Tausi Insider

In an upscale Seoul neighbourhood two years ago, a white Tesla Model X smashed into a parking lot wall. The fiery crash killed a prominent lawyer – a close friend of South Korea’s president. Prosecutors have charged the driver with involuntary manslaughter. He blames Tesla. Choi Woan-jong, who had eked out a living by driving drunk people home in their own cars, says the Model X sped out of control on its own and that the brakes failed in the December 2020 accident. The criminal trial about to begin in South Korea hangs on questions about the safety of Tesla cars, at a time when the EV maker faces a range of lawsuits and increased scrutiny by regulators. Choi, 61, is now unable to find work as an independent driver, or what is known in Korea as a “replacement driver.” He says he suffers flashbacks and depression ahead of a trial that pits his credibility against the world’s most valuable auto maker. “When I wake up, I feel abandoned, floating alone in the middle of the ocean,” said C...

Sacco di Roma 455. Painted in the 19th century. Handout Like Alaric when he’d sacked Rome, Elon Musk, the outsider who’d long wanted in, has now taken over the eternal city of Twitter. Mr. Musk’s first order of business – or the most prominent one, at least – has been to change one of the most curious aspects of the Internet: the little blue check marks next to users names’ that show them as “verified.” (It’s actually a white check mark on a blue badge, but who cares any more these days?) The debate around this issue has been intense and even obsessive at times. But it has danced around the elephant in the room – our own vanity that has caused us to attach value to that checkmark. Intentionally or not, Mr. Musk, whose day job is chief executive of Tesla Inc. TSLA-Q, has launched a grand social experiment. What that reveals is unexpected but straightforward: If purely digital milestones can have such real and tangible power over us, then perhaps the metaverse and Web3 are worth our in...