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China’s central government has tweaked its approach to growing the country’s New Energy Vehicles segment (see my blog of September 20 on latest NEV policy), but it still aims to have tens of thousands of battery electric and plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles on the road in a few years.
If you don’t think China is committed to EVs for the long haul, consider this. In September of 2012, an “EV Experience Center” was established at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The Party School is where promising candidates for leadership roles in China go to debate ideas. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Party-School-of-the-Communist-Party-of-China/102921913083319?rf=108563155844465 (The Central Party School has a Facebook page, though FB is blocked in China. Can you say irony?)
Of course they don’t debate any ideas in public. But they can at least get it out of their system at the Party School. Now, they can also drive an electric vehicle, which gives them some hand’s on experience as they debate what role EVs (or in Chinese parlance, NEVS or New Energy Vehicles) should play in China’s auto industry.
Meanwhile, local governments are doing their part to promote EVs with additional subsidies and incentives as well as research and development and data collection. The efforts extend down to the district level. One reason for district involvement is that it gives the districts a shot at some of those fat central government ministry budgets. That doesn’t mean what the districts are doing isn’t valuable, however.
Take Jiading District, part of the huge Shanghai metropolis. http://english.jiading.gov.cn/ Jiading has had itself designated an “EV International Pilot Zone” within Shanghai, which is an “EV International Pilot City.” A few weeks ago, I visited Jiading and met with Lucas Cao Yue, project manager in the New Energy Cause Department at the Shanghai International Auto City Group Co. (SIAC). http://www.shautocity.com/english/cczl-01.htm One of the first slides that appeared on the Powerpoint presentation he showed me on his laptop showed that Jiading has the stamp of approval from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Information Industry Technology and the Ministry of Commerce.
Much more than in the U.S., the promotion of an electric vehicle industry in China is a government project. Why are those important? I asked. “It means we have a chance to get part of their budget,” Cao explained. The Ministries contribute 60% toward the budget of certain projects, Cao explained. But Jiading still has to cover the remaining 40%, he added.
Finding the funds shouldn’t be a problem for Jiading. Jiading’s Anting area, where SIAC has its offices, is home to a huge Shanghai Volkswagen plant, an F-1 race track, an automobile museum, and the research and development centers of many multinational suppliers. They were strongly encouraged to open those centers in Jiading, my supplier friends tell me. Jiading is planning a 120,000 square meter R&D port, with many foreign enterprises.
But Jiading really is doing some useful work where EVs are concerned. The EV Zone is dedicated to “seeking the best integration between city, life and new energy vehicles.” One issue it is already facing – one that cities in the U.S. are familiar with – is the best placement for charging stations. Jiading has 800 public charging stations, said Cao. But 40 are in one area, which isn’t working so well. (About a dozen ring the building that houses the SIAC office, which seems a bit self-centered….)
The EV Zone also includes EV car-sharing, an EV rental plan, an EV service center that can import EVs without having to go through cumbersome Customs procedures, and free EV test drives to the public. Each month it holds an event to introduce the public to EVs. To date some 80,000 people have tried out an EV, said Cao.
The EV Zone surveys those who take the test drives about their likes and dislikes regarding the vehicles, and their purchase intents. It also has a fleet of 160 EVs that it collects usage data on. That data, and the user survey results, are shared with the automakers –both foreign and domestic – who are shareholders in Shanghai International Auto City Group Co. Ltd.
Other trials, such as the EV car-sharing, are just getting started. Anting has 3 stations with 20 EVs that can be rented for an hour at a time, said Cao. Cao said that Tongji University http://www.tongji.edu.cn/english/themes/10/template/Academics/College%20of%20Automotive%20Engineering.shtml was managing the car-sharing program. It paid a fixed price and is now renting them out on an hourly basis, he said. Those EVs collect data that must be reported to the government.
The EV Zone has one battery-swapping station, run by the State Grid,http://www.cse.anl.gov/us-china-workshop-2012/pdfs/session3b_demos_standards/hua_3B-4-HUA-Tsinghua%20Univ-Progress%20in%20Battery%20Swapping%20Technolo.pdf and one gas station that also offers charging, run by Sinopec. It also has one station that supports bi-directional charging, allowing EVs to send energy back to the grid. Domestic automakers Lifan www.lifan.com and Zhongtai www.zotye.com contributed EVs that offer bi-directional charging, said Cao.
Different business models for selling EVs are also studied, and the area has an EV-only dealership, all in the pursuit of finding the best way to have a viable EV market, says Cao. Like the central government, Shanghai International Auto City has discovered that its initial targets for EV usage may have been a bit high. The demo base will have a 10,000 EV capacity by 2015. But it is likely only about 2,000 will actually be on the road then, says Cao. He is sanguine about the possibility of miscalculations, however.
“As a pilot city, it is an experiment,” he says. “We have different ways to get to the target. Even if it is the wrong way, this is good. If we explore some good ideas, we can promote this business model to China and the world!”
I visited Shanghai EDrive on October 24 as part of the Clean Truck and Bus Forum www.http://www.calstart.org/Projects/US-China-Clean-Truck-Forum/US-China-Clean-Truck-Summit-Agenda.aspx , sponsored in part by CalStart. The visit confirmed what I had heard about EDrive www.chinaedrive.com from industry sources; it is a well-run company. The visit also confirmed my and many others’ suspicions that the growth of the electric vehicle sector in China will fall far short of the government’s goals, at least for the next few years. The most recent New Energy Vehicle policy, which incentivizes commercial vehicles more generously than non-commercial vehicles will also result in a lopsided growth pattern. But that is not necessarily a bad thing.
The building, on the outskirts of Shanghai, looks like all the other white-grey multi-story buildings in the industrial zone. Inside are clean rooms for manufacturing electronic controls and less-spotless but still clean rooms for the permanent magnet motors themselves.
We were greeted and given an introduction and tour by Dr. Zhang Zhouyun, vice general manager and senior engineer. EDrive has been growing like gangbusters since its establishment in 2008, with staff increasing 30-50% annually, he said. It has devoted 20% of its budget to R&D each year and holds 10 patents in China as well as many overseas patents. In 2013 EDrive aims for 400 million RMB in sales.
Interestingly, it seems EDrive sees the market for mini BEVs taking off much more quickly than that for larger vehicles. Not low-speed BEVs, but those able to achieve higher speeds than the 25 mph or so LSEVs are typically capable of. Some 180,000 units will be produced in China in 2014, EDrive figures. The company aims to supply 28% of that market, or 50,000 units.
Shandong is currently conducting a test project with such mini electric vehicles, says Dr. Zhang. Shandong already dominates China’s low-speed electric vehicle production; it seems Shandong figures that expertise can be leveraged into higher speed models.
Chery www.cheryinternational.com and Geely www.geelyauto.com.hk are two companies that are planning volume production of the mini-BEVs, says Dr. Zhang. Some domestic manufacturers are testing in-wheel motors on the mini EVs, he says.
As for passenger car PHEVs, five or six companies plan to produce them starting in 2015 and EDrive has contracts with some, including FAW www.faw.com and Chery. But the EDrive folks seemed to think the production levels would be very low. They will mainly be test vehicles.
The big growth in NEVs over the next few years, as EDrive CEO Dr. Gong mentioned in our interview, is commercial vehicles, the EDrive guys confirmed.
So, an interesting visit to a company that should do well if the Central government sticks to its guns and enforces the latest NEV plan. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/china-renews-electric-vehicle-subsidies-without-adding-hybrids.html But even at EDrive, an admission that all those announcements about NEV passenger cars are mainly for show and that volumes will be quite small for at least the next few years. Still, as I mentioned up top, the new policy’s focus on commercial vehicles/ fleets is a good thing. Applications are more apparent and with volume production some breakthroughs, or at least cost reduction on some components, should be possible.
While the Chinese government may be intent on growing the electric vehicle segment, Chinese consumers are not so keen to buy electric vehicles. But that doesn’t mean companies in China that produce components for electric vehicles aren’t counting on the sector growing. The just-released New Energy Vehicle policy is a big reason for that optimism. Local government support also plays a role.
The history of one of those companies, Shanghai EDrive, http://www.chinaedrive.com/index2.asp is a micro-history of China’s quest to be a global player in the electric vehicle field, and proof that the Chinese government is taking a long-term view in developing the sector. If EDrive succeeds, it will mean China is succeeding in its electric vehicle ambitions as well.
Shanghai EDrive produces electric motors, controllers, and invertors for both traditional gasoline-powered vehicles and electric vehicles. It has long benefited from government support for the electric vehicle segment. I recently spoke with Dr. Gong Jun, president of EDrive, by phone and also exchanged emails with Jimmy Lin Renjie, who works with Gong, about the recent policy and EDrive’s future.
“Of course the new policy is good for our company,” Gong told me.
Now, I’m a skeptical person. And I am certainly no engineer so can’t evaluate EDrive’s technology. But several industry friends have spoken well of EDrive. Its growth strategy is, however, based on the belief that electric vehicles, first regular hybrids, then plug-in electric hybrids, then battery electric vehicles, will take a growing share of the vehicle market. And of the government supporting companies that serve that purpose.
EDrive’s support from the government started with the 863 program. http://www.most.gov.cn/eng/programmes1/200610/t20061009_36225.htm The 863 program was launched by the central government in 1986 and has been part of every Five-Year Plan since. Its goal is to help China “leapfrog” in certain technologies to become a world leader. EDrive has also received funding from the Shanghai government.
The components it produces are used in both traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles, from hybrids to low-speed electric vehicles to regular battery electric vehicles. EDrive is already profitable. Its motors are in hybrids cars produced by companies ranging from Dongfeng www.dfm.com.cn and FAW www.faw.com.cn to Brilliance www.brillianceauto.com , Geely www.geelyauto.com.hk , and Chery www.cheryinternartional.com ; and in hybrid buses from just about every large Chinese bus maker you can name, according to materials EDrive sent me. Ditto with the few pure electric vehicles being produced (but not BYD, which is highly vertically integrated) and many micro cars such as the QQ, it seems.
Eventually, when his company is big enough, Gong figures it will want to export. One way it aims to grow is by listing on Shenzhen’s Growth Enterprise Market next year. EDrive is preparing the materials right now.
EDrive has been in business since June of 2008. It manufacturers to a client’s specifications and also does what Lin called “cutting edge” research and development of components in cooperation with universities. It is receiving a growing number of orders related to components for battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, mainly buses right now, says Gong. “Due to the new policy, we expect that will grow,” he says.
Gong is right, the recently released NEV policy should be good for EDrive. If the central government is effective in implementing the policy, that is. Gong mentions in particular the mandate for 30% of new vehicles in municipal fleets to be New Energy Vehicles, which in practice will mean BEVs and PHEVs. For details see my earlier blog on the policy.
What about the consumer market for electric vehicles? That is more uncertain because of the lack of a charging infrastructure, Lin told me. “The bottleneck for the development of passenger cars is the infrastructure such as the charging point,” he says. “If the infrastructure is developed, the EV of passenger car will have a bright future.”
And it seems EDrive will be along for the ride.
In July of 2012, I wrote about the just-released policy in China to promote new energy vehicles and fuel-efficient vehicles. At the time, I mourned the lack of incentives for producing new energy fleet vehicles and suggested the government would have better served its cause with a policy that did that. In the same blog, I talked about what Pacific Gas & Electric www.pgande.com , a huge utility in Northern California, was doing to further alternative fuel vehicle research here in the U.S.
Well, a bit more than a year later the Chinese government has come out with a new policy to promote new energy vehicles and it focuses mainly on fleet vehicles, especially buses! http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293907/n11368223/15629319.html Glad Beijing got the word. This blogging platform (i.e. WordPress) is blocked in China but those government officials and fagawei types probably have VPNs.
I wrote about the new policy in my recent ChinaEV blog, so in the interest of symmetry I’m going to talk about what PG&E is up to now re: alternative fuel vehicles. Rather than reiterate everything I said last July, let’s just look at an event that just occurred, the unveiling of what PG&E says is the utility industry’s first plug-in electric hybrid Class 5 work trucks.
Those trucks were produced by Electric Vehicles International, www.evi-usa.com or EVI, a manufacturer located in Stockton, CA. The transplant – it was based in Mexico – is a good example of how government support can help expand the commercial electric vehicle industry. PG&E’s participation shows how the private sector can both take advantage of and propel development of EV technology.
EVI is a 20-year old company that moved to the California central valley city of Stockton from Mexico after current EVI president Ricky Hanna bought the company. He switched EVI’s focus from light-duty EVs to heavy-duty EVs and moved operations to California about five years ago because of the state’s generous subsidies for electric vehicle makers. Smart move – EVI has received $7 million in grants from the California Energy Commission. It produces both range-extended electric vehicles (a type of PHEV) and battery-electric vehicles.
Just so you don’t have to re-read the previous blog (though of course you should), here is a bit of background on PG&E’s alt-fuel vehicle quest taken straight from that blog: As one of the largest public utilities in the U.S., PG&E has a huge fleet—some 14,000 vehicles. That’s a pretty big Petri dish for testing out new alternative fuel technologies, and PG&E has been doing that for years, says Dave Meisel, director of transportation for PG&E.
The utility has gotten much more active in testing alternative fuel technology vehicles in the last four or five years, he says, which makes sense because finding replacements for gasoline as a vehicle fuel has become a much hotter topic in the last four or five years. PG&E isn’t doing this out of the goodness of its heart. Partly, it is compelled by California law to have a certain percentage of low-emission vehicles in its fleet. But PG&E is also looking to save money.
