Technology

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is flanking its push into electric cars with plans to roll out battery-powered commercial vehicles targeted at urban areas as growing public concerns about air quality boost demand. The Volkswagen Truck & Bus division will invest 1.4 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in new technology including electric drivetrains, autonomous systems and cloud-based software, Andreas Renschler, head of the …

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. unveiled a cheaper virtual-reality headset that works without being tethered to a computer, rounding out its plan for pushing the emerging technology to the masses. The new $199 wireless headset, called Oculus Go—meant to be the company’s most accessible VR device—will be available in early 2018. Facebook also trimmed the price of its high-end Oculus Rift headset …

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. introduced a waterproof Kindle e-reader long-awaited by enthusiasts, the latest in a string of consumer devices from the online retail giant this year. The device, an updated version of the Kindle Oasis, has a faster 4G wireless connection, six-week battery life, and a brighter 7-inch screen, slightly larger than the previous model. Waterproofing has long been an …

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kicked off India’s race to turn all new passenger car sales electric by 2030. The largest order has gone to a company that hasn’t commercially started producing the vehicles. Tata Motors Ltd. hasn’t sold a single electric car yet, though Chief Executive Officer Guenter Butschek says its late-mover status is an advantage at a …

Bloomberg Judging from General Motors Co.’s test cars and Elon Musk’s predictions, the world is headed towards a future that’s both driverless and all-electric. In reality, autonomy and battery power could end up being at odds. That’s because self-driving technology is a huge power drain. Some of today’s prototypes for fully autonomous systems consume two to four kilowatts of electricity—the …

Bloomberg Google introduced new versions of its Pixel smartphones that lack key hardware features of the latest devices from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. But the internet giant is trying to make up for that with tighter software and services integration. The upgraded phones were presented at a press conference in San Francisco. The Pixel 2 has a 5-inch …

Bloomberg Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. chairman and founder Morris Chang will retire in June next year, handing the helm of the world’s largest producer of made-to-order microchips to the company’s two co-chief executives. Breaking with tradition, Chang used his retirement announcement to issue a 2017 revenue forecast that surpassed analysts’ estimates. TSMC’s sales growth should be close to 10 percent …

Bloomberg Tesla Inc. pushed back the reveal of its semi truck by three weeks as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk focusses on boosting production of the cheaper sedan that the electric-car maker is counting on to dramatically increase sales. Resources are being diverted to address the bottlenecks holding back the Model 3, Musk said. He’s also delaying the semi unveiling …

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s platform was a crucial messaging tool for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to the campaign’s digital director—who told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he hand-picked pro-Trump “embeds” from the company to help him use the platform in targeted ways. “Twitter is how [Trump] talked to the people, Facebook was going to be how he won,” Brad Parscale …

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc., girding for competition from Apple Inc. and Google in the race to equip homes with smart devices, unveiled a slew of consumer gadgets including an Alexa-powered digital-home hub, a smaller and cheaper Echo speaker and a new mini Echo with a screen, called Spot. Though hardware products aren’t key to Amazon’s bottom line, they serve as important …