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EV maker Polestar cuts 15 percent of its workforce globally
Swedish car maker Polestar is the latest EV company to slash its workforce.
Tesla sues Sweden for blocking license plate deliveries during labor strike
Tesla has sued Sweden’s transportation agency and postal service over a union strike blocking the company’s license plate deliveries in the country. The workers are striking to demand the non-unionized automaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, a standard practice in the nation.
Stockholm bans most combustion engine cars from its city center
The Swedish capital city of Stockholm is banning combustion engine vehicles in its city center starting in 2025. This joins similar moves in London, Paris and throughout Europe.
Volvo is testing wireless EV charging tech in Sweden
Electric taxis will be able to top up the battery by parking over charging pads.
IKEA will sell clean energy to Swedish homes
IKEA will soon sell clean energy to Swedish customers, giving them the electricity they need to power their lights.
IKEA will help turn a Swedish city into a sustainable community
IKEA is moving beyond the confines of the eco-friendly home to work on sustainable urban living. The flat-pack giant is partnering with the municipality of Helsingborg in its native Sweden on a green community project, known as H22, that takes in agriculture, retail and housing. In the Drottninghög suburb, IKEA will help establish an urban farming marketplace with an eye to upskilling residents and creating new jobs and businesses.
Einride makes its autonomous delivery EVs more aerodynamic
Two of the variants are available for pre-order and should start shipping in 2021.
Hitting the Books: Lessons learned from gaming with the King of Sweden
Video games have come a long way from their dim arcade origins. In his new book, The Dream Architects: Adventures in the Video Game Industry, author David Polfeldt examines both the rise of video games as a cultural and commercial force as well as his own experiences in eventually becoming the Managing Director of Massive Entertainment. In the excerpt below, Polfeldt recalls the time the King of Sweden’s staff rang up the Massive offices asking for a tour as well as the realizations His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf managed to elicit with but a simple question.
Disney+ will launch in eight more European countries on September 15th
Disney+ will arrive in a further eight European countries in September.
Volvo Trucks’ autonomous vehicle is hauling goods in Sweden
Volvo Trucks' autonomous vehicle Vera is ready to hit the road. In collaboration with ferry and logistics company DFDS, Vera will begin transporting goods between a logistics center and a port terminal in Gothenburg, Sweden. The vehicle will haul shipping containers along a predefined route, including a stretch of public roads.
Einride's autonomous truck begins daily delivery test in Sweden
Swedish AV startup Einride has begun testing its all-electric delivery truck on a public road in Sweden. As a part of a year-long trial, the Einride T-Pod truck began the first of what will be many daily freight deliveries this week in the city of Jönköping. The 26-ton truck, which we took for a test spin during MWC, is operated completely remotely via a 5G network -- the vehicle doesn't even have a driver cabin for a backup driver.
PlayStation Now game streaming expands throughout Europe
PlayStation Now still isn't widely available around the world, but Sony aims to fix that. It's expanding the game streaming service to Italy, Portugal and Spain in Europe in the near future, as well as Nordic countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. There's no mention of a firm release date just yet. However, would-be players can register for a PS4 beta test due to start in early February.
Sweden's ad regulator says 'Distracted Boyfriend' meme is sexist
One of the most popular memes of recent times is sexist, according to Sweden's advertising watchdog. A Swedish Internet company named Banhof jumped on the bandwagon by sharing the viral "distracted boyfriend" meme online to advertise job vacancies, only to be chastised by the regulator. The image -- which shows a man gawking at a woman in a red dress while his girlfriend looks on in shock -- is discriminatory to both men and women, ruled Sweden's Reklamombudsmannen.
Sweden’s official tweets won’t come from citizens anymore
IKEA, ABBA, Volvo... Sweden has given the world a lot of great things, and back in 2011 it added to the list by becoming the first country to let regular citizens run its official Twitter account. Every week, a new Swede was given free rein to tweet whatever they wanted, in a pioneering bid to show the world how the country exists in the eyes of its people (much like The Swedish Number, which let anyone around the world chat to a random Swede). Now, the award-winning project -- which inspired similar accounts in other countries and cities around the world -- is coming to an end.
Einride debuts a funky-looking autonomous logging truck
Einride, the Swedish transport company known for the T-pod self-driving truck that looks like a giant freezer on wheels, is back with another funky/futuristic-looking vehicle. Its new Level 4 autonomous vehicle is called the T-log, and if it looks a bit trippy or off for a logging truck, that's because it doesn't have a driver cab at all. It looks like Einride's T-pod if you cut off the giant freezer and leave its flat nose behind.
New international Netflix series include Salma Hayek's 'Monarca'
Netflix announced today that it's partnering with Salma Hayek's Ventanarosa production company on a new original series from Mexico. Monarca is set in the world of Mexican billionaires and focuses on a family with a tequila-born business empire. But drama ensues as one family member sets out to fight the corrupt system her family helped put into place. The series is scheduled for a global launch next year and it joins a number of other original shows Netflix is working on outside of the US.
Sweden modified a road to recharge EVs while driving
You can now charge your electric vehicle as you drive in Sweden, but only for about 2km (1.2 miles). That's the length of a road outside Stockholm that's been embedded with electrified rail, which is the first length in a government-planned nationwide rollout of EV-recharging streets. Unfortunately, you won't be able to juice up a stock electric car on these roads: Vehicles need to drop a movable arm on the rail itself to recharge.
A looping GIF could soon be your next Tinder profile pic
Tinder's latest addition is one cribbed from relationship-minded competitor Hinge. The dating app is testing out a feature called "Loops" in Canada and Sweden, which are essentially two-second repeating GIFs that you can add to your profile.
Einride's self-driving cargo trucks hit the highway this fall
Einride's autonomous T-Pod may look like a giant freezer on wheels, but it's likely to be on the road fairly soon. According to TechCrunch, the company announced today that the first customer deliveries of the self-driving transport vehicle will begin this fall.
Facebook signs European licensing deal for music you share
Facebook has dealt with some criticism over the unpaid use of licensed music in videos on the company's various platforms like Instagram. Back in September of last year, it was reported that the social network was paying out "hundreds of millions of dollars" to labels to clear songs for this kind of use. The company also made deals with Sony and Universal to let you use the publishers' respective catalogs within uploaded videos. Now, according to a report at TechCrunch, Facebook signed a deal with licensing group ICE Services to allow around 31 million musical works from the UK, Sweden and Germany to grace the home movies you share on Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and Oculus.
