Things To Do In SW Florida

By TOM KRISHER (AP Auto Writer)

DETROIT (AP) — A key U.S. automotive industry organization says it will set performance standards for Tesla’s electric vehicle charging cords in another move toward using the Tesla plug on all EVs.

The move Tuesday by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, comes just weeks after Ford, General Motors and Rivian said they would join Tesla’s large Supercharger network and adopt its North American Charging Standard connector in new versions of their electric vehicles. But a rival connector called CCS is still in thousands of current EVs and will stay in use.

Also Tuesday, Volvo Cars said it had become the fourth automaker to sign an agreement with Tesla to join the company’s charging network, starting next year. Volvo said it will adopt Tesla’s charging connector in new electric vehicles starting in 2025.

SAE said that it’s already working on the standards and hopes to finish them within six months. The standards would govern how the plugs connect with charging stations, cybersecurity measures, charging speeds and reliability requirements, said Frank Menchaca, president of sustainable mobility solutions for the innovation arm of SAE’s nonprofit parent company. read more

Patrick Clark | (TNS) Bloomberg News

Home prices in the U.S. rose for a third straight month, pushed up by growing buyer demand for a tight supply of listings.

A national gauge of prices increased 0.5% in April from March, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.

The U.S. is in what’s traditionally its busiest homebuying season, with only about half the properties that were listed for sale in spring 2019. The inventory shortage is keeping a lid on transactions, but shoppers determined to seal a deal are often forced to pay more than the asking price in many areas of the country.

“The ongoing recovery in home prices is broadly based,” Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement Tuesday.

On a year-over-year basis, prices slipped 0.2%, compared with a 0.7% increase in March. Miami, Chicago and Atlanta reported the highest annual gains among the 20 largest cities.

The housing market is still adjusting to mortgage rates that have about doubled from early 2022, cutting into affordability for would-be buyers and discouraging current homeowners from moving. read more

Celebrity Cruises is planning on keeping its newest ship sailing from Florida year-round in 2024 and for the first time will give its customers access to sister line Royal Caribbean’s playland Perfect Day at CocoCay.

The line announced Celebrity Beyond, which debuted last fall, will remain at Port Everglades and shift to mostly six- and eight-night Caribbean itineraries.

In addition, Celebrity Reflection will join the summer sailing lineup from the Fort Lauderdale port with three- and four-night voyages.

Royal Caribbean’s upgraded Bahamas island CocoCay about to open

Both ships will make visits to the private Bahamas island CocoCay, which features a 13-slide water park with the tallest slide in North America, a helium balloon ride and zip line among other features. It also has the largest freshwater pool in the Bahamas, several beaches and the private Coco Beach Club with a heated infinity pool, specialty restaurant and overwater cabanas.

Debuting in January 2024 is the new island spot Hideaway Beach only for adults that features private cabanas and its own food venue. read more

This is what it has come to: Two of the world’s most important technology leaders are talking of a billionaires’ cage match.

Rather than spending their time addressing the very serious threats to democracy posed by their social media platforms, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Elon Musk are posting about their plans for going mano a mano in a mixed martial-arts fight in Las Vegas.

Sheesh! Grow up!

This sort of behavior gives tech a bad name. Silicon Valley was once led by the likes of David Packard, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Steve Jobs. Now it’s, “send in the clowns.” And, unfortunately, there are no grown-ups in the room willing to rein them in. If one could imagine a recipe for further undermining confidence in the industry, this is it.

Zuckerberg and Musk should engage in serious discussions about how to regulate generative artificial intelligence, guard against social media dissemination of misinformation, and reform tech companies’ monopolistic practices that are eviscerating local news outlets. And they might even want to think about protecting the value of their, and their stockholders’, investments. read more