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Comma.ai's driver assist system is a robot chauffeur for the rest of us
Autonomous vehicle technology is just starting to go mainstream, which means, for the most part, it's still only available to those who can afford a Tesla with Autopilot or a Cadillac with SuperCruise. Both of those cars start at around 60 to 70 grand by the way. So where's the digital chauffeur for the rest of us? Enter Comma.ai.
Comma AI’s dash cams are a stepping-stone to autonomous driving
I'm never sure what to expect when I walk up the steps of Comma AI's office (which is actually a house in a San Francisco neighborhood). Its founder and all-around rabble-rouser George Hotz (the iPhone and Playstation hacker more commonly known as Geohot) has strong opinions about the automotive industry and how he can fix it. The company's "ghost riding for the masses" tagline won't win over regulators, but Comma AI's long-term goal of running your car's operating system seems doable. But first, the company is concentrating on dash cams that tap into your car's data.
A car-tracking dongle could make self-driving systems better
George Hotz is intrigued by artificial intelligence. The man who hacked the iPhone and PlayStation 3 as a kid, has moved on to self driving cars with his company Comma AI because of the autonomous vehicle technology's reliance on machine learning. After an initial hiccup that involved the company cancelling a device that would make cars semi-autonomous (because of a run in with regulators), Comma AI is back The new $88 Panda OBD II dongle, like most universal car interfaces, plugs into your car (1996 or newer) and gathers data.
Amazon will let Italians buy Fiat cars with a click
Amazon has made it easier to research cars online, but actually purchasing a car? That's another story. Even a recent deal with Seat in France limited customers to making a downpayment on the web -- they still had to agree to a phone interview to clinch the sale. However, the dream of one-click vehicle shopping just came a bit closer to reality. Amazon is partnering with Fiat to let Italian motorists buy the 500, 500L and Panda on the web at discounts up to 33 percent greater than seen at retail. They'll still have to visit a dealership to complete the purchase, but this is about as direct as it gets if you're not ordering a Tesla.
Panda's antivirus software accidentally tried to eat itself
It wasn't just Apple that had a day to forget yesterday -- Spanish antivirus outfit Panda Security managed to give its products the digital equivalent of lupus. An update to the company's various tools caused the software to think that parts of its own technology was a nefarious attacker. According to users on Reddit, Panda also (incorrectly) put Office, Chrome, Firefox and even Windows Updates on the hit list, wreaking havoc with people's computers.
Mists of Pandaria gets in on the Cyber Monday action
Sure, you could be blowing all your cash on any number of delectable offerings on Steam's ridiculously tempting Autumn Sale, but why would you want to do that when there's a whole world of pandas waiting to be explored? That's right: Pandas. Ain't a game yet made that can compete with pandas, and you know it. Blizzard is offering Mists of Pandaria at a 50% discount in honor of Cyber Monday. Not wanting the rest of the weekdays to feel left out, however, Blizzard is making this deal available until 2:59 a.m. EST on Friday the 30th.
Class guides and resources for Mists of Pandaria
In the interest of providing a fast, easy-to-use resource for every class, we've gathered up our favorite guides, best lists, and most relevant posts into a convenient list. Check back often, because we'll keep these resources up to date throughout the last days of the Cataclysm and deep into the Mists of Pandaria. Check back as we add more guides, more resources, and the best links. If your favorite is missing, we'll be adding it soon. Death knight Glyphs round-up (and more!) PvE frost knights in Mists of Pandaria PvE blood death knights Unholy death knights by Icy Veins Druid Cat and moonkin talent walk-through Cat and moonkin talent walk-through, part 2 Guardian druid enchants, mods, gems, and buff items Restoration druid enchants, mods, gems, and buff items Resto druids by Icy Veins Patch 5.0.4 for balance and feral druids Patch 5.0.4 for guardian and restoration druids Video guide for PvP Boomkin and more (warning: language)
Weekly news recap featuring Niko
Niko returns this week with WoW Insider's news recap, where we look back at the hottest news of the past week. This week's topics include: New Mists of Pandaria Battlegrounds: Silvershard Mine Encrypted Text: Lifestyle of the Pandaria rogue A closer look at the hunter rare tames in Mists of Pandaria Become a Guardian of Hyjal with transmogrification Breakfast Topic: How will you level through Mists of Pandaria? If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe to Niko on YouTube (or follow him on Twitter) and come back next week for the next episode!
