Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Amazon Is Hauling Cargo in Self-Driving Trucks Developed by Embark
January 30th, 2019Via: CNBC: Amazon is using self-driving trucks developed by Embark to haul some cargo on the I-10 interstate highway, CNBC has learned. The trucks were previously noticed by a Reddit user, who photographed and shared images this week showing tractors emblazoned with the Embark logo and trailers painted with the Amazon Prime logo.
Smart Coolers: Now Your Groceries See You, Too
January 30th, 2019Via: The Atlantic: Walgreens is piloting a new line of “smart coolers”—fridges equipped with cameras that scan shoppers’ faces and make inferences on their age and gender. On January 14, the company announced its first trial at a store in Chicago in January, and plans to equip stores in New York and San Francisco with […]
Google’s Sidewalk Labs Plans to Package and Sell Location Data on Millions of Cellphones
January 29th, 2019Ah… It de-identifies the location of cellphone users. Mmm hmm. Via: The Intercept: Most of the data collected by urban planners is messy, complex, and difficult to represent. It looks nothing like the smooth graphs and clean charts of city life in urban simulator games like “SimCity.” A new initiative from Sidewalk Labs, the city-building […]
Another EV Giant Enters The Battery Business
January 27th, 2019Via: OilPrice.com: German auto maker giant Volkswagen has just upped its bet on electric vehicles (EVs) by announcing it will begin manufacturing batteries and charging stations for those cars, which the company plans to also start mass producing soon. The Wolfsburg-based company said it would invest 870 million euros (about $985 million) by 2020 to […]
Hacked Russian Documents: Dark Side of the Kremlin
January 26th, 2019Via: The Hill: A group of transparency advocates released a massive number of hacked and leaked Russian documents on Friday in what is being viewed as retaliation against Russia’s sharing of hacked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails to influence the 2016 presidential campaign. The documents, totaling 175 gigabytes in data, were shared on DDoSecret website […]
Chefs and Truck Drivers Beware: AI Is Coming for Your Jobs
January 24th, 2019Via: Newsweek / AP: Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least 70 […]
Amazon Starts Testing ‘Scout’ Delivery Robots Near Seattle
January 24th, 2019Via: Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. will use robots to deliver packages in the suburbs north of Seattle, its latest experiment to automate the last-mile of delivery that’s a labor-intensive and costly component of buying products online. The e-commerce giant on Wednesday announced a trial of “Amazon Scout,” autonomous delivery devices the size of a cooler that […]
Google Will Limit Ad Blockers on Chrome
January 23rd, 2019For safety. *snort* Via: Register: Google engineers have proposed changes to the open-source Chromium browser that will break content-blocking extensions, including various ad blockers. Adblock Plus will most likely not be affected, though similar third-party plugins will, for reasons we will explain. The drafted changes will also limit the capabilities available to extension developers, ostensibly […]
Toyota and Panasonic to Build Electric Car Batteries Together
January 22nd, 2019Via: Nikkei: Toyota Motor and Panasonic plan to set up a joint venture in 2020 to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, joining forces to compete more effectively on cost and scale with rising Chinese players in a key area for the future of the auto industry, Nikkei has learned. The venture, in which Toyota is […]
Petro Canada Starts Deploying Its Own Electric Vehicle Chargers at Gas Stations
January 22nd, 2019Via: Electrek: Petro Canada, formerly a state-owned oil company in Canada but now part of Suncor, becomes the latest oil company to get involved in electric vehicle charging. … Shell is arguably leading the charge through its involvement in the new Ionity charging network in Europe. The company is building its own chargers at its […]
