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Tesla has agreed to an improved salary structure and job guarantee until 2022 for the workers at its German subsidiary, Tesla Grohmann Automation. The engineering firm that was acquired by Tesla last November serves as a critical component to Model 3 production, as the company supplies Tesla with automated systems needed to build the vehicle. However, months after the acquisition by Tesla, tensions began to rise after the relationship between company founder Klaus Grohmann and Tesla management soured over disagreements on how to handle Grohmann’s existing clientele like BMW and Daimler. The company founder abruptly retired in March, leaving employees questioning his moti…

The Dow Jones—an index tracking 30 large cap stocks—passed 23,000 for the first time. That’s a 5,000-point run since the presidential election. A stroll down memory lane…shall we? March 2009: 6,626—lowest point during the recession. November 2012: 13,009 February 2016: 16,204 For those of you counting, that’s a 246% return for anyone lucky enough to have bought into a Dow Jones ETF (like DIA) in March of 2009. It’s hard to say what’s been fueling the Great Bull Run of our generation, but contributing factors include: 10 years of economic expansion, record corporate earnings, and a Trump Administration that’s planning to roll back regulations and…

The halal carts and Citi Bikers have one more thing to watch out for—GM testing autonomous carsin the Big Apple in 2018. Governor Andrew Cuomo got the need for (autonomous) speed back in May when he opened New York City roads to companies testing self-driving vehicles (following California, Arizona, and Pennsylvania). The rules of the road? A company will have to insure each car for $5 million. That hasn’t deterred GM from hitting the streets of Manhattan. Its journey in autonomous cars began in earnest last year with a $500 million investment in Lyft to create a network of self-driving taxis. But it’s not afraid to ride solo, either. President Dan Ammann…

The U.S. slapped a big 219% tariff on Bombardier’s (-7.49%) new jet.

A Tesla Model 3 rumored to be a performance version with dual motors was spied testing at the companyÂ’s Fremont factory test track. A video posted onto YouTube by the Model 3 Owners Club shows a black Model 3 coming off of the track bank and then performing a spirited acceleration test from a standstill. While itÂ’s unconfirmed if the vehicle in the video is a single motor, rear-wheel drive production unit or a prototype of the performance version which isnÂ’t slated for production until mid-2018, the red brake calipers and seemingly quicker acceleration suggests that we might be seeing a performance variant. ItÂ’s worth noting that Tesla has traditionally reserv…

Almost every major U.S. city has seen years of decline in bus ridership, but Seattle has been the exception in recent years. Between 2010 and 2014, Seattle experienced the biggest jump of any major U.S. city. At its peak in 2015, around 78,000 people, or about one in five Seattle workers, rode the bus to work. That trend has cooled slightly since then, but Seattle continues to see increased overall transit ridership, bucking the national trend of decline. In 2016, Seattle saw transit ridership increase by 4.1 percent—only Houston and Milwaukee saw even half that increase in the same year. Read more: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/10/how-seattle-buck…

KIGALI, Rwanda — In Kenya, they are called the “clothes of dead white people.” In Mozambique, they are the “clothing of calamity.” They are nicknames for the unwanted, used clothing from the West that so often ends up in Africa. Now, a handful of countries here in East Africa no longer want the foreign hand-me-downs dumped on them because they’re trying to manufacture their own clothes. But they say they’re being punished for it — by the United States. Here in East Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Burundi have been trying to phase out imports of secondhand clothing and shoes over the last year, saying the influx of old items und…

Schoolchildren who read and write at home with their parents may build not only their academic literacy skills, but also other important life and learning skills, a recent study found. The project, a study by researchers at the University of Washington, followed children for five years, either grades one through five or three through seven. It looked at their reading and writing activities at home, their school progress and their skills, both according to their parents’ reports and according to annual assessments. In the study, published in May in the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation by Nicole Alston-Abel and Virginia W. Berninger, parents w…

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The first Tesla Model 3 owners are starting to discover the costs associated with using the company’s fast charging Supercharger network. Unlike Tesla’s flagship Model S and Model X vehicles that come bundled with roughly 1,000 miles of free Supercharging each year, unless the vehicle was purchased through Tesla’s referral program which would entitle the buyer to free unlimited Supercharger use, Model 3 buyers must pay for the amount of energy being used at each Supercharger stall. Early Model 3 owner PTFI shared on Twitter their associated cost for charging at the popular Harris Ranch Supercharger station, located halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The ‘Sup…

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4,500–The population of St. Helena, a remote island off the coast of West Africa, which just received its first commercial flight ever. It’s the result of the U.K. Department for International Development investing $380 million into the “world’s most useless airport.”

