"[O]ur intrepid China reporter, Caiwei Chen, has identified a new trend unfolding within China's tech scene: Companies that were dominant in electric vehicles are betting big on translating that success into developing humanoid robots," writes MIT Technology Review's James O'Donnell. "I spoke with her about what she found out and what it might mean for Trump's policies and the rest of the globe..." An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the report: Your story looks at electric-vehicle makers in China that are starting to work on humanoid robots, but I want to ask about a crazy stat. In China, 53% of vehicles sold are either electric or hybrid, compared with 8% in the US. What explains that?

Price is a huge factor -- there are countless EV brands competing at different price points, making them both affordable and high-quality. Government incentives also play a big role. In Beijing, for example, trading in an old car for an EV gets you 10,000 RMB (about $1,500), and that subsidy was recently doubled. Plus, finding public charging and battery-swapping infrastructure is much less of a hassle than in the US.

You open your story noting that China's recent New Year Gala, watched by billions of people, featured a cast of humanoid robots, dancing and twirling handkerchiefs. We've covered how sometimes humanoid videos can be misleading. What did you think?

I would say I was relatively impressed -- the robots showed good agility and synchronization with the music, though their movements were simpler than human dancers'. The one trick that is supposed to impress the most is the part where they twirl the handkerchief with one finger, toss it into the air, and then catch it perfectly. This is the signature of the Yangko dance, and having performed it once as a child, I can attest to how difficult the trick is even for a human! There was some skepticism on the Chinese internet about how this was achieved and whether they used additional reinforcement like a magnet or a string to secure the handkerchief, and after watching the clip too many times, I tend to agree.

President Trump has already imposed tariffs on China and is planning even more. What could the implications be for China's humanoid sector?

Unitree's H1 and G1 models are already available for purchase and were showcased at CES this year. Large-scale US deployment isn't happening yet, but China's lower production costs make these robots highly competitive. Given that 65% of the humanoid supply chain is in China, I wouldn't be surprised if robotics becomes the next target in the US-China tech war.

In the US, humanoid robots are getting lots of investment, but there are plenty of skeptics who say they're too clunky, finicky, and expensive to serve much use in factory settings. Are attitudes different in China?

Skepticism exists in China too, but I think there's more confidence in deployment, especially in factories. With an aging population and a labor shortage on the horizon, there's also growing interest in medical and caregiving applications for humanoid robots.

DeepSeek revived the conversation about chips and the way the US seeks to control where the best chips end up. How do the chip wars affect humanoid-robot development in China?

Training humanoid robots currently doesn't demand as much computing power as training large language models, since there isn't enough physical movement data to feed into models at scale. But as robots improve, they'll need high-performance chips, and US sanctions will be a limiting factor. Chinese chipmakers are trying to catch up, but it's a challenge.

Acer will raise laptop prices in the United States by 10% next month due to Trump administration tariffs on Chinese imports, CEO Jason Chen said. "We will have to adjust the end user price to reflect the tariff," Chen said. "We think 10 percent probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax."

The Taiwan-based company, the fifth-largest computer seller in the U.S. market behind HP, Dell, Lenovo and Apple, could add hundreds of dollars to its high-end laptops that cost up to $3,700. Chen said Acer is exploring manufacturing options outside China, including possible U.S. production. The company has already moved desktop computer assembly out of China following earlier 25% tariffs during Trump's first term. The 10% tariff imposed this month affects nearly 80% of U.S. laptop imports from China.

SanDisk aims to produce petabyte-scale SSDs through its new UltraQLC platform, though the company has not specified a release timeline. The technology, it said, combines SanDisk's BICS 8 QLC 3D NAND with a proprietary 64-channel controller featuring hardware accelerators that offload storage functions from firmware to reduce latency and improve reliability.

The initial UltraQLC drives will use 2Tb NAND chips to reach 128TB capacities, with future iterations targeting 256TB, 512TB, and eventually 1PB as higher-density NAND becomes available. The controller dynamically adjusts power based on workload and employs an advanced bus multiplexer to handle increased data loads from high-density QLC stacks, the company said.

NAND flash prices are expected to slide due to oversupply, forcing memory chipmakers to cut production to match lower-than-expected orders from PC and smartphone manufacturers. From a report: The superabundance of stock is putting a financial strain on suppliers of NAND flash, according to TrendForce, which says growth rate forecasts are being revised down from 30 percent to 10-15 percent for 2025.

