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OpenAI’s biggest fear is not that the bubble will burst. It’s just that I do it ahead of time

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Sam Altman has admitted in an internal memo published by The Information that Google is catching up technologically with Gemini 3. That’s a real problem for OpenAI, but OpenAI’s real concern isn’t that. It’s just that he needs the party to last long enough to give him time to build his own infrastructure. Why is it important. OpenAI plans to burn more than $100 billion in the coming years pursuing AGI. But it is completely dependent on Microsoft for servers, NVIDIA for chips, and external investors for financing. Google, on the other hand, already has its own TPUs and generates 70 billion in free cash flow per year thanks to Search, YouTube and Google Cloud. If the music stops early, one survives and the other doesn’t. The paradox of timing. OpenAI faces a very peculiar race against time: If investment in AI slows in 2026 or 2027, it will have spent tens of billions but will not have completed its own infrastructure. You will remain tied to expensive suppliers. You will not be able to compete on costs with Google. Staying halfway is the worst possible scenario. Instead, if the bubble lasts until 2030 or beyond, OpenAI will probably have reached the threshold of self-sufficiency. It will have its own chips, its own data centers, economies of scale. It will be able to survive even when the investment tap is turned off. It’s like building a bridge: it doesn’t matter how much you’ve spent a lot. If you only get halfway, it’s of no use. The absence of moat. OpenAI cannot protect itself with sustainable technological advantage. In AI there are no defensive moats (moats) real. Every time OpenAI or any other lab makes a breakthrough, the rest replicate it within months. The only sustainable advantage OpenAI has left is cost. If you control your infrastructure, you can offer prices that no one else can match. If you do not control it, you become a dispensable intermediary between the end customer and whoever does have the chips and servers. The context of the memo. The document published by The Information reveals that Altman anticipated turbulence after the launch of Gemini 3. Google’s new model stands out precisely in the areas that generate the most revenue for OpenAI: automation of web design and programming. Altman acknowledged to his team that “Google has been doing an excellent job lately” and warned that he expects “the environment to be tough for a while.” But he urged them to stay focused on “achieving superintelligence”, admitting this would mean being left “temporarily behind in the current regime”. The figures. OpenAI went from almost non-existent revenue in 2022 to projecting 13 billion this year. It is one of the fastest business growth in history. But it plans to earn 200 billion in 2030. To achieve this, it will need to multiply its current income by 13 in less than five years. Meanwhile, it plans to spend $90 billion on R&D alone through 2030. That represents 45% of its projected revenue. Large technology companies allocate between 15% and 30% of their gross profit to research, not their total income. If OpenAI falls short of its billing goal, that percentage will be even higher. Yes, but. Google has structural advantages that are difficult to overcome: Generates a huge cash flow thanks to consolidated and very profitable products. You can afford to burn money on AI for years without too much trouble. And it already has its own infrastructure after a decade developing TPUs. OpenAI, on the other hand, lives off external funding. His recent agreement with Oracle to design data center components in the United States is an attempt to build that self-sufficiency. Altman presented it as “a step to ensure that the core technologies of the AI ​​era are built here.” At stake. OpenAI’s technological advantage over rivals such as Google and Anthropic has narrowed. Investors have sunk more than $60 billion into OpenAI, recently valuing it at $500 billion, betting that it will continue to dominate the market for AI that creates content and reasons like humans. That bet falters. Anthropic, founded four years ago by former OpenAI employees, is skyrocketing its valuation and aiming to generate more revenue than its former home selling AI to developers and companies. Their models specialize in generating computer code. And ChatGPT is still far ahead of Gemini in usage and revenue, but the gap is narrowing. Between the lines. Altman concluded his memo by acknowledging the pressure: “It sucks that we have to do so many hard things at the same time: the best research lab, the best AI infrastructure company, and the best AI platform/product company. But it’s our destiny in life. And I wouldn’t trade positions with any other company.” The question is not whether OpenAI can technically compete with Google. It’s whether you can hold on financially long enough to stop depending on others. Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | There is a generation working for free as a documentarian of their own life: they are not influencers but they act as if they were.

