Apple’s Absorbing of Drive.ai Confirmed, Big Investors Demand Climate Action; New Tech to Double Phone Battery Life; US Tech Companies Find Ways to Sell to Huawei

Recently, we had reported that Apple was picking up self-driving car startup Drive.ai. This was disputed by some sources as the firm closed up shop. Now, Apple has confirmed to Axios that it did, in fact, buy and close the company. Apple absorbed dozens of engineers. This is a pretty serious indication that the Apple Car project, Project Titan, is still alive and well. It’s still unclear whether Apple will ultimately build a self-driving car or sell self-driving tech to vehicle makers.

Investors that manage over $34 TRILLION in assets, which amounts to almost half the world’s invested capital, are demanding ‘urgent action’ from governments on climate change. Reuters.com reports that an open letter has been released to the ‘governments of the world’ representing 477 investors. It stressed ‘the urgency of decisive action’ on climate change in order to meet the Paris Agreement target. The investors underscored the importance of dealing with climate change so that they can make long term planning and asset allocation decisions. In a report tracking the implementation of the climate agreement, researchers have found that only 5 of the 32 nations are currently in line with the 2 degrees Celsius limit. A UN backed panel of scientists has said limiting global warming to 1.5C would cost at least $830 billion per year, but the cost of inaction would vastly exceed that amount.

By 2020, more phones will have blazingly fast 5G service. This is great, but expect it to drain the battery on your phone all the quicker. Apple is already going to bigger batteries for 2019 in anticipation of this. According to cnet.com, 5G will be a bit of a power hog. Now, Nokia Bell Labs and Advanced materials and BioEngineering Research have developed a new battery tech that could double the life of your phone’s battery without making it heavier. They have filed a patent to protect the design, and are expecting to begin commercialization soon. In plain language….that means the tech won’t be out in time for any 2019 or 2020 smartphones, but within several years. The batteries use carbon nanotubes, and a network of those enables stronger electrodes in the battery that conducts more electricity with lower resistance.

FedEx has sued the government, complaining that they are a transportation agency, not law enforcement, and that the government has placed an ‘unfair’ and ‘impossible’ burden on them with regards to not shipping phones or parts related to Huawei. President Trump had slapped export controls on Huawei related commerce. The government, of course, disputes the difficulty of complying. Meanwhile, the New York Times says that other firms…notably Intel and Micron, are still selling chips and parts too Huawei. Some are calling it a loophole, but goods produced by American companies overseas are not always considered American-made…and the chip makers are taking advantage of this. Huawei claims it buys around $11 billion a year in tech from US companies. Both Intel and Micron compete with South Korean companies like Samsung to supply memory chips for Huawei smartphones, and are loathe to give up that large market.