Adobe co-founder John Warnock dies at 82
(Reuters) -Photoshop maker Adobe's co-founder John Warnock died on Saturday aged 82, the company said in a statement early on
2023-08-20 17:49
ISPs to FCC: Listing Every Government Fee on Our Broadband Labels Is Too Hard
Some of America’s bigger internet providers don’t like the taste of one ingredient in a
2023-08-20 13:52
What's the Kennection? #76
All five answers to the questions below have something in common. Can you figure it out?
2023-08-20 05:25
Traffic, wet concrete, and a collision with a fire truck: Robotaxis cause chaos in San Francisco after expansion
On 10 August, California regulators voted to expand the footprint of paid taxi services by autonomous, driverless cars from Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco. Since then, it’s been utter chaos, with the AVs involved in traffic jams, slapstick malfunctions, and a car accident with a fire truck. A day after the vote, video went viral on social media showing about 10 frozen Cruise taxis snarling traffic in the North Beach neighbourhood, which company officials later said was caused by a connectivity issue due to a spike in cell traffic because of a nearby music festival. The following Tuesday, a Cruise taxi was stuck in wet concrete at a construction site. “I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen and this is one of them,” resident Paul Harvey told SFGATE. “It thinks it’s a road and it ain’t because it ain’t got a brain and it can’t tell that it’s freshly poured concrete.” Two days after that, a Cruise taxi had what might be its most serious accident yet, colliding with a fire truck in the Tenderloin neighbourhood, giving the taxi’s passengers non-severe injuries. A firefighter in the truck said the AV “lurched” as it passed through an intersection ABC 7 reports, while Cruise said its vehicle detected the emergency sirens but was unable to get out of the way in time from the truck, which drove into the oncoming traffic lane. “The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light,” the company wrote in a statement. “Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. “The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision,” the company added. Following the repeated mishaps, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked Cruise to cut its 400-strong deployment of AVs in San Francisco in half, with the agency saying it was “investigating recent concerning incidents.” As The Independent reported, critics of AVs warned ahead of their expansion in San Francisco that the driverless cars weren’t ready for primetime, particularly when it comes to interfacing with emergency vehicles. According to data Cruise shared with the state earlier this month, between January and mid-July of 2023, Cruise AVs temporarily malfunctioned or shut down 177 times and required recovery, 26 of which such incidents occurred with a passenger inside, while Waymo recorded 58 such events in a similar time frame. Meanwhile, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA), between April 2022 and April 2023, Cruise and Waymo vehicles have been involved in over 300 incidents of irregular driving including unexpected stops and collisions, while the San Francisco Fire Department says AVs have interfered 55 times in their work in 2023. Last year, Cruise lost contact with its entire fleet for 20 minutes according to internal documentation viewed by WIRED, and an anonymous employee warned California regulators that year the company loses touch with its vehicles “with regularity.” Since being rolled out in San Francisco, robotaxis have killed a dog, caused a mile-long traffic jam during rush hour, blocked a traffic lane as officials responded to a shooting, and driven over fire hoses. Jeffrey Tumlin, San Francisco’s director of transportation, has called the rollout of robotaxis a “race to the bottom,” arguing Cruise and Waymo weren’t yet definitive transit solutions, and instead had only “met the requirements for a learner’s permit.” Read More How a vote to empower autonomous ‘robotaxis’ from Cruise and Waymo has divided San Francisco GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco Chinese military launches drills around Taiwan as 'warning' after top island official stopped in US San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion
2023-08-20 03:57
Maui Fire Lays Bare Utility Missteps Mirrored Across the Country
When flames ripped through the drought-parched town of Paradise in 2018, destroying homes and killing 85 in California’s
2023-08-20 03:47
Canada Demands Meta End News Ban Amid Wildfires
The Canadian government has reportedly demanded Meta remove its ban on domestic news in the
2023-08-20 03:19
Spotify Considered Removing White Noise Podcasts to Avoid Creator Payouts
Spotify reportedly considered removing white noise podcasts from its platform in a bid to reduce
2023-08-20 03:18
Tesla begins notifying workers who were affected by data breach
Tesla has begun notifying current and former employees whose information was included in a confidential data breach in May.
2023-08-20 00:48
The Asian Retailer Outgunning Amazon And Walmart in South Africa
Shein is the most downloaded shopping app on South Africa’s Google Play store. And it isn’t even trying
2023-08-19 14:17
Elon Musk says X will strip ability to block accounts
Social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, will remove a protective feature that lets users block other
2023-08-19 12:57
British Columbia Declares Fire Emergency With Thousands Evacuated
Record-breaking wildfires in Canada are heading toward key population centers in the country’s west, prompting the province of
2023-08-19 10:27
California regulator probes crashes involving GM's Cruise robotaxis
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -California's autos regulator said on Friday it is investigating "recent concerning incidents" involving autonomous vehicles operated by
2023-08-19 09:46