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Hertz says it’s selling around 20,000 electric vehicles from its US fleet, which constitutes approximately a third of its total number of EVs in its global fleet. It claimed that “expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs, remained high” in the most recent financial quarter, “thereby supporting the company’s decision to initiate the material reduction in the EV fleet.” Hertz said it plans to reinvest some of the proceeds into purchasing gas-powered vehicles.

“The company expects this action to better balance supply against expected demand of EVs,” Hertz said in an SEC filing. “This will position the company to eliminate a disproportionate number of lower margin rentals and reduce damage expense associated with EVs.”

There were already signs that Hertz was having cold feet over its decision to invest heavily in EVs over the last few years. It was reported in 2021 that the rental company had ordered 100,000 EVs from Tesla. The following April, it emerged that Hertz planned to buy up to 65,000 EVs from Polestar over five years.

However, in October 2023, Hertz said it was slowing down plans to electrify its fleet. At the time, CEO Stephen Scherr said EVs cost Hertz “about twice in terms of damage cost repair than a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle.”

As Reuters notes, Tesla is currently selling more than 700 EVs through its used car website. The vast majority of those are Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hertz-is-selling-20000-evs-and-replacing-them-with-gas-powered-vehicles-153302670.html?src=rss 

CES 2024 is in the books and that means the tech world can kick back and re— oh, wait, there’s the small matter of a Samsung Unpacked on the horizon. Samsung is running its first event of the year a little earlier than usual. It will start on January 17 at 1PM ET. However, barring a major shock, Samsung will unveil its Galaxy S24 smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup

As is always the case, the rumor mill has been churning for weeks when it comes to Samsung’s Galaxy S24 smartphones. Thanks to leaker Evan Blass, who claimed to have obtained a spec sheet for all three of the devices, we have a decent idea of what Samsung has in store for the Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra. As in years past, Samsung has a “reserve” page up now on its site as well for those who want to be first in line to buy the latest smartphones.

It’s likely to be another year of iterative changes on the hardware front. There will very likely be spec bumps to most of the components and the S24 devices will probably offer faster and more efficient performance than their predecessors. However, you shouldn’t anticipate having a wildly different looking phone if you tend to upgrade to the latest handset every year or two… except in the case of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is slated to have a flat display and a titanium frame.

The most important hardware upgrade is arguably in the engine room. Samsung is expected to employ the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. That’s significant given Qualcomm’s efforts to support on-device AI operations with its CPUs and Samsung’s recent work in the generative AI space.

To that end, the biggest change to the Galaxy lineup this year is likely to come in the form of AI features. Samsung recently unveiled its own generative AI models, which can handle tasks such as translations, summarizing documents, drafting emails, helping out with coding and, yes, whipping up images based on text prompts. 

It’s widely believed that Samsung’s Gauss generative AI tech will make its public debut in the Galaxy S24 smartphones, and it’s likely to be labeled as Galaxy AI. The company has been hinting at some of the AI updates, such as with this tease of a feature called Zoom with Galaxy AI.

Everything else: Generative AI, fitness trackers and laptops

The new smartphones will undoubtedly be the star of the show and Samsung will probably spend quite a bit of time going over the generative AI functions. That might not leave much bandwidth for other announcements. There is a chance that we might see the Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker, according to some rumormongers. The event may mark the release of One UI 6.1 for Galaxy devices too.

Beyond that, there have been suggestions that Samsung will show off several Galaxy Book Pro laptops, while there’s also a possibility the company will unveil new tablets, smartwatches and earbuds. We’ll find out soon enough just what the company has planned for its first mass market devices of 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-to-expect-from-samsung-unpacked-2024-including-the-galaxy-s24-smartphone-launch-140010394.html?src=rss 

Google has announced that it will eliminate at least 17 features from its Assistant product, following news that it had laid off “hundreds” of employees from the division. The company is cutting “underutilized features” to “focus on quality and reliability, it wrote in a blog post, even though a good number of people may still rely on those functions.

“Beginning on January 26, when you ask for one of these features, you may get a notification that it won’t be available after a certain date,” wrote Google Assistant VP Duke Dukellis. 

The company didn’t specify how removing certain commands will improve Assistant, nor did it describe any specific quality and reliability problems. It did say, though, that improvements in the past were aided by user feedback, so it may have been receiving complaints about Assistant’s core usability of late.

The 17 functions being removed include: accessing or managing your cookbook; using your voice to send an email, video or audio message; rescheduling events in Google Calendar with your voice; and using App Launcher in Google Assistant driving mode on Google Maps to read and send messages, make calls, and control media. It also describes what Assistant can still do related to those functions, or alternate ways of doing them. A list is here, though Google said they’re just “some” of the affected features.

