , or rig up a Facebook ad for a data-collection scheme to look like a link to the official US Census .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ people would be less likely to turn off political ads on Facebook .
This world is admittedly harder to imagine .
Maybe the political-ad toggle will turn out to be a minor thing .
Or maybe researchers will pinpoint it , a few years from now , as a decisive factor in some outcome or another .
The interlocking feedback loops of Facebook , its user base , and the wider world are basically impossible to understand in real time .
What you can do , though , is watch the company continuously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make : between speech and safety , between Democrats and Republicans , between the absolutists and the people who think there ought to just be a toggle .
Sometimes “ giving the user more control ” can be the most responsible thing to do .
Other times it can represent an abdication of some larger responsibility .
Facebook is now locked in a perpetual tug-of-war between the people who think it should allow more speech , and the people who think it should allow less .
Allowing everyone to disable political ads feels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that needle — one whose eye is small and shrinking all the time .
I made a mistake in yesterday ’ s piece about Apple and antitrust : the email app Superhuman does , in fact , offer in-app purchases .
So sorry about that .
Elsewhere , I ’ ve been riveted by the coverage of Apple ’ s inconsistent enforcement .
See Dieter Bohn , Ben Thompson , John Gruber , and Savannah Reising for the best commentary on the subject .
I expect this story will have more dramatic turns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms .
Trending up : Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin are donating $ 120 million to historically black colleges and universities ( HBCUs ) .
It ’ s the largest recorded individual gift to support scholarships at the schools .
( Jacob Knutson / Axios ) Trending up : Facebook wants to help register 4 million voters this year with its new Voting Information Center .
While some studies have shown that Facebook posts don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effort will .
( Nick Statt / The Verge ) Trending up : Google is committing to spending more than $ 175 million on racial equity initiatives with a focus on financing black-owned businesses and supporting black entrepreneurs .
( Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge ) ⭐ An excerpt from a new book by former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton says Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 election .
Here ’ s Bolton in the Wall Street Journal : ⭐ Senate Republicans introduced a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 230 protections for big tech companies .
In reality , the bill would likely make it even harder to hold companies like Facebook and Twitter accountable for selectively enforcing their own terms of service .
Here ’ s Dell Cameron at Gizmodo : The Justice Department is also working on a proposal to pare back Section 230 protections for tech platforms .
The proposed changes are a direct shot at companies like Facebook , Twitter and YouTube that have come into the cross hairs of the Trump administration .
( Cecilia Kang / @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s antitrust watchdog is reviewing Facebook purchase of a 10 percent stake in Reliance Jio .
The deal is meant to give Facbeook a foothold in one of the world ’ s fastest-growing internet markets .
( Shruti Srivastava / Bloomberg ) The claim that half the accounts tweeting about COVID-19 are bots is overblown , according to disinformation experts .
They say there ’ s little research to support the number is actually this high .
( Siobhan Roberts / The New York Times ) Police departments are using their official Twitter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At times , these rumors have included unsubstantiated claims about weapons and protestor violence .
( Aaron Blake / The Washington Post ) Microsoft has pledged not to sell facial recognition technology to police departments until it ’ s been federally regulated .
But documents show the company tried to sell the controversial technology to the government for years , including to the Drug Enforcement Administration in late 2017 .
( Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed ) ⭐Twitter started rolling out audio tweets on iOS .
The feature lets users record audio snippets and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s how it works , according to The Verge ’ s Chris Welch : Zoom says free users will get end-to-end encryption after all .
The company had originally said the feature would be restricted to paid enterprise users .
( Nick Statt / The Verge ) Apple ’ s head of diversity and inclusion , Christie Smith , is leaving the company .
The news comes as Apple steps up its initiatives to promote equality .
( Shelly Banjo and Mark Gurman / Bloomberg ) An army of public health volunteers is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is to conscript the vast but largely silent majority of Americans who support vaccines to block , hide , and report vaccine misinformation on social media .
( Megan Molteni / Wired ) The features that make Facebook groups attractive — privacy and community — make them dangerous for the spread of misinformation .
Often , they ’ re exploited by bad actors to share rumors and conspiracies .
( Nina Jankowicz and Cindy Otis / Wired ) Employees at the mental health startup Crisis Text Line tried telling the board about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that didn ’ t work , they went to Twitter .
( Zoe Schiffer / The Verge ) Police body cam videos can underplay officer brutality by only showing their point of view .
“ Body cameras show a scene from the perspective of the officer , and the image on the screen is focused on the suspect .
That changes the way the incident is interpreted , ” this author writes .
( Nicole Wetsman / The Verge ) Video game companies have vowed to fight racism in their communities in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the ensuing mass protests .
But they ’ ve offered few details about how .
Their silence has left some in the community wondering why even basic , text-based instances of racism persist .
( Noah Smith / The Washington Post ) ByteDance , the Chinese parent company of TikTok , booked around $ 5.64 billion in revenue for the January-March quarter .
The number shows growth of more than 130 percent compared with the same period a year earlier .
( Yingzhi Yang and Julie Zhu / Reuters ) People are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ free on other adult sites .
In some cases , they ’ re scraping subscribe-only content in bulk and then hawking it on Discord servers .
( Samantha Cole and Joseph Cox / Vice ) Magic Leap is trying to stay afloat with business-focused applications built in the model of Microsoft ’ s HoloLens .
It ’ s a far fall for a company that , in 2016 , looked like it could change the world .
( Adi Robertson / The Verge ) The Trust & Safety Professional Association is born !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for people who work on content moderation and related subjects around the tech industry , and initial backers include Facebook , Google , Twitter , YouTube , and Airbnb .
I spoke with Clara Tsao during the association ’ s development and have high hopes for the good it can do .
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine .
Install Siri ’ s “ I ’ m getting pulled over ” shortcut .
“ It will dim your phone , pause any music being played , and start recording video from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ send your current location and a copy of that video to an emergency contact , though you ’ ll need to confirm a few pop-up messages to complete these steps , ” James Vincent writes .
Subscribe to a podcast focused history , literature , and current affairs from a non-white point of view .
This viral Twitter thread has lots of good examples .
Try a Pride-themed Snapchat filter .
These “ portal lenses , ” made in partnership with The Advocate , will introduce you to some of “ the LGBTQ+ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more from each state who are changing the world for the better.
” Send us tips , comments , questions , and your political ad preferences : casey @ theverge.com and zoe @ theverge.com .

