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Automaker Lucid Motors announced it has produced 2,282 units during Q3 2022 and is still on track to meet its yearly production estimates. Lucid aims to manufacture upwards of 7,000 units in 20022, and we'll have to wait to see how productive the company will be to close out the year.

The San Francisco Bay Area-based company manufactures its vehicles at a production facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Lucid became more conservative with its production goals, cutting production guidance during 2022. The company wanted to produce 20,000 Air cars, but that number was quickly reduced in February between 12,000 and 14,000 vehicles. That number was once again trimmed back, this time with a production goal of 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles.

Brazil's economic regulators just approved the Microsoft-Activision merger without restrictions, but its determination document is decided myopic on one of Microsoft's strongest points: Video game subscriptions.

Following its approval of Activision-Blizzard's merger with Microsoft, Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) regulatory body put out a massive 76-page document that outlines how it came to its decision. The missive is incredibly thorough and has turned out to be a treasure trove of data while providing an in-depth look at how the market is read and interpreted by anti-competitive watchdogs.

The document in itself goes through painstaking detail on key points of $196 billion video games industry, discussing market share, downstream and upstream markets, and delivers illuminating data on just how big Sony's position really is. There's just one aspect that CADE was short-sighted on, and it happens to be the core of the Xbox business: Subscriptions.

Located just 5,000 light-years away from Earth, which is a relatively short distance when considering the universe's vastness, are a pair of stars known as Wolf-Rayet 140.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has pointed its extremely advanced instruments at the star duo and photographed a remarkable event. The image showcases seventeen concentric dust rings emanating from the two stars, with each ring being created when the two stars came close to each other and their stellar winds meet, compressing the gas and forming space dust.

NASA explains in its blog post that the dust rings are much like the growth rings on a tree's trunk as they represent a passage of time. This event only happens once every eight years when both of the star's orbit's come close together. Ryan Lau, an astronomer at NSF's NOIRLab and lead author of a new study recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy that focuses on the star system, said that Webb's image illustrates just how sensitive its instruments are, because researchers were only able to see two dust rings with ground-based telescopes.

A scammer individual that claimed he was stuck on the surface of the Moon has received tens of thousands of dollars from a woman.

According to a report from last week by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbum, which stated that a 65-year-old Japanese woman has been scammed 4.4 million yen, or approximately $30,000 US, from an undisclosed individual that told her he was stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and needed the funds to pay for a ride back down to Earth. The scammer not only lied about being stuck in space, but he also claimed that he had fallen in love with the woman and that if she paid for his ride back to Earth, he would start a new life with her.

Additionally, the scammer told the woman that when he was unable to contact her for sometimes days on end that the cell service aboard the ISS was sometimes spotty, which is simply not true at all because there is zero cell service aboard the ISS. Legitimate astronauts aboard the ISS access the internet via an internet-connected IP phone. After sending a total of five payments to the scammer, the woman contacted authorities on the suspicion that the individual was lying. Unfortunately, it's not known if the scammer was caught by authorities or if the 65-year-old woman got her money back.

Entrepreneur Dennis Tito was the very first private citizen to book his own ride to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2004, and now the now 84-year-old wants to go to the Moon.

Tito and his wife, Akiko Tito, went to the SpaceX headquarters a year ago, located in Hawthrone, California, where they went on a tour that ended up in booking a space venture. According to the announcement via SpaceX's website, the Tito's were asked if they wanted to book a trip around the Moon via SpaceX's in-development Starship launch vehicle. The Tito's looked at each other, and both agreed immediately to the offer and penciled in a flight that is expected to happen before the end of the decade.

The announcement marked the very first woman to be scheduled to fly aboard SpaceX's Starship, and if everything goes to plan between now and liftoff, the flight will take the couple and ten other yet-to-be-booked passengers on a week-long journey around the Moon, where they will come within just 24 miles of the lunar surface, according to Ars Technica.

Two neutron stars collided, causing a jet of material that astronomers initially believed traveled more than seven times the speed of light.

The event occurred back in 2017 when astronomers watched two neutron stars orbiting each other collide, causing a massive jet of material to be blasted out of the merger. Astronomers initially measured the speed of the jet and found it was traveling seven times the speed of light, a speed that was thought to be impossible or beyond the current understanding of physics.

Scientists were right in suspecting that there was something up with their initial measurements, as they discovered a viewing phenomenon called superluminal speed, an illusion that occurs based on the viewing angle of the event.

Meetings will soon be converted to holograms, according to Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The Meta CEO recently appeared on a podcast interview with Stratechery's Ben Thompson, where he explained that meetings such as the podcast that they were currently conducting would eventually be done in augmented reality via augmented reality glasses, enabling new ways of online communication such as handing 3D-rendered objects to each other. Zuckerberg said that "there is nothing that I think would stop us" from getting there just five years from now.

