ShinyShiny snippets: Taxi driver files lawsuit against Tesla
A taxi driver has filed a legal complaint against Elon Musk’s car company, his lawyer said on Sunday, just months after his Tesla Model 3 was involved in a crash in Paris that killed one person. In December 2021, the off-duty taxi driver’s Tesla crashed through metal posts, a row of pay-to-ride bikes and a recycling bin full of glass, hitting pedestrians and a van before stopping. The unnamed driver told police at the time that the car had accelerated on its own and he was unable to activate the brakes. In the days after the accident, the French government said Tesla had told it that there was no immediate indication of a technical fault, but the taxi firm G7 suspended the use of the model in its fleet. Sky News
The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since declaring “cyber war” on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and plans. Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on Russian TV networks stands out. The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the conflict. BBC
Apple’s cut-price iPhone is back and has been upgraded for 2022, with a faster chip and 5G making it an even better bargain than before. The third-generation iPhone SE costs £419 ($429/A$719) and is the cheapest smartphone Apple sells, priced to compete with myriad mid-range Android devices. On the face of it, the iPhone SE doesn’t look that tempting a proposition. There are cheaper smartphones available and it only comes with 64GB of storage. The 4.7in LCD display is bright, but cramped and markedly less crisp and vibrant than competitors. It is basically the same as the previous version from 2020 on the outside, which already looked extremely dated. But while the phone may look decidedly old school on the outside, internally it is anything but. Guardian
A new season of Fortnite is launching today, and developer Epic will be donating all of its proceeds from the first two weeks to Ukraine-related humanitarian efforts. The action will last from March 20th through April 3rd, and will include all “real-money purchases” in the game, which means purchased V-bucks, subscriptions, gifted battles passes, and certain cosmetic packs. (Epic notes that “using V-Bucks in Fortnite will not be included as those are not real-money purchases.) It will also include retail gift card purchases so long as they’re redeemed during the two-week window. As part of the effort, Microsoft will also be “committing their net proceeds for Fortnite during this time, so that we can get more aid to the people of Ukraine.” The Verge
The extra cost of fuel and road tax over five years for the owner of a petrol or diesel car could be as much as £5,000, a major reason behind the record sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK which have climbed 75 percent in the past year. While EVs do currently cost more than traditionally fuelled cars, despite a Government grant for those costing under £35,000, the spiralling cost of petrol and diesel is shortening that gap. And with no road tax payable on EVs the costs saved over the typical five years of ownership are huge. An average family car doing a typical 7,500 miles a year will cost around £900 more in petrol than the equivalent amount of electricity, even taking into account recent energy price rises. Express
