It is time for Tech Tuesday with Mike Duboski, who is the ABC News technology reporter who joins us. Mike is always thank you so much for joining us. Now some enormously huge news which somehow has not gotten Well, we know why it has not gotten the attention that it should get because of the issue with tariffs and now the Pope, et cetera. But that is the trial of Google, and the judge looking at it already viewed Google as a monopoly.
What is going on and what is going to happen?
This, of course, is the Google search engine monopoly case decided last year by a judge who ruled that Google was operating an illegal monopoly in the world of online search engines, that it wasn't just creating a product that people like to use and therefore was popular as a result, but rather was using its market power, it's billions of dollars, it's troves of data with regards to how people search online, to muscle out competitors and make for an anti competitive
environment and therefore a less good competitive market for consumers.
Okay, with that being said.
Let me interrupt for a moment. If the judge has already ruled that's the case. What is this trial about.
This trial is about what to do about it. Essentially, this is how we figure out what the remedy of that monopoly is going to be. This is expected to be a three week hearing. It kicked off yesterday in Washington, d C. And there are many potential remedies on the table here. The Department of Justice is going pretty big
in this case. One of those remedies would be to force Google to sell off Google Chrome, which is their very popular web browser, also the driver of a lot of Google search traffic, about thirty five percent according to the federal government. They are also targeting some of the deals Hello hello.
Oh there you go. I'm sorry, we're glitching up there.
So at the time Tuesday, you know that's gonna come.
That's part of the Yeah, I know, I know.
It's a great time for this thing to fall apart on Tech Tuesday. So I think you had just said that some of the remedies Chrome may go by the wayside, and what.
Else Chrome could go by the wayside. Also, Google has spent many billions of dollars striking deals with Apple and Samsung and others to be the default search engine on devices. Right, So if you go to the Safari web browser on your iPhone, you need to type something in not a web dress or anything like that. You just type in a term you're going to do a Google search, right.
And Google spends many billions of dollars for that privilege, according to the government, and according to a court, is anti competitive because it doesn't give consumers the choice of what search engine to use in that scenario. So the government is asking a judge to force Google to unwind some of those deals, and Google says that they're open to that possibility of potentially renegotiating some of those deals, despite the fact that they're a huge part of their business.
But they say that going any further than that, forcing them to break up the company by selling off Google Chrome and to crack down on some other aspects of their business, would be going too far. So that's what they have to decide in court this week. It's not the only anti trust trial that Google is facing. Just a few days ago, they were ruled to be operating an illegal monopoly in the world of online advertising as well.
It's the second week of the Facebook anti trust trial, and the DOJ is also leveraging cases against Apple, the FTC against Amazon Bill. What this means it's a tough time to be a tech executive in twenty twenty five.
Except there, Let's say they spin off these various companies. Now they're competing against those companies. And obviously if they are spinning off and getting cash, they're going to be so cash rich it's ridiculous. They're going to be able to buy entire countries. But it do you foresee legitimate competition?
Well?
And will they stay and will they stay in the business.
It's a good question, right. We don't really know what a future without a dominant Google Search looks like. Right, And Google has been making the argument in court that spinning off Google Chrome would kill Google Chrome, right, that it just needs to be a part of Google in order to operate. There's also the question of who would buy it, right. Google is a one point eight trillion dollar company. A lot of that valuation comes from its
cadra of services like Google Chrome. Who could afford a company like Google Chrome if they were to sell it off, and would that attract the attention of antitrust regulators? Again, So those are the questions that are facing the government, right now that's kind of what they have to prove in court to this judge saying that this is the actual only remedy. It's actually really difficult to break up a company. That's not the way our system usually does things.
The plaintifs in this case need to prove that that's the only option, right, They need to take every other possibility off the table before a judge would ultimately side in that case. But even still, the government is going after them in that regard. Another big part of this is search engine data. Right every time you google something, Google learns a little bit about you and learns about
the search engine habits of Americans. The Department of Justice is also asking a judge to make Google make that information freely available. Right now, it's proprietary to Google. One of the reasons they say that Google has become dominant is because other competitors don't have access to as wide a trove of information as as Art Eagle does.
Mike Weird new truck out there that de Bezos is backing.