The company is also changing the way Assistant works on your phone. The microphone icon in the Google search bar will no longer pull up Assistant, but merely start a Google voice search, “which is its most popular use case,” Dukellis wrote. The “Hey Google” hot word and power button long-press will continue to activate Assistant as before. 

After laying off 12,000 people last year, Google said it planned to focus on AI in the future, so it’s interesting that one of its early AI products is being pruned. Earlier today, Google confirmed that it had laid off hundreds of people from at least three divisions, including Assistant, hardware devices and core engineering. 

At its October Pixel 8 event, the company announced plans to launch Assistant with Bard, a version that generates personalized answers based on events, dates and conversations stored on your phone. However, Google didn’t say if that version has anything to do with cutbacks in current Assistant functionality. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-removes-underutilized-assistant-features-to-focus-on-quality-and-reliability-141141513.html?src=rss 

Look, we can all sit around debating wether it’s worth teaching a dog to play the piano, or if that’s even something they’re capable of doing. But it’s also too late since, here at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, a Hong Kong-based startup has actually developed a device to do that. Zoo Gears was at the show demonstrating TheButter, a four-key instrument with light-up pads your pup can “play.”

Essentially, the pooch has to follow along the sequence of lights, each one triggering another few notes of whatever song you’ve equipped it with. Once done, you should reward their effort with a treat or some other form of encouragement, much as Dr. Pavlov would have done. The hope is that eventually, your beloved friend will get the knack of accompanying you during your next jam session.

Zoo Gears was a smash hit on Kickstarter in 2023, making more than four times its initial goal when getting backing for TheButter. That’s currently available to buy in the US for $99, and for that you’ll also get the companion app that’ll help you set your dog’s training routine. You know, so when they’ve mastered something fairly simple they can move onto harder songs like The Beatles’ Let It Be.

More importantly, the company is working on the second part of the product, TheBiscuit, priced at $299 which adds an automatic food dispenser to the setup. If your dog successfully learns how to hammer out some of The Beatles’ greatest hits, they’ll be able to feed themselves. After that, it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to being the next big name in whatever musical genre your best friend opts to specialize in.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teach-your-dog-to-play-this-piano-140028808.html?src=rss 

Sony might have an updated PlayStation 5 controller available soon. GamesRadar+ spotted a brand new V2 DualSense Wireless Controller on Best Buy’s Canadian online shop, and anyone who is sick of finding their wireless controller dead when gaming is in for a treat. The device is listed as having 12 hours of battery life — up from a maximum of five hours in its current iteration. 

Apart from the major boost in battery life, the listed Sony V2 DualSense Wireless Controller is pretty much a mirror of its predecessor. It has a headset jack, built-in microphone, and haptic triggers across its rear and face. It’s listed for 90 CAD (about 67 USD), almost identical to the previously released V2 DualSense Wireless Controller’s $69 retail price. Though the 12-hour model is visible on the website, it’s not actually available for purchase, so it’s unclear when (or even if) Sony will release it. 

Interestingly, a patent filed by Sony in November 2023 described a new controller outfitted with a touchscreen instead of a touchpad. It also potentially employs predictive AI assistance to light up certain buttons, analog sticks and shoulder triggers as hints for gameplay. Just like the controller currently sitting on Best Buy’s website, this one’s fate is up in the air. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/leak-suggests-sony-may-soon-offer-a-dualsense-v2-controller-with-12-hours-of-battery-115527945.html?src=rss 

When Mark Zuckerberg announced last year that Meta was laying off 10,000 workers, he described 2023 as a “year of efficiency” defined by removing layers of middle management to create a “leaner org.” Turns out the company still isn’t done restructuring its organization. According to Business Insider, Meta recently told at least 60 of its employees at Instagram that it’s eliminating their position altogether. The affected employees are technical program managers, the people who go in between Meta’s tech workers, including its engineers, and the higher level product managers.

Based on posts on Blind, an app for tech employees, and on LinkedIn seen by the publication, the workers losing their jobs are given the chance to be interviewed to be considered for a position as product manager. By March, those who chose to leave or weren’t given a new role will no longer have a job with Meta. The company slashed 11,000 jobs in the fall of 2022 in addition to the 10,000 workers it laid off last year in an effort to cut costs. It also issued a hiring freeze and closed thousands of open roles it was originally hiring for. 

“A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling,” Zuckerberg said last year. It’s unclear if Meta has already lifted its hiring freeze, but it’s expected to do so only after it’s done with restructuring. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-reportedly-laid-off-60-technical-program-managers-at-instagram-095558424.html?src=rss