Google Being Forced to Change Search in Europe; Qualcomm Up on Data Center Deal with Amazon; EV Batteries Last Longer Than Thought; Tesla Cybercab-Hidden ‘Virtual’ Joystick for Manual Control

The European Union continues to flex its muscle, and squeeze tech companies into toeing the line as they act to protect European consumers. Now, android authority.com reports that after whacking Google with a billion dollar fine for allegedly violating the Digital Markets Act, Google is changing how search works in the European region. Google reps say the change could deteriorate the quality of results for people in the EU. The changes appear to apply particularly when users search for services such as flights or hotels (also known as vertical search services or VSS), where Google will now be required to show results from its top competitors before serving its own Flights, Hotels, or other services.With these changes, users in the EU will now see different carousels for top VSS results. As per Reuters, “the revamped search results will ​highlight one specialized search engine at the top of the page, followed by two others with fewer details while a ‌carousel ⁠of hotels, airlines and restaurants for example will sit below them with key features such as real-time prices stripped out. The rankings will be determined by Google’s algorithm.” Users outside the EU won’t be affected by the changes. 

Qualcom has cut a data center infrastructure partnership with Amazon Web Services, and got a nice 4% bump in their stock price. According to cnbc.com, Qualcomm will work with Amazon “across multiple generations of customized silicon” to help build out AWS’ AI infrastructure, specifically focused on inference. The chipmaker said the new CPU was built for agentic AI and focuses on offering computing performance without using too much power. Qualcomm said at the time that it’s targeting $15 billion in data center sales in fiscal 2029, and pointed to a roadmap for going after the market with several different products, including an AI chip and a product that will tie multiple chips together. Qualcomm’s warrant to Amazon runs until September 2036.

Besides range anxiety, one of the biggest fears people have about electric vehicles is what happens when the battery pack goes out. The expense to replace it can be as much as an entire nice used car. Well now, arstechnica.com says that EV batteries are lasting considerably longer than feared by drivers. Most EVs retain about 90$% of original useable battery capacity after 93,000 miles. This is according to a study published by Aviloo, an Austrian group that analyzes battery health. They ran some 500,000 tests on various EV models made between 2022 and 2026. The model that had the most useable capacity after the 93,000 mile mark was the EQA, the Mercedes-Benz EV…which had 94% left. Ioniq 5 from Hyundai was 2nd with 93.8%, the BMW i4 was third with 93.6%, the Hyundai Kona followed with 93% even, and the Volvo XC40 was 5th with 92.8%. The Nissan Leaf was last, but still had 86.7% of useable battery left. The net is…breathe, EV buyers and lookers. You may not be facing a giant expense at 100,000 miles after all. 

Elon Musk finally rolled out the Tesla Cybercab last week. One ding on it from states, the feds (which are now investigating), and insurers…no steering wheel or pedals for emergency manual operation by the human occupant or occupants. Now, eletrek.co is reporting that a rider discovered something of a manual driving mode. The touchscreen can show a virtual joystick to drive the car by hand. The fellow who found the car with that screen up noted that he probably wasn’t supposed to see it, but he posted a video about it on X. There is still nothing that would help an occupant hit the brakes…the joystick seems to be mainly for fine maneuvering in close quarters like a garage or parking lot. Will the kludgy virtual joystick make a difference to regulators? I doubt it, but we will see as time goes on.

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