Driverless pods begin ferrying the public around Greenwich

It’s been almost a year since the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) opened sign-ups for a driverless pod trial in Greenwich. The original plan was to start before Christmas, but given today’s date that obviously didn’t happen. Still, better late than never, eh? Over the next three weeks, roughly 100 people will clamber aboard "Harry," a self-driving shuttle named after clockmaker John Harrison. It will take them around a two-mile course in London’s North Greenwich, near The O2, to demonstrate how the technology could be used for "last mile" trips in urban areas.

The shuttle is a repurposed Ultra Pod, which is already in operation at London’s Heathrow Airport. With a maximum speed of 10MPH (16KPH), it’s not the fastest electric vehicle — you could beat it on a Boosted Board — however it’s hoped the leisurely pace will reassure pedestrians and minimise dangerous incidents. Each pod carries up to four people, including a safety operator who can pepper the breaks in an emergency. It’s able to ‘see’ it’s surroundings using a mixture of cameras and lasers, and use that information to track obstacles and create a collision-free route. Notably, it doesn’t need to rely on GPS for any of these calculations.

The purpose of the trials is to see how the public reacts to self-driving vehicles, and to examine how the technology can best be applied in built-up areas. Each trip will give the research team a wealth of valuable information — four terabytes of data every eight hours, to be precise. It’ll be supplemented with passenger interviews, taken before and after each trip, and written feedback that anyone can submit online through an interactive map. "It is critical that the public is fully involved as these technologies become a reality," Professor Nick Reed, academy director at TRL said.

The "GATEway Project" at Greenwich is one of many research initiatives being funded by the UK government. We’ve already seen the "Lutz Pathfinder" pod, which is being tested in Milton Keynes, and a modified Land Rover that’s serving as a research testbed in Bristol. Plans are also underway for a 41-mile "connected corridor," which will be used to test LTE, local WiFi hotspots and other forms of connectivity in self-driving vehicles. In the private sector, Nissan is testing its electric Leaf cars in the capital, and Roborace is developing a driverless motorsport. It’s an impressive hub of activity, even without Google and Uber’s involvement.

Via: BBC

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Meet the Smartphone with four cameras – Alcatel Flashphone





































This phone holds the title of World’s First Four Camera Smartphone. It features dual front and dual rear cameras.


So, what does four cameras do for a smartphone. Well for starters, the rear-facing cameras both have 13-megapixel sensors. One is for color while the other is monochromatic. One front-facing camera is eight megapixels, and the second is five megapixels.


The phone runs on Android Marshmallow and has a 5.5-inch 1080p display. There is a Helio X20 processor that powers this 4-camera selfie machine.




 









Alcatel

Design Support

152.6×75.4×8.7mm

Weight: 155g

Colours available: Titanium Grey

Side keys: Volume +/-, Power

Back key: fingerprint scanner 

152.6×75.4×8.7mm

Weight: 155g

 

Colours available: Titanium Grey

Side keys: Volume +/-, Power

Back key: fingerprint scanner 

 

Features

Android M

MTK Helio X20 MT6797

Deca-core processor

2x Cortex-A72 @2.3Ghz

4x Cortex-A53 @1.9Ghz

4x Cortex-A53 @1.4Ghz

Fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer (G sensor),

Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, E-Compass, fingerprint sensor

Gyro, Hall Switch, Handsfree, vibrator, flight mode, GPS & AGPS

 

Battery

3100mAh (Typical), non-removable

Talk time: 5.3hrs~20hrs(3G)

Standby time: 415hrs~466hrs(4G

 

Memory

ROM: 32GB

RAM: 3GB

End user memory: 24GB

MicroSD up to 128GB

 

Connectivity

GPRS/EDGE    

850/900/1800/1900

UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA

850/900/1900/2100/34/39

LTE      

FDD: B1/3/5/7/8/20

TDD: 38/39/40/41

Wi-Fi 802.11/b/g/n

Wifi direct, Wifi display

FM Radio

Bluetooth 4.1

USB OTG

Type-C

GPSwith A-GPS/Glonass/Beidou

Dual Nano SIM Dual Standby

 