Now, back to the present: PG&E started working with EVI about four years ago, says Meisel. It wants to try out EVI’s Class 5 vehicles – that’s like a Ford F450 or F550 truck. PG&E works with other companies in the EV space including VIA www.viamotors.com , Efficient Drivetrains Inc www.efficientdrivetrains.com ., and Altec www.altec.com . All are located in California.
“We prefer to spend our money locally,” says Meisel. (That’s nice since I pay taxes here and I prefer they stay in the state as well….). “In 2013 we are going to buy $221 million worth of new vehicles, all purchased from somebody in California.”
PG&E has purchased four EVI REEV trucks. PG&E estimates each truck will save PG&E over 850 gallons of fuel per year. So the utility’s alt-fuel vehicle quest isn’t just to meet state government requirements, it also makes business sense. Indeed, PG&E hopes to replace all of its Class 5 vehicles with REEVs, says Meisel.
“I think clearly that if we can validate the technology and we believe we can, if it delivers the results we believe it will deliver, we will be moving that tech into our fleet on large scale,” he says. “It is too early to say who will supply the vehicles.”
As I wrote about before, what PG&E really likes in its trucks is exportable power, and it works with its EV manufacturers to up their exportable power capability. Though the EVI trucks can export up to 100 kilowatts, the “holy grail” is really 125 kilowatts. “If we can get a vehicle up to that it opens up a lot of possibilities for us,” says Meisel.
PG&E can use the fleet to provide power to a neighborhood when it does repairs instead of having planned outages. Also, in emergency response situations the fleet could provide power.
“I handled the response to hurricane Sandy,” he says. “We found that we were trying to move in larger generators. When we tried to move them in from all over the U.S., we couldn’t put a dent in the amount requested vs. what was available. If we had sent 400 hybrids, that is like moving a small power plant into New York.” China take note….
The Chinese government just issued its latest New Energy Vehicle subsidy policy. http://jjs.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/tongzhigonggao/201309/t20130916_989833.html Seems like the government has pretty much given up on trying to create a consumer market for new energy vehicles, which include battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. That isn’t so bad, actually. Because the government’s focus has turned to the area where NEVs have real potential — public transportation and fleet vehicles. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/china-renews-electric-vehicle-subsidies-without-adding-hybrids.html
One technology has been completely left out of the current policy – regular hybrid vehicles. My friend Yang Jian mourns this omission in a column for Automotive News China. http://www.autonewschina.com/en/article.asp?id=10788 But I don’t think it is so bad. The price of hybrids will soon come close to that of regular gasoline-powered cars. And if the hybrids can offer significant fuel economy then Chinese will buy them, just as Americans have.
Some details of the new NEV policy:
The policy covers 2013-2015.
The subsidies for NEV passenger vehicles are no larger, and decline over the next two years. Battery electric passenger cars are eligible for incentives of up to 60,000 RMB, plug-in hybrid electric passenger vehicles up to 35,000 RMB in 2013. Those amounts will decrease by 10% in 2014 and by 20% in 2015.
Hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars are eligible for incentives of 200,000 RMB. That amount will also decrease in 2014 and 2015.
Battery electric public transportation buses are eligible for up to 500,000 RMB in incentives. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle bus incentives top off at 250,000 RMB.
Commercial vehicles in public fleets are another important inclusion. Mail, sanitation, garbage, and general goods battery electric vehicles receive a 150,000 RMB incentive.
There are target purchase volumes and guidelines for municipal governments:
In large cities and areas – mainly Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou it seems – the number of NEVs should reach no fewer than 10,000 by 2015. All other cities and/or areas should have no fewer than 5,000.
When buying new vehicles for municipal fleets, at least 30% of the purchases should be NEVs.
In an important nod to the huge problem protectionism presents in growing the public transportation and fleet market for NEVs, the policy also says at least 30% of the purchases should be from companies outside of the region.
Those are the main points. While it remains to be seen how rigorously the policy will be enforced, the subsidies may kick-start production of NEVs by the regional and national vehicle manufacturers. Of course, they don’t have all the necessary technology to product BEVs and PHEVs. That could present a business opportunity for foreign firms with battery management system technology, for example. And for companies that can integrate the electric drivetrains into the rest of the systems, which has been a problem for Chinese companies.
Sure, it also shows that China’s central government hasn’t given up on becoming a leader in some kind of electrification technology. Otherwise, why totally exclude regular hybrids from the policy? As Yang Jian points out, China still hasn’t given up on trying to be a leader in some electrification area and hybrids are already mature technology.
But Chinese automakers will need plenty of help from outside China to produce quality BEVs and PHEVs, so they are unlikely to become leaders in those areas anytime soon. The volumes envisioned for local fleets could, however, result in new technologies being developed for China, technologies that the rest of the world could benefit from. At the very least, volume production of some components should help bring the price down.
So, the new policy should benefit both China and the rest of the world. Now to wait for the level of enforcement….
If you wonder what BYD is up to lately outside of China, electric buses seem to be the Chinese automaker’s thing these days. It is also still hawking its much-maligned e6 pure electric crossover vehicle as a taxi. Development of the dual-mode Qin (the current generation of BYD’s hybrid) seems to be treading water, however. Perhaps BYD, www.byd.com like most Chinese automakers, is waiting for news of what the government subsidies for hybrids will be. http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-08/05/content_16869956.htm
As I blogged about many months ago, BYD is focused on fleets for its electric vehicles here in the U.S. Also,, it seems worldwide. “BYD is in no rush to launch U.S. consumer sales,” BYD spokesman Micheal Austin told me via email. “We are finding great success offering our long-range EVs for high-utility fleet applications.”
By high-utility, Austin means long-range so I guess that sentence is a bit redundant. BYD’s website claims a 155 mile range for the Li-iron phosphate battery in its pure electric ebus. It has a 3-hour or 6-hour, or perhaps 5-hour, recharging time depending on the type of charger used. I say perhaps 5-hour because the website cites both 5- and 6-hour times. In any case, that’s nitpicking. Around 5 hours.
BYD has been pretty successful at getting its electric bus into fleets around the world, including one in Quebec in Canada, one in Israel, 10 in Long Beach, California, five in Los Angeles (with an option to buy up to 25), and 35 in Amsterdam.
A few months ago, BYD had the grand opening of a plant to produce electric buses in the city of Lancaster, CA, about an hour east of Los Angeles. http://www.fleetsandfuels.com/fuels/evs/2013/04/byd-battery-buses-in-los-angeles/ BYD’s contracts with Long Beach and Los Angeles use some federal funding so both have a Made in the USA requirement, meaning BYD must source at least 60% of the bus components from the U.S.A. Stella Li, SVP of BYD and head of its North America operations, told me the local content may even higher.
I hear from a friend who works in logistics that BYD has just arranged to ship its first batch of batteries to the U.S. for those buses. She speculates more shipments of other parts will follow. And, other sources in the EV bus industry figure that BYD will likely source the glass, seats, and air conditioners from China. I might add the wheels/rims given China’s large number of rim manufacturers.
BYD may make a decent electric bus. I have always said the ebus was a good-looking bus, at least. Nice interior, too. As usual, I prefer to wait until the buses in international markets have been running for a while until I start gushing over them the way some EV sites have been. But as I have stated before, I hope BYD succeeds with the buses. I like BYD despite the belief by some executives there, whose names will remain unwritten, that I hate the company. Nonetheless, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
What of the e6 crossover, which is the current incarnation of BYD’s original pure electric vehicle, the e6 sedan? Well, it seems the e6 is also destined for fleets for the time being, as I wrote about last year. http://chinaev.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/byd-now-focused-on-fleets-for-its-bev-strategy-smart-move/
The order form is out there –Austin emailed me one. They are available to order for fleet use here in the U.S. though I do not believe BYD has gotten any orders here. I asked to test drive the latest e6 and Austin said it wasn’t significantly changed from the version I drove a few years ago.
There are e6 crossovers in taxi fleets outside of China, however. There are a few in Hong Kong http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/15/us-byd-hongkong-idUSBRE94E0CB20130515 and Thailand reportedly ordered three last year, though I don’t know if they are actually in use now. Bogota, Columbia also recently ordered 45 e6s as part of its Biotaxi project, according to a press release. http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130902-905855.html Hope those taxies have bullet-proof sheet metal. No, that’s not fair. I’m sure Bogota is safer than it used to be….
That leaves the Qin dual-mode aka hybrid vehicle. http://www.byd.com/la/auto/qin.html It seems to be in a state of limbo. Perhaps BYD has joined most Chinese automakers in waiting to launch any new electric vehicles or hybrids until the central government issued its overdue updated new energy vehicle subsidy policy. The new policy will reportedly subsidize regular hybrids at a higher rate than the current policy. But no one know.
In any case, the Qin isn’t listed on BYD’s website. BYD showed the Qin, which is the latest generation of its hybrid vehicle, at the Shanghai auto show this year after it debuted at the auto show in Beijing in 2012. Reports appeared in the gullible U.S. press about the Qin being launched in June 2013 with a sub-$30,000 (which I guess was converted from an RMB price the reporter heard somewhere) price tag. http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130902-905855.html
There do seem to be some Qins driving around in South America, based on some comments from BYD execs here in the U.S. But the Qin likely won’t be seen in the U.S. this year or in 2014, said Austin. So not sure if/when it will make an appearance here.
So how is BYD doing in the EV arena? Okay, I’d say. If we look at what it is actually doing now rather than what it said it wanted to do a few years back, BYD seems to be farther along than any other Chinese automaker – or any automaker when it comes to electric buses — in terms of getting its electrified vehicles onto the world market.
I still wish someone would do an independent analysis of BYD’s electric drivetrain, however….
I have ridden in what should be China’s future. It would save countless hours stuck in traffic and countless lives.
A few days ago I was at the Nissan 360 media event here in California at the lovely Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach. Automakers always host media at super-lux places. That way at least we are in a good mood when we check out their vehicles, the thinking must be. I had my own bungalow. Larger than an apartment I lived in back in Hong Kong. But I digress.
One of the vehicles available to drive, or in this case ride in, was the autonomous LEAF electric vehicle. http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/?next=header.vehicles.postcard.vlp.image It looks a lot like the regular old LEAF, but it has 6 sensors arrayed at strategic points on the exterior. Why did they chose the LEAF as the first autonomous vehicle, I asked the Nissan engineer who was not going to drive the vehicle. “The technology is okay for an internal combustion engine car,” he said, “but the electric vehicle is easier to control because the motor is more reactive. It is a better combination.”
For those of you dreaming of well, dreaming, away a trip to the office in traffic-chocked Beijing or Los Angeles, forget it. The “driver” does have to at least be alert – in this autonomous vehicle. How about drunk drivers, I asked? Not in this version, but Nissan is working on technology that will detect if a driver is drunk, said the Nissan engineer.
Still, the LEAF Autonomous Vehicle detected and read speed limit signs, avoided a large truck entering traffic in front of us, a pedestrian stepping out in front of us, and a lot of road furniture including cones and barriers, and of course detected a red light and stop sign. The valet function was pretty cool as well. The “valet” had the key fob. The “driver” simply left the car with the valet, he pressed the key fob, the car went and found a spot and parked itself. Then, when the driver returned the valet pressed the key fob and the car returned. How cool is that?
This version is not ready for prime-time. Among other improvements needed, said the Japanese engineer, is sensors with finer resolution. The current sensors on the LEAF only detect at 30 to 40 centimeters, he said. Nissan wants plus or minus 1 centimeter. “We are looking for a partner” with that technology, he said.
The autonomous vehicle is “an important step in a world of zero fatalities,” said Roel De-Vries, Nissan’s global corporate vice president of marketing. Nissan’s has its twin zeros marketing thing – zero emissions and zero fatalities. As I sat in the Nissan LEAF and it drove though the highway and urban courses, I got to thinking “Gee, this would be really great in China!” It is about as far from zero fatalities as any country in the world. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/18/a-surprising-map-of-countries-that-have-the-most-traffic-deaths/
Imagine it. Cars would actually stop at stop signs and red lights. They would know how to merge on to a highway. They wouldn’t feel obligated to cut in front of you just because that space was there and needed to be filled in. They would stop before they hit a pedestrian or bicycle or another car. They would know how to park. It gave me shivers.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has said autonomous vehicles will be in Nissan showrooms by 2020. http://www.forbes.com/sites/danbigman/2013/01/14/driverless-cars-coming-to-showrooms-by-2020-says-nissan-ceo-carlos-ghosn/ Please get them to showrooms in China sooner. I didn’t ask if China was a target market, but no automaker can bypass China with a significant new product, so assume the autonomous vehicles will be there, too. China is one of the top two countries in the world for traffic fatalities; India is right up there, as well. The Chinese authorities put the number of traffic deaths in China in 2012 in the tens of thousands, but even the Chinese press says that number is low. A more dependable source, Bloomberg Philanthropies, puts the number at 220,000 annually. Bottom line: A lot of people die in cars or because of cars in China each year.
If you live there, you know why. Most Chinese are first-generation drivers. Chinese driving schools don’t teach defensive driving. Road rules, including stop signs, are treated more as suggestions than rules. After all, if one stops at a stop sign too long, someone else might get to a some goal that the driver desires first. In China, it’s all about taking advantage of opportunity when it presents itself.
Nissan has said it may produce the LEAF in China. Please do, and please make it an autonomously-driven LEAF! But also produce an autonomously-driven version of your best-selling model in China. And price it so people will buy it. And make it impossible to override the system at stop signs! Otherwise it will be useless…..


