Technology

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• Unsupervised Full Self-Driving will launch in Austin, Texas in June
• Musk says more affordable models will see Tesla return to growth
• Sound familiar? Tesla's CEO has promised all of this before

Tesla’s quarterly earnings calls are always entertaining affairs, with the company’s CEO seemingly using them as a platform to wildly promise things that, more often than not, fail to materialize.

The most recent Q4, 2024 results revealed that the company missed its revenue expectations, which caused the Tesla share price to fall 4% following the news – although it did bounce back, according to Forbes.

Part of this can be blamed on the fact that Musk went full bluster mode with the assurance of several major milestones in 2025 – without the detail investors and the general public crave.

First up, Musk says the company will launch Unsupervised Full Sell-Driving as early as June this year, with the project due to be rolled out in Austin, Texas. However, rather than offer the service to the vast number of customers that have already paid to unlock the software, Musk says it will instead be a "paid service".

Details are, quite predictably, scarce, but the fact that it is being touted as a separate entity to customer-facing Full Self-Driving software likely means it will be appear in the form of a geofenced autonomous ride-hailing service. You know, similar to what Waymo is successfully doing. Waymo, a company that now operates in four major US cities.

In another move to bolster investor confidence, Musk also revealed that Tesla is intent on producing more "affordable" vehicles, which are tipped to be based on (and look eerily similar to) the Model 3 and Model Y, but cost in the region of $30,000 to $40,000 (roughly £28,000 / AU$55,000). Not the $25,000 car that was rumored last year.

Production of this more affordable model is slated to begin in the first half of 2025, according to Electrek, despite the company not revealing any details about design, specification or what the customer can expect.

Much of Elon Musk’s predicted growth for the business hinges on increasing levels of autonomous driving making its way to public roads, with the CEO reiterating that he thinks we will see unsupervised self-driving in California and Texas in the second quarter of 2025.

But this has been promised many times (as early as 2016) and the sentiment completely ignores the fact that the legal framework for allowing such technology on public roads still doesn’t exist.

Analysis: The bluster is getting boring

(Image credit: Tesla)

Elon Musk is a divisive character, and it’s easy to either get caught up in his wild clairvoyance or become frustrated by the amount of fantasy that is promised and rarely delivered.

It's part of the reason why the company has garnered such a loyal, and a times aggressive, fanbase. No other automaker splits opinion like Tesla.

It’s a shame, because this division takes so much away from what the company has achieved – chiefly creating one of the most reliable charging networks on the planet and producing not only the best-selling EVs but the best-selling car in the world (that’s the Model Y).

The focus on unsupervised self-driving seems counterintuitive, as rival companies, such as Waymo, are leagues ahead in the the geofenced, autonomous ride-hailing game, clocking up hundreds of thousands of miles without disengagement (where a human has to intervene) or incident.

Personally, I’d like to see Tesla get back to doing what it does best – chiefly producing EVs and technology that people want to buy, rather than this endless stream of memes, hype and wildly optimistic promises.

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• Amazon is hiking prices for its Music Unlimited plans.
• The Music Unlimited individual plan without Prime is now the same price as Spotify.
• There's a bigger case to be made for another streaming service.

If you currently get your music fix courtesy of Amazon Music Unlimited, we have some bad news: whether you’re a Prime member or not, it’s about to get more expensive to listen to your favorite songs, albums, and playlists this way.

Amazon has announced a price hike for all tiers of its Amazon Music Unlimited streaming service and published an FAQ detailing the changes.

For Prime Members, an individual plan jumps to $10.99 a month from $9.99, and an annual subscription is now $109 from $99. Without Prime – though I’m not sure how many subscribers this might be – a Music Unlimited individual plan is going from $10.99 to $11.99.

If you’re subscribed as a family, that Music Unlimited Plan is getting the biggest increase at $19.99 monthly from $16.99 and $199.99 from $169.99 for a yearly plan.

For individuals, though, the increase now puts Music Unlimited without Prime at the same price as Spotify, $11.99 for an individual plan. Even with a Prime membership, Amazon Music Unlimited isn't as much of a bargain as it once was.

