
Italy's Lombardy picks group using Starlink to test satcom services
Lombardy region
on Thursday picked a consortium of firms using
Starlink
's low-orbit satellite constellation in a pilot project to see if space-based connectivity is a viable solution to boost high-speed internet penetration in the country.
Lombardy, home to Italy's financial capital Milan, launched a tender for a 4.1 million euro project to test wholesale systems combining fibre and satellite-based networks to bring fast Internet connections in remote and poorly served areas.
A joint proposal from Swisscom's Fastweb and Italian defence group Leonardo satellite unit Telespazio has been awarded the pilot project, a regional document showed on Thursday.
A source close to the matter said the test is expected to involve the use of Starlink's satellite constellation.
Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo and French peer Thales last year secured an agreement with Elon Musk's low orbit satellite unit Starlink to commercialise its satellite service.
Italy is grappling with delays in state-backed rollout plans for ultra-fast terrestrial telecoms networks for households in sparsely populated areas, with latest European Union data pointing to a coverage of 36.8% last year against an EU average of about 60%.

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Time of India
15 minutes ago
- Time of India
Tesla beats Chinese rivals in some driving assisted tests, say China state media, Bytedance
Billionaire Elon Musk 's Tesla outperformed Chinese rivals including BYD , Xiaomi and Huawei in a test of assisted driving technologies on China's highways, according to results published by TikTok owner Bytedance's auto unit Dcar. State television CCTV and Dcar jointly tested the level 2 advanced driving assistance systems ( ADAS ) from more than 20 electric vehicle brands in China and rated their performance in a series of scenarios with higher risks of accidents on highways and urban traffics. The test videos posted by Dcar went viral on Chinese social media. Tesla scored the best in the highway test among 36 models, with its Model 3 and Model X passing five out of six scenarios, while BYD's Denza Z9GT and Huawei-backed Aito M9 failed in three scenarios. Xiaomi's SU7 passed in one of six. In a Weibo post on Friday, HIMA, the Huawei-led auto alliance, said it declined to comment on the "so-called test." BYD and Xiaomi didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. "Due to laws against data export, Tesla achieved the top results in China despite having no local training data," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on his X account on Friday. Tesla has been caught in what Musk described as a "quandary", as the U.S. doesn't allow its AI software to be trained in China, while the automaker has been seeking approval from Chinese regulators to transfer data saved locally in Shanghai back to the United States for algorithm training. Domestic brands should face up to the gap with Tesla in autonomous driving , Wang Yao, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told an auto forum in Shanghai earlier this month. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, in remarks after a Tesla Model Y delivered itself from an Austin, Texas factory to its owner in the area roughly 30 minutes away, said "we will continue to learn" from Tesla which has led industry trends. The test came amid growing safety concerns in China about the ADAS after a highway accident involving a Xiaomi SU7 killed three people in March. State media have blamed misleading promotions for resulting drivers' improper uses of the technologies and the authorities have banned the uses of terms such as "smart driving" and "autonomous driving" for marketing driving assistance features. The public security ministry said this week that the country will set out legal responsibilities related to the technology that has yet achieved true autonomous driving. Drivers face safety and legal risks if they are distracted in accidents when assisted driving is turned on, the ministry warned. Xiaomi had seen a slump in new EV orders as a consumer backlash began in April following the fatal trash, but the impact seems short-lived, with its new electric SUV receiving exceptionally strong initially orders after it went on sale last month. Tesla's sales of its China-made electric vehicles edged up 0.8 per cent in June from a year earlier, snapping an eight-month losing streak, but they continued to fall on a quarterly basis in the face of lower-cost new models from its Chinese rivals. Tesla's assisted driving suite is available in China for nearly $9,000, while the technology from its local rivals including Xiaomi and BYD is without extra cost, pressuring the U.S. automaker's self-driving future. Tesla's technology approach relies solely on cameras as sensors and artificial intelligence while most Chinese peers including BYD use lidar (light detection and range sensors) additionally to ensure performance.


Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Tesla to roll out human-driven chauffeur service in Bay Area, California regulator says
Tesla plans to offer a chauffeur-style service operated by human drivers to a limited number of people in the San Francisco Bay Area, a California regulator said on Friday, contrary to a media report that the EV maker would offer a robotaxi service. Unlike Alphabet's Waymo unit, Tesla cannot operate its service using autonomous vehicles because the EV maker does not have the required permits and has not applied, according to a spokesperson for the California Public Utilities Commission . Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. This week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on an earnings call that the company was "getting the regulatory permission to launch" robotaxis in several markets, including the San Francisco Bay Area. Business Insider reported on Friday that the service would be a robotaxi operation with humans in the driver's seat who would be able to control the car. Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla's self-driving efforts, said on Tesla's Wednesday earnings call that the company would launch a robotaxi service in the Bay Area "with the person in the driver's seat, just to expedite, while we wait for regulatory approval." Last month, Tesla launched a trial robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, using about a dozen Model Y SUVs. Tesla invited a few passengers to use the service, where human safety monitors sat in the front passenger seat. Tesla's autonomous-driving software controlled the vehicle. With the Bay Area service, Tesla "is not allowed to test or transport the public" in an autonomous vehicle, even one with a human safety driver, according to the CPUC spokesperson, who added Tesla can only transport people using a human driver in a "non-autonomous vehicle." The spokesperson said Tesla told the CPUC on Thursday that it plans to offer rides to "friends and family of employees" and "select members of the public" under a permit the company has that allows a human driver to transport passengers in a "traditional vehicle" for "charter services." For the Bay Area service, Tesla may be able to use its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) feature, which can perform many driving tasks but requires a human driver to pay attention and be ready to take over at all times. The CPUC spokesperson did not respond to a question on whether Tesla could use that feature, but such technology does not require an autonomous vehicle permit in California because the human driver is expected to be in control at all times. Companies need a series of permits from both the CPUC and the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in order to test and deploy autonomous vehicles in the state. To date, Tesla only has a DMV permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver. A DMV spokesperson said Tesla recently met with the agency but has not applied for additional permits that would be needed to collect fares or test without a safety driver. The next step in the process for Tesla would be to apply for a CPUC license for an autonomous vehicle to pick up passengers with a safety driver, according to a review of California's autonomous driving regulations. But companies must first operate in a pilot phase, where they cannot charge customers. Waymo, which offers autonomous ride-hailing in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, logged more than 13 million testing miles and secured seven different regulatory approvals in California over nine years before receiving the go-ahead to charge passengers for rides in driverless robotaxis in 2023.


Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
The hottest business strategy this summer is buying crypto
It's the hottest trade of the summer. Companies are raising tens of billions of dollars, not to invest in their businesses or hire employees, but to purchase bitcoin and more obscure cryptocurrencies. A Japanese hotel operator, a French semiconductor manufacturer, a Florida toy maker, a nail-salon chain, an electric-bike maker—they're all plowing cash into tokens, helping to send all kinds of digital currencies to record levels. News that a new company plans to buy crypto is enough to send its shares flying—spurring others to consider joining the frenzy. Since June 1, 98 companies have announced plans to raise over $43 billion to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to Architect Partners, a crypto advisory firm. Nearly $86 billion has been raised for this purpose since the start of the year. That's more than double the amount of money raised in initial public offerings in the U.S. in 2025, according to Dealogic. Skeptics say the rush of companies buying crypto is a sign the market is overheating, noting that digital tokens, especially the obscure ones, are notoriously volatile and have uncertain futures. They scratch their heads about why an investor would buy shares of a company purchasing cryptocurrencies when they can buy them on their own through low-cost exchange-traded funds and other vehicles. Others note that many of these companies are worth much more than the cryptocurrencies they hold, as if investors are willing to pay $2 for a $1 bill. That hasn't stopped big-name bankers, investors and others from jumping in. Mutual-fund giant Capital Group, hedge fund D1 Capital Partners and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald are among those backing recent efforts by companies to raise huge sums to purchase cryptocurrencies. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital and other investors backed a move by a company called Bitmine Immersion Technologies to raise $250 million to buy ether. The company, worth $26 million on June 27, the Friday before its announcement, is now worth over $2 billion after a surge of more than 800%. Thiel, the tech billionaire known for starting PayPal and Palantir, holds a 9.1% stake in the company, according to a recent filing. He declined to comment. 'If you blink, you miss a couple of these deals," said Bob Diamond, the former Barclays chief executive. He should know. Last week, an investment firm Diamond co-founded called Atlas Merchant Capital said it was working with Paradigm, D1, Galaxy, 683 Capital and other big investors to form an entity that will spend $305 million to buy a seven-month-old crypto token called Hype. Diamond will be chairman of the new entity, while Eric Rosengren, the former president of the Boston Fed, is expected to be on its board of directors. 