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Technology has long been considered a catalyst for innovation, driving change in the way we live, work and, most importantly, solve problems. In 2023, a year marked by ongoing supply chain issues following the COVID-19 pandemic; the rise of revolutionary tools such as AI; and the desire to make processes more efficient and productive than ever, manufacturers have adopted technological strategies to not only overcome old problems, but also create value and offerings where they did not exist before.
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3D printing’s impact on the manufacturing industry is growing exponentially as sustainability remains a priority for customers, AI prevails as an adaptive tool for companies to embrace rather than avoid, and “lights-out” manufacturing emerges as the ultimate goal for manufacturers.
Unlocking Sustainable Design Potential
Sustainability continues to be a major concern for consumers, so much so that it has been found to drive purchasing preferences and behaviors. Brands across industries recognize that in order to remain relevant in the market today, sustainability needs to be embraced across business sectors, leading to ambitious company-wide sustainability pledges.
However, data suggests that there is a significant disparity between the importance placed on sustainability and the steps taken to achieve it. Take, for example, the packaging industry, where a recent McKinsey survey found that out of 75% of global companies surveyed that claimed to have made sustainable packaging commitments, fewer than 30% are well-prepared to meet their environmental goals.
To achieve sustainable manufacturing authentically and effectively, products need to be designed with environmental impact in mind from the outset. This is where 3D printing shines as a remarkably versatile tool, one that can support various stages of the production process by easily integrating into existing manufacturing processes across various stages of the production line.
Once integrated, 3D printing not only reduces overall material usage and enables the execution of unique, sustainable designs, but streamlines manufacturing processes and workstreams, enhancing operational efficiency. By acting as a tool to meet both sustainability and production goals, 3D printing is opening the door to the development and adoption of digital solutions for manufacturing. However, this is just the beginning of businesses harnessing innovative technology to make progress towards a more sustainable and innovative future.
Innovation at the Intersection of AI, Data Analytics and 3D Printing
Within the past year, artificial intelligence has solidified as a tool that holds potential to transform nearly every industry, including manufacturing—one that still relies heavily on tools and practices developed over a decade ago. AI adoption is increasing at an astonishing rate, developing to become more sophisticated and proficient at tackling challenges and enabling capabilities that have been impossible to achieve before.
Additive manufacturing is an industry that will greatly benefit from increased AI use, especially as it pertains to design. Developing designs that are compatible for 3D printers is a labor-intensive and specialized practice, meaning that the number of product designers equipped with this skill cannot keep pace with the demand for this skill as 3D printing adoption continues to grow.
However, with AI, models such as text-to-3D, text-to-texture and optimal body fitment will allow those without design expertise to become proficient in designing for 3D manufacturing, allowing hyper-personalized and sustainable 3D printing applications to be brought to market faster and easier than ever. This is particularly valuable for industries such as healthcare and sporting goods, where customization is essential to address consumer and patient needs.
In addition to optimizing the design process with additive manufacturing, AI and other digital tools can be integrated with other physics simulations to analyze the printing landscape, predict outcomes and optimize the printing process without the need for physical printing to take place, ultimately enhancing product control and decreasing errors and product variations.
When used together, AI and 3D printing provide unprecedented results in terms of efficiency and process optimization, increasing additive manufacturing’s competitiveness over traditional manufacturing processes such as injection mold manufacturing.
Scalable 3D Manufacturing Powered by Digital and Physical Automation
As the benefits associated with 3D printing gain traction with businesses across sectors, additive manufacturing is becoming increasingly popular. However, to experience all that additive manufacturing has to offer, adopters must successfully navigate increasingly complex digital workflows while simultaneously maintaining high product output and reducing overall production costs.
To overcome these challenges, digital tools and workflows need to be implemented wherever possible across the production line. Digital twins (or virtual representations of 3D printers that account for their operational capabilities, process monitoring and adjusting printer performance), end-to-end design and process data management are key enablers to accomplish this. Not only does this boost uptime, but the additive manufacturing process becomes more efficient without the cost of additional labor.
With automation becoming a priority for those utilizing 3D printing at scale, more steps along the production line will become independent from human intervention, allowing production to carry on into traditionally costly night and weekend shifts. As the total cost of ownership of 3D printing solutions is lowered, new verticals can be expected to enter the 3D printing market, bringing us one step closer to lights-out factories.
To date, 3D printing technology has made great strides in how it allows manufacturers to achieve more sustainable production processes and outcomes, works in tandem with other digital tools like AI, and increases the efficiency and production yields of existing additive manufacturing solutions. Looking ahead to 2024, we can expect more industries—ranging from healthcare to footwear to sporting goods and beyond—to experience the benefits of additive manufacturing via innovative and markedly different, bespoke solutions.
This article was submitted by Arvind Rangarajan, global head of Software and Data, HP Personalization and 3D Printing.

