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FedEx wants to equip cargo aircraft with anti-missile lasers
FedEx has asked US officials for approval to install anti-missile laser systems to protect its aircraft from attacks.
Hyperloop projects are now eligible for federal funding in the US
The DOT has issued guidance on a federal regulatory framework.
US DOT approves Nuro's next-gen driverless delivery vehicle design
Today, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approved a regulatory exemption for Nuro's next-generation self-driving delivery vehicle, R2. The exemption allows Nuro to begin public road testing and to prepare for deliveries to customers' homes.
Y2K-type glitch is causing NYC parking meters to reject credit cards
A software glitch is causing parking meters throughout New York City to reject credit and prepaid parking cards, The New York Times reports. The payment software was set to expire on January 1st, and the vendor reportedly failed to update the software before the new year. So, at the stroke of midnight Wednesday, the city rang in a bug reminiscent of those feared around Y2K, which predicted computer systems would crash.
US government quietly kills autonomous vehicle committee
The Department of Transportation's Advisory Committee on Automation in Transportation (ACAT) hasn't been active since it was formed in 2017. And it won't be active anytime in the future, because according to The Verge, the administration has quietly killed it without even telling its members. Under President Obama, the DOT enlisted several big-name players from the transportation industry to become part of the group. The list includes Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, Apple VP Lisa Jackson, Waymo CEO John Krafcik and Lyft co-founder John Zimmer.
Proposed FAA rules loosen restrictions on drone flights at night
Right on the heels of Canada introducing new, stricter regulations for drone operations, the US Department of Transportation proposed a new set of rules for drones that would allow the unmanned vehicles to fly over populated areas and operate at night. The proposal also includes a pilot program for drone traffic management that would help to integrate the aircraft into the nation's airspace.
US DOT tells self-driving shuttle company to stop transporting kids
Sorry kids, neither you nor robots can be trusted. The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has told Transdev North America to stop hauling children around in its EZ10 Generation II autonomous shuttles in Babcock Ranch -- a community in Southwest Florida.
Amazon's new APIs connect smart home cameras and doorbells to Alexa
Your Ring and August doorbells and locks just got a lot smarter. Amazon has released new APIs for smart home cameras and doorbells allowing these devices to communicate with Echo speakers. Not all devices can support these new APIs however. Amazon currently supports WebRTC compliant cameras or 3Ps, which use a WebRTC bridge to connect to Alexa. This API funcitonality has already hit Ring devices, which Amazon acquired for $1.2 billion earlier this year. For Amazon, the coolest selling point is being able to not only see when someone rings your doorbell through an Echo Show or Echo Spot -- which was already possible -- but to have 2-way communication. There's other potential as well, like having lights turn on when someone rings your doorbell, or play music through a smart speaker to drown out the sound of your dog barking. Owners can also set custom announcements using Routines in the Alexa app, which are tasks tied to a single command. Three weeks ago Amazon revealed a slew of Alexa-enabled home devices, including a $60 smart microwave. And in the fight for smart home supremacy, with the other major player being Google, the company that makes things most developer friendly will have a greater edge.
Ford takes an anti-Uber approach to self-driving cars
As Uber and Tesla have learned, it doesn't take a lot of bad press to shatter public trust on autonomous vehicles. Ford has taken that lesson to heart, saying it would rather instill confidence in self-driving cars than be first to market. In a letter to the US Department of Transportation (DoT) and 44-page report called "A Matter of Trust," the automaker detailed how it plans to safely test its self-driving vehicles on public roads.
Even automakers don’t want Trump’s emissions rollback
The Trump administration unveiled its proposal to weaken Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, and it's as bad as you would expect.
Louisville wants a fleet of drones to survey areas after shootings
Earlier this week, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky told reporters that he wants the city to field a fleet of drones that automatically survey areas after guns are fired. The city would detect firearm discharges using its existing ShotSpotter system, WDRB reported, and immediately send the UAVs to the scene, potentially before emergency responders are even called. But this isn't coming out of nowhere: Louisville could just be the first of over 300 cities that have applied to a federal program that provides funding for local governments that are trying to start their own drone programs.
Trump announces program to test drones beyond FAA regulations
President Trump and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao announced the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program today -- an initiative aimed at exploring expanded use of drones. While the Obama administration began allowing some drone activity to take place in US airspace, a fair amount of restrictions were still applicable. This new program, however, will allow companies and local governments to use drones in ways that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently doesn't allow. That includes "beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights, nighttime operations, and flights over people," as White House advisor Michael Kratsios said today.
