Month: April 2023

Enlarge / Tesla factory in Fremont, California on October 19, 2022. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan )

A former Tesla factory worker who rejected a $15 million payout in a racial discrimination lawsuit has been awarded just $3.2 million after a new damages trial. A federal jury verdict reached yesterday gave plaintiff Owen Diaz $3 million in punitive damages and $175,000 in compensatory damages.

After the first trial, in October 2021, a jury in US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Tesla should pay $137 million to Diaz. In April 2022, US District Judge William Orrick reduced the award to $15 million, saying that was the highest amount supported by the evidence and law.

Diaz rejected the judge's $15 million award and sought a new trial on damages only. The judge's final instructions to the 8-person jury said, "It has been conclusively determined that Tesla is liable to Mr. Diaz for: (1) creating a hostile work environment based on race in violation of federal law, (2) failing to prevent racial harassment in violation of federal law, and (3) negligently retaining and supervising one or more of Mr. Diaz's supervisors in violation of California state law."

Enlarge (credit: Google)

Google is backtracking on its decision to put a file creation cap on Google Drive. Around two months ago, the company decided to cap all Google Drive users to 5 million files, even if they were paying for extra storage. The company did this in the worst way possible, rolling out the limit as a complete surprise and with no prior communication. Some users logged in to find they were suddenly millions of files over the new limit and unable to upload new files until they deleted enough to get under the limit. Some of these users were businesses that had the sudden file cap bring down their systems, and because Google never communicated that the change was coming, many people initially thought the limitation was a bug.

Apparently, sunshine really is the best disinfectant. The story made the tech news rounds on Friday, and Ars got Google on the record saying that the file cap was not a bug and was actually "a safeguard to prevent misuse of our system in a way that might impact the stability and safety of the system." After the weekend reaction to "Google Drive's Secret File Cap!" Google announced on Twitter Monday night that it was rolling back the limit:

We recently rolled out a system update to Drive item limits to preserve stability and optimize performance. While this impacted only a small number of people, we are rolling back this change as we explore alternate approaches to ensure a great experience for all.

— Google Drive (@googledrive) April 4, 2023

Google told us it initially rolled the limitation out to stop what it called "misuse" of Drive, and with the tweet saying Google wants to "explore alternate approaches to ensure a great experience for all," it sounds like we might see more kinds of Drive limitations in the future. Google has been on a cost-cutting mission over the past year, and it sounds like the company wants to do something to cut off the most resource-intensive Drive users.

Enlarge / How long until these Joy-Cons experience the dreaded "drift"? (credit: Mark Walton + Sebastian's hands)

Nintendo has agreed to offer free lifetime repairs of Nintendo Switch controllers experiencing the dreaded "Joy-Con drift" to consumers across the European Union.

The move comes in response to years of organized complaints and a pressure campaign from the European Consumer Organization (BEUC). In a 2021 report, that organization logged "nearly 25,000 complaints" from European Switch owners regarding Joy-Con drift, which causes a Switch joystick to register phantom inputs even when it is untouched in the "neutral" position. The BEUC's formal complaint cited the Joy-Con hardware for "premature obsolescence" and said that it's "high time for companies to stop putting products onto the market that break too early."

"Nintendo takes great pride in creating high-quality and durable products and is continuously making improvements to them," the company wrote in a note recently posted on its UK support page (as first noticed by Nintendo Life). "Therefore and until further notice, Nintendo offers to consumers who purchased the respective product in the [European Economic Area], UK, and Switzerland that repairs for responsiveness syndrome relating to control sticks will be conducted at no charge by official Nintendo repair centres."

Enlarge / Miguel Torres flexes after Los Angeles County Department of Public Health nurse Yessica Carrillo gave him a COVID-19 booster during the Los Angeles Comic Con. (credit: Getty | Hans Gutknecht)

The US government will soon authorize another round of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to certain high-risk populations, namely people 65 and older and those with compromised immune systems, according to a Washington Post report that cited anonymous officials familiar with the plan.

The spring booster plan for high-risk individuals in the US would resemble booster offerings already in place in Canada and the United Kingdom, and it would put the country largely in agreement with updated recommendations released last week by the World Health Organization. The agency's advisory group on immunizations determined that, as of now, healthy adults and children do not need additional boosters in the near term, but certain high-risk groups should be offered boosters every six to 12 months.

The US's spring boosters will be offered to high-risk people who have gone at least four months since their last shot and want additional protection, the Post reported. The US last authorized a booster dose in September, meaning that some in the high-risk group may be around seven months past their last dose.

Enlarge / Miguel Torres flexes after Los Angeles County Department of Public Health nurse Yessica Carrillo gave him a COVID-19 booster during the Los Angeles Comic Con. (credit: Getty | Hans Gutknecht)

The US government will soon authorize another round of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to certain high-risk populations, namely people 65 and older and those with compromised immune systems, according to a Washington Post report that cited anonymous officials familiar with the plan.

The spring booster plan for high-risk individuals in the US would resemble booster offerings already in place in Canada and the United Kingdom, and it would put the country largely in agreement with updated recommendations released last week by the World Health Organization. The agency's advisory group on immunizations determined that, as of now, healthy adults and children do not need additional boosters in the near term, but certain high-risk groups should be offered boosters every six to 12 months.

The US's spring boosters will be offered to high-risk people who have gone at least four months since their last shot and want additional protection, the Post reported. The US last authorized a booster dose in September, meaning that some in the high-risk group may be around seven months past their last dose.