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2025 Laws Take on Social Media and Minimum Wage & Tesla Suffers First Sales Slip
00:31:11
A slew of new laws come into effect in 2025 & Tesla sales stall out
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- [00:00]
Ryan Reynolds
Hey there, Ryan Reynolds here. It's a new year and you know what that means. No, not the diet resolutions. A way for us all to try and do a little bit better than we did last year. And my resolution, unlike big wireless, is to not be a raging and raise the price of wireless on you every chance I get.
- [00:17]
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- [00:31]
Neal Freyman
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.
- [00:34]
Toby Howell
And I'm Toby Howell.
- [00:35]
Neal Freyman
Today, Tesla's traditional car business is losing steam. Only self driving can save it now.
- [00:41]
Toby Howell
That Netflix just had its biggest TV debut of all time and it had nothing to do with the NFL. It's Friday, January 3rd. Let's ride.
- [00:55]
Neal Freyman
It's that time of the year, the very beginning, when everyone is posting what's in and what's out for 2020. Toby, you consider yourself a tastemaker. You even have a segment called Toby's Trends after all. So what's going to be in this year and what's going to be passe?
- [01:12]
Toby Howell
All right. In this year is earnestness. Out is aloofness. We are trying hard and taking things seriously in 2025. In long distance running out. Long distance relationships just move already. It's good for the soul in pronouncing words incorrectly, oddly enough. So we're giving ourselves some grace. Out is saying it Chipotle or Nvidia. Those two are crossing the line. And then finally in business news podcast, absolutely out. Being uninformed. Feel like that one speaks for itself. Neil, you don't have a Toby's Trend segment, but do you have an in and out?
- [01:47]
Neal Freyman
I have a few. My first one has to do with running as well. I think running clubs are out. Oh yeah, too many. Swimming is in, Connections is out. Crosswords are in. I think TikTok is out. Whether there's a ban or not. And it's going to be a big year for LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is in. And then my last one is the concept of vibes are out. There's been too much talk of vibes over the past few years. No one really knows what it means. What's in is going to be data based decision making.
- [02:17]
Toby Howell
Okay, here's what I want to hear from you guys. Tell us if Toby's in and out. Are in or out. And then tell us if Neil's in and out or in and out. That might be a little confusing, but give us some feedback here.
- [02:28]
Neal Freyman
All right. Like all of you, US States make their own resolutions on New Year's, but those come in the form of new new laws. Tens of thousands of new laws went into effect on January 1st across the country, impacting everything from social media use to minimum wages to Taylor Swift tickets. Toby and I are going to give you a quick tour of the most important and bizarre laws that are now active so you can learn something and also avoid jail time. First, let's talk Internet. Florida's first of its kind controversial law that bans children under 14 from having social media accounts is technically in effect now. Enforcement is being delayed due to legal challenges filed by industry groups. Remember, under this law, social media platforms will be responsible for terminating and blocking any accounts belonging to people suspected of being under 14 with the goal of protecting kids from online harms. And then in terms of the minimum wage, workers in 21 states will get a pay bump as of the first of the year. The highest will be in three states, Washington, California and Connecticut, all of which now have wage floors of more than $16 per hour. The federal minimum wage has not budged from 7, 25 an hour since 2009. So many states and cities have taken it upon themselves to raise their minimum wages to help workers keep up with greater cost of living expenses. Toby, any of these laws you want to dive into?
- [03:48]
Toby Howell
Yeah, let's dive into that social media law from Florida because it also extends to something beyond social media and that is adult content websites. The law also requires adult concept content websites to age verify for access with the goal of protecting kids from know certain websites on the Internet. And it's not just Florida either. We are seeing this really across the south and across the country. Tennessee, South Carolina and a growing list of 14 other states now have residents who can no longer access those popular adult content websites, those popular pornography websites, because of age verification laws. So ALO Networks, which owns some of the biggest adult content websites out there, they decided to just block users because they don't think that they can actually comply and perform these reasonable aids verification requests. And there's been some pushback. Obviously some free speech advocates say that it's just going to push people to even darker and more dangerous parts of the Internet and they're not doing much to protect the actual people that they are trying to protect here. So there's definitely going to be some Supreme Court arguments that do come down related to these cases. But I do think that's A theme of some of the laws that you described here is just protecting child protections when it comes to online activity. Right.
