In California, Gig Workers Are About to Become Employees

https://www.wired.com/story/california-gig-workers-become-employees

A bill passed by California senators Tuesday could put guardrails on the gig economy, and its reliance on “independent contractors.” The legislation, Assembly Bill 5, may reshape the way some of the state’s marquee companies—including Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash—as well as many janitorial services, truckers, and musicians, do business.

The bill passed the state Senate on 29-11, and now moves to the Assembly and then to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Newsom came out in favor of the controversial bill on Labor Day, but said Tuesday that he’s still hoping to reach a deal that might satisfy both the companies and labor advocates.

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Labor experts expect the bill to prompt similar efforts in other states and cities where public sentiment has shifted against tech companies like Uber and towards labor efforts like unionization drives. “All eyes are on California,” says Rebecca Smith, who directs the Work Structures program at the National Employment Law Project.

AB 5 codifies a 2018 California Supreme Court decision that established a three-part test to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee, eligible for a minimum wage, unemployment and workers’ compensation, health care benefits, and other traditional protections. According to the test, a worker is only considered an independent contractor if she is not under the control or direction of a company while working and if she performs work that is “outside the usual course” of the company’s business. The bill does not address workers’ rights to collectively bargain.

Workers for app-based companies often set their own schedules, a flexibility some have asked to preserve despite this new legislation. But the companies also tend to control their workers by setting fares and commissions, monitoring performance through customer rating, and pushing them to work in specific areas based on in-app incentives. Also, the workers tasks—driving, delivering meals—are core to the companies’ business models. That means drivers for Uber and Lyft would most likely be classified as employees under the new law. Industry experts estimate that the new bill would cost Uber and Lyft, both of which are losing money, $3,625 per California driver, about $800 million a year combined.

Shifting gig economy contractors to gig economy employees would also likely force companies to rethink how they do business. Today, Uber and Lyft try to keep as many drivers logged onto their apps as they can, to decrease the wait time for passengers. But the new bill would likely cause them to actively manage the number of drivers logged on and therefore, on the clock, especially at less-busy times when fewer drivers are needed.

An amendment added late in the legislative process will also allow large cities like San Francisco to sue companies that don’t comply with the new law. The bill would go into effect on January 1, 2020.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate passed an amendment exempting for one year California newspaper carriers. Publishers like the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle have said that paying those workers as employees would devastate their businesses. The exemption still needs to pass the Assembly. Some workers in other sectors, including real estate and commercial fishing, are also exempt from the bill.

California’s labor classification debate seems far from over. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Newsom said he’s still working to strike a compromise between tech companies and labor groups, both of which have supported the governor. “As it relates to Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, others, some of the gig platforms, these remain ongoing negotiations, and regardless of what happens with AB 5, I am committed, at least, to continuing those negotiations,” he said.

via Wired Top Stories https://ift.tt/2uc60ci

September 11, 2019 at 01:39PM

Lamborghini built a supercapacitor into its Sián hybrid for a faster, smoother ride

https://www.popsci.com/lamborghini-sian-supercapacitor-hybrid/

The Lamborghini Sián is already sold out—there are only 63 in the world.

The Lamborghini Sián is already sold out—there are only 63 in the world. (Lamborghini/)

Lamborghini previewed the future of its hyper-performance cars with the announcement of the Sián, a hybrid-electric V12 that is the marque’s fastest and most powerful model yet. At 819 horsepower, the Sián (Bolognese slang for a flash of lightning) rockets to 62 mph in just 2.8 seconds. Its top speed exceeds 217 mph.

To achieve this performance, Lamborghini is employing a 48-volt, 34-horsepower hybrid electric motor built into the car’s transmission to supplement the 6.5-liter V12’s 785 horsepower. To maximize the effect of the electric motor, it is powered by a supercapacitor rather than the usual lithium-ion battery pack. These cells don’t hold a charge as long as a typical battery, but they charge in quickly and in short bursts. It’s similar to the tech Samsung uses to quickly charge the battery in the S-Pen stylus that comes with its Galaxy Note 10 smartphone.