Programming note: The Interface is off on Thursday. Back on Monday.
It seems hard to believe now, but there was a time when political advertising was relatively uncontroversial. Sure, individual ads regularly proved to be controversial, from the nuclear provocations of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Daisy” to racist fear-mongering of George H.W. Bush’s “Willie Horton.” And the economics of political advertising, which depend heavily on moneyed interests pushing their agenda through opaque front groups, have been the subject of sustained and valid criticism since well before the Citizens United decision.
But the basic idea that a politician ought to be able to buy space in a media outlet and show it to a bunch of people — that was something we mostly had learned to live with. And then social networks came along, and the calculus changed.
Buy an ad in a newspaper or on a TV station and your potential reach is relatively limited, at least compared to the internet. But buy an ad on a social network and its reach is potentially infinite — and it can acquire massive scale in an incredibly short period of time.
The old thinking was, a politician ought to be able to address their constituents — and if they say horrible things, that’s something the public ought to know. The new thinking was — well, sure, but what if he says that Election Day is a week later for the other party? What if he says that members of an ethnic minority have come to the village to eat your babies? What if he tells his army to go shoot a bunch of protesters and buys an ad to brag about it?
Suddenly that combination of scale and speed feels dangerous, in a concrete way. The lie gets halfway around the world before the fact-checkers even see it, and that’s if your social network will even let them fact-check the lies to begin with.
All of that is prelude to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing this on Tuesday evening in an op-ed in USA Today:
By giving people a voice, registering and turning out voters, and preventing interference, I believe Facebook is supporting and strengthening our democracy in 2020 and beyond. And for those of you who’ve already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you — so we’re also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads. We’ll still remind you to vote.
And so starting soon, you’ll be able to remove political ads from your Facebook feed. (Most political ads, anyway: Facebook cannot perfectly identify every remotely “political” ad, and so you may see some anyway.) This approach had been announced in January, but honestly who remembers January, and anyway now it’s here. This optional feature brings Facebook’s approach a step closer to that of Twitter, which banned political ads outright in November. (Google allows political advertising but restricts the ability of advertisers to “microtarget,” or show ads to people based on fine-grained demographic or location information.)
How big a deal is all this? Perhaps not as big as Facebook’s intention, also announced in that op-ed, to register 4 million new voters over the next several months — double what the company estimates it managed to achieve during the last election. And a new voter information hub modeled on a similar module that Facebook created for COVID-19 could also be useful as an island of sanity in a News Feed full of the usual polarized provocations.
But I always think it’s worth noting when, in a democracy, a major media outlet enables the restriction of political speech — even when its intentions are good. Sure, there’s the journalist’s tendency to favor more speech in most contexts. But there’s also an awareness that placing limits on one kind of political speech can often benefit other forms of political speech. Limiting political speech in ads, for example, could favor incumbents, who have less need of advertising.
It could also change the kinds of political speech people see on Facebook. Advertising executives there have told me in the past that political ads tended to be less inflammatory than regular posts on the whole, because fewer people want to see inflammatory messages and thus they can be more expensive to distribute. But unpaid partisan engagement bait circulates widely through Facebook echo chambers. The New York Times’ Kevin Roose does a regular bit on Twitter where he posts the day’s top Facebook posts with links, and the results often skew heavily toward the conservative side. You can imagine a world where partisans disable political ads, see nothing but links to articles that flatter their worldview, and withdraw further into their echo chambers.
Maybe the political-ad toggle will turn out to be a minor thing. Or maybe researchers will pinpoint it, a few years from now, as a decisive factor in some outcome or another. The interlocking feedback loops of Facebook, its user base, and the wider world are basically impossible to understand in real time.
What you can do, though, is watch the company continuously adjust the trade-offs it is required to make: between speech and safety, between Democrats and Republicans, between the absolutists and the people who think there ought to just be a toggle. Sometimes “giving the user more control” can be the most responsible thing to do. Other times it can represent an abdication of some larger responsibility.
Facebook is now locked in a perpetual tug-of-war between the people who think it should allow more speech, and the people who think it should allow less. Allowing everyone to disable political ads feels like Zuckerberg once more attempting to thread that needle — one whose eye is small and shrinking all the time.
Pushback
I made a mistake in yesterday’s piece about Apple and antitrust: the email app Superhuman does, in fact, offer in-app purchases. So sorry about that.
Elsewhere, I’ve been riveted by the coverage of Apple’s inconsistent enforcement. See Dieter Bohn, Ben Thompson, John Gruber, and Savannah Reising for the best commentary on the subject. I expect this story will have more dramatic turns, and soon: WWDC starts Monday.
The Ratio
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.
🔼 Trending up: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin are donating $120 million to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). It’s the largest recorded individual gift to support scholarships at the schools. (Jacob Knutson / Axios)
🔼 Trending up: Google is committing to spending more than $175 million on racial equity initiatives with a focus on financing black-owned businesses and supporting black entrepreneurs. (Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge)
Governing
⭐ An excerpt from a new book by former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton says Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 election. Here’s Bolton in the Wall Street Journal:
Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.
⭐ Senate Republicans introduced a new bill that would seek to limit Section 230 protections for big tech companies. In reality, the bill would likely make it even harder to hold companies like Facebook and Twitter accountable for selectively enforcing their own terms of service. Here’s Dell Cameron at Gizmodo:
The bill, dubbed “Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act,” would effectively grant users the right to sue major internet companies that enforce their own terms of service unequally and in bad faith. As it stands, users cannot sue any website for content generated by another user (e.g., tweets, comments, posts, etc.) or for any decision by the website owner to restrict access to content that the owner finds “objectionable.” However, the changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act proposed by Hawley do not appear to place any new restrictions on how companies define their own moderation policies—only that they stick to, and evenly apply, whatever rules they ultimately decide upon. (Any effort to regulate how internet companies moderate content beyond that which is illegal, such as child sexual abuse material, would more than likely run afoul of the First Amendment.)
The Justice Department is also working on a proposal to pare back Section 230 protections for tech platforms. The proposed changes are a direct shot at companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that have come into the cross hairs of the Trump administration. (Cecilia Kang / The New York Times)
India’s antitrust watchdog is reviewing Facebook purchase of a 10 percent stake in Reliance Jio. The deal is meant to give Facbeook a foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing internet markets. (Shruti Srivastava / Bloomberg)
The claim that half the accounts tweeting about COVID-19 are bots is overblown, according to disinformation experts. They say there’s little research to support the number is actually this high. (Siobhan Roberts / The New York Times)
Police departments are using their official Twitter accounts to tweet misinformation about protestors. At times, these rumors have included unsubstantiated claims about weapons and protestor violence. (Aaron Blake / The Washington Post)
Microsoft has pledged not to sell facial recognition technology to police departments until it’s been federally regulated. But documents show the company tried to sell the controversial technology to the government for years, including to the Drug Enforcement Administration in late 2017. (Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed)
Industry
⭐Twitter started rolling out audio tweets on iOS. The feature lets users record audio snippets and attach them to tweets. Here’s how it works, according to The Verge’s Chris Welch:
If you’ve got access to it, you’ll see a new waveform icon beside the camera icon when composing a tweet. Tap that, and a red record button appears at the bottom of the screen, which you can tap to start recording your message. “Each voice tweet captures up to 140 seconds of audio. Have more to say? Keep talking. Once you reach the time limit for a tweet, a new voice tweet starts automatically to create a thread,” Twitter said. Audio can only be added to original tweets, according to this help page, so you can’t include them in replies or retweets with a comment. Another minor thing to note is that whatever your profile picture is when you record an audio clip will always be attached to that audio tweet. “Your current profile photo will be added as a static image on your audio attachment and will not refresh if you update your profile photo,” Twitter says.
Zoom says free users will get end-to-end encryption after all. The company had originally said the feature would be restricted to paid enterprise users. (Nick Statt / The Verge)
Apple’s head of diversity and inclusion, Christie Smith, is leaving the company. The news comes as Apple steps up its initiatives to promote equality. (Shelly Banjo and Mark Gurman / Bloomberg)
An army of public health volunteers is fighting vaccine disinformation online. Their plan is to conscript the vast but largely silent majority of Americans who support vaccines to block, hide, and report vaccine misinformation on social media. (Megan Molteni / Wired)
The features that make Facebook groups attractive — privacy and community — make them dangerous for the spread of misinformation. Often, they’re exploited by bad actors to share rumors and conspiracies. (Nina Jankowicz and Cindy Otis / Wired)
Employees at the mental health startup Crisis Text Line tried telling the board about the CEO’s racial insensitivities. When that didn’t work, they went to Twitter. (Zoe Schiffer / The Verge)
Police body cam videos can underplay officer brutality by only showing their point of view. “Body cameras show a scene from the perspective of the officer, and the image on the screen is focused on the suspect. That changes the way the incident is interpreted,” this author writes. (Nicole Wetsman / The Verge)
Video game companies have vowed to fight racism in their communities in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the ensuing mass protests. But they’ve offered few details about how. Their silence has left some in the community wondering why even basic, text-based instances of racism persist. (Noah Smith / The Washington Post)
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, booked around $5.64 billion in revenue for the January-March quarter. The number shows growth of more than 130 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. (Yingzhi Yang and Julie Zhu / Reuters)
People are stealing OnlyFans content and posting it for free on other adult sites. In some cases, they’re scraping subscribe-only content in bulk and then hawking it on Discord servers. (Samantha Cole and Joseph Cox / Vice)
Magic Leap is trying to stay afloat with business-focused applications built in the model of Microsoft’s HoloLens. It’s a far fall for a company that, in 2016, looked like it could change the world. (Adi Robertson / The Verge)
The Trust & Safety Professional Association is born! It will offer training and career development for people who work on content moderation and related subjects around the tech industry, and initial backers include Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, and Airbnb. I spoke with Clara Tsao during the association’s development and have high hopes for the good it can do.
Things to do
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
Install Siri’s “I’m getting pulled over” shortcut. “It will dim your phone, pause any music being played, and start recording video from your front-facing camera. It can also send your current location and a copy of that video to an emergency contact, though you’ll need to confirm a few pop-up messages to complete these steps,” James Vincent writes.
Subscribe to a podcast focused history, literature, and current affairs from a non-white point of view. This viral Twitter thread has lots of good examples.
Try a Pride-themed Snapchat filter. These “portal lenses,” made in partnership with The Advocate, will introduce you to some of “the LGBTQ+ activists, artists, politicians, and more from each state who are changing the world for the better.”
Those good tweets
Talk to us


theverge--2020-06-18--Ford’s hands-free driving feature won’t be available until late 2021