- [05:04]
Neal Freyman
I just want to put a point on it. Seventeen states across the US south and other parts of the United States can no longer access pornhub and other adult content websites because they are deciding to not comply with these age verification rules over privacy concerns. They say, we don't want to be collecting this information, so we're just going to block you. And that has been a huge trend over the past few years. Started with Louisiana two years ago. And what you see after all of these bans come into effect is a massive spike in VPN news so people can skirt these blocks. So when this happened on Florida, In Florida on January 1, two days ago, there was a VPN search spike of 1150% within hours of it going into effect. So people will have their porn of whether they, whether it's blocked or not. And that's very similar to what we saw in other states. Like Utah saw a 96, 90, 967% spike in VPN use in 2023 when their law went into effect. In Texas had a similar spike when that law went into effect as well. But you're right, this is going to the Supreme Court, likely because free speech advocates have taken the site, taken the side of these adult content websites and have challenged this Texas law specifically. So we'll probably hear arguments on that. Well, I won't, but the Supreme Court will. January 15th. So that could have widespread impacts for all of these states that have put up these barriers.
- [06:30]
Toby Howell
So what else is going on other than these child protection laws, other than the minimum wage increases? Some other laws that are going into effect. Illinois gyms must allow memberships to be canceled by email or on their websites. I know a lot of people have had that really tough experience with the gym trying to actually cancel the membership you may sign up for around the New Year's time. California gave child influencers similar protections that child actors have. You have to, you know, if you are dancing on social media with your mom or dad, there are now new laws that do allow you to, you know, recoup some of the financial gain that they are receiving. Also Minnesota adopted those ticketing transparency laws. Five states adopted pay transparency laws as well. But then there's some weird laws that are going in effect as of 2025, California now allows marijuana dispensaries and venues to offer live entertainment. So think maybe similar to just like a club where you're drinking alcohol now there are having these clubs that can bring a band in where people are allowed to smoke marijuana.
- [07:35]
Neal Freyman
Like cannabis cafes in Amsterdam.
- [07:36]
Toby Howell
Yeah, Amsterdam is definitely going to be the kind of blueprint there. Washington, D.C. actually has a cashless retail prohibition law coming down that mandates retailers must accept cash payments. If you've ever seen those signs that say we prefer charge, we do not accept cashier, though that is now against the law in Washington D.C. and then New York passed a car wash promotion disclosure law which requires car washes to clearly inform customers about promotion expiration date.
- [08:05]
Neal Freyman
You know what, that's very important.
- [08:06]
Toby Howell
It's very important. I can't believe people are driving in New York, let alone washing their cars. So again, Neal said this could potentially help you not run afoul of some of these laws. Hopefully none of these are you're you're running into and you're not facing down any legal issues in 2025, but those are some of the laws that you should keep an eye on. Moving on to the next story, the FBI has found no definitive link between the devastating New Orleans attack that killed 14 people on your state and the cybertruck that was blowing up in Las Vegas hours later. But there is one commonality between the two. Both the cybertruck in Vegas and the Ford F150 Lightning truck used in New Orleans were rented through the same car sharing Apple, Turo. It's put the once high flying startup, which had plans to go public last year, squarely in the national crosshairs and raised questions about its security and vetting process. As of last year, Turo had 360,000 cars listed on its platform where users could rent them out in a peer to peer system similar to Airbnb. But the company said that neither driver had anything in their backgrounds that would have raised alarms during the app's screening process. Still, the owner of the truck used in the New Orleans attack told the New York Times that he plans to stop using Turo going forward to make extra money. Neil Turo was worth 1 1/2 billion dollars back in 2020, according to Pittsburgh. But the IPO it registered back in 2021 has yet to materialize and now it's found itself at the center of two tragedies as we enter into 2025.
