Didi Chuxing receives permit to test self-driving cars in California

Didi Chuxing receives permit to test self-driving cars in California

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Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images

You might not hail a ride from China’s Didi Chuxing unless you visit Mexico, but there’s still a real chance you’ll see its vehicles on the road. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has issued an autonomous vehicle testing permit to Didi’s American research wing, clearing it to operate self-driving cars as long as there’s a safety driver. The move comes slightly over a year after Didi opened its US research lab, suggesting the company isn’t wasting much time putting its technology on the road.

Didi is getting its permit just weeks after California introduced new rules around self-driving permits, the brunt of which focused on completely driverless vehicles. A total of 53 companies were part of this new permit batch, though many of them are no strangers to the technology. In addition to established car brands like BMW, Ford, GM, Honda, Tesla, Toyota and Subaru, you’ll also see tech giants like Apple, Lyft, NVIDIA and Samsung. Uber isn’t on the list as it reviews its autonomous driving project following the fatal crash in Arizona.

It’s unlikely that Didi will offer full-fledged autonomous ride hailing in the US. Whether or not the government’s wariness around Chinese businesses would hurt its chances, it would face the same problem Uber did in China — it’d have to face rivals with a clear home turf advantage. Whatever the company learns in the US will probably only be used outside of the country.

Tech

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 14, 2018 at 05:06PM

Apple now has more than 50 autonomous cars on the road

Apple now has more than 50 autonomous cars on the road

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Apple

Apple has more than doubled the number of its self-driving cars, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has confirmed. Since obtaining a permit to test autonomous vehicles, Apple’s fleet size has steadily risen — from a scant three test cars, to 27 in January, and now, 55 intelligent machines. Should the program remain on course, consumers could be chilling out in the driver’s seat by 2019.

The intake is accompanied by 83 drivers who will be testing the vehicles. At this stage, Apple hasn’t been authorized to test self-driving cars independent of human supervision; for that, the company will need to submit a separate permit to the DMV — something Waymo did last month. The DMV also revealed that a second unnamed company had requested approval to begin driverless testing, but hasn’t parted with any additional details.

We do know that the autonomous car scene is heating up — Tesla and Drive.Ai are lagging behind Apple, but fellow California-native GM Cruise leads the pack with 104 vehicles with self-driving capacity. Still, one of the biggest issues inherent to automated technology is safety. The recent fatal accident involving one of Uber’s self-driving prototypes — apparently due to misaligned software — couldn’t be stopped by the test driver in time.

This indicates a margin of error that’s worth considering before rushing into fully self-driving trials; before the public can accept autonomous cars as a reliable alternative, companies need to gain its trust. There’s always a risk of mechanical failure, and human error can’t be ignored, either. but if companies identified problems and developed adequate prevention measures in advance, the number of accidents could experience a remarkable drop. That might push back release schedules, but autonomous safety should be top priority.

Tech

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 15, 2018 at 06:48AM

Germany’s Typhoon problem: Only four fighters can be made combat ready

Germany’s Typhoon problem: Only four fighters can be made combat ready

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SITREP: Germany’s Typhoon problem.

Click here for a transcript.

If you thought the US Department of Defense’s procurement adventures with the F-35 and other big-budget weapons systems are bad, you might want to check out what’s going on in Europe, where defense procurement battles have left most of the German Luftwaffe grounded for lack of parts.

Last week, at the annual Charlemagne Prize ceremony in Aachen, Germany—in which French President Emmanuel Macron was recognized for his efforts on behalf of European unity—German Prime Minister Angela Merkel pronounced that Europe could no longer depend on the United States for its protection. “Europe has to take its destiny into its own hands,” Merkel said. “That is the task of the future.”

Merkel has given this message before. But if Europe is to take its destiny into its own hands any time soon, Germany has a lot of work to do—the Bundeswehr, Germany’s defense ministry, is suffering from multiple readiness crises in a culmination of years of cost-shaving and poor management decisions. And the latest symptom to emerge of that crisis is the dwindling number of actually functional fighter jets that the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, can actually call combat ready. For the Eurofighter Typhoon, Germany’s main fighter aircraft, that number is four—out of a total of 128.