Ford announced late last year that the Mustang Mach-E will be the company ’ s first car to allow hands-free driving in certain situations .
Today , the company is opening up about how exactly that technology will work , but it ’ s also saying that the feature won ’ t be available until the second half of 2021 .
When the Mach-E goes on sale at the end of this year , buyers who want the hands-free driving mode will have to purchase what Ford ’ s calling the “ Active 2.0 Prep Package.
” This will make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a forward-facing camera and radar sensors ) that ’ s necessary for the hands-free driving mode , which Ford is calling “ Active Drive Assist.
” But the Active Drive Assist feature will require a separate purchase of its own , and won ’ t be available until a software update that ’ s coming later next year .
( The company said it is not yet ready to reveal pricing for any of this . )
Customers will have to buy a specific package , and then pay extra for the feature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the second generation of Ford ’ s advanced driver assistance system ( ADAS ) , known as CoPilot 360 .
This includes improved versions of features like lane centering , adaptive cruise control , active park assist , blind spot assist , and more .
Once it ’ s ready , Active Drive Assist will be available on highways that have been mapped by Ford .
The company says it will have 100,000 miles of divided highways mapped across all 50 states and Canada at launch .
The Mustang Mach-E also has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wheel that will make sure the driver is paying attention to the road when the hands-free mode is engaged .
This combination of driver monitoring and targeted deployment on mapped roads is the same approach that General Motors has taken with Cadillac ’ s Super Cruise system .
The mapped highway requirement means means that Active Driving Assist won ’ t be as widely available in the early going as something like Tesla ’ s Autopilot ( which is not hands-free ) , and Ford didn ’ t say how quickly it will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is now available on at least 200,000 highway miles in the US and Canada . )
But it ’ s a more considered approach that has earned GM plaudits , and so it ’ s not surprising to see Ford do something so similar .
Where Super Cruise uses a system of lights on the steering wheel to tell the driver when the feature is available , Ford will rely on the digital instrument cluster behind the Mach-E ’ s steering wheel to convey this information .
The screen will show an animation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the steering wheel to let drivers know when they can engage Active Drive Assist , or when they need to take back over .
When a driver gets on a highway where Active Drive Assist is available , the display will turn blue , and when the feature is active a “ bubble ” will appear around the virtual car on the display .
“ It ’ s a complicated thing to communicate to people ... especially when you have [ different features like ] lane keeping , adaptive cruise , and so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Ford ’ s global EV division , said on a press call .
Palmer says Ford tried out “ all different types of graphics , colors , and information to see which of them would be understood by the most people most easily without education.
” Palmer said that drivers will be able to disengage Active Drive Assist by gently moving the steering wheel , which he said he feels is better than the higher amount of force other systems like Super Cruise or Autopilot require .
“ On at least one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of ‘ break free ’ from it , and it ’ s very unnerving for people , because they feel like they ’ re wrestling with it .
And so we really wanted to make sure we didn ’ t have that , ” he said .
All driver assistance systems have their limitations , which can become a problem if the humans behind the wheel get too confident in them .
In fact , this was one of the overarching themes in the National Transportation Safety Board ’ s hearing earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Palmer and Ford engineer Chris Billman said that the camera-based driver monitoring system should help mitigate this problem .
Billman also said that Ford carefully chose the language it ’ s using to name and describe Active Drive Assist and similar features .
“ We don ’ t overpromise or imply that the features can do more than they can .
We try to make them intuitive and straightforward , ” he said .

Ford announced late last year that the Mustang Mach-E will be the company’s first car to allow hands-free driving in certain situations. Today, the company is opening up about how exactly that technology will work, but it’s also saying that the feature won’t be available until the second half of 2021.
When the Mach-E goes on sale at the end of this year, buyers who want the hands-free driving mode will have to purchase what Ford’s calling the “Active 2.0 Prep Package.” This will make sure the car has the hardware (a forward-facing camera and radar sensors) that’s necessary for the hands-free driving mode, which Ford is calling “Active Drive Assist.” But the Active Drive Assist feature will require a separate purchase of its own, and won’t be available until a software update that’s coming later next year. (The company said it is not yet ready to reveal pricing for any of this.)
Customers will have to buy a specific package, and then pay extra for the feature
Until then, owners will have access to the second generation of Ford’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), known as CoPilot 360. This includes improved versions of features like lane centering, adaptive cruise control, active park assist, blind spot assist, and more.
Once it’s ready, Active Drive Assist will be available on highways that have been mapped by Ford. The company says it will have 100,000 miles of divided highways mapped across all 50 states and Canada at launch. The Mustang Mach-E also has an infrared camera system in the steering wheel that will make sure the driver is paying attention to the road when the hands-free mode is engaged.
This combination of driver monitoring and targeted deployment on mapped roads is the same approach that General Motors has taken with Cadillac’s Super Cruise system. The mapped highway requirement means means that Active Driving Assist won’t be as widely available in the early going as something like Tesla’s Autopilot (which is not hands-free), and Ford didn’t say how quickly it will add additional highways. (Super Cruise is now available on at least 200,000 highway miles in the US and Canada.) But it’s a more considered approach that has earned GM plaudits, and so it’s not surprising to see Ford do something so similar.
Where Super Cruise uses a system of lights on the steering wheel to tell the driver when the feature is available, Ford will rely on the digital instrument cluster behind the Mach-E’s steering wheel to convey this information. The screen will show an animation of hands letting go of or grabbing the steering wheel to let drivers know when they can engage Active Drive Assist, or when they need to take back over. When a driver gets on a highway where Active Drive Assist is available, the display will turn blue, and when the feature is active a “bubble” will appear around the virtual car on the display.
“It’s a complicated thing to communicate to people ... especially when you have [different features like] lane keeping, adaptive cruise, and so on” Darren Palmer, the head of Ford’s global EV division, said on a press call. Palmer says Ford tried out “all different types of graphics, colors, and information to see which of them would be understood by the most people most easily without education.”
Palmer said that drivers will be able to disengage Active Drive Assist by gently moving the steering wheel, which he said he feels is better than the higher amount of force other systems like Super Cruise or Autopilot require.
“On at least one of the popular systems you have to kind of ‘break free’ from it, and it’s very unnerving for people, because they feel like they’re wrestling with it. And so we really wanted to make sure we didn’t have that,” he said.
All driver assistance systems have their limitations, which can become a problem if the humans behind the wheel get too confident in them. In fact, this was one of the overarching themes in the National Transportation Safety Board’s hearing earlier this year regarding Tesla’s Autopilot.


theverge--2020-06-18--Amazon to stream Premier League soccer free on Twitch

Amazon will start streaming live Premier League football ( soccer ) games free on Twitch later this month .
Twitch viewers in the UK will be able to access four matches , starting with the Crystal Palace vs. Burnley match on June 29th .
Deadline reports that the Premier League streams will also include Twitch chat , so expect to see thousands of fans shouting virtually from the sidelines and spamming emoji alongside the games .
Amazon will also be streaming its Premier League games on Prime Video for subscribers .
This is the first time that Amazon has chosen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Twitch service , free of charge .
Amazon secured the rights to stream Premier League matches in the UK for three years back in 2018 , and streamed multiple simultaneous games through Prime Video during the holidays lasts year .
These additional four fixtures are part of the Premier League ’ s coronavirus restart strategy which sees rights loosened to make football more accessible during the pandemic .
This has allowed broadcasters like the BBC to show games for the first time , alongside additional games airing on TV to make up for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Like Sky Sports , Amazon is also working with EA Sports to provide FIFA-powered virtual crowd noise during games .
The Premier League returned to TV screens in the UK last night on Sky Sports , with a choice between FIFA ’ s crowd noise or the ability to hear players on the pitch .