- [09:35]
Neal Freyman
Yeah, Turo put out a statement saying, we acknowledge that both of these incidents were you used Turo rental cars, but said that none, nothing, no red flags were raised and they didn't mention the details of their screening process. I've rented on Turo before. Like you have to put up your driver's license and put it, put in some other information. They say they reserve the right to do a background check on you and learn more about you before they grant you permission to, to use their platform. But they said that those people met those, these rigorous safety requirements. So they're looking into it. And yes, you're right, the spotlight been on Turo. But investigators do say that the fact that, you know, they both happen to be within hours of each other and use Turo was a coincidence. But you know, when you do certain attacks like ramming, ramming cars through people, which has, you know, seen a, an uptick recently, then you know there is a decent chunk that use rental cars. 5% of 184 vehicle ramming incidents between 1970 and 2018 used a rented car in that show. That's according to a study done by San Jose State University. And that shows intent and planning because you have to go rent the car. So this is not, you know, necessarily super rare.
- [10:55]
Toby Howell
It's not super rare. And also Turo is a company that, I called it a high flying startup and it does. It is a very large company. Reported $880 million in revenue in 2023. That was up 18% year over year. It did saw its profits fall from 154 million to 14 million, which may have clouded that IPO. P this was a pretty buzzy company at one time. Celebrities like 2 Chainz, NBA, NFL players have invested in Turo. It's got almost a thousand employees. So it is a relatively robust company as well. Let's also just zoom out a little bit to some of the aftermath from these attacks. We did see the Sugar bowl happen after it was delayed in New Orleans. Notre Dame won that game. Some other updates from the two cases as well. Bourbon street in New Orleans is back open to the public as of yesterday, obviously with an increased police presence. The FBI also clarified some earlier reports that said that the army veteran involved in New Orleans had help and said they claimed he did act alone. Surveillance footage kind of caught him placing coolers down with explosives that have since been disarmed. Also, investigators reiterated that there wasn't a clear link between the two. Again, we've talked about the fact that they both use Turo. Both men did serve portions of their U.S. army careers in what was formerly Fort Bragg. It is now Fort Liberty in North Carolina. They also spent time in Afghanistan during similar times though at different locations. And of course they both use Turo. But so that's kind of just a rundown of what we know now on the two attacks.
- [12:27]
Neal Freyman
And they did identify the driver of the cybertruck, who was an active duty Green Beret. He died by suicide in the car, authorities believe, before the explosion went off. So as investigators try to untangle that cybertruck mystery, Tesla reported its delivery numbers for the 2024 year, which is the most closely tracked metric for how its electric cars are selling. And it was historic, and not in a good way. Tesla's annual vehicle sales declined for the first time ever. It sold 1.79 million vehicles last year, a 2% decline from the year before. That missed its own estimates of modest growth and sent its ST tumbling more than 6% on the day. It wasn't too long ago that Tesla was notching gains of 50% year over year. But that growth has gone into reverse. Tesla struggles are well documented by this point, by us and by others. It's facing increased competition from legacy automakers and Chinese upstarts. Demand for electric vehicles has slowed across the board, and it's got an aging vehicle lineup that consumers appear to be pretty bored of. CEO Elon Musk has tried to shift investor focus away from its traditional EV business and toward an automotive, autonomous and AI fueled future, a marketing pitch that has mostly succeeded. Tesla Stock jumped nearly 70% last year, with most of that coming after Trump's election. Still, these numbers are a stark reminder that what Tesla makes money on now, not five years from now, has hit a wall. And that could be a problem.
