train

The Japanese Shinkansen was the fastest train in the world until China defeated it. The reason: the “piston effect”

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In a very summary way, the piston in a four stroke engine It is responsible for moving the air inside to compress it and facilitate the burning or explosion of the fuel or to push it out of the combustion chamber. That is, it is dedicated to pushing the air up or down. Now imagine a train arriving in a tunnel at more than 300 km/h. Suddenly, the train goes from being outside to moving the air inside the tunnel. To push it to the bottom. Your movement It would be very similar to that of a piston. The train moves in a straight line and around it the tunnel would behave like a combustion chamber. That doesn’t seem like a problem. It doesn’t seem like it if we think that the air is simply pushed to the outlet where it is released without further problem. It’s also not a problem if your high-speed lines run over a bridge more than 100 kilometers long. But if you are a mountainous country and you have made the railway your star medium to move millions of people hundreds of kilometers an hour. Yes, you have a problem. Because the piston effect is pure physics and solving it to gain speed is not being easy. When they were the best In 1964, while Spain began to open up to the world, Abebe Bikila won his second Olympic Marathon in the streets of Tokyo. He did it wearing Puma Osaka shoes.nothing to do with the famous 42,195 meters that he covered barefoot in Rome to win four years before. We do not know if Bikila took that first Shinkansen that linked the cities Tokyo and, precisely, Osaka. The bullet train had begun to operate in Japan that same year, promoted by the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital. Then, the two cities were linked by a train that reached peaks of 210km/hbecoming the first high-speed line in the world. More than 60 years later, Japan is no longer the country with the highest number of high-speed kilometers of the world. Today it is China. It makes sense, taking into account that the country is huge, so if this means of transportation were promoted, sooner or later they would surpass their neighbors. Spain, by the way, also surpassed Japan in this area years ago. But it is very likely that something else has hurt Japan more. China is making the bullet train its flag. Its latest advances with the maglev, which levitates thanks to very powerful magnets to avoid friction with the track, has reached a combined speed of 896 km/h at the intersection of two CR450 trains. The problem for Japan is that China has a lot of money. And if it is necessary to build eight of the 10 longest bridges in the world to solve geographical accidents, they get to work. Japan has to deal with a lot of mountains and a more traditional system: tunnels. And that when you want to make a train pass at very high speed is quite a problem. When a train fully crosses the threshold of a tunnel, what is known as piston effecta problem that prevents increasing the walking speed further. The consequences are as simple as they are serious: loud explosions, breakage of equipment… and the eardrums of passengers. Upon entering the tunnel, the air is compressed and the movement of the train moves it towards the exit. However, some of that air rebounds and generates pressure changes that can be especially painful for passengers, even affecting their middle ear. When moving outside, a pressure wave is created that moves at the speed of sound and when the train leaves the tunnel, a shock wave and a sound explosion are created that, it is calculated, can be heard 400 meters away. It is known as tunnel boom. Japan is now experiencing a problem carried over from the past. Their trains are wider than the European ones but their tunnels are narrower. This was to reduce infrastructure costs but also to run less risk of landslides in the event of an earthquake. At first this was not a problem but when the speed of the trains increased they realized that they could not continue moving. In China, trains also use wide tracks like their neighbors but since they do not preserve inherited structuresthe new tunnels built are wider. This reduces the void effect produced with the entry of the train into the tunnel and, therefore, mitigates the problems for passengers. Furthermore, as less resistance is generated when the train passes, energy expenditure is also reduced. The solution for the Japanese is not simple. On the Tokaido Shinkansen, the first high-speed line (the one that connects Tokyo with Osaka), 13% of total kilometers They run inside tunnels. But the Sanyo Shinkansen line runs through tunnels half of the time. and he Hokkaido Shinkansen which is under construction (this line is only partially open) contemplates the roofing of 80% of the layout. The most effective solution that has been found to the problem is to produce trains with a very long and sharp nose. The aerodynamics tries to imitate the beak of the Kingfisher that can dive into the water generating minimal splashes. Following the same concept, the longer and sharper the nose of the train, the less resistance the train encounters at the entrance and the more gradually the pressure wave is generated. The other solution has been expand the section of the tunnel at its entrance. The “door” is wider and also has side openings that allow part of the air to escape. air moved by the train. This escape route generates a lower pressure wave, allowing the train not to cause unwanted discomfort to passengers and to travel faster. It has even been thought of hermetic trains with controlled pressure. During its tests, Japan continues to search for trains that can reach a top speed of 400 km/h. However, the structures inherited from … Read more