there is more money in less time and too many eggs in few baskets

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The expectation and unbridled optimism about the AI ​​revolution is giving way to a stage of nervous laughter. The question It is no longer whether there is an AI bubblebut when it will explode and what impact that explosion will have. It is inevitable to compare this situation with the one we experienced with the rise of the internet and the dotcom bubble, but this is even worse. Dog years, mouse years. Vinton Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, spoke in 1999 how “a year in the internet business was like a dog year, that is, seven years in the life of a normal person.” Everything was going very fast then, but now it is spoken of “mouse year”: each of them would be equivalent to about 35 human years. In AI everything certainly goes much faster, and that is very, very dangerous. Stock market crashes don’t help. Until a month ago, the extraordinary optimism that existed in this market had caused the big technology companies to continue growing on the stock market while the rest of the economy barely did. NVIDIA has been the best example of this, but in the last month a good handful of technology stocks have fallen. NVIDIA itself, (-4%), Microsoft (-10%), Meta (-20%), Amazon (-2%), Broadcom (-4%), Oracle (-30%), AMD (-20%), Intel (-10%). Only Google (+15%) and Apple (+3%) seem to resist this downward trend. The bubble is huge. The last estimates for capital expenditures (capex) added to the investments of venture capital already exceeds 600,000 million dollars by 2025, and the consulting firm Gartner indicated that according to its data in 2025, spending related to AI will amount to 1.5 trillion dollarswhen in 2024 it was 988,000 million. By 2026, it is estimated that it will exceed two trillion dollars. And it has grown much faster. As explains Analyst Fred Vogelstein, that spending “is happening in a fraction of the time. The internet bubble inflated for 4.6 years before bursting. The AI ​​bubble has inflated in two-thirds of that time.” The numbers continue to grow without stopping, they get bigger and they start to make no sense. And when they don’t make sense, they probably don’t really make sense. Too much concentration. There are differences between this bubble and the dotcom bubble. For example, much of the gigantic investment in data centers comes from technology companies themselves, and not so much from venture capital or investment firms. Even so, the concentration is enormous: Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, NVIDIA, Oracle and Apple represent approximately a third of the critical S&P 500 market, which was already aiming for it years ago, even before everyone started talking about AI. We have already seen this year how if technology companies fellthe economy suffered noticeably. This is not an investment, it is a bet. Companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta or Amazon are talking about projected capital expenditures (capex) of $70 billion to $100 billion in data centers. These companies are risking everything on AIwhen at the moment there is no reasonable justification to do so because the uncertainty is total. The best way to understand that philosophy is to remember what Mark Zuckerberg said about his investment in AI: “We’re going to invest aggressively. Even if we lost a couple hundred billion dollars it would be a bummer, but it’s better than being left behind in the race for superintelligence.” Or what is the same: if you don’t risk, you don’t win. OpenAI, bubble paradigm. If there is a company that represents the AI ​​madness, it is OpenAI. This valued at 500 billion dollarsbut the company itself estimates that until 2029 you will not start earning money. It is estimated that its “cash burn” in 2025 will be $8 billion, and that in 2026 that figure will be $17 billion. It’s growing in revenue, yeahbut not at a sustainable pace at the moment. The accounts don’t come out, but the important thing for Sam Altman (and his investors) is that theoretically they will end up coming out. Or so they say. Source: Bloomberg. Circular financing. We are experiencing another warning sign with the recent circular financing agreements between big companies technological. In these alliances OpenAI and NVIDIA (among others) are becoming something like banks and investors that guarantee the demand for their products. This means that these companies will probably emerge stronger, but it also increases the systemic risk of this bubble burst. We are seeing it with Oracle, which issued $18 billion in bonds and has raised its total debt above $100 billion. Others are in a compromising situation also. Crazy reviews. And we have more disturbing warnings, of course. Among them, those that affect the multimillion-dollar investments and valuations that AI startups are receiving. Reflection AI, the company founded by two former Google DeepMind researchers, has raised 2000 million dollars in one round, while Safe SuperIntelligence, the startup created by Ilya Sutskever, is valued at 32 billion dollars without having any public product. It is estimated that there are 498 AI unicornsand it does not seem that the investment fever has stopped, as demonstrated by the interest in Yann LeCun’s imminent startup. Altman, Nadella and Pichai warn. Even the technological leaders They recognize that there are signs of a technological bubblealthough they do it with nuances. Pichai talked about observing “elements of irrationality”, and in that same vein they were Satya Nadella (Microsoft) or Sam Altman (OpenAI). Meanwhile, Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, explained months ago that we are facing a bubble that will make only 1% of companies survive. China. This excessive spending has also been helped by the rise of China in this area. The Asian giant has demonstrated its ability to develop open models extraordinary. The DeepSeek effect It caused companies in the US to add even more fuel (money) to the fire while China takes a position more conservative. Mastering AI is a major national security concern and that ties assessments to political and tariff unpredictability. Source: Financial Review … Read more

