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☆ NYC's EV revolution is riding on Uber and Lyft drivers
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

For Uber and Lyft drivers, time is money, so widely accessible charging is key to the EV switch. A study by the US Department of Energy found that 1,000 fast chargers were needed for every 20,000 EV drivers on the road. A mad dash for EV licensesThe transition is getting an early test this year now that thousands more ride-hailing drivers have licenses. AdvertisementIn October, the Taxi & Limousine Commission opened applications for this gig work for the first time in five years — but for EV drivers only. In exchange, Uber drivers will get up to a 25% discount when they charge.

Persons: Manhattan, Tesla, Eric Adams, Bobby Familiar, Revel, Michael Replogle, David Do, Aeraj Qazi, Qazi, Guillermo Fondeur, Uber, he's, Fondeur, Adams, EVs, Con Edison, Flo, Replogle, it's, Josh Gold, Uber's, that's, Do, we've, Juliana Kaplan Organizations: EV, US Department of Energy, Business, NYC's Department of Transportation, Chargers, Taxi, Limousine Commission, TLC, New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Rentals, Department of Transportation, DOT, LaGuardia Airport, Tesla, Gravity, Green, Initiative Locations: New York City, Queens, NYC, Canadian, Canada, EVs, Manhattan, America

☆ Bill Gates-backed startup confident it can unearth more buried treasure after a historic copper find
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Sam Meredith | Www.Linkedin.Com In Samuelmeredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Copper plates on wagons ready for onward shipping at the Mufulira refinery, operated by Mopani Copper Mines Plc, in Mufulira, Zambia, on Friday, May 6, 2022. KoBold Metals, a mining startup backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is bullish on the discovery potential of some of the most sought-after energy transition metals. It comes shortly after the Silicon Valley-based metals exploration company announced the rare discovery of a vast copper deposit in Zambia. The point of the company is to discover, find and develop mineral resources that we need for the energy transition," Goldman said via videoconference. KoBold Metals says it uses artificial intelligence to create a "treasure map" to help find new deposits of materials such as copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Persons: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Josh Goldman, Goldman Organizations: Mopani Copper Mines, KoBold Metals, CNBC, KoBold Locations: Mufulira, Zambia, videoconference

☆ AI is setting humanity on the path to a new age of discovery
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AI is paving the way to the future tooBill Gates-backed company KoBold Metals has used AI to discover a huge new copper mine. Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesAs well as seeing AI be used to excavate the past, it seems to be getting used to forge a path to the future too. Clearly then, billions of dollars aren't just being spent on AI for the sake of achieving some productivity and efficiency hacks. AI could also help usher humans into a new age of discovery.

Persons: —, Nat Friedman, Bill Gates, Chip Somodevilla, Jeff Bezos, Josh Goldman reckons Organizations: Service, Business, KoBold Metals, KoBold, Democratic Locations: Rome, Egypt, Switzerland, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo

☆ Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos-backed startup discovers large-scale copper deposit in Zambia
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

KoBold Metals, a California-based metals exploration company backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said that it has discovered a vast copper deposit in Zambia. A spokesperson for KoBold Metals told CNBC on Monday that the company believes its Mingomba copper project in Zambia "will be one of the world's biggest high-grade large copper mines." "It is Kakula-scale in size and grade," KoBold Metals President Josh Goldman said in a statement shared on the firm's social media site X. Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian mining company founded by billionaire magnate Robert Friedland, owns nearly 40% of the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine. KoBold Metals says it uses artificial intelligence to create a "Google Maps" of the Earth's crust to help find new deposits of copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Persons: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Josh Goldman, Robert Friedland, Andreessen Horowitz, Ray Dalio, Virgin Group's Richard Branson, Alibaba's Jack Ma Organizations: KoBold Metals, CNBC, Democratic, Ivanhoe Mines, KoBold, BHP, Breakthrough Energy, Bridgewater Associates Locations: Victoria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Livingstone, California, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canadian, Norwegian

☆ ‘Barbie,’ ‘Saltburn,’ Vuitton: TikTok Sponsorship Is Consuming Our Culture - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Natasha Degen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Marketing is driving culture as promotional campaigns overshadow the offerings they seek to elevate — in fashion, music, art and film. With fashion weeks taking place around the world and awards season well underway, the hype machine is operating at full throttle. Fashion houses seemingly no longer hire creative directors for their design skills or aesthetic vision but for their marketing prowess. For Louis Vuitton, however, the show was an unqualified success: The star-studded spectacle attracted over a billion online views. But now the hype often precedes and overwhelms the product, to the point that the product seems almost irrelevant to its own success.

