Tesla sued over Model 3 suspension failure that allegedly caused a deadly crash

Image: NTSB

A civil lawsuit has been filed accusing Tesla and a service manager at one of its stores of negligence stemming from a fiery crash that killed a 20-year-old man, Reuters reports.

Nicholas Garcia and a passenger, Jazmin Alcala, died in a crash on September 13th, 2021, while driving in his 2021 Model 3 after its underbody struck the road’s surface as it drove through an intersection near his home in Coral Gables, Florida. The car quickly went out of control, left the road, and struck two trees before it was engulfed in flames.

In the lawsuit (included below, via PlainSite), a lawyer for Garcia’s family argues the sedan’s suspension failed, causing the bottom to hit the road and igniting the batteries, and leading to sparks shooting out...

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Peloton’s Lanebreak video game is finally here

A screencap of the “Breakers” mechanic in Peloton’s Lanebreak game. | Image: Peloton

Finally, some lessdramaticnews from Peloton: its Lanebreak in-app video game is finally here for Peloton Bike and Bike Plus owners.

You can find Lanebreak in the “More Rides” menu at the bottom right of a Peloton bike’s tablet. The game itself sort of looks a lot like riding a light cycle in Tron, but it takes elements from rhythm games. Essentially, you can switch between six virtual “lanes” by turning the bike’s resistance knob. The farther right you go, the higher the resistance. There are also game mechanics — dubbed by Peloton as “Moments” — that relate to your resistance and how fast you’re pedaling. For instance, “Beats” are blue bars that give you points for being in a certain lane. “Breakers” are orange sections where you’re...

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Crunchyroll now has something Netflix doesn’t: a Switch app

Crunchyroll has come to the Nintendo Switch just in time for those of you waiting to binge all of Demon Slayer season 2 on the go.

There’s a new way to watch anime Crunchyroll now available on @NintendoAmerica Switch ✨

LEARN MORE: https://t.co/peIQjWAAjepic.twitter.com/vCaEhmnSSE

— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) February 17, 2022

Starting today, Crunchyroll will be available for download from the Switch eShop for free. You can watch anime on your Switch in docked, tabletop, or handheld mode while premium subscribers can watch shows offline, making it perfect for long trips. Hopefully, it will be a much improved experience versus the Crunchyroll app on other platforms. The Apple TV version is particularly excruciating to use.

Even...

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Amazon Prime will get more expensive for new subscribers starting on February 18th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In case you missed out on the news from early February, Amazon Prime will see its first price increase in four years starting tomorrow, February 18th, for new subscribers. The annual cost will rise from $119 to $139, or if you pay monthly, it will go from $12.99 to $14.99. If you pay monthly, you’ll have no choice after tomorrow but to take the hit. Per Variety, the cost of the Prime Students membership plan will increase from $6.49 to $7.49 per month. All of this info is listed on Amazon’s support page.

However, if you have the means to front the fee for an annual Prime membership, doing so today will save you $20 compared to if you were to do the same thing tomorrow. That locks you in for a year of service at the $119 rate.

Current...

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Stranger Things season 4 is so big they’re splitting it into two volumes

Netflix

Each Stranger Thingsseason so far has featured either eight or nine episodes, but according to series co-creators Matt and Ross differ, the upcoming fourth season is going to be a little different as it starts to bring the story of Eleven and her friends to its impending close.

Today, Netflix shared an open letter from the Duffer Brothers detailing elements of Stranger Things’ fourth season, which they described as “the beginning of the end,” and announcing that the show’s fifth season will be its last.

“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” the brothers explained. “At the time, we predicted the story would last for to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but — as you’ll soon see for...

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Ford Mustang Mach-E usurps Tesla Model 3 as Consumer Reports top EV pick of the year

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

_Consumer Reports_is swapping the Tesla Model 3 for the Ford Mustang Mach-E as its new top electric vehicle pick for 2022. The designation is sure to give Ford a morale boost as it seeks to outpace Tesla in the race to become the number one EV manufacturer in the US.

Tesla has long dominated CR’s EV rankings, with the Model 3 holding the position for the past two years. But the publication says a variety of factors, including ride quality, reliability, and the in-car user experiences, have led it to crown a new winner in the Mustang Mach-E.

“Make no mistake, the Model 3 is still a great choice, and Consumer Reports recommends it,” CR’s deputy editor Jeff Bartlett writes today. “But the Mustang Mach-E is also very sporty, plus it’s more...

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Spotify wants to beat YouTube at audio

Alex Castro / The Verge

This story originally ran in Hot Pod, The Verge’s preeminent audio industry newsletter. You can subscribeherefor more scoops, analysis, and reporting.

