On May 27, 2020, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) published its highly-anticipated Default Electronic Disclosures by Employee Pension Benefit Plans Under ERISA Final Rule (the E-Disclosure Final Rule), which establishes a new, voluntary safe harbor allowing plan administrators to notify covered individuals that retirement plan disclosures will be made available on a website or mobile app. The new safe harbor also allows plan administrators to deliver those disclosures via email to covered individuals. For those who prefer hard copy disclosures, they may affirmatively opt out of electronic delivery and will be able to elect to receive paper disclosures instead.
Background: Original Delivery Standards for ERISA Disclosures
The DOL established a safe harbor under its 2002 E-Disclosure Rule for use of electronic media to furnish employee benefit plan disclosures to two types of employees: (1) “wired at work” employees, meaning those with access to the employer’s electronic information system, and (2) individuals who may not have access to the employer’s network but who nonetheless consent to receive documents electronically. The 2002 E-Disclosure Rule also set forth requirements regarding consent to and rejection of electronic disclosure.
Since the 2002 E-Disclosure Rule, the DOL has issued guidance on occasion allowing for different electronic delivery methods in certain circumstances. In 2018, the President issued Executive Order 13847, “Strengthening Retirement Security in America” (the 2018 Order), which instructed the DOL, in consultation with the Treasury Department, to review ways to enhance the effectiveness of required plan disclosures, while reducing the costs and regulatory burden associated with distributing such notices. The joint effort of the Treasury Department and the DOL is apparent in the E-Disclosure Final Rule.
The new safe harbor is designed to be an alternative to, rather than a replacement of, the DOL’s 2002 safe harbor. Plan administrators may continue to rely on the prior safe harbor for electronic delivery or may furnish paper documents by hand-delivery or by mail.
Scope of New E-Disclosure Rule and Safe Harbor
Covered Individuals
Plan administrators may rely on the new E-Disclosure Final Rule for the following individuals: any covered individual (participant, beneficiary or other individual) who provides the employer, plan sponsor or administrator with an electronic address, such as an email address or smartphone number, for purposes of receiving covered documents. Alternatively, if an employer assigns an electronic address to an employee for employment-related purposes that include but are not limited to the delivery of covered documents, the employee will be viewed as having provided the electronic address, and thus will be treated as a covered individual.
Covered Documents
The E-Disclosure Final Rule applies to any document that plan administrators are required to furnish to covered individuals under Title I of ERISA, such as summary plan descriptions, summaries of material modifications, pension benefit statements, summary annual reports, fee disclosures, annual funding notices, safe harbor notices, ERISA 404(c) disclosures (i.e., investment information for participant-directed accounts), QDIA notices and blackout notices.
However, the Rule does not apply to documents that are required to be furnished only on request (e.g., the retirement plan document, the trust agreement or the plan’s latest Form 5500 annual report) or that are within the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), such as 401(k) plan safe harbor notices, ERISA 204(h) notices, special tax notices relating to plan distributions and notices to interested parties required in connection with IRS determination letter filings.
Whether covered documents are furnished via email or posted on a website or through a mobile app, they must be in:
a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant;
a format that can be searched electronically by numbers, letters or words; and
a widely available format or formats suitable to be both read online and printed clearly on paper and that allows the document to be permanently retained in such a format.
Covered documents and information must be available at the same time as they are otherwise required to be furnished to covered individuals under ERISA. The new E-Disclosure Final Rule does not change these requirements.
Initial Notification of Default Electronic Delivery and Right to Opt-Out
Before a plan administrator may use the new safe harbor, the administrator must provide covered individuals with an initial paper notice informing them that the way they currently receive retirement plan disclosures (e.g., paper delivery via US mail) is changing and that electronic delivery will be used going forward.
The notice must inform covered individuals of the electronic address that will be used, describe how to access documents, and caution that documents may only be available for a limited period of time. The notice must also inform the covered individual of his/her right to opt-out of electronic delivery entirely, and to instead request a paper copy of any document free of charge. Plan administrators are free to customize the notice to better communicate the plan’s transition to electronic delivery under the safe harbor, but the notice must be written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant.
Given that the notice requirement applies to new hires, existing employees and former employees, there are special considerations for each group that plan administrators, possibly in coordination with employers, should analyze.
For newly hired employees, it may make sense for employers to distribute this notice during the employee intake/onboarding process and include it in new employee paperwork and standard enrollment materials. For existing employees, because some may already receive electronic disclosures under the 2002 E-Disclosure Rule, plan administrators should consider whether it would pose administrative complexities to continue to use the 2002 E-Disclosure Rule for some employees and the new E-Disclosure Final Rule for others. When an employee terminates, the plan administrator must take measures reasonably calculated to ensure the continued accuracy and operability of a former employee’s electronic address (described in more detail below) or must obtain a new electronic address that enables receipt of future covered documents. Thus, it may make sense for employers to request that terminating and retiring employees provide a new email address or phone number that can be used to electronically provide covered documents as a part of their exit process, especially in cases where the email address or smartphone number in use is assigned by the employer.
Document and Information Delivery Methods
Under the new E-Disclosure Rule, covered documents and information may be provided electronically in two ways:
Electronic Address. Plan administrators may send retirement plan disclosures directly to the electronic addresses (e.g., email or other internet-connected mobile-computing device such as a smartphone number) of the covered individual. If email, the document may either be contained in the body of the email or may be an attachment to the email.
Website Posting/Mobile App. Alternatively, plan administrators may post retirement plan disclosures on an internet website or through a mobile app, provided the appropriate notice of internet availability (described in more detail below) is furnished to covered individuals. Retirement plan disclosures must remain on the website or app until superseded by a subsequent version, but in no event for less than one year.
