I ate my second McRib! I reheated it in the oven. It was STILL delicious. I’m in the saddle with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: trolls prompt Elon Musk to sell stock, supply chain shortages may hinder Christmas gadget sales, and the US sues Uber. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.
ELON MUSK SELLS STOCK, BUT NOT BECAUSE OF TROLLS
Last weekend, Elon Musk polled the Twitterverse asking if he should sell some of his stock options as a way of protesting the tax increases for the rich in President Biden’s infrastructure plans. Musk asked his 63 million Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his stock, and Twitter responded in the majority of him selling the shares and thusly paying taxes on the gains. This week, Elon Musk sold $1.1 billion worth of his Tesla stock in a planned exercise. So, this sale wasn’t prompted by Twitter, which means he still needs to sell 10% of his stock.
GADGETS MAY NOT BE 2021’s GO-TO GIFTS
Things aren’t looking so merry for the electronics market. COVID-19 is still making its impact felt as global supply chains have created backlogs at the world’s largest shipping ports. This time of year, cheap, easy-to-acquire (and easy-to-break) gadgets are usually the quick go-to for last minute shoppers. Not this year, unfortunately. The cheapest gadgets are expected to take longer to ship and you may miss placing it under the tree. Large companies like Apple are encouraging consumers to buy their cheapest products now, citing month or longer lead times. Meanwhile, the most expensive gear is readily available. Uh, huh. The income challenged among us may be in for an expensive holiday.
US SUES UBER FOR DISCRIMINATION
“[Uber] must ensure equal access for all people, including those with disabilities,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice. The US government is suing Uber for not complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The DOJ is claiming that Uber has charged disabled people with higher wait time fees for taking more time to get into vehicles. Uber has said the fees were not intended to target disabled passengers and that they’ve been refunding rides to disabled riders. (They shouldn’t have charged them.) Uber disputes the allegations of non-compliance, but this isn’t the first time they’ve had a run-in with regulations and disabled passengers. They were ordered to pay a blind woman $1.1 million this past spring for discriminating against her.