Saudi Arabia has insisted on connecting its two seas by train. And to achieve this it has been placed in the hands of a Spanish company

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Saudi Arabia has launched one of the most ambitious railway projects in the Middle East: the “Landbridge” or “Land Bridge”, a $7 billion high-speed network that will connect the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. The infrastructure will link Jeddah to Dammam via Riyadh, covering nearly 1,500 kilometers with the aim of completely transforming transport and commerce in the Arabian Peninsula. A strategic corridor for goods and passengers. The project will reduce travel time between Riyadh and Jeddah from around 12 hours by car to less than 4 hours by train. But the goal is for the project to go beyond just transporting passengers, as it is also designed to turn the kingdom into a key logistics hub in the region, connecting large industrial ports such as King Abdullah Port and Yanbu with urban centers and airports. According to Saudi authoritiesthe Landbridge could generate savings of $4.2 billion annually in transportation costs and create up to 200,000 jobs in related sectors. Vision 2030. This megaproject is a centerpiece of Vision 2030the strategic plan with which Saudi Arabia seeks to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil. The Saudi Railways (SAR) company intends to expand the country’s railway network from the current 5,300 kilometers up to more than 8,000. As part of this modernization, SAR has ordered 15 new trains capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour and even hydrogen-powered models. Spanish participation in the project. The Landbridge is being developed by the Saudi China Landbridge Consortium, a partnership between Saudi Arabia Railways and China Civil Engineering Construction Company, with local support from Al-Ayuni Contracting. Between the international companies involved The Spanish company Sener stands out, which was selected in December 2023 along with Hill International (USA) and Italferr (Italy) to provide project management services. Firms such as Systra, Thales, WSP and other specialized consulting firms also participate. A project with a long history and new Chinese momentum. Although the Landbridge It was initially announced in 2004 and paused in 2010, gained new momentum after the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2022, when both countries committed to accelerate its execution. Chinese investment in Saudi Arabia has grown significantly: in 2024, the stock of direct investment reached 8.2 billion dollarsup 29% from 2023. China has become the largest source of greenfield investment in the kingdom, with commitments worth $16.8 billion in energy, manufacturing and logistics. Railway enthusiasm. Only in the second quarter of 2025, more than 2.6 million passengers They used Saudi trains, according to Okaz media. After the completion of the Landbridge, Saudi Arabia will have made a qualitative leap in its railway network and logistics capacity, so it remains to be seen how the process ends up developing and if it really ends up being a ‘miracle of the desert’. Cover image | Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa), Railway Supply In Xataka | In 2018 it was a countryside on the outskirts of Chongqing. In 2025 it will be the largest train station in the world

In 2018 it was a countryside on the outskirts of Chongqing. In 2025 it will be the largest train station in the world

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On June 27, China inaugurated the Chongqing East Railway Station, officially the largest railway terminal on the planet. With 1.22 million square metersThe equivalent of 170 football fields, this colossus is five times the size of New York’s iconic Grand Central. The project cost around 6.7 billion euros to materialize. In addition to its magnitude, this megastructure also has a series of very interesting characteristics that we are going to tell you about below. A titanic project in record time. Work officially began in November 2018, but satellite images shared by China Perspective on social networks show how between 2023 and 2025 the project went from being a vacant lot to a fully functional station. In fact, before work began in 2018, the area was a complete valley. The terminal opened to the public last June and already moves up to 16,000 passengers per hour. Click on the image to go to the post In addition to a station, a strategic node. Located in the Nan’an district, on the outskirts of Chongqing (a megacity in southwest China), the station has 15 platforms and 29 tracks. It is designed like a central axis within the national railway network known as “Ocho Verticales y Ocho Horizontales”, which connects the western and eastern regions of the country. From here, travelers can reach Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou in just six or eight hours. It also serves as a gateway to cities such as Chengdu, Wuhan or Kunming in times ranging from one to three hours. Image: Reddit Design inspired by the region. Unlike some of the stations we have in Europe, with a somewhat more austere design, Chongqing East boasts an aesthetic with cultural identityas well as functionality. The columns imitate the huangjue trees, typical of the area; the vents are shaped like flowers, and the welcome signs are designed like bamboo scrolls. Its glass ceiling also stands out, offering a good amount of natural light to the main room. A model of urban development. The station environment is conceived as a transit-oriented development zone, which will include hotels, offices, shopping centers and cultural facilities. In this way, the extensive land that existed before has now not only become a large station, but a whole new urban district. A way of doing things already classic in China. What’s coming Chongqing East is not finished, as it is only the beginning of an even more ambitious railway network. High-speed lines such as Zhengyu and Yukun are under construction and will further reinforce the station’s role as a continental hub. China has been showing us for decades how efficient its mega-constructions are, which go from record to record, as in the case of this station. Cover image | Yi Cheng (shared by China Perspective) In Xataka | While half the world debates and makes promises about nuclear energy, only one country is keeping them: China