Standards for Electronic Addresses
The new E-Disclosure Final Rule allows plan administrators to send retirement plan disclosures directly to covered individuals’ electronic addresses, including email or smartphone number.
If the plan administrator chooses to send the disclosures via email, then the covered individual’s email address must either be (i) provided by the employer (but not by the plan administrator or record keeper or otherwise specifically assigned for plan use) or (ii) provided by the covered individual.
The email must be written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan partcipant and must include:
A subject line that reads “Disclosure About Your Retirement Plan.”
If the document is an attachment, an identification of the covered document by name or a brief description of the covered document if identification by name would not reasonably convey the nature of the covered document.
A statement of the right to request and receive a paper version of the covered document free of charge, and an explanation of how to exercise this right.
A statement of the right to opt out of electronic delivery and receive only paper versions of covered documents, and an explanation of how to exercise this right.
A telephone number to contact the plan administrator or other designated plan representative.
Plan administrators must ensure that the electronic delivery system alerts them if an electronic address is invalid or inoperable. In that case, the administrator must attempt to promptly cure the problem, or treat the covered individual as opting out of electronic delivery and furnish a paper copy of the undelivered document(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.
Standards for Websites and Mobile Apps
Plan administrators are required to ensure that the website or mobile app exists and that it is functional so that covered individuals can use it to access retirement plan disclosures.
Given the variety of technologies, software, and data used in the retirement plan marketplace, and that specific technical standards, requirements, and certifications may quickly become obsolete, the E-Disclosure Final Rule adopts a principles-based standard. Under this standard, plan administrators, possibly in coordination with plan service providers, are required to take steps reasonably calculated to ensure the privacy and security of personal information relating to any covered individual on a website or app.
A covered document must be available on the website or app no later than the date on which ERISA requires it to be furnished and must remain on the website or app for at least one year or, if later, after it is superseded by a subsequent version.
Even if covered documents are temporarily unavailable for a reasonable period due to maintenance or unforeseeable events or circumstances beyond the plan administrator’s control, these requirements will be satisfied as long as the administrator has reasonable procedures in place to ensure that the documents are available in the manner required by the E-Disclosure Final Rule, and takes prompt action to ensure that the documents become available as soon as practicable after the administrator knows or reasonably should know that such documents are temporarily unavailable.
Notice of Internet Availability (NOIA) for Websites and Mobile Apps
If covered documents are made available on a website or through an app, plan administrators must provide covered individuals with a “notice of internet availability” or NOIA. The NOIA must be written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant.
Required Content
The NOIA must include:
A prominent statement – for example, a title, legend or subject line – that reads “Disclosure About Your Retirement Plan.”
A statement that reads “Important information about your retirement plan is now available. Please review this information.”
The name of the document (for example, a statement that reads “Your Quarterly Benefit Statement is now available”) or a brief description of the document if identification by name would not reasonably convey the nature of the document.
The internet website address where the document is available, or a hyperlink to the address. The document must either be directly available at that address or, if the address requires the covered individual to login first, the link must be prominently displayed directly after login.
A statement of the right to request and receive a paper version of the document free of charge, and an explanation of how to exercise this right.
A statement of the right to opt out of electronic delivery and receive only paper versions of documents, and an explanation of how to exercise this right.
A cautionary statement that the covered document is not required to be available on the website for more than one year or, if later, after it is superseded by a subsequent version of the covered document.
A telephone number to contact the plan administrator or other designated plan representative.
Permitted Content
The NOIA cannot include anything that is not explicitly required or permitted, but may also include the following (so long as it is not inaccurate or misleading):
A statement about whether action by the covered individual is invited or required in response to a plan document and how to take such action, or that no action is required.
Pictures, logos or similar design elements.
Timing of NOIAs, Annual Consolidated NOIA
Generally, plan administrators must furnish a NOIA each time a new covered document is made available for review/access by covered individuals on the internet website or app. However, to avoid notice overload, the E-Disclosure Final Rule allows plan administrators to furnish a consolidated NOIA for four categories of documents and information: (1) a summary plan description; (2) any document or information that must be furnished annually, rather than upon the occurrence of a particular event and does not require action by a participant by a particular deadline; (3) any other document or notice not in the first and second categories, if authorized by the DOL; and (4) any notice required by the Internal Revenue Code, if authorized by the Treasury Department. If used, a consolidated NOIA must be furnished at least once each plan year and no later than 14 months after the most recent NOIA was furnished. Lastly, a consolidated NOIA may not include information about more than one plan, thus the requirements for a consolidated NOIA must be satisfied with respect to each plan, even if sponsored by the same employer.
Effective Date, Immediate Availability and DOL Non-Enforcement Policy
The new E-Disclosure Final Rule is effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register, or on July 27, 2020. Plan administrators, however, may take immediate advantage of the new safe harbor to provide covered documents to covered individuals as the DOL has announced that it will not take enforcement action against a plan administrator that relies on the new safe harbor before the 60-day period has expired. This non-enforcement policy should provide flexibility and reduce administrative burdens on plan administrators and plan service providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion
The DOL’s new E-Disclosure Final Rule is welcome news to plan administrators, service providers and other retirement industry stakeholders. The E-Disclosure Final Rule will allow plan administrators to significantly reduce paper usage and related-costs, allow them to modernize their practices with respect to retirement plan disclosures, and make such disclosures more readily accessible for covered individuals.
