Business in S.F. | Bay Area Companies | SF News

Why Are Waymo's Self-Driving Cars Constantly Hitting the Same Dead End On 15th Avenue?

Neighbors on one street in San Francisco's Richmond District seem to be witnessing the training of robot cars in the art of the three-point turn — over, and over, and over again.

Business & Tech

Instagram and Facebook Experience Second Outage In a Week; Twitter Is Gleeful

It may not be the worldwide meltdown of Monday, but Instagram and Facebook were not loading properly for some users on both coasts of the U.S. today, and the company has confirmed there's a problem.

Business & Tech

Video Streaming Service Twitch Got Breached Hard, Site’s Entire Source Code Posted Online

SF-based gaming site Twitch pretty much had the keys to their kingdom snatched and posted on 4Chan, and since it’s owned by Amazon… is anything safe anymore?

Business & Tech

Mark Zuckerberg Would Again Like to Assure You That Profit Is Not Facebook's Sole Motive

In response to a string of very bad headlines and a catastrophic outage of all of the company's services this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly posted a message on Tuesday that he says he sent to all of his employees, reassuring them that Facebook is not evil.

Business & Tech

Facebook Vaguely Explains Cause of Longest Outage In 13 Years; Whistleblower Says 'Declare Moral Bankruptcy'

The six-hour outage on Monday that brought down Facebook's entire network of products — including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus — was caused by a router issue, or something, and both the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg say they're very sorry you had to stop scrolling for an afternoon.

Business & Tech

Federal Jury Awards $137 Million In Racial Harassment Case Brought By Former Tesla Employee

A Black former Tesla employee who claimed he was harassed with racial epithets and demeaning attacks during his time there five years ago was awarded a $136.9 million judgement on Monday by a federal jury.

Business & Tech

Facebook Employee ID Badges Weren’t Working Today, So They Couldn’t Get In to Fix the Outage

Facebook is coming back online, but new details from today's massive worldwide outage are emerging, including the fact that employees couldn’t fix server hardware because their ID badges wouldn’t even let them enter company buildings.

Business & Tech

Facebook Whistleblower Who Shared Docs With Wall Street Journal Goes on '60 Minutes' to Spill More Dirt

On Sunday, the whistleblower behind the bombshell pieces published by the Wall Street Journal last month went on '60 Minutes' to discuss why she jumped ship with a trove of damning internal research, specifically to show the public how the company prioritizes profit over the public good.

Business & Tech

The Crisis Around Chinese Developer Evergrande May Impact Oceanwide Development In SF

The troubled Chinese-owned Oceanwide Center development at Mission and First, construction of which was fully halted a year ago, may face more troubles ahead as the Chinese economy faces a crisis that's pegged to real estate conglomerate Evergrande.

SF News

Monday Morning Headlines: Facebook Pauses Development of 'Instagram Kids'

Facebook is pausing development of its controversial 'Instagram Kids' app as it faces scrutiny in Washington, one Afghan family describes their harrowing journey to get back to the Bay Area, and the Grand Princess cruise ship is back at sea.

Business & Tech

Zuckerberg Denies Secret Deal With Jared Kushner to Never Censor Trump’s Posts

Maybe this explains Facebook’s kid-gloves approach to right-wing propaganda — a new book claims Zuckerberg agreed to a “hands-off approach to conservative sites” in exchange for lax regulations.

Business & Tech

Pandemic Slack Communications Inside Apple Have Led to More Employee Activism, Unrest

The notoriously secretive corporate culture at Apple has been exposed to have some leaks and cracks when it comes to the treatment of employees and various other complaints.

Business & Tech

Dreamforce Returns as Much Smaller, Mostly Outdoor Conference in SoMa This Week

170,000 people usually come to Dreamforce, which along with the now departed Oracle OpenWorld would typically clog up traffic all over downtown for several days as conventioneers descended on the city. This year will be much different.

Business & Tech

After Suing Uber, Google’s Waymo Is Now Subleasing Office Space from Uber

The COVID-era corporate subleasing craze has paired some strange bedfellows, as the self-driving car company Waymo is leasing empty office space from Uber, whom they had previously tried to sue into oblivion.

Business & Tech

Reddit Moderators Revolt Over Company’s Lax Misinformation Policy

Some of the most popular subreddits on Reddit have “gone dark” this week in protest of the company’s hand-off policy with misinformation and anti-vaxxer online bullying, and Wednesday, Reddit did at least ban one of the worst offenders.

Business & Tech

Jury Selection Set to Begin In Elizabeth Holmes Trial; Defense Expected to Cite Abuse by Boyfriend

The high-profile criminal trial begins this week of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. While opening arguments in the San Jose courtroom won't begin until after Labor Day, jury selection begins on Tuesday, August 31.

Business & Tech

Facebook Seemingly Still Monkeying With Algorithm to Limit Right-Wing Agitprop

K-Pop stans and dog advice posts are the early benefactors of some possible Facebook algorithm and reporting changes, but the Dinesh D'Souzas and Ben Shapiros of the world are sharp at adapting to game the system.

Business & Tech

If You Would Like to Hail a Robo-car in San Francisco You Can Do That Now With Waymo

Google's self-driving car spinoff Waymo has just launched its autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service Waymo One in San Francisco, with a view toward getting rid of the "safety driver" altogether and letting the robo-cars do all the work.

Business & Tech

Cal Takes a Cryptocurrency Naming Rights Deal for Memorial Stadium

The Goldens Bears’ stadium will now be called ‘FTX Field at Memorial Stadium,’ in a crypto deal that is either a trailblazing innovation, or a slush fund for future ransomware attacks.

Business & Tech

Eight Months Into National Vaccine Effort, Facebook Says It's Removed Anti-Vaxx Misinformation Superspreaders

After being on the receiving end of stern words from President Biden last month, Facebook says it has removed three-dozen pages and accounts associated with a dozen previously identified superspreaders of vaccine misinformation.

Business & Tech

Facebook Now Pushing Off Return to Office Until January

Facebook announced Thursday that its workers in U.S. offices, and some international workers, don't have to return to their desks in person until January 2022.

Business & Tech

Apple Will Scan Your iPhone for Child Porn; Critics Wonder What Else They’ll Snoop On

A coming iOS upgrade will scan users’ iPhones for any images of child sexual abuse, but one wonders how many livelihoods will be ruined whenever the bots make a mistake.

SF News

PG&E Finally Has Plans to Put Electrical Lines Underground In Fire-Prone Areas

A week after a new wildfire appears to have been potentially sparked by a tree hitting PG&E transmission lines in Butte County, the company gave a press conference to announce a ten-year plan to bury 10,000 miles of power lines.

Business & Tech

Uber Adds Grocery Delivery In SF, Including From Safeway and Andronico's

Uber is pushing further into the world of delivery with a major expansion of grocery delivery services this week, including in San Francisco.

Business & Tech

Biden Backs Down Slightly From Saying Facebook Is 'Killing People' With Vaccine Misinformation

President Joe Biden attempted to de-escalate a war of words he started last week with Facebook, walking back a statement he made about the platform "killing people" due to its failure to curb misinformation about coronavirus vaccines.

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