Ring adds doorbell facial recognition; Yuetings assets frozen; Netflix pushes film towards theaters
Evergrane Freezes Yueting’s Assets
On Dec. 14, a federal judge froze Faraday & Future Inc. Chief Executive Jia Yueting’s assets, including a 33 percent stake in the Gardena-based electric car manufacturer and Yueting’s three homes in Rancho Palos Verdes. The LA Times reports that the freezing of the assets happened because of a legal battle between Yueting and Faraday Future’s biggest investor, a Chinese firm Evergrande. Evergrande, which is owed roughly $7 million by Yueting, intends to make it more difficult for Faraday (and Yueting’s) cash to continue flowing without paying their debts.
Hollywood-based streaming provider Netflix Inc. is rigorously promoting its feature film, “Roma,” in its first attempt to make content eligible for an Oscar. The film, which debuted in August at the Telluride Film Festival, was released on Netflix on Dec. 14. Typically, Netflix bypasses theaters or releases its content there secondarily, but “Roma” is the first to have a movie premier before streaming. The New York Times reports “Roma” is the first in a lineup of films Netflix movie division chief Scott Stuber aims to push to the mainstream, with a plan of supplying 55 “Netflix Original” films per year.
Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary Ring Inc. manufactures electronic doorbells that employ cameras to identify who’s at your door. Now, the Santa Monica-based firm owns a patent (applied for by Amazon) for facial recognition software to install in its cameras, allowing multiple Ring doorbells in a neighborhood to network with one another and create a composite image of anyone approaching. The images will be scanned for “suspicious” qualities and if any are detected, the Ring doorbell will automatically call police. Socaltech reports the new tech is raising concerns from privacy and civil rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union.