Due to the new changes, plan administrators and their benefits counsel should carefully review the guidance and take note of several key things. First, because the new E-Disclosure Final Rule does not replace the 2002 E-Disclosure Rule, there is a possibility that different segments of an employer’s workforce may fall under one or the other safe harbor. As a result, plan administrators should consider how the requirements for document e-delivery would differ for the two groups and if that would pose administrative complexities. Second, the new safe harbor does not apply to welfare plan disclosures (e.g., COBRA notices and notices of adverse benefit determinations for group health and disability plans), although the DOL signaled that new disclosure rules for welfare plans may be coming. Third, the new E-Disclosure Final Rule does not apply to documents within the jurisdiction of the IRS such as 401(k) plan safe harbor notices, ERISA 204(h) notices, special tax notices relating to plan distributions and notices to interested parties required in connection with IRS determination letter filings. The IRS has indicated that it intends to issue additional guidance regarding the electronic delivery of participant notices required under the Internal Revenue Code, thus plan sponsors should keep an eye out for this new guidance.
How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Electronic Design
Article By : Sally Ward-Foxton
Cloud computing is changing everything about electronic design, according to Jeff Bier, founder of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance. That’s because more and more problems confronting designers are getting solved in the cloud...
Cloud computing is changing everything about electronic design, according to Jeff Bier, founder of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance. That’s because more and more problems confronting designers are getting solved in the cloud.
As part of our regularly scheduled calls with EDN’s Editorial Advisory Board, we asked Bier what topics today’s electronics design engineers need more information on. Bier highlighted the cloud as the number one force driving change in engineering departments around the world. However, you could be forgiven for asking whether cloud computing has anything to do with electronic design at all.
“[The cloud] has everything to do with almost every aspect of electronic design,” Bier said, adamant that it is drastically changing the way engineers work.
Code generation Bier noted that the traditional engineer’s sandbox, Matlab, introduced a feature more than a decade ago that generated code for the embedded target processor in one step. One underappreciated implication of that feature was that any choice of processor might then be influenced by which processors were supported by Matlab for code generation.
Previously, an embedded DSP engineer took the Matlab code from the algorithm engineer and re-coded the entire thing in assembly language (more likely to be C or C++ today). With Matlab’s code generation, this step could be cut out of the process, and time and money could be saved, but only by switching to a processor that was supported by Matlab.
Today, in the realm of AI and deep neural networks, the majority of algorithms are born in the cloud, using open source frameworks like TensorFlow and Pytorch. They are implemented on embedded processors in a variety of ways with a variety of tools.
“You can bet that going forward, a big factor in which are the preferred processors is going to be which processors have the easiest path from [the cloud to the embedded implementation],” Bier said. “Whose cloud has the embedded implementation button and which processors are supported? That’s the cloud that’s going to win. And that’s the embedded processor [that wins]… if it works, people are going to do that, because it’s a heck of a lot easier and faster than writing the code yourself.”
“The cloud has everything to do with almost every aspect of electronic design,” – Jeff Bier
“They fetched a nice price from Apple, because Apple understands the value of rapid time to market,” he said.
Bier sees many aspects of embedded software heading to the cloud. Many EDA tools are already cloud-based, for example.
“You’ll see similar things where I build my PCB design in the cloud, then who has the “fab me ten prototypes by tomorrow” button?” Bier said.
While many are yet to appreciate the cloud’s significance to the electronic design process, this change is happening fast, partly thanks to the scale of today’s cloud companies.
Bier cites the FPGA players’ historic attempts to make FPGAs easier to program, which he said was finally solved by Microsoft and Amazon, who today offer FPGA acceleration of data parallel code in the cloud.
“All you need is your credit card number… you press the FPGA accelerate button and it just works,” he said. “Microsoft and Amazon solved this problem because they had the scale and the homogeneous environment — the servers are all the same, it’s not like a million and one embedded systems, each slightly different. And they solved problems that [the FPGA players] never could. This is one of the reasons why the cloud is becoming this center of gravity for design and development activity.”
So, what can chip makers do to influence cloud makers to develop code generation functionality for their processors?
“Amazon, Google and Microsoft don’t care whose chip the customer uses, as long as they use their cloud. So [the chip maker is] the only one that cares about making sure that its chip is the one that’s easiest to target,” he said. “So I think they really need both – they really need to work with the big cloud players, but they also need to do their own thing.”
Bier notes that Intel already has its popular DevCloud, a cloud-based environment where developers can build and optimize code.
“It’s the next logical step, where all the tools and development boards are connected to Intel servers,” he said. “There’s no need to wait for anything to install or wait for any boxes to arrive.”
Edge vs. cloud Another concept that today’s embedded developers really should be well-versed in, Bier said, is edge compute (edge compute refers to any compute done outside the cloud, at the edge of the network). Since more embedded devices now have connectivity as part of the IoT, each system will have to strike a careful balance between what compute is done in the cloud and what is done at the edge for cost, speed or privacy reasons.
“Why do I care, if I’m an embedded systems person? Well, it matters a lot,” Bier said. “If the future is that embedded devices are just dumb data collectors that stream their data to the cloud, that’s frankly a lot less interesting and a lot less valuable than if the future is sophisticated, intelligent embedded devices running AI algorithms and sending findings up to the cloud, but not raw data.”
Bier’s example is a baby monitor company, working on a smart camera to monitor a baby’s movements, breathing and heart rate. Should the intelligence go into the embedded device, or into the cloud?
“Placing the intelligence in the cloud means that if the home internet connection fails, the product doesn’t work,” Bier said. “But by launching the baby monitor [with intelligence in the cloud], they’re able to get the product to market a year faster, as it is then purely a dumb Wi-Fi camera… they didn’t have to build a purpose-built embedded system.”
By keeping intelligence in the cloud, the baby monitor company is also able to iterate its algorithm quickly and easily. Once a reasonable level of deployment is reached, it can do A/B testing overnight: deploy the new algorithm to half their customers, see which algorithm works better, and then deploy to everyone. Deploying a new algorithm can be done with only a few key presses.
“The point is, there are huge implications for what [intelligence] is in the endpoint device, and what’s in some kind of intermediate node, like a device that’s connected to your router or that’s on the operator’s pole down the street, or in the data center,” Bier said. “But this is outside the scope of what most embedded systems people think about today.”
