Hey hey Flux Fam!

It's the final day of this week's Flux daily 1 min quiz!

It's neck and neck up the top. Aulia is in the lead - Sarah and Adam have taken the lead! 

The lucky winner gets their hands on a $100 Uber Eats voucher. Snooze ya lose!

Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories

⚡️ Uber reckons Australia's electric vehicle rollout is "a mess"

💰 Coinbase could be getting sued by US regulators

🗞 Microsoft is launching a news service Microsoft Start

Oh, and get this...

The crew behind (the very expensive) Penfolds, Treasury Wine Estates has promised that all of its winery operations round the world will be powered by renewable energy by 2024. That's a lot of solar panels.

Uber wants Australia to scrap fuel taxes 'cos our electric vehicle rollout is "a mess"

Background: Uber - the multi-billion-dollar ridesharing giant - ain't happy with Australia. It actually called our electric vehicle (EV) rollout "a mess". Yikes. 

What happened: In Norway, 75% of new car sales are electric vehicles. In the UK it's 11%...and in Australia? Just 1.57%. Double yikes. 

What else: Uber's Aussie boss reckons Australia needs to move away from fuel taxes, and adopt a road user charging scheme - aka, charge drivers a fee for every kilometre they drive on Aussie roads.

So what's the key learning?

💡Every wondered why fuel prices feel so high?! You can thank a 'lil (or big) something called fuel taxes. For every litre of fuel you get, you pay 43.3 cents in tax. 

💡Fuel taxes are Australia's largest source of funding for building and maintaining our roads. We pay the tax to the federal government...and they use it to fund out transport infrastructure - aka our roads.

💡Over the last few decades, fuel taxes have been declining. Cars have become more fuel efficient, so we don't need to fuel up as regularly...which means we pay less tax. And if you have an EV, you don't fuel up at all. So you can see why the Government may be a tad slow to push the pedal on rolling out EVs.

Crypto platform Coinbase could be getting sued by US regulators

Background: Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange worth US$100 billion. It has around 68 million verified users, and it spans a huge 100 countries.

What happened: Over the last few months, they've been trying to launch Coinbase Lend. This platform would let users give money to Coinbase Lend, who'll lend it someone else. And they're promising a 4% interest rate on the loan.  

What else: It's part of Coinbase's plan to get into decentralised finance - or DeFi for short. But the US Securities Exchange Commission says it'll sue Coinbase if it does. 

So what's the key learning?

💡Decentralised finance is a new form of finance that doesn't rely on an intermediary - like a bank. 

💡DeFi platforms let people lend money from others, or earn interest in savings-like accounts, without a bank in between. And it's all done through blockchain - mainly using cryptocurrency Ethereum.

💡As crypto platforms make moves into more heavily-regulated and traditional industries like banking, the scrutiny on the crypto industry as a whole in only getting deeper. And it's starting to look a battle...One bigger than Trump v Rosie O'Donnell.

Microsoft launches a personalised news service called Microsoft Start

Background: You know what we need? More tech companies with news sites. Said no-one ever. Thankfully, Microsoft is launching Microsoft Start, a personalised news service. 

What happened: It'll combine content from news publishers around the world that is tailored to suit your individual interests. If you like a news story, you can thumbs it up 👍 or thumbs it down 👎. And over time, Microsoft will only show you the content you're interested in. 

What else: Pretty neat for us, and neat for Microsoft, because it could give them a major edge over Apple, Facebook and Google, who have already entered the content and publishing space. 

So what's the key learning?

💡 Customisation is key when you're stepping into an already saturated market, Flux fam.

💡 A Harvard Business Review study found that businesses that encourage consumers' ‘psychological ownership’ can drive them to  use more products.

💡If you give customers a chance to customise the product themselves - aka let them shape it - it can give them this feeling of ownership. So by letting people customise their news, Microsoft is ticking the scientific boxes, which could be what it needs to bump out its competitors.