The countries with the most kilometers of high-speed train, displayed in a graph with a brutal dominator: China

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The train is the backbone of many countries. For centuries it has been key to mobility in Europe, in Japan it is essential, China has experienced a railway revolution and even the United States or Latin America begin to bet on passenger mobility by train. However, it is one thing to have a railway and quite another to have a rich high-speed network. And this graph shows the countries with the most kilometers of high-speed trains and their plans for the future. China, undisputed queen. The Olympics They are an event in which countries “sell” themselves to the worldbut in the case of China, it involved a profound renovation of its infrastructure. It was in 2008 when China launched its high-speed railway line: barely 120 kilometers between Beijing and Taijin, and 17 years later, it is the country with the most kilometers of high-speed lines in operation. According to the data of World Population Review and as we can see in the graph prepared by Visual CapitalistChina has more than 40,000 kilometers of tracks on which its trains go at 250 km/h or more. They have another 12,800 kilometers under construction and more than 11,000 planned. In total, some 64,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. In addition, they are moving forward to make their network the highest speed thanks to the maglev advancesmagnetic trains, with tracks that already link cities like Beijing and Shanghai to speeds of more than 430 kilometers per hour. And it is this network that is putting the airlines in check. Spain and Japan. The train is vital in a country as huge as China and the numbers speak for themselves, but there are two other countries that, without being the ones with the most kilometers in total (operational, under construction and planned), complete the podium of those with the most high-speed kilometers currently operating. There are no surprises here. Spain has a total of 5,632 kilometers of high speed, of which more than 3,700 are already operational, followed by China the country with the most kilometers of high speed currently holds. There are another 1,040 kilometers under construction and another 862 kilometers planned. For its part, Japan, another example when we talk about fast trainshas a total of 3,700 kilometers divided into 3,050 operational kilometers, 402 under construction and 193 planned. Promises, promises. At a time when the train is emerging as the alternative to international flights, especially to low cost and among short-distance points, it is striking that, in reality, there are no more countries with high-speed lines. In Europe, apart from Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland or Italy, they have hundreds of operational kilometers, but outside of the ‘Old Continent’ and cases like South Korea, things are very different. For example, India. It is the second country in the graph, but of the 8,000 total kilometers, only 508 eare under construction and the remaining 7,400 are planned. They do not have high speed, and the same thing happens in Egypt (with 3,400 kilometers planned), Australia (1,700 planned) and European countries such as Latvia, Estonia, Norway or the Czech Republic: all with plans to create high-speed lines, but not one operational kilometer. America. And if in China the train is essential due to its dimensionson the American continent we should think that things are the same. And no, not at all. The United States, a gigantic country, has only 735 kilometers of high speed, 273 under construction and almost 5,000 planned, but nothing more. Spain tried to bring the AVE to the North American country and there are demands for high-speed trains to expand, but their internal mobility continues to have the plane as the protagonist. Canada has 1,500 kilometers planned and not one kilometer built, Mexico is in the same situation with 210 kilometers on the table, Brazil the same with 510 kilometers planned and Argentina does not even appear on the graph. But, although high speed is complicated on the continent, the truth is that there are many plans to expand the railway network, even creating international trains that go from one ocean to another, like the one planned between Brazil and Peru. And who is behind many of these projects? Well, who has gained experience at a forced pace in recent years ‘pulling’ thousands of kilometers of tracks: China. In Xataka | China wanted to be the queen of high-speed trains. So he built all the longest bridges in the world