Persons: ” Sidney Toledano, Dior, Pharrell Williams, Williams, Louis Vuitton, Cathy Horyn, it’s, “, ”, Pietro Beccari, ” “ Barbie, Barbiemania, Josh Goldstine Organizations: Warner Bros

☆ Retailers and delivery apps must act on e-bike safety, NY officials say, after 3 people died in a house fire linked with a scooter battery
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

New York City officials say retailers and food delivery apps must act on unsafe e-bike batteries. There have been hundreds of fires linked to lithium ion batteries in e-bikes and scooters in the city. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. "It's extensively damaged," Kavanagh said, adding that the battery that sparked the fire was for a "scooter of some kind." The city has seen hundreds of fires linked to the lithium ion batteries that power electric bikes and scooters in recent years.

Persons: —, Laura Kavanagh, Albertha West, Michael West, Jamiyl West, Kavanagh, haven't, Meera Joshi, They're, Joshi, Josh Gold, Uber, Patrick Burke Organizations: Service, —, Fire, Amazon, Walmart, City Hall, UL, Local Locations: York City, — New York City, Brooklyn, New York City

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City officials say retailers and food delivery companies must do more to halt the proliferation of unsafe e-bike and e-scooter batteries, after a fire blamed on an electric scooter's lithium ion battery killed three people over the weekend. Fire officials said the fire broke out on the ground floor of the building. City officials have blamed off-market batteries and chargers that don't meet safety standards for many of the fires, and they have lobbied the federal government to strengthen regulations governing the sale of e-bikes and batteries. City officials haven't said whether the battery that caused Sunday's fire came from a vehicle used to make deliveries for one of the food service apps, and they didn't immediately respond to a Tuesday email seeking further information. Tens of thousands of the city's food delivery workers rely on e-bikes to get dinner to customers quickly, and Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi singled out the delivery industry during remarks at a City Hall news conference Tuesday, noting that time is money for delivery workers.

Persons: Laura Kavanagh, Albertha West, Michael West, Jamiyl West, “ It’s, ” Kavanagh, Kavanagh, ”, haven't, Meera Joshi, “ They're, ” Joshi, Josh Gold, Uber, Patrick Burke, “ We’ve Organizations: —, Fire, Amazon, Walmart, City Hall, UL, “, U.S, Congress Locations: — New York City, Brooklyn, New York City

☆ A New Era of Psychedelics in Oregon
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Mike Baker | More About Mike Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a carpeted office suite, Alex Beck settled onto a mattress and, under the watch of a trained guide, began chomping through a handful of “Pumpkin Hillbilly” mushrooms. Now he was ready for a different kind of journey, a psychedelic trip through the nether regions of his own mind. As he felt his thoughts starting to spin, his “facilitator,” Josh Goldstein, urged him to surrender and let the mushrooms guide him. Stigmatized in law and medicine for the past half-century, psychedelics are in the midst of a sudden revival, with a growing body of research suggesting that the mind-altering compounds could upend psychiatric care. Governments in several places have cautiously started to open access, and as Oregon voters approved a broad drug decriminalization plan in 2020, they also backed an initiative to allow the use of mushrooms as therapy.

Persons: Alex Beck, Beck, Josh Goldstein, “, ” Organizations: Marine Corps Locations: nether, Oregon

☆ Migrants Sleep on the Sidewalk, the Face of a Failing Shelter System
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Andy Newman | More About Andy Newman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“There are many ways the city could shelter everyone who is on that sidewalk if that is what they wanted to do,” he said. Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor, said on Tuesday that the 194 locations the city has opened to shelter asylum seekers are at capacity. “Our teams run out of space every single day, and we do our best to offer placements where we have space available,” he said. He added that the city is adding two more big humanitarian relief centers in the coming weeks, including a mega-tent big enough for 1,000 people in the parking lot of a state psychiatric hospital in Queens. The city has estimated that the migrants will cost more than $4 billion over two years.

Persons: Josh Goldfein, Roosevelt, ”, Fabien Levy Organizations: Legal Aid Society Locations: Washington, Queens

☆ Eric Adams' relationship with the NY tech community hits some snags
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., February 28, 2022. Since then, however, Adams' often-positive relationship with New York's tech community has soured in some ways. Adams' team also referred CNBC to two New York tech leaders: Andrew Rasiej, the chairman of NY Tech Alliance, and George Fontas, the CEO of tech lobbying shop Fontas Advisors. NY Tech Alliance is a massive tech trade group with 60,000 members, according to their website. Rasiej pushed back on the notion that Adams relationship with New York's tech community has soured.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, Mayor Adams, Andrew Rasiej, George Fontas, Rasiej, Fontas, we're, Josh Gold, Uber, Airbnb Organizations: York City, New York Stock Exchange, New York, New, Airbnb, CNBC, NY Tech Alliance, Fontas, Technology, Innovation, Yorkers, Mayor, Adams City Hall Locations: York, New York City, U.S, New York, Washington

☆ Doordash, Grubhub and Uber sue New York City over minimum wage law
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Food delivery platforms DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats are challenging in court New York City’s new minimum wage law for app food delivery workers. All three companies sued the city, maintaining that the law would hurt delivery workers more than help them. In a statement to CNN, DoorDash called the law “bad policy,” though it said it was not opposed to a minimum wage for delivery workers. According to a news release from New York City, food delivery workers currently make $7.09 per hour, on average. There are more than 60,000 food delivery workers working in the city, according to the local government.