'We think Hype is pretty special," Diamond says. The new entrants are following in the footsteps of the company once known as MicroStrategy, whose CEO, Michael Saylor, pioneered the so-called crypto-treasury strategy in 2020. Now known simply as Strategy, it has spent years selling shares and debt to buy bitcoin. It is now worth over $115 billion, up 153% in the past year and 3,371% in the past five years. Saylor has long implored other companies to buy bitcoin with their excess cash. Most everyone ignored or scoffed at the notion. Using spare cash or raising money to buy volatile cryptocurrencies seemed a dicey proposition. Executives who run companies that sell products and services weren't supposed to speculate on bitcoin. As of last August, just a handful of companies were using their cash to buy any crypto. That all changed this year. President Trump has embraced crypto, vowing to make America the 'crypto capital of the planet." He has installed crypto-friendly cabinet members and Congress has advanced legislation that could make cryptocurrencies part of the mainstream financial system. Trump Media and Technology Group, the social-media firm controlled by the president's family, has also bought about $2 billion worth of bitcoin and related securities as part of its treasury strategy. Lately, companies have been taking things further than even Saylor suggested—buying overlooked or unknown digital currencies, not to diversify their holdings but to make outright wagers on risky tokens. Even Saylor is unsure that's a wise move. 'Applying a treasury strategy to other crypto assets introduces a different—and often speculative—risk profile," Saylor said in an email. 'I haven't seen a compelling rationale for doing so." Some bears are wading into the frenzy, including well-known short seller Jim Chanos, to bet against some of these companies. 'In my three decades experience I have never witnessed a period where investors are willing to pay such large premiums for assets they can readily purchase on their own," says Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading. Big companies, including tech giants Meta and Microsoft, have resisted the idea, as have their investors. Shareholder proposals at both companies sought to add bitcoin to their balance sheets at recent annual meetings, but were overwhelmingly voted down. Meta and Microsoft's boards of directors recommended voting against the proposals to invest in bitcoin. The companies that are taking the plunge are being transparent about their plans to raise cash and put it all in crypto. They argue that they can do things an ETF cannot, such as 'stake" tokens, or lock them up for a specified amount of time to earn a return. The companies can also borrow money to buy additional cryptocurrencies, something ETFs also can't do. Cryptocurrencies are volatile even in the best of times. If the price of a token plunges after a company has bet the farm, it could be left holding a worthless asset. Staking amplifies the risk, since it means an investor can't touch the locked-up tokens if they start to fall in value. And then there's the risk that investors sour on the strategy. Last week, Volcon, an electric-bike maker based in Austin, Texas, raised $500 million in just seven days to initiate its bitcoin treasury strategy, according to co-CEO Ryan Lane. Shares of Volcon jumped from $9.22 to more than $44 on the day of its announcement as speculators rushed to snap up the stock. Shares have fallen every day since, closing Friday at $13.40. Two weeks ago, French semiconductor manufacturer Sequans Communications raised $384 million from more than 40 institutional investors to buy bitcoin. The company's stock jumped 215% that week and peaked at $5.83 a share—but it's since fallen back down to $1.98. 'What happens in six, 12 or 18 months from now and instead of the current bull market, we have a bear market?" said Evgeny Gaevoy, the co-founder of crypto market-making firm Wintermute. 'A lot of low-effort crypto treasury companies will potentially crash and burn. And a lot of the retail investors that predominantly invested in them will be affected." Executives of some of the companies aren't waiting to see if their plans work out—they're dumping their personal shares after making the announcements, pocketing millions in the process. On June 16, for example, SRM Entertainment, a toy-and-souvenir manufacturer in Winter Park, Fla., with a market value of $25 million the Friday before, announced plans to spend $100 million on a cryptocurrency called Tron. The token purchase is part of a reverse merger between SRM and crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun's company, also called Tron. SRM's stock, which traded between 28 cents and $1.45 a share all year, shot up past $9. Over the next several days, the company's CEO, Richard Miller, and its chief financial officer, Douglas McKinnon, exercised previously issued stock options to buy a combined 600,000 shares at 56 cents a share, according to data from The Washington Service. They sold a combined $2 million or so of the newly acquired shares. A vice president of the company sold $941,000 worth of stock. Executives of the company, which has changed its name to Tron Inc. and rang the Nasdaq opening bell on Thursday, declined to comment. Lately, tiny companies are working with recognized names in finance to raise cash to buy crypto. Among them is Cantor Fitzgerald, run by Howard Lutnick before he became commerce secretary this year and passed the reins to his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick. Cantor last week said it would form a $5.3 billion bitcoin treasury company with Adam Back, an early cryptographer. It was Cantor's second multibillion-dollar crypto-treasury SPAC deal in less than three months. The firm also facilitated several other bitcoin treasury deals and acted as an adviser to Trump Media's plan to buy bitcoin. For now, many investors are scoring big profits betting on these deals, which remind some of the frenzied SPAC boom of the pandemic era, when established members of the financial world jumped on the wave. Fabio Giorno, an entrepreneur who operates a tutoring business in Toronto, says he has begun to invest in Bitmine and SharpLink Gaming, another ether-focused treasury stock. He's done well on the stocks, but says the volatility of the shares shakes him. 'Sometimes it's a little risky when you walk away from your computer, because you never know what's going to happen with the news," he said. Write to Gregory Zuckerman at and Vicky Ge Huang at