Facebook’s clash with Baltic startup points to the metaverse; and the UK’s automated-car challenge

MLex Market Insight

It has been two years since Facebook was accused of illegally copying the world’s largest repository of digitized and realistic three-dimension objects and scenes from a Lithuanian startup. At the time, the allegations appeared highly unlikely — why would a social-media platform need digitized objects? But now that Facebook’s parent company has rebranded as Meta Platforms and launched a bold vision of enhanced reality called the metaverse, the allegations appear less fanciful….”Meta’s unsuccessful attempt to have a US judge take the unprecedented step of blocking a non-US company from downloading court documents in a case that it’s a party to has only stoked interest in the case. Also on today’s podcast: UK regulators come under pressure to start paving the way for automated cars. There’s a lot riding on the regulators’ response, with proponents of the technology hopeful Britain could soon be leading the world.