The most pacifist city in Germany lived off its legendary train factory. Now they will make it from a gigantic tank factory

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Görlitz was known for its neat historic center, its post-war memory and a practical inclination towards pacifism. For decades, the city on the eastern border fit on the German map as a haven of caution and resigned industrial melancholy, a place where work and tradition maneuvered away from military power. But that calm is beginning to show cracks that force its inhabitants to rethink what it means to maintain peace when the world seems to want just the opposite. From the steel of peace to that of war. For more than a century and a half, the town of Görlitz, on Germany’s eastern border, lived off the rhythmic sound of trains. The wagon and locomotive factories They provided work for entire generations and defined the identity of this working-class region of the former East. But that era is coming to an end. After 176 years of railway production, the historic Alstom industrial complex is being converted by the arms consortium KNDS to manufacture components Leopard II tanks and Puma armored vehicles. What was once a symbol of civil mobility and reconstruction, today is transformed in gear of the German military machine. This metamorphosis does not arise from nowhere, of course: it responds to the country’s strategic shift towards rearmamentmotivated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fear of a withdrawal of American security guarantees and a economy in decline desperately looking for new sources of employment. Between pacifism and necessity. I was counting last week the new york times that, in Görlitz, industrial reconversion divide feelings. The population, aging and punished by decades of deindustrialization since reunification, sees the production of tanks as a lesser evil. In this area where the far-right AfD party (openly pro-Russian and opposed to helping Ukraine) concentrates almost half the voteseven its local leaders have accepted the change with resignation. “It is not a cause for celebration, but we cannot oppose having work either,” recognizeaware that the loss of employment would be even more devastating than the moral dilemma of manufacturing weapons. Reconversion. The factory, which once had more than 2,000 employeesbarely kept 700 before the sale, and KNDS agrees to keep half of them and plans to multiply it in the future. In fact, the unions, led by IG Metall, were the ones who promoted the idea of ​​reorienting the plant towards the defense sector to avoid its definitive closure. In a territory marked by youth exodus and economic frustration, the arms industry has ended up offering something similar to a second chance. German military reindustrialization. The Görlitz case reflects a broader phenomenon: German rearmament as a driver of a new industrial reconversion. Since 2020, Berlin’s defense spending has increased about 80%exceeding 90,000 million euros, and the demand for specialized labor has skyrocketed. Companies such as Rheinmetall, Diehl Defense, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems or MBDA have added more than 16,000 workers since the start of the war of Ukraine and plan to hire 12,000 more before 2026. The sector’s profits are so high that its managers increase dividends while exploring the purchase of automobile plants in decline, as that of Volkswagen in Osnabrück. The “logic”. The message from its CEO, Armin Papperger, summarize the logic of the new defense economy: if taxpayers’ money finances national security, jobs must stay in Germany. In this context, the factory conversion like Görlitz, it is perceived as an industrial policy with a dual purpose: to sustain the productive fabric and strengthen the country’s strategic autonomy. The moral dilemma. Despite the economic relief that the renaissance of the arms sector represents, it persists in German society a deep tension between the pacifism inherited from the post-war and the need to guarantee European defense. For many East Germans, who already experienced a first deindustrialization after the fall of the Wall and now suffer the loss of energy and manufacturing jobs, manufacturing tanks is a bitter way of survival. Some fear that the weapons produced will end up on the Ukrainian front, others that the rise of the business depends on the continuity of the war. “Will it be sustainable to manufacture tanks? I hope not. I hope the wars end soon,” admitted to the Financial Times a union representative. However, the reality of the market and geopolitics point in another direction: defense has become the new industrial hub European, and Germany (due to history, technological capacity and allied pressure) leads that transition. Goodbye train, hello tank. Thus, the old Görlitz factory, with its warehouses blackened by decades of metallurgical work, symbolizes the change of era that crosses Europe. Where wagons were previously welded to transport passengers, steel shells will be assembled for combat vehicles. What began as a strategy to save jobs threatens to redefine the industrial soul of the country: from civil ingenuity to military power, from the steel that united continents to that which now armors them. And a profound paradox: in a fractured political landscape, where the fear of war coexists with the need to prosper, the workers of Eastern Germany are once again the involuntary protagonists of history. Its destiny, between nostalgia for trains and the pragmatic acceptance of tanks or battle tanks, summarizes the dilemma of a nation that tries to reconcile its pacifist past with a present that pushes it, once again, to manufacture weapons to ensure its future. Image | Norwegian Armed Forces, State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labor, Energy and Climate Protection In Xataka | The US no longer has to worry about Spain or the rearmament bill in Europe. Germany had a plan B In Xataka | The “rearmament” of Europe has begun at a Volkswagen factory in Germany: instead of cars they will produce tanks