Why spells should work the same in PvE and PvP
This ugly subject inevitably comes up: "I do bad damage in PvP, but they can't buff me because of my high PvE damage." Spend enough time around MMOs, and you'll hear that line with nearly the same regularity that the cock crows each morning. That statement leads to this one: "Spells should work differently in PvP and PvE. They're two different games!" They're not, they shouldn't, and please, no. Ghostcrawler himself just hit the forums to point out a few good, solid, technical reasons. To sum up his excellent explanation, Blizzard can't just duplicate all the spells and make them work different in PvP and PvE because that multiplies the level of complexity in the programming. The more complexity you add to the system, the more likely you are to see bugs and exploits sneak into the game. Not to mention, on the other side of the fence, the PvP dynamic itself is so complex that you can't just assume "low damage" is a function of the game itself. It can easily be due to the metagame, not to mention each player's performance. Ghostcrawler's logic seems to be a slam dunk, but I've had the misfortune of playing in a few games that did use different rule sets for PvP and PvE. It's a nightmare. City of Heroes was so clumsy in its divisive handling that I still wake up at night screaming, "That was my power move!" WoW isn't an either/or game. You don't tend to completely eschew PvE when you're playing PvP, no matter how much we wish you could. Dailies, raids, and other circumstances force you into the world. Even dedicated PvE players jump into the BGs occasionally. Separating the rules between the playing arenas creates yet another barrier to playing the entire World of Warcraft. Not to mention, if those different rules are different enough, it ends up feeling like you're running two different characters. Is that really the game we want? It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Pandaren starting zone walk-through, part 2
In our narrative walk-through of the pandaren starting zone, we chose to play a pandaren monk because that's kind of a huge point of the expansion. You will see mild differences if you play a non-monk. Other classes begin in Shang Xi's Training Ground, so it's not entirely a separate experience. When we last left our hero, Graey the pandaren monk had begun his journey to find Aysa Cloudsinger. Finding Aysa of the Tushui doesn't take much work, but it definitely counts as your first "Run, Panda!" quest. Turn back around the path and follow your minimap to the big, glowing question mark. Congratulations on your first experience as an Azerothian creeper. It doesn't take quite a minute to reach Aysa. There's technically a path, but if you're anything like me, you veered off in a straight line to Xi's student. When you reach Fu's Pond, though, it turns out Aysa is too busy to talk to you. She's doing her exercises, according to Merchant Lorvo. Since Aysa's busy, Lorvo wants your help instead. He wants you to recover Items of Utmost Importance and rescue The Missing Driver. Let me translate that for you: He wants you to go kill stuff, loot the bodies, and talk to the driver. No problem, we can do that. We have finely honed hitting-stuff-with-stick techniques. The Amberleaf Scamps are closest, so we'll do that first.
Pandaria makes its appearance on the world map
MMO-Champion has revealed that the latest beta build, 15739, will finally put Pandaria on the map. The fog of 10,000 years has lifted, and the elusive continent's position has finally been established, at least to the satisfaction of Azeroth's cartographers. (That really must have been quite some fog.) Beta testers on Pandaria will no longer appear to be somewhere in the swirling midsts of the maelstrom, which will likely be a relief. While the zone map itself has been accessible to folks on Pandaria almost since the beta became active, its exact position relative to the other zones has not been established until now (although we've always known it'll be in the southern area of Azeroth). It's positioned opposite Northrend, occupying that conspicuously empty bit of the map. It looks, then, as if the continent might be accessible via ship rather than purely via portal, which would fit in well with Blizzard's ideas on increasing the time players spend in the world it's creating. It does make me wonder whether any future expansions will create more continents in this area apart from those four or whether any future zones will be on an Outland-esque plane on a different map. Sure, there's room for more land mass either side of Pandaria, but then where would the pictures of ships go? Or perhaps a new zone will emerge in the middle, to the horror of the navigators of Azeroth's fleet. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
What is Mists of Pandaria?
