THE ARTIST IN THE PRESS
More about the artist behind Goodyear, Arizona's Water Source and Gila Blue artwork.
From Forbes Magazine… a bio of Hall.
Other than the billionaire connection, Hall has the résumé of a bleeding-heart liberal. Born to two professors in Nebraska, she says moved to California as a teenager, got involved in anti-Vietnam protests and attended the University of California at Berkeley. In 2006, her husband, David, who doesn’t have as much of an interest in politics, patented a sensor that would allow self-driving cars to detect their surroundings. Twelve years later the value of his stake in Velodyne reached an estimated $1 billion. Marta Thoma Hall is the head of business development at the company while moonlighting as a sculptor. In the past, she has made public art installations out of recycled steel and glass bottles. Now she says she’s working on 3D-printing art about “female identity and the environment,” states Forbes’ writer Michela Tindera.
More recent press describe woes for the couple…
PRESS RELEASE: Velodyne Lidar Announces Changes to Board of Directors and Management Team; Names New Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer
Feb 22, 2021 | By Velodyne Lidar
The investigation concluded that Mr. Hall and Ms. Hall each behaved inappropriately with regard to Board and Company processes, and failed to operate with respect, honesty, integrity, and candor in their dealings with Company officers and directors… They will remain members of the Company’s Board of Directors. Press Release
ARTICLE: Sensor maker Velodyne removes founder from chairman post, wife claims 'ambush'
By Reuters and Ayanti Bera
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Sensor maker Velodyne Lidar Inc (VLDR.O) said on Monday it had removed founder David Hall as chairman and his wife Marta Thoma Hall as marketing chief for a lack of honesty, a charge Marta Hall said the couple was not allowed to rebut in a board meeting she described as an "ambush."
BUSINESSWIRE PRESS RELEASE: Velodyne Lidar Responds to Latest Falsehoods from David and Marta Thoma Hall
David Hall and Marta Hall have engaged in an ongoing campaign of misstatement, obfuscation and obstruction, with the purpose of promoting their own interests at the expense of Velodyne and its public stockholders. David Hall’s latest “Letter to Shareholders” not only repeats his false claims but ignores his own misappropriation of Velodyne’s intellectual property and the Halls’ history of conduct contrary to the best interests of Velodyne. LINK
The Halls apparently filed suit, too… LINK
SAN JOSE, Calif., January 21, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--David and Marta Hall, former executive officers and controlling stockholders of Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLDR) ("Velodyne Lidar" or the "Company"), today announced that they have filed a lawsuit in the United States Superior Court of California against certain individuals for their roles in misleading stockholders of the original Velodyne Lidar ("Original Velodyne") regarding its 2020 SPAC merger with Graf Industrial Corp. ("GIC").
Marta Thoma Hall also made news in 2019 when Bernie Sanders reportedly returned a donation she made to his campaign.
OTHER ARTICLES
Technology vs Humans. Engineers Seek Answers in Uber’s Fatal Self Driving Car Accident, Engineering.com
UPDATE: Preliminary report from NTSB indicates that Uber’s self-driving car had 6 seconds to respond before the fatal accidents but the system got confused and was unable to correctly identify the object as a pedestrian with a bicycle. At a little over one second before the collision, the Uber system did determine that the vehicle was on a collision course with the yet unidentified object but the Uber system did not alert the operator or apply the brakes. See full update here in June 5, 2018 article.