The baby monitor company, following a successful cloud-based launch is now shipping monitors in volume. Bier notes that the company has therefore become more cost-sensitive, and doesn’t need to iterate the algorithm as much, so is looking into building a second-generation product which uses mostly edge processing.
Do you need a DNN? Another rapidly growing field clearly changing the way embedded systems work is artificial intelligence.
Surveys carried out by the Edge AI and Vision Alliance reveal that deep neural networks (DNNs), the basis for artificial intelligence, have gone from around 20% to around 80% adoption in embedded computer vision systems in the last five years.
“People are struggling with two things,” Bier said. “One is that actually getting them to work for their application is really hard. The other thing is figuring out where they should actually use deep neural networks.”
DNNs have become fashionable and everyone wants to use them, but they are not necessarily the best solution for many problems, Bier noted. For many, classical techniques are still a better fit.
“How would you recognize a problem that is suitable for solving with deep neural networks versus other classical techniques?” Bier said. “Embedded systems people, hardware and software people, really need to have a better grip on this. Because if you’re going to run deep neural networks, it has a big impact on your hardware — you need a tremendous amount of performance and memory compared to classical, hand engineered algorithms.”
If you're not using an electric toothbrush, you're brushing wrong. That's something my dentist told me years ago, and I've been a loyal sonic toothbrush user ever since. The vibrating head is more effective at removing plaque, and since most have a built-in two-minute timer, it's easier to brush for the recommended amount of time. On the downside, brand-name electric toothbrushes and their replacement heads can be pricey. Here's an inexpensive alternative: right now, you can get the Fairywill Sonic Electric Toothbrush with three brush heads for $15.92 when you click the coupon on the product page and apply coupon code FP9EDDTD at checkout. When both discounts stack, you get 45% off the regular price of $28.95.
I've been looking for an alternative to my Philips Sonicare for a while. It works fine, but the replacement brushes are ludicrously expensive. I've been using the Fairywill for a week or so, and I suspect that I've found my next toothbrush -- it checks virtually all the boxes I need in a toothbrush, at a much lower lifetime cost.
First, the brush: it's slightly shorter than my Sonicare and significantly lighter. The lighter weight makes it easier to brush. You wouldn't think it would make much difference, but it does. Functionally, the Fairywill works the same way as most electric toothbrushes. It'll run for two minutes with short pauses every 30 seconds to remind you to change quadrants so you cover your whole mouth. It offers five brush modes (white, clean, sensitive, polish and massage), but I have never found much value in changing up the brush mode, so I stick with the default mode, white.
The rechargeable battery lasts for about a month of daily use. Priced this low, the Fairywill doesn't come with any sort of charging dock -- it includes a USB charging cable instead. This is admittedly an inconvenience. The cable plugs into the bottom, which I find awkward, and it's a proprietary connector, so don't lose the cable.
On the plus side, replacement brushes come in three varieties -- hard, soft and medium, and come in four-packs for $10.
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The Hāna Metals and Electronics Recycling Event that had been scheduled for June 4 to 6, 2020, has been postponed to safeguard the community’s health with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the County of Maui Department of Environmental Management announced.
The event is held in partnership with Refrigerant Recycling Inc., Hāna Landfill and Ecycling Maui. It provides the Hāna community with three metals and electronics recycling events per calendar year. The event is vital to East Maui residents and will be rescheduled.
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Metal items accepted at these events include large appliances, up to 15 auto tires per household (per event), auto batteries, propane tanks and scrap metals. Appliances accepted include refrigerators, freezers, A/C units, water coolers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, ranges/stoves and water heaters. Electronic items accepted include computers, keyboards, monitors, printers and televisions.
For more information about metals drop-offs or businesses that would like to participate in this event for a fee, call Refrigerant Recycling Inc. at (808) 351-3504. For more information about computer drop-offs, call the County E-cycling hotline at (808) 280-6460. For other information about this event, call the County Abandoned Vehicles and Metals Office at (808) 270-8217.
Developed by Shanghai Electric Digital Technology Co., Ltd and officially launched in 2019, the platform is deployable across various scenarios, including intelligent wind power operation, remote thermal power operation, machine tool maintenance, energy storage and distribution. The platform has been providing efficient solutions including troubleshooting, remote operations, maintenance, and energy planning to meet demands in the various scenarios.
The Shanghai Electric's intelligent supply chain solution of the SEunicloud platform is designed to match factory production with power plant demand directly. The company has established 1781 procurement projects online, with a final bid amount of more than 800 million yuan since the resumption of work in February.
As an advanced multi-faceted digital platform, users can accelerate the process of reconstruction by resolving the stress of a tight supply chain by remotely running equipment diagnostics, procure and manage supply chains and monitor supplier contracts, source bidding, online purchasing and order coordination. The intelligent supply chain platform also provides matching between sellers and buyers through historical data analysis in the procurement pricing process and automatically tracks and documents suppliers' historical performance, factoring them into the overall supply chain management process for due diligence.
The DES-PSO energy planning solution of the SEunicloud platform is co-developed by Shanghai Electric Distributed Energy Co., Ltd and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The solution features design & planning, investment analysis and risk assessment functions, allowing customers to evaluate the financial viability of large-scale energy production projects before commissioning their construction.
The Shanghai Electric E-Commerce solution of the SEunicloudplatform covers 90% of the power plant "must-have" spare parts product list and is a one-stop platform equipped with spare parts, maintenance services, transformation optimization and more. It can facilitate the online delivery of more than 22,000 spare parts products and 70 standard repair packages—all at near factory price. Customers can use a standardized format for requirements. This improves the transaction efficiency by streamlining the communication process between buyers and sellers. Through big data analysis, the E-commerce platform stimulates the hope of incubating an integrated data-driven solution for intelligent and customized products and services.