(Image credit: Amazon Music)

The new prices are in effect right now, as of January 29, 2025, for new customers, and folks already subscribed to Music Unlimited with or without the Prime member discount will see the new prices on or after March 5, 2025. It depends on when your billing cycle date falls.

Given the price hikes, opting for Amazon over Spotify or another streaming service becomes a bit harder to answer. I personally use both Apple Music and Spotify, and many of my colleagues favor one of these, especially for the Wrapped experience on the latter.

Sure, Amazon Music Unlimited offers the essentials, including ad-free streaming, playlists, and some curation. Further, it even offers HD audio and lossless, something that we’re still waiting for Spotify to match .. speaking of which, have we heard about Spotify Hi-Fi yet in 2025?

And what Amazon Music Unlimited lacks, let's say, in curation, Apple Music and Spotify more than make up for, not to mention with larger purported user bases, there’s a better chance some of your friends might be using one or two of them. Apple Music still offers radio stations and various playlists curated by artists, and Spotify has pushed with its AI DJ and ever-popular 'Daylist' offering.

Like Netflix’s reasoning for its price hikes earlier this month, Amazon is also touting more features in the future. In the FAQ, Amazon writes, “In order to bring you even more content and new features, we’re updating the price of select Amazon Music Unlimited plans.”

One benefit of Music Unlimited is that it easily integrates with Amazon Echo smart speakers and displays, but you can also switch to your preferred platform just as easily.

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• A new highjacking attack targets Chrome browsers
• It could steal all your browser data and even from your OS
• There are several ways for users to fight back

Whether you believe it to be the best web browser, Google Chrome is undoubtedly the most popular search engine by a landslide. For that reason, it remains a popular target for hackers as well. And now, a massive new threat is on the horizon, which could threaten billions of users.

A new attack called ‘Browser Syncjacking’ has been discovered by security researchers at the cybersecurity firm SquareX (reported on by BleepingComputer). Though it requires several steps, it’s shockingly easy for the average Chrome user to fall victim, as it needs minimal permissions.

First, a malicious Google Workspace domain is created with multiple user profiles, and security features like multi-factor authentication are disabled. This is used to create managed profiles in the background of the victim’s devices. Then, hackers will then create a malicious Chrome extension to launch on the official Chrome Store, appearing as a useful tool to attract potential victims.

Once any potential victims install the extension, it hides a browser window that runs in the background to log the victim into one of the Workspace profiles previously made. The final step involves tricking the victim into activating Chrome sync by opening a very real Chrome support page that’s been tampered with, then guiding them through turning on sync. If this happens, that person’s full Chrome account and stored data — including browsing history and passwords — are now available on the hacker’s profile.

From here, as SquareX explains, a victim’s entire browser can be taken over, often through a seemingly innocent Zoom invite that, if accepted, gets malicious content from that Chrome extension injected into it. If the victim falls for a prompt that asks to update Zoom, the update (actually an executable file that contains an enrollment token) will allow the hacker to control the browser completely.

Not only does this give hackers free reign over any data stored in your browser and allow them to spy on any websites you browse (and see any sensitive information you input), but it also allows them to access your OS to “install malware, capture keystrokes, extract sensitive data and even activate a device’s webcam and microphone,” as Tom’s Guide details.

How do you stay safe?

This all sounds overwhelming and even impossible to avoid since the attacks require so little input from users to get the ball rolling. But there are ways to keep your browser safe from harm.

The first is to avoid installing new Google Chrome extensions while limiting the ones you already have. If you really need to install anything new, make sure to research it and its developers for signs of suspicious activity.

It’s also essential to have the best antivirus software, which will automatically scan your PC or Mac regularly and immediately alert you to suspicious activity. It’s best to store passwords in the best password managers instead of in the browser, protecting them from hackers’ prying eyes.

There are always new attacks on the horizon, but it’s vital to stay vigilant in your online activity and be careful of extensions and software you download. This will always serve to protect your browser and computer.

