In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and science news:
- Tesla car shipments drop
- A new app tracks sharks
- A shark cam in development
- Apple is sued in China over a propaganda film
The details:
- Tesla shipments dip
Tesla Motors shipped fewer autos to customers in the past three months, making it unlikely to meet prior expectations for delivering 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles this year.
The California-based maker of electric autos said Sunday that it delivered 14,370 vehicles in the April-June quarter, a decline of 450 vehicles from the first quarter that Tesla attributed to an “extreme production ramp up” and a number of custom-ordered vehicles still being shipped. Tesla said it anticipates delivering 50,000 vehicles in the second half of the year. While that second-half target would match its vehicle deliveries for all of 2015, it would still be just shy of the guidance provided by the company in April.
The revised expectations arrive at a delicate moment for Tesla, which has excited drivers and investors alike by the promise of gasoline-free autos. But it now faces some wariness after a crash that appears to have resulted from its automated driving system.
The company drew scrutiny last week as details emerged about the death of a driver using Tesla’s semi-autonomous mode.
Joshua D. Brown of Canton, Ohio, died in the accident May 7 in Williston, Florida, when his Tesla Model S failed to automatically activate its brakes and crashed into a tractor-trailer.
Tesla’s shares dropped 3 percent in after-hours trading after the government said it would investigate the crash.
- New shark tracking app
A Massachusetts nonprofit is launching a new smartphone application so beachgoers along the East Coast can report their own shark sightings.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy says users of Sharktivity will become “citizen scientists,” providing valuable tracking data for researchers trying to better understand the animals. The Chatham-based organization says the app is free and currently only available for Apple products.
It’s being launched as Cape Cod’s waters begin to warm and great white sharks begin to appear in earnest.
Greater numbers of the powerful sharks are being spotted each year near the Cape Cod shoreline because of a booming population of seals, one of their favorite delicacies.
Shark researchers counted 141 different great whites off Cape Cod last year, up from 80 the previous year.
- A great white shark cam
Researchers are developing a one-of-a-kind camera to mount on great white sharks in an effort to discover why the fish travel each year to a spot in the Pacific Ocean nicknamed the “White Shark Cafe.”
Scientists know that white sharks meet at a part of the ocean about halfway between Mexico and Hawaii each winter, but they don’t know why they repeatedly make deep dives once they get there. Speculation is that the sharks are either feeding or mating.
Shark expert Sal Jorgensen at California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium is looking to mount a specialized camera on a shark that could reveal the reasons for the deep dives.
The camera is still being tested, but scientists are hoping to get it working by December or January.
- Apple faces suit over film
Apple is being sued by a subsidiary of China’s broadcasting regulator over a propaganda film more than 20 years old, in the latest legal wrangling for the tech giant in China in recent weeks.
A Beijing court says the case has been brought by a production center that alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast a film that depicts Chinese fighting against Japanese soldiers in northern China in the early 1930s.
The plaintiff is also suing the developer and operator of the Youku HD app available on Apple’s App Store that it says enabled users to watch the film and caused it “huge economic losses,” according to the Beijing Haidian District People’s Court.
The court says it has accepted the case brought by Movie Satellite Channel Program Production Center that comes under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
The plaintiff alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast “Xuebo dixiao,” which loosely translates as “Bloody Fight with the Fierce Enemy” and was first shown in 1994.
The production center is also suing Heyi Information and Technology (Beijing) Company Ltd., which developed and operated the Youku HD app, the court said in an online statement Thursday.
