| Another week, another court case over an Elon Musk tweet. OK, sure, this is only the second time that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's love for the platform has gotten him into real legal trouble. But what played out in a Los Angeles federal courtroom last week was certainly weird, and involved Musk justifying the fact that he called a British man named Vernon Unsworth "pedo guy," which led to a defamation suit. The trial looked to turn on what that phrase actually meant—and it turned in Musk's favor. On Friday afternoon, the jury found the CEO is not liable for defaming Unsworth. In more significant news last week, Uber put out its first report on the violence that has occurred on the platform. Also, Waymo's self-driving service hit the App Store, the flying car industry wondered whether the public actually wants flying cars, and a new report shows just how terrible SUVs are for the planet. Let's get you caught up. Headlines Stories you might have missed from WIRED How physics prevented a man in a panic attack from opening an aircraft door in midair. Elon Musk wins his defamation trial, which may have turned on what "pedo guy" means. Researchers say they've taught self-driving car software to distinguish between selfish and considerate human drivers in the space of two seconds. If these confusing word things have got you down, tune into Transportation Editor Alex Davies' appearance on WIRED's Gadget Lab podcast, wherein he discusses the latest in Elon Musk, the Cybertruck, and travel tips for the holidays. Uber releases its first-ever safety report, which shows 3,075 incidents of sexual assault related to the platform over the course of 1.3 billion US rides in 2018. Survivor advocacy organizations praise for Uber transparency, but one criminologist calls the report "alarming." Waymo's Uber-like self-driving car app makes it to the App Store, though the service is still reserved to the Phoenix metro area. At a secretive summit, flying car leaders ponder how to sell their ideas to the public. Tesla considers cleaning windshields and solar panels with pulsing lasers. How some of America's busiest, coastal airports are moving to protect themselves from the threat of rising seas. Two in five vehicles sold today are SUVs—and they're really very bad for the planet. Is New York City's plan to fight traffic too low-tech? The Air Force is betting that 3D printing can help it keep aging aircraft in service, and it's hosting its own "Olympics" to make it happen. Stat of the Week 87% The fall in battery prices between 2010 and 2019, according to a new Bloomberg New Energy Finance survey. The report attributes that gigantic drop to order size, the growth in electric vehicle sales, and improved engineering. The report projects that prices will drop even by 2023, from $156 per kilowatt-hour today to $100 per kilowatt-hour. Those decreases mean big things for tech like electric cars and solar panels, which are already changing the way American companies do business. Required Reading News from elsewhere on the internet General Motors and South Korea's LG are teaming up to pour $2.3 billion into a battery factory in Ohio. Fiat Chrysler is shopping for electric vehicle tech. Once-hot Silicon Valley startups have lost $100 billion this year so far, creating a messy situation for other companies hoping to finance deals. This upside-down stealth jet was ahead of its time. What might a city's "runnability index" tell you about what it's like to live there? Quite a lot, actually. CityLab's special series of essays on how maps shape us is wrapping up, and you should read them all. Why are kids so obsessed with garbage trucks? And if these mayors are committed to combating climate change, why are they moving to widen highways? In the Rearview Essential stories from WIRED's canon Flashback to the last time Elon Musk made an appearance in court, when he was in New York defending himself against the US Securities and Exchange Commission's charge that he had ignored the terms of a settlement by, what else, tweeting. | 
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