"Under the big picture of 'new infrastructure', Shanghai Electric is leveraging its competitive advantage in big data in multiple pipelines, and paving the way for an integrated platform-based solution for the whole power industry," said Huang Ou, the Director and President of Shanghai Electric Group, "Our goal is to empower enterprises across different industries with this technology in the foreseeable future".
About Shanghai Electric Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited (SEHK: 02727, SSE: 601727) is principally engaged in the designing, manufacturing and sale of power equipment and industrial equipment. It focuses on Energy Equipment Business including manufacturing and sale of coal-fired power generation equipment, gas-fired power generation equipment, nuclear power equipment, wind power equipment, energy storage equipment, high-end chemical equipment, power grid and industrial intelligent power supply system solutions, Industrial Equipment Business including production and sale of elevators, medium and large-sized electric motors, intelligent manufacturing equipment, industrial basic parts, environmental protection equipment, construction industrialization equipment and the Integrated Services Business including energy, environmental protection and automation engineering and services, industrial internet services, financial services, international trade services, high-end property services, etc.
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The American Dental Association finds that electric and manual toothbrushes are pretty much equivalent when it comes to cleaning teeth and removing plaque. But an electric toothbrush can make it easier to brush your teeth for longer periods of time. It can also be better at hitting some of those hard-to-reach spots.
So how do you choose the best electric toothbrush? Well, the right toothbrush partly depends on your personal preference. Do you want to focus on plaque control, oral hygiene or teeth whitening? Do you have sensitive gums or teeth? Are you looking for a 2-minute timer? (Dentists recommend brushing your teeth for 2 minutes twice a day with a soft toothbrush head.)
You'll also want to consider your budget. Would you prefer to spend a little more on a powerful model that does extra work for you, or stick to something simple and classic?
There are lots of electric toothbrushes to choose from.
Amanda Capritto/CNET
We get it, the choice can be overwhelming. Before you start shopping for the best electric toothbrush for oral care, check out this guide featuring our electric toothbrush reviews. Our electric toothbrush comparison walks you through nine high-end products for cleaning your teeth, gingivitis, teeth whitening and more. But regardless of which brush you choose, don't forget to floss!
When looking for the best electric toothbrush, you'll want to consider a few factors.
Cost: First things first: What's your toothbrush budget? On the lower end, you can get a cheap electric toothbrush for $20 to $50, but the cons are that they won't have certain features such as a lithium-ion battery, a water flosser or a sensor.
Many people won't want to spend more than $40 or so on a toothbrush, but if you've got extra money to spend on your pearly whites, investing in a higher-ticket toothbrush in the $100 to $200 range with more features may be worth it in the long run, especially if it helps you have fewer cavities and dentist visits.
Capabilities: What do you need the toothbrush to do? Maybe you just need one mode for cleaning a little deeper than you can with a manual toothbrush.
If you need help brushing for the dentist-recommended two minutes, it's a good idea to select one with a built-in smart timer. If you want to easily track your oral hygiene habits, go for a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush with an app.
If you have sensitive teeth or sensitive gums, consider looking at the types of brush heads that you can get for your electric toothbrush. Some models, like those from Oral-B or Sonicare, offer many different types of brush heads for different needs, such as brush heads for whitening, gum care and cleaning around braces.
Convenience: Are you going to remember to replace your brush heads when it's time? If not, maybe a subscription-based electric toothbrush is right for you. Don't forget to look into how long a toothbrush holds its charge because the last thing you want is for your toothbrush to be dead when you grab it from the charging dock and you're trying to get ready for bed.
Read more:
Angela Lang/CNET
I've been on the hunt for a very simple electric toothbrush for a long time. I'd scour the internet for my ideal toothbrush and end up overwhelmed with all of the high-tech, app-integrated options; eventually I'd buy one, but I always ended up reverting to a manual toothbrush because I never found an electric toothbrush that did exactly what I need and nothing more: cleaned my teeth better.
Quip is everything I've ever looked for in an electric toothbrush. For one thing -- and a big thing to me -- the brush head is actually close to the size of a manual toothbrush head. It's not tiny like most other electric toothbrushes, which I know are designed to clean one tooth at a time like the ADA recommends, but I really like the full-size brush head on the Quip toothbrush. (CNET editor Sarah Mitroff felt the exact opposite about this, so be sure to read her Quip review if you're considering a Quip brush).
Quip is super simple in every aspect: It has one speed and a 2-minute timer that buzzes every 30 seconds and turns off after 2 minutes is up. That's it. There's no app to fuss with and no chargers or wires to tote or store. Quip is powered by an AAA battery located in the head of the brush. The charge lasts three months, and at that point, you replace the brush head for a fresh brush and a fresh charge.
Since there's no charger, Quip is super easy to travel with. The toothbrush holder it comes with also doubles as a protective travel case.
While I gave Quip the title of "best simple electric toothbrush," I'd also dub it the best travel electric toothbrush and the "best feels-like-a-regular-toothbrush electric toothbrush".
I will say that the Quip motor isn't very powerful compared to other brands, such as Sonicare or Oral-B. To me, it felt like a manual clean with a little extra oomph, and while I actually liked that, many people will not. And if you're looking for a smart electric toothbrush with Bluetooth or an app, Quip isn't the one.
Waterpik
Water flossing changed my life. No joke! I've always hated flossing -- in fact, when I was a kid, my orthodontist wouldn't let me get braces until I became proficient at flossing. Now I have a permanent retainer on top and bottom, and I still hate flossing.
Waterpik makes flossing incredibly easy and efficient. With hardly any effort and in about 5 minutes, the Waterpik water flosser removed food debris from in between my teeth (which are very tightly packed) and from underneath my permanent metal retainer, which is something that could take me up to 20 minutes to execute by myself.