Ten banking giants are going after stablecoins. They are trying not to miss the digital money train

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A consortium of ten of the world’s largest banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Santander and BNP Paribas, have announced that they are exploring creating their own stablecoins, according to Reuters. Why is it important. It is the first time that a consortium of this magnitude has officially reacted to the threat posed by stablecoins (stablecoins) for your business. What has happened. The consortium has made this announcement regarding this development. They would be digital assets anchored 1:1 to the main G7 currencies (dollar, euro, pound, etc.) and, key, they would work on public blockchains, the same technology used by the crypto world. The advertisement seeks to stand up to the absolute dominance of Tethera single company that currently manages a volume of 179 billion dollars outside the traditional banking system. The small print. This movement does not come so much in a context of innovation as in a crisis management room: The money that Tether moves is money that escapes the control and commissions of the SWIFT system. The bank is not creating something new, it is trying to build its own version of something that already exists, works on a large scale and is taking over their ground. The great contradiction is that, to compete, they must use a technology (blockchain) designed explicitly to eliminate intermediaries. The business model of a bank is, precisely, to be that intermediary. They are forcibly adopting the foundations of technology that threatens to erode an increasing part of their business. And now whatand. The ball is now in the court of governments and central banks. For a regulator, a stablecoin issued by a private bank continues to be a threat to monetary sovereignty. This movement only serves to hurry them up in the development of their own digital currencies (the famous CBDC). A CBDC controlled by the European Central Bank or the Federal Reserve could, in the long term, render obsolete both stablecoins of Tether as those now proposed by banks. The banking consortium, in its attempt not to be left behind, may have only managed to accelerate the arrival of a much more powerful competitor: the State itself. In Xataka | It is not bitcoin or Ethereum: Tether is the stablecoin that has turned its creators into emperors of finance Featured image | Alicja Ziajowska

Using the WiFi on the train in Spain is the worst. The question is why there is so much difference compared to the rest of Europe

