Wireless Carriers to Appeal Big FCC Fines; Tesla Investigated for Securities and Wire Fraud; Amazon Rolls Out Fleet of EV Big Rigs; US Revokes Intel & Qualcomm Licenses to Sell Huawei Chips

We just reported a few days ago on big fines totaling almost $200 million for the Wireless carriers…AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and suggested that they wouldn’t just pay up. Now, in statements released, the big 3 wireless carriers have expressed their intent to appeal the FCC fines. Mashable.com reports that the fines were over the companies’ selling customer location data to aggregators, who then resold the info to third-party location-based service providers. In a statement, AT&T said “The FCC order lacks both legal and factual merit. It unfairly holds us responsible for another company’s violation of our contractual requirements to obtain consent, ignores the immediate steps we took to address that company’s failures, and perversely punishes us for supporting life-saving location services like emergency medical alerts and roadside assistance that the FCC itself previously encouraged.” Verizon issued a similar statement. Expect the carriers to not only appeal, but to continue to appeal to higher courts to draw things out for years…so they avoid paying the big fines, or perhaps get out of them entirely. 

Having to give up a lot of data to the NHTSA is one thing, but now it turns out that Tesla is being investigated by the Department of Justice for securities and wire fraud concerning its self-driving claims. Wire fraud is never good…the government is pretty accomplished at proving cases centered around that. According to theverge.com, an investigation over self-driving claims has been ongoing since late 2021. Federal prosecutors are now starting to zero in on specific charges though…securities and wire fraud. For years, Elon Musk has been promising fully autonomous Tesla vehicles are just around the corner — while also admitting that he often sets overly optimistic timelines. Meanwhile, the company’s advanced driver-assist features, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, do not make the vehicles autonomous and require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road. The DOJ is also looking at Tesla’s over-optimistic range claims…although as any gas car owner can tell you, it’s a pretty rare moment when your gas car makes the claimed EPA mileage, too. 

Amazon is hitting the road with 50 heavy duty electric semi-trucks in Southern California. Geekwire.com says it is the largest such fleet to handle first and middle mile operations, as Amazon moves further towards decarbonizing operations. You have probably already seen Amazon electric delivery vans…I have seen a number of them the last few months, but the new big rig EVs will move goods move from where they are manufactured, through customs, across oceans, into ports, and then into Amazon’s fulfillment network….so-called first mile. Middle-mile trucks move Amazon orders between fulfillment centers, sort centers, air facilities, and delivery stations, where packages are finally loaded into last-mile vans to be delivered to customers. Amazon has deployed 35 electric heavy-duty vehicles for such transportation in Southern California and installed more than 45 direct current fast chargers across 11 sites to power the trucks.

The US government has pulled licenses that let Intel and Qualcomm buy and sell chips to Huawei of China. This is the latest in trade restrictions placed on the Chinese company, which has been under other restrictions since 2019. Engadget.com notes that The decision will impact chips Huawei uses for computers and mobile phones and is effective immediately. You may recall that a few years ago, both the US and UK blocked use of Huawei cell tower equipment when it was discovered that they had back doors that allowed them to scoop up information for the Chinese government. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.