Spotify announced yesterday its acquisition of Podsights and Chartable, two companies known for tracking pixels that allow marketers, advertisers, and podcasters to measure the success of their shows. This is a big deal, to state the obvious, if for no other reason than if podcasters have avoided Spotify’s podcast world up until now, well, they’re probably going to have to start engaging. Both these platforms are critical to the space to show advertisers that their marketing is being heard and acted upon and that podcast ads are effective and worthy of a budget.

As for its plans,...

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Intel’s first discrete Arc desktop GPUs are coming in Q2 2022

Image: Intel

Intel has given an update on the timeline for its long-awaited entry into the discrete graphics game: Arc GPUs for laptops are set to ship soon in Q1 2022 (where they’ll slot in neatly on machines with Intel’s new 12th Gen Alder Lake H-series CPUs that it launched at CES 2022). Arc desktop GPUs will still have a bit of a wait ahead of them: Intel says that they won’t be arriving until sometime in Q2, while workstation graphics cards won’t hit until Q3.

Intel has quietly announced a new, upcoming service for its Arc GPUs — “Project Endgame,” which will allow customers to stream access Intel’s graphics cards for an “always-accessible, low-latency computing experience.” The exact mechanisms here aren’t totally clear, but it sounds like...

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Twitter is having some Thursday problems

Another rocky day for the social media platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter’s having a rough February. Following some problems last Friday, the social network is having some issues on Thursday as well. So far, it doesn’t seem to be a full-on outage, but there are a handful of small issues.

I’m having trouble loading tweets on profiles in my browser. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong shared an image of what looks to be a largely blank page. Searching “twitter down” on Twitter shows a number of people are experiencing issues. (Though they are still apparently able to tweet.) And a few Verge staffers have noticed problems.

Twitter flipped a switch but forgot to handle the nulls, so the tweet pages in the web app appears to error / be empty#TwitterDownpic.twitter.com/1ggcyWP2lb

— Jane Manchun Wong...

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Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro with 10-core M1 Pro CPU is now $249 off

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s latest MacBook Pro laptops have been a triumph of performance thanks to the beefy M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, as well as a redesign that saw the welcome return of dedicated ports for HDMI and SD cards. They’re also on the pricey side, starting at $1,999.99 and going way up from there. Now, the faster 14-inch MacBook Pro with 10-core M1 Pro CPU and 1TB of storage has dropped to a new low price of $2,249.99 at Amazon — reflected as an automatic discount when it is added to your cart.

This laptop configuration features Apple’s M1 Pro processor, complete with 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. The M1 Pro in this machine has 10-cores along with a 16-core GPU that makes it more than capable for heavy content work across Apple and Adobe...

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FDA clears first smartphone app for insulin delivery

Photo Illustration by Matt Harbicht/Getty Images for Tandem Diabetes Care

The Food and Drug Administration cleared a smartphone app from Tandem Diabetes Care to program insulin delivery for its t:slim X2 insulin pump, the company announced Wednesday. It’s the first phone app for both iOS and Android to able to deliver insulin, the company said in a statement. Previously, delivery had to be handled through the pump itself.

With this update, pump users will be able to program or cancel bolus doses of insulin, which are taken at mealtimes and are crucial in keeping blood glucose levels under control. “Giving a meal bolus is now the most common reason a person interacts with their pump, and the ability to do so using a smartphone app offers a convenient and discrete solution,” John Sheridan, president and CEO of...

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Tesla’s ‘phantom braking’ problem is now being investigated by the US government

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is investigating 416,000 Tesla vehicles after receiving hundreds of complaints of unexpected braking. The investigation covers all Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles released in 2021 and 2022.

Reports of “phantom braking” first surfaced last fall, when Tesla was forced to “roll back” version 10.3 of its Full Self-Driving beta software, the company’s advanced driver assist system, because of issues with forward collision warnings and phantom braking.

But after the rollback, the number of complaints actually increased substantially, with NHTSA receiving at least 107 from November to January, compared with only 34 in the preceding 22 months, according to The Washington Post.

In...

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This Surface Pro 8 bundle is $240 off at Best Buy

The Surface Pro 8 is back to its lowest price at Best Buy. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 is currently the lowest price we’ve seen in the past several months. Normally, this configuration of Microsoft’s tablet with the Type Cover costs $1,239.98 but is currently $999.98 at Best Buy, an excellent value for both products. When The Verge writer Monica Chin reviewed this laptop for us, she had no shortage of good things to say about it. Between the 120Hz display and the refreshed aesthetic, this is a model we can definitely recommend.

While there are other configurations available at a discount, the model we’ve featured here uses an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB storage capacity.