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If you have to work from the train and need WiFi, good luck. In some areas, even mobile data is useless, making the experience a real torture. It is no wonder, and Spain has one of the worst railway WiFi network infrastructures in all of Europe. According to an Ookla studiothe median download speed on Spanish trains reaches just 1.45 Mbps, compared to 64.58 Mbps in Sweden, which tops the list. At least we are above the United Kingdom or the Netherlands. A multi-layered problem. It’s not just a bad WiFi connection inside the carriage. The main failure, according to the study from Ookla, is in the “backhaul”, that is, in how the train connects to public mobile networks from the roof. Most European countries, including Spain, depend on “incidental” mobile coverage: the antennas installed by operators are designed to serve population centers, not specifically trains. The result is dead zones, constant signal drops and insufficient bandwidth when the train runs between cities. Average unloading speed on European trains. Image: Ookla Outdated technology on board. Inside the car, the panorama doesn’t help either. Although the study does not detail specific data for Spain, countries with similar performance such as the United Kingdom still maintain more than 50% of their connections on WiFi 4, a 2009 standard, and 38% use the 2.4 GHz bandmore prone to interference and congestion. This combination of outdated technology limits the experience even when the outside connection is decent. Sweden solves the puzzle with politics. In Sweden, the case is interesting because it dismantles the complicated terrain argument. Until the beginning of 2024, its trains offered speeds of just 2 Mbps. In the second quarter of that year there was a structural leap: the PTS regulator allocated public funds for neutral infrastructure in tunnels, imposed rail coverage obligations in the 2023 spectrum auctions and identified 45 tunnels and 630 kilometers of track with poor coverage. In just one year the speeds multiplied by more than 30. Average upload speed on European trains. Image: Ookla In Switzerland the model is different, but effective. This country, which is positioned in second place according to the Ookla ranking, has a different structure. And instead of universal WiFi on board, its operator SBB offers “FreeSurf”, a system that allows passengers with a Swiss SIM to use mobile data without consuming their rate while traveling. Bluetooth beacons in the carriages detect the device and the railway operator assumes the cost with the telcos. This avoids the bottleneck of shared WiFi and allows investment to be concentrated on improving the mobile network layer in the corridors. The problem is that it only works for residents with a local SIM. France invests in dedicated network. France built a specific network for railways on routes such as Paris-Lyon, with base stations every 2-3 kilometers, antennas facing the track and special systems in tunnels for trains that travel at 300 km/h and change cells every 15 seconds. Although the study places France In an intermediate position (19.12 Mbps), it continues to be well above Spain. Median latency of European countries compared to Taiwan. Image: Ookla Modern trains are Faraday cages. Part of the problem is structural. And how mention study, current railcars incorporate low-E glass with metallized coatings that block mobile signals more than a layer of concrete, according to tests carried out by the British Department of Transport. Germany has invested 50 million euros in laser treating 70,000 windows of 3,300 carriages to make them permeable to radio frequencies. Belgium abandoned a 173 million euro on-board WiFi plan and preferred to invest 40 million in modifying the windows of its trains. Asia prioritizes mobile over WiFi. In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the approach is different, as they invest in dedicated mobile data coverage on roads and tunnels, and treat WiFi as a secondary service. According to the study, Taiwan leads in latency (13 ms) and already deploys WiFi 6 on 20% of its rail connections. Its download speeds (8.1 Mbps) far exceed those of Spain, although they are far from the European leaders. The Japanese government, for example, has subsidized since 2020 the installation of cellular systems in all tunnels in the Shinkansen. satellite internet. Just like mention the study, operators such as ScotRail, SNCF, Trenitalia or PKP Intercity are testing terminals starlink and OneWeb on rural or coastal routes where ground coverage is insufficient. The strategy is not to replace mobile coverage, but to join both connections through onboard SD-WAN gateways. There are still limitations, as certified rail terminals are still in short supply, they do not operate in tunnels and the operational cost remains high if data is used intensively. In Xataka | How to share the data connection of your Android mobile or iPhone with an Internet access point

All to train his AI

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The Chinese company Anker, owner of the EUFY security camera brand, launched an initiative for 2024 collect robber videos of packages and cars with which to train their artificial intelligence systems. The proposal was simple: 2 dollars for each useful video. The campaign, which worked between December 2024 and February 2025, achieved more than 120 participants, according to Public comments On the program page. What Euphy asked. The company requested both real and staging videos of theft situations. On its website, Anker explained that they were looking for material that helped train their AI to better detect parcel thieves and people trying to open cars doors. They even encouraged users to simulate the situation themselves: “You can create situations pretending to be a thief and donate those videos,” the company explained. If a user managed to record a simulated theft with two cameras simultaneously and added another car opening scene, he could earn up to 80 dollars. The goal after the initiative. Eufy wanted to gather 20,000 videos of each type of robbery (packages and cars), adding more than 40,000 clips in total. Interested users only had to fill in a Google form where their videos uploaded and added their PayPal account to receive payment. The company assured that the data would be used exclusively to train their AI algorithms and for any other purpose. Why generates debate. This strategy raises questions about privacy and security, although in this specific case it is more transparent than The usual practices of the sector. Unlike many companies that collect data without explicit consent or that They track the Internet To feed his models, Eufy made it clear what he asked, what he wanted and how much he would pay. The program was voluntary and the participants knew exactly what they accessed. It is also true that Eufy’s history does not play in his favor. And is that in 2023, The Verge He revealed that the transmissions of his cameras, advertised as end -to -end encryption, were not when it was accessed through their web portal. Anker then admitted having cheated users and promised to solve him. Rewards for training their AI. Currently, EuFy actively keeps a video donation program within its application with a different rewards system. Users They can win digital medalscameras or gift cards in exchange for videos that help improve AI. The app even shows a ranking with the users who have donated the most. The first of the ranking has contributed more than 201,000 clips. For this program, EuFy only requests videos with people and reiterates that the material will not be shared with third parties. He has also requested videos recorded with his vigilabés, although in this case no economic reward is mentioned. Until security fails. Today there are many companies that are willing to reward their users as currency to obtain data that allow training their language models. However, although the company explicitly explains everything it needs and there is total transparency, the systems can fail. A recent example is Neon, a call app that offered money in exchange for recordings and transcripts, and that He had to close After discovering a security failure that exposed the data of all its users. Cover image | Alan J. Hendry In Xataka | Nvidia has control of the most powerful chips of AI: OpenAi, Broadcom and TSMC want to end their XPUS