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• Nvidia's H800 was launched in March 2023 and is a cut-down version of the H100
• It is also significantly slower than Nvidia's H200 and AMD's Instinct range
• These artificial constraints have forced DeepSeek's engineering to innovate

It was widely assumed that the United States would remain unchallenged as the global AI superpower, particularly after President Donald Trump’s recent announcement of Project Stargate - a $500 billion initiative to bolster AI infrastructure across the US. However, this week saw a seismic shift with the arrival of China’s DeepSeek. Developed at a fraction of the cost of its American rivals, DeepSeek came out swinging seemingly out of nowhere and made such an impact that it wiped $1 trillion from the market value of US tech stock, with Nvidia the major casualty.

Obviously, anything developed in China is going to be highly secretive, but a tech paper published a few days before the chat model stunned AI watchers does give us some insight into the technology that drives the Chinese equivalent of ChatGPT.

In 2022, the US blocked the importation of advanced Nvidia GPUs to China to tighten control over critical AI technology, and has since imposed further restrictions, but evidently that hasn’t stopped DeepSeek. According to the paper, the company trained its V3 model on a cluster of 2,048 Nvidia H800 GPUs - crippled versions of the H100.

Training on the cheap

The H800 launched in March 2023, to comply with US export restrictions to China, and features 80GB of HBM3 memory with 2TB/s bandwidth.

It lags behind the newer H200, which offers 141GB of HBM3e memory and 4.8TB/s bandwidth, and AMD’s Instinct MI325X which outpaces both with 256GB of HBM3e memory and 6TB/s bandwidth.

Each node in the cluster DeepSeek trained on houses 8 GPUs connected by NVLink and NVSwitch for intra-node communication, while InfiniBand interconnects handle communication between nodes. The H800 has lower NVLink bandwidth compared to the H100, and this, naturally, affects multi-GPU communication performance.

DeekSeek-V3 required a total of 2.79 million GPU-hours for pretraining and fine-tuning on 14.8 trillion tokens, using a combination of pipeline and data parallelism, memory optimizations, and innovative quantization techniques.

The Next Platform, which has done a deep dive into how DeepSeek works, says “At the cost of $2 per GPU hour – we have no idea if that is actually the prevailing price in China – then it cost a mere $5.58 million to train V3.”

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• The 7X SUV is among the first EVs to receive Zeekr’s latest battery tech
• Fast-charging can add over 300 miles of range in minutes
• Journalists have been experiencing the rapid top-ups first hand

Zeekr revealed details of its next-generation ‘Golden Battery’ technology late in 2023, when it promised 500km (around 310 miles) of range in a mere 15 minutes.

Well, that battery technology has now been fitted to its latest EV model – the 7X SUV – and the performance of its packs has surpassed expectations, managing to charge from 10-80% in nine minutes 45 seconds.

Kyle Connor, host of the YouTube channel Out Of Spec Reviews, recently got hands-on with the 7X SUV, where he drained the 75kWh lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) battery down to zero before topping it up from one of Zeekr’s in-house public charging outlets.

The outlet was rated at a heady 840kW, which far eclipses the 350-400kW stations the rest of the world is only just starting to roll out.

A video from Connor shows the 7X SUV pulling 200kW at the very early stages of the charging session, quickly ramping up 400kW as the battery reaches a 10% state-of-charge (SoC). The outlet then goes on to hit a peak of 460kW, before leveling off to 400kW for the remainder of the session.

Overall, a completely full charge, which takes the battery from 0-100% (something most EV owners never do) was indicated to take just 19 minutes.

Most EV owners understand that optimum charging happens at around the 20-80% range, where batteries can accept the fastest flow of electrons and, in this case, the 10-80% charge was complete in around nine minutes and 45 seconds. That’s not too far off refueling an equivalent gas car.

(Image credit: Zeekr)

More importantly for customers, the Zeekr 7X SUV was managing to add around 21 miles of range for every minute of charging, which is fantastic news for those who simply need to add some extra miles to get to their destination. Theoretically, just four minutes of charging would add almost 85 miles.