The result is a very lightweight 75-lb. system that can very quickly absorb energy during braking and unleash it during acceleration. The electric motor also works in low-speed situations, such as parking, to make mundane chores a little easier in what would otherwise be a high-strung thoroughbred.

It also provides torque to smooth acceleration during gearshifts. Lamborghini’s old-tech automated shifting manual transmission can seem jerky when driven on the street, especially if the driver is expecting the experience of an automatic transmission. We’ve found that in track mode, those jerky shifts smooth out, but most of the time these cars will be driving on the road, where wide-open throttle track mode shift probably aren’t appropriate, so the smoother experience of the hybrid-electric-fortified transmission will surely be welcome.

The interior is exactly as posh as you'd expect.

The interior is exactly as posh as you’d expect. (Lamborghini/)

And if the system means that I’ll be able to creep out of my neighborhood on electric power when testing Lamborghinis rather than annoying my neighbors with the bark of a lightly muffled V12 in the morning, that will surely be appreciated too.

There won’t be any Sián test cars, however, because this is a limited-production run of just 63 cars, all of which have already been sold. Lamborghini chose that number because it the year Automobili Lamborghini was founded. The original tractor company pre-dated the car company.

Lamborghini has openly spoken of its intent to apply hybrid-electric assistance to its iconic naturally aspirated V12 engines rather than turbocharge them in pursuit of improved performance.

Turbocharging provides such performance benefits, along with some efficiency gains in a carefully managed window of operation, so most car makers expect to apply forced induction universally to their gasoline engines in the same way that turbodiesels long ago pushed naturally aspirated diesels to extinction.

The supercapacitor charges quickly to provide short bursts of power.

The supercapacitor charges quickly to provide short bursts of power. (Lamborghini/)

But turbocharging fundamentally changes the character of an engine. The “on steroids” headline cliche is apt; turbocharged engines are stronger than naturally aspirated ones, with muscle from low revs, while regular engines need to spin up to make power.

The turbines in the exhaust stream that recover otherwise lost energy also change the engine’s voice. In family cars, looking to boost power and efficiency, the change is irrelevant. When that voice is that of a shrieking Lamborghini V12 clawing its way to redline, the loss is comparable to defacing the Mona Lisa.

Which is why Lamborghini has eschewed turbos for the Sián, and says it plans to do so for other upcoming models.

Each of the 63 Sián Lamborghini builds will be distinctly unique, designed to the customer’s preferences in consultation with Lamborghini’s Centro Stile through the Ad Personam customization program.

via Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now https://www.popsci.com

September 11, 2019 at 01:00PM

PC-to-mobile game streaming arrives on the Galaxy Note 10

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/11/samsung-playgalaxy-game-streaming-available-for-galaxy-note-10/

Samsung’s PlayGalaxy PC-to-mobile game streaming app is ready to roll, provided you have the right hardware. The tech giant has released PlayGalaxy Link in the US and South Korea for Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ owners who want to play computer-quality games on their handsets. You’ll need a reasonably brawny PC with a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, reasonably fast dedicated graphics (either a GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 550) and a gigabit router connection. If everything aligns, you can play most any game on your PC, though you may need to add it to the selection first.

Support for more mobile devices (including tablets) and countries should be forthcoming. However, the greatest challenge may simply be playing the games. You can use on-screen controls, but you’re much better off using a controller (including Samsung’s Glap) or a full mouse-and-keyboard combo. This is more for gamers who want to occasionally play on the couch than a full-time solution for your Call of Duty cravings.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: PlayGalaxy Link

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

September 11, 2019 at 11:15AM

The Silent Arrow is a massive glider delivery drone

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/10/silent-arrow-glider-delivery-drone/

When most of us imagine the delivery drones of the future, we think of small, copter-based machines that look like the DJI Mavic. It turns out, however, that large glider drones are also part of the equation, particularly as far as militaries are concerned. We got a glimpse at one of those future drones at the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) show in London where the Silent Arrow GD-2000 was shown off.

