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This $90,000 fireproof tankbot will scout burning buildings for people to save
FireBot, a remote-controlled robot that can withstand temperatures as high as 650 degrees Celsius, is hoping to make scoping dangerous scenes safer for firefighters.
'Fortnite' gets soccer skins from major clubs and a Pelé emote
American football has been part of the Fortnite experience for years. On January 23rd, however the ludicrously-successful battle royale will be embracing club soccer, too. Here’s the full list of compatible teams: Manchester City, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Seattle Sounders FC, Atlanta United, Los Angeles FC, Santos FC, Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Ham United, Sevilla, Sporting CP, Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Schalke 04, VFL Wolfsburg, Rangers, Celtic, Cerezo Osaka, Melbourne City FC, Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers and EC Bahia.
A drive-through 'Stranger Things' experience in LA is coming in October
There’s an upcoming Stranger Things interactive experience in LA that seems to be tailor-made for the social-distancing era. Netflix has teamed up with event curator Fever and immersive event company Secret Cinema to launch a Drive-Into Stranger Things adventure based on the third season of the series. Participants don’t have to step out of the car at all — the hour-long experience will have them driving from one Hawkins set to another, including the Starcourt Mall, the Russian labs and, of course, the Upside Down.
Lawsuit forces The Weather Channel app to disclose location use
The app’s privacy policy states that TWC could share people’s data with partners and use it for targeted advertising.
Uber sues LA’s Dept. of Transportation for warrantless record requests
The data privacy battle between Uber's Jump scooter service and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation has been brewing over the last 18 months. After refusing to share real-time location data on its scooter riders, Uber was ordered by the LADOT to remove its scooters from the city. According to CNET, Uber is now suing the LADOT for allegedly violating the Fourth Amendment by seeking the company's business data without a warrant.
A virtual reality massage center will open in Los Angeles this week
Los Angeles residents will soon be able to float off into distant worlds while their aches are soothed in a virtual reality massage center, which opening this Friday, July 5th. At the outset, the Esqapes Immersive Relaxation Center, supposedly the first of its kind, will offer 10 different VR environments for you to try and relax in, including a sauna, a koi pond at an ocean-side resort and a ski cabin with a crackling fireplace.
Via ride-sharing connects LA passengers to three Metro stations
In an effort to entice residents to ride public transportation again, LA has launched a pilot program designed to shuttle residents to and from three of the busiest Metro stations in the city. LA's local government first announced its team-up with ride-sharing platform Via back in 2017. Now, the pilot is live and has started offering shared, on-demand rides to serve the Artesia, El Monte and North Hollywood stations.
Elon Musk's LA tunnel turns Teslas into a 'rail-guided train'
Tonight The Boring Company hosted a launch event for the test tunnel it successfully built in LA running from SpaceX's property to "O'Leary Station" at a reported cost of about $10 million. In tweets, he showed off a Model X equipped with gear that guides the car between elevators at each end of the tunnel, where it then simply drives right back onto the road. The rig itself is really just a set of wheels, and TechCrunch reports that Musk said during a media briefing that they will be available as an aftermarket add-on for $200 to $300.
Amazon's cashierless Go stores may come to an airport near you
Airport shopping is mostly about perfumes, booze and overpriced electronics, but that could soon change. Amazon has reportedly inquired about installing its cashierless Go stores at several US airports, according to Reuters. Emails from a public records request revealed that Amazon asked for meetings with managers at San Jose and Los Angeles international airports and received a positive response. "I am looking forward to moving forward with the Amazon Go technology at the airport," wrote one airport IT manager.
Elon Musk to offer free rides in his LA traffic-dodging tunnel
Elon Musk has posted a video of Boring Company's first nearly completed tunnel under Los Angeles, which heads towards LAX and has an extra entrance at the SpaceX Hawthorne HQ. The multi-company chief said the tunnel is almost done, pending regulatory approvals that will allow the Boring team to offer free rides to the public as soon as a few months from now. While people will eventually have to pay to ride Boring's electric pods, he said it will cost commuters even less than a bus ticket. If true, then the company's shuttles and tunnels could easily become the transportation method of choice.
SpaceX will build its massive interplanetary rocket in Los Angeles
SpaceX can start building its "Big Fucking Rocket," now that it has officially found a home in LA. Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced on Twitter that the private space giant "will start production development of the Big Falcon Rocket (the spacecraft's tamer name, apparently)" at the port of Los Angeles. SpaceX designed the 348-foot-long behemoth to fly humanity to the moon, Mars and beyond. It will be able to carry up to 50 tons in payload, whereas Falcon Heavy can only carry 30 tons. "This vehicle holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before," he added, along with an illustration of the company's massive interplanetary spacecraft.