According to a report in Der Speigel, the Bundeswehr has claimed in an official report to the Bundestag (Germany’s legislature) that 39 Typhoon fighters were designated as ready for missions last year. But that report named any aircraft that was capable of flying as being “ready.” In fact, only 10 aircraft currently have all their systems functioning, because of a problem that has plagued the defensive aid subsystem (DASS) of Germany’s version of the Typhoon.

One component of the DASS is a wing pod that contains the aircraft’s electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment—its gear for jamming the radar of incoming missiles—and parts of the aircraft’s electronic support measures systems, which include radar lock warning and target identification.

During the development of the Typhoon, Germany decided to break off from the Eurofighter consortium and fund the development of a domestically-built DASS by Daimler Aerospace (DASA). Eventually Germany re-entered the fold, and DASA was absorbed into the European defense conglomerate EADS. But the money-saving maneuvering has continued, as the Bundestag strove to reduce stock in repair parts and opt for “just-in-time” ordering.

Unfortunately, the DASS pods on Germany’s Typhoons have been failing because of coolant leaks. And the supplier for the part needed to repair the leak is no longer in business. As the rest of Eurofighters’ customers are upgrading their DASS systems to the Praetorian DASS from the Italian defense company Leonardo, the factory for the part was sold—and Germany, which did not opt for the upgrade, is now left without a supplier.

Cost-cutting procurement strategies have caused problems elsewhere over the past year for the Bundeswehr:

  • The German Navy has had to refuse delivery of the first of its new class of frigates after the ship failed sea trials, and only five of the Navy’s existing 13 frigates were capable of being deployed.
  • The last available German submarine was pulled out of service for repairs, as all the other submarines in the fleet sit in drydock or sit idle due to lack of replacement parts. (One of those submarines may now be back in service.)
  • The German Army was found to lack enough tanks and armored personnel carriers, or even enough basic equipment for soldiers, to fulfill its commitment to NATO’s Very High Readiness Task Force at the beginning of 2019. While 105 out of 244 Leopard 2 tanks were called “ready for use,” only nine could be fully armed for the VHRF.
  • Only 12 of 62 Tiger attack helicopters and 16 of Germany’s 72 CH-53 cargo helicopters were available for exercises and operations last year; the rest were grounded for maintenance.
  • At any time over the last year, only three of the Bundeswehr Airbus A400M transport aircraft were ready to fly.

The only saving grace for the Bundeswehr is that with the wind-down of NATO support in Afghanistan, there’s no immediate combat mission for the German military. And as Der Speigel’s Matthias Gebauer was told by a Bundeswehr source, “We can say with a good conscience that large parts of the [German armed forces] are mission ready, because there is currently no mission.”

Listing image by Krasimir Grozev

Tech

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

May 15, 2018 at 07:49AM

With 60 Killed In Gaza, U.N. Rights Commissioner Criticizes Israel

With 60 Killed In Gaza, U.N. Rights Commissioner Criticizes Israel

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A Palestinian demonstrator reacts as others run from tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest marking the 70th anniversary of Nakba, at the Israel-Gaza border in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters


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Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

A Palestinian demonstrator reacts as others run from tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest marking the 70th anniversary of Nakba, at the Israel-Gaza border in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

One day after Israeli forces fired on protesters and killed 60 Palestinians along the Gaza border, the U.N.’s Human Rights Commissioner says that those who were shot include women, children, journalists, first responders and bystanders.

“We condemn the appalling, deadly violence in Gaza yesterday,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

While acknowledging that some Palestinian demonstrators tried to damage the barbed wire fence that separates Gaza from Israel, Colville said that in the commissioner’s view, attempts to cross or damage a fence “do not amount to a threat to life or serious injury and are not sufficient grounds for the use of live ammunition.”

