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For years, Mercedes-Benz has relied on touchscreens as the command center of its vehicles. Is it too hot? Tap the screen to set the AC temperature. Want to listen to the news? Tap. Defrost the rear window? Tap, tap, tap. While the automaker has retained some physical controls in its cars, its modern user experience is effectively built around the screen. But that’s about to change. Magnus Östberg, chief software officer for Mercedes-Benz, recently announced that the company would be centering future car design around physical controls instead of screens. “The data shows us physical buttons are better,” Östberg told Autocar at the Munich motor show. He says Mercede…

Toxic bosses are not only a “people issue.” They are a balance-sheet issue, a culture issue, and a reputational issue. And if you are a CEO, founder, or a leader trying to build something lasting, you cannot afford to treat them as background noise. Here’s the truth: a single toxic boss can kill psychological safety, drain creativity, spike turnover, and teach your next generation of leaders that fear is an acceptable management tool. I’ve spent 25 years in organizational psychology, watching this pattern repeat across industries, including tech and other high-growth environments. I’ve also conducted interviews and surveys across North America to dig deep into the…

Toyota announced plans to restructure its board on Tuesday in what it described as an attempt to bring in more diverse views and give a larger roles to auditors. Among six appointments is Christopher Reynolds, now an executive in the automaker’s North American operations. As a lawyer, and son of a Ford worker, he brings experience in human resources and risk management, according to Toyota. The number of women on the 10-person board will grow from one to two with the appointments of Kumi Fujisawa, an independent outsider and entrepreneur, and Hiromi Osada, previously a Toyota auditor. George Olcott, previously an auditor, will also join the board. The number of outside…

Why did Toyota‘s design firm build a model American dining room in Japan back in 1986, and then invite the company’s top brass to spend some time there? The easy answer, and the one you see in headlines and social media posts, is that they were trying to teach Toyota executives just how much bigger Americans are than Japanese people. While that’s certainly part of the explanation, it isn’t all of it. If you look at the whole picture, it can teach you a lot. That’s especially true if you hope to bring your company’s product to new markets. Today, Toyota is the world’s biggest carmaker. Back then it trailed badly behind both GM and Ford. Toyota had big ambitions, and to…

Toyota is recalling nearly 400,000 vehicles because the rearview camera may not display when backing up, increasing the risk of a crash, federal traffic safety regulators said. Included in the recall are 2022-2025 Toyota Tundras and Tundra hybrids and 2023-2025 Sequoia hybrids. The number of automobiles in the recall total 393,838, with the non-hybrid Tundra making up more than half of them. The camera display malfunction is caused by a software problem, which will be fixed with an update by dealerships free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed November 16. Owners can contact Toyota’s customer service at 1-800-331-4331. The numbers f…

Toy retail brand Toys “R” Us will open new flagship stores and seasonal holiday shops just in time for the holidays. The initiative is in partnership with specialty retailer Go Retail Group, the company said. The locations will feature products from popular brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Nerf, Lego, and Paw Patrol. Some of the new stores have already opened their doors. According to the company, additional stores will open throughout the season. Here’s where you can shop Consumers will be able to do their holiday shopping at the following new Toys “R” Us locations: Flagship stores: Chicago Premium Outlets — Aurora, IL Camarillo Premium …

Jeffrey Epstein’s network of money and influence often intersected with scientific and academic communities. The disgraced financier spent years cultivating relationships with researchers at elite universities, frequently dangling the promise of funding. Some of the work he supported has had, and may still have, direct and indirect impacts on Silicon Valley’s most powerful technologies. Epstein was first convicted in 2008 on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution, yet he continued to maintain a web of relationships across the worlds of technology and academia until he was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019. The Department of Justice’s latest …

Trader Joe’s is settling a class action lawsuit for $7.4 million, after a complaint claimed that the grocery giant printed 10 digits—the first six and last four—of customers’ cards on transaction receipts. The 2019 class action lawsuit alleged that Trader Joe’s violated the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. No customers reported identity theft as a result, Trader Joe’s said on the settlement website. However, identity theft is not a requirement to prove a FACTA violation. The court did not rule on the case, and Trader Joe’s’ decision to settle did not confirm the validity of the claims. In the settlem…

Trader Joe’s stores have a reputation for getting crowded at the best of times, but if you’re planning to make a stop in the next few days, beware: the brand just dropped a Halloween version of its mini tote bags, and they already went viral twice for creating in-store traffic jams. The bags, which come in combinations of black, orange, purple, and green, cost just $2.99 each and dropped in stores on October 8. They’re a tiny version of Trader Joe’s classic reusable tote bags, measuring just 13 x 11 x 6 inches—about the size of an iPad. This is the third time that Trader Joe’s has released a new version of the bags, which have proven to be a desirable fan favorite (to…

