Waymo’s John Krafcik Lifts the Veil Slightly on Alphabet’s Driverless Strategy

Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving vehicle subsidiary revealed a bit of its business strategy in an address Sunday by CEO John Krafcik, who said the company intends to develop its own sensors and software rather than rely on other suppliers, as most suppliers and automakers are doing. Krafcik, a former Ford and Hyundai executive, said at the press preview of the North American International Auto Show that Waymo had succeeded in lowering by 90% the cost of a $75,000 LIDAR sensor, which uses lasers to sense objects.

Boxing clever

Toys from China, copper from Chile, T-shirts from Bangladesh, wine from New Zealand, coffee from Ethiopia, and tomatoes from Spain. In the early 1960s, world trade in merchandise was less than 20% of world economic output, or gross domestic product .

Samsung Executives to Be Questioned by Korean Prosecutors

Samsung executives have been summoned by South Korean special prosecutors amid a widening influence-peddling scandal that brought about South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. Samsung Corporate Strategy Office Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki were asked to come in for questioning, Hong Jung-seok, a spokesperson for the special prosecutors office, told Bloomberg News via text message on Sunday.

Detroit auto show: Google, Camry and the shadow of Trump

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, center, and North American International Auto Show Chairman Sam Slaughter, right, are given a tour of the Mopar area from Ron Stallworth, left, of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, in Detroit. The show opens to the media on Monday, Jan. 9 and to the public on Jan. 14. less Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, center, and North American International Auto Show Chairman Sam Slaughter, right, are given a tour of the Mopar area from Ron Stallworth, left, of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Friday, … more The Ford display is seen at the 2017 North American International Auto show, Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, in Detroit.

Twitter Suspends – Pharma Bro’ Shkreli After Harassment

Twitter Inc. suspended the account of Martin Shkreli after the brash former pharmaceutical executive harassed a female reporter online, the latest high-profile case of abuse on the social media service. Over the past few days, freelance reporter Lauren Duca posted about several unwanted digital advances by Shkreli, the former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, including a message in which Shkreli invited her to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Alphabet’s Waymo Cuts Cost of Key Self-Driving Sensor by 90%

Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, has slashed the cost of a key technology required to bring self-driving cars to the masses and rolled it out Sunday in an autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivan. Waymo has cut costs by 90 percent on LiDAR sensors, which bounce light off objects to create a three-dimensional map of a car’s surroundings.

Twitter Suspends – Pharma Bro’ Shkreli After Reporter Harassed

Twitter Inc. suspended the account of Martin Shkreli after the brash former pharmaceutical executive harassed a female reporter online, the latest high-profile case of abuse on the social media service. Over the past few days, freelance reporter Lauren Duca posted about several unwanted digital advances by Shkreli, the former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, including a message in which Shkreli invited her to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Alphabet’s Waymo Said to Expand Self-Driving Chrysler Van Fleet

Alphabet Inc. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are doubling down on their self-driving partnership, adding about 100 more Pacifica Hybrid minivans to an autonomous fleet first announced in May, according to people familiar with the decision. Last month, the two companies announced the production of the initial 100 minivans, vehicles equipped with the technology developed by Waymo, the new Alphabet company formed from its Google car project.

Investors All Ears as Trump Set to Break Silence

U.S. and Chinese data and an expected news conference by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the coming week may shed some light on the state of the world’s two biggest economies – and the outlook for relations between them. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said he will hold a news conference on Wednesday.

AT&T insists the FCC has no basis for halting its merger with Time Warner

Remember when your parents forbade you from seeing your high school sweetheart, and you responded petulantly, “You can’t stop me”? If so, you may get a case of deja vu from the latest drama between AT&T and the FCC. Insisting that it has a plan to rebut any potential scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T said late last week that regardless of what the government body has to say, its merger with Time Warner cannot be stopped by governmental action.

3 Takeover Candidates in the Drug Space

This commentary originally appeared on Real Money Pro at 7 a.m. ET Friday, Jan. 6. Click here to learn about this dynamic market information service for active traders. We expect quite a number of M&A deals in the health-care sector in 2017.

Insider Q&A: De Beers CEO talks diamonds, millennials

Instead of romantic proposals and engagement rings, the commercials trying to sell a new generation on diamonds show young couples rolling around on a bed, arguing in a car and even questioning whether they’ll ever marry. The ads are one way the diamond industry is trying to reach millennials, the under-35-year-olds who may be more focused on paying off student loan debt than buying diamonds and getting hitched.

Trump Interviews Brexit Supporter as U.S. Envoy to EU, Mail Says

A professor who backed the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union was interviewed for the job to become President-elect Donald Trump’s ambassador to the bloc, according to the Mail on Sunday. Ted Malloch was recommended for the position by Nigel Farage, a political rival to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, and discussed the job with Trump’s team, according to the newspaper, citing an interview with the professor.

How to Drink with Billionaires

Mark Oldman is one of the wine world’s great popularizers. In his lectures, seminars and books – the most recent of which, How to Drink Like a Billionaire: Mastering Wine with Joie de Vivre , came out last fall – he encourages his audience to try unfamiliar grapes, relax about food and wine pairings and enjoy wine rather than make a fetish of it.

A YouTube star with 7.5 million followers explains how she…

A YouTube star with 7.5 million followers explains how she makes money – and how the industry is changing When 22-year-old Eva Gutowski first started making YouTube videos in college, she thought of it just as a way to help her broadcast journalism major. The idea that she could be a YouTube personality for a living didn’t even register in the general sense, let alone for her specifically.

SeaWorld San Diego Ending Killer Whale Show

SeaWorld San Diego is ending its long-running killer whale show after years of outcry and falling attendance prompted it to renounce theatrical orca displays. The show that featured killer whales cavorting with trainers and leaping high out of the Shamu Stadium pool will have its final performances on Sunday.

Losing and Loving It

Many traders dislike social media sites like Twitter because so much of the content is celebrating great trades after they occur. If you review the comments of some folks, you must wonder why they aren’t billionaires as they never seem to have a losing trade.

Winter Storm Coats Parts of South, Heads Toward New England

A winter storm that left a glaze of ice and snow across portions of the South and is being blamed for at least three deaths has turned its attention to New England, where travel conditions have already become treacherous and a chain-reaction accident on a Connecticut road involved nearly two dozen cars. Before the storm churned north along the Atlantic coast, it left icy conditions in Alabama and Mississippi, where a former governor was hospitalized after he slipped and fell on his icy driveway.