The Canadian government has announced enforceable quotas for zero-emission vehicle sales. By 2026, a fifth of all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the country will need to be zero-emission models, such as electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. 

"We're moving forward with a regulated sales target that requires at least 20 percent of new vehicles sold by 2026 to be zero emission, increasing that to 60 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035," Julie Dabrusin, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, said at a press conference.

It's estimated that, between 2026 and 2050, the quotas will lead to Canadians saving almost $34 billion CAD in energy costs. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will be equivalent to Ontario's entire emissions for three years. Currently, passenger vehicle emissions account for around 10 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions.

While Canada already had zero-emission vehicle sales targets, those aren't yet enforceable nationwide, though some provinces, including Quebec and British Columbia, have their own mandates. The final regulations should be published in 2023. According to the Canadian Press, importers and manufacturers that don't meet the quotas may be penalized under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The country will use credits to track vehicle sales.

There's still some way to go until Canada can meet the proposed sales targets. In the first six months of 2022, EVs (including plug-in hybrid models) made up 7.2 percent of new car registrations. That was up from 5.2 percent for all of 2021. In British Columbia, almost 15 percent of new vehicles registered between January and June were EVs. In Quebec and Ontario, the proportions were 11.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. In all other provinces, EVs accounted for less than four percent of new vehicle sales.

Infrastructure improvements should help to increase EV adoption, as should incentives. Dabrusin noted that, by 2027, 85,000 federally funded public chargers will be installed across the country. She added that Canada has long offered rebates on new zero-emission vehicle purchases of up to $5,000 for individuals and up to $10,000 for businesses. More than 180,000 Canadians and businesses in the country have benefitted from those incentives, which have been renewed. The government also plans to invest in EV manufacturing.

Several automakers have pledged to switch entirely to making EVs and/or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, with GM setting a deadline of 2035 and Honda aiming to fully make the transition by 2040. Some jurisdictions — such as California, New York and the UK — will ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

“The regulated sales targets for zero emission vehicles announced today will reduce emissions by helping more drivers get behind the wheel of an electric car," Anna Kanduth, a senior research associate at the Canadian Climate Institute, said. "Right now, more than half of Canadians want their next car to be an electric vehicle but they face long wait times, with scarce supply going to provinces like British Columbia and Quebec, where sales mandates are already in place. The federal regulations will help shorten wait times for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids by increasing supply in all provinces and territories."

Tesla is reportedly planning more layoffs and another hiring freeze. According to an Electrek source, the company has halted hiring for the time being and teams will need to lay some people off in the first quarter of 2023.

The extent of the layoffs and hiring freeze are not yet clear. However, Tesla is trying to increase headcount at its manufacturing plants. Reports have suggested the company will announce plans to build another Gigafactory in Mexico in the coming days. Tesla does not have a communications department that can be reached for comment.

The automaker's CEO Elon Musk said in June that Tesla would see a 3.5 percent net reduction in headcount over the subsequent few months. A round of layoffs around that time reportedly focused on salaried employees, including hundreds of workers from the Autopilot team.

Even though Tesla delivered a record number of its electric vehicles last quarter, the company's stock price has nosedived by around 65 percent this year and 22 percent this month alone. Musk has blamed the tanking stock on Federal Reserve rate hikes.

Like other businesses, Tesla has been dealing with an economic slowdown over the last several months. However, it has had to contend with the added wrinkle of Musk's protracted takeover of Twitter, then his chaotic day-to-day management of that company (which included mass layoffs). 

Some Tesla investors have been concerned by Musk getting preoccupied by Twitter and pulling his attention further away from the automaker, leading them to sell off their stock. He said on Tuesday evening he'll step down as Twitter CEO once he can find someone to replace him.

There are suggestions that demand for Tesla vehicles has slowed, with some people canceling preorders and leases amid Musk's calamitous Twitter reign. As Electrek notes, Tesla has even taken the rare step of offering discounts on its EVs in some markets.

Many other tech and automotive companies have carried out layoffs and/or frozen or slowed hiring this year due to a broader market downturn and fears of a recession. Among them are Rivian, Stellantis, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Snap, Roku and Peloton.

Soccer megastar Lionel Messi finally secured the one prize that had eluded him during his illustrious career this weekend when Argentina won the World Cup. Afterward, the best player of the 21st century (yeah, I said it) added another record to his resume, as he now has the most-liked post on Instagram.

Messi posted a slideshow of him and his teammates celebrating after winning the World Cup. At the time of writing, the post has more than 65.8 million likes. The previous record-holder, a stock photo of an egg, claimed the top spot in early 2019 and currently has north of 57.3 million likes.

