Month: November 2017

Enlarge / The I.D. Crozz and I.D. Buzz EVs are coming soon. (credit: Volkswagen Group)

Volkswagen Group is getting ready to significantly expand its electric vehicle portfolio in China over the next few years. The company plans to launch 15 “new energy vehicles”—plug-in hybrid EVs and battery EVs—by 2020, according to a report in Reuters. Jochem Heizmann, CEO of VW Group’s operations in China, also told Reuters that the company plans to invest $11.8 billion (€10 billion) in order to comply with ever-stricter Chinese EV regulations.

China is one of a number of countries that has publicly floated a ban on petrol and diesel engines in the coming years, although unlike France and the UK, it has not set a date for that to happen. But Chinese drivers are going to get a lot more EVs long before any ban on new internal combustion engines. The country’s new energy vehicle rules go into effect in 2019, requiring automakers to sell ever-increasing numbers of EVs; those that don’t comply either have to buy credits from other OEMs or pay the Chinese government fines.

Earlier this year, VW Group revealed its electrification roadmap, which promises 30 new PHEVs and 50 new BEVs by 2030, so this news from China is not entirely unexpected. These new cars will have to be built in China to deliver the sales volume that VW is hoping for—Heizmann told Reuters the company wants to sell 400,000 EVs a year in China by 2020 and 1.5 million each year by 2025. Vehicles that are not built in China—as joint ventures with domestic partner companies—are subject to a 25 percent import duty which makes them uncompetitive on price. (This tariff will apply to EVs from Tesla's proposed Chinese factory, which will not be a joint venture and which will be located in a free trade zone.)

Enlarge / Protestors object to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to eliminate net neutrality rules before Pai's appearance at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC on May 5, 2017. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla)

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote on whether to overturn its own net neutrality rules next month.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will unveil his final proposal next week, setting up a vote at the commission's regularly scheduled monthly meeting on December 14, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters. The FCC hasn't publicly confirmed the December vote, but Bloomberg and Reuters say the timeline was confirmed by people familiar with Pai's plans.

Pai was on the short end of a 3-2 vote to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers and impose the net neutrality rules in 2015, when Democrat Tom Wheeler was chair. With the FCC now controlled by Republicans, Pai is leading the charge to get rid of the rules.

Enlarge / Artist's conception of DICE developers rushing in to answer Reddit questions amid microtransaction furor.

Amid a still-roiling controversy over perceived "pay-to-win" microtransaction design in Star Wars: Battlefront II—which now includes an EA spokesperson post that became the most-downvoted comment in Reddit history—game developer DICE offered three high-ranking designers to participate in an Ask Me Anything Reddit community interview yesterday. The overarching message in most of their responses was summed up by a quote from multiplayer producer Paul Keslin: "We will be looking at data continually and make adjustments to make things as balanced as possible."

Executive Producer John Wasilczyk, for instance, said the developers are "constantly looking at the rate that players are unlocking Crates and Star Cards and will continue adjusting values to make sure that players are able to progress towards their goals without it feeling like a grind." And Design Director Dennis Brannvall added that "if it looks as though the crafting parts aren't being given out quickly enough, we'll look into changes to fix that."

"We'll continue to adapt as fast as possible to things we know aren't working well," Keslin said.

Enlarge / The Falcon 9 rocket and Zuma have gone vertical on Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. (credit: SpaceX)

Since earning certification from the Air Force to launch national security payloads—typically spy satellites and military communications satellites—SpaceX has flown two military missions. It launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office in May and an Air Force space plane in September.

On Thursday, SpaceX will attempt to launch its third and most secretive payload for the military. The mission was not even made public until a launch license was released a month ago, and the company didn't acknowledge the launch until this last week. The payload was developed by Northrup Grumman, and has the mysterious name "Zuma," which sounds similar to a carbonated, alcoholic beverage briefly popular in the 1990s, Zima. There are few clues in the launch's mission patch.

Enlarge / Doctor giving homeopathy to a child. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

It’s hard to predict which would be more disconcerting: Finding out that your doctor believes in notions that defy basic science—like, the pseudoscientific doctrine of homeopathy—or that they’ll prescribe you something they know doesn’t work in hopes you’ll be tricked into believing you’re better—achieving nothing more than placebo effect.

It might be a toss-up of which is worse. And if you get a homeopathic prescription in Switzerland, it’s also a toss-up of which kind of doctor you’re dealing with.

In a large survey of physicians around Zurich, only 50 percent of the doctors who prescribed homeopathic treatments did so firmly believing that they were treating their patients’ ailments. About 21 percent of doctors who prescribed homeopathic treatments did so explicitly to achieve placebo effect. And the rest provided incomplete responses or reported ambiguous intentions behind their dubious prescriptions.