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A major Japanese beverage producer says it has been hit by a cyberattack that left its operations disrupted for the fifth day on Friday, and Japanese media are reporting that stocks of the company’s popular beer and other beverages are running low in some stores.Asahi Group Holdings said its computer systems were hit by a cyberattack on Monday, creating glitches that have affected orders, shipments, and a customer call center in Japan. Overseas systems were not affected.A company spokeswoman told the Associated Press on Friday that the problem had still not been fixed, though some emergency shipments were made on Wednesday, with employees entering information into computer systems manually.The cause and motive of the attacks were still under investigation, the spokeswoman said. She requested anonymity, which is customary for Japanese companies.Japanese media said some convenience stores weren’t getting their deliveries and that stocks were low and the products were even being sold out in some places.A 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo visited by an AP reporter on Friday evening still stocked plenty of Asahi beer, though the saleswoman said she expected the stocks to start running low soon.It’s unclear when the system will be back up and running, Asahi said. The company has canceled events and is delaying the launch of products. Some Japanese media reports said the attacks may be ransomware, but Asahi declined to comment.Tokyo-based Asahi, founded in 1949, makes beer, including its popular Super Dry rice lager and other beverages, including cider and juices, as well as baby food, candy and some other food products. Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Teslas Cybertrucks might be the most polarizing vehicle on the market. And due to their electronic door-open mechanism, they’re far from the safest. A new lawsuit underscores this, alleging that 19-year-old college student Krysta Tsukahara died during a fiery crash because the trucks electric doors shut down, preventing the door from opening on either side, as the New York Times first reported. Tsukaharas family is suing Tesla in Alameda County Superior Court. In Cybertrucks, a passenger has to click a button for the door to open. The only manual mechanism to open a rear door is to pull a cablebut reaching said cable involves removing the rubber mat on the bottom of the rear door’s map pocket, according to Tesla. The person then has to pull the cable forward before pushing the door open. These manual releases are in different locations in various Tesla models. The November 2024 crash occurred when a Cybertruck carrying four people crashed into a tree and caught fire. A friend following in another vehicle broke one of the Cybertrucks windows and rescued one of the four people. He was unable to rescue Tsukahara, who the suit alleges died from burns and smoke inhalation, not the impact of the crash. Tsukaharas family is also suing the estate of the driver, who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol, amphetamines, and cocaine when the car crashed. Fast Company has reached out to Tesla for comment and will update this post if we hear back. Teslas door handles have a history of malfunctioning Elon Musk’s electric car company uses door-open buttons across its vehicles, with further accusations beyond the Cybertruck. On September 10, a Bloomberg report revealed that over 140 customers had complaints related to Teslas doors getting stuck, not opening, or otherwise malfunctioning since 2018. Multiple cases mirror Tsukahara’s case of being stuck inside a burning vehicle, unable to get the doors open. Take a Toronto crash, in October 2024. A Tesla Model Y crashed into a barrier and caught fire, killing all four of its passengers. The electric door buttons didnt work, trapping the individuals in the car. Five days after the Bloomberg report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into Teslas Model Y vehicles, specifically looking at opening doors from the outside without power. Its preliminary evaluation points to incidents in which parents have been unable to get their child out of the car. In a September 17 interview on Bloombergs Hot Pursuit! podcast, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen claimed that the company is working on a redesign to help in a panic situation. It would combine the mechanical and electronic door releases. So in the moment that youre in a panic situation, the muscle memory to go to what you know is right there, von Holzhausen said. You just pull a little bit further on the lever and you have the mechanical release. It seems Teslas solution to its dangerous design is to provide a normal, functioning door handle.
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E-Commerce
Last month, more than 450 artists designed a custom sticker to support Zohran Mamdanis New York City mayoral campaignand, pretty soon, youre going to be seeing the winning design everywhere. On September 25, Mamdanis campaign announced through an Instagram video that it would be hosting a sticker design contest to get New Yorkers registered to vote before the October 25 deadline. The competition gave followers just 36 hours to submit their designs, during which hundreds of pieces of art flooded the campaigns submission portal. Now that a winner has been selected, anyone who is registered can submit a form on Mamdanis website and pick up the sticker at one of Mamdanis canvases or volunteer events. Mamdanis campaign took a page out of other regions playbooks through the sticker design contest, which, in recent years, have proven to be both effective fodder for social media discussion and a real avenue to boost voter engagement. Its part of his larger goal to get more New Yorkers, and especially young people, registered to votea mission that, so far, has yielded impressive results. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani) Why voting sticker contests are on the rise Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has run his campaign with an internet-savvy eye for design. In the election run-up, he masterfully shot candid short-form video content to reach young voters and establish himself as an authentic candidate for the people. His campaign posters balanced a hand-drawn quality with a healthy sprinkling of nostalgia, presenting Mamdani as less corporate and more down-to-earth than his rivals. These aesthetic choices helped pave the way for him to defeat Andrew Cuomo in the primaries. Now that the November 6 election is fast approaching, Mamdanis campaign is using those same creative sensibilities to prepare New Yorkers for the polls. Most Americans will be familiar with the classic red-white-and-blue I Voted stickers, and for good reason. According to a 2016 study by four researchers at Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Chicago, were more motivated to vote when we know others will know that we voted. These now-ubiquitous stickers are a key way to signal our civic involvement. Recently, though, another kind of voting sticker has taken center-stage. In 2022, Ulster County in New York decided to forgo the traditional sticker, opting instead to solicit sticker designs from local artists. The public overwhelmingly voted for a crazed-looking monster spider, designed by a 14-year-old, which became an immediate viral sensation. Since then, other local governments have similarly turned sticker design into a contest, from Denver to South Dakota and San Luis Obispo County, California. Last May, Michigan residents selected a image of a werewolf ripping off its shirt in front of an American flag to represent that theyd performed their civic duty. Submissions to Mamdanis call for designs included a giant pigeon head, a psychedelic interpretation of Mamdanis face, and a swaggering NYC alley cat. Mamdani himself chose his 10 favorite designs before allowing the public to vote on the winner. Nearly 7,000 votes later, the winner, created by local artist Nishan Patel, was chosen. Fittingly, the design features an NYC bodega with a cat in the window and the signage, Vote for Zohran. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani) How Mamdani is boosting voter turnout Historically, sticker design competitions have been used to boost final voter turnout on election day. Instead, Mamdanis campaign opted to catch potential supporters sooner by using the contest to encourage New Yorkers to register to votea goal thats been central to the campaigns success so far. According to an analysis from The New York Times, published on June 29, Mamdani has already changed the electoral map. In the 14 days leading up to the registration deadline for the Democratic primary, about 37,000 people registered to vote, compared with about 3,000 people in the same period in 2021, the publication found. Mr. Mamdanis campaign had focused on registering voters, and he also appears to have drawn thousands of voters to the primary who did not vote four years ago, the report reads. Mamdanis campaign told Fast Company that it even believes certain social media videos may have driven spikes in voter registrations. After Mamdani posted a call-to-action in mid-June specifically encouraging New Yorkers to register, registrations shot up. While such data is correlational and not necessarily causal, the campaign says that the narrow timeframe suggests a likely connection. As Vote for Zohran stickers begin to appear around the city, the design competition may prove to be another way that Mamdani convinces New Yorkers to get to the polls.
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E-Commerce
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