Good Week: GM & Ford – The two largest U.S. automakers – frequent and favorite foils of this column – finally find themselves on the right side of the Snark, with both GM and Ford announcing plans to step up electric car production. While not committing to a specific timeframe, GM’s chief of global product development said the company would be moving to an “all-electric future.” Will "firing on all cylinders" be replaced by "contact on all brushes"?
Bad Week: Mattel – The toy industry leader said it will abandon plans to sell a kid-focused “smart hub” – an artificial intelligence device to go in children’s rooms – after child health and privacy experts argued that the device would afford the company an unprecedented look into children’s personal lives. From Hot Wheels to Hot Mess in a generation.
Worse Week: Yahoo – If you thought you were one of the “lucky” Yahoo users whose account wasn’t impacted back in the epic security breach of August 2013, guess again. Yahoo parent company Verizon this week announced that new information has revealed that every single one of Yahoo’s more than 3 billion user accounts was compromised during that attack. Every. Single. One.