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Some of the sites hit by a widespread internet outage Thursday morning, as shown by the spike in reports as indicated by the red lines on Downdetector.com.
An internet outage hit some of the largest online sites in the United States, according to reports tracked by outage monitoring site Downdetector.com.
Those impacted include Seattle-based companies such as Amazon, Valve’s Steam game platform, Microsoft, Expedia and Costco, among many other national brands and sites.
There are initial reports that the outage was related to issues at a major content delivery network, Akamai, which posted at 9:47 a.m. Pacific that it had identified and resolved the issue.
We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations. We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated.
— Akamai Technologies (@Akamai) July 22, 2021
Although it may have been (thankfully) short-lived, the widespread nature of the outage shows how much of the internet is still subject to single points of failure.
More Tech News at https://dWeb.News


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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 October) — The Hog Farmers of Davao, Inc. (Hog FADI) has asked City Mayor Sara Duterte to sustain her Executive Order banning the entry of live pigs and pork products in Davao City after Local Governments Secretary Eduardo Año encouraged local government units in Visayas and Mindanao to lift the temporary ban on pork products.
Speaking on behalf of Hog FADI, Alvin Teves, said lifting the temporary ban would endanger the local hog industry as the dreaded African Swine Fever (ASF) continues to affect some parts of Luzon.
The City Government of Davao has temporarily banned the entry of live pigs and pork products following the outbreak of the dreaded AFS in some areas in Luzon, 16 days after the Department of Agriculture confirmed the presence of the disease in the country.
In an executive order issued last month, the mayor said the temporary ban “applies to all live pigs, pork and pork-related products and by-products, whether fresh, frozen, processed or cooked, including but not limited to frozen boar semen, from the entire island of Luzon and the other ASF-affected areas.”
The same measure prohibited the swill feeding to the backyard hog raisers to prevent the spread of the virus to other swine, as the food scraps may contain infected pork meat.
Teves said his group is against the lifting of the temporary ban since the government admitted it lacked the facility to test the presence of the ASF in pork products.
“Unsay i-protect sa DA sa amoa? Wala (What will the DA do to protect us? None),” he said.
Last Tuesday, Teves said the Samahang Industrya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), the umbrella organization of various agricultural groups engaged in farming, fisheries, and livestock, of which Hog FADI is a member, sent a letter to Secretary, expressing their concerns that lifting the ban “will run counter to the efforts that were put in place by several local government units like Bohol and Cebu in the Visayas and Davao City in Mindanao to protect the local hog industries from the global outbreak of the African Swine Fever.”
Teves said checkpoints had been established at all entry and exit points, including airport and seaport, here to inspect the entry of the products so pork products from outside the city will not be brought in.
He said Mindanao Visayas remain safe from ASF but added the LGUs have to remain vigilant.
He said SINAG members emphasized that “there is no other sector that has incurred more losses because of the ASF outbreak than the hog industry as the processed meat industry is minusculeas compared to the P500 billion hog industry and allied businesses.”
According to Teves, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) had confirmed that canned goods seized at the Clark International Airport last June 14 were contaminated with the ASF virus.
“In that same month, more than 600 kilos of banned imported pork products from Belgium and another batch from Poland, but originating in Germany were seized by the City Veterinary Office in Cebu. Another shipment containing 4,000 kilos of imported frozen pork from Germany was seized in Sta Maria, in Bulacan last June 30,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)


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It seems as though the Covid-19 pandemic will be our reality for the next few months now, and other countries (or should I say islands) are well aware of this too. So, as an effort to make Americans and other people around the world feel a little bit more secure and happy during these unprecedented times, Antigua and Barbuda created a social media campaign called, ‘Message in the Sand’.
As bored, lonely tourists in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis imagine where they’d like to be or where they might go once the green flags fly again, a pair of Caribbean destinations are using social media to send an S.O.S. to the world.
Antigua and Barbuda are islands in the West Indies that rely specifically on tourism to drive their economies–in saying that they have decided to launch this social media campaign to not only spread kindness and encourage people in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic to keep their heads up but to also encourage travelers to keep Antigua and Barbuda in mind for future trips when the pandemic subsides.
For their first post, they took to Instagram to write the message, “Be well” in the sand, followed by this caption:
𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦. .
𝘉𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 365 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮. .
𝘉𝘦 S𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘦 W𝘦𝘭𝘭. .
#𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 #𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘢 #stayhome #staysafe
You can view each message across all of Antigua’s social media channels and interact with them as well! In my opinion, this is an incredible marketing strategy that I am interested to see whether or not it will increase tourism activity in the respective locations when people are allowed to travel freely again.


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Angry Birds, the hugely successful mobile phone game, could likely be an animated series in the future, Rovio Mobile told AFP.
"We are planning a cartoon that would be interesting to the whole family, for both adults and children," spokesperson Ville Heijari told the news agency.
In the two years since the game was released on the iPhone and later, on Android phones, Angry Birds has catapulted into one of the most popular games around with more than 50 million downloads, according to the New York Post.
The company is looking to either produce the series for the Internet or TV, according to the newspaper.
The puzzle game is simplistic: users have to hurl birds at pigs to take back the birds' stolen eggs.
At the moment, other than games, Rovio offers Angry Birds iPhone cases and plush toys.