Renewable gasoline and diesel are the last bastion of combustion cars to be able to circulate in Europe: they have a difficult time

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Whether for lack of infrastructure, strict regulationsocial perception, or by many other factors, electrification is a process that is advancingbut very slowly. Meanwhile, more than 20 million diesel and gasoline vehicles continue to circulate in Spain, many of them more than a decade old (or two). However, there are solutions that try to make this energy transition more bearable, and one of them involves the use of renewable fuels. What exactly are these fuels?. They don’t have a single drop of oil. They are produced from organic waste such as used cooking oils, animal fats, forest waste or crop remains. The catalytic hydrogen generation process transforms these wastes into fuels with properties similar to those derived from petroleum, but with a key difference: the CO₂ they emit when burned is the same as that which plants have previously absorbed from the atmosphere. Here we would therefore speak of a closed cycle, unlike fossil fuels, which release carbon stored underground for millions of years. Emissions. Repsol states that its Nexa diesel can reduce net CO₂ emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional diesel, while your Efitec Nexa gasoline discount more than 70%. In this case, although the engine continues to emit CO₂, it was already in the atmosphere before being converted into fuel. However, there is a nuance: nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) continue to be generated during combustion, because they come from nitrogen in the air when exposed to high temperatures. And for now, studies show conflicting results, with some indicating slight increases in NOₓ with certain biofuels, while others like the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory they conclude that renewable diesel reduces both CO₂ and NOₓ. What is consistent is the reduction of particles and soot. Full compatibility with current cars. This is probably its biggest practical advantage. Any diesel or gasoline vehicle can use these fuels without technical modifications. There is no need to change the engine, adapt the tank, or install new pumps at gas stations. In the case of Repsol, its Nexa diesel also complies with the European standard EN 15940 for paraffinic fuels, and Efitec Nexa gasoline with EN-228. In addition, the company ensures that, thanks to its high cetane number, it improves combustion, reduces engine noise and has a cleaning effect on the injection system. Where to find them in Spain. Repsol clearly leads the deployment, with more than 1,000 stations that offer Nexa diesel and with the goal of reaching 30 stations with Efitec Nexa gasoline by the end of the year. BP too offers HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) in strategic locations such as Tafalla, Getafe, Villacastín Norte or Olaberria, although its network is more limited and is oriented towards professional transport. To locate them, the most practical thing is use web search engines of each company, since they include filters to find gas stations that offer renewable fuels. It is worth remembering that the conventional diesel sold at practically all gas stations in Spain already contains up to 7% biodiesel (B7 label), but it is not comparable to a 100% renewable fuel if we stick to emissions. Cost and availability. Price is one of the main obstacles. Nexa diesel costs approx. 10 cents more per liter than conventional diesel, placing it in the range of premium fuels. Renewable gasoline follows a similar trend. Furthermore, although Repsol has expanded its network, coverage remains limited outside large urban centers and main corridors, especially in terms of renewable gasoline. Industrial production. Repsol produces renewable diesel in its Cartagena refinery and 100% renewable gasoline at the Tarragona plant. The company assures that it has been researching these processes for more than twenty years in collaboration with Honeywell. In 2026, the opening of a new facility in Puertollano with capacity for more than 200,000 tons per year is planned. Who is using them already?. In addition to the fact that anyone can now go to a Repsol gas station to try these fuels, their use has transcended commercial vehicles. And they have been tested in competitions like the Dakar Rallyand even sustainable fuels are used on commercial flights. Also transport companies such as Scania, Alsa or Grupo Sesé have signed agreements for adoption. An intermediate solution. The current European regulations The CO2 emissions test for new vehicles measures emissions from the tailpipe. With this approach, the result is zero for an electric car, but not for one that uses renewable fuel, even if it is carbon neutral in its entire life cycle (from production to consumption). It is for this reason that the industry and defenders of these fuels are asking for a change in the methodology so that the complete life cycle of the fuel is considered. Repsol and other players in the sector They ask for adapted taxation and long-term objectives that provide stability to investments. The Spanish mobile fleet has an average age of 14.5 years and it has more than eight million vehicles that are more than two decades old, according to data from ANFAC (Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers). Therefore, renewable fuels could be an intermediate alternative in this stage of energy transition, especially since they do not leave millions of drivers behind. Cover image | engin akyurt In Xataka | In 2001, Renault launched a car ahead of its time: it was a miserable failure that now has another chance