Lethal force, he said, should only be a measure of last resort.

The violence exploded on Monday, as Israel celebrated the U.S. move of its embassy to Jerusalem – a city that’s claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians, and whose status has long been regarded by America’s biggest allies as an issue best resolved in multilateral peace talks. The U.S. has formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – another step it had long avoided taking.

At least 40,000 Palestinians gathered to protest, according to an estimate from the Israel Defense Forces – which says “Hamas is coercing Gazans to risk their lives.” More protests are expected on Tuesday.

The military dropped leaflets in the area, telling people to stay away from the security fence on the eastern half of the Gaza Strip. The Defense Forces have accused Iran of giving $100 to people who will approach and attempt to harm the Gaza barrier.

Israeli forces responded to the large gatherings at or near the fence with tear gas, plastic bullets and live ammunition. Protesters were seen throwing Molotov cocktails, flying kites that had flaming devices attached, and hurling stones. The military also said it killed three Palestinians who had been trying to plant an explosive along the fence.

In addition to their anger over the controversial embassy move, Palestinians also demonstrated in anticipation of today’s commemoration of the day they call Nakba – Catastrophe – because the creation of Israel 70 years ago turned more than 700,000 Palestinians into refugees.

The confluence of events led to split-screen coverage of Monday’s embassy unveiling, with U.S. guests led by President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, smiling and celebrating inside the embassy as, along the Gaza border, black smoke billowed from burning tires and gunshots rang out in what an IDF spokesperson called a day of “unprecedented violence.”

One day later, the first Palestinian funerals have been held, and Gaza’s medical facilities are stretched to their limit, having coped with 2,771 injuries. Of that number, 1,359 wounds were from live bullets, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

The violence capped weeks of protests by Palestinians, who began demonstrating against Israel’s blockade of Gaza back in March.

In that time, as Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, “Hamas and the other resistance movements in Gaza refrained from launching rockets into Israel. No Israeli soldier or resident was injured. Israel, on the other hand, acted against the unarmed demonstrators with sniper fire, live fire that killed and maimed.”

The newspaper made those remarks in its lead editorial today, titled “Stop the Bloodbath.”

Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory, says Israel is guilty of “blatant excessive use of force,” in breach of international human rights laws.

Saying Israel was denying rights of expression and assembly, Lynk issued a statement on Tuesday calling for “true accountability for those in military and political command who have ordered or allowed this force to be once again employed at the Gaza fence.”

Israeli officials say that Hamas has used the protests to cover terrorist activities, and to distract Palestinians from “their failures as a governing body.”

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has joined at least one of the weekly protests against the blockade; he was seen again on Monday. His public appearances prompted new comments from Israel’s Public Defense Minister Gilad Erdan, who told the Ynet News site, “We need to go back to targeted killings, and they need to go back to hiding underground and fearing for their lives, not organizing the masses to carry out terror attacks.”

Erdan said, “It’s time for the heads of Hamas to pay a personal price for organizing these terror attacks.”

On Monday afternoon, the White House blamed the death toll on the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said, “Hamas bears the responsibility,” adding, “Look, this is a propaganda attempt. I mean, this is a gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt. I think the Israeli government has spent weeks trying to handle this without violence, and we find it very unfortunate.”

Shah reiterated the White House’s position that Israel has the right to defend itself.

When asked about possible peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians – and the timing of the most recent White House contact with Palestinian leaders – Shah said, “Well, I don’t honestly have an answer for you on that. I’ll get back to you.”

News

via NPR Topics: News https://ift.tt/2m0CM10

May 15, 2018 at 08:21AM

Tesla crash may have triggered battery fire, Swiss firefighters say

Tesla crash may have triggered battery fire, Swiss firefighters say

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ZURICH — Swiss firefighters said on Monday that the impact in a fatal accident involving a Tesla electric car may have set off a fire in the vehicle’s battery.