It's not super surprising that Messi broke the Instagram record. As The Verge points out, the majority of the most-liked posts on the platform are from footballers, with the Paris Saint-Germain forward holding eight of the top 20 spots. 

Messi is also the second most-followed person on the platform with 404 million followers. Instagram's own official account has the most followers overall. In second place, one spot ahead of Messi, is his old rival Cristiano Ronaldo with 520 million followers. Bet he'd rather have a World Cup, though.

Apple has expanded its self-repair program once again. As noted by Six Colors and The Verge, folks in the US can now try to fix issues with the M1 iMac, M1 Mac mini, Mac Studio and Apple Studio Display themselves with genuine parts, repair manuals and tools.

The self-repair program is designed for those who have the time, patience, skills and confidence to carry out fixes at home, rather than taking their busted device to an Apple Store or third-party repair shop, or shipping it to Apple. You can buy all the parts and rent the tools you need, but at checkout you'll need to enter a code from the relevant manual to show that you've actually read the document.

Apple debuted the Self Service Repair program in April by offering manuals and parts for select iPhone models in the US. Since then, it has expanded the program to Mac laptops and more territories. 

Apple introduced the program ahead of right-to-repair rules likely coming into force in the US and Europe. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order focused on bolstering competition in the US economy, partly in the tech sector. Among other things, it urged the Federal Trade Commission to ban "anticompetitive restrictions on using independent repair shops or doing DIY repairs of your own devices and equipment." 

The agency has taken a stronger stance on such issues. In July, it announced settlements with three companies (including Weber and Harley-Davidson), which it accused of threatening to unlawfully void warranties if consumers used third-party repair parts or independent repair shops.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have developed a way to monitor breathing based on tiny changes in WiFi signals. They say their BreatheSmart deep-learning algorithm could help detect if someone in the household is having breathing issues.

WiFi signals are almost ubiquitous. They bounce off of and pass through surfaces as they try to link devices with routers. But any movement will alter the signal's path, including how the body moves as we breathe, which can change if we have any issues. For instance, your chest will move differently if you're coughing.

Other researchers have explored the use of WiFi signals to detect people and movements, but their approaches required dedicated sensing devices and their studies provided limited data. A few years ago, a company called Origin Wireless developed an algorithm that works with a WiFi mesh network. Similarly, NIST says BreatheSmart works with routers and devices that are already available on the market. It only requires a single router and connected device.

The scientists changed the firmware on a router so that it would check "channel state information,” or CSI, more frequently. CSI refers to the signals that are sent from a device, such as a phone or laptop, to the router. CSI signals are consistent and the router understands what they should look like, but deviations in the environment, such as the signal being affected by surfaces or movement, modify the signals. The researchers got the router to request these CSI signals up to 10 times per second to gain a better sense of how the signal was being modified.

The team simulated several breathing conditions with a manikin and monitored changes in CSI signals with an off-the-shelf router and receiving device. To make sense of the data they collected, NIST research associate Susanna Mosleh developed the algorithm. In a paper, the researchers noted that BreatheSmart correctly identified the simulated breathing conditions 99.54 percent of the time.

Mosleh and Jason Coder, who heads up NIST’s research in shared spectrum metrology, hope developers will be able to use their research to create software that can remotely monitor a person's breathing with existing hardware. “All the ways we’re gathering the data is done on software on the access point (in this case, the router), which could be done by an app on a phone,” Coder said. “This work tries to lay out how somebody can develop and test their own algorithm. This is a framework to help them get relevant information.”

The United States Postal Service said it expects to buy more than 66,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2028 in a significant change from previous plans. In February, the USPS said it would purchase 5,000 fully electric versions of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, with gas-powered trucks accounting for the remaining 45,000 of the initial order. After pushback from the Biden administration and resistance to that from the USPS, the agency has graduallyincreased the proportion of EVs in the order.

Now, the postal service aims to buy at least 60,000 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles by 2028, at least 75 percent of which will be electric models. Starting in 2026, the USPS expects that all NGDV acquisitions will be electric versions. The NGDVs are expected to start operating on delivery routes late next year. In addition, the agency plans to buy another 21,000 off-the-shelf EVs through 2028.

Overall, the USPS plans to buy 106,000 delivery vehicles by the end of 2028 to start replacing its aging, inefficient and not-as-safe fleet of more than 220,000 vehicles. That means the agency still expects to buy around 40,000 gas-powered models over the next six years. The USPS said in a statement that the feasibility of fully electrifying the fleet "will continue to be explored." However, it believes there will be more EV availability in the future, which will certainly help.

