Senate passes bill that lets the government destroy private drones

https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/04/senate-bill-government-destroy-private-drones/



Bloomberg via Getty Images

This week, the Senate passed the FAA Reauthorization Act, which, among other things, renews funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and introduces new rules for airports and aircraft. But the bill, which now just needs to be signed by the president, also addresses drones. And while parts of the bill extend some aspects of drone use — such as promoting drone package delivery and drone testing — it also gives the federal government power to take down a private drone if it’s seen as a “credible threat.”

The wording comes from another bill, the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018, which was strongly supported by the Department of Homeland Security and absorbed into the FAA Reauthorization Act. In June, as part of its argument as to why it needed more leeway when it comes to drones, the agency said that terrorist groups overseas “use commercially available [unmanned aircraft systems] to drop explosive payloads, deliver harmful substances and conduct illicit surveillance,” and added that the devices are also used to transport drugs, interfere with law enforcement and expolit unsecured networks.

However, the bill’s vague language and lack of oversight measures attracted criticism from groups like the ACLU, which said earlier this year that the proposed law contained “insufficient protections to ensure that such authority is not used arbitrarily, abusively or unnecessarily, and would permit conduct that raises privacy and due process concerns.”

The bill says that when a “credible threat” is posed by a drone to a “covered facility or asset,” the federal government can “disrupt control” of that device, “seize or exercise control” of it, confiscate it or “use reasonable force, if necessary, to disable, damage or destroy the unmanned aircraft system.” In the bill, “credible threat” is left undefined.

The EFF expressed concern over the bill, telling TechCrunch, “If lawmakers want to give the government the power to hack or destroy private drones, then Congress and the public should have the opportunity to debate how best to provide adequate oversight and limit those powers to protect our right to use drones for journalism, activism and recreation.”

The ACLU reiterated its objections as well. “These provisions give the government virtually carte blanche to surveil, seize or even shoot a drone out of the sky — whether owned by journalists or commercial entities — with no oversight or due process,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

President Trump is fully expected to sign the bill into law.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

October 4, 2018 at 10:24AM

Honey Bees May Fight Off Viruses With Help From Fungi

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=27490

It’s not easy being a bee these days. Apis mellifera, the Western honey bee, is crucial to agriculture worldwide but faces a growing number of pests and pathogens against which beekeepers have few weapons.
But the bees themselves may be showing us the way forward: New research suggests the foraging insects may obtain protection against some viruses by consuming fungi, then returning to the hive to spread its medicinal value.
Honey bees contribute more than $15 billion annually to U.S

via Discover Main Feed https://ift.tt/1dqgCKa

October 4, 2018 at 08:21AM

Consumer Reports agrees with Ars: GM Super Cruise beats Tesla Autopilot

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1387691


Video shot and edited by Jennifer Hahn.

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

October 4, 2018 at 09:33AM

A shadowy op-ed campaign is now smearing SpaceX in space cities

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1385363


Article intro image

Getty / Aurich

In early August, Boeing’s Leanne Caret and SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell took the stage at Johnson Space Center to announce the first astronauts who will fly on their commercial crew spacecraft. It was a significant moment to see two of the most powerful women in aerospace alongside one another—two fierce competitors coming together for the good of the country.

As president and chief executive officer of Boeing’s Defense, Space, & Security unit, Caret said the company took pride in working with NASA and the aerospace industry to bring a human space launch capability back to America. ”All of us are here today because we stand for something new and profound,” Caret said. “It is personal for all of us in this room, together, returning American astronauts on American rockets from US soil and creating endless possibilities for generations to come.”

Caret, center, and Shotwell, far right, at Johnson Space Center in August.
Enlarge /

Caret, center, and Shotwell, far right, at Johnson Space Center in August.

Eric Berger

Around this time, half a dozen newspapers across the country—several in key space markets—began publishing an op-ed that criticized the process by which Boeing competitor SpaceX fuels its Falcon 9 rocket. The first op-ed appeared in a Memphis newspaper a week before the commercial crew announcement. In recent weeks, copies of the op-ed have also appeared in the Houston Chronicle, various Alabama newspapers, Albuquerque Journal, Florida Today, and The Washington Times.

Who placed the op-eds?

All of these op-eds were bylined by “retired spacecraft operator” Richard Hagar, who worked for NASA during the Apollo program and now lives in Tennessee. (Based upon his limited social media postings, Hagar appears to be more interested in conservative politics than in space these days). Each op-ed cites Hagar’s work on NASA’s recovery from the Apollo 1 fire and the hard lessons NASA learned that day about human spaceflight.

The pieces then pivot to arguing that SpaceX’s load-and-go fueling process—in which the crew will board the Dragon spacecraft on top of the Falcon 9 rocket before it is fueled—ignores the lessons that Hagar’s generation learned during Apollo.

“It’s concerning to learn that some of the newer private space ventures launching today don’t appreciate the same safety standards we learned to emphasize on Apollo,” the op-ed states. “I suppose for Mr. Musk, inexperience is replacing the abundant safety protocols drilled into us after witnessing the Apollo 1 disaster. Astronaut safety is NASA’s number one priority on any space mission. There is no reason it should not be for private space travel, but commercial space companies like SpaceX play by different rules.”

The Houston Chronicle op-ed was not subtle with its imagery.
Enlarge /

The Houston Chronicle op-ed was not subtle with its imagery.

HoustonChronicle.com

There are some factual inaccuracies here. For one thing, SpaceX does play by the same rules as Boeing for commercial crew—astronaut safety rules that NASA itself wrote. Moreover, NASA has already provisionally cleared load-and-go for Falcon 9 launches that will send the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.

To try to understand his viewpoint, Ars attempted to reach Hagar by phone and email in September. In the course of this process, we learned that he did not actually submit many of these op-eds.

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

October 4, 2018 at 07:04AM

The Live-Action Mega Man Movie Is Finally Official

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-live-action-mega-man-movie-is-finally-official/1100-6462263/


Capcom’s live-action Mega Man movie, which we first heard about back in 2015, is now finally official. The Japanese publisher confirmed everything that was rumoured before.

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who directed Paranormal Activity 3 and Paranormal Activity 4, are writing and directing the Mega Man film, which is tentatively titled “Mega Man.” Planet of the Apes studios 20th Century Fox is distributing the movie; Chernin Entertainment is producing.

Heroes actor Masi Oka is producing as well.

“Based on the influential and globally beloved Mega Man franchise, Capcom aims to appeal to a diverse audience, including not only game players but action movie fans as well, with an adaptation that maintains the world of the Mega Man games, while incorporating the grand production and entertainment value that Hollywood movies are known for,” Capcom said in a news release.

This will be the first Mega Man movie, but the franchise already came to TV in the form of the animated show Mega Man: Fully Charged. There is no word on when the movie will be released or who will star in it. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

Capcom is no stranger to video game movies, as its Resident Evil franchise was spun into six films starring Milla Jovovich that collectively made more than $1 billion at the box office.

The latest Mega Man game is Mega Man 11, which launched this week on PS4, xbox One, Switch, and PC. For more, check out GameSpot’s Mega Man 11 review.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

via GameSpot’s PC Reviews https://ift.tt/2mVXxXH

October 3, 2018 at 08:45PM

No steering wheel, no driver, no problem: NHTSA rewriting safety rules

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/10/04/nhtsa-safety-rules-self-driving-cars/


WASHINGTON — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is moving ahead with plans to revise safety rules that bar fully self-driving cars from the roads without equipment like steering wheels, pedals and mirrors, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The auto safety agency, known as NHTSA, “intends to reconsider the necessity and appropriateness of its current safety standards” as applied to automated vehicles, the U.S. Transportation Department said in an 80-page update of its principles dubbed “Automated Vehicles 3.0” being made public on Thursday.

The department disclosed that in an upcoming rulemaking, NHTSA wants public comment “on proposed changes to particular safety standards to accommodate automated vehicle technologies and the possibility of setting exceptions to certain standards — that are relevant only when human drivers are present” for autonomous vehicles.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who will release the report at event at the department’s headquarters on Thursday, said in the report self-driving cars have the potential to dramatically reduce traffic crashes and road deaths, but added the “public has legitimate concerns about the safety, security, and privacy of automated technology.”

Automakers must currently meet nearly 75 auto safety standards, many of which were written with the assumption that a licensed driver will be in control of the vehicle.

General Motors in January filed a petition seeking an exemption for the current rules to deploy vehicles without steering wheels and other human controls as part of a ride-sharing fleet it plans to deploy in 2019.

NHTSA has not declared the GM petition complete, a step necessary before it can rule on the merits. NHTSA said it plans to propose modernizing procedures to follow when reviewing exemption petitions.

Alphabet Inc’s Waymo unit plans to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service for the general public with no human driver behind the steering wheel in Arizona later this year. But unlike GM, Waymo’s vehicles will have human controls for the time being.

In March, a self-driving Uber Technologies vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian, while the backup safety driver was watching a video, police said. Uber suspended testing in the aftermath, and some safety advocates said the crash showed the system was not safe enough to be tested on public roads.

‘A more fundamental revamping’

The stepped-up regulatory focus by NHTSA comes as legislation in Congress to speed self-driving cars, which passed the U.S. House in 2017, has stalled and has only an outside chance of getting approved this year, congressional aides say.

The report said “NHTSA’s current statutory authority to establish motor vehicle safety standards is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the design and performance of different” automated vehicles.

But automakers have warned it could take too long for NHTSA to rewrite the rules to allow for the widespread adoption of self-driving cars without human controls.

The agency said it “may also consider a more fundamental revamping of its approach to safety standards” for automated vehicles and added future requirements “need to be more flexible and responsive, technology-neutral, and performance-oriented.”

NHTSA said it could require manufacturers “to use test methods, such as sophisticated obstacle-course-based test regimes” or it could also adopt computer simulation requirements as U.S. law “does not require that NHTSA’s safety standards rely on physical tests and measurements, only that they be objective, repeatable, and transparent.”

10 proving grounds dumped

The department also said it “no longer recognizes the designations of 10 automated vehicle proving grounds” announced shortly before then President Barack Obama left office in January 2017.

The sites, including a Michigan center that President Donald Trump visited last year, were named by Congress to be eligible for $60 million in grants “to fund demonstration projects that test the feasibility and safety” of self-driving vehicles.

The report said “given the rapid increase in automated vehicle testing activities in many locations, there is no need for U.S. DOT to favor particular locations.”

The Transportation Department also announced it will launch a study of the workforce impacts of automated vehicles with the Labor, Commerce, and the Health and Human Services departments.

The report also said the Trump administration will not call for ending human driving. The department “embraces the freedom of the open road, which includes the freedom for Americans to drive their own vehicles. … We will protect the ability of consumers to make the mobility choices that best suit their needs.”

Reporting by David Shepardson

Related Video:

via Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com

October 4, 2018 at 09:30AM