- [13:55]
Toby Howell
The last time Tesla suffered an annual sales dip was in 2011, which if you look at it on the chart of Tesla's vehicle sales, it doesn't. It's just a mere blimp. That was before it released the Model 3, the Model Y, which accounts for 95% of its deliveries. At this point, Tesla leaned on promotions and price cuts. That was a big theme of last year, where they were just slashing prices. They had the margin to do so in order to try to spur demand. But there's only so much you can do in the face of very tepid, very minimal consumer demand for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, you mentioned competition from legacy automakers, but definitely the biggest competition is coming out of China. BYD actually outsold Tesla in electric vehicles for the second quarter in a row. Tesla still nabbed it over all on the year, so it still can claim it's the largest EV seller in the world. But yeah, the competition mixed with the type of demand is definitely why we saw electric vehicle deliveries falter for the first time.
- [14:55]
Neal Freyman
So why did Tesla's stock jump nearly 70% last year because investors know everything we know and possibly more. They know Tesla has a vehicle lineup that hasn't had a refresh in many, many years besides the cybertruck, which is new, but that didn't really impact sales according to these latest figures. They're just hoping that Musk's, you know, pie in the sky pitch that Tesla will transform the auto industry yet again into a self driving thing will come to fruition. Tesla unveiled its Cybercart Cyber Cab, which is a self driving robotaxi that will hopefully come into being in 2027. It spent $10 billion on AI last year alone. It has this optimus humanoid robot. So it's really branching out into these very moonshot bets that, you know, remind you of Google. The thing about Google is it has an ad business that makes it tons of money that's growing double digits per year. Meanwhile, Tesla's pot of money that it can draw into to put the on these futuristic bets is declining. So investors are really putting their faith in Elon Musk that he can deliver on these very ambitious promises to pivot Tesla from a traditional car company into a more, you know, AI self driving company. So its market cap completely rests on this. And if, and if Musk can't deliver, then Tesla, you know, you have to feel like its stock will take a big hit.
- [16:26]
Toby Howell
Up next, it is stock of the week, dog of the week time, foreign dog of the week time where we pick one stock who is still in holiday break mode and one stock that has locked back in. But since it was a shortened trading week, we bent the rules a little bit and chose two non stocks that still fit the spirit of the segment. I won the pre show 45 minute power interval Peloton session, so I am up first and my stock of the week is Squid Games too, because it has been a smashing success. Season two debuted to 68 million views in its first four days available, which officially makes it Netflix's biggest premiere ever. It's also already climbed the ranks to land at number seven on Netflix's most popular non English shows, a metric that takes into account a show's first 91 days of viewership. So it's still got more room to run. Still, it's got a long way to go before it can dethrone Netflix's all time biggest show, which is the first season of Squid Games that is sitting pretty at 265 million views. Neil there was fear that the three year delay between seasons might dull this series appeal, which pits contestants against each other. In childish games with life or death implications. But clearly that has not been the case here.
- [17:45]
Neal Freyman
And Netflix is putting their foot on the gas with Squid Game. It's not just a show anymore, it is a franchise. There's in person experience. They created a, you know, a reality show based on Squid Game. They greenlit a third season. We had to wait three season, three years between the first season, the second season. Well, good news for anybody who likes the show, which apparently is a ton of people because the third season is coming out this summer. So they are leaning into Squid Game as a franchise that can be monetized in many different ways. Very similar to what they did with Stranger Things, but just what a surprise hit that no one saw coming. And I think, you know, why do you know, I would love to hear your opinion. Why do you think it's resonated? Many, you know, some have speculated that it's their survival type show that does really well, touches on interesting themes like economic inequality. And also it just catches fire on social media because it's so memeable.
- [18:41]
Toby Howell
It's dull. It is.
- [18:43]
Neal Freyman
I see it everywhere.
- [18:44]
Toby Howell
It's very amenable. But also, you have to remember the first Squid Games came out of nowhere like you described during the pandemic, where it did feel like everything was up to the max. There was a lot of economic hardship at the time, so it just really resonated then. I think there is a lot of those same feelings even three years later. One thing I thought was interesting is that the show's creator actually created the show because he was feeling similar things. He was down to his last dollar. He created the show about people down to the last dollar who will do desperate things. And Netflix pretty much entirely footed the bill of the first season because they were taking a big risk on this basically no name writer. So because Netflix paid for the season up front, a lot of the actors weren't actually immediately compensated in, you know, kind of accordance to how big the show got. So the writer did want to create more seasons. He left season one on a cliffhanger in order to give some of the actors, some of the people involved in the show, a bigger chance to participate in windfall, financial windfall going forward. So I thought that was interested that the writer felt motivated to write more episodes. And so these people who made the show what it is could, you know, reap the benefits financially.