This was like an otherworldly revelation for me: "Flossing can be this easy?! Why did I never know?". My dental hygienist is going to be so proud of how clean my retainer looks when I go back for my next appointment.
Plus, the Waterpik Complete Care 5.0 is a bargain compared to buying an electric brush and a Waterpik separately: This two-in-one includes five water flosser tips, two Triple Sonic brush heads, 10 pressure settings, three brush modes and a two-minute timer with quadrant pacing.
The Waterpik does take some getting used to -- when I first started using it, I was no match for the water dribble coming from my mouth. Eventually I learned to bend slightly so my mouth hovered above the sink, and now it's one of my favorite dental health products I've ever used.
Be warned, though: If you have sensitive gums, start with your water flosser on a low setting. I made the mistake of arbitrarily setting mine to level seven for the first use and my gums bled. Next time, I dialed it down to level three, and I've been slowly working my way up to a more powerful setting as my gums become less sensitive.
Colgate
Several electric toothbrushes have Bluetooth functionality and app integration these days, but Colgate's app is the only one that didn't give me a headache. Its simple interface gives you easy-to-understand visuals about the duration, frequency and surface coverage of your brushing.
I thought this was silly at first, because how hard is brushing your teeth, right? Well, I quickly went into denial when the app told me I only hit 68% of surface coverage during my first session with the E1 toothbrush. I no longer thought the toothbrush-app combo was silly when I found my percentage creeping up with each brushing session! The coaching really does work.
Aside from that, the brush itself is nice. It's sleek, comfortable to hold and not as bulky as some other electric toothbrushes. When I first received the package, I thought, "Huh, this feels like Apple branding." Call me a branding expert, because I later learned that the Colgate E1 is actually sold in the Apple Store as an Apple accessory.
With just 10 days of battery life, the E1 isn't the longest-lasting rechargeable toothbrush on the market, but that shouldn't be an end-all. Just don't forget your charging base when you go on a trip.
Philips
I found the Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100 the gentlest of all brushes on this list across all three settings (whiten, gum care and clean), yet still felt like my teeth were thoroughly cleaned with each use. And despite having sensitive gums, I sometimes brush too hard. The ProtectiveClean actually buzzes at you when you press down too hard with the brush, a gentle nudge to let you know to lighten the pressure.
The ProtectiveClean 6100 has three different modes for different needs: clean, whiten and gum care. I will say that I was disappointed to learn that this toothbrush actually has different brush heads that are optimal for each mode (I thought I'd found the only one that had an all-in-one brush head!), but the modes still feel different even when using the same brush head.
For example, my ProtectiveClean came with the "W Diamondclean" head (the whitening one), but I fared just fine using that brush head on the other settings. Was it ideal or optimal? I don't know; I'd have to compare each setting with its correct brush head. But what I'm saying is you'll probably be just fine without the three individual brush heads.
If you have trouble remembering when to replace your brush heads, you'll love this: Philips' BrushSync technology tells you how long you've been using your brush head and how hard you've been brushing, two key factors in brush replacement. A light on the handle will blink and the brush will beep, letting you know it's time to order a new one.
Shyn
Shyn (pronounced "shine") is a newer subscription-based oral health company that currently offers electric toothbrushes, flossers, dental picks and teeth-whitening products. The company's Ultra Flex 10 Brush Head recently received ADA approval, joining the ranks of the other electric toothbrushes on this list.
You can choose from multiple brush heads to customize your Shyn electric toothbrush, including whitening, anti-plaque or gum care. I tested the Ultra Flex 10 Brush Head and was thoroughly impressed.
The brush head is slightly larger than most electric toothbrush heads but still smaller than a manual toothbrush. The bristles are soft and flexible, and the brush head has a thin, squishy rubber coating that makes it gentle on your gums.
I thought the Shyn electric toothbrush with the Ultra Flex 10 Brush Head produced a deep, thorough clean without making my teeth or gums feel sensitive (which is a big deal for me; more on that below).
Similar to Quip, you can opt to join a subscription plan that sends new brush heads every three months. Shyn's subscription costs $6 every three months for the Ultra Flex 10 Brush Head.
Also tested
The electric toothbrushes in this section weren't my favorites, but these toothbrush options do have some great qualities worth mentioning. One of these might be the right choice for you so I felt it worthwhile to include them here.
Oral-B
The Oral-B Pro 3000 is a good brush. It really is. It's just way too powerful for me. The brush head both vibrates and oscillates, whereas most electric toothbrushes do just one or the other. Theoretically, that would produce a deeper clean, but even if that's true, I don't think it would be worth it for me.
My gums and teeth felt sensitive after every use with the Oral-B Pro 3000, but I do tend to experience dental sensitivity more than most. If you have sensitive gums, note that Oral-B has a variety of brush heads that might help. There's definitely a chance that I wouldn't have experienced as much sensitivity if I used these sensitive gum care brush heads.
There's some good in this, though: I feel like the Oral-B Pro 3000 cleared away morning mouth sliminess better than every other brush on this list, and it did a great job of knocking food debris out of the hard-to-reach back molars.
Because the brush head is small (which I typically don't like) and oscillates, the Oral-B Pro 3000 actually did a wondrous job of cleaning my permanent retainers -- something that no other toothbrush has ever managed. Depending on what I'd eaten, I sometimes felt like I didn't even need to floss after using the Oral-B Pro 3000.
Waterpik
You already know how much I love the Waterpik, so you can safely assume that I was extremely excited to learn that there is such a product as an electric toothbrush that is also a water flosser. I don't mean a water flosser that comes with an electric toothbrush -- I mean a water flosser that is an electric toothbrush.
My excitement quickly turned into exasperation when I ended up first spraying myself in the eye and then proceeded to spray water all over my bathroom mirror as I, in a frenzy, tried to turn the dang thing off. Don't make my mistake, folks. Just put the toothbrush in your mouth before turning the Waterpik feature on.