Nothing says springtime like a canvas tote drop from Trader Joe’s. That’s right. The highly anticipated shopping bags are back and ready to fly off the shelves (and, probably, the resale sites) once again. Trader Joe’s totes are historically massively popular. The brand’s mini totes, which are just 13-by-11-by-6 inches, first dropped in 2024 and became an instant sensation after going mega-viral on TikTok. Once they sold out, they quickly began popping up on resale sites. While the totes only cost $2.99 in stores, resellers majorly marked them up, with some listing the bags for hundreds or even thousands. Since 2024, Trader Joe’s has released a few other versions of …

It’s about to get a bit easier to find a Trader Joe’s near you. The grocer just announced it will open 18 new stores across 12 states, including multiple locations in a handful of states, over the next several months. Trader Joe’s announced the new locations with a series of “Coming Soon!” announcements. Currently, the chain is in 42 states, leaving only a handful of states, including Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming, without a Trader Joe’s store. The latest cluster of openings will include locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, U…

On Friday, Trader Joe’s issued a recall on yet another product: its frozen Organic Acai Bowls. A recall notice was posted on the company’s website, explaining the recall was due to the risk of plastic inside the frozen meal. “Out of an abundance of caution, please discard any Trader Joe’s Organic Acai Bowls, as the product may contain foreign material (plastic), or return them to your neighborhood Trader Joe’s store for a full refund,” the message reads. Notices were also spotted in Trader Joe’s locations. While Trader Joe’s has voluntarily removed the product from shelves, the recall hasn’t made it to the Food and Drug Administration yet. As of Monday morn…

Trader Joe’s and other grocers are limiting the number of eggs customers can buy across the U.S., citing limited supply caused by the ongoing bird flu outbreak. Trader Joe’s is capping purchases to one carton per customer each day, the Monrovia, California-based chain confirmed. That limit applies to all of Trader Joe’s locations across the country. “We hope these limits will help to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them when they visit Trader Joe’s,” the company said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Tuesday. Photos of in-store notices about eggs purchase limits at retailers nationwide have swirled around onlin…

Kalshi made headlines last month over allowing people to place wagers on the Iran war. Now the prediction market platform is being sued by the state of Arizona, the first state to file criminal charges against the controversial company. The platform, which allows users to place wagers on happenings, such as sports games or even current events, is being accused of operating an illegal gambling business that violates the state’s laws. In a 20-count document, prosecutors alleged that the platform is mischaracterizing itself to avoid being subject to gambling laws and allowing bets on political races. “Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s a…

AI is being touted as the future of weather forecasting—faster and more precise. But new research shows a major blind spot: it often fails at predicting extreme weather. Traditional physics-based models still do better. “They do perform well on a lot of tasks, but for very extreme events—that are the most important for society—they still struggle,” says Sebastian Engelke, a statistics professor at the University of Geneva and one of the authors of a new study in Science that pitted some of the leading AI weather models, including GraphCast and Pangu-Weather, against a database of recent extreme events. For record-breaking heat, like a heat wave in Siberia in early…

Day by day there’s more evidence that AI is eating up the media world. A recent report from Growtika, a self-described SEO and AI search agency, analyzed data from the search analytics platform Ahrefs to show that traffic to many tech media sites is way down over the past couple of years. Hardest hit were Digital Trends (down 97%), ZDNet (down 90%), and The Verge (down 85%). Even the most seemingly resilient publications (Mashable was down only 30% and CNET 47%, both Ziff-Davis properties) took significant hits. Some of these reductions are no doubt exaggerated—Growtika compared each publication’s peak month with traffic in January 2026, which doesn’t account for seas…

Every day in America, over 100 people are involved in a life-altering crash that severely injures them or kills them. And that 100-per-day doesn’t even include all the people whose lives are impacted indirectly by severe crashes. Vision Zero is a road safety philosophy that originated in Sweden in the 1990s and has since been adopted by cities across the United States and Europe. Its premise is straightforward: traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable and can therefore be eliminated. With the right street design, traffic enforcement, and public awareness, everyone can get around safely. The problem is that severe crashes are a catastrophe so routine tha…

Trailers of two of Hollywood’s most anticipated upcoming movies came out this week. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Dune: Part Three and Marvel Studios’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiered a day apart. But what’s most interesting is the marketing strategy behind the trailers—in which promos and short clips of the trailers were released ahead of the full trailers. On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery hosted a livestreamed event on the official Dune account on TikTok. It featured director Dennis Villeneuve and some of the cast talking about the upcoming movie to a live audience before airing the trailer, which was simultaneously revealed at the end of the stream befo…