Amazon will start streaming live Premier League football (soccer) games free on Twitch later this month. Twitch viewers in the UK will be able to access four matches, starting with the Crystal Palace vs. Burnley match on June 29th. Deadline reports that the Premier League streams will also include Twitch chat, so expect to see thousands of fans shouting virtually from the sidelines and spamming emoji alongside the games. Amazon will also be streaming its Premier League games on Prime Video for subscribers.
This is the first time that Amazon has chosen to stream Premier League games through its Twitch service, free of charge. Amazon secured the rights to stream Premier League matches in the UK for three years back in 2018, and streamed multiple simultaneous games through Prime Video during the holidays lasts year.
These additional four fixtures are part of the Premier League’s coronavirus restart strategy which sees rights loosened to make football more accessible during the pandemic. This has allowed broadcasters like the BBC to show games for the first time, alongside additional games airing on TV to make up for a lack of crowds in stadiums.


theverge--2020-06-18--Google’s new Chrome extension lets you link directly to specific text on a page

Link to Text Fragment is a new Chrome Extension from Google that lets you generate URLs to specific text on a webpage , regardless of the page ’ s formatting .
With the extension installed , simply highlight the text you want to link to , right click , and select “ Copy Link to Selected Text.
” This can then be shared and opened by anyone using a compatible browser .
For example , clicking this link in Chrome or Edge will bring you directly to a highlighted section at the bottom of the article .
The Google extension @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently added to Chromium called Text Fragments , which works by appending extra linking information to a URL after a # .
It ’ s the same technology that Google now sometimes uses to link to specific parts of a webpage in search results .
However , these URLs can be long and difficult to manually create if you ’ re linking to longer sections of text , or complex web pages where the same words are repeated multiple times .
This extension simplifies the creation process .
The links created by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of all Chromium-based browsers , but they ’ re not supported in all browsers .
Google ’ s blog post notes that as of yesterday Firefox and Safari had not said that they ’ d implement the feature .
Clicking a link using those browsers will simply take you to the top of the linked webpage , without highlighting the text .
Text fragments are a small but useful piece of functionality that make it easier to find specific information on a webpage .
In the paragraph above , for example , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is set up to link directly to the section about Firefox and Safari compatibility .
You could also see it being useful for linking to a specific step in a long series of instructions , or a particular entry in a best-of list .
The extension and the functionality it enables are promising , but it ’ s not perfect just yet .
While testing out the feature in Edge , I ’ d sometimes get linked to the correct part of the page , but the text wouldn ’ t be highlighted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ d sometimes receive an error telling me to highlight a longer section of text , despite having already selected a whole paragraph .
I wasn ’ t able to verify what it was about my combination of browser , extensions , and the websites I was linking to that caused these problems .
The Link to Text Fragment extension is available now in the Chrome Web Store .

Link to Text Fragment is a new Chrome Extension from Google that lets you generate URLs to specific text on a webpage, regardless of the page’s formatting.
With the extension installed, simply highlight the text you want to link to, right click, and select “Copy Link to Selected Text.” This can then be shared and opened by anyone using a compatible browser. For example, clicking this link in Chrome or Edge will bring you directly to a highlighted section at the bottom of the article.
The Google extension builds upon a new feature that was recently added to Chromium called Text Fragments, which works by appending extra linking information to a URL after a #. It’s the same technology that Google now sometimes uses to link to specific parts of a webpage in search results. However, these URLs can be long and difficult to manually create if you’re linking to longer sections of text, or complex web pages where the same words are repeated multiple times. This extension simplifies the creation process.
The links created by the extension are compatible with version 80 upwards of all Chromium-based browsers, but they’re not supported in all browsers. Google’s blog post notes that as of yesterday Firefox and Safari had not said that they’d implement the feature. Clicking a link using those browsers will simply take you to the top of the linked webpage, without highlighting the text.
Text fragments are a small but useful piece of functionality that make it easier to find specific information on a webpage. In the paragraph above, for example, the hyperlink to Google’s blog post is set up to link directly to the section about Firefox and Safari compatibility. You could also see it being useful for linking to a specific step in a long series of instructions, or a particular entry in a best-of list.
The extension and the functionality it enables are promising, but it’s not perfect just yet. While testing out the feature in Edge, I’d sometimes get linked to the correct part of the page, but the text wouldn’t be highlighted. Then, when creating links, I’d sometimes receive an error telling me to highlight a longer section of text, despite having already selected a whole paragraph. I wasn’t able to verify what it was about my combination of browser, extensions, and the websites I was linking to that caused these problems.


theverge--2020-06-18--Samsung rolls out smartwatch blood pressure tracking in South Korea

Samsung has released its Health Monitor app in South Korea , enabling blood pressure tracking for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 smartwatch .
The rollout is slightly ahead of schedule ; Samsung previously said the app would be released in the third quarter of this year after getting approval from South Korea ’ s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April .
The Galaxy Watch Active 2 still won ’ t work as a full-on replacement for a traditional blood pressure cuff ; in fact , you need to use one to calibrate the app every four weeks .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , though — optical-based sensors can technically only measure the change in blood pressure rather than give an accurate reading by themselves .
With a traditional reading as a baseline , Samsung ’ s app should be more useful for tracking trends over time or between visits to the doctor .
Samsung says the Health Monitor app will also support ECG ( electrocardiogram ) heart monitoring from the third quarter of this year in South Korea .
That ’ s a feature Apple introduced with the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ native support for blood pressure tracking .
Samsung hasn ’ t announced details of plans to bring these features outside of South Korea .
Any such efforts would depend on approval from local regulatory bodies .

Samsung has released its Health Monitor app in South Korea, enabling blood pressure tracking for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 smartwatch. The rollout is slightly ahead of schedule; Samsung previously said the app would be released in the third quarter of this year after getting approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April.
The Galaxy Watch Active 2 still won’t work as a full-on replacement for a traditional blood pressure cuff; in fact, you need to use one to calibrate the app every four weeks. That’s really for the best, though — optical-based sensors can technically only measure the change in blood pressure rather than give an accurate reading by themselves. With a traditional reading as a baseline, Samsung’s app should be more useful for tracking trends over time or between visits to the doctor.
Samsung says the Health Monitor app will also support ECG (electrocardiogram) heart monitoring from the third quarter of this year in South Korea. That’s a feature Apple introduced with the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018, though it’s yet to offer native support for blood pressure tracking.


theverge--2020-06-17--Sony’s slick PS5 reveal graphics are almost certainly from this Russian media artist