The Meta CEO explained that hologram meetings would mean that Thompson, who is located in Taiwan, would appear as a hologram within Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, United States. The Facebook founder said that having a hologram meeting such as a podcast will mean it's much more than just a binary video call where two or more people can see each other and that augmented reality users will actually be able to interact with each other and things together.

Swedish automaker Polestar officially unveiled the Polestar 3 electric performance SUV, a five-passenger EV that will have 517 horsepower and 300 miles charge range. The car is priced near $84,000 and will ship packed full of technology for drivers and passengers to make use of.

Polestar is a company jointly owned by Volvo and Chinese automaker Geely, which has relied on manufacturing vehicles in China. However, Polestar expects to start Polestar 3 assembly in the United beginning in mid-2024.

The Polestar 3 has a top speed of 130 miles per hour and will reach 0 to 60 mph in five seconds.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has recently defended his decision to price the Meta Quest Pro at just $1,500.

The Meta CEO and Facebook founder recently appeared on a podcast with Stratechery's Ben Thompson, where he sat down to discuss various topics such as Meta's upcoming projects and how he believes the metaverse will be the next big thing that people adopt. When asked about the pricing of Meta's products, in particular, the Meta Quest Pro, Zuckerberg took the opportunity to subtly throw shade at Apple through a comparison between his company's pricing and Apple's.

Zuckerberg went on to say that companies typically build hardware and attempt to make a profit off the initial sale of that hardware, but in Apple's case, according to Zuckerberg, "you charge as much as you can for it". As you might've already expected, Zuckerberg explains that Meta is taking a different approach to hardware sales by only trying to "break even".

New Vegas-era dialog skill checks are back, and Starfield will have a unique persuasion system befit of a "classic" Bethesda game.

Starfield is shaping up for its impending 2023 launch, and no epic Bethesda RPG would be complete without an innovative dialog system. We've already reported that Starfield wouldn't recreate one of Fallout 4's biggest mistakes, but now Bethesda's Todd Howard discusses more info on the game's dialog mechanics.

"We've a lot of different dialog systems, we've gone back to a kind of classic Bethesda style dialog system. You're looking at the character and how they emote and there's a series of choices there," Howard said in a new Starfield video.

Bethesda has done everything from consulting with Elon Musk to studying quantum physics research papers to inject more reality into Starfield.

In a new Starfield promo video, Todd Howard talks about developments the team is making in the massive epic space RPG. Bethesda originally wanted a fair amount of realism in the game, but Howard says that some of these mechanics just didn't fly.

"We were really into fuel and how the gravity drive works...I'm reading papers on quantum physics, you know, bending space in front of you, you don't actually work, you bend the space forward, you bring the space toward you," Howard said in the video.

Automaker giant General Motors wants businesses and electric vehicle owners to make use of GM Energy, a new effort that will maximize energy management services. It looks like GM wants to connect homes and businesses with EV chargers to create optimized energy storage that can benefit the towns EV owners currently live and work in.

GM hopes the Ultium Home, Ultium Commercial, and Ultium Charge 360 platforms will help customers with integrated energy management that can help mitigate the effects of power outages. The company also will work with SunPower, a leading US solar technology company, along with other companies interested in providing energy solutions while receiving product and service offerings in return.

As stated by Travis Hester, VP of EV growth operations at GM: "The reliability of the U.S. electrical power grid has never been more important. GM Energy has the opportunity to help deliver sustainable energy products and services that can help mitigate the effect of power outages and provide customers with resilient and cost-effective energy management."

Meta stuns the still-emerging mixed-reality market with a $1,500 headset aimed at pioneering productivity in the metaverse.

Meta's new Quest Pro VR headset isn't just for gaming. The new $1,500 wearable is Meta's first real push into productivity and aims to provide virtual access to a workspace full of apps. The Quest Pro is something out of science fiction; put on the headset and you're transported to a digital world where a simple empty desk turns into a multi-screen workspace.

The Quest Pro has a hefty boost in power, too. The headset is the first to use the new Snapdragon XR2+ and runs at 50% more power. The controllers have self-tracking sensors complete with haptic feedback and built-in Snapdragon processors.

Japanese automaker Lexus has premiered the all-electric UX 300e, a shiny new battery electric vehicle that will start being delivered in spring 2023.