This is made possible by several things, the first being Zeekr’s impressive fast-charging network, which it says is primed to roll out to other key markets, such as Australia, Thailand and other Asia/Pacific regions, according to Motor 1.

The second is the LFP battery technology itself that, unlike most rivals, supports a 5.5 C-rate. It's complex, but that essentially means it can charge or discharge at 5.5 times its total capacity per hour without exploding.

Inside EVs says it performed its own tests on a Tesla Model S, which briefly charged at a peak of 2.5 C, for comparison.

To compound matters, most of Tesla's current line-up (including the refreshed Model Y) is limited to 250kW charging speeds, despite the Tesla Supercharger network now being able to deliver up to to 325kW.

Analysis: Trade tariffs could deny the rest of the world this tech

(Image credit: Zeekr)

Both the Biden administration and President Trump have come down hard on Chinese EVs, imposing steep trade tariffs and even the prospect of an outright ban.

The UK and much of Europe has also imposed similar measures in order to level the playing field for its flagging domestic automakers.

But the fact is, China is simply lightyears ahead when it comes to battery and charging innovation. This most recent demonstration of Zeekr's charging prowess halves the time it takes to charge a Porsche Taycan, for example, which was already an impressive figure.

Of course, part of the puzzle is developing a robust charging infrastructure that can cope with this level of output, but companies like Zeekr, as well as several other Geely-owned brands, have already said they will invest in infrastructure to ensure customers get the best experience.

Zeekr, for example, already has over 800 ultra-fast charging stations installed in China, with plans to continually expand that number over the coming months.

With Tesla continuing to disappoint with a lack of clear future product development, while legacy automakers remain indecisive about an EV future, us consumers are craving rival products that can compete (and excel) where technology is concerned.

But with China being denied a seat at the table, it looks like the rest of the world will be forced to wait.

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• Netflix has released a trailer for Running Point
• Kate Hudson stars as the president of a US basketball team
• The sports comedy has faced criticism for reportedly copying Ted Lasso

It's hard to imagine how any sports comedy could emulate the success of Ted Lasso. Well, Netflix looks to be hoping to do just that by swapping soccer for basketball in the new trailer for sports comedy series Running Point.

Netflix has taken a leaf out of Ted Lasso's book and created a new female boss in the sports industry. Running Point stars Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, who is unexpectedly appointed the head of the Los Angeles Waves, one of the most famous professional basketball franchises in the US.

In the new trailer (see below), ambitious and fiery Isla fights to prove she's the right person for the job, despite facing backlash from her male colleagues. From just watching the trailer, Running Point shares a similar humor and feel-good vibe to the hugely popular series Ted Lasso. Hey, I can't complain, it looks like a perfect watch while I wait for a rumored fourth season of the best Apple TV Plus show.

Running Point vs Ted Lasso

In Running Point, when Isla's brother is forced to resign as president of the Los Angeles Waves, she's chosen to take over his role. Constantly overlooked by others, Isla must navigate the male-dominated world of sports and prove to her dubious brothers, the board, and the sports community that she's up for the job.

It's no illusion that the Mindy Kaling-created series has similarities to Ted Lasso, as Running Point has already been accused of copying its concept. According to The News in August 2024, it was reported that Ted Lasso creator and leading star Jason Sudeikis was "unimpressed with the similarities" between Running Point and his critically acclaimed show, which is about an American football coach that's brought in to manage a British soccer team.

An insider close to the actor reportedly told the publication: “When Ted Lasso took off, it was such an offbeat, optimistic and wacky show that Jason legitimately believed it would be impossible to imitate. For a while there, he was right.

"Little did Jason know that pretty much the second Lasso ended production, there would be copycats popping up like weeds on the various streaming services. The copycat that particularly bugs him is Netflix’s sports comedy Running Point, which has completed shooting and which will roll out next year.”

We'll have to wait and see if Running Point will become one of the best Netflix shows when it debuts on the best streaming service on February 27.

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