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This email covers: (3 min read)
The biggest changes to the US Drone Law
Stats from NYE
(a personal complain about podcasts)
Apple losing a case.
Amazon’s Robo-taxi
Flying with GPS On
Flying a drone and not sharing your location isn’t something you will be able to legally do in the US in 2023. The US Federal Aviation Administration issued the single biggest set of changes to the US Drone Law. And here’s a brief:
You’ll have to broadcast your and your drone’s location when flying a drone in the US.
And a private supplier company should store this location data for at least 6 months, for a monthly fee.
And that doesn’t mean you can fly your drone anywhere. It still needs to be in sight all the time.
Currently: To fly a drone, you just need to slap a sticker with an ID number on the drone, which isn't even visible up there.
Reactions:
Google’s drone-delivery subsidiary, Wing says attackers can find your location if the drone shares the data over radio-frequency, instead of the internet.
I am shocked — shocked — that a company being investigated for antitrust concerns over abusing its power on the internet would recommend the FAA ditch its newest radio-frequency ID program for internet-based tracking. https://t.co/d6VNMPapthAlphabet's Wing says new FAA drone rules mandating radio-frequency broadcasts for remote identification will erode privacy, suggests internet-based tracking (@davidshepardson / Reuters) https://t.co/23MAt8yakb https://t.co/77HTsV2VcvTechmeme @TechmemeDJI, the biggest consumer drone manufacturer, argues these rules make drone-flying harder. Storing location data by private companies will make drones ~20% costlier per year.
Numbers from New Year’s Eve
Zomato
Founder, Deepinder Goyal: “Team ki fati hui hai.” With 4250 orders every minute, Zomato reached its an all-time high. Failure/Complaint rate got to an all-time low. GMV of 75 crores in a single day. 100k delivery partners delivering 1.4 lakh live orders. 20k Biryanis. 16k Pizzas. 300 Salads.
Facebook already crossed it’s 2019 NYE numbers in early March. But NYE 2020 was bigger. 1.4 Billion calls on WhatsApp (more than 50% from last year). 2X more video calls on Messenger. And “2020 Fireworks” became the top AR sticker. 55M people broadcasted on Facebook and Instagram.
Podcasts aren’t “open” anymore
Last week—more like last year—Amazon bought Wondery, a company that creates podcasts and audio shows, for its Music app.
Spotify has been buying podcast companies for a while now. Most notably Gimlet. And like Spotify, Amazon says podcasts from companies it bought will still be on other podcast players.
But shows from companies owned by Spotify only have all episodes on Spotify. For example, Startup, a show from Gimlet which has ~152 episodes on Spotify but only 28 on Apple Podcasts.
Go read: The open podcast ecosystem is dying — here’s how to save it.
What Else:
🍎 Apple lost a case against Corellium, one which Apple filed soon after it failed to buy Corellium back in 2018. Corellium does something Apple doesn’t like much — making software to run iOS on a desktop computer for security researchers.
As the Court ruled, this was not considered a copyright violation, partly because it was intended to make iPhones safer, not to make a competing product.
Forced to make iPhones, Teslas and more. Thousands of workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang were forced to work for Lens Technology, which supplies Apple, Amazon and Tesla.
Lens is just the latest addition to at least 5 companies connected to Apple’s supply chain and linked to alleged forced labour.
Robotaxi, anyone? Amazon’s self-driving startup, Zoox showed off a fully autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel. Speed maxes out on 75 miles an hour (~120kmph). Two battery packs last 16hrs. Zoox will launch it as a Uber-like service in San Francisco and Las Vegas and later for package delivery. But when? What’d it cost? Zoox only said: not in 2021 for sure and it will be “affordable.”