Camera

Dual rear cameras

Dual 13MP

Mono+RGB, Sony IMX258

1/3.06 sensor size

1.12μm pixel size

F2.0(RGB)/F2.0(Mono) aperture size

PDAF 0.15s focus speed

6P lens optics with sapphire crystal lens cover

Dual color LED

Video recording: 4Kx2K@30fps, 1080P@60fps

 

Display

5.5” FHD IPS 1920×1080 pixels

Multi-touch display with IPS display

Resolution at 401 PPI

160° Viewing Angle

Full Lamination

Dragontrail Glass

Fingerprint-resistant Oleophobic coating 

 

 


 

 


























“I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it.” — Bungie Technical Lead Chris Butcher



























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As Scandals Crest, Fox News Once More Under Siege

Advertisers are beginning to pull their commercials from Fox News star Bill O’Reilly’s flagship broadcast as allegations of sexual harassment continue to grow.

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images


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Advertisers are beginning to pull their commercials from Fox News star Bill O’Reilly’s flagship broadcast as allegations of sexual harassment continue to grow.

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images

Fox News Channel is once more under siege, facing several concurrent scandals and legal challenges scattered across different courtrooms, and casting a pall over the network’s executive suites.

Fresh and harsh scrutiny cast on star host Bill O’Reilly over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women has given major corporations pause about associating themselves with the top-rated figure in cable news.

In just the past 48 hours, at least 20 advertisers, including prominent automobile manufacturers, announced they would cancel upcoming ads on his prime-time program or avoid placing future commercials there.

The ouster of chairman Roger Ailes last summer during a sexual harassment scandal was supposed to calm the waters. Yet two new lawsuits involving unrelated charges of sexual and racial discrimination raise serious questions about the decisions of Fox News Co-president Bill Shine and general counsel Dianne Brandi, among other executives.

Each was a long-time Ailes lieutenant. Each survived his forced departure.

Together, they’ve kept O’Reilly front and center on the network, despite all the payments that O’Reilly, Fox and parent company 21st Century Fox have made over the past dozen years to quell such accusations.

A history of payouts and settlements

The two executives helped to arrange payments made to privately settle past sexual harassment complaints against Roger Ailes. One former Fox News booker was paid $3 million back in 2011, five years before Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit against him exploded publicly.

Some of those past payments by Fox News to women are being investigated by federal prosecutors to see if they were structured to avoid disclosing them to investors in 21st Century Fox, as first disclosed by a lawyer to suspended Fox News host Andrea Tantaros, who is currently suing Ailes and the network.

Brandi, the network’s top lawyer, also stands accused of doing nothing after being informed in the fall of 2014 that Judith Slater, then the company’s comptroller, had created a racist work environment in a lawsuit filed by three African-American employees of Fox News.

Fox News, O’Reilly and 21st Century Fox together have paid roughly $13 million to women accusing him of sexual harassment, according to The New York Times. (The lion’s share went to a former Fox News producer who captured his advances on tape more than a decade ago.)

A senior official at 21st Century Fox tells NPR it has spoken to O’Reilly and that the host has given assurances he believes in the company’s commitment to offer a welcoming workplace for all staffers. Corporate executives did not respond to several requests for comment about the status of Shine and Brandi.

Through his lawyer, Susan Estrich, Ailes denies all the allegations made against him, including the newest, this week, by paid Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky. Ailes blames an orchestrated campaign against him.

O’Reilly says he’s victimized by people who target him because he’s successful and wealthy. He says he agreed to settlements to help his children avoid public scorn.

Fox News typically denigrates those who file suit or criticize its stars and executives, but it is currently uncharacteristically subdued, in keeping with a promise made last summer that the culture of the network would change.

Roginsky’s lawsuit against Ailes argues that promise from the Murdoch family, which controls the company, has rung hollow.

In her sexual harassment lawsuit, Roginsky alleges that Shine and Brandi retaliated against her for failing to come to Ailes’ defense and for raising her complaints about Ailes’ conduct internally.

Fox News did fire Slater, the comptroller at the heart of the racial discrimination lawsuit, but as the lawyers for the plaintiffs note, only in late March, several days before the suit was filed.

Fox News and Brandi have not responded to the specific question of whether she was told of Slater’s behavior, in 2014 and 2015, and refused to take action, as alleged in the lawsuit by Monica Douglas, the head of credit and collection in Fox News’ accounting department, and one of the plaintiffs in the new racial bias suit.

Shine and Brandi’s decisions have been challenged previously.

Their continued presence raises the more fundamental question of the judgment of Rupert Murdoch, the family patriarch, who stepped in to oversee Fox News after Ailes was hustled out.

O’Reilly’s continued presence has undercut the Murdochs’ contention of a shift in culture, according to several women who work at the network who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity.

An audition is followed by an awkward dinner

Not everyone who has made allegations against O’Reilly or Ailes received or even sought money. Wendy Walsh, a California-based psychologist and former television news reporter and anchor, auditioned on the air for a paid slot with a recurring role — “a very big opportunity,” in her words.

Walsh told NPR that just three weeks in, she received a call from an O’Reilly producer saying he wanted to arrange a dinner during an upcoming trip in Los Angeles. Shortly after the outset of the meal at the restaurant Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, O’Reilly promised Walsh the job, she says.

After a cordial dinner, O’Reilly said, “Let’s get out of here,” and according to Walsh’s account to NPR, “a kind of awkward thing happened”: he headed past the hostess stand to the right, toward the elevators to his hotel room. Walsh says she headed left, toward the bar. (A woman answering the phone at Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air confirmed the layout.)

Walsh says she declined O’Reilly’s entreaties to come up to his room — and that he turned nasty at the bar, telling her there would be no job. “It was a sad cocktail party story that women tell each other and shrug our shoulders and go, ‘Ugh, another one,’ ” Walsh says. “I can’t believe this is still going on.”

O’Reilly has not directly responded to the substance of Walsh’s depiction of this episode but issued a more general statement saying no women had filed complaints through the network’s human resources department.

O’Reilly’s show is the network’s top revenue-generating program; and the network has proved highly lucrative for 21st Century Fox. But any financial hit from balky advertisers is likely to be limited as Fox News relies more on licensing fees from cable providers than from advertising spots. And most advertisers are placing their commercials on different Fox News programs, not withdrawing altogether.

One which is: SHRM, a leading trade group for the human resources industry.

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Krispy Kreme owner buys Panera for $7.5 billion

Talk about carb loading. Sandwich chain Panera has agreed to sell itself to JAB, a German conglomerate that owns Krispy Kreme and the Einstein and Noah bagel chains, for $7.5 billion.

Shares of Panera (PNRA) surged nearly 15% in early trading Wednesday. The stock soared on Monday as rumors surfaced that Panera was in merger talks.

JAB was named as a possible suitor, as were McDonald’s (MCD), Starbucks (SBUX), KFC parent company Yum! (YUM) and Domino’s (DPZ).

In a statement Wednesday, Panera and JAB said they hope the deal would close in the third quarter of this year.

Panera founder and CEO Ron Shaich said in a statement that selling to JAB would allow Panera to increase its investments in its digital and mobile ordering technology as well as increase its focus on using healthier ingredients.

JAB partner and CEO Olivier Goudet added that he and the rest of his team “strongly support Panera’s vision for the future, strategic initiatives, culture of innovation, and balanced company versus franchise store mix.”

So fans of Panera’s soup and sandwiches probably shouldn’t expect any major menu changes as a result of the deal.

Related: Is your favorite restaurant about to get taken over?

Panera has been a star of the so-called fast casual restaurant industry over the past few years, reporting strong sales and profits.

To that end, the company also said Wednesday that same-store sales at its restaurants (although Panera calls them ” bakery-cafes”) rose a healthy 5.3% in the first quarter from the same period a year ago.

Some have argued that Panera, which now has more than 2,300 restaurants in the United States and Canada, has even taken over the title as the leader of the rapidly growing fast casual segment from Chipotle (CMG).

The burrito chain stumbled due to an outbreak of E. coli at its restaurants in 2015. Chipotle’s sales still haven’t fully recovered.

It is interesting that Panera is agreeing to be taken over since it’s doing well. But the company has picked a partner that is rapidly emerging as a big player in the U.S. food industry.

In addition to Krispy Kreme and the Einstein Noah bagel chains, JAB also owns K-cup coffee king Keurig Green Mountain, the Gevalia brand of coffee as well as coffee chains Caribou, Peet’s and Stumptown.

JAB also owns a big stake in a fair number of non-food brands, such as shoe and handbag company Jimmy Choo, beauty products maker Coty and Reckitt Benckiser, the company behind Lysol. Woolite and the Durex brand of condoms.

Related: Chipotle’s E, coli woes might not be over

The Panera-JAB deal may also put more pressure on other restaurant chains to look for bigger partners as well. If Panera, which actually has been thriving, decided to sell out, then how can less successful restaurant chains continue to go it alone?

There already has been a flurry of restaurant mergers lately. Burger King and Tim Hortons owner Restaurant Brands (QSR) — which is backed by Warren Buffett — bought Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen earlier this year.

Bob Evans Farms (BOBE) sold its restaurant business to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $565 million in January. Golden Gate acquired Red Lobster from Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants in 2014.

And Darden (DRI) just announced last week it was buying casual dining chain Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen for $780 million.

Popular sandwich chain Jimmy John’s sold a majority stake last September to investment company Roark Capital too.

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Trump would virtually eliminate budget for EPA vehicle testing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration would virtually eliminate federal funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget for vehicle emissions and fuel economy testing but will seek to raise fees on industry to pay for some testing, a government document shows.

The cuts would slash by more than half the staff of the EPA department that conducts vehicle, engine, and fuel testing to verify emissions standards are met and mileage stickers are accurate. Its work helped lead to Volkswagen AG’s 2015 admission that it violated vehicle emissions rules for years.

In a March 21 budget document posted online by the Washington Post, the Trump administration proposed eliminating $48 million in federal funding for EPA vehicle and fuel testing and certification.

It represents a 99 percent federal cut to the vehicle testing budget and would require “pretty much shutting down the testing lab,” said Margo Oge, who headed the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality under President Barack Obama.

The proposal, which would also cut 168 out of 304 full-time jobs, seeks to partially fund current operations by boosting fees automakers and engine manufacturers pay for testing. An EPA official confirmed the document’s authenticity.

The Trump administration has proposed cutting the EPA’s budget by 31 percent and eliminating more than 50 programs.

EPA spokesman John Konkus declined to answer questions about how the cuts could affect vehicle testing. “We know we can effectively serve the taxpayers and protect the environment. While many in Washington insist on greater spending, EPA is focused on greater value and real results,” Konkus said.

Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an auto trade association, said automakers were concerned the proposed cuts could delay certification of new vehicles “and getting products to consumers.”

Janet McCabe, a former EPA official in the Obama administration, said Monday that companies that take care to comply with the rules can be at a disadvantage without strong enforcement of the rules.

“We know that a little bit of cheating can mean a lot of air pollution,” McCabe said.

The administration plans to release a detailed budget plan in May.

In March, Trump ordered a review of tough U.S. vehicle fuel-efficiency standards put in place by the Obama administration.

The EPA stepped up scrutiny of automakers after Volkswagen admitted to cheating diesel emissions tests in 580,000 U.S. vehicles. VW agreed to pay up to $25 billion in penalties and buyback costs and pleaded guilty in March to felony charges.

In September 2015, EPA said it would review emissions from all U.S. diesel vehicles after Volkswagen’s admission it used secret software to emit up to 40 times allowable emissions.

That review prompted the allegation by the EPA in January that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV used undisclosed software to allow excess diesel emissions from 104,000 U.S. trucks and SUVs. Fiat Chrysler denies wrongdoing.

The EPA is also scrutinizing emissions from Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz vehicles. It has not approved Daimler or Fiat Chrysler’s request to sell 2017 model diesels.

The EPA has also investigated cases of several automakers overstating mileage on window stickers in recent years.

In 2014, the EPA hit Korean automakers Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motors Corp with $350 million in penalties for overstating fuel economy ratings.

Reporting by David Shepardson

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