A 48-year-German driver died when his car hit the barrier in the central reservation of a motorway in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino, turned over and burst into flames.

The crash, which happened on Thursday, is one of several accidents to affect Tesla vehicles in recent days, and one of several crashes in recent years involving fires.

“The violent impact of lithium-ion batteries could probably have caused a phenomenon called ‘thermal runaway’, i.e. a rapid and unstoppable increase in temperature,” Ticino fire brigade said on its Facebook page.

Lithium-ion batteries can, under exceptional circumstances, have a sudden and unstoppable increase in temperature, in a sort of chain reaction that leads to the complete destruction of the batteries and the car, said fire safety expert Guido Zaccarelli in an article quoted by the firefighters.

A Tesla spokesman said: “We are deeply saddened by this accident, and we are working to establish the facts of the incident and offer our full cooperation to local authorities.”

On Friday a Tesla Model S crashed at speed into a truck in South Jordan, Utah. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also reviewing a Florida crash of a Tesla last week that killed two teenagers.

On a related note, The Wall Street Journal today reported that Tesla had looked into and rejected technology such as eye-tracking to ensure that Tesla owners weren’t misusing Autopilot.

“It came down to cost, and Elon was confident we wouldn’t need it,” a source told the WSJ.
However, Elon Musk responded to the report in a tweet, saying that eye-tracking was rejected as ineffective. It is, however, used by some other manufacturers such as Cadillac in its Super Cruise system.

Recently, a driver in England lost his license for activating Autopilot then moving into the passenger seat.

Reporting by John Revill

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Cars

via Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com

May 14, 2018 at 06:12PM

Jaguar solution to keyless start could save lives

Jaguar solution to keyless start could save lives

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Today,

The New York Times

published an article about more than two dozen deaths related to drivers accidentally leaving their cars running, closing their garages and later succumbing to carbon monoxide that flooded their homes. The reason has been identified as “keyless start” features, or proximity entry and push-button start, where owners don’t need to physically handle a key or fob to gain entry into the vehicle or start it. It is the latest, and deadliest, issue raised with this system after those related to security and simple inconvenience (for instance, leaving the car at a valet or

car wash

with the fob in your pocket).

From my personal perspective,

The New York Times

had a rather harsh “evil carmakers” tone throughout the article. This is not a matter of a known faulty component, as with the GM

ignition switch recall

. This has as much to do with user error where people leave their car without pressing the “off” button and without noticing the engine is still running. About half of the cars in question are produced by

Toyota

and

Lexus

, brands that have offered keyless start longer than most. They are also brands with high rates of elderly owners, who seemingly made up a majority of reported deaths and injuries. One fire department in Florida even started a campaign alerting those in the area of the dangers of leaving your car running when it noticed a correlation between an increase in cars equipped with keyless start and calls related to carbon monoxide poisoning.

I see several contributing issues at play, most of which go well beyond this particular issue. First is insufficient training of owners by

dealers

and/or owners not paying close enough attention during this training. Cars are complicated, but you should at least know how basic functions work. Second, woefully inadequate driver training in this country. Third, and with apologies to the AARP, insufficient testing of elderly drivers and/or insufficiently low standards for elderly drivers. If you don’t know you have to shut the car off or cannot hear that an engine is running, perhaps you shouldn’t be driving.

Fourth, re-examining keyless start systems. Yes, it is convenient to not have to fumble for your keys — especially if they’re somewhere deep in the nether regions of a purse — but the downsides are huge.

The New York Times

reports all sorts of proposed regulations and the differing methods automakers use to warn drivers to not leave the car with it running and the key in your pocket. For instance, Toyota uses three beeps, but six beeps could be more effective. Using the horn and flashing the lights can be more effective still. Best of all, automatically shut the car off after a given amount of time.

The

Jaguar XF

I’m currently driving turns itself off when you put the car into park and lift off the brake. And not the automatic stop/start system, either. It’s off off — even if your wife and dogs are still in the car and would rather the air conditioning remain on while you run into Starbucks. Frankly, I found it rather irritating, much as I do whenever a car does something without me asking it do so. However, I must admit that such a feature would’ve saved all those lives in Florida. It also removes any question about whether three beeps is better than six or if the lights flashing will help an octogenarian Floridian realize the

Prius

is still running.

But all of this involves coming up with complicated solutions and regulations. You know what could easily, cheaply and truly correct the problem? A key. We could just dispense with keyless start altogether. That would correct both the carbon dioxide garage scenario and the other Starbucks-related annoyance where your poor wife has to sit in the car for several minutes listening to the car incessantly beep and alert her that the key is no longer in the vehicle (because I forgot to remove it from my pocket before leaving the car).

In all, these deaths are without question tragic and heartbreaking for those featured in

The New York Times

story. However, this is a more complicated issue than “evil carmaker doesn’t want to spend money to change something, and these poor people are dying because of it.” That’s the melodramatic take, the one that will most likely take hold, but it’s very unfair. Of course, it’s much easier to only blame the automaker than the person who didn’t know how their car works, the person who didn’t hear that an internal combustion engine was running inside a garage, or the person who is no longer capable of safely operating a motor vehicle. Those are issues of personal responsibility and government action, and really, good luck with those.

Related Video:

Cars

via Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com

May 14, 2018 at 04:11PM

Extremely Good Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Claims Trump Killed AT&T-Time Warner Merger, Then Denies It

Extremely Good Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Claims Trump Killed AT&T-Time Warner Merger, Then Denies It

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Donald Trump’s attorney and walking accident Rudy Giuliani has been busying himself as of late seemingly attempting to do as much damage to the president’s legal prospects as possible. Whether it’s claiming that Trump knew perfectly well about the alleged hush money paid out to adult film star Stormy Daniels or saying he fired FBI James Comey to shut him up about that whole Russia thing, Giuliani’s been screwing up on a level that the likes of the Mooch could only dream of.

Anyhow, on Friday night Giuliani bungled another thing for the president by seemingly admitting that Trump personally interfered to stop the merger between telecom behemoth AT&T and multimedia giant Time Warner. Officially, the Department of Justice is suing to stop the deal over antitrust concerns, but unofficially, rumors have been flying for months that the DOJ is only trying to scuttle it because Trump despises Time Warner subsidiary CNN.

In an attempt to defend the president’s other lawyer Michael Cohen from accusations he took $600,000 to “consult” on the merger, Giuliani told the Huffington Post:

Giuliani said Cohen’s business relationships did not contradict Trump’s campaign promises to end “pay-to-play” schemes and to “drain the swamp” because Cohen did not get for his newfound clients what they wanted.

“Whatever lobbying was done didn’t reach the president,” Giuliani said, offering as proof the fact that AT&T’s proposed merger with Time-Warner has not gone through. “He did drain the swamp … The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted.”

That “the president,” rather than the DOJ, directed an end to the merger would be a big deal, as it would support the companies’ legal assertions that the sudden intervention smells fishy as hell. The current DOJ antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, had previously commented he didn’t view the merger as a problem—and while denying the merger is almost certainly good for consumers, it’s a suspicious move for an administration with a laissez-faire attitude towards corporate matters.

In other words, this is another minefield that Giuliani wandered into apropos of nothing. The comment appears to have put the president himself on the defensive, inspiring a tweet lamenting the “disgrace in reporting”:

By Saturday, Giuliani was walking the remarks back, telling CNN “He told me directly he didn’t interfere.”

US District Judge Richard Leon has said he’ll have a ruling on the antitrust trial by mid-June, which seems like more than enough time for him to take this incident into account. The DOJ does project that consumers would pay for the successful hybridization of the two companies into one massive mega-corporation in the form of $571 million in additional fees by 2021, so there’s probably an argument to be made for Giuliani being able to get away with portraying this as just a little misstatement.

[Huffington Post]

Tech

via Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com

May 12, 2018 at 11:45AM