In the image above , a field of pulsating blue spheres rearranges itself into geometric patterns .
If that looks familiar , that means you probably watched Sony ’ s PlayStation 5 reveal last week .
The ultra-modern vibe of the graphics and their white , black , and blue color scheme set the stage perfectly for the reveal of the actual PS5 console .
But the image above actually isn ’ t Sony ’ s .
It ’ s the work of Maxim Zhestkov , a Russian media artist — and the similarities between his work and the graphics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us think his studio was commissioned to make those graphics .
Let ’ s take a look at some of what was shown in the PS5 video and compare it to his work .
Check out the below GIF from the PS5 video , for example .
Here , a column of thousands of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light forms the shape of the classic PlayStation circle with cool blue illumination shifting through the column : Now , check out this GIF from a work of Zhestkov ’ s called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light fades into different shapes with cool blue illumination shifting through the column — look familiar ?
Check out these side-by-side of spheres creating canyons against a black wall taken from the PS5 video and “ Computations.
” Can you tell which is originally from Sony ’ s video ?
( I ’ ll say which is in the caption . )
Let ’ s look at something slightly different .
Here ’ s a GIF from the PS5 reveal of a cubical monolith in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to reveal a colorful , layered inside : That looks awfully similar to a scene from a work of Zhestkov ’ s called “ Layers ” featuring a rectangular monolith in an empty , ceiling-lit room that opens up to reveal a colorful , layered inside : Sony hasn ’ t replied to a request for comment about Zhestkov ’ s participation — but Zhestkov does list Sony as a client on his studio ’ s About page .
And when we reached out to the studio to see if they could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ we can ’ t yet confirm or deny our participation in Sony ’ s reveal.
” So we can ’ t be completely certain that Zhestkov made the motion graphics .
But I ’ d have to say it seems pretty likely .

In the image above, a field of pulsating blue spheres rearranges itself into geometric patterns. If that looks familiar, that means you probably watched Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal last week. The ultra-modern vibe of the graphics and their white, black, and blue color scheme set the stage perfectly for the reveal of the actual PS5 console.
But the image above actually isn’t Sony’s. It’s the work of Maxim Zhestkov, a Russian media artist — and the similarities between his work and the graphics in Sony’s PS5 video make us think his studio was commissioned to make those graphics. Let’s take a look at some of what was shown in the PS5 video and compare it to his work.
Check out the below GIF from the PS5 video, for example. Here, a column of thousands of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light forms the shape of the classic PlayStation circle with cool blue illumination shifting through the column:
Now, check out this GIF from a work of Zhestkov’s called “Computations.” A column of thousands of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light fades into different shapes with cool blue illumination shifting through the column — look familiar?
Check out these side-by-side of spheres creating canyons against a black wall taken from the PS5 video and “Computations.” Can you tell which is originally from Sony’s video? (I’ll say which is which in the caption.)
PS5 reveal (left) vs. “Computations” (right)
Let’s look at something slightly different. Here’s a GIF from the PS5 reveal of a cubical monolith in an empty, ceiling-lit room that opens up to reveal a colorful, layered inside:
That looks awfully similar to a scene from a work of Zhestkov’s called “Layers” featuring a rectangular monolith in an empty, ceiling-lit room that opens up to reveal a colorful, layered inside:
Sony hasn’t replied to a request for comment about Zhestkov’s participation — but Zhestkov does list Sony as a client on his studio’s About page. And when we reached out to the studio to see if they could confirm their participation, a producer said “we can’t yet confirm or deny our participation in Sony’s reveal.”


theverge--2020-06-18--Twitter’s audio tweets revealed an accessibility miss, and now the company wants to fix it

Twitter doesn ’ t have a team dedicated to accessibility , instead relying on employees who volunteer their time above and beyond their usual duties , and the company may have already realized that ’ s a mistake — after taking flak for the lack of captions in Twitter ’ s brand-new audio tweet feature , the company tells The Verge that it ’ s exploring how to build a “ more dedicated group ” to focus on accessibility problems .
The lack of a dedicated team was revealed by Twitter software engineer Andrew Hayward , following complaints from accessibility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group wasn ’ t unpaid , but were regular Twitter employees who dedicated some of their time to accessibility issues .
The audio tweets , which are available to a limited number of users on iOS , can capture up to 140 seconds of audio per tweet .
A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge that the feature was an early audio test , and “ we ’ re still exploring the best ways to meet the needs of people with different abilities.
” “ I do worry that if this becomes a prominent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out , ” tweeted Liam O ’ Dell , a UK-based deaf journalist .
Other commenters pointed out that other social platforms have captions , so the excuse that this was a new feature didn ’ t really hold water .
For the record , YouTube , Facebook videos , Zoom , and Snapchat Discover videos all offer captioning .
Following Hayward ’ s tweets , a Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge the company is working on improving its accessibility review and exploring the possibility of building that “ more dedicated group ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now , there are groups and individuals across the company that support our accessibility work .
See @ TwitterA11y and @ TwitterAble .
We ’ re looking at how we can build out a more dedicated group to focus on accessibility tooling and advocacy across all products .
We missed around voice Tweets , and we are committed to doing better – making this feature more accessible and also all features in the future .
We ’ re constantly reviewing both the functionality of our products and the internal processes that inform them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this area .
Twitter also pointed to a public statement from Dantley Davis , the company ’ s head of design and research , who said he will advocate for accessibility to be a part of product design from the beginning in the future .
Twitter doesn ’ t seem to be promising any structural changes for certain , but the company has heard advocates loud and clear .

Twitter doesn’t have a team dedicated to accessibility, instead relying on employees who volunteer their time above and beyond their usual duties, and the company may have already realized that’s a mistake — after taking flak for the lack of captions in Twitter’s brand-new audio tweet feature, the company tells The Verge that it’s exploring how to build a “more dedicated group” to focus on accessibility problems.
The lack of a dedicated team was revealed by Twitter software engineer Andrew Hayward, following complaints from accessibility advocates. He later clarified that the group wasn’t unpaid, but were regular Twitter employees who dedicated some of their time to accessibility issues.
The audio tweets, which are available to a limited number of users on iOS, can capture up to 140 seconds of audio per tweet. A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge that the feature was an early audio test, and “we’re still exploring the best ways to meet the needs of people with different abilities.”
“I do worry that if this becomes a prominent feature, deaf users will be left out,” tweeted Liam O’Dell, a UK-based deaf journalist. Other commenters pointed out that other social platforms have captions, so the excuse that this was a new feature didn’t really hold water. For the record, YouTube, Facebook videos, Zoom, and Snapchat Discover videos all offer captioning.
Following Hayward’s tweets, a Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge the company is working on improving its accessibility review and exploring the possibility of building that “more dedicated group” to focus on the problem.
Here’s Twitter’s full statement:
Right now, there are groups and individuals across the company that support our accessibility work. See @TwitterA11y and @TwitterAble. We’re looking at how we can build out a more dedicated group to focus on accessibility tooling and advocacy across all products. We missed around voice Tweets, and we are committed to doing better – making this feature more accessible and also all features in the future. We’re constantly reviewing both the functionality of our products and the internal processes that inform them; we’ll share progress in this area.
Twitter also pointed to a public statement from Dantley Davis, the company’s head of design and research, who said he will advocate for accessibility to be a part of product design from the beginning in the future.


theverge--2020-06-18--Tesla employees are holding a Juneteenth rally at the company’s California factory

