Author: David Kravets

Tesla is suing a Swiss parts vendor that the electric-vehicle maker said produced a defective hydraulic system for the Model X's signature, vertically opening winged doors. Hoerbiger's prototype never was used in Tesla's latest electric car, and Tesla had to retool "the entire vehicle in order to support a different engineering solution," Tesla claims.

According to Tesla's lawsuit (PDF), filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court:

On numerous occasions, Tesla notified Hoerbiger of the multitude of defects with its product. While Hoerbiger insisted it could fix the problems, Hoerbiger failed to do so.

Instead, Hoerbiger provided a product that never came close to being ready for production. For example, the system was prone to overheating, which caused it to shut down—making the doors inoperable—when Tesla stress-tested a prototype vehicle. The doors also did not open with the speed or symmetry that Tesla required, including when a prototype vehicle was parked at an incline or when the system was exposed to extreme temperatures. Hoerbiger's doors also “sagged” beyond Tesla's specified tolerance levels.

Furthermore, the product persistently leaked oil, both internally and externally, which, as Hoerbiger acknowledged, was entirely unacceptable, negatively impacting performance as well as leaving unsightly markings and stains inside the vehicle. In sum, Hoerbiger's prototype never came close to fulfilling the promises made by Hoerbiger. Ultimately, the deficiencies in Hoerbiger's product made it an unworkable engineering solution for the Falcon Wing doors of the Model X.

The hydraulics maker declined Ars' request for comment. But the suit, which seeks millions in damages, notes that the parties are disputing whether "Tesla was contractually obligated to purchase production parts from Hoerbiger and whether Hoerbiger is entitled to recover for Tesla's decision not to purchase such parts." Tesla said Hoerbiger's demands are "unreasonable."

Children as young as seven years old are working for up to $2 daily mining in dangerous conditions to gather cobalt used in lithium batteries for 16 multinational corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, and others, according to Amnesty International.

If true, a report by the human rights group about mining conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo counters claims by gadget producers that child labor is not involved in their production stream. The report said at least 80 miners have died in the past year in the DRC, which produces about half the world's cobalt. Unicef estimates that there are as many as 40,000 child miners in the region. Amnesty International interviewed dozens of workers, who usually wear no protective clothing while toiling long hours.

A 14-year-old orphan named Paul said he works so long underground that "I had to relieve myself down in the tunnels," according to the report. "I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning," the boy told Amnesty International.

Federal authorities, who have been baffled by more than a dozen attacks on San Francisco Bay Area data lines, are probing whether there is any connection between that vandalism and the Super Bowl. The NFL's big game will be played February 7 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, just south of San Francisco.

An Internal memo between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and others says the agencies have no "credible threats to or associated with Super Bowl 50 or related events." But the memo, obtained by NBC's News 4 in Washington, DC, says the spate of fiber optic cable severings across the San Francisco Bay Area raises "the concern individuals may be using these incidents to test and prod network durability in conjunction with a more complex plot."

The FBI declined to respond to Ars' inquiry. A former FBI agent familiar with the memo, however, stressed that the authorities have not found any credible threats and that the agencies were considering every possible nefarious scenario they could think of before the big game.

The Democrats had their final presidential debate Sunday before the Iowa caucus in two weeks. There was the usual venom and posturing among the three candidates vying to win their party's nomination to run for president. And then there was a candidate who said there should be no encryption backdoors—or did he? Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley couched his response during the Charleston, South Carolina debate that was livestreamed on YouTube.

Here's the dialogue after a YouTube "creator" asked about encryption.

Hi, my name's Marques Brownlee, and I've been making YouTube videos about electronics and gadgets for the past seven years.

I think America's future success is tied to getting all kinds of tech right. Tech companies are responsible for the encryption technology to protect personal data, but the government wants a backdoor into that information.

So do you think it's possible to find common ground? And where do you stand on privacy versus security?