Dell is currently discounting its 2021 XPS 13 laptop, with some configurations receiving discounts as...

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Elon Musk tells a judge the SEC’s ‘endless’ investigation is stifling his free speech

Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world (depending on the day) says the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tried to “chill” his free speech in an “unrelenting investigation” of him and the automaker he co-founded. The SEC, Musk’s attorneys allege, “has broken its promises” in a 2018 settlement over a tweet Musk posted saying he had funding secured to take Tesla private.

“Worst of all, the SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government,” the letter states, “the SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in...

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Uber and Lyft are taking on healthcare, and drivers are just along for the ride

Experts worry that rideshare drivers aren’t prepared

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Uncharted’s road to gold is plagued by its bros

Sony Pictures

Columbia Pictures’ new _Uncharted_movie from Venomdirector Ruben Fleischer is a testament to the idea that the longer much-buzzed-about adaptations of beloved franchises linger in development hell, the more likely they are to emerge from it — that is if they ever do — as warped misfires that might have been better kept in the drafts. _Uncharted_isn’t the first movie this is true of. But unlike so many other adaptations in this class, which tend to feel hamstrung by a lack of understanding of what people like about the source material, you do get the sense watching _Uncharted_that everyone involved vaguely “gets” what all the fuss is meant to be about. _Uncharted_knows what it’s supposed to be — the problem’s that it is profoundly...

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PSA: early units of OtterBox’s OtterSpot can swell due to battery defect

Affected battery serial numbers begin with 229, 250, and 259.

OtterBox’s OtterSpot stackable wireless charging battery packs were released in August 2019, and now the company shared that early units may swell “under multi-stack and higher temperature conditions.” That’s a significant problem because stacking these batteries to recharge them is core to OtterBox’s pitch for the product. The company currently offers a bundle containing a 36W charging base with one battery, but the base can simultaneously charge up to two stackable batteries, plus a Qi-compatible device on top.

OtterBox spokesperson Julie Campagnoli shared with The Verge that this issue impacts units that were manufactured during the first two months of production, between July through August 2019. No injuries have been reported as of...

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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: the price is no longer right

The cheaper model might be great, but this one isn’t

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AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 H-series processors are launching in laptops starting today

Image: Asus

AMD’s latest generation of mobile processors is here. We already know a lot about them, thanks to AMD’s CES 2022 keynote, like that they’re the first processors to ship with Microsoft’s Pluton security processor, which was built to block new attack vectors that have been used to compromise PCs. More importantly to gamers, some of these new processors (including AMD’s new discrete graphics offerings) seem _very_powerful.

You’ll be able to find Ryzen 6000 H-series processors in laptops from Alienware, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Razer, and more releasing in the coming weeks and months. But right now, all eyes are on Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14, which is among the first to launch with AMD’s latest components. Here’s our verdict on that laptop.

...

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OnePlus Nord CE 2 review: a great Oppo-tunity

A great affordable handset that feels more Oppo than OnePlus

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OnePlus’ Nord CE 2 has 65W fast charging and a 90Hz display for £299

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 in blue and gray. | Image: OnePlus

The OnePlus Nord 2 CE is the latest entry in the company’s more affordable Nord range. It’s a stripped down version of last year’s Nord 2, similar to the original Nord CE. The CE stands for “Core Edition,” similar to Samsung’s FE or “Fan Edition” devices. It costs £299 (€349) and will be available in Europe and India (but not the US). It’ll be available to pre-order from March 3rd, and will go on general sale on March 10th in Europe. Check out our full review right here.

Although this is a relatively affordable smartphone, a number of its specs only started appearing on flagship smartphones relatively recently. It supports up to 65W fast-charging via an included SuperVOOC charger (OnePlus has ditched its own Warp Charge branding in favor...

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Snapchat will start letting you change your username later this month

Image: Snap

Snapchat will let users change their usernames with an update arriving globally later this month, the company announced today. It means you’ll be able to leave behind the name you used originally without having to create an entirely new account. Snapchat says the new feature will be available for both iOS and Android, and will launch on February 23rd.

In order to change your username, head to the profile screen by tapping the Bitmoji icon in the top right corner of the camera. Tap the gear icon, then “Username” and select “Change Username.” Changing a username won’t have any impact on your contacts, Snap code, Snap Score, or memories, according to Snapchat’s press release.

Image: Snap

A walkthrough of the steps to...

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Listen to an AI voice actor try and flirt with you

Sonantic’s demo pairs an AI generated voice with a real human actor. | Image: Sonantic

The quality of AI-generated voices has improved rapidly in recent years, but there are still aspects of human speech that escape synthetic imitation. Sure, AI actors can deliver smooth corporate voiceovers for presentations and adverts, but more complex performances — a convincing rendition of Hamlet, for example — remain out of reach.