A small group of Tesla employees and community organizers are holding a rally on Friday in the parking lot of the company ’ s Fremont , California car factory on June 19th , or Juneteenth , the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States .
The people behind the protest want Tesla employees and people from the community to “ Stand with Tesla Workers for Black Lives , ” according to a Facebook event .
The rally comes as people around the nation continue to take to the streets to protest police brutality and racism , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Uber and Twitter have announced that they ’ re making Juneteenth a paid company holiday .
“ This was brought on by a group of people who are not only calling for an end to police brutality , but are also calling to defund the police , ” the group said in a statement to The Verge .
“ We are tired of the unjust killings of people like George , Breonna , Ahmaud and every other countless life that was lost in part due to police brutality .
We are tired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s happening around this country every single day , we are tired just like everyone else is .
We decided on June 19 because it ’ s a day that is recognized in which slavery was ended , but truth be told , we ’ re still fighting the war to end racism , mass incarceration , acts of violence by police , and so much more.
” “ it ’ s time we act and show support not only within the company , but as a community.
” The employees who put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their identities , according to one who spoke to The Verge on the condition of anonymity .
Earlier this week , a different Tesla employee was given a termination notice after organizing a protest at the Fremont factory in response to the way the company has handled COVID-19 .
( Tesla ’ s workforce is not unionized . )
The organizers of Friday ’ s rally say they don ’ t believe that Tesla ’ s response to the recent nationwide protests has been adequate , either .
“ We know we work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are aware of the email Valerie [ Workman , Tesla ’ s North American HR boss ] sent out , but it ’ s more than just listening , it ’ s time we act and show support not only within the company , but as a community , as we continue fight to end these everyday battles , ” they wrote .
In that June 9th email , a copy of which was obtained by The Verge , Workman announced that Tesla was launching a “ Listen to Understand ” series for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come together , listen to our colleagues ’ stories , share learning resources , and help us all better understand new perspectives.
” “ Our team ’ s efforts won ’ t end here .
We remain committed to championing diversity , equity and inclusion for our people , and in our business and communities , ” Workman wrote .
“ As we revise our 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Plan to incorporate more employee feedback into our programming , we stand committed to this work and we ask for your commitment too.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for comment .
The Tesla employees originally planned to to gather people at the factory and perform a five-mile march to Fremont City Hall , and put out a call to musicians , dancers , singers , and artists to join them , according to an earlier version of the poster they put together .
But the employee who spoke to The Verge said the group ultimately decided that a the march would be “ too long ” and “ might deter people.
” Now , they ’ re asking people to gather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what the poster describes as a “ peaceful protest against police brutality and a celebration for Black life , ” with an “ open mic ” format .
Attendees are encouraged to wear black , bring signs , and wear masks as well .
The employee who spoke to The Verge said that they asked former Tesla employees to speak at the rally , too .

A small group of Tesla employees and community organizers are holding a rally on Friday in the parking lot of the company’s Fremont, California car factory on June 19th, or Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. The people behind the protest want Tesla employees and people from the community to “Stand with Tesla Workers for Black Lives,” according to a Facebook event. Some of them also want to push CEO Elon Musk into making a public statement, according to Protocol.
The rally comes as people around the nation continue to take to the streets to protest police brutality and racism, and as a number of tech giants like Uber and Twitter have announced that they’re making Juneteenth a paid company holiday.
“This was brought on by a group of people who are not only calling for an end to police brutality, but are also calling to defund the police,” the group said in a statement to The Verge. “We are tired of the unjust killings of people like George, Breonna, Ahmaud and every other countless life that was lost in part due to police brutality. We are tired of the lynchings and racism that’s happening around this country every single day, we are tired just like everyone else is. We decided on June 19 because it’s a day that is recognized in which slavery was ended, but truth be told, we’re still fighting the war to end racism, mass incarceration, acts of violence by police, and so much more.”
“it’s time we act and show support not only within the company, but as a community.”
The employees who put together the rally are not comfortable revealing their identities, according to one who spoke to The Verge on the condition of anonymity. Earlier this week, a different Tesla employee was given a termination notice after organizing a protest at the Fremont factory in response to the way the company has handled COVID-19. (Tesla’s workforce is not unionized.)
The organizers of Friday’s rally say they don’t believe that Tesla’s response to the recent nationwide protests has been adequate, either.
“We know we work for a big company like Tesla and are aware of the email Valerie [Workman, Tesla’s North American HR boss] sent out, but it’s more than just listening, it’s time we act and show support not only within the company, but as a community, as we continue fight to end these everyday battles,” they wrote.
In that June 9th email, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, Workman announced that Tesla was launching a “Listen to Understand” series for employees that will “allow us to come together, listen to our colleagues’ stories, share learning resources, and help us all better understand new perspectives.”
“Our team’s efforts won’t end here. We remain committed to championing diversity, equity and inclusion for our people, and in our business and communities,” Workman wrote. “As we revise our 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Plan to incorporate more employee feedback into our programming, we stand committed to this work and we ask for your commitment too.”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
The Tesla employees originally planned to to gather people at the factory and perform a five-mile march to Fremont City Hall, and put out a call to musicians, dancers, singers, and artists to join them, according to an earlier version of the poster they put together. But the employee who spoke to The Verge said the group ultimately decided that a the march would be “too long” and “might deter people.”
Now, they’re asking people to gather at the factory by 1PM PT for what the poster describes as a “peaceful protest against police brutality and a celebration for Black life,” with an “open mic” format. Attendees are encouraged to wear black, bring signs, and wear masks as well. The employee who spoke to The Verge said that they asked former Tesla employees to speak at the rally, too.


theverge--2020-06-18--Here are the 5 biggest announcements from the EA Play Live 2020 press conference

This year , Electronic Arts , like many of the giant video game publishers , switched from what would normally have been a massive E3 press conference in Los Angeles to a virtual-only event called EA Play Live .
The event kicked off at 7PM ET on Thursday and included a slew of big announcements from the company ’ s various gaming properties , including the Respawn-made battle royale Apex Legends and Star Wars .
The series of news announcements also illustrated EA ’ s commitment to supporting Steam versions of its popular PC titles and cross-play for allowing various @ @ @ @ @ @ @ together .
We ’ ve rounded up all the biggest news from the show here .
Apex Legends is coming to Nintendo Switch and Steam and adding cross-play support Developer Respawn announced that Apex Legends would be coming to both Valve ’ s Steam marketplace on PC and to the Nintendo Switch .
The studio also says it ’ s going to support crossplay across all platforms , meaning players on EA ’ s Origin launcher or on Steam can play together with console players on PlayStation 4 , Xbox One and Switch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seasonal event , called “ Lost Treasures Collection , ” that will shake up core design ideas with a new “ Armed and Dangerous Evolved ” limited-time game mode , which will introduce a portable resurrection tool for reviving knocked out teammates on the go and new twists to player abilities .
EA is bringing The Sims 4 , Titanfall 2 , and more to Steam as well Following its push to support more platforms on PC , EA announced it would bringing A Way Out , Dead Space 3 , The Sims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alongside Apex Legends .
This is a notable change in direction for EA , which has previously restricted PC versions of its games to its Origin platform .
EA ’ s latest multiplayer game is launching on July 14th for PS4 , Xbox One , and PC , with support for both Origin and Steam on Windows .
It ’ s a hero shooter in the vein of Overwatch with a cartoony aesthetic and a cast of 10 characters with unique abilities .
The game was first announced a year ago , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in less than a month .
Star Wars : Squadrons ’ first gameplay trailer shows off its exciting space combat Star Wars : Squadrons is a new first-person space shooter that puts you in the pilot seat of iconic Star Wars spacecraft , including the X-Wing and TIE Fighters .
It releases October 2nd for PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , and PC , and will also be entirely playable in virtual reality on PS4 and PC .
The gameplay trailer shows off a bit of the game ’ s narrative and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t know much about this one , but EA saved the revival of its much-loved Skate series as a “ one more thing ” surprise at the end of its press conference .
Chris “ Cuz ” Perry , the game ’ s director , said , “ It ’ s the beginning .
The Skate evolution continues.
” It sounds like it ’ s very early , but “ Skate 4 ” has been a constant request from gaming fans for years , and Perry even acknowledged the meme-worthy moment by saying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ”