Persons: Grubhub, Uber, —, DoorDash, Eric Adams, ”, Josh Gold, Uber’s, “ Organizations: CNN, New York, Uber, New York City Department of Consumer, New York City Locations: New, New York, New York City

☆ Uber and DoorDash warn of huge changes when New York City adopts its new $18 minimum wage for delivery workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Gloria Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

New York City announced a new law making $18 the minimum wage for delivery workers. "New York City is setting the tone for across America," Adams said during a press conference announcing the new minimum wage. Currently, most apps pay delivery workers, who are contractors and not employees, per order. DoorDash's spokesperson said many of its delivery workers are casual users who are supplementing income at their full- or part-time jobs. Grubhub, for its part, said the pay structure had "good intentions" but would have "serious adverse consequences for delivery workers in New York City."

Persons: Uber, —, Eric Adams, Adams, Josh Gold, Gold, DoorDash's, Gloria Dawson Organizations: York City, Service, New York City Department of Consumer, New Locations: York, York City, America, New York City, New York

☆ New York City announces minimum wage for app food delivery workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —New York City on Sunday announced a new minimum pay-rate for app food delivery workers amid a rise in use of services like Uber Eats and DoorDash since the pandemic. The city says delivery apps will have flexibility in how they pay delivery workers the new minimum rate. “Our delivery workers have consistently delivered for us — now, we are delivering for them,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. Delivery workers also struggled to find spaces when it rained or access to restrooms. “People view delivery workers as dirty, smelly and taking up too much space,” said Joshua Wood, a member of Workers Justice Project told CNN in May.

Persons: Uber, ”, Eric Adams, there’s, Ligia Guallpa, DoorDash, it’s, “ Today’s, “, ” Uber, Josh Gold, Uber Eats, Joshua Wood, Adams Organizations: New, New York CNN — New, Sunday, York City, Worker’s, Euromonitor International, CNN, Workers Justice Project, ”, Department of Consumer and, Protection, Unidos Locations: New York, New York CNN — New York City, York, New York City

☆ Uber is trying to sway Chicago's mayor and Illinois Democrats against a bill seeking to make rides safer for customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

An Illinois bill could hold companies like Uber and Lyft liable for harm done to passengers. Uber launched a "pressure campaign" to avoid liability for these incidents, the law group behind the bill said. JB Pritzker, it would eliminate an exemption in Illinois law that has protected ride-hailing companies since 2015. Salvi said Illinois exempted ride-hailing companies from the state's common-carrier civil-liability doctrine in 2015 to "allow them to come to market" and "give them an ability to compete." Moreover, the exemption has protected ride-hailing companies in even more extreme cases.

☆ Arrest made in murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee, city official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Kevin Flower | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —San Francisco Police have made an arrest in the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee, according to a tweet from San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Matt Dorsey. CNN has reached out to San Francisco Police and the Mayor’s office for comment. Lee was stabbed to death in Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco early in the morning of April 4th. Many in the tech world and beyond responded to news of Lee’s death with an outpouring of shock and grief. Lee was the former chief technology officer of Square who helped launch Cash App.

☆ Uber is funding an e-bike trade-in program to curb battery fires
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Samantha Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Uber is funding a new program that aims to get electric bikes with dangerous non-certified lithium-ion batteries off New York City streets. The news follows a string of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, which have been known to overheat when charging and cause massive explosions. Earlier this week, the New York City police department said an e-bike’s lithium-ion battery was behind a fatal two-alarm fire in Queens. The FDNY’s Chief fire marshal John Hodgens said it was the 59th fire in the city this year caused by a lithium-ion battery. Part of the issue is that not all lithium-ion batteries are created equal.

☆ Bob Lee: Moments following stabbing of Cash App founder captured on video, local news site reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Taylor Romine | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The moments following the San Francisco stabbing attack of Cash App founder Bob Lee were captured on surveillance video and in a 911 call to authorities, according to a local Bay Area news portal. The driver of the Toyota pulls the car away and Lee collapses to the ground. Lee manages to get up and walk a bit further before he collapses in front of an apartment building. “No one who commits a violent crime, or who’s a repeat offender are receiving overly lenient plea deals.”Her comments appear to be in response to Twitter’s new owner, billionaire Elon Musk. In total, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, the same as in 2021.

☆ Bob Lee, Cash app founder, dead after apparent stabbing attack in San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Bob Lee, the former chief technology officer of Square who helped launch Cash App, has died after an apparent stabbing attack in San Francisco. We love you.”Tech entrepreneur CashApp founder Bob Lee. San Francisco has been grappling with an apparent uptick in crime as it still attempts to bounce back from the pandemic. In total, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, which is the exact same number of homicides the city saw in 2021. Prior to joining Square, Lee was at Google, where he helped lead the team that launched Android.

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