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Lunar to provide access to its Nordic payment infrastructure to partners
Danish neobank Lunar will open up access to its banking and payments infrastructure to partner firms from 1 August, with Swedish paytech Trustly set to be the first to tap into Lunar’s account infrastructure.
Lunar says “strong demand” from both national and international payment players led to the decision to open up its Nordic payment infrastructure. The challenger holds clearing permits in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and can offer access to cross-border payments and clearing in the Nordics to third parties.
As part of its first partnership, Lunar will offer its infrastructure to Trustly through a single API integration, enabling Trustly to offer instant payments in local currency. Lunar and Trustly will initially roll out the integration in Denmark, with the intention to extend the partnership to cover the entire Nordic region.
Sandra Sennerlöv, VP of banking relations and partnerships at Trustly, says the collaboration with Lunar enhances its account-to-account payment offering in Denmark.
“Lunar’s API-based offering fits well with our payments platform and our payment solution allowing consumers a seamless way to pay merchants,” Sennerlöv adds.


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Microsoft ends production of its Xbox 360 console, explaining that ‘the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us.’
Released all the way back in November 2005, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has sold over 84 million units across the globe. Not only did the console introduce (now iconic) series like Gears of War and Saints Row, but it also helped to make online multiplayer service Xbox Live the massively popular juggernaut that it is today. However, after all that the Xbox 360 has done for gamers (and for Microsoft’s Xbox brand as a whole), production of the console is now coming to an end.
In a statement from Xbox boss Phil Spencer, he says that the “Xbox 360 helped redefine an entire generation of gaming at Microsoft” and that he is “incredibly proud of all of the work and dedication that went into development of the Xbox 360 hardware, services and games portfolio over the last decade.”
But, Spencer explains, “while we’ve had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us,” which is why the company has decided to stop making the console. During its lifetime, the “beloved gaming and entertainment hub” saw 78 billion gaming hours played during its lifetime, over 25 billion hours spent in apps and players also racked up a 486 billion Gamerscore on 27 billion achievements.
Spencer also explains that Microsoft will “continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country” and Xbox Live services will continue. This includes online multiplayer gaming (and parties), access to apps, Games With Gold and Deals With Gold. Xbox 360 games will continue to be sold digitally and physically and hardware will still be supported on the Xbox website.
While many Xbox fans will surely be sad that Xbox 360 production is stopping, many will also likely agree that Microsoft has done the right thing here. The company says that this year, the Xbox 360’s successor, the Xbox One, has the greatest lineup of games in Xbox history and the company has also been pushing Xbox One sales with deals such as the major money-saving spring bundle deal. By ending Xbox 360 production, when the stock completely runs out, those looking to buy an Xbox console will only have the Xbox One as an option.
Moreover, Microsoft is keen to point out that Xbox One owners can still play Xbox 360 games via Xbox One Backward Compatibility. Microsoft continues to add new games to the service, with recent additions including the first Dark Souls game and Sonic The Fighters. With even more games likely to be added in the coming months, again, Microsoft continues to give gamers more reasons to buy its newer system over its aging one.
What is your favorite Xbox 360 game of all time? Are you sad to see the console end production? Let us know in the comments.


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Amryt seeks to have rare condition drug approved for payment
The Dublin company is in discussion with regulators in Britain and France to have metreleptin, a treatment for abnormal distribution of fat in the body, approved for payment reimbursement
Amryt, the Dublin-based rare drug developer, is in talks with medicines regulators in Britain and other European countries to get its treatments approved for payment reimbursement.
Britain is one of the remaining large European markets where metreleptin, a treatment for lipodystrophy, is yet to be approved for payment following its launch last year. The medical condition involves an abnormal distribution of fat in the body.
Joe Wiley, Amryt's chief executive, said last week that it...
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‘I always had entrepreneurial ambitions and this was first-hand evidence of an unmet need’
Neuromod’s chief executive Dr Ross O’Neill says his company’s Lenire device, which aids tinnitus sufferers, can establish a sizeable market — particularly in the US among military veterans
PM Group reports 30% profits increase and announces 200 new jobs in Ireland
The project delivery firm said that pharmaceutical projects accounted for almost two-thirds of its overall revenue for 2020, which rose to almost €400 million
Neuromod Devices to double Irish headcount within next year
The medtech company, which specialises in neuromodulation devices indicated for the treatment of tinnitus, said it hopes to roll out its product in European countries such as France, Spain and the Netherlands


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Oppo is working on some new smartphones under the Oppo F19 series. These new phones include F19 Pro and F19 Pro+ 5G. The company may also launch a vanilla model which is Oppo F19. Now, we have received some sort of information regarding these smartphones.
As per the latest news, a tipster has shared new information related to these smartphones which say that these will be the first smartphone to be powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 1200 chipset. According to the information shared by the tipster, the Oppo phone which has the model number PEPM00 will come as Oppo F19 Pro+ 5G.
This smartphone will come with the support for a 90Hz refresh rate display along with the punch hole camera setup. While the other screenshot that is leaked shows that the phone will come with MediaTek MT6893 which is the 6 nm-based Dimensity 1200 chip. It will come with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage option.
It is also reported that the same device may come as Oppo A94 5G and Reno 5A 5G in different markets. The Oppo A94 has been also spotted on the IMDA certification site and other certifications, which means it will be launching soon in the Chinese market.
Although, we recommend that you should take this information as a pinch of salt as nothing is officially confirmed by the company itself. There is more to come in the future related to these phones and we’ll keep you updated.


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Xiaomi Mi Home is all set to launch its 153rd crowd-funded product this Thursday, 1st February. While the information regarding the product is extremely limited, hints from a teased poster reveal the product as resembling a camera.
“Human Eye”, and “120 Frames per Second”, “are some of the recurring phrases in posts made regarding the product, including those by Weibo and Shanghai Hantu Technology, a leading company in China’s VR industry.
The phrase 120 frames per second may hint at the superior quality of images that can be taken by the camera, making them resemble the human vision closely. This may be the reason why the term “AR” has been linked to the product. Its poster being teased by a VR company also makes it plausible for the product to be some sort of a Xiaomi portable printer, allowing users to embed a video inside a printed photograph using AR technology.
A phone pointed at a photograph may play a short video leading up to the moment the photograph has been taken, to enliven the memory. While the assumptions make the product appear magical, bringing the concept of moving photos straight out of the Harry Potter books remains yet to see how closely these assumptions relate to the real product.


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|Prilosec OTC becomes the first over-the-counter medication to serve as an NFL sponsor.
Terms were not announced, but executives close to the agreement said the two-year deal is worth about $10 million.
Use of shield and logos
Prilosec OTC becomes the first over-the-counter medication to serve as an NFL sponsor and will receive full rights to use the NFL shield and Super Bowl logos in marketing, advertising and promotional activities. Prilosec OTC will become an advertiser on NFL Network, the 24-hour, year-round TV channel owned and operated by the NFL.
The NFL and Prilosec OTC will also work together to develop a season-long consumer promotion that will launch in late summer, a campaign that is expected to feature longtime Green Bay Packers star Brett Favre.
Publicis Groupe's Publicis Worldwide, New York, is the agency handling the Prilosec OTC ad account.
Hope to expand P&G relationship
League executives said they hope the Prilosec deal will expand into other products from P&G, the world's biggest packaged goods company.
While Prilosec OTC is the NFL's first over-the-counter medication to serve as a league sponsor, it certainly isn't the first time the sports world has intersected with the pharmaceutical industry. Prescription medications such as Viagra have served as sponsors in Major League Baseball and Nascar, while the NFL itself signed a deal with Levitra -- a rival to Viagra in the erectile dysfuncation category -- in 2003.


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TVS Srichakra has launched Eurogrip tyre brand in Europe
TVS Srichakra has announced the entry of their tyre brand Eurogrip in European markets. The Eurogrip Bee Connect series of tyres will be the first tyre to launch in European markets after R&D conducted in TVS Srichakra’s product design and development centre in Milan, Italy which was set up for developing tyres suited to the European rider’s needs.
The Eurogrip Bee Connect series of tyres is a scooter tyre that will be available in 40 different sizes to fit the various rim sizes available on scooters in Europe. The tyres have been designed and developed after rigorous testing at indoor facilities and outdoors on various roads, surfaces and even racetracks.
After the Bee Connect, the company has plans to launch a variety of tyres including off-road biased knobby tyres and street tyres that would be suitable for medium to big displacement motorcycles. The company will also offer tyres in radial and cross ply construction. The launches of these tyres are lined up in the next few months.
Commenting on the launch of TVS Eurogrip tyres in Europe, P. Madhavan, EVP, sales and marketing, TVS Srichakra, said, “Our entry into the prestigious European tyre market is a testimony to our three decades of experience and specialization in the two-wheeler tyre category and is a step towards building Eurogrip as a strong global brand. Our focus is to deliver quality tyres and develop a robust business infrastructure that can help us cater to the needs of our partners and customers in the European market. The new products introduced in Europe will also be launched in the India replacement market as well as all the countries where TVS Srichakra has established a distribution network.”
It’s a proud moment to witness an Indian brand make its way into international markets. In recent times we have also seen the company diversify and get involved in Indian motorsport with the MMSC Endurance Motorcycle Endurance Race 2021.