Postmates promises 30-minute grocery deliveries in New York
Postmates isn't just for late-night take-out delivery anymore. The service just launched grocery delivery in Los Angeles, Manhattan and San Francisco. It's called Fresh. More than that, the firm completely overhauled its app to make ordering a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper or a loaf of bread (or basically anything else you forgot while at the grocery store) a lot easier. A post on Medium claims that it shouldn't take more than a half an hour for your goods to arrive -- supposedly a quarter of the time some of its competitors. It's about the same wait time for a Postmates booze drop-off. Amazon Fresh, on the other hand can take hours to make a delivery.
Overwatch League adds new teams from Rams, Cloud9 owners
Blizzard's official professional esports league for Overwatch continues to round into shape, and today announced two more franchises have been purchased. That puts the count at nine teams total, including the two announced today with one in Los Angeles established by Stan and Josh Kroenke (a family that already holds ownership stakes in the LA Rams, Arsenal Football Club, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche). The other goes to Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne, whose company already operates ten esports teams, including one for Overwatch.
Elon Musk's first tunnel should be up and running next week
Elon Musk recently announced that his tunnel-digging operation, The Boring Company, is done carving out its first segment. He bundled the announcement with a declaration of love for tunnels -- which he totally loves more than floors, by the way -- but didn't talk about the first tunnel portion's location. Musk's latest tweets, however, are rife with clues about its location, and by the looks of things, The Boring Company's Godot machine has begun digging right across from the SpaceX building in Hawthorne, LA County.
Elon Musk says Los Angeles is open to using his traffic tunnels
Elon Musk might just have the first customer for his traffic-skipping tunnels. The tech entrepreneur says he's having "promising conversations" with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti about using The Boring Company's technology as part of a larger underground network that would shuttle cars, bikes and people. It's not clear exactly how well the talks are going, but Garcetti is clearly open to the idea -- he even name dropped Musk's effort during an ABC interview.
LA fights soaring pedestrian deaths with an interactive map
Open data can be an incredibly powerful tool, but it still requires context and people to actually pay attention to the information for it to be valuable. Los Angeles has discovered this the hard way. Its Vision Zero initiative aims to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, but compared to other cities with similar programs, LA is coming up short in terms of results. After the program's first full year (2016), fatalities rose by some 43 percent according to the Los Angeles Times. There are a number of reasons for this, including more pedestrian and bicycle traffic, distracted driving and driving under the influence. To combat the rising number, the city looked to data as a means of discerning the most fatal roadways.
GM's Maven lets you rent cars for up to 28 days
Maven is General Motors' Zipcar-style vehicle rental service, letting you pay an hourly rate to temporarily borrow a ride. But the company is now targeting folks who want to get around for longer periods at a time with Maven Reserve. The offering enables people to reserve a car for up to 28 days at a time, including a dedicated parking space, insurance and $100 of gas in the tank. In addition, users will apparently receive a "personalized walk-through of the vehicle," as they take delivery of their fancy-schmancy rental car.
GM's car sharing service offers more EVs by teaming with cities
The city of Los Angeles is no stranger to embracing EVs and now its teaming up with GM's car-sharing service to make those vehicles more readily available. Maven announced today that it's partnering with cities to expand sustainable driving options and the initiative is kicking off in LA. Once the project fully up to speed, over 100 Chevy Bolt EVs will be available in the city.
Apple ordered to pay $4.2 million for botched iPad program in LA
The LA Unified School District (LAUSD) will receive a settlement worth $4.2 million from Apple for the ill-fated program that aimed to put an iPad in the hands of 640,000 students in the city. Cupertino was supposed to earn $30 million from the $1.3 billion project, but it was apparently riddled with issues from the beginning. It didn't take long for the initiative to crumble, and LAUSD -- accused of mismanagement, miscalculation and corruption among other things -- is now under FBI investigation for the bidding process that spawned the contract.
The Big Picture: Los Angeles' light pollution, as seen from space
What you see above is a stunning image of California (and surrounding areas), captured from space by astronaut Scott Kelly. But what quickly stands out is Los Angeles, with its bright lights shining through and morphing into one massive, glowing spot. As Quartz points out, this shows the city's massive light pollution problem -- which, in the past, has been subject to countless research pieces and even a Kickstarter book/video series. City of Angels? More like City of Lights.