Sonantic, an AI voice startup, says it’s made a minor breakthrough in its development of audio deepfakes, creating a synthetic voice that can express subtleties like teasing and flirtation. The company says the key to its advance is the incorporation of non-speech sounds into its audio; training its AI models to recreate those small intakes of breath — tiny scoffs and half-hidden chuckles — that give real...

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Google and Mozilla are ready for Chrome and Firefox version 100 to break some websites

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Chrome, Firefox, and Edge are about to hit version 100, in a triple release that could break some websites. The move to version 100 in the coming weeks could result in bugs or compatibility issues on some websites not ready to read triple-digit user-agent strings. Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft are busy trying preempt any big issues.

Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft have been warning about the upcoming version 100 release for months, which is about to drop in March for both Chrome and Edge, followed by Firefox in May. Mozilla and Google have both been running experiments to test websites and report breakages. There’s a running list of issues, which is fairly small right now, and _Engadget_notes that the notable sites affected include HBO...

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Don’t worry, Amazon says it’s cool with Visa credit cards after striking deal

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Amazon will continue to accept Visa credit cards after reaching a global deal, just weeks after the retail giant threatened to stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK. _Bloomberg_reports that Amazon will also stop charging Visa credit cardholders an extra fee on purchases made in Singapore and Australia.

At the core of the dispute were the payment fees Visa charges Amazon each time a customer makes a purchase with one of its credit cards. In the UK in particular, Visa’s interchange fees on credit cards had risen from 0.3 percent to 1.5 percent after the UK left the European Union and was no longer bound by EU fee limits.

“This agreement includes the acceptance of Visa at all Amazon stores and sites today”

Bloomberg reports that Amazon...

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Windows 11 is getting the Xbox HDR calibration app and better windowed gaming

Microsoft’s big upcoming feature list for Windows 11 includes some important optimizations and improvements behind the scenes for PC games. The software giant is planning to bring its Xbox HDR Game Calibration app to Windows 11, and make older games run with less input lag, Auto HDR, and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) if they’re running windowed instead of fullscreen.

The upcoming Windows HDR Calibration app will allow PC gamers to improve color accuracy and consistency of an HDR display, just like on Xbox. It will include three test patterns to calibrate HDR efficiently, and Windows 11 testers will be able to access the app soon ahead of its general release.

Windows 11 shipped with the Auto HDR feature from the Xbox Series X / S consoles,...

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Samsung teases new Galaxy Book and more at February 27th event

An illustration of a Samsung laptop is shown alongside a series of other device. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is teasing the announcement of a new Galaxy Book laptop at an event on February 27th coinciding with this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC). In a small animation released alongside the invitation, a laptop can be seen unfolding itself, before being joined by a collection of other Samsung products, including a smart watch, smartphone, and a tablet. The event will be streamed on Samsung’s YouTube channel at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on February 27th.

In an accompanying blog post, Samsung Electronics’ head of new computing R&D team Hark-sang Kim gives some hints about the company’s priorities for its “next generation Galaxy Book lineup.” Kim says the aim is to offer a “seamless experience across devices and operating systems” with various...

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Oppo releases official images of new Find X5 flagship phone

Oppo has released official images of its latest flagship phone, which will be part of the Find X5 series. The company posted pictures of black and white versions of the device along with details on its launch event, which will take place at 6am ET on February 24th, just ahead of Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona.

The Find X5 Pro has already leaked extensively, with the Hasselblad partnership and branding revealed in a hands-on photo last month. Oppo made the Hasselblad partnership official earlier this week, following last year’s collaboration between the camera company and Oppo sub-brand OnePlus.

Oppo says the Find X5 Pro has a “cutting-edge camera like no other” and a “futuristic flagship design” made from a...

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This journalist’s Otter.ai scare is a reminder that cloud transcription isn’t completely private

If you upload data to a service, you can’t count on it staying private. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A report recently published by Politico about the automated transcription service Otter.ai serves as a great reminder of how difficult it can be to keep things truly private in the age of cloud-based services. It starts off with a nerve-wracking story — the journalist interviewed Mustafa Aksu, a Uyghur human rights activist who could be a target of surveillance from the Chinese government. But though they took pains to keep their communication confidential, they used Otter to record the call — and a day later, they received a message from Otter asking about the purpose of the conversation with Aksu.

Obviously, it was a concerning email. After receiving mixed messages from an Otter support agent about whether the survey was real or not,...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is one of many e-readers currently available as part of a discounted bundle at Amazon. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your smartphone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons.

Below, we’ve listed each model currently available for purchase. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one, or any, of the...

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