Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington. I hope everyone got to celebrate George Washington’s birthday in their preferred manner: skiing, staycationing, subscribing to The Verge if you haven’t already, etc. Prediction: this is going to be a mess Political […]
On a bright morning last April, a surveillance plane operated by the Colombian military spotted a 40-foot-long shark-like silhouette idling in the ocean just off Tayrona National Park. It was, unmistakably, a “narco sub,” a stealthy fiberglass vessel that sails with its hull almost entirely underwater, used by drug cartels to move cocaine north. The…
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg entered a downtown Los Angeles courthouse in largely the same way as all the attorneys, reporters, and advocates who’d come to watch his landmark trial testimony, but with one notable difference: he was flanked by an entourage that appeared to be wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. To get to the courtroom, […]
A set of bellwether cases alleging that social media platforms harmed teens’ safety and mental health is going to trial this year, putting executives like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the stand to answer questions about what they’ve done or not done to protect kids. Unlike many earlier legal challenges against social media companies, these […]
Waymo defended its use of remote assistants for its robotaxis after the testimony of one of its top executives during a Senate hearing went viral. In a letter to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) on Tuesday, Waymo’s head of global operations Ryan McNamara provided a detailed description of the company’s remote assistance operations, including the number […]
Nevada is suing to block the prediction market platform Kalshi from allowing residents to place bets on the outcomes of events, including elections and sports games, as reported earlier by Business Insider. The lawsuit adds to a growing number of legal battles across the country, claiming that Kalshi is harming the state’s gambling market by […]
Heron Power, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy, is scaling up production of solid-state transformers that more efficiently move power to the grid.
Lori Schott didn’t care what it took to haul her way from her small town in Eastern Colorado to show up to a Los Angeles courtroom where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify Wednesday. “I don’t care if I had to hire a pack mule to get me here, I was going to […]
Tesla is no longer using the term “Autopilot” to describe the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles in California, avoiding a 30-day sales suspension in the state. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced that Tesla has taken corrective action after finding in December that the EV manufacturer’s marketing was violating state law and misleading […]
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert says CBS blocked him from broadcasting an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic representative from Texas. During his opening monologue on Monday night, Colbert says the network’s lawyers told him in “no uncertain terms” that he couldn’t have Talarico on the show, forcing him to post the interview on […]