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There are tweets that can change the world. Then there are tweets that can change the price of beer at the airport, at least a little.
In July 2021, one thirsty traveler named Cooper Lund tweeted out an image of an airport bar menu, which, among other things, included an eye-popping $27.85 beer — Sam Adams Summer Ale Draught, to be specific — in LaGuardia’s Terminal C. It set in motion an investigation by the state’s inspector general, which found that 25 customers were charged “totally indefensible” amounts of $23 to $27 for a beer.
The Port Authority, the agency that oversees LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark Airports in New York and New Jersey, released a 35-page policy guide for vendors in May 2022 trying to crack down on airport prices. Under the new rules, vendors aren’t supposed to charge more than 10 percent over “street prices” — meaning what you’d be charged at a supposedly comparable place outside the airport — and they’re required to offer lower-priced food and beverage options overall. There’s even a website that, among other things, tells you where you might find a $2 bottle of water at JFK.
“All airport customers should rightly expect that policies which limit the pricing of food and beverages at concessions will be followed and enforced,” said Kevin O’Toole, chairman of the Port Authority, in a statement at the time. “Nobody should have to fork over such an exorbitant amount for a beer.”
All hail the beer tweeter, I suppose.
Even still, the airport is hardly a wallet-friendly place to be. Once you step on the premises and get past security, you’re in a sort of economic twilight zone where the cost of anything and everything goes up. You essentially get two choices: fork up and pay for that water or wine or set of headphones because you forgot yours at home, or wait it out and hope your flight doesn’t get delayed if you forgot to bring a snack. It’s true that it’s expensive to operate at an airport; it’s also true that restaurants and shops and airports overall know they’ve got you a little stuck and use it to their advantage to make money.
“They do realize they have a captive audience,” said Blaise Waguespack, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “They’re trying to reach that price point so that people are going to say, ‘Yeah, this isn’t like downtown,’ but they’re not feeling ripped off. They’re trying to straddle a tight line.”
It’s a line that vendors often cross because they know enough passengers are going to pony up anyway.
That’ll be “street pricing,” plus 10-15 percent
Though it often feels as though there are absolutely no limits to how much you can be charged for a cup of coffee or bottle of Tylenol at the airport, that isn’t the case.
Most airports have policies for prices, and those policies are contained in the leases and requests for proposals for businesses, explained Andrew Weddig, executive director of the Airport Restaurant & Retail Association. “A typical price control right now would be a comparable street price plus 10 percent,” he said. “Some airports in the pandemic had moved it up to 15 percent due to the extra costs and due to the reduced sales volumes.”
How “street prices” are determined isn’t an exact, uniform science. Sometimes, the store brand exists in the everyday world, like a Starbucks or TGI Fridays, which can make the calculation a little easier (though which locations to compare to can get complicated). Other times, the brand doesn’t exist outside the airport or there aren’t really direct comparables, so possible vendors and airports have to sort of finagle an agreement of what counts. Under Port Authority’s rules, concessionaires are supposed to be able to justify what they consider comparable.
Concessionaires, understandably, want the comparables to be on the expensive end, which is where consumer frustration and confusion can come in.
Weddig — who is, of course, favorable to concessionaires — pointed out that if you’re buying a beverage at a convenience store or at Walmart, for example, that doesn’t generally count as comparable in airport vendor land. The street price of the beer and burger you’re buying at the airport may be based on, say, some fairly nice restaurants in Midtown Manhattan or Downtown Chicago. They’re not based on McDonald’s or the local dive bar down the street — even if the quality of airport food can be closer to the local dive bar than travelers would like.
The relative cost of selling stuff at the airport
It is very easy to go to the airport and be incredibly annoyed at how pricey everything is at the restaurants and stores inside, especially after you’ve watched the fees pile up while booking your flight and either paid to move faster in the TSA line or felt slighted by those who did. But in defense of those restaurants and stores — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — it is expensive to operate at the airport.
“There can be some unique operating and cost considerations,” Waguespack said.
Businesses have to pay the airport, which is generally owned by state or local entities, a minimum annual guarantee — or MAG — annually, which more or less translates to rent. In many cases, Waguespack added, they also have to pay a certain percentage of sales on, say, wine or beer or food.
Concessionaires deal with costs and obstacles normal businesses outside of airports don’t have to, such as getting employees security clearances and badges and getting inventory delivered and stored. An airport restaurant probably doesn’t have as much freezer space as a regular restaurant, and getting food to put in that freezer is more of a hassle. “If I run a restaurant out on the street, out in the community, that [delivery] truck doesn’t have to clear security,” Waguespack said. You also don’t have to pay extra insurance on that truck in case while driving on the tarmac it runs into an airplane.
That being said, there is obviously quite a bit of money to be made in opening a business at the airport — otherwise, no one would do it.
Airports don’t like dead space with nothing in it. “They know they have to give you a place for waiting for the airplanes and all of that, but it’s a revenue-generating spot they believe they need generating revenue,” Waguespack said. The “dwell time” between when people get through security and board their flights is a prime opportunity for monetization. Airports also have an attractive customer base: people who can afford to travel, some of whom are in “time to spend” vacation mode or are business travelers happy to expense a meal on the company card.
“Airline passengers are a good market to be in,” Waguespack said. “That’s why people are willing to go to the airport, do business at the airport, advertise at the airport — because you’re getting a good middle- to upscale-class clientele.”
Airports aren’t the only spaces where you are sort of trapped and at the mercy of whatever a business wants to charge you. It’s a similar situation in arenas and theme parks, at sporting events and at concerts.
The way to avoid spending a bunch of money at the airport might be just don’t spend any money
I wish I were the type of person who didn’t spend money at the airport, but in my mind, airport rules are there are no rules. Still, the best tactics to avoid overspending are simple but require foresight: filling up your water post-security, packing snacks, bringing a book, or downloading a movie. I usually forget to do any of that. Some ways to save don’t require any prep: If there’s free airport wifi, use it. If there’s not, think about if you can survive for a few hours without the internet. (You probably can and will be better for it; I’ll probably be logging on for a fee.)
Some travelers who are frequent flyers or have ties to certain airlines can get into their lounges, which can offer amenities such as free food and beverages and even showers. If you’ve lounge access, congratulations. If you have a friend who has lounge access and can tag along, congratulations as well. You can sometimes pay to get lounge access for the day, depending on the airline. American and United charge $59 for a day pass in their lounges; Delta doesn’t offer the option. It’s up to you to make that calculation as to whether it’s worth it. (How much time do you have? How much will you spend if you go to the airport bar instead?)
There isn’t much way around sticker shock for airline travelers. There’s a classic Seinfeld bit about it where comedian Jerry Seinfeld asks, “Do you think that the people at the airport that run the stores have any idea what the prices are every place else in the world? Or do you just feel they have their own little country out there and they can charge anything they want?” Some of this is just how the airport deal works, like it or not: Travelers are part of a captive audience, which lets vendors charge more than they might otherwise for a variety of reasons, and so they do. Airport authorities can and do put some limits on how much the upcharge can be, but at the end of the day, everybody here wants to make a profit.
Some travelers will balk at the price of that martini they were eyeing and walk away. Others will think, “Eh, I’ll treat myself to just one.” And then, maybe, knowing they’re on vacation or not taking off anytime soon or that in the airport there are no rules, they’ll have another.
We live in a world that’s constantly trying to sucker us and trick us, where we’re always surrounded by scams big and small. It can feel impossible to navigate. Every two weeks, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our economic systems control and manipulate the average person. Welcome to The Big Squeeze.
Have ideas for a future column or thoughts on this one? Email email@example.com.
Update, November 18, 2022: This piece has been updated with the beer tweeter’s name, Cooper Lund.


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TAYBURN, the award-winning brand-led digital agency that earlier this year celebrated 40 years in business, has scaled up it’s digital offering in 2019 with 5 hires, as well as a promotion for Alex Dalton to Projects Director.
Among the new hires are Developer Arnoldas Gatavynas, Digital Marketing Manager Sarah Watt and Digital Project Manager, Katherine Parkinson who join the expanding team following the appointment of experienced Creative Director Ricky Stevens, back in January. The agency has strengthened its team and digital credentials to match increased activity both in the UK and internationally, with around one-third of the agency’s revenue now coming from international clients.
Joint Managing Director Malcolm Stewart said: “Our strategic hires align with our growth plans and also relate closely to our digital offering which covers digital products, digital experiences and digital marketing.”
Richard Simpson, Tayburn’s Joint Managing Director said: “Our mantra at Tayburn centres around creating spectacular value for our clients and we know we need a cutting edge digital team underpinned by the high quality creative talent to do this.”
Tayburn has launched some high profile client projects this year with Scottish Rugby’s new website and a digital campaign for Boë gin featuring Paloma Faith. Tayburn also counts Skyscanner, FNZ, Heineken and Network Rail on its client list and the agency is set to reveal a series of new project wins over the next few months.