- [19:53]
Neal Freyman
And I'm just happy that he is going to be able to put up his legs because he said he lost seven to eight teeth while writing the first Season. And, yeah, he's like, I get so stressed, I get gum problems when I write. So this is going to be my last series ever. This is too much of a mental challenge for me. But, man, you did good. My dog of the week is norovirus. So I hope you had breakfast already because by the end of this, you probably will have lost your appetite. Norovirus cases are on a major upswing this year, with outbreaks on cruises, unsurprisingly, generating the most headlines. So far this year, there have been 16 outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease on cruises. The CDC said the most in 12 years. The majority of those are norovirus, a highly contagious virus that gives you, let's just say, the stomach bug of all stomach bugs. What enters your body leaves it quickly at both ends, and the spread really picks up in winter. Five of those cruise outbreaks occurred in December alone. And there's a ship that's docking today in New York, the Queen Mary 2, where almost 13% of passengers and more than 5% of the crew have been infected. In response, the affected cruise companies say they've ramped up their cleaning and sanitizing efforts and are pushing back against claims that cruise ships are a particular hotbed for norovirus, which they do have a point on. Norovirus outbreaks on Cruises comprise only 1% of all those reported. Toby, this sounds horrible. Anyone you know get norovirus recently?
- [21:21]
Toby Howell
Neil? I've had. I've had it recently. I don't wish it on my worst enemy. I had it over the winter break. My girlfriend did as well. It was tough. Also, you factor in, you know, the questionable FAE on a cruise ship, the choppy seas as well, the fact that you're just locked on the same ship with a ton of other passengers who also might have it. I think that is just the worst thing on Earth. One of the reasons why it does. Most of these outbreaks do occur in the winter months is that norovirus is passed through close contact, direct contact with food or water that's been contaminated with tiny particulates of, you know, infected feces, infected vomit. I know, sorry, this is a morning show. But you see these nationwide surges when we're all a little bit closer to each other indoors and not a lot of people are outside as well. Novo norovirus outbreaks actually declined during that 2020, 2021 pandemic season because of the fact that there weren't very many social activities as well. So that was. Maybe we're coming back from a little bit of a depressed time for Norovirus into a much more active time for Norovirus. But yeah, Neal, you have a twinkling your eye but I do not because it is just the worst thing on earth and I hope none of you guys listening are struggling with it right now. Now let's sprint to the finish of the shortened week with some headlines. If you ever thought your phone was a little too good at picking up on hints as to what you wanted for Christmas, you could be entitled to some cash. Apple has agreed to a $95 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging that Siri recorded private conversations without user consent. The lawsuit claims Siri unintentionally activated and recorded snippets of confidential conversations which were then shared with third parties like human reviewers or advertisers. If approved by the court, eligible Apple owners in the US could receive up to $20 per per Siri enabled device. Neil Big validation for all the moms out there who think their phones are listening to them.
- [23:25]
Neal Freyman
Well, apparently this all started with a report from The Guardian in 2019 when a whistleblower came forward and said that Siri would be inadvertently activated sometimes when an Apple watch was raised and a speech was detected. So you didn't know that Siri was activated? People said that they suspected something when they got specifically like unusually targeted ads for things like Air Jordan sneakers when they were talking about it and they attributed that to Siri. Now Apple has denied that they use this data for for advertising subsequently or selling that, but it just goes to show you, maybe you know, this is just more worse PR for Siri. So yes, if you bought a Siri enabled device through 2020, 2024 from 2014, then Apple, if this settlement is approved, Apple will send you a message and maybe you can claim your $20 if you were feeling deja vu when going to the movies last year, there's a good reason for that. The box office number for RN and 9 of the 10 highest grossing movies were sequels and the other one was Wicked, which is an adaptation of a musical. Those sequels were inside out to Despicable Me for Deadpool and Wolverine, Moana 2, Dune Part 2, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Kung Fu Panda 4 twisters and the 38th Godzilla movie, Godzilla X the New Empire. Toby There was this hope that original storytelling would stage a comeback after the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023 and everything everywhere all at once. But no, it seems like when Americans go to the movie theaters, we just want familiar comfort food.
