Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – February 4th

Tesla to settle a lawsuit over mishandling of hazardous waste in California for $1.5 million – 2/1

Tesla will settle a civil lawsuit that alleges the company mishandled the hazardous waste disposal in California. The company will pay a fee of $1.5 million.

The district attorneys for 25 Californian counties filed the civil lawsuit in the state court of San Joaquin County earlier in the week. The lawsuit claims the company “intentionally disposed of, and intentionally caused the disposal of hazardous waste” at places not equipped to handle the waste. It included everything from lubricants and paint used in the manufacturing process to lead acid batteries. Likewise, the lawsuit alleges Tesla did not train its employees on hazardous waste disposal. The company did not label the containers it used, generated, or stored in its facilities.

Brooke Jenkins (the San Francisco District Attorney) released a statement on the division of the settlement. $1.3 million is set for civil penalties, while $200,000 covers the cost of the investigation. Furthermore, Tesla needs to “comply with a detailed injunction for five years“ that includes training the company’s employees and the obligation to hire a third party to „conduct annual waste audits of its trash containers at ten percent of its facilities.“

The settlement might seem steep. However, it is a drop in the bucket for the company that reported a net income of $7.93 billion at the end of last year.

CEOs of social media platforms testify in U. S. Senate on the topic of children safety – 2/1

Five social media bosses testified in a Senate hearing on Wednesday on the topic of children’s safety on social media. Mark Zuckerberg (the CEO of Meta) and Shou Zi Chew (the CEO of TikTok) voluntarily agreed to testify. Meanwhile, Linda Yaccarino (the CEO of X), Jason Citron (the CEO of Discord), and Evan Spiegel (the CEO of Snap) had to be issued subpoenas to attend. The hearing lasted over four hours.

The lawmakers wanted to know what social media companies are doing to protect mental and physical safety of children online. Sitting in the audience behind the CEOs were the families of children who harmed themselves or killed themselves as a result of social media content.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley invited Zuckerberg to apologize to the families. Zuckerberg said: “I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through, it’s terrible… No-one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.” Before the hearing, Meta announced several new safety measures including that minors will be unable to receive messages from strangers on Instagram and Messenger by default.

Matt Navarra (social media analyst) commented on the hearing for BBC: “We’ve seen these hearings time and time again and they have often, so far, led still to not actually generate any significant or substantial regulation… We’re in 2024 and the U. S. has virtually no regulation, as was pointed out during the hearings, with regards to the social media companies.”

Meta’s shares surge 22% – 2/2

Meta’s stock surged 22% on Friday after the company released its fourth-quarter report on Thursday, leaving Mark Zuckerberg with a $28 billion windfall.

The company tripled its net income compared to a year ago and is now worth $1.2 trillion. Likewise, the ad sales continued to rebound after less than stellar 2022. The company also announced it will pay its first-ever quarterly dividend on March 26. Even sales in the Reality Labs passed $1 billion in the quarter.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg is now richer than Bill Gates, with a net worth of $165 billion. He will also receive an estimated $175 million in cash after the company pays out the dividends in March. Zuckerberg stated: “We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow… We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse.”

While the analysts expected revenue of $33.8 billion, the company announced it expects the first-quarter sales to be between $34.5 billion and $37 billion.

Apple launches Vision Pro headset – 2/2

On Friday, Apple launched its Vision Pro headset in the United States. It is available in all store locations in the country and on the company’s online store. The prices for the Vision Pro started at $3,500. The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, attended the release of Vision Pro at Apple’s New York flagship store on Fifth Avenue.

CNBC interviewed Cook, who tried to justify the high price of the set as “tomorrow’s technology today.“ Customers can also opt for a financing plan. Cook said: “People can spread their payments out over time, and so that’s one affordability kind of thing… It’s chock-full of invention. It’s got 5,000 patents on it… We think we priced it at the right level considering the value of it.”

According to Cook, over 600 games and apps are available on the headset, all designed to give the user “a spatial computing” experience.