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adidas x TFL
There is no denying that the adidas Originals x TFL collaboration has made London one of the biggest sneaker hotspots of 2018. Releasing trainers silhouettes and using poppy colourways, this collaboration is one of the best the 3-Stripes have to offer.
When we initially saw this collaboration in mid-2018, it signified the beginning of something special. Releasing in limited numbers the Continental 80, ZX 400 and Temper Run were gone as soon as they hit the shelves.
Along with the sneakers lucky recipients received an £80 Oyster card with 3-Stripe branding. Fast-forward to the latter parts of 2018 and releases are still coming in thick and fast.
With more Continental 80s launching to commemorate 12 of the Undergrounds lines, these sneakers will be far easier to come by than the previous launch. Releasing alongside the ‘Elizabeth Line’ Pack, this collaboration is showing signs of slowing down.
See all of the latest adidas Originals x TFL news and releases below.


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The financial service industry finally heard the message in 2015. For the past decade, industry experts have been telling top management they must be involved, and they must lead the digital transformation.
Part of the problem with lending institutions has been that the executive ranks felt they were engaged, when in reality many leaders did not understand the depth and breadth of the change necessary for digital transformation. Many financial executives talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. They say the right words, but not many are actually pushing their organizations to deliver on a customer-centric organization.
This is good news, because customer relationship red flags dot the horizon: 71 percent of US consumers now view their banking relationship as merely transactional. The strong personal relationships with banks are a thing of yesteryears.
The good news is customers are — at least currently — sticking with their banks. So unlike the disruptions experienced in other industries, where customers defected in droves, financial executives have not received a midnight crisis call.
I predict 2016 will be the year banks overcome their consumer financial protection bureau (CFPB) constraints and start delivering what customers expect. Executives certainly realize that the indirect competition and the non-banks (PayPal, Amazon and Apple) are already delivering the experience customers demand.
2016 Will be the Year That ...
1. Banks make significant progress in moving away from their myopic focus on operations and back office systems to become more customer-centric
Conversations at the various financial conferences I attended this year were overwhelmingly focused on compliance and operations, mainly because of the CFPB regulations. Most have been unwilling, and to a degree unable, to create a customer-centric loan origination processes. The rampant myth I repeatedly heard in 2015 was that the government is dictating the form. However, a few lenders do understand how to be customer-centric and satisfy government regulations.
Findings from the J.D. Power 2015 US Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study revealed that lenders that focus on improving the customer experience of their digital channels are realizing higher customer satisfaction. And satisfied customers mean referrals and repeat business.
2. Banks will restructure and increase outsourcing to move more quickly and improve their customer experience
One of the key challenges for banking is that their current resources are buried in projects. In the past few years, six major banks started investing in fintech startups. I predict outsourcing will be a strong driver in 2016. However, changes will go beyond outsourcing because adding a capability doesn’t help you move faster unless you change the way you work.
Historically, banks have organized their thinking around product lines. This year, customer-savvy banks will organize their thinking around their customers. They will aggressively cross-sell customers on additional products and services. They will shake up the organizational chart so it can move quicker, increase the digital focus and better align with technology partners.
3. More banks will adopt agile processes
In addition to reorganizations, banks will also adjust how IT and marketing work together. Typically, companies create a huge IT department responsible for lots of projects that are prioritized and managed by traditional waterfall project methodologies. Progressive industry experts agree that the waterfall approach fails to deliver at the speed businesses need to move in today’s environment. Banks are realizing that it is more important to get to market fast and evolve to achieve competitive advantage.
When businesses collaborate with IT and adopt an agile approach to transformational digital initiatives, they not only improve their speed-to-market, they also are intimately involved in the process.
4. Banks will do more cross-selling and up-selling
Mobile devices enable a new payment paradigm and offer far more cross- and up-selling opportunities. If a finance company has a portfolio of a million car loans, it creates the perfect opportunity to cross-sell customers on a credit card, deposit account, mortgage or wealth management product. Time-bound contractual situations offer a unique touch point that only financial institutions can leverage. Lenders already have extensive information about the customer and can easily create a truly personal and relevant experience.
The good news is that the technology exists to easily cross- or up-sell customers. The personal microsite is an ideal mechanism. Many customers use a personal microsite from the time they apply to the time they pay off a loan. Delivering information to customers this way increases the relevancy of the message, which is a huge competitive edge for finance providers.
5. Financial institutions will focus on relevant data vs. a quest for big data
I hear very little big data talk around the planning tables. The discussion is about identifying and leveraging relevant data. The 2016 buzzword will continue to be relevancy, for good reason. A relevant experience is what engages customers.
The good news is that small data really holds the majority of the relevant, more personal information that creates a great customer experience. Unlike big data, which requires significant analysis to uncover patterns and insights that may or may not be useful, small data is specific and can be real time. It is also much easier to mine, manage and use.
The fight for the finance customers is on. For the past few years, bankers have been sitting on the sidelines watching the fintech start-ups and nonbanks compete for their customers. This year, I predict the bankers will start throwing some punches.
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Asus has launched the second-generation ROG Phone, a smartphone designed to lure serious mobile gamers. The phone comes with a large AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 6,000mAh battery. Here is our first look.
Realme X is among the cheapest pop-up selfie camera phones at Rs 16,999 for the 4GB +128GB variant and Rs 19,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant. It has two cameras at the back, where the primary sensor is 48MP. Here's a first look.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e is an impressive, compact Android tablet with a bright AMOLED display and premium design. It boasts a Snapdragon 670 processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory. Here is our first look of the Galaxy Tab S5e.
Xiaomi has launched its budget Redmi 7A in India. The successor to Redmi 6A has similar specifications, though the new phone comes with a bigger 4,000mAh battery. Redmi 7A is priced under Rs 7,000 and comes in two storage configurations. Here is a fi
Days after the Union Budget gave a big push to the electric vehicle segment in India by offering incentives on loans taken for purchasing these green vehicles, Hyundai has launched its Kona Electric SUV in India.
Nokia 2.2 has a 5.71-inch HD+ U-shaped notch display and comes with a 3,000 mAh removable battery. The device has a glossy plastic back (polycarbonate), which can be removed for inserting SIM & memory cards.


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As it continues to refine its in-stream shopping approach, and shift user behaviors around in-app spending, TikTok’s now looking to realign eCommerce partners towards its own native shopping elements, as opposed to linking off to third-party hosting sites.
Along this line, TikTok has announced that it’s shutting down its Storefront feature, which enables merchants to connect their third-party shopping process into the TikTok UI, facilitating a more direct purchase flow in-app.
But now, TikTok wants retailers to rely on its own shopping tools instead.
As per TikTok:
“Storefront will be officially discontinued and unavailable for use. This means your Storefront products will no longer be visible on your TikTok profile, or be eligible for inclusion in short videos, LIVEs and ads. You will also lose access to your Storefront on Store Manager. It's important to migrate from your Storefront to TikTok Shop as soon as possible.”
Originally launched back in 2021, TikTok’s Storefronts are primarily focused on direct connection with Shopify, and enabling Shopify merchants to display their products in-stream.
The news is the latest development in TikTok’s evolving in-stream shopping push, which remains a key focus for its expanded monetization efforts.
In China, in-app shopping has become the key revenue stream for the local version of the app, but thus far, Western users haven’t shown the same enthusiasm for in-stream purchases.
That’s especially true of live shopping, which is now the main commerce driver on Douyin, the Chinese version of the app. Douyin reported a 320% increase in product sales in 2022, which has seen the platform continue to eat into the market share of Asian eComm giants like Alibaba, JD, and Pinduoduo. And with other providers like Temu and Shein now making a push to expand their operations into more markets, TikTok also sees this as the time to act to ensure it gets ahead of competitors and the expected rise in in-stream shopping in Western regions.
TikTok has the reach, the experience, and the expertise to make this happen. Now, it’s just down to whether users actually want to be able to shop in-stream.
TikTok’s also looking to expand its own production and hosting processes to facilitate in-stream purchases, while it's even creating its own products, based on trends, to encourage more in-app spending.
The idea is that if TikTok can better facilitate in-app shopping, and ensure users have a great purchase experience, this can maybe shift audience behaviors, though the lingering questions surrounding TikTok’s connection with the Chinese government could be an impediment to maximizing in-app spend.
If Western users have any reason to feel unsafe about, say, connecting a payment option to the app, that’ll likely impede TikTok’s potential in this respect.
Is that what’s stopping TikTok from expanding its eCommerce elements, or is it just that Western users, in general, are not as open to in-stream purchases as people in Asian markets?
It’s impossible to say, but TikTok looks set to continue pushing its in-stream shopping elements, as it seeks to find the best way to maximize its revenue potential.