This year, Electronic Arts, like many of the giant video game publishers, switched from what would normally have been a massive E3 press conference in Los Angeles to a virtual-only event called EA Play Live.
The event kicked off at 7PM ET on Thursday and included a slew of big announcements from the company’s various gaming properties, including the Respawn-made battle royale Apex Legends and Star Wars. The series of news announcements also illustrated EA’s commitment to supporting Steam versions of its popular PC titles and cross-play for allowing various console platforms and Windows ones to play together.
We’ve rounded up all the biggest news from the show here.
Image: Respawn
Developer Respawn announced that Apex Legends would be coming to both Valve’s Steam marketplace on PC and to the Nintendo Switch. The studio also says it’s going to support crossplay across all platforms, meaning players on EA’s Origin launcher or on Steam can play together with console players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch.
There’s also a new seasonal event, called “Lost Treasures Collection,” that will shake up core design ideas with a new “Armed and Dangerous Evolved” limited-time game mode, which will introduce a portable resurrection tool for reviving knocked out teammates on the go and new twists to player abilities.
EA is bringing The Sims 4, Titanfall 2, and more to Steam as well
Following its push to support more platforms on PC, EA announced it would bringing A Way Out, Dead Space 3, The Sims 4, and Titanfall 2 to Steam alongside Apex Legends. This is a notable change in direction for EA, which has previously restricted PC versions of its games to its Origin platform.
Rocket Arena is an all-new multiplayer hero shooter coming July 14th
EA’s latest multiplayer game is launching on July 14th for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with support for both Origin and Steam on Windows. It’s a hero shooter in the vein of Overwatch with a cartoony aesthetic and a cast of 10 characters with unique abilities. The game was first announced a year ago, and it’s now poised to launch in less than a month.
Star Wars: Squadrons is a new first-person space shooter that puts you in the pilot seat of iconic Star Wars spacecraft, including the X-Wing and TIE Fighters. It releases October 2nd for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and will also be entirely playable in virtual reality on PS4 and PC. The gameplay trailer shows off a bit of the game’s narrative and the five-on-five team battles.
A new Skate game is coming


theverge--2020-06-18--The first Star Wars: Squadrons gameplay footage shows off the starfighter action

After a teaser trailer earlier this week , EA has finally shown off some actual gameplay footage for Star Wars : Squadrons , its new starfighter dogfighting game .
As promised , the new title is a first-person space shooter focused around five-on-five team battles , as players group up into their own squadron ( made up , of course , of classic Star Wars ships ) .
The gameplay appears to be drawing on past games , like the 90s X-Wing and TIE Fighter games , complete with diverting power between ship systems , managing shields , and that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eight pilot-able ships , with a fighter , interceptor , support , and bomber class ship for each faction ( specifically , the X-Wing , A-Wing , Y-Wing , U-Wing , TIE Fighter , TIE Interceptor , TIE Bomber , and TIE Reaper fighters . )
Squadrons ’ “ signature ” online mode , Fleet Battles , is a multistage mission that will have a five-person squadron dogfight in the center of the map , attack ( or defend ) a medium-sized capital ship , before taking on a flagship ( either an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crusier ) in the final stage .
There ’ s also a single player campaign , set “ a little bit after ” Return of the Jedi , which will have players create two pilots : a New Republic one and an Imperial one , who ’ ll they ’ ll alternate controlling during missions .
Star Wars : Squadrons is set to be released on Xbox One , PlayStation 4 , and PC on October 2nd for $ 39.99 , with cross-play between platforms .
EA says you ’ ll also be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in VR on PS4 and PC platforms .

After a teaser trailer earlier this week, EA has finally shown off some actual gameplay footage for Star Wars: Squadrons, its new starfighter dogfighting game. As promised, the new title is a first-person space shooter focused around five-on-five team battles, as players group up into their own squadron (made up, of course, of classic Star Wars ships).
The gameplay appears to be drawing on past games, like the 90s X-Wing and TIE Fighter games, complete with diverting power between ship systems, managing shields, and that first-person view. There are plans for eight pilot-able ships, with a fighter, interceptor, support, and bomber class ship for each faction (specifically, the X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, U-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber, and TIE Reaper fighters.)
Squadrons’ “signature” online mode, Fleet Battles, is a multistage mission that will have a five-person squadron dogfight in the center of the map, attack (or defend) a medium-sized capital ship, before taking on a flagship (either an Imperial Star Destroyer or a Mon Calamari crusier) in the final stage.
There’s also a single player campaign, set “a little bit after” Return of the Jedi, which will have players create two pilots: a New Republic one and an Imperial one, who’ll they’ll alternate controlling during missions.


theverge--2020-06-18--EA is bringing Apex Legends to Switch and launching Steam versions of popular titles

EA announced today that popular battle royale shooter Apex Legends will be coming to the Nintendo Switch and Steam this @ @ @ @ @ only been available on PC via Origin , Xbox One , and PlayStation 4 since @ @ @ @ @ .
Apex Legends developer Respawn said the game would be getting crossplay this fall as @ @ @ @ @ ’ t the only EA game coming to Steam — the studio announced that five @ @ @ @ @ Titanfall 2 , The Sims 4 , Dead Space 3 , and A Way Out @ @ @ @ @ this second.
” Need for Speed : Most Wanted is also now on Steam , @ @ @ @ @ first announced that games would be returning to Steam in October , with the first @ @ @ @ @ Fallen Order , and has since added made many more games available on the platform @ @ @ @ @ bring its EA Access subscription service to Steam sometime this year .

EA announced today that popular battle royale shooter Apex Legends will be coming to the Nintendo Switch and Steam this fall. The game has only been available on PC via Origin, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 since it launched in February 2019. Apex Legends developer Respawn said the game would be getting crossplay this fall as well.
Apex Legends isn’t the only EA game coming to Steam — the studio announced that five more EA games, including Titanfall 2, The Sims 4, Dead Space 3, and A Way Out are all playable “right this second.” Need for Speed: Most Wanted is also now on Steam, according to Kotaku.au.
EA first announced that games would be returning to Steam in October, with the first being Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and has since added made many more games available on the platform. EA also plans to bring its EA Access subscription service to Steam sometime this year.


theverge--2020-06-18--Facebook commits $200 million to support black-owned businesses

Facebook will spend $ 200 million to support black-owned businesses and organizations in the US , COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a blog post .
It is one of several Facebook initiatives announced today to support black communities .
The company also will add a section to the Facebook app that features stories from black people , fundraisers for causes fighting racial injustice , and educational resources , Sandberg said .
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already said on May 31st that Facebook would commit $ 10 million to “ groups working on racial justice , ” though noted that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to figure out how to best distribute the money .
The platform has come under scrutiny for enabling discrimination in the past .
For example , a 2016 ProPublica investigation found that Facebook advertisers could choose to exclude people of a certain race from seeing ads .
That tool , if used with housing ads , could violate the Fair Housing Act , and the Department of Housing and Urban Development charged Facebook for that violation in March 2019 .
White supremacists have also flourished on the platform , despite Facebook ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 200 million slated for black-owned businesses will be split into two main buckets .
Half will be invested in black-owned small businesses , black creators , and nonprofits working with black communities , Sandberg said in her blog post .
Of that $ 100 million , $ 25 million will go to black content creators , while $ 75 million will be “ grants of cash and ad credits ” to support the small businesses and nonprofits .
The other $ 100 million will go to black-owned suppliers , “ from facilities to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” according to Sandberg .
The company is also committing to spend $ 100 million with black-owned suppliers every year .
In addition , the company is making a goal to spend at least $ 1 billion with “ diverse suppliers ” annually starting next year , Sandberg said .
In honor of Juneteenth , the holiday that celebrates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free , Facebook will donate $ 5 million to more than 250,000 fundraisers on Facebook supporting the Equal Justice Initiative , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Project .
The new section of the Facebook app , called “ Lift Black Voices , ” will “ highlight stories from black people , share educational resources , and inspire people to take action through fundraising for racial justice causes , ” Sandberg says .
The company also plans to surface accounts in Instagram search to “ help people take action for racial justice , ” though Sandberg ’ s post didn ’ t elaborate further on what that meant .
In addition , Facebook plans to increase diversity in its leadership @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adding 30 percent more people of color , including 30 percent more Black people , Sandberg said .
The company also committed to double the number of black and Latinx staff by the end of 2023 .
Facebook had previously announced a goal to have 50 percent of its workforce made up of “ underrepresented communities ” by that same date .
Other tech giants have also announced nine-digit financial commitments toward racial equity .
Google committed $ 175 million to support black-owned businesses , black entrepreneurs , and more last week .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Racial Equity and Justice Initiative last week which , among other things , includes increasing spending with black-owned supply chain partners .