Yates Electrospace Corporation (YEC), the company behind the Silent Arrow, envisions the drone as a potential replacement for the Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) delivery method several armed forces, including the US military, use to deliver battlefield supplies. Even if you’re not familiar with the acronym, you’ve probably see JPADS in action in movies and newsreels. The system uses a combination of GPS and steerable parachutes to guide supplies that are dropped from an airplane to their intended destination. Compared to JPADS, YEC claims the main advantage of the Silent Arrow is that it can deliver up 1,631 pounds of supplies, the drone’s maximum load, at less than half the cost. Since it’s a glider, it’s also easier to steer to its target destination. When the situation calls for it, it can also be stealthy in a way that parachutes can’t.

While far removed from the consumer-facing delivery drones Amazon has been testing as a part of its Prime Air project, the Silent Arrow is a step forward for the field. With production slated to start this October, it’ll be among the first delivery drones to take to the skies.

Via: sUAS News

Source: Yates Electrospace Corporation

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

September 10, 2019 at 10:45PM

University of Michigan’s self-driving car lab now runs on Verizon 5G

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/11/verizon-5g-university-of-michigan-self-driving-car-lab/

Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) is continuing its very gradual 5G rollout, but this time it’s more about the future of transportation than the phone in your hands. The carrier’s 5G network is now live at the University of Michigan’s Mcity test facility to provide a boost to connected self-driving cars. In theory, the combination of abundant bandwidth with low lag will help autonomous vehicles share crucial data with each other, city cameras and traffic lights to make more informed decisions. A car could receive word of a crash ahead in time to maneuver out of harm’s way, or use traffic lights to warn pedestrians before they cross the street.

It’s not surprising that Verizon would roll out in Mcity. The telecom is part of a "leadership circle" of companies with a stake in the project, including GM and LG.

It may be a long, long time before 5G is truly ready for the road. The millimeter wave tech Verizon and others use might offer tremendous speed, but it’s short-ranged and prone to interference. Cities will need to be blanketed in cell sites to ensure reliable connections, and it’s not yet clear how well 5G will behave when there are legions of driverless cars roaming the streets. This is more about exploring technology than a vision of what you can expect.

Source: Verizon

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

September 11, 2019 at 08:45AM

The fall of coal, and its pollution-linked deaths, is boosting the economy

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1564933

Image of a pig farm.
Enlarge /

Livestock production has become one of the United States’ largest sources of particulate pollution.

Many economic activities create what are called “externalities”: costs that aren’t accounted for in their products but are paid for by society at large. Pollution is a major source of externalities, as it can lower the value of property, force people to spend money on medical costs, and even lead to early deaths.

Air pollution is estimated to have caused more than 100,000 early deaths in 2016. Most of these have come due to what are called fine particulates, which are small particles that can be readily inhaled and cause issues like stroke, heart disease, and lung ailments. So a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University decided to do an economic analysis of the issue for the United States. The researchers compared the costs of premature deaths from particulate pollution to the value added by the economic activity that produced the pollution to find out which polluting industries might provide a net benefit to the economy.

Their analysis showed that the electricity sector had recently caused more in particulate mortality costs than its direct contributions to the economy. But that has now changed thanks to the drop in coal use, which has left farming as the only major activity that generates more costs than its direct benefits.

Some dismal science

Obviously, it’s not possible to ascribe every single death in the US as being either caused by particulate pollution or not. But various organizations have made models that can take a given amount of pollution and project how many premature deaths it will cause, based on epidemiological studies of smaller populations. And the EPA has good estimates of a variety of sources of particulate pollution, ascribing annual numbers to a variety of industries and even specific activities within industries.