How China has managed to rescue its astronauts in record time when it took the US months

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Last year, Boeing starred in a space drama that kept the world in suspense: the Starliner crisis. After discovering leaks and failures in its propellers, NASA took months between deliberations, tests and safety meetings to finally decide that the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams They would not return in their ship, but would wait for SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission to return. Now, China has faced a similar scenario that it has resolved in a few days. The haste has its explanation. A cracked window. The news broke on November 5. The Shenzhou-20 mission, crewed by Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, was preparing to return to Earth after six months at the Chinese Tiangong space station. However, during inspections prior to undocking, the astronauts detected an anomaly that so it was not made publicbut that we now know: “small cracks” in the external glass of one of the capsule windows. After analyzing photographs and running simulations in wind tunnels, CMSA (China Manned Space Agency) engineers determined that the damage had possibly been caused by the impact of micrometeoroids or small fragments of space junkcompromising the structural integrity of the ship. The conclusion put Chinese astronauts in a bind: the capsule “did not meet the conditions for a safe manned return.” The game of chairs in orbit. Unlike the International Space Station, the Tiangong space station cannot accommodate six astronauts for a long time, so the Shenzhou-20 crew had to be brought in as soon as possible. China always maintains a Shenzhou ship and a CZ-2F rocket ready to take off in case of emergency. However, on this occasion, the CMSA ruled out launching the new Shenzhou-22 spacecraft to bring back the three stranded astronauts because it “included instrument upgrades for which the outgoing crew had not been trained.” The solution chosen to bring the crew back was, therefore, to do so aboard the Shenzhou-21 ship that had arrived with three other astronauts two weeks earlier. A literal change of chairs (they had to move the adapted seats from one ship to another) and with a single sacrifice: leaving the three crew members of the Shenzhou-21 at the mercy of a compromised ship (the Shenzhou-20) in the event of an emergency. In summary. The three outgoing astronauts They landed safely on November 14 aboard the ship of his three incoming companions. The reason why this exchange of ships was faster than in the case of the Starliner or, a year earlier, the Russian Soyuz MS-22, was, on the one hand, that the Tiangong station is not yet large enough for six people to live in, and on the other, that the replacement ship was already there. What cost NASA months of risk analysis and public relations management with Boeing, China solved in a matter of days thanks to the availability of spacecraft. The logistical sacrifice is that the crew of the Shenzhou-21 (which will stay in space for six months) has had to give up their “lifeboat” until the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft is launched without a crew as a new return vehicle. The Shenzhou-20 will return empty to analyze its damage on the ground, if it ultimately survives re-entry. Image | CGTN In Xataka | The only photo you need to understand the scale of what Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company, has just done

this time it takes aim directly at its ‘reputation abuse policy’

