Reuters - Technology Report

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Monday, April 15, 2019

EU countries back copyright reform targeting Google, Facebook

The European Union's bid to overhaul its two-decade old copyright rules cleared its final hurdle on Monday as EU governments backed the move forcing Google to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook to filter out protected content.

The Netherlands forms task force to assess 5G security risks

The Dutch government on Monday said it had established a special task force to weigh potential security risks as it prepares to build a 5G telecommunications network.

Exclusive: Toyota sells electric vehicle technology to Chinese startup Singulato

Toyota Motor Corp has agreed to sell electric car technology to Singulato, its first deal with a Chinese electric vehicle startup, allowing the fledgling firm to speed up development of a planned mini EV.

Asia's tech champions zero in on main street banking

Asia's internet firms are challenging the region's traditional banks for consumer finances, tapping their massive user networks for business and following a trail blazed in China by tech giants Alibaba and Tencent.

In quest for electric supercars, engineers head to start-ups

Rene-Christopher Wollmann, head of Mercedes-AMG's 2.75 million euros Project One supercar program, has moved to a job at Automobili Pininfarina in a sign that innovation in high end electric sportscars is shifting toward small start-ups.

Volkswagen pushes battery partners to build Gigafactories

Volkswagen is pushing its joint venture partners including SK Innovation (SKI) to build electric car battery plants which have at least one Gigawatt manufacturing capacity, Chief Executive Herbert Diess told Reuters.

Volkswagen expects core brand's global 2019 sales to be in line with last year: senior executive

Volkswagen expects global sales of its core brand this year to be in line with the 6.24 million level that it achieved in 2018 even though China sales dipped in the first-quarter, the company said on Monday.

Worried a recession is coming, U.S. online lenders reduce risk

U.S. online lenders such as LendingClub Corp, Kabbage Inc and Avant LLC are scrutinizing loan quality, securing long-term financing and cutting costs, as executives prepare for what they fear could be the sector's first economic downturn.

Lyft pulls electric bikes in three U.S. cities after complaints about braking

Lyft Inc is removing several thousand electric bikes from service in its bike-share program in New York, Washington and San Francisco because of a braking problem, the ride-hailing company said on Sunday.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp working again after outages

Facebook Inc said it restored services on Sunday after some users could not access its social networking site, photo-sharing network Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp.