Apple Receives Permit in California to Test Self-Driving Cars
April 15th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Apple Inc has secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California, fuelling speculation that it is working on self-driving car technology in a crowded arena of companies hoping to offer those cars to the masses.
The permit allows it to conduct test drives in three vehicles with six drivers, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said on Friday. The vehicles are all 2015 Lexus RX450h, according to the DMV.
Although it has never openly acknowledged it is looking into building an electric car, Apple has recruited dozens of auto experts in recent years, and the permit pulls the curtain back a bit on any possible plan.
U.S. Electricity Demand Peaked in 2007
April 13th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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There are many likely small components of this, such as efficiency gains, small scale solar masking loads behind the meter (might explain 1% of demand decline), and high prices for electricity in some areas.
But…
Via: Bloomberg:
Part of the reason is that a grim new economic era dawned in 2000 or 2001 that has been characterized by slow growth, declining labor-force participation and general malaise — all of which tend to depress energy demand. But if you measure electricity use per dollar of real gross domestic product, the decline is just as pronounced, and it began much earlier than the fall in per-capita demand…
Burger King Trolls Google Home Devices
April 13th, 2017Update: Amazon’s Alexa Could Soon Recognize Users by Their Voices
If Amazon is working on it, the rest of them probably are.
Via: Ars Technica:
Amazon’s Alexa may be about to get smarter. According to a report from Time, the online retailer is working on voice identification software for Alexa that would allow the service to identify who in a household is speaking to it. “People familiar with Amazon’s Alexa strategy” claim this feature has been under development since 2015, and the challenge now is in strategically integrating it into Alexa devices like Amazon Echo.
The report claims that the feature is internally called Voice ID, and it would match a person’s voice to a prerecorded “voice print” to identify who is talking. The primary account holder could limit specific actions to only those matching a specific voice print. For example, any voice-made purchases could be limited to parents in a household so children don’t go on voice-enabled shopping sprees.
Alexa and other voice assistants including Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana all essentially do the same thing: they respond to voice commands and can answer questions like “How’s the weather?” or “What’s on my calendar today?” However, none can decipher who is doing the talking—and in homes where a device is linked to multiple accounts, that could become problematic. Amazon Alexa can already swatch between different user accounts, but the speaker must say “Switch accounts” or use the Alexa app to do so.
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After Google issued the update, the voice command originating from the ad won’t work, but the same voice command issued from someone else will.
Is that Google Home device capable of voice printing people? If so, maybe the phones are too.
Via: The Verge:
Just under three hours after Burger King unveiled a new advertisement designed to hijack your Google Home to read a long-winded description of its Whopper burger, Google has disabled the functionality. It was fun / horrifying while it lasted!
As of 2:45PM ET, Google Home will no longer respond when prompted by the specific Burger King commercial that asks “What is the Whopper burger?” It does, however, still respond with the top result from Wikipedia when someone else (i.e., a real user) other than the advertisement asks the same question. Google has likely registered the sound clip from the ad to disable unwanted Home triggers, as it does with its own Google Home commercials.
Delivery Robots: A Revolutionary Step or Sidewalk-Clogging Nightmare?
April 12th, 2017Via: Guardian:
Sharing a sidewalk with one of DoorDash’s delivery robots is a bit like getting stuck behind someone playing Pokémon Go on his smartphone. The robot moves a little bit slower than you want to; every few meters it pauses, jerking to the left or right, perhaps turning around, then turning again before continuing on its way.
These are the sidewalks of the future, technology evangelists promise. Autonomous delivery robots, once the exclusive purview of 1980s sci-fi movies, are coming to a city near you, with promises of reduced labor costs, increased efficiency and the reduction of cars.
But as robot fleets proliferate – Starship robots perform food deliveries for DoorDash and Postmates in Redwood City, California, and Washington DC, while Marble robots will begin making deliveries for Yelp Eat24 in San Francisco on Wednesday – the question none of these companies seems to want to answer is this: are these the sidewalks that we actually want?
DHS Lays Groundwork for Deportation Force
April 12th, 2017Via: U.S. News and World Report:
The Trump administration is seeking ways to increase capacity within immigration enforcement agencies to create a deportation force President Donald Trump repeatedly advocated on the campaign trail.