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What Brussels has launched today is not just another technical note on how Google works, but a movement that points directly to the way in which it decides what we see when we search for information. An internal policy designed to combat spam has ended up at the center of a new European file because, according to the Commissionyou could be relegating content from legitimate media and publishers. An issue that, for the Commission, deserves to be thoroughly reviewed to determine if its application is having undesired effects. We are facing an action that opens an official procedure in which the Commission will evaluate whether Google is complying with the obligations of the DMA in relation to the treatment that publishers receive in its search engine. Brussels wants to check whether the access and positioning conditions comply with the equity criteria provided for services designated as gatekeeper. This initial phase does not involve attributing a violation, but it does activate a detailed process that will determine how the regulations are actually being applied. Politics under suspicion. Google includes ‘reputation abuse policy’ in its Search spam rules and presents it as a tool to address practices aimed at manipulating ranking in results when sites include content from commercial partners. From a technical perspective, the motivation makes sense: the ecosystem is full of practices that try to exploit gaps to obtain a better position in the results. The Commission’s question is whether this policy is affecting publications that use commercial collaborations within a legitimate editorial framework. For media outlets, these deals are an important source of revenue, and their demotion in Google Search can have real effects on audiences. Brussels wants to know to what extent its application may be penalizing actors who are not seeking to manipulate anything. The analysis will revolve around that fine line. DMA in action. The Digital Markets Law establishes its own regime for the platforms considered gatekeepersthe large platforms that act as a gateway between companies and users in the digital environment. These services are required to ensure that their internal rules are understandable, justified and reviewable by the Commission, even before there is demonstrated harm. The investigation is framed in that model: Brussels wants to validate that the policy applied by Google complies with the reinforced obligations that accompany that status. Blow to the revenue model. The executive vice president for a Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, was explicit about the point that most worries Brussels: “We are concerned that Google’s policies do not allow news publishers to be treated in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner in search results.” He also stressed that the loss of income comes “at a difficult time for the sector,” which makes this investigation more than just a technical review. A long and complicated relationship. Brussels has maintained constant scrutiny over Google for years, visible in sanctions like the 2,950 million euros imposed in September 2025 for practices in its advertising business, or in the 2017 Google Shopping fine, ratified by the European Court of Justice in 2024. This new investigation does not start from scratch: it adds to a history that reflects how the Commission has tightened its surveillance as the company’s activity has covered more sectors. Pressure from Washington. The case also comes at a time when some of the loudest criticism of the European digital framework comes from the United States. Donald Trump has denounced that measures like the DMA hurt American companies and has warned of possible additional tariffs if they persist. Without being part of the file, these statements illustrate the political context in which Google’s policy is examined and show how European regulation coexists with growing commercial sensitivity on the other side of the Atlantic. The possible outcomes. From now on, Brussels will examine documentation, ask Alphabet for clarification and evaluate whether the policy fits into the DMA’s obligations. If it detects non-compliance, it will inform the company of its conclusions and the measures it considers necessary to correct them. The procedure can be closed without sanctions, with internal adjustments by Google or with the imposition of formal obligations and, ultimately, fines. The Commission plans to complete the analysis within a period of up to twelve months. Images | sarah b | 1981 Digital In Xataka | Apple accepts crumbs in China: the 15% that shows who has the power

Spain wants more pork and more safe water in its reservoirs. And he is discovering that both things at the same time are not possible.

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Hidden in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León on Monday, there was something that they did not suspect would be controversial: the authorization to install more than 3,500 heads of pigs on the outskirts of San Cebrián de Castro, province of Zamora. Why would it be controversial? As recognized in the Diario de Zamorais the umpteenth authorization of this type in recent years and, unlike others, this macro farm is not close to any urban center. The only small problem is that, well, it is 100 meters from the Ricobayo reservoir, right where the Esla flows into the Duero. And is that a problem? The idea is to install a pig farm “with capacity for 3,100 sows with piglets until weaning (from 0 to 6 kilos in weight), with 620 replacement sows and six boars.” Just over 132,000 square meters, more than a dozen warehouses, a manure dump with a capacity for 1,215 cubic meters and two enormous slurry ponds with a capacity for 14,000 cubic meters. The project insists that “there will be no discharge into the Public Hydraulic Domain”; but, of course, the doubts are more than reasonable. In 2023, 161 Zamora municipalities They were left without drinking water due to contamination of its reservoirs. Because there is also the issue of water consumption. According to the data, an annual water consumption is estimated at 24,479 cubic meters. It’s a lot of water, but it’s not a surprise either: agriculture and livestock consume almost 90% of the Duero basin. And Ricobayo is a critical reservoir And not only for the Northern Plateau. Because what is happening in the Esla River is something much more important than it seems. Spain It is the absolute leader in European porkbut (or “because”) the legal framework is too fragmented and has huge regulatory gaps. That is to say, the basic management of intensive farms has been broken for years. The sum of an unambitious basic state standard, hydrological plans, municipal plans and environmental authorizations leaves room for dozens of towns throughout the country to spend years denouncing the enormous ecological and health consequences of this type of installations. All of this comes at a difficult time. Because the macro farm industry is about to reach its key moment: it is not only that the administration is following The closest issue is that the prosecution is taking cards in the matter. That is to say, in the near future, Spain is going to have to clarify what it wants to be at an agricultural level and at what cost. But you can’t do it with your back to the externalities it produces. The competitiveness of Spanish pork is based on vertical integration, efficiency and scale; and that pushes farms to have greater capacity and associated plants (feed, slurry treatment, biogas, etc.). That is, it puts completely new pressure on parts of the system that are not prepared to withstand it. Water is one of those problems. The Spanish water reserve is at 51.4% of its capacity and we have just emerged from one of the largest droughts in recent decades: how is it possible that a strategic resource like water enjoys these management problems (and this lack of protection)? That question is indeed more complex than it seems. Image | Bob | Raiden32 In Xataka | The Atlas of Toxic Spain: this is the geography of pollution in our country