Aside from the initial downturn, I enjoyed my experience with the Waterpik Sonic-Fusion Toothbrush. It's a bit awkward to use the Waterpik feature at first, as the brush must be connected to the tube through which water flows. Once you find the sweet spot on your bathroom counter, though, it won't be an issue.
In terms of the cleaning power, I liked the Sonic-Fusion just as well as the Waterpik Complete Care, but in terms of design, the Complete Care is easier to use than the Sonic-Fusion. If you have enough space on your bathroom counter, I'd recommend the Complete Care over the Sonic-Fusion. But if you're in tight quarters or want to travel with a water flosser and electric toothbrush, the Sonic-Fusion is a great option.
Brightline
While there are many inexpensive electric toothbrushes out there, my experience with the Hamilton Beach Brands Brightline Brush (compared to some others in the same price range) decidedly dictated this brush as one of the best value electric toothbrushes.
The Brightline suite of products is a new brand from Hamilton Beach Brands that launched in December 2019, and is the company's first foray into personal care. As a brand known for kitchenware and appliances, I'd say it didn't do too bad
The motor on the Brightline brush is powerful -- I was actually a bit taken aback by the sound at first -- but it's not so powerful that it hurts. The brush head features contoured bristles that are rather soft and flexible. This particular brush only has one speed (with "adjustable intensity" per the user manual, although I never figured that out), but Brightline offers another brush with five modes for about $10 more.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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At a factory near Germany's border with the Czech Republic, Volkswagen's ambitious strategy to become the global leader in electric vehicles is coming up against the reality of manufacturing during a pandemic.
The Zwickau assembly lines, which produce the soon-to-be released ID.3 electric hatchback, are the centerpiece of a plan by the world's biggest automaker to spend 33 billion euros ($36 billion) by 2024 developing and building EVs. At the site, where an East German automaker built the diminutive Trabant during the Cold War, VW eventually wants to churn out as many as 330,000 cars annually. That would make Zwickau one of Europe's largest electric-car factories-and help the company overtake Tesla Inc. in selling next-generation vehicles.
But covid-19 is putting VW's and other automakers' electric ambitions at risk. The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has pushed the auto industry, among others, to near-collapse, emptying showrooms and shutting factories. As job losses mount, big-ticket purchases are firmly out of reach-in the U.S., where Tesla is cutting prices, more than 36 million people have filed for unemployment since mid-March. Also, the plunge in oil prices is making gasoline-powered vehicles more attractive, and some cash-strapped governments are less able to offer subsidies to promote new technologies.
Even before the crisis, automakers had to contend with an extended downturn in China, the world's biggest auto market, where about half of all passenger EVs are sold. Total auto sales in China declined the past two years amid a slowing economy, escalating trade tensions, and stricter emission regulations. EV sales are forecast to fall to 932,000 this year, down 14% from 2019, according to BloombergNEF. The drop-off is expected to stretch into a third year as China's leaders have abandoned their traditional practice of setting an annual target for economic growth, citing uncertainties. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect just 1.8% GDP growth this year.
The global market contraction raises the prospect of casualties. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has warned that Renault, an early adopter of electric cars with models like the Zoe, could "disappear" without state aid. Even Toyota, a hybrid pioneer when it first introduced the Prius hatchback in 1997, is under pressure. The Japanese manufacturer expects profits to tumble to the lowest level in almost a decade.
Automakers who for years have invested heavily in a shift to a high-tech future-including autonomous vehicles and other alternative energy-based forms of transportation such as hydrogen-now face a grim test. Do their pre-pandemic plans to build and sell electric cars at a profit have any chance of succeeding in a vastly changed economic climate? Even as covid-19 has obliterated demand, for the carmakers most committed to electric, there's no turning back.
"We all have a historic task to accomplish," Thomas Ulbrich, who runs Volkswagen's EV business, said when assembly lines restarted on April 23, "to protect the health of our employees-and at the same time get business back on track responsibly."
Global EV sales will shrink this year, falling 18% to about 1.7 million units, according to BloombergNEF, although they're likely to return to growth over the next four years, topping 6.9 million by 2024.
"The general trend toward electric vehicles is set to continue, but the economic conditions of the next two to three years will be tough," said Marcus Berret, managing director at consultancy Roland Berger.
Volkswagen's Zwickau facility became the first auto plant in Germany to resume production after a nationwide lockdown started in March. Before restarting, the company crafted a detailed list of about 100 safety measures for employees, requiring them to, among other things, wear masks and protective gear if they can't adhere to social-distancing rules.
The cautious approach has reduced capacity-50 cars per day initially rolled off the Zwickau assembly line, roughly a third of what the plant manufactured before the coronavirus crisis. (VW said Wednesday that daily output had risen to 150 vehicles, with a plan to reach 225 next month.) Persistent software problems also have plagued development of the ID.3, one of 70 new electric models VW group is looking to bring to market in the coming years.
Still, Ulbrich and VW CEO Herbert Diess over the past three months have reaffirmed Volkswagen's commitment to electrification. "My new working week starts together with Thomas Ulbrich at the wheel of a Volkswagen ID.3 - our most important project to meet the European CO2-targets in 2020 and 2021," Diess wrote in a post on LinkedIn in April. "We are fighting hard to keep our timeline for the launches to come."
Diess has described the ID.3 as "an electric car for the people that will move electric mobility from niche to mainstream." Pre-Covid, the company had anticipated that 2020 would be the year it would prove its massive investments and years of planning for electric and hybrid models would start to pay off.