You can hardly load up a WoW site without getting barraged by panda news. That information seems obvious -- after all, we're all sitting around drooling for the new expansion. But if you're the kind of player who prefers staying spoiler-free, then the substantive news about Mists of Pandaria versus the minutiae can seem overwhelming. So let's kick back on our armchair in the clouds and take a good, high-level look at the new expansion. First things first. Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion to World of Warcraft. We've already had The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. This is the (very, very) basic story so far: In The Burning Crusade, the Horde and Alliance went off to Outland to bring down the machinations of a handful of elves and demons. While they were gone, though, the Lich King rose back up and attacked. Once the Lich King was defeated, a big, bad dragon woke up and wrecked shop on Azeroth. In Mists of Pandaria, the Horde and Alliance have dealt with external threats and are now turning their eyes to one another.
Mists of Pandaria login screen revealed
Our good friends over at Wowhead found a special treasure included in the latest beta patch. That treasure? Nothing short of the Mists login screen. Veteran players know the login screen design is critically important, since we'll be staring at that sucker for the next two years. These are still images, so we don't know what the final animations might look like, but these gorgeous screenshots look like a pleasant change from WoW's previous dragons-and-yelling motif on login screens. Take a look at a hypothetical final behind the cut, and let us know what you think in comments.
Dungeon Mastery: Shado-pan Monastery
Kun-Lai Summit is host to the Shado-pan Monastery. In Mists of Pandaria, you'll undoubtedly get a chance to experience and help rid the instance of Sha influence. Megan and I decided to check the place out and see what the deal is. We teamed up before when she carried me kindly tanked for me in the Stormstout Brewery. Like last time, I healed on my holy priest, Megan tanked on her druid, and we were accompanied with two hunters and an enhancement shaman. Your group needs to be at minimum level 87 in order to queue. The video above is a little under 50 minutes long. We would've been able to move quicker if I hadn't been in combat all the time. Yeesh. Even the Matticus needs a drink from time to time. Gu Cloudstrike Cloudstrike is the first boss your group will challenge. You'll run into Cloudstrike outside on a plateau just as you leave the first chamber. It's a three-phase encounter involving Cloudstrike and a flying serpent.