"NAND flash manufacturers have adopted more decisive production cuts, scaling back full-year output to curb bit supply growth. These measures are designed to swiftly alleviate market imbalances and lay the groundwork for a price recovery," TrendForce stated.

Shrish Pant, Gartner director analyst and technology product leader, expects NAND flash pricing to remain weak for the first half of 2025, though he projects higher bit shipments for SSDs in the second half due to continuing AI server demand.

"Vendors are currently working tirelessly to discipline supply, which will lead to prices recovering in the second half of 2025. Long term, AI demand will continue to drive the demand for higher-capacity/better-performance SSDs," Pant said. Commenting on the seasonal nature of the memory market, Pant told The Register: "Buying patterns will mean that NAND flash prices will remain cyclical depending on hyperscalers' buying behavior."

California is "considering state ownership of one or more oil refineries," reports the Los Angeles Times.

They call the idea "one item on a list of options presented by the California Energy Commission to ensure steady gas supplies as oil companies pull back from the refinery business in the state." "The state recognizes that they're on a pathway to more refinery closures," said Skip York, chief energy strategist at energy consultant Turner Mason & Co. The risk to consumers and the state's economy, he said, is gasoline supply disappearing faster than consumer demand, resulting in fuel shortages, higher prices and severe logistical challenges.

Gasoline demand is falling in California, albeit slowly, for two reasons: more efficient gasoline engines, and the increasing number of electric vehicles on the road. Gasoline consumption in California peaked in 2005 and fell 15% through 2023, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, now represent about 25% of annual new car sales... The drop in demand is causing fundamental strategic shifts among the state's major oil refiners: Chevron, Marathon, Phillips 66, PBF Energy and Valero.

Already, two California refineries have ceased producing gasoline to make biodiesel fuel for use in heavy-duty trucks, a cleaner-fuel alternative that enjoys rich state subsidies. More worrisome, the Phillips 66 refinery complex in Wilmington, just outside Los Angeles, plans to close down permanently by year's end. That leaves eight major refineries in California capable of producing gasoline. The closure of any one would create serious gasoline supply issues, industry analysts say. But both Chevron and Valero are contemplating permanent refinery closures. The implications? "Demand will decline gradually," York said, "but supply will fall out in chunks." What's unknown is how many refineries will close, and how soon, and how that will affect supply and demand...

A state refinery takeover seems like a radical idea, but the fact that it's being considered demonstrates the seriousness of the supply issue. It's one of several option laid out by the California Energy Commission, which is fulfilling a legislative order to find ways to ensure "a reliable supply of affordable and safe transportation fuels in California." The options list is disparate: Ship in more gasoline from Asia; regulate refineries on the order of electric utilities; cap profit margins; and many more.
92% of California's gas is produced in refineries, the Times reports. But the special gasoline blends required to reduce air pollution "also drive up gasoline prices and raise the risk of shortages, because little such gasoline is produced outside California."

Yahoo Finance shares an interesting prediction. Amazon has an "under-the-radar robot push" that "could boost its profit margins big-time, Morgan Stanley managing director Brian Nowak said." Nowak said Amazon has quietly developed six significant next-generation fulfillment centers in the past three years that bring automation front and center... Amazon now has industrial robots that can increase efficiencies across the storage, inventory management, pick and packing, and sorting order fulfillment processes.

Fulfillment costs make up about 20% of Amazon's retail revenue, so he reasoned that automation could have a significant impact on long-term operating profit potential. Nowak says if 30% to 40% of Amazon's US units were fulfilled through next-generation robotics-enabled warehouses by 2030, it could lead to $10 billion-plus of savings... The investments in robots may already be paying off. Amazon's North America retail operating margins on a trailing 12-month basis have risen for five straight quarters. North America operating margins improved to 6.2% from 4.6% a year ago.
Nowak made the remarks on a Yahoo Finance podcast (at the top of their article) after touring one of Amazon's robot-enhanced sites in Louisiana. He believes robotics can drive down Amazon's costs compared to other retailers like Target (which he sees as lagging behind Amazon on robotics).

Meanwhile workers at an Amazon facility in North Carolina held a vote Saturday on whether to unionize. But roughly 75% of the workers voted against unionization.