Facebook will spend $200 million to support black-owned businesses and organizations in the US, COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a blog post. It is one of several Facebook initiatives announced today to support black communities.
The company also will add a section to the Facebook app that features stories from black people, fundraisers for causes fighting racial injustice, and educational resources, Sandberg said.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already said on May 31st that Facebook would commit $10 million to “groups working on racial justice,” though noted that the company was working with advisors and employees to figure out how to best distribute the money.
The platform has come under scrutiny for enabling discrimination in the past. For example, a 2016 ProPublica investigation found that Facebook advertisers could choose to exclude people of a certain race from seeing ads. That tool, if used with housing ads, could violate the Fair Housing Act, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development charged Facebook for that violation in March 2019. White supremacists have also flourished on the platform, despite Facebook’s announced ban on them.
The $200 million slated for black-owned businesses will be split into two main buckets. Half will be invested in black-owned small businesses, black creators, and nonprofits working with black communities, Sandberg said in her blog post. Of that $100 million, $25 million will go to black content creators, while $75 million will be “grants of cash and ad credits” to support the small businesses and nonprofits.
The other $100 million will go to black-owned suppliers, “from facilities to construction to marketing agencies and more,” according to Sandberg. The company is also committing to spend $100 million with black-owned suppliers every year. In addition, the company is making a goal to spend at least $1 billion with “diverse suppliers” annually starting next year, Sandberg said.
In honor of Juneteenth, the holiday that celebrates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free, Facebook will donate $5 million to more than 250,000 fundraisers on Facebook supporting the Equal Justice Initiative, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Innocence Project.
The new section of the Facebook app, called “Lift Black Voices,” will “highlight stories from black people, share educational resources, and inspire people to take action through fundraising for racial justice causes,” Sandberg says. The company also plans to surface accounts in Instagram search to “help people take action for racial justice,” though Sandberg’s post didn’t elaborate further on what that meant.
Image: Facebook
In addition, Facebook plans to increase diversity in its leadership ranks over the next five years by adding 30 percent more people of color, including 30 percent more Black people, Sandberg said. The company also committed to double the number of black and Latinx staff by the end of 2023. Facebook had previously announced a goal to have 50 percent of its workforce made up of “underrepresented communities” by that same date.


theverge--2020-06-18--Canoo founder leaves the EV startup ahead of next year’s launch

The founder and first CEO of EV startup Canoo is leaving , the company has confirmed to The Verge .
Stefan Krause , the former chief financial officer at both BMW and Deutsche Bank , is stepping down as chairman after shifting away from the CEO role last year .
Krause is leaving ahead of the anticipated launch of his EV startup ’ s first vehicle , which is slated to happen in 2021 .
“ Stefan has decided to formally leave his official duties with Canoo in order to pursue other opportunities , ” the company said in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are grateful to Stefan for the invaluable role he played in shaping our young company .
Though he ’ ll always be around , we wish him best of luck in his new endeavors.
” Krause declined to comment .
Krause and others founded the startup after an ugly breakup with Faraday Future in late 2017 Krause left his post as CEO last August for “ personal reasons , ” according to the company , just a few months before he and Canoo were sued by his wife for discrimination , harassment , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( The lawsuit is currently being settled , according to Canoo . )
Krause subsequently moved into the role of chairman and spent his time trying to raise more money for Canoo .
Ulrich Kranz , a fellow co-founder and former BMW executive , took over as CEO and has run the day-to-day operations ever since .
In an email to staff sent after this article was published , Kranz reassured employees that “ fundraising is moving in the right direction , ” and that the company ’ s finance head Paul @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forward .
Canoo bucks the trend of other EV startups , which are mostly focused on high-performance luxury cars .
Instead , Krause , Kranz , and former BMW designer Richard Kim came up with a far more utilitarian vehicle : a VW microbus-style vehicle that was revealed in September last year .
The company plans to offer the EV on a subscription-only basis when it goes into production in 2021 , and it wants to make other vehicle “ cabins ” that will use the same underlying “ skateboard ” platform ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , electric motors , and other electronics that make the vehicle move ) .
One of Krause ’ s early goals with Canoo was to sell that skateboard to other automakers , setting up a second line of potential revenue for the company .
In February , Canoo announced that Hyundai and Kia were the first carmakers to agree to this , though terms of the deal were not disclosed .
The company has been in talks with other automakers , according to a current employee with knowledge of the discussions .
Originally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ late 2017 by Krause and Kranz ( as well as a few others ) after they split off from struggling EV startup Faraday Future .
They had been hired earlier that year as part of an attempt to save the startup from financial collapse , but ultimately left after clashing with Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting .
Canoo ’ s EV van is subscription only , and Hyundai is already working with the startup Krause wrangled funding to start Canoo from a group of backers that included a director at Prince Andrew ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Chinese investment firm whose father-in-law was once the fourth-most senior leader in China , and billionaire Michael Chiang ( who runs Taiwanese touchscreen supplier TPK ) , as The Verge first reported in October 2019 and February 2020 .
Like other companies , Canoo has had to scale back some work during the stay-home orders brought on by the pandemic .
Most of its 300 or so employees have been working from home during the pandemic , though one told The Verge on the condition of anonymity that people who work on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ started going back into Canoo ’ s Torrance , CA headquarters .
Update June 18th , 8:02PM ET : Added information about CEO Ulrich Kranz ’ s email to staff in the fourth paragraph .

The founder and first CEO of EV startup Canoo is leaving, the company has confirmed to The Verge. Stefan Krause, the former chief financial officer at both BMW and Deutsche Bank, is stepping down as chairman after shifting away from the CEO role last year. Krause is leaving ahead of the anticipated launch of his EV startup’s first vehicle, which is slated to happen in 2021.
“Stefan has decided to formally leave his official duties with Canoo in order to pursue other opportunities,” the company said in a statement to The Verge. “We are grateful to Stefan for the invaluable role he played in shaping our young company. Though he’ll always be around, we wish him best of luck in his new endeavors.” Krause declined to comment.
Krause and others founded the startup after an ugly breakup with Faraday Future in late 2017
Krause left his post as CEO last August for “personal reasons,” according to the company, just a few months before he and Canoo were sued by his wife for discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination. (The lawsuit is currently being settled, according to Canoo.) Krause subsequently moved into the role of chairman and spent his time trying to raise more money for Canoo. Ulrich Kranz, a fellow co-founder and former BMW executive, took over as CEO and has run the day-to-day operations ever since.
In an email to staff sent after this article was published, Kranz reassured employees that “fundraising is moving in the right direction,” and that the company’s finance head Paul Balciunas will head up the effort going forward.
Canoo bucks the trend of other EV startups, which are mostly focused on high-performance luxury cars. Instead, Krause, Kranz, and former BMW designer Richard Kim came up with a far more utilitarian vehicle: a VW microbus-style vehicle that was revealed in September last year. The company plans to offer the EV on a subscription-only basis when it goes into production in 2021, and it wants to make other vehicle “cabins” that will use the same underlying “skateboard” platform (the full package of the battery pack, electric motors, and other electronics that make the vehicle move).
One of Krause’s early goals with Canoo was to sell that skateboard to other automakers, setting up a second line of potential revenue for the company. In February, Canoo announced that Hyundai and Kia were the first carmakers to agree to this, though terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company has been in talks with other automakers, according to a current employee with knowledge of the discussions.
Originally called Evelozcity, Canoo was founded in late 2017 by Krause and Kranz (as well as a few others) after they split off from struggling EV startup Faraday Future. They had been hired earlier that year as part of an attempt to save the startup from financial collapse, but ultimately left after clashing with Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting.
Canoo’s EV van is subscription only, and Hyundai is already working with the startup
Like other companies, Canoo has had to scale back some work during the stay-home orders brought on by the pandemic. Most of its 300 or so employees have been working from home during the pandemic, though one told The Verge on the condition of anonymity that people who work on the company’s vehicles have already started going back into Canoo’s Torrance, CA headquarters.