There was a time when HTC sold more phones than Apple and Samsung. The question is what happened next: Crossover 1×28

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In 2002 we still didn’t have smartphones, but I was lucky enough to see a preview of that future. I traveled to London with Microsoft and at that event the company presented the Orange SPVa big-headed and different mobile because it was based on Windows Mobile 2002. In it you could surf the Internet, write emails or listen to music, although in a limited way because neither the software nor the hardware were very competitive at that time. And yet, the vision was clear: everything was going toward those devices. What was surprising was not only that, but who manufactured that device was HTC. The Taiwanese firm was already beginning to be known for manufacturing devices for others, but it would soon end up launching into the smartphone market taking advantage of the push of Android. In 2011 its market share in the US became superior to Apple’s or Samsung, but after that achievement, the firm started making bad decisionsand other manufacturers joined in – especially from China – who began to make competition much more difficult. HTC never recovered from that and although it experimented with other segments like virtual realityfaded to a paper totally secondary in the technological field. We talk about all this in a new episode of Crossover in which we remember the great milestones of the company and that singular fall almost into oblivion. In Xataka | “It is a brutal economic effort, but we have to act now”: parents who are taking their children to schools without screens

How to do it and what time limit do you have?

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Let’s tell you how you can check the operation of your new V16 beacon without alerting the DGT. As you know, these beacons have an internal SIM card that connects with the DGT, so that when you activate them because you have an accident or breakdown, they can geolocate you. But what happens when you just want to check that everything works well on a beacon you just bought? Well, we are going to tell you the amount of time you have before this connection is established. Because in the end, when you have spent money on one, what you want is to see that it works to see if you should return it or keep it. 100 seconds margin As specified by the DGT in one of his postsV16 beacons and their SIM cards They have a margin of 100 seconds during which no information is sent. This is the time the device has to establish the connection with the mobile network, check its GPS and prepare to send data. This serves to provide a secure testing window, as well as to prevent false alerts or messages from being sent in error. This means that you can turn on the beacon and test that it works, since will not alert the DGT until 100 seconds have passed. This way, you can see that your light is working and everything is fine. Remember that you must activate these beacons on the roof of the car if you have an incident. And when they send your position to the DGT after those 100 seconds, it will be able to use the road information panels to warn other drivers, send notices to compatible navigation applications such as Google Maps, and make it easier to locate you. They are mandatory from January 1, 2026. In Xataka Basics | What to look for in a V16 beacon: requirements and how to check if the one you have or want to buy works for you

