EuroWire July 2020

Transatlantic cable

With several companies racing to develop the technology to allow cars to drive on their own, lawsuits against former employees have been common.

Each of the three has taken a slightly different approach. Blue Origin is looking at a three-stage lander that would leave its landing engines on the moon’s surface to lighten the load when it is time to return to Earth. SpaceX wants to use its general purpose “Starship” spacecraft which, it says, could also be used for Mars missions, while Dynetics is working on a completely new concept that could be launched on any rocket. Doug Loverro, associate administrator of NASA’s human exploration and operations mission directorate, described the move as “the last piece of the puzzle” to get astronauts back to the Moon since the heyday of Moon landings during the 1960s and 1970s. “We’ve selected the best of industry’s ideas to team with NASA. We are ready to move forward on this.” The current NASA programme, known as Artemis, aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. Carmaker Ford revealed its quarterly earnings report in April, and at the same time announced the postponement, until 2022, of its autonomous vehicle service. The quarterly report showed a loss of $2bn which, while clearly heavily affected by the coronavirus outbreak, has caused the company to rethink its market strategy. Ford had previously planned to launch the autonomous vehicle service in 2021, but the company said it needs time to study the long-term impact on consumers of the COVID-19 pandemic. The $2bn loss compares with a $1.1bn profit for the same period last year, and reflects the shuttered production and significant decline in sales felt by automakers around the world. However, Ford CEO Jim Hackett commented that a third of all Ford sales are now online in China. Once manufacturing is back on track, and the company has a better understanding of operational readiness, Ford will assess the launch timing for the Mustang Mach-E and long-awaited Bronco. Ford’s Argo AI division is developing the virtual driver system and maps required for the autonomous vehicles to operate, and Ford has been testing its market strategy using pilot programmes with partners such as Walmart, Domino’s Pizza and Postmates. Automotive Ford puts the brakes on its autonomous auto plans until 2022

Employment

Some sectors saw hiring increase during April

Data from LinkedIn during April gave some good news: finance, technology and consumer goods firms were looking to make tens of thousands of new hirings. Unsurprisingly, healthcare agencies across seven countries in North America, Europe and Asia were among the busiest recruiters, but lifestyle changes during lockdown seem to be driving demand for financial consultants, factory workers, delivery workers, animators and game designers. Overall, the hiring rate plunged in the first quarter from the same period last year, and in late April remained lower than a year ago across most countries surveyed by the platform, but the data offers a glimmer of hope. LinkedIn’s figures are not corroborated by official jobs data – government figures are usually released with a time-lag of several weeks – but the platform counts a “new hire”when a user adds a new employer to their profile. “We are confident that our data is directionally correct,” said Guy Berger, principal economist at LinkedIn in California. Hiring in China fell by 50 per cent during the height of its coronavirus crisis in mid-February, but its hiring rate has been recovering since restrictions were eased in early April. In late April the rate was said to be 3 per cent lower than the same period in 2019. Hiring in the USA, the UK, France and Italy continued to be depressed, but fell less rapidly as the countries appeared to pass the peak of their respective epidemics. Retailers including Walmart Inc, Amazon and Instacart expected to hire a total of over 700,000 workers to meet the surge in demand for groceries and other goods during the coronavirus outbreak, and consumer goods manufacturer Unilever confirmed its intention to fill 300 vacancies globally. Nestle told Reuters it was looking to fill 5,000 full-time US positions in “a variety of levels across corporate and frontline”. Fidelity Investments, a financial services firm based in Boston, USA, has accelerated recruitment and was looking to fill at least 2,000 full-time roles for financial consultants, software engineers and customer service staff in the USA. There was more sobering news from the International Labour Organization, however, which warned that 1.6bn workers, or nearly half of the global workforce, could face losing their livelihoods. Record numbers of people in the USA applied for jobless benefits – 33mn over the first seven weeks of lockdown – with economists predicting the unemployment rate could reach 20 per cent, a level unseen since the 1930s. Dr Berger suggested that since China is ahead of other countries on the pandemic timeline, improvements there may indicate what is likely to happen elsewhere. “It’s still slightly early to call it a firm recovery,” Dr Berger said, referring to improving prospects in China. “We’re not expecting a full recovery, but rather it’s an indication that parts of the economy will switch on as lockdowns are eased, at least relative to the worst point of the pandemic.” Gill Watson Features Editor

Zoox and Tesla come to an agreement over knowledge “leak”

USA-based self-driving car enterprise Zoox Inc has confirmed that a lawsuit with Tesla Inc has been settled. Zoox has admitted that newly appointed staff moving from Tesla were in possession of “certain Tesla documents” when they joined Zoox. Tesla had alleged that employees stole proprietary information and trade secrets to develop warehousing, logistics and inventory control operations. “Zoox acknowledges that certain of its new hires from Tesla were in possession of Tesla documents pertaining to shipping, receiving and warehouse procedures when they joined Zoox’s logistics team,” Zoox said.

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July 2020