A more pressing worry that could hamper VW's ability to scale up production is its existing inventory of unsold vehicles. The cars need to move to make room for new releases, but sales are down as consumers are tightening their spending. One response has been to offer improved financing in Germany, including optional rate protection should buyers lose their jobs. VW also has adopted new sales strategies first used by its Chinese operations, such as delivering disinfected cars to customer homes for test drives, and expanding online commerce.
Other German automakers are similarly pushing ahead with EV plans. Daimler is sticking to a plan to flank an electric SUV with a battery-powered van and a compact later this year. BMW AG plans to introduce the SUV-size iNEXT in 2021 as well as the i4, a sedan seeking to challenge Tesla's best-selling Model 3.
A potential obstacle for all these companies-apart from still patchy charging infrastructure in many markets-is the availability of batteries. Supply bottlenecks appear inevitable given that the number of electric car projects across the industry outstrip global battery production capacity. And boosting cell manufacturing is a complicated task.
For VW and others, the first big test of EVs' appeal in a covid-19 world will come in China. Diess has referred to China as "the engine of success for Volkswagen." VW group deliveries returned to growth year-on-year last month in China, while all other major markets declined.
Not long ago, China appeared to be leading the world toward an electric future. As part of President Xi Jinping's goal to make the country an industrial superpower by 2025, the government implemented policies that would boost sales of EVs and help domestic automakers become globally competitive, not just in electric passenger cars but buses, too.
The Chinese auto market may shrink as much as 25% this year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, which before the pandemic had been expecting a 2% decline. EV sales fell by more than one-third in the second half of 2019.
NIO, the Shanghai-based start-up that raised about $1 billion from a New York Stock Exchange initial public offering in 2018 but lost more than 11 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) last year, was thrown a much-needed lifeline when a group of investors, including a local government in China's Anhui Province, offered 7 billion yuan last month.
Other Chinese manufacturers are counting on support from the government, too, including tax breaks and an extension to 2022 of subsidies, originally scheduled to end this year, to make EVs more affordable.
For now, the government will also look to help makers of internal combustion engine vehicles, at least during the worst of the crisis, said Jing Yang, director of corporate research in Shanghai with Fitch Ratings. But, she said, "over the medium-to-long term, the focus will still be on the EV side."
Companies can't count on that same level of support from President Donald Trump in the U.S., where consumers who love their SUVs and pickup trucks have largely steered clear of electric vehicles other than Tesla's.
The U.S. lags China and Europe in promoting the production and sale of EVs, and that gap may widen now that Americans can buy gas for less than $2 a gallon.
"When you're digging out of this crisis, you're not going to try to do that with unprofitable and low-volume products, which are EVs," said Kevin Tynan, a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.
Weeks after announcing plans to launch EVs for each of its brands, General Motors delayed the unveiling of the Cadillac Lyriq EV originally planned for April. Then on April 29, the company said it would put off the scheduled May introduction of a new Hummer EV. The models are part of CEO Mary Barra's strategy to spend $20 billion on electrification and autonomous driving by 2025, to try to close the gap with Tesla.
In another move aimed at winning over Tesla buyers, Ford unveiled its electric Mustang Mach-E last November at a splashy event ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show. The highly anticipated model had been scheduled to debut this year. Ford has not officially postponed the release, but the company has said all launches will be delayed by about two months, potentially pushing the Mach-E into 2021.
Elon Musk, whose cars dominate the U.S. electric market, cut prices by thousands of dollars overnight. The Model 3 is now $2,000 cheaper, starting at $37,990. The Model S and Model X each dropped $5,000.
Musk engaged in a high-profile fight with California officials this month over Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, which had been closed by shutdown orders Musk slammed as "fascist." In a May 11 tweet, he said the company was reopening the plant in defiance of county policy. On May 16, Tesla told employees it had received official approval.
During most of the shutdown in California, the company managed to keep producing some cars thanks to better relations with local officials regulating its other factory, in Shanghai. That plant closed as the virus spread from Wuhan in late January, but the local government helped it reopen a few weeks later in early February.First Zwickau, Then the World
The ID.3's new electric underpinning, dubbed MEB, is key to VW's strategy to sell battery-powered cars on a global scale at prices that will be competitive with similar combustion-engine vehicles. Automakers typically rely on such platforms to achieve economies of scale and, ultimately, profits. MEB will be applied to purely electric vehicles across all of the company's mass-market brands, including Skoda and Seat.
VW said it spent $7 billion developing MEB after Ford last year agreed to use the technology for one of its European models. Separately, the group's Audi and Porsche brands are built on a dedicated EV platform for luxury cars that the company says will be vital in narrowing the gap with Tesla.
VW plans to escalate its electric-car push by adding two factories, near Shanghai and Shenzhen, that it says could eventually roll out 600,000 cars annually, more cars than Tesla delivered globally last year.
While China is the initial goal, making a dent in Europe and the U.S. is the long-term one. Like China, Europe had been tightening emissions regulations significantly before the pandemic. New rules to reduce fleet emissions will gradually start to take effect this year, effectively forcing most manufacturers to sell plug-in hybrids and purely electric cars to avoid steep fines.
Because of the mandates, Europe's commitment to electrification isn't going away, said Aakash Arora, a managing director with Boston Consulting Group. "In the long term, we don't see any relaxation in regulation," he said.
For VW, this crisis wouldn't be the first time it started a new chapter in difficult times. Diess saw an opportunity coming off the manufacturer's years-long diesel emissions scandal that cost the company more than $33 billion to win approval for the industry's most aggressive push into EVs. When VW unveiled the ID.3, officials compared its historic role to the iconic Beetle and the Golf, not knowing that this might hold in unintended ways: The Beetle arose from the ashes of World War II, and the Golf was greeted by the oil-price shock in the 1970s.
"We have a clear commitment to become CO2 neutral by 2050," VW strategy chief Michael Jost said, "and there is no alternative to our electric-car strategy to achieve this."
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