every time I stepped on the brake it smelled like singeing

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Some cars at auction They seem like a bargainbut what one does not expect is that something that appears first-hand ends up holding a rather strange surprise. As and how did he count police in Ludwigsburg (north of Stuttgart) on their Facebook profile, someone bought a Mercedes-Benz GLE 400a high-end SUV that originally costs about 100,000 euros in its base model. However, on the way back home, the new owner discovered something that literally smelled like singeing every time he stepped foot. the brake pedal. “Eco-friendly” brake system Every time the new owner stepped on the brake pedal, he noticed that it began to smell like burnt wood, in addition to not braking as expected of a car worth almost 100,000 euros, so he decided to take it to the workshop. There, the mechanics made an impressive discovery: the front brake pads were actually blocks made of wood that fit perfectly into the space that the brake calipers were supposed to occupy and that, to make matters worse, even had the word “Brembo” written in marker, a popular brand of high-end brakes. This discovery led to the local Ludwigsburg police becoming involved in the investigation to discover what happened. The police themselves were surprised by the discovery “You don’t see something like this every day: wood instead of brake pads! It’s ingenious, but dangerous,” they published on your Facebook account. Tap on the image to go to the original message Obviously, the police confirm that this is not a case of counterfeiting of original parts of the brand. Something that, on the other hand, would not have been strange. According what was published by Self-easyIn 2023 alone, a team from the German brand working together with the police removed 1.6 million counterfeit parts and components from the market, and in 2024 the figure rose to 1.5 million components that are manufactured in clandestine factories. How did those wooden pills get into a luxury car? According to one of the hypotheses that the German police are considering, it seems like a strange mistake that probably occurred in a workshop. Some shops use wooden shims to hold the pistons that activate the pads in place while they are changed for new onesespecially after bleeding the brake system. It is possible that the replacement was delayed and that the workshop had to move the car within its facilities, so the “vegetable” pads covered the gap in the brake pads and allowed the car to be started to move it, since to start it it is necessary to press the brake pedal while pressing the start button. For some strange reason, no one noticed that the replacement of the brake pads had not been completed, so the car, perfectly functional thanks to the “trap” of the pads, was taken to the auction site without anyone noticing. Once the mystery of the ecological brake padsthe agents are trying to locate the workshop where this intervention was carried out to clarify if it was negligence and prevent something like this from happening again. Beyond the bizarre nature of the situation, this is a serious case of involuntary negligence on the part of the repair center. Driving with these brake pads poses a huge risk to road safety that could have caused a serious accident. Something smelled like singeing at that auction. In Xataka | I always dreamed of buying a Ferrari. What I never imagined was that I could buy it for 150 euros Image | Mercedes-Benz

There is an extensive system to avoid being cut off in the 48 km underground of the M-30. It’s time to renew it

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Madrid City Council will completely renew the radio communications network of the M-30 tunnels, a system that has been in operation for almost two decades and is vital for coordinating emergency services and keeping drivers informed underground. The tender for the project starts today, Wednesday, with a budget of 4.8 million euros. Why you need a renovation. The 48 kilometers of M-30 tunnels register 488 million users a year, according to advance from The World. The current radio communication system is practically the same with which these underground galleries were inaugurated almost 20 years ago. Like any technology, requires updates to continue providing service and guarantee quick responses to any incident. What systems maintain communication. Just like inform In the middle, the infrastructure has two differentiated networks that allow coordination between security forces. The TETRAPOL system covers the National Police and Civil Guard, while the TETRA connects the Municipal Police, Firefighters and SAMUR. Furthermore, according to collect El Mundo, these systems guarantee the operation of analog emergency channels, Madrid Calle 30 communications and commercial FM stations. All this works thanks to two radiating cables installed on the roof of the tunnels: one exclusively for emergency services and another for the rest of the transmissions. “What makes it possible for this system to respond are radio communications. When there is an incident, the emergency services and the Police have an effective possibility of coordinating between themselves,” explains Antonio Jesús Tocino, managing director of Madrid Calle 30, to El Mundo. When will the works start and what improvements will they bring?. As well as inform In the middle, the work will begin in spring 2026 and will continue for 13 months, until April 2027. The intervention will be carried out in control centers, technical rooms and the more than 200 emergency exits, without affecting traffic except for specific outages to renew amplifiers. Among the notable developments is the increase in FM stations, which now number 48 of the current 12. This will expand the ability of the M-30 Radio system to inform drivers of safety recommendations in the event of an emergency. “We have gone looking for the most modern thing on the market,” assures Bacon. A broader technology plan. This renovation is part of a comprehensive modernization of the facilities that has already mobilized 34 million euros. Recent improvements include bluetooth beacons that allow maintaining the GPS signal inside the tunnels, in addition to a project for centralized management of the control center financed with Next Generation European funds. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | 171 million euros later, Metro de Madrid wants to reopen line 7B. The big question is whether the tenth time will be the charm.

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