CNN gets the first FAA waiver to fly drones over crowds
The FAA finally passed a set of rules for commercial drone aviators back in August 2016, which included a formal restriction from flying over crowds of people. Given how valuable aerial footage from UAVs is, that's been a difficult regulation for news outlets to stomach. But today, the agency granted CNN the first waiver to these rules, allowing it to fly its drones over people.
Cue the CleverBot is a coding robot for older kids
Kids' robotics company Wonder Workshop is launching two new robots designed to introduce children to coding in a fun, hands-on way. First up is Cue, the slightly older sibling of the company's 2014 robot offering Dash (or at the very least it's Dash with a pre-teen makeover, as the bright primary colors have been replaced with a sleeker, cooler palette, a bit more fitting for its 11+ audience). Cue comes with a new AI engine that lets code-curious kids actively engage with the robot (and its four different avatars) via a text-based chat function that includes a vocabulary of more than 170,000 words. Via Cue's companion app -- available on iOS, Android and Kindle -- kids can use a simple block program or JavaScript text mode to take the reins in a freestyle coding environment, playing with all kinds of cool features such as proximity sensors, encoders, a gyro, an accelerometer and a microphone. And in November, Cue will support Apple's Swift programming language through a new Swift Playgrounds Playbook.
US DOT outlines safe transition to self-driving cars
US legislation for self-driving cars first made its way to the House of Representatives this past July. The bipartisan SELF DRIVE Act passed the House vote on September the 6th, and will now need to go through the Senate. Odds are that we'll see autonomous cars on the road sooner rather than later, thanks to this bill and new voluntary guidance The US Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The governmental agencies released new guidelines on Tuesday that provide federal guidance for automated driving systems to both individual states and businesses.
Alexa will recommend third-party skills for things it can’t do
When Amazon's Alexa doesn't know how the answer to a question, the digital assistant typically just says so. Now, though, instead of "Hmmmm. I don't know that," Alexa may start to recommend third-party skills to help you out more effectively. In a video shot by Voicebot's Bret Kinsella, you can clearly hear Alexa recommending a non-Amazon skill to answer his question about Apple stock prices. According to Kinsella, after Alexa asked if he wanted to use a skill to answer his stock query, it went straight to a genera listing of prices instead of addressing the specific question he originally asked.
Amazon reportedly plans to add multiroom audio to Echo speakers
The ideal audio system in your home would allow you to hear whatever you're listening to as you move from room to room. These days, you don't even need an expensive multi-speaker setup. Google Home already has this capability, as does Chromecast and various Google Cast speakers. Now, according to a report on the German tech site Cashys Blog, Amazon is working on a way to send multiroom audio to its Echo devices.
Amazon's Echo Show displays your smart camera's live video feed
Amazon's Echo Show is getting another new trick, err, skill. Now the gizmo will link with the cameras on your home network and display their respective feeds when you say something like, "Alexa, show the front door." A press release notes that this will work with cameras from Amcrest, Arlo, August, EZViz, IC Realtime, Ring, Nest and Vivint. And if you don't have a Show, saying the command phrase will soon give you an audio feed on your Dot or Echo. Better yet, Amazon has released the camera control API into the wild so developers can start cracking on even more implementations for it.
This paper rolls up into an adjustable flashlight
The latest capsule collection from Design of Things (courtesy of design firm Nendo and Softbank) is just as fascinating as its 3D-printed, prune-able Bonsai trees announced last year. The Paper Torch is equal parts designs, patterns and heritage of Takeo paper (est. 1899), and electronics know-how from a startup that specializes in flat components and printed circuits (est. 2014). The results might be... illuminating. If only I could see it working in person...
Amazon Echo Dot review (2016): Forget the Echo. Buy this instead.
The robot assistants we were promised as children are finally ready for the home. Well, sort of. Instead of walking, talking humanoid automatons like Rosie from The Jetsons and Robby the Robot from Lost in Space, our well-spoken helpers are housed in plastic and sit on tables. They answer our questions, control our homes and sometimes tell us a story. The most ubiquitous assistant so far has been Alexa, an Amazon-powered attendant that has made the jump from a $180 tower to the $50 Dot, which isn't much bigger than a hockey puck. That sort of drop in size usually results in a loss of features. In this case, you're going to want to go tiny.