What is this about? Because I love new You know, we have not had years where nothing new.
We have had years where nothing new has come up, And then the last few years. It has exploded with new companies, new products, new vehicles.
So what's this one about.
Yeah, speaks to just how hard it is to build cars in the industry. But thanks to flush you know, VC cash, there are now you know, a whole lot of new startups kind of floating around out there. The latest one is Slate Auto and this is one to keep an eye on this week. This is a new automaker that's promising a small electric pickup truck for just twenty five thousand dollars. There's really nothing else out there that is a pickup truck that is twenty five thousand
dollars that runs on battery power. There are vanishingly few cars out there for twenty five thousand dollars anymore. And this is a pretty big promise. Tesla for a long time was promising a thirty five thousand dollars electric vehicle, but they were never quite able to get that over the line. So this is a pretty ambitious project. But even still, speaking of that VC cash, this company has been able to raise over one hundred and ten million
dollars in Series A funding. One of those major investors is Jeff Bezos, so some big names attached to this and throwing their name behind this new company. What we know about the truck is kind of sparse at this point. There have been a couple prototypes, a couple mock ups cropping up around, particularly like trendy neighborhoods in Los Angeles for people to take pick of, but there's no details
on it. In fact, one reporter was able to climb under one of those models and discover that there's actually not an engine in it. It's just kind of a model that they've put there for people to look at. We are expected to get more details on this thing when it is officially unveiled later this week on Thursday, So.
We don't know when it's coming out. Any idea or the range or.
The actual price. Is that a We hope to be able to do it for twenty five thousand dollars.
I think we're going to get more information on all of those fronts on Thursday when it is officially unveiled. The target seems to be twenty five thousand dollars, and they seem to be pretty committed to, if not exactly that number, somewhere close to it. In fact, one of the early reports here indicates that the car will have optional air conditioning, Which when was the last time that you remembered optional air conditioning in a vehicle? That seems to be a tactic that they are using to get
this thing under that twenty five thousand dollars mark. It's really difficult, right, mass producing a car at scale, especially when you're startup, is an expensive proposition, right. You have to contact suppliers, you have to spin up factories, hire workers, do marketing and all that sort of thing that costs a lot of money that's eventually transferred onto the cost of the car. Does seem like there's some pretty deep pocketed investors behind this company that might be able to
absorb some of that cost. But will this be a going concern? Will this be something that lasts? I think that remains to be seen. It's also going to be interesting for me to just look at, you know, who is this targeted at?
Right?
Is this an everyday person's car? Is this designed to be a commuter vehicle for people who you know might need a small pickup truck like this? Or is this for work? Right? Is this for small businesses? Some of the mockups that have been cropping up have had little attachments to the back of them to go over the bed of the pickup truck, a little sort of coverings or they kind of make it look a little bit different.
So it seems to be aimed kind of at small businesses and people who use the vehicle for that purpose. But again, we just don't know for sure yet.
How about those other companies that have come out. You've got Rivian, you have I'm trying to think.
Of yeh, Lucid. Yeah, I haven't even seen.
A Lucid vehicle out there. I've seen some Rivians. Yeah, how are they? How are they doing? Is there anybody succeeding other than Tesla.
Well, it's kind of an open question whether Tesla is still succeeding really. I mean, they have good point to a point, but we are expected to get information on their latest quarterly earnings later today. That's going to be kind of our clearest look yet into the actions of Elon Musk and whether that's having an impact on his electric vehicle business. With regards to Rivian and Lucid, those kind of seem to be the most prominent electric vehicle
startups out there as opposed to Tesla. Rivian makes electric trucks. Lucid makes an electric sedan. They are about to bring an electric suv to market. I actually got a chance to drive it last week at the New York International Auto Show. It's a really interesting new product. They are backed by the Saudi Investment Fund, which is a hugely you know, wealthy investment fund out there, so they have some some backing behind them. But again they're not really
making money just yet. Rivian, on the other hand, has major partnerships with the likes of Ford and used to be with Amazon as well, so it's really not even about selling a car and making you know, a margin on each individual vehicle. It's kind of about what relationships that you're able to strike. So that's kind of where they find themselves right now.
All right, Mike, thank you always, great information. You have a good day.
You do too. Take care.