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Recommended Reading: Olivia Munn on why we're all nerds now
Putting on Her Game Face Connie Guglielmo, CNET Olivia Munn plays Psylocke in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse movie and CNET caught up with the actress to chat gaming, smart home tech and more. Munn says that there's no reason to continue to call folks geeks or nerds now that tech is everywhere. She also has a solid solution for how to remedy traffic jams.
Baidu will soon test its self-driving cars in the US
Chinese tech giant Baidu is planning to make self-driving cars a commercially viable option by 2018. To take another step in that direction, the company will test its autonomous vehicles on roads in the US. The plan to bring those cars stateside was announced by Baidu's chief scientist Andrew Ng this week, inviting better cooperation with the United States government and the ability leverage resources from its Silicon Valley tech center. That office, which is lead by Ng, is staffed with a number of employees tasked with the development of self-driving tech.
6 of the world's wildest self-driving cars
By Cat DiStasio Last week, US officials said that the computer in Google's self-driving car can legally be considered the "driver" -- a decision that could serve as a stepping-stone to making driverless cars legal on American roadways. Companies like Google and Ford are busy testing self-driving car technology, and Tesla's Model S already has some autopilot features to assist drivers. But just how far will automakers take autonomous technology? Read on for six of the world's wildest self-driving vehicles, from a car that moves like a crab to a vehicle with a built-in bed.
Google ramps up recruiting for its self-driving car project
How do you know what a company is planning to achieve a year or two down the road? Look at who they're hiring right now. It was that idea that led The Guardian to Google's recruitment website and spot that the search engine needs engineers for its self-driving car project. Not just any engineers, either, but ones with practical, real-world expertise in the sort of fields you'd need to mass-produce a vehicle. The firm has always denied that it'd make the vehicles itself and will instead partner with an established auto maker. But, the fact that it's now looking to get people with this sort of experience suggests that the day is coming.
US regulators: Google's self-driving car AI 'can be a driver'
US regulators say Google's self-driving car can be considered the driver under federal law -- a big step towards approval for self-driving cars to take to the roads. Safety regulators apparently told Google of its decision last week. Google submitted a proposed design for a self-driving car back in November, which has "no need for a human driver" The response from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was that will "interpret driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the [self-driving system] and not to any of the vehicle occupants."
The UK wants Google to test its self-driving cars in London
Google's self-driving cars have already racked up more than a million miles, however all of them have taken place in the US. What about other parts of the world, such as those where people drive on the left? According to Sky News, some London officials have been trying to persuade the company to test in Britain for precisely these purposes. The last meeting took place "a few weeks ago," according to Isabel Dedring, London's deputy mayor for transport, following "at least half a dozen" talks over the last three years. Clearly, they haven't been able to work something out.
Google is exploring wireless charging for self-driving cars
Self-driving cars are poised to be an incredible tool of the future, but they won't be much use if they can't hold a charge. It looks like Google wants to solve this problem via resonant magnetic induction, a form of wireless charging that could use manhole-style transmitters embedded in pavement to juice up driverless vehicles, IEEE Spectrum reports.
UK to test self-driving cars on 41 mile 'connected corridor'
The UK government has dipped into the public purse once again to help finance a handful of autonomous car projects. One of the more interesting proposals is a 41 mile "connected corridor" that will test a number of self-driving car technologies. Specifically, engineers want to look at different connection types -- LTE, local WiFi hotspots, LTE-V and DSRC -- that could be built into cars and roadside infrastructure such as traffic lights and overhead gantries. The idea is to continuously feed information between traffic agencies, drivers and autonomous vehicles, so that they can all take the safest and smartest course of action on the road. So if a lane is closed or a truck breaks suddenly, everyone is alerted and knows how to react. The project has a range of contributors, including Jaguar Land Rover, Huawei and Vodafone. The consortium also includes Coventry City Council, Coventry University and the University of Warwick, which makes sense given this is where the "living laboratory" will be based. Jaguar Land Rover says the experiments, if successful, should make travelling safer and smoother for passengers. When a car wants to change lanes or exit the motorway, for instance, it'll be safer if every vehicle knows their intended route in advance. Similarly, "platooning" can maintain equal spacing between cars, ensuring safety and maximum fuel efficiency. When an accident occurs up ahead, that information could also be communicated to every vehicleIt'll test information-sharing between autonomous cars and regular drivers. on the road, including those controlled by human drivers using a mixture of visual and audio-based alerts. Dr Wolfgang Epple, director of research and technology at Jaguar Land Rover said: "The approach of an emergency vehicle can often be stressful for drivers. If we can inform the driver, or the autonomous car, much earlier that an emergency vehicle is approaching, we can ensure that the best decisions are made to move the vehicle out of the way safely and conveniently, to let the emergency vehicle pass by." Like most of the UK's autonomous car projects, this will be an early look at how the technology can be rolled out safely. If and when the government decides to properly legislate self-driving vehicles, it'll be case studies like this one that inform its decisions and the sort of systems that manufacturers need to adopt. An important foundation, not just for road safety but reassuring the public that it's ready for prime time.
Driverless pods to hit the streets of Greenwich
As you stroll past the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and that place where Thor fought in The Dark World, you'll soon see driverless pods gliding next to you. That's the plan, anyway. The GATEway project, which has already been experimenting with a self-driving shuttle around the O2, will soon be taking some unusual vehicles onto south London's streets. They'll be repurposed Ultra Pods -- electric four-wheelers that already operate at Heathrow Airport. Until now they've been locked to tracks, but project organiser TRL wants to upgrade them so they can navigate Greenwich independently. Furthermore, the new trial will be used to record exactly how the public reacts to self-driving vehicles.