"I believe whether it's a backdoor or a front door that the American principle of law should still hold that our federal government should have to get a warrant, whether they want to come through the backdoor or your front door," O'Malley replied.

As body cams continue to flourish in police departments across the nation, an ongoing debate has ensued about how much, if any, of that footage should be made public under state open-access laws.

An overlooked twist to that debate, however, has now become front and center: How much should the public have to pay for the footage if the police agree to release it? News network NY1, a Time Warner Cable News operation, was billed $36,000 by the NYPD for roughly 190 hours of footage it requested under the state's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Now the network is suing (PDF) the police department in New York state court, complaining that the price tag is too steep. The network said the bill runs "counter to both the public policy of openness underlying FOIL, as well as the purported transparency supposedly fostered by the BWC (body worn camera) program itself."

The Supreme Court will decide whether Microsoft must face a class-action lawsuit that claims a defect in the media giant's popular Xbox 360 console was prone to scratching game discs, rendering them unplayable.

The lawsuit alleges that vibrations or small movements of the console might cause the optical drive to scratch discs. The suit accuses Microsoft of knowing about the alleged issue before the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. According to the original lawsuit, brought in 2012, there were as many as 55,000 complaints about the scratching issue by as early as 2008.

A jury convicted a 25-year-old Tennessee man Friday for conspiring to smuggle—via a drone—illegal drugs, prescription drugs, pornography and tobacco into a Maryland maximum-security prison.

Thaddeus Shortz, 25, of Knoxville, was arrested in August outside the Western Correctional Institution in Maryland, where he was released in April. The authorities said they found a drone, and six packages of illicit contraband in his truck—worth about $35,000 in prison. An officer testified that the defendant, who faces decades in prison when sentenced later this month, admitted to using a drone to smuggle contraband into the prison about a half-dozen times before. A Maryland State police officer testified that the defendant got $4,000 a pop for each of his successful drops, and was "almost boastful about it."

A 12-member jury deliberated a little more than two hours before convicting Shortz after a two-day trial. The defendant did not put on a defense.

A US woman whose husband was slain in Jordan while serving as a private contractor is suing Twitter, alleging that the micro-blogging company is a "tool for spreading extremist propaganda" that led to her husband's death at the hands of a terrorist last year.

The federal suit (PDF) was filed Wednesday against San Francisco-based Twitter. It claims the service is in breach of the Anti-Terrorism Act, that Twitter "purposefully, knowingly or with willful blindness" provided "material support to the preparation and carrying out of acts of international terrorism, including the attack in which Lloyd Fields Jr. was killed."

The suit claims that for years, "Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits. This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS." The suit continues: "ISIS members use Twitter to post instructional guidelines and promotional videos, referred to as 'mujatweets.'”

North Carolina's so-called ag-gag law is in the legal crosshairs. Activists with groups backing government accountability, food safety, and animal rights lodged a federal lawsuit Wednesday in a bid to block enforcement of the measure that became law January 1.

The lawsuit follows challenges to similar anti-speech laws in Idaho and Wyoming. 

A Las Vegas police officer is being indicted on accusations that he roughed up a woman he arrested on suspicion of prostitution and other crimes.

The charges against Richard Scavone—based on footage taken from his body camera—allege (PDF) that the 49-year-old officer grabbed the woman around the neck with his hand and "threw her to the ground" after she was handcuffed. He is also accused of punching the woman in the forehead with an open palm. He "slammed her face onto the hood of his patrol vehicle" by grabbing the unidentified woman's hair on January 6, 2015, according to the indictment. Scavone is accused of obstruction and civil rights violations. The woman suffered bruises and cuts to her face.

The authorities said he lied about the incident in his police report by saying she was combative. The charges say that he "knowingly falsified a document with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence an investigation." The defendant's attorney, Josh Tomsheck, said the former officer was innocent. His client's first appearance is set for January 20 in a Las Vegas federal courtroom.