According to a document obtained by The Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security has begun the process of ramping up its abilities to rapidly deport thousands of people who are in the country illegally.
The report, dated April 25, is a progress report on the president’s executive orders to restrict who is allowed to travel to the U.S. While a federal judge has blocked parts of both executive orders relating to a ban on travel of people from several Muslim-majority countries, other portions of the orders instructing officials to strengthen vetting procedures were allowed to go forward.
According to the report, Homeland Security has located 33,000 additional beds for immigrants being held for deportation, begun to reach out to local police that could be empowered to enforce immigration laws and mapped the construction plans for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The agency is also looking at ways to expedite the hiring of 5,000 of new officers as part of a major expansion of Customs and Border Patrol. The altered hiring procedure might eliminate a polygraph test, a physical fitness examination and Spanish language proficiency from the entrance exam.
World’s Largest Solar+Battery Project Announced in South Australia
April 11th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
Via: Electrek:
A new project put in motion in South Australia in order to help with the region’s energy problems is likely to become the largest solar plus battery project in the world.
Lyon Group, an energy company backed by Mitsubishi, Blackstone and Magnetar Capital, has announced that it secured land and is in the “advanced stages” of negotiations for a grid connection on a 330 MW solar farm linked to a 100 MW/400 MWh battery installation.
The solar farm alone is of a significant size, but we have seen larger projects in the past. It’s the energy storage system that is the most impressive part. In term of li-ion battery installations, we are talking about 5 times bigger than Tesla’s 20 MW/80 MWh Powerpack station with Southern California Edison and about twice the size of the biggest projects currently in development.
North Korea State Media Warns of Nuclear Strike if Provoked
April 11th, 2017Via: Reuters:
North Korean state media warned on Tuesday of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression as a U.S. Navy strike group steamed toward the western Pacific.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has urged China to do more to rein in its impoverished neighbor, said in a Tweet that North Korea was “looking for trouble” and the United States would “solve the problem” with or without China’s help.
Tension has escalated sharply on the Korean peninsula, with talk of military action by the United States gaining traction following its strikes last week against Syria and amid concerns the reclusive North may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test.
North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the country was prepared to respond to any aggression by the United States.
Chinese Firm Halves Worker Costs by Hiring Army of Robots to Sort Out 200,000 Packages a Day
April 11th, 2017Via: South China Morning Post:
A viral video showing an army of little orange robots sorting out packages in a warehouse in eastern China is the latest example of how machines are increasingly taking over menial factory work on the mainland.
The behind-the-scenes footage of the self-charging robot army in a sorting centre of Chinese delivery powerhouse Shentong (STO) Express was shared on People’s Daily’s social media accounts on Sunday.
‘An Estimated $3 Trillion in Daily Commerce Flows Through COBOL Systems’
April 10th, 2017Via: Reuters:
The Common Business-Oriented Language was developed nearly 60 years ago and has been gradually replaced by newer, more versatile languages such as Java, C and Python. Although few universities still offer COBOL courses, the language remains crucial to businesses and institutions around the world.
In the United States, the financial sector, major corporations and parts of the federal government still largely rely on it because it underpins powerful systems that were built in the 70s or 80s and never fully replaced.
And here lies the problem: if something goes wrong, few people know how to fix it.
The stakes are especially high for the financial industry, where an estimated $3 trillion in daily commerce flows through COBOL systems. The language underpins deposit accounts, check-clearing services, card networks, ATMs, mortgage servicing, loan ledgers and other services.
The industry’s aggressive push into digital banking makes it even more important to solve the COBOL dilemma. Mobile apps and other new tools are written in modern languages that need to work seamlessly with old underlying systems.
Farmers Look For Ways To Circumvent Tractor Software Locks
April 10th, 2017Via: NPR:
A new tractor often costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, but one thing not included in that price is the right to repair it. That has put farmers on the front lines of a battle pitting consumers against the makers of all kinds of consumer goods, from tractors to refrigerators to smartphones.
Modern tractors, essentially, have two keys to make the engine work. One key starts the engine. But because today’s tractors are high-tech machines that can steer themselves by GPS, you also need a software key — to fix the programs that make a tractor run properly. And farmers don’t get that key.
“You’re paying for the metal but the electronic parts technically you don’t own it. They do,” says Kyle Schwarting, who plants and harvests fields in southeast Nebraska.
