Lenovo is betting on the boom in voice assistants.
“I think voice is becoming naturally prevalent, just as touch is becoming prevalent on laptops,” Dilip Bhatia, the company’s VP of Marketing told Cheddar.
“In the future you’ll see many voice engines, whether it’s Alexa or whether it’s Cortana. This is the wave of the future and many products will support this going forward.”
The Chinese electronics giant is trying to get ahead of the curve by integrating the technology into its products. The company unveiled its third such device, a laptop that supports Amazon Alexa, this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Lenovo Yoga ships in April.
Bhatia acknowledges that people may not currently be using voice assistants to their fullest potential, but expanding into visual applications could change that. He highlights a recent partnership with Google.
“I believe the Lenovo Smart Display takes it to a new level,” he said. “While voice is great, how great is it when you can basically say...‘Hey, Google, Play the highlights from last night’s NBA game,’ or, ‘Show me how to put such-and-such recipe [together].’”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/lenovo-goes-big-with-voice).
Amid a string of recalls for their electric cars, Tesla is also facing a lawsuit over workplace discrimination. The electric automaker is being accused by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing of a pattern of racial discrimination against Black workers. Caleb Silver, Editor-in-Chief at Investopedia, joined Cheddar News to discuss the numerous technical and safety issues that led to the recalls and the allegations of systemic racist abuse at its Fremont plant. "Tesla disputes these claims, but still you can’t avoid the pattern," he said.
The Super Bowl is only a few days away, and the game is currently tracking to be the most expensive one ever.
Gametime, a website and app for last-minute tickets, says the average ticket price for the NFL's championship game is $9,502.50, with the most expensive seats costing nearly $38,000. That's a far cry away from the average ticket price of the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, which was only $12. The average ticket price increased by more than $8,000 in just the past decade. Matt Rados, Senior Operations Manager at Gametime, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Earlier this week, digital investment advisor Betterment announced that it has hired Makara, a company known for its management of cryptocurrency portfolios. Sarah Levy, CEO of Betterment, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she explains why crypto represents such a promising long-term play and how her company stands to benefit from this latest move.
At-home medical labs company Getlabs raised $20 million in a Series A round, led by Emerson Collective and the Minderoo Foundation. Getlabs aims to be the boots-on-the-ground partner to telehealth. The company says more than 70% of medical decisions still require collecting diagnostic tests in person, and that it fills that void by delivering health care directly to their patients' homes. Founder & CEO of Getlabs Kyle Michelson joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The White House laid out plans for a $5 billion investment into a national network of charging stations to ease EV driving anxiety. Bruce Brimacombe, CEO of EV infrastructure GOe3 joined Cheddar News to discuss how much needs to be done for drivers to get over the fear of running out of energy. "People need to be able to do what they're doing now," he said. "But that is the way that if you're going to buy an electric car, you got to feel like you're not changing your world." Brimacombe noted that building out the infrastructure between cities was GOe3's own focus.