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52-point gain for Dow stocks
Published 4:00 am, Friday, May 17, 1996
NEW YORK - Stocks jumped Friday as bonds rallied and interest rates fell amid the latest hint of moderation in the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 52.45 at 5,687.50, just missing the record close of 5,689.74 on April 3.
The Dow has now rebounded by more than 350 points, or about 6.5 percent, from a steep sell-off just last week. The market had been rattled by rising interest rates and fears the economy is growing too fast - a possible precursor to inflation, which hurts the value of fixed-income investments such as bonds.
But over the past week, a series of modest readings on inflation and the economy has eased those worries, lifting bond prices.
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Friday, bonds rallied on news that a widely watched index on consumer sentiment has fallen this month. Lower consumer confidence can mean less spending and less pressure on supplies and prices.
Stocks followed bonds higher as the yield on 30-year Treasuries - a benchmark used to determine the interest charged on many loans - fell below 6.9 percent after an unsettling move above that level on Thursday.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to about 432 million shares.
Broad-market measures were higher too, with the major indexes pushing into record territory.
The benchmark 30-stock Dow average was led higher by shares of Philip Morris Cos., General Electric Co. and International Business machines Corp., companies with famous products whose earnings are expected to be strong in coming months.
"Foreigners are coming into our market because they're not worried by the dollar and they're buying big name-brand companies they're comfortable with," said Edward Keely, portfolio manager at Founders Asset Management, managing about $826 million.
Stocks are benefiting from record purchases of stock mutual funds. Last week, investors poured almost $6.6 billion into such funds, helping boost share prices that some money managers believe are already expensive.
Interest rates fell after the University of Michigan reported that consumers are less optimistic about their finances and economic prospects this month. The university said its preliminary index of consumer sentiment for May fell to 89.9 from 92.7 in April, people with access to the study said.
In other economic news, Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit soared to $8.92 billion in March as imports into the country of both goods and services hit all-time highs. The March deficit, 26.8 percent higher than February's, was much worse than the $8 billion gap many economists had been anticipating.
Stocks struggled to a mixed finish Thursday, weighed down by weakness in the bond market as some surprisingly strong economic readings undermined some of the recent confidence about steady inflation and interest rates.
But the Nasdaq market and other indexes dominated by smaller and more speculative shares outperformed the blue-chips and set new records.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 1 percent.<


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Exciting HotWax Systems news this month! Between receiving recognition in industry publications, publishing new thought leadership articles, releasing new products and attending #ApacheCon North America and Magento’s #ImagineCommerce, we’re (happily) busy, busy, busy!
Here’s the latest and greatest HotWax Systems News:
- We released HotWax Commerce Connect for Magento and OFBiz Connect.
- We were named in both the Gartner Digital Commerce Vendor Guide, 2015 and the Gartner CRM Vendor Guide, 2015.
- Our CEO, Mike Bates, published an article on opensource.com titled “Why Open Source and Enterprise Users are Natural Allies.”
- We were a silver-level sponsor at #ApacheCon North America 2015 (and this year marked our 8th consecutive year as an ApacheCon Sponsor.
- Our CTO, Jacopo Cappellato, delivered “The State of OFBiz” at #ApacheCon North America 2015.
- We Collaborated with the Apache Software Foundation to refresh the look of the ASF home page.
- We continue to conduct monthly Apache OFBiz community bug crush events.
Stay tuned for more HotWax Systems News. Two major announcements coming up soon!
DATE: Apr 21, 2015
AUTHOR: Teresa Zundel


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Several domain names tied to Genesis Market, a bustling cybercrime store that sold access to passwords and other data stolen from millions of computers infected with malicious software, were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today. Sources tell KrebsOnsecurity the domain seizures coincided with “dozens” of arrests in the United States and abroad targeting those who allegedly operated the service, as well as suppliers who continuously fed Genesis Market with freshly-stolen data.
Active since 2018, Genesis Market’s slogan has long been, “Our store sells bots with logs, cookies, and their real fingerprints.” Customers could search for infected systems with a variety of options, including by Internet address or by specific domain names associated with stolen credentials.
But earlier today, multiple domains associated with Genesis had their homepages replaced with a seizure notice from the FBI, which said the domains were seized pursuant to a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin did not respond to requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
But sources close to the investigation tell KrebsOnSecurity that law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada and across Europe are currently serving arrest warrants on dozens of individuals thought to support Genesis, either by maintaining the site or selling the service bot logs from infected systems.
The seizure notice includes the seals of law enforcement entities from several countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
When Genesis customers purchase a bot, they’re purchasing the ability to have all of the victim’s authentication cookies loaded into their browser, so that online accounts belonging to that victim can be accessed without the need of a password, and in some cases without multi-factor authentication.
“You can buy a bot with a real fingerprint, access to e-mail, social networks, bank accounts, payment systems!,” a cybercrime forum ad for Genesis enthused. “You also get all previous digital life (history) of the bot – most services won’t even ask for login and password and identify you as their returning customer. Purchasing a bot kit with the fingerprint, cookies and accesses, you become the unique user of all his or her services and other web-sites. The other use of our kit of real fingerprints is to cover-up the traces of your real internet activity.”
The pricing for Genesis bots ranged quite a bit, but in general bots with large amounts of passwords and authentication cookies — or those with access to specific financial websites such as PayPal and Coinbase — tended to fetch far higher prices.
New York based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint says that in addition to containing a large number of resources, the most expensive bots overwhelmingly seem to have access to accounts that are easy to monetize.
“The high incidence of Google and Facebook is expected, as they are such widely used platforms,” Flashpoint noted in an analysis of Genesis Market, observing that all ten of the ten most expensive bots at the time included Coinbase credentials.
Genesis Market has introduced a number of cybercriminal innovations over its existence. Probably the best example is Genesis Security, which is a custom Web browser plugin which can load a Genesis bot profile so that the browser mimics virtually every important aspect of the victim’s device, from screen size and refresh rate to the unique user agent string tied to the victim’s web browser.
Flashpoint said the administrators of Genesis Market claim they are a team of specialists with “extensive experience in the field of systems metrics.” They say they developed the Genesis Security software by analyzing the top forty-seven browser fingerprinting and tracking systems, as well as those utilized by 283 different banking and payment systems.
Cybersecurity experts say Genesis and a handful of other bot shops are also popular among cybercriminals who work to identify and purchase bots inside corporate networks, and then turn around and resell that access to ransomware gangs.
Michael Debolt, chief intelligence officer for Intel 471, said so-called “network access brokers” will scour automated bot shops for high value targets, and then resell them for a bigger profit.
“From ‘used’ or ‘processed’ logs — it is actually quite common for the same log to be used by multiple different actors who are all using it for different purposes – for instance, some actors are only interested in crypto wallet or banking credentials so they bypass credentials that network access brokers are interested in,” Debolt said. “These network access brokers buy these ‘used’ logs for very cheap (or sometimes for free) and search for big fish targets from there.”
In June 2021, hackers who broke into and stole a wealth of source code and game data from the computer gaming giant EA told Motherboard they gained access by purchasing a $10 bot from Genesis Market that let them log into a company Slack account.
One feature of Genesis that sets it apart from other bot shops is that customers can retain access to infected systems in real-time, so that if the rightful owner of an infected system creates a new account online, those new credentials will get stolen and displayed in the web-based panel of the Genesis customer who purchased that bot.
“While some infostealers are designed to remove themselves after execution, others create persistent access,” reads a March 2023 report from cybersecurity firm SpyCloud. “That means bad actors have access to the current data for as long as the device remains infected, even if the user changes passwords.
SpyCloud says Genesis even advertises its commitment to keep the stolen data and the compromised systems’ fingerprints up to date.
“According to our research, Genesis Market had more than 430,000 stolen identities for sale as of early last year – and there are many other marketplaces like this one,” the SpyCloud report concludes.
This is a developing story. Any updates will be added with notice and timestamp here.


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Do you drive a Tesla? If you do, you might sleep a little better knowing that the odds of the car getting stolen are pretty slim.
According to new data from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), a nonprofit organization that researches and publishes statistics on vehicle losses in the United States, two of Teslas models ranked in the top 10 of the least stolen cars for the model years of 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The latest figures for new-car thefts were released Wednesday. The data looked at whole-vehicle claims per insured vehicle, which included the amounts that insurance companies paid for total losses covered under collision coverage.
The HLDI said the Tesla Model S four-wheel drive was the second-least stolen new car, while the Tesla Model X four-wheel drive was the third-least stolen such vehicle for the past three model years. The Tesla Model S and Model X had a rating showing the cars were about 10 times less likely to be stolen than an average new car.
The only car to have a better rating that the Teslas was the BMW 3-Series four-door sedan, which the HLDI said was 25 times less likely to be stolen that a typical new car.
Teslas have a few factors that contribute to their low rates of being stolen. The HLDI said that because electric cars need to be near a power source for charging, many often are parked in garages or close to a house where they can be plugged in, which cuts down on the risk of vehicle theft.
When it comes to cars that are stolen the most, muscle and luxury vehicles top the HLDI list.
The HLDI said the Dodge Charger Hemi is the most stolen new car of the past three years, and gets stolen 5.4 times more than the average vehicle. Another Dodge is right on the Charger’s tail: The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat came in second place, with a stolen rate 5.3 times higher than the industry average.
Luxury car owners, especially those who drive Infinitis, might want to start parking their cars closer to home. The HLDI said the Infiniti Q50 four-door midsize luxury car was the third-most stolen new vehicle; its cousin, the Infiniti QX80 large luxury SUV, ranked fourth.


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All project cargo articles
Industrial press manufacturer Schuler has worked with logistics provider Schenker Deutschland to secure the delivery of a 106 ton hydraulic press from its facility in Erfurt to the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) research facility in Detroit, Michigan.The press, which can exert a force of 4,000 US tons, ...
Broekman Logistics has set up a dedicated division providing a range of services for the international handling of project cargo. Broekman Project Logistics will support industries including energy and offshore and will target oversized construction, mining and heavy load cargo. According to the company, which is based at the port ...