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will fully electrify its vehicle lineup by 2022, joining a host of other auto manufacturers trying to make a splash in the electric vehicle market. The announcement came at the company’s investor day, where Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said that the company would offer 50 electrified versions of Mercedes vehicles. Mercedes is the latest company to join the move toward electrification. BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen and Maserati have all also made similar pledges to either electrify their lineup or offer a fully electric model that will rival the Tesla Model 3. As producers of internal combustion engine vehicles slowly fall i…

As if Apple (+1.84%) didn’t have enough headaches already with Animojis demanding better snacks in the office, one of its biggest competitors in China just introduced a new phone to do battle with the iPhone. Huawei, the third-largest smartphone maker in the world, unveiled the Mate 10, a top-of-the-line handheld device that features most of the iPhone X’s bells and whistles (AI and OLED display, to name a few) but at a lower price point ($826 compared to $999). The Mate 10 will help Huawei and its hometown mates (Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi) continue hacking away at Apple’s Chinese presence. Its market share in the country is draining faster than your iPhone’s battery …

Alexander Potter, analyst for Piper Jaffrays, said in a note to clients Tuesday that Tesla has little to fear when it comes to being competitive in China. In fact, Potter went as far as saying that “nobody can compete” with the California-based electric car maker in the word’s largest auto market, largely due to the company’s product and brand reputation. “After meeting with an electric vehicle (EV) trade group this week in Beijing, we still think Tesla has little to fear from Chinese brands, at least based on the current competitive landscape,” said Potter. Piper Jaffray reaffirmed its position on the company, giving Tesla shares an overweight rating and a price target …

The NBA released a free AR app, where users can shoot (virtual) baskets wherever they are.

Netflix is raising prices on its subscription service for the first time since 2015. Investors asked “what took so long?” sending its stock up 5% to a record high of $193.86—a much warmer response than when it jacked up prices 60% in 2011 and lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers. Here are the brand new monthly bundles: $7.99 for low definition on one device at a time—no change $10.99 for HD on up to two devices at a time–up $1. $13.99 for 4K access on up to four devices at a time–up $2. Despite the bump, Netflix’s 104 million subscribers shouldn’t fly the coop. The streaming provider is still cheaper than HBO’s ($14.99) and Hulu’s ($11.99) similar of…

Ruby Tuesday goes private Ruby Tuesday (+18.59%) said “Thank God it’s Friday” this Monday when PE shop NRD Capital Management agreed to take the casual dining chain private. It’ll sell for around $146 million…or about 7.3 million baby back ribs. Over the last two years, Tuesday’s had been closing up shop, bringing its total restaurant count down from 736 to 599. It can thank a menu of cheaper and faster competitors, like Shake Shack and Chipotle, which have been crippling the restaurant’s top line since 2012. But after nine straight quarters of recording a net loss, it finally found a buyer with a big enough appetite.

Peter, Erik, and Blake Nordstrom are struggling in their attempt to take the luxury retailer private. With retailers going belly up left and right, the Nordstrom family decided in June it was best to keep things…in the family. But finding the right partners to help buy out the remaining $7.6 billion worth of public shares (the Nordstroms own $2.4 billion) has been no easy task. The Nordstrom boys thought there might be a glimmer of hope when they recruited private equity shop Leonard Greene to help out with some of the cost, but in order to cover the outstanding $6.5 billion they would need to take out a few too many “IOUs.” Here’s the problem: with mall t…

Tesla Model 3 manufacturing bottlenecks are linked to suppliers that have failed to meet their delivery time frames, says Oppenheimer & Co. The additional insight was provided in a research note sent to investors following a dinner held in New York for Tesla management. Tesla reaffirmed with Oppenheimer that all Model 3 production equipment is installed and vehicles are making their way through the production line. The electric carmaker and its CEO Elon Musk have continued to dispel a recent report that claimed large portions of the Model 3 were being built by hand. Musk recently shared a video of the Model 3 body line in action, followed by another video showing Mod…

According to FCC documentation and information from industry insiders, SpaceX is planning to conduct its 17th launch of 2017 on November 10th. Scheduled to lift off from SpaceXÂ’s Florida-based LC-39A launch pad 12 days after the current date for Koreasat 5A, the now-routine ~14 day mission cadence is not the topic of interest this time around. Rather, the mystery surrounding this newly-revealed launch exists because not a soul in the spaceflight fan community appears to know what the payload is – (code)named ZUMA – or who ZUMA is being launched for. This secrecy would would be far from unusual if the mission was being flown for the National Reconnaissance Offic…

Tesla has made good on its pledge to support domestic charging standards in China, which arguably has been a barrier to sales for the California electric car maker in the worldÂ’s largest auto market. Tesla announced Monday that a modified version of the Model S and Model X with a new charge port design will be sold in China that supports the countryÂ’s GB/T DC fast charging standard without the use of an adapter. The China-only version of the Model S and Model X features a new charge port door that resembles a gas tank door and replaces TeslaÂ’s ubiquitous automated charge port door thatÂ’s discreetly tucked away into the vehicleÂ’s rear taillight housing. Tesla wi…