Helicopter and six-wheeler make a mean, crewless recon team
Why send humans into dangerous territory when you can send unmanned helicopters and six-wheelers instead? In an impressive mashup of autonomous transportation, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky have shown the two vehicles working together without on-board operators. During the demonstration, a modified Black Hawk helicopter picks up a chunky Land Tamer with a large cage, before flying 12 miles and releasing it at a designated drop-zone. The ground vehicle then navigates the leafy terrain for six miles, with a remote driver occasionally chipping in to explore particularly hazardous sites.
Google's self-driving car facility has amazing street names
At Google's self-driving car testing grounds, the streets have some pretty awesome names. Thanks to a map in a behind-the-scenes look from Steven Levy, we know Mountain View is having a blast while developing the cars of the future. The facility is known as Castle -- it's on the former Castle Air Force Base, after all -- and the roads bear the monikers of several famous cars and drivers. From Toretto Way to McQueen Lane and McFly Way, it's clear the company has an affinity for automotive film and television.
Google wants automakers to help its self-driving car project
Google's self-driving cars are getting smarter and safer, but the company still wants some help from traditional automakers. Speaking at the Automotive News World Congress, John Krafcik, the head of Google's autonomous car project and a former Hyundai CEO, said: "We are going to need a lot of help, and In the next stages of our project, we're going to be partnering more and more for sure." In a room rammed with car executives, he later added: "We hope to work with many of you guys."
BlackBerry is building software to help power self-driving cars
It's been a long time since BlackBerry was just a phone maker, a fact that was made more apparent than ever at the company's cozy CES press conference. To wit: The company just pulled back the curtain on a QNX-based software platform meant to help self-driving cars stay safe and on the road. No, seriously! While car makers often use QNX to power their in-car entertainment systems, BlackBerry's new platform should make it easier for them to collect and interpret environmental data to feed into their cars' driver assistance systems.
Volvo is making a media streaming system for autonomous cars
We've all thought the exact same thing: when self-driving cars hit the mainstream, I'll be able to catch up on Game of Thrones during my commute. In reality, however, lawmakers are preparing to make sure your full attention is on the road even when you're not driving. Still, it's a good dream -- and Volvo and Ericsson are working on a streaming platform designed specifically for autonomous vehicles.
Recommended Reading: Don't try to shop on Facebook or Twitter
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read.I Tried Holiday Shopping on Facebook and Twitter and Got NowhereKurt Wagner, RecodeFacebook and Twitter may be testing options for buying products from ads and sponsored posts, but don't try to take care of your holiday list that way. As Recode's Kurt Wagner discovered, those buy buttons are pretty much non-existent unless you're in the test group. In fact, he didn't even stumble across a misplaced option to purchase in the News Feed.
Mitsubishi's using AI to save distracted drivers from themselves
There's no doubt that self-driving vehicles will play a huge part in our automotive future, but until they do, ensuring that human drivers stay safe on the road remains the top priority for car companies. Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Electric, one of the Mitsubishi Group's many subsidiaries, reckons more can be done to keep a driver's focus on the road, so it's developed a new technology that can detect when someone is distracted or feeling tired.
Uber starts rolling out its own mapmaking cars
This past June, Uber struck a deal with Microsoft to acquire some of Bing's mapping tech and staff. But back then neither company was willing to disclose specific details about the agreement, with both only going as far as acknowledging it had actually happened. Now, BuzzFeed News reports that the ridesharing service has started deploying its own mapping vehicles, which are said to be the same ones Microsoft previously owned and used in its efforts to capture street data. Uber's rebranded cars (pictured above) are similar to Google's StreetView fleet, featuring a 3D spherical camera capable of snapping locations around it. An Uber spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the company's hoping the image-capturing tech will help it improve in key areas for drivers and passengers, including better route information and more accurate estimated time of arrivals.
The DMV is publishing self-driving car accident reports
The California DMV has released the reports for a full year's worth of self-driving car accidents. From the accounts in the paperwork none of the eight accidents involving Google's cars can be blamed on autonomous technology. In fact, six out of eight of the accidents were drivers rear-ending one of the company's retrofitted Lexus RX450h SUVs, half of those while the robotic vehicle was stationary. It's worth noting that all the accounts come from Google, which is required by law to file documents within ten days of a collision.
Self-driving taxis will begin trials in Japan next year
Self-driving cars are a few years away from becoming a thing, right? Not in Japan, where the company Robot Taxi has announced that it'll start testing robotic taxis in 2016. A report by the Wall Street Journal reveals that the firm will begin by offering autonomous rides to 50 people in Kanagawa prefecture, just outside Tokyo. The limited trial will ferry the participants from their homes to local stores and back again, all the while with a human operator in the driving seat -- just to make sure that nothing goes wrong.
Apple talks to California DMV about self-driving cars
According to a new report from The Guardian, Apple recently discussed self-driving cars with the California Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The report says that Cupertino's senior legal counsel Mike Maletic met with the DMV's self-driving car experts and other officials for an hour last month. Back in August, The Guardian also discovered that Apple was looking into a test site for so-called Project Titan, the company's rumored automotive project, at a former military base near San Francisco. As you might expect, Apple isn't commenting further and the DMV only spilled that the focus of the meeting was to go over the state's self-driving vehicle regulations. Details are still scarce on the project as a whole, but we do know that Apple recruited automotive talent to come work for the company a while back. And as The Guardian points out, it'll have to disclose a lot more if it wants to secure a permit for testing. [Image credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images]