- [25:01]
Toby Howell
Oh My gosh, reading down that list is a little bit of a dark timeline. I'm going to choose a little bit of a brighter theme to the 2024 box office and that is PG rating movies actually did very well because a lot of those stories that you mentioned are actually PG rated. Just I don't want to go down the list again. But mostly all the movies, the animated movies that were family did really well because the biggest movie of 2024 was Inside Out 2 was also the biggest animated movie of all time. Also was a big year for Disney as well at the box office. They had a quiet 2023, but came back three of the top five movies of the year. And actually its 20th century division that it recently bought did well as as well. Alien Romulus, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes kind of snuck in there to boost Disney's year at the box office as well.
- [25:49]
Neal Freyman
The list of the most on time airlines in the world last year is out. And you're probably thinking it's always the one I'm never on. But the actual answer is Aeromexico. According to an analysis by aviation analytics firm Cirium, the Mexico City based airline completed nearly 87% of its flights on time in 2024, which means that a plane arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled landing time. As for U S based airlines, you don't have to go far too down the list to find one. After Saudi Arabian airlines at number two, Delta rounds out the top three most on time airlines.
- [26:23]
Toby Howell
That was surprising because remember Delta had the huge crowdstrike meltdown that did delay and cancel a lot of flights in the middle of the year. But again, that was only about one week throughout a year of very on time departure. So yeah, Delta did really well, although they should be kind of looking in the rearview mirror because United Airlines snuck in at number 10. But they have been steadily increasing their on time percentage by about 1 to 2% per year. So people are saying, some industry analysts are saying that United could eventually catch up and maybe even surpass Delta going forward.
- [26:55]
Neal Freyman
Well, this was my suspicion and it seems to be true that airlines have been cooking the books on this a little bit because they say a flight is going to be longer than it actually is. And I look this up, there's actual data on this. The average scheduled duration from JFK to Los Angeles has increased 23 minutes since 1995. Even though it doesn't take any longer to fly from New York to Los Angeles, they say it's going to take 23 minutes longer over the last 30 years in order to boost these on time stats. Because we leave the gate like five minutes after you the scheduled departure time. And I'm like, okay, there's no way we can be on time. And then, you know, an hour into the flight the pilot comes on and says, oh, we're going to be, you know, 30 minutes early. We'll get you into, we'll get you into LAX a little bit early. And I'm like, there's no way this can be true. You guys are all fudging the numbers and it turns out to be true.
- [27:48]
Toby Howell
I love Tin Hat Neil when it comes to airline transportation times.
- [27:53]
Neal Freyman
All right, let's wrap it up there, Toby. It's Friday. I could definitely get on board with a two day workweek. Even four seems a bit aggressive. Thanks for starting your day with us and have a wonderful weekend. For any questions, comments or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom. And if you're enjoying the content coming through your ears, don't keep it to yourself and share this podcast with your friends and family. It'll give you major social cred and help us grow this thing to be even bigger. For a more specific sharing idea, here's Toby.
- [28:22]
Toby Howell
I want you to share the podcast with someone who is doing dry January this month. Nothing like a little Neil in Toby to take the edge off in these cold January days.
- [28:31]
Neal Freyman
Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Lu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenawa Ogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio, hair and makeup is never on time. Devin Emery is our Chief Content officer and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
- [28:47]
Toby Howell
Great show today, Neil. I wish you all well.