One of the most downloaded apps for iPhone pays for recording calls to train AI models. It is a security disaster

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The sale of personal data is not a hypothesis, it is an expanding reality. Just look at Spotify: Recently a service appeared that paid those who delivered their profile and their listening summaries to resell them to technology companies. The approach was as simple as disturbing, because it became something as innocent as our musical habits. Neon Repeat the scheme, but transfers it to a much more sensitive land, telephone calls, where intimacy becomes the product. We are talking about an app that decided to convert phone calls into the new digital gold. His proposal is direct: “Speak, record and charge.” It promises users to win “hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year” simply allowing their conversations to transform into training material for artificial intelligence systems. The hook worked. In a matter of days he went from irrelevance to place Within the top three positions In the Social Networks category in the United States App Store. How neon works. The neon mechanism is designed for each call to translate into money. It promises to pay 30 cents per minute when two users of the app talked to each other, 15 cents if the call is with someone external and establishes a stop of 30 dollars daily. To this adds a referral system that offers 30 dollars for each new user. The recording, According to your policyalways affect the sender and, when both used neon, to both parties. Conditions of use. Beyond payments, the true neon reach is in its Terms of service. There the users give the company a “world, exclusive, irrevocable and transferable” license on their recordings. This permit includes rights to sell, modify, create derived works and distribute the audio in any format, present or future. To this is added a section of functions in beta, without guarantees or responsibility in case of failures. The amplitude of that assignment makes it difficult to foresee how far the use of the recordings can go. Where is available and how popular it is. Neon’s initial success was as fast as unexpected. At the time of writing this article, it is number 2 of the most downloaded social applications in the United States App Store. The application, however, seems restricted to that market: in tests carried out from Spain is not among those available or allows its download. The security failure. The story took an unexpected turn when a technical analysis revealed that Neon did not protect the information of its own users. As Techcrunch discoveredjust create an account and review network traffic with a tool like Burp Suite to access others. Shortly after the notice, the founder closed the servers and sent an email announcing a pause ‘for security’, not to mention the filtration. What was exposed was especially delicate: Telephone numbers associated with accounts Public links to audio recordings Complete call transcripts Metadata with duration, date and payments obtained Telephone numbers, recordings and transcripts are not accessible is not a minor failure. With this data, private conversations could be rebuilt and associated with specific people. The risks range from attempts to impersonate identity to the creation of synthetic voices. What Neon says in front of what we know, Neon defends that their processes protect users: anonymity of conversations, elimination of personal information and sale only to reviewed companies. However, the ruling showed that these systems are not infallible. The official communication after temporary closure spoke of “adding extra security layers”, but omits to recognize the filtration. Neon’s fall does not erase the background question: what price does our intimacy have when artificial intelligence demands more and more data? The model to pay for calls can reappear in other forms and other markets, because the need to train systems will continue to grow. What happened in the United States is an early warning that we are not talking about science fiction, but about real proposals that already touch the user’s door. The decision, ultimately, is personal. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 | Screen capture | Neon In Xataka | A new generation of robots promises precision and efficiency. It also opens the door to cyberspage risks

In full train development in Europe, they have raised a ‘subway’ to unite capitals that is a fantasy. Literally

