Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Cruise Automation/GM: “How We Built the First Real Self-Driving Car (Really)”
September 12th, 2017Via: Medium: The car we’re unveiling today is actually our 3rd generation self-driving car, but it’s the first that meets the redundancy and safety requirements we believe are necessary to operate without a driver. There’s no other car like this in existence. In a few weeks, these cars will be a part of the fleet […]
Equifax Says Cyberattack May Have Hit 143 Million Customers
September 8th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: Equifax Inc. said its systems were struck by a cyberattack that may have affected about 143 million U.S. customers of the credit reporting agency, shedding light on one of the largest and most intrusive breaches in history. Intruders accessed names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers, Equifax said in […]
Hackers Send Silent Commands to Speech Recognition Systems with Ultrasound
September 8th, 2017Via: Tech Crunch: Security researchers in China have invented a clever way of activating voice recognition systems without speaking a word. By using high frequencies inaudible to humans but which register on electronic microphones, they were able to issue commands to every major “intelligent assistant” that were silent to every listener but the target device.
SpaceX Launches U.S. Air Force X-37B
September 7th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: SpaceX successfully launched a classified Air Force drone from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as Hurricane Irma barrels toward the state. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched the Air Force space plane around 10 a.m. local time Thursday, despite warnings earlier in the morning the weather was only 50 percent favorable for the […]
U.S. House Unanimously Approves Sweeping Self-Driving Car Measure
September 6th, 2017Via: Reuters: The U.S. House on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls by putting federal regulators in the driver’s seat and barring states from blocking autonomous vehicles. The House measure, the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would allow automakers […]
German ‘Flying Taxi’ Firm Lilium Raises $90 Million
September 5th, 2017Via: Reuters: Lilium, a German start-up with Silicon Valley-scale ambitions to develop a 5-passenger “flying taxi”, has raised a second, $90 million round of financing from top tech investors, making it one of the best-funded electric aircraft projects to date. The company, which took in $11.4 million only last year, has emerged as one of […]
‘The Story of Replika, the AI App that Becomes You’
August 30th, 2017Oh sure, share your most personal information with this Magic 8 Ball. In other news: On Internet Privacy, Be Very Afraid. Via: Quartz: Research Credit: GB
Energy Storage: Lithium from Supervolcanoes?
August 27th, 2017Cobalt is a much more serious blocker than lithium. Via: Smithsonian: There’s no doubt that in coming years, we’re going to need a lot of lithium. The growing market of electric automobiles, plus new household energy storage and large-scale battery farms, and the current lack of any technology better for storage than lithium ion batteries, […]
Elon Musk’s Boring Company Wins Approval to Dig a Two-Mile Test Tunnel in California
August 25th, 2017Via: The Verge: The City Council in Hawthorne, California voted four to one last night in favor of a plan from Elon Musk’s Boring Company to dig a two-mile-long underground test tunnel. The Boring Company, which operates from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne outside Los Angeles, had until now only dug into and under its own […]
Bill Gates and Richard Branson Back Startup That Grows ‘Clean Meat’
August 23rd, 2017haha oh sure! Via: Bloomberg: Cargill Inc., one of the largest global agricultural companies, has joined Bill Gates and other business giants to invest in a nascent technology to make meat from self-producing animal cells amid rising consumer demand for protein that’s less reliant on feed, land and water. Memphis Meats, which produces beef, chicken […]