WoW Moviewatch: Pandarendansen v2
So, we presented the first version of this seizure-inducing insanity without comment. But you weren't satisfied. Half of you were like, "You're missing dance moves." The other half were like, "Oh, sweet hairy panda, we need more." Machinima master Nananaea heard your cries, but unlike vaguely splotched superheroes from the past, she did not whisper no. She whispered yes, and she went to the huge effort of creating further animation and putting out this video. I can't stop watching it. It's hypnotizing. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft
Video games these days have a shorter shelf life than ever before. Titles fall out of the top ten within days or weeks (if they ever get there at all), there are awesome new releases arriving every month or so, and even the biggest games are on a yearly (if that) sequel schedule at this point. And yet World of Warcraft has remained a constant. Blizzard's MMO has held millions of players in sway for over half a decade, and those players have killed countless boars, cleared out endless quests, dungeons, and raids, and have vanquished not one but three world-threatening expansion bosses, in the forms of Illidan Stormrage, Arthas the Lich King, and Deathwing and his Cataclysm.So Blizzard is perhaps taking on its hardest task ever with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. There's no question in the halls of the (recently quieter) Blizzard campus in Irvine, California that the game is at a crossroads of sorts. Blizzard's formula for WoW expansions (define a baddie, and lead a player to gear and level up to the final fight) has worked so far, but it's almost as if the company realizes that the old tricks are getting old.Blizzard needs, then, to take World of Warcraft, one of history's most-played, most-traversed, and most-conquered games, and make it feel new. "This is definitely different fare from any expansion we've tried so far," VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen said in a presentation to assembled press. He then talked about the game on a much longer scale than a few weeks, a few months, or even a Call of Duty-length year. "The big global threat that's coming, to define the next couple years of WoW's gameplay, is really war itself."%Gallery-150969%
The Perfect Ten: Most significant MMO stories of 2011
2011 was an odd duck of a year for MMO news. A huge chunk of the year felt devoid of significant releases, but that was mitigated somewhat by the major launches of RIFT and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Titles got shoved back to 2012 or beyond, MMOs that we thought never would go free-to-play did, and the industry continually surprised us with revelations, ideas, and controversy. So in my last Perfect Ten of 2011, I put together the 10 most significant MMO stories of the year. Ten seems like an awfully small number for such a great big field, so I had the rest of the staff members chime in with their nominations just to make sure I wasn't too off-base with any of these. It was a whopper of a year, and Massively was there for all of it -- the ups, the downs, the queues, and the QQs. It's time to wrap it up with a pretty bow and dedicate it to the history museum!
The Queue: BlizzCon was really fun
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today. Here is an except from my third grade BlizzCon book report: I had a really great time at BlizzCon this year. I saw Mike Sacco and Alex Ziebart and Daniel Whitcomb and Fox Van Allen and Adam Holisky and Dawn Moore and Chase Christian and Matt Low and Joe Perez and Dan O'Halloran and Kelly Aarons and Lisa Poisso and other people too. I would recommend BlizzCon to all of the other kids in my class. The end. Didax asked: Can a Horde Pandaren talk to an Alliance Pandaren by using the Pandaren language? Or at level 10 are they going to suddenly suffer a case of explosive amnesia, forgetting their native tongue? No. Pandaren of each faction cannot talk to each other. Blizzard has said numerous times that it does not want the factions conversing in game with each other. It is purely a gameplay decision.
Eligium launches website and reveals... panda monks. Really.
Oh Blizzard, did you think you were the only company looking at kung-fu pandas for inspiration? Sorry to tell you, but panda fever is sweeping the globe, and Frogster's upcoming Eligium is going to cash in on that craze like nobody's business. Today Eligium launched its official website, replete with a beta signup form, videos, screenshots, and forums. On top of that, Frogster announced two of the fantasy free-to-play MMO's races: Pandas and Elves. The Pandas are described as "masters of the martial arts" as they harness their chi to unleash it on their enemies. At level 15, Panda players can choose between two skill specializations, including Fire Breather. The Elves, on the other hand, fit more into standard fantasy tropes, being experts at archery and trees. The race will eventually segregate into either a defensive or long-range attack skillset. You can take a gander at Eligium's goodies and sign up for the closed beta over on the official site. [Source: Frogster press release]
Gold Capped: Four gold making addons for beginners
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the auction house. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him or tweeting him at @foxvanallen. The more information you have at your fingertips, the easier it will be to make money. It's a simple truth, and it explains a lot of why newbies to the Auction House game struggle so much. The heavyweights have the information, and you don't. Part of the problem is the standard Blizzard UI. The money making game would be so much easier if Blizzard simply gave players more information -- information that's readily available elsewhere. "How many stacks of this are listed at this price?" "What will this piece of armor disenchant into?" "Where the hell do I go to find Whiptail?" Those who have more experience than you will always have an inherent advantage. But it's an advantage that even the newest of players can mitigate through the use of addons. Today, I'm going to talk about four simple gold making addons for beginners that do some really powerful things to put newer players on a slightly more equal playing field.