The research team—Peter Tschofena, Inês Azevedo, and Nicholas Muller—has obtained pollution data from the EPA, census data, mortality rates from the CDC, and financial data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, all broken down at the county level. The researchers fed that data into a model that calculated two things: the contribution of individual industries to the GDP, and the economic damages caused by that industry through the deaths it caused by production of particulate pollution.

We should note that this is a severe underestimation of the true costs of pollution. Particulates themselves cause lots of economic damages due to increased medical costs and the loss of productivity that’s associated with health issues. And many forms of economic activity produce non-particulate pollution, like the mercury emitted through coal burning or the groundwater contamination that can be caused by industrial activity. Still, by focusing on a single source of economic costs, the three researchers lower the overall uncertainty in their analysis.

The data they used runs from 2008 to 2014 and, so, allows them to track trends across this time period. The biggest and most obvious is that particulate pollution has dropped dramatically. In 2008, they estimate that particulates subtracted just over a trillion dollars in economic damages from the economy. By the end of their study period in 2015, that figure had dropped to $790 billion. As a fraction of the total economic activity, that represents a drop from about 6% of the GDP in 2008 to about 4% in 2014.

Death of coal brings life

What has caused this huge drop? Put simply, coal. Particulate production is dominated by four sectors of the economy: agriculture, power generation, manufacturing, and transportation. Everything else accounts for only a quarter of the known sources. Agriculture and manufacturing were relatively stable over this period, while transportation saw a significant drop, primarily through cleaning up diesel emissions from trucks, rail, and boat transport.

But the biggest change was clearly in the power sector, where economic damages dropped from about $300 billion to $150 billion in that period. That’s almost entirely attributable to lower levels of sulfur dioxide particulates, which can be attributed to the shuttering of coal plants.

This has had a dramatic effect on the overall contribution of electrical generation to the economy. In 2008, the authors estimate that the economic damages from deaths due to particulates were actually higher than the value added to the economy by electrical generation. (While, as noted above, this doesn’t include costs due to other forms of pollution and non-fatal costs, it also doesn’t include the economic activity that having a supply of electricity enables.) By 2014, the situation was radically different, with electrical production adding substantially more value than it costs through particulate mortality.

Transportation also saw a considerable drop, with the economic costs per dollar of value added to the economy falling by 70% over this period. This has the effect of making agriculture the only major sector of the economy that causes enough of this form of economic damage to more than offset the value it adds to the economy. It’s now also the single largest source of fine particulate emissions in the US economy.

Agricultural emissions are complicated, as they include particulates from livestock and fertilizers, ammonia emissions, particulates released by the equipment used, and more. But the particulate emissions of crop production have actually gone down substantially, but this drop has largely been offset by a rise in particulates emitted by livestock. Despite this, emissions have dropped slightly, and the agricultural sector has continued to expand. Combined, these have allowed the costs to approach the break-even point with the value it adds to the economy.

Some uncertainties

The authors suggest that this sort of analysis will become more challenging going forward. With most major sources of particulate pollution cleaning up their act, the large and poorly constrained “all others” sector of the economy will become a more significant player. This will include sources like residential housing, office complexes, small businesses, and more. Since each of these sources is, on its own, difficult to measure, most of the information we have about them comes from aggregate estimates and have much larger uncertainties than something like a power plant, where pollution is regularly monitored.

As these costs are definitely a low estimate of the total externalized cost of these industries, it’s also not clear how best to approach the overall issue: that many US industries probably contribute more in costs than they contribute to the economy.

“We certainly do not advocate for closing industries in such cases,” the authors caution. “Rather, this is an indication, within the context of macroeconomic aggregate statistics, that damages are likely inefficiently high.” How to identify and correct those inefficiencies, however, was left as an exercise for the reader.

PNAS, 2019. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1905030116  (About DOIs).

Correction: the summary of the results at the end of the intro has been modified to more accurately represent the study’s conclusions.

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

September 10, 2019 at 03:41PM