The agency expects to spend $9.6 billion on these vehicle purchases and related infrastructure, $3 billion of which is from Inflation Reduction Act funding. "The $3 billion provided by Congress has significantly reduced the risk associated with accelerating the implementation of a nationwide infrastructure necessary to electrify our delivery fleet," Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said. "While most of the electric vehicle funding will continue to come from Postal Service revenues, we are grateful for the confidence that Congress and the Administration have placed in us to build and acquire what has the potential to become the largest electric vehicle fleet in the nation."

Amazon has agreed to change some business practices in the European Union as part of legally binding commitments with the bloc's executive branch. The European Commission said the deal will put antitrust investigations over how Amazon treats third-party sellers to bed for the time being. Amazon will need to abide by the commitments for between five and seven years or it could face hefty fines.

"Today’s decision sets new rules for how Amazon operates its business in Europe. Amazon can no longer abuse its dual role [as both marketplace and seller] and will have to change several business practices," Margrethe Vestager, the Commission's executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said in a statement. "They cover the use of data, the selection of sellers in the Buy Box and the conditions of access to the Amazon Prime Program. Competing independent retailers and carriers as well as consumers will benefit from these changes opening up new opportunities and choice."

The deal includes several preliminary commitments Amazon made in July. Among other things, it will rank all sellers equally in the Buy Box, which displays an item from a specific seller so customers can quickly purchase it. Amazon said it will display a second Buy Box if another seller offers the product with a significantly different price and/or delivery time.

Third-party sellers in the EU will be able to offer their products through Prime without having to use Amazon's delivery or logistics services. Additionally, Amazon will not use any non-public data relating to third-party sellers to benefit its own business, including logistics or creating copycat versions of popular products.

The final deal includes some additional commitments, such as making it easier for third-party sellers to directly contact their Amazon customers so they can provide similar delivery services to those offered by Amazon. The company will also need to create a way for sellers and carriers to file complaints if they suspect it isn't complying with the commitments.

Amazon said it disagreed with some of the Commission’s preliminary conclusions. However, it told the Associated Press that, “We are pleased that we have addressed the European Commission’s concerns and resolved these matters.”

The settlement applies for five years in most cases. The Prime and second Buy Box commitments will last for seven years. The deal is legally enforceable in the European Economic Area save for Italy. That country's competition authority has imposed its own penalties on Amazon.

If EU regulators determine that Amazon isn't sticking to the terms of the deal, the Commission can fine the company up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue without having to find an infringement of antitrust rules. Based on Amazon's 2021 revenue, that fine could be as much as $47 billion. Alternatively, the EC could fine Amazon five percent of its daily turnover for every day that it doesn't comply with the terms of the deal.

EU regulators brought formal antitrust charges against Amazon in November 2020, accusing the company of abusing its dual position. The Commission opened an investigation over the use of non-public data the previous year. In a separate investigation, the EC found that Amazon "abused its dominance on the French, German and Spanish markets for the provision of online marketplace services to third-party sellers." Amazon is still facing scrutiny on these issues in the US and the UK.

Fortnite maker Epic Games will pay $520 million to settle allegations that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and "tricked millions of players into making unintentional purchases," using deceptive design strategies called dark patterns, the Federal Trade Commission said. The agency notes that there are two separate settlements, each of which broke FTC records.

Epic will pay $275 million for allegedly violating the COPPA rule as part of a proposed federal court order. The agency says that's the largest penalty it has obtained to date over a rule violation. Epic will also refund customers $245 million over its billing practices and use of dark patterns. The FTC claims that's the largest refund in a gaming-related case and its biggest administrative order to date. It will decide whether to finalize the consent order after a 30-day public comment period.

"As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children," FTC chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement. "Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.”

Epic Games

Fortnite has been a colossal success for Epic. The game generated $9 billion in profit between 2018 and 2019, and $5.1 billion in gross revenue in 2020.

The FTC claimed that Epic violated the COPPA rule by collecting personal data from Fortnite players aged under 13 without notifying or seeking consent from their parents. In its complaint, the FTC said parents who wanted Epic to delete personal information on their kids had to "jump through extraordinary hoops" and even then the company sometimes didn't honor those requests.

The agency also accused Epic of engaging in "unfair practices" and harming children and teens by enabling voice and text chat by default. "Children and teens have been bullied, threatened, harassed and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatizing issues such as suicide while on Fortnite," the FTC claimed.