Hackaday reports: Good news for everyone who cannot get enough from improbably shaped boats that get referred to as a bench: the current owner (NTI Group) of the copyright has announced that 3DBenchy has been released into the public domain. This comes not too long after Prusa's Printables website had begun to purge all derived models to adhere to the 'no derivatives' license. According to NTI, the removal of these derived models was not requested by NTI, but by a third-party report, unbeknownst to NTI or the original creator of the model. Recognizing its importance to the community, 3DBenchy can now be downloaded & modified freely.

NTI worked together with the original creator [Daniel Norée] and former Creative Tools CEO [Paulo Kiefe] to transition 3DBenchy and the associated website to the public domain More details at Tom's Hardware and Fabbaloo.

New York City's Department of Transportation is offering delivery workers the opportunity to swap out uncertified e-bikes for safer UL-compliant models. "Millions of people rely on such workers for timely deliveries, yet the low wages and brutal conditions of the job have forced many riders to seek out low-cost electric bicycles to perform the work -- exactly the kind of e-bikes that are least likely to have received safety certifications," reports Electrek. From the report: The NYC DOT has already begun accepting applications for the new E-Bike Trade-In Program, which is open to delivery workers with non-compliant electric bicycles as well as the often-seen electric scooters/mopeds that don't really qualify as e-bikes, despite their ubiquitous use in the industry. Interestingly, the program even accepts gasoline-powered mopeds that are not able to be legally registered with the DMV, including those that lack VINs. In exchange for trading in a non-certified vehicle, the delivery worker will receive a new UL-certified electric bike with a spare UL-certified battery.

There are a few requirements for eligibility. The worker has to have earned at least US $1,500 by working in the food delivery industry last year in 2024, live in one of the five New York City boroughs, be at least 18 years old, and own/use one of the eligible devices for trade-in. The program is free to participate in with no additional cost for the delivery workers. However, the supply of free electric bicycles is described as "limited." Those interested need to submit an application before the window closes on March 10, 2025.

Electricity demand is set to increase sharply in the coming years as people around the world use more power to run air conditioners, industry and a growing fleet of data centers. From a report: Over the next three years, global electricity consumption is set to rise by an "unprecedented" 3,500 terawatt hours, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. That's an addition each year of more than Japan's annual electricity consumption.

The roughly 4% annual growth in that period is the fastest such rate in years, underscoring the growing importance of electricity to the world's overall energy needs. "The acceleration of global electricity demand highlights the significant changes taking place in energy systems around the world and the approach of a new Age of Electricity," Keisuke Sadamori, IEA's director of energy markets and security, said in a statement. "But it also presents evolving challenges for governments in ensuring secure, affordable and sustainable electricity supply."

Western Digital plans to introduce its first heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) drives in late 2026, with 36TB conventional magnetic recording (CMR) and 44TB shingled UltraSMR variants. Volume production won't begin until the first half of 2027, following qualification by cloud data center providers in late 2026.

The company projects that HAMR technology, combined with OptiNAND, increased platter count, and mechanical improvements, will enable drives reaching 80TB CMR and 100TB UltraSMR capacities around 2030 -- a departure from Western Digital's previous commitment to microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) in 2017, which evolved into the energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR) technology used in current drives.

Arm will reportedly start making its own chips this year after signing Meta as a customer, according to the Financial Times (paywalled). TechCrunch reports: The chip is expected to be a CPU for servers in large data centers and can be customized for various customers. Arm will outsource its production. The first in-house Arm chip will be unveiled as early as this summer, the Financial Times also reported.

This is a notable change in strategy for the semiconductor company, which usually licenses its chip blueprints to companies like Apple and Nvidia. Making its own chips will turn some of its existing customers into competitors.

Apple CEO Tim Took took to X today to tease a special Apple product launch happening next week on Wednesday, February 19. 9to5Mac reports: Few specific details were shared, but Cook did include a brief video featuring the Apple logo in silver plus the following words: "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family. Wednesday, February 19. #AppleLaunch" [...] The most likely product is the brand new iPhone SE 4, which rumors suggest will pack a variety of powerful upgrades. [...] There are several other hardware possibilities for the February 19 launch. We're currently expecting at least three other products to debut in the near future: the M4 MacBook Air, an M3 iPad Air, and a new 11th generation base model iPad.