The UX 300e first launched in 2020, marking Lexus' first full all-electric vehicle, though understood the car's storage capacity and range were two aspects that would need to be improved. Lexus was able to improve upon both features this time around:

The car has a cruising range of more than 275 miles, with a battery capacity of 72.8 kWh. Lexus developed a new battery pack that greatly increased the cruising range by over 40%. The front-mounted electric motor generates 201 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque.

UPDATE: CADE has released a new revised document that removes the revenue values from the tables listed below.

Nintendo Switch Online (launched in 2018) has generated nearly $1 billion in revenues throughout 2021, new documents from Brazilian regulator CADE have revealed.

Brazil's government competition watchdog CADE recently approved the Microsoft-Activision merger. The regulator published a sizable 76-page document detailing how it made its determination, revealing valuable data points in the process. CADE's report revealed how much Xbox Game Pass made in 2021, for instance, showing that the service is a meaningful contributor to Xbox revenues.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick makes interesting comments about entertainment streaming subscriptions that could in theory be applied to the current multi-game subscription market.

Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive, has always been skeptical of new technologies and business models. Zelnick typically delivers level-headed responses to emerging entertainment industry trends and has made some interesting comments about streaming subscriptions that could be applied to other media subscriptions on a macro level.

In a recent interview with The Wrap, Zelnick outlines why overspending on production can lead to mediocre content. These comments are in regards to entertainment streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, and Paramount+, however they could be applied to game subscriptions--to a degree at least. Zelnick further pontificates that the current exclusionary media streaming market will eventually fold back into itself out of necessity and that big networks will once again start cross-streaming content on competing services as a back-end solution--which is something the games industry actually has a head start on.

Consumers continue to purchase connected products, and 38% of households now have at least one smart home device, according to a consumer survey from Parks Associates. That number is a small 2% bump year-over-year, with other analysts specifically interested in how smart home security and home energy can be enhanced using Internet-connected devices.

Almost 30 percent of consumers have purchased a smart home device in the past year, while 44 percent of US households plan to purchase at least one smart home device in the next year. It shouldn't be a surprise that even more consumers are thinking about purchasing a connected device, with even more devices being added to the marketplace. In addition, mobile support to control these devices also has continually improved, and should continue to do so in the future.

As noted by Chris White, research director at Parks Associates: "There is so much to talk about. All channels that develop and deliver smart home products have seen new demand, with rising consumer expectations and new opportunities to deliver an integrated connected experience in the home. We are excited to bring industry leaders together to talk about the advancements in the connected home."

Take-Two Interactive has no plans to adapt all of its hit IPs into mobile games following its $12.7 billion buyout of Zynga.

A bit ago, Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K publisher Take-Two merged with Zynga in the second-largest video games acquisition in history. Up until now, Take-Two has only had a fledgling presence in mobile, but Zynga's multi-billion games and adtech empire ensures boarder market expansion for the publisher.

It's a match made in heaven. Take-Two has a huge library of IP, and Zynga has the mobile know-how. So which games are getting adapted as mobile ports? We know the GTA Definitive Edition trilogy is coming to mobile, and that mobile games will make up 44% or Take-Two's upcoming slate of video game projects (38 mobile games out of 87 projects total).

A group of photographers was blessed with the opportunity to capture SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket zooming past the full Moon shortly after it was launched.

The photographer behind the incredible image seen below is Nicholas D'Alessandro, who captured SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch last Saturday, October 8, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. D'Alessandro spoke to PetaPixel and explained that it wasn't as simple as just rocking up to the location and snapping a few photos, as the below image was three days in the making after the launch of the rocket was scrubbed in the two days prior due to a helium leak.

Photographers are stubborn when it comes to getting the perfect shot, and their patience certainly paid off as on the third-day launch was a go, and the conditions to capture the rocket right in front of the full Moon were the best out of the three days they waited. "It happened to be the best day out of the three for the Moon's position, as it was increasingly full and lower on the horizon which each successive attempt. A fourth attempt would have been off the table as the Moon rose after the launch at that point," explains D'Alessandro.

NASA has announced it will be livestreaming the departure of four astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) via SpaceX's Dragon capsule.

It was only last week that SpaceX launched a ground-breaking mission to the International Space Station via its Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon capsule. The Dragon capsule carried four astronauts safely to the ISS, where it docked, marking the first time a Native American woman has reached the final frontier, along with cosmonaut Anna Kikina being the very first Russian to fly on a private American spacecraft.

Now, the return journey is about to get underway as four astronauts have wrapped up their nearly six-month stay aboard the floating laboratory. NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, will say their goodbyes to the crew aboard the ISS and board the Dragon spacecraft on October 12. NASA expects that the Dragon spacecraft will splashdown off the coast of Florida on October 13 in one of seven targeted landing zones.