As part of the COPPA settlement, the FTC says there's a first-of-its-kind provision that forces Epic to have more stringent default privacy settings for kids and teens, including making sure that voice and text chat are off by default. The company also needs to delete personal data it has collected on Fortnite players unless a player says they're 13 or over or it gets parental consent to retain the information.

Earlier this month, Epic rolled out "cabined accounts" for young Fortnite, Fall Guys and Rocket League players. It said at the time these accounts provided a safe way for kids to play its games. Without parental consent, users with cabined accounts are locked out of features like using voice chat or buying items from in-game stores with real money.

Epic Games

The second complaint accused Epic of using "dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases and [letting] children rack up unauthorized charges without any parental involvement." The FTC claimed that players could be charged when resuming Fortnite from sleep mode, when it was on a loading screen or by accidentally clicking a button next to an item preview option. The agency said these design decisions led consumers to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges."

The FTC said children were able to buy V-Bucks, Fortnite's in-game currency, without parental consent until 2018. "Some parents complained that their children had racked up hundreds of dollars in charges before they realized Epic had charged their credit card without their consent," the agency noted. The FTC has targeted the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple for similar reasons in the past.

On top of that, Epic allegedly locked the accounts of users who disputed unauthorized payments with their credit card companies. The FTC said Epic ignored more than a million user complaints and employee concerns over wrongful charges.

Along with the $245 million Epic will pay to cover refunds, the proposed consent order seeks to block it from using dark patterns to charge users or otherwise charge them without obtaining explicit consent. Epic will also agree not to enact blanket bans for accounts that perform chargebacks, only disabling those it suspects of actual fraud. The FTC will send emails to those who made Fortnite in-game purchases when it has more details to share about the refund program.

Epic said in a lengthy statement that, among other things, it has "restored thousands of accounts that were banned due to reported chargebacks under our previous policy." Payment information will no longer be saved by default, with users offered the chance to opt out. This will add more friction to the checkout process and perhaps help to avoid unintended purchases. "We accepted this agreement because we want Epic to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players," the company said.

This isn't the end of Epic Games' legal troubles when it comes to Fortnite, which the FTC notes has more than 400 million players. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that a Quebec class action suit claiming the game is addictive (leading one child to reportedly spend more than $6,000 CAD on skins) could move forward.

Instagram has been placing a bigger focus on Reels this year and that extends to how users will create their 2022 Recap. You’ll be able to select up to 14 of your favorite photos. Instagram will automatically stitch these together into a Reel with narration templates from the likes of Bad Bunny (one of the biggest stars on the planet), Priah Ferguson and DJ Khaled.

Last year, Instagram’s recap feature was called Playback. It selected up to 10 of a user’s Stories from the past year and folks were able to swap Stories in and out as they saw fit. The feature meant that users didn’t necessarily have to resort to third-party apps to share memories of the previous 12 months.

Reels have been a major growth area for Meta over the past yea. The company now says that, across Instagram and Facebook, Reels are played more than 140 billion times every day. Meta has been bolstering its answer to TikTok across both apps in recent months by adding things like tools that make it easier to create Reels, an in-app Reels scheduler and ways to post to Reels from third-party apps.

OnePlus has revealed when it will formally show off its flagship products for 2023. The Cloud 11 event will take place in New Delhi, India, on February 7th. The company will showcase the OnePlus 11 5G, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and more.

Along with revealing the event date, OnePlus said it would bring a couple of fan-favorite features back for its next flagship smartphone. The OnePlus 11 will once again feature the company's Alert Slider, which offers an easy way to shift between silent, vibrate and alert modes. You can expect Hasselblad tuning for the camera system as well. Both features were available on the OnePlus Pro 10, but neither were present on the more budget-friendly 10T.

As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, the company said they'll offer "a full-bodied, stereo-quality audio experience with crystal clarity." OnePlus said it will have more to reveal beyond the smartphone and earbuds.

OnePlus, which recently promised four years of major OS updates for some of its 2023 phones, will be looking to make a splash with its next batch of flagship devices. Although the company's original ethos was to build competitive smartphones it could sell at a lower price than market leaders, it has edged further into the premium category since then. The OnePlus 10 Pro, for instance, cost $899.

The brand has scheduled the event during a relatively busy time of the year. While CES will be over and done with a few weeks beforehand, OnePlus will debut the flagship products right around the time Samsung is expected to show off the Galaxy S23 lineup. Despite major recent changes for the brand, OnePlus may once again get lost in the shuffle.