Reading into the teaser, the silver color does subtly give off Mac vibes, so perhaps the M4 MacBook Air is coming. The circle design in the video has some wondering if AirTag 2 could be the focus of the launch. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, however, doesn't believe that's the case. Gurman suggests the iPhone SE 4 will be the new product. That would make the circle a potential reference to the device's single rear camera.

The biggest utility in Virginia, home to the global hotspot Data Center Alley, saw demand from data centers in development almost double in the last half of 2024. From a report: Total data center power capacity under contract with Dominion Energy in Virginia, which includes projects from preliminary to advanced stages of development, increased to 40.2 gigawatts in December from 21.4 gigwatts in July, the company said on its earnings call Wednesday.

Demand for power is surging with the development of data centers and artificial intelligence, along with manufacturing and the increasing electrification of the economy. Northern Virginia, which has the biggest concentration of the facilities in the world, has earned the nickname of Data Center Alley.

Apple is developing robots for its smart home ecosystem, though mass production is unlikely to begin before 2028, according to widely reliable TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The project remains in early proof-of-concept testing, with Apple exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid designs, he wrote in a post on X.

The company is focusing on how users interact with robots rather than their physical appearance, prioritizing sensing hardware and software as core technologies, Kuo said. The tech giant has taken an unusual approach by publicly sharing some of its robotics research during this early stage, possibly to recruit talent, the analyst noted. The proof-of-concept phase, which precedes formal product development, serves as Apple's testing ground for product ideas and core technologies. Apple's foldable phone project is also currently in the proof-of-concept phase, he said.

Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Popular Science: In 2021, NASCAR unveiled its Next Gen platform that included a number of rule changes from the previous iteration. Now fully symmetrical and using composite body panels instead of metal, the latest NASCAR vehicles are more like the street versions of the Chevrolet Camaro, the Ford Mustang, and the Toyota TRD Camry. Race car driving isn't an inexpensive sport, and one of the goals for the Next Gen platform was to reduce operating costs and create parity across the board. Technique Chassis, the sole chassis manufacturer for the NASCAR Cup Series, builds a modular offering in three parts. As a result, everyone is starting with the same platform, and finding a competitive advantage is in the tiniest details. One smart way to differentiate from the competition is 3D-printed parts. But this isn't your hobbyist level 3D printing.

Minnesota-based Stratasys specializes in "additive manufacturing," the process of creating an object by building it one layer at a time. Stratasys Senior Global Director of Automotive & Mobility Fadi Abro explains that this term is synonymous with 3D printing. However, the industry often reserves that description for hobby-level projects on smaller, non-industrial printers, while additive manufacturing represents robust industrial solutions. Additive manufacturing is the exact inverse of subtractive manufacturing, which requires cutting away at a solid chunk of material to achieve a final product. In art terms, additive manufacturing would be like sculpting with modeling clay while subtractive is akin to carving a shape from a block of marble. As it relates to NASCAR, Stratasys provides parts like ducts, covers, brackets, and tubing. Together with the racing organization, Stratasys reviews the current driver needs and makes recommendations for other parts and modifications. [...]

The kind of printers Stratasys builds aren't the type you buy at your local electronics store, either. Each industrial-grade 3D printer costs anywhere from $20,000 to $600,000. Using this kind of equipment isn't without precedent, and builds at SEMA's annual extravaganza feature 3D parts we wouldn't have dreamed of a few years ago. [...] In the past few months, Stratasys has been on a roll, signing an extension to its 20-year partnership with the Joe Gibbs Racing team and earning the title of "Official 3D Printing Partner of NASCAR." Competition for this market continues to heat up, however, as there are startups and legacy companies pushing hard. Around the world, 3D printing companies abound. Stratasys has one major factor on its side: 35 years of experience. What's new is that today's printing is more accurate, it's faster, the materials are more robust, Abro says. "I think what's changed drastically over the past five to seven years has been all about material development," Abro explains. "We're seeing materials that are just incredible, whether it's how resistant to heat they are or how strong they are compared to how much they weigh."

"It's better, faster, cheaper. It's faster to print something than to mill it, and then it's certainly cheaper in a multitude of different ways. Number one, there's not as much skill required for 3D printing as there is in CNC machining; you need a more traditional manufacturing method."