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Traditionally, the train was the Interior mobility dorsal spine In Europe. The development of the infrastructure allowed population movements for decades and, although the low-cost flights They have made a large part of the cake, there are European movements for recovering trains. An example is the NOX Night Trainbut another is the Starline project, a high speed ‘subway’ network that connects the main European capitals. Appeals everything that Europe is looking for: interconnection, transport of goods and sustainability. And it sounds too good to be true. Precisely, there is the problem. Starline. 21st Europe It is a Danish group architect of the Starline project. In his web They claim that Starline is not a matter of convenience, but a strategic need for current Europe. It is a high -speed train that will link the main European cities thanks to machines capable of traveling at 400 km/h (superior to that of the bird, for example) connecting, in principle, 39 destinations. To achieve these speeds, the idea is to minimize the closed curves and slopes as much as possible, achieving a great average speed that shortens the times between destinations. In the proposed map we can see that they have used a system of segments such as the one we can find In the subwayas well as stations that allow connections with other lines. The train. The idea is the most attractive, being able to go from Madrid to Istanbul without getting out of the train, or arriving Helsinki transforded in Vienna. As much as they reach 400 km/h, the journeys would be long and, for this, they have thought of wide -seat cars, quieter areas, others open for teleworking or for families with young children and cafeteria. They also propose that there is no seat division based on the classic hierarchy of airlines. And the reason why design should be blue is to distinguish trains and turn them into an icon, such as Red London Buses or the yellow yotk taxis. In addition, they would be connected and travelers could see the train status in real time at all times. Stations? Cultural centers. That experience for the passenger would start directly at the station. Instead of being a mere point of passage, what 21st Europe proposes is that they are public spaces with their own identity. If they advocate infrastructure with the trains, with the stations advocate places designed by the most reputed architects and designers of the different countries, creating buildings that are identity of each of the countries where there is space for stores and restaurants, but also for museums, concert halls, conferences or sports venues. Going directly to a concert or a match of whatever is directly from station to station is a great idea. Goods. Positive points are not limited to travelers. From the group, they detail that rail transport is four times more efficient than classical road transport in Europe, but only 18% of the goods move by train. Thus, they consider that the system could be used as way to transport goods in high speed Without resorting to the truck, the plane or the ship, implementing cargo and unloading hubs directly at the stations and strengthening Europe with a large new commercial network. China’s example. Placing the stations outside the large urban centers, it is achieved that they remain accessible, but avoiding the disturbance of traffic that exists in the central stations of the large European capitals. In addition, they consider that they would be an economic engine for those cities, and all thanks to the data that come from China. The Asian giant has gone expanding its high -speed rail network In record time and, from 21st Europe, they claim that cities with connections to that network experienced an increase of more than 14% in GDP and that each new line connected to the total contributed with an additional 7.2% to that growth of urban GDP. Now, China’s investment has been (and is being) huge, and has the big problem of Periodic maintenance cost. Sustainability, the great asset. In it Ride of decarbonizationthere are countries that are looking for replace short distance flights with the trainand Starline enters perfectly in such proposals. It is estimated that, in Europe, the commercial flight sector represents 4% of the total Greenhouse Emissions and about 14% of transport emissions. The calculation is that European flights contaminate five times more by passenger/kilometer than the train, and that is where Starline points. They detail that it must be independent at the energy level, betting on renewable sources that integrate solar, wind storage and batteries in their stations and operational infrastructure. With all this in mind, they estimate that short -journey flights could be replaced by a high -speed rail, reducing 95%emissions. In Spain, The bird is winning the game to the plane. You have to wait sitting. The 21st Europe project does not leave a stick without touching and it seems that it has no fissure. Everything is positive and sounds great, but there is a problem. Well, two. The first, regardless of complication when governments and companies agree to offer a unified service, is financing. The Danish group points out that the network must be financed through a combination of EU infrastructure budgets, financing of the European Investment Bank and long -term EU bonds. In addition, the governments of each country should co -finance their regional stations and connections, and all this maintaining a lower ticket price than the short -journey flights. The second big problem, and the key in this matter, is that this is an idea thrown into the wind. 21st Europe is something known as a ‘Think Tank‘, a group of experts who design visionary projects on the future of the continent. They have other proposals as an infrastructure of public parks called ‘Continent of Play‘, but basically that is, a project, an idea to initiate a conversation in the political spheres, but without the capacity for what they propose is launched. We will see … Read more

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