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Uber's Southeast Asia merger delayed pending reviews
Uber is normally glad when its service keeps running in a given country, but not this time around. The Philippines has ordered Uber to keep its local service active while antitrust investigators review the merger with Grab's Southeast Asia business. The ridesharing outfit had already agreed to delay its shutdown in Singapore, regulators said, so it would be feasible to ask for a similar move in the Philippines.
Singapore's driverless buses to serve three towns by 2022
While driverless buses are making cameos in Las Vegas and Michigan, they're set to become a more common sight in Singapore in the near future. Following initial trials of an autonomous shuttle (fit for 80 passengers), the country plans to bring a mixture of the larger buses and smaller mini-vans to three new neighborhoods by 2022.
Smellable VR is coming whether you want it or not
Modern virtual reality is a treat for the senses. Well, two of them at least. "Sight and sound have been the staple of VR environments," Benjy Li, a postdoctoral researcher with Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, told Engadget. Haptic feedback is starting to allow for basic touch, but the next radical evolution in VR could actually come via your nose (and/or mouth).
Singapore bans additional cars to keep traffic from getting worse
Starting next February, residents of of Singapore won't be able to drive additional cars in the small city-state. It's introducing the ban as a line in the sand to keep the island from being overrun with vehicles and clogging traffic, especially as it's spending billions of dollars on public transit projects.
Uber leased recalled cars to drivers in Singapore (updated)
Uber's troubles just keep on coming. A new report in The Wall Street Journal today says that the ride-sharing company knowingly leased recalled Honda Vezel sport-utility vehicles to Uber drivers. According to the Journal, Uber managers in the region were aware of the recall, but still bought and leased more than 1,000 of the Vezels to drivers in Singapore. This past January, says the report, one of the leased Vezels caught fire, melted the interior and cracked a football-sized hole in the windshield, all due to the same recalled electrical part.
Singapore's RoboCop car has its own intruder-chasing drone
If RoboCop has a gun in his thigh, this robotic security car from Singapore has a drone that it can send after intruders. Singaporean startup Otsaw Digital has created a 176-pound golf-cart-sized automated vehicle called O-R3 that companies can use for security. It has 3D LIDAR sensors and GPS, along with other instruments that it uses to spot unattended bags and to differentiate between employees and intruders. If it spots a bag that remains unattended for five minutes, for instance, it raises an alarm and marks it for further investigation in case it's something dangerous.
Peugeot is ready to get its self-driving cars on the road
Like nearly all of the other major car makers, Peugeot believes the next generation of cars will be autonomous. We've already seen the Instinct Concept -- which imagines a future where vehicles blend self-driving tech, home automation and cloud connectivity to deliver the best riding experience -- but to get there, the company needs to do the hard miles. Thanks to a partnership with MIT spin-off nuTonomy, the French carmaker has begun doing just that with the launch of a new self-driving pilot in Singapore.
Uber puts mapping cars on five continents
Uber just showed how committed it is to mapping the planet. The ridesharing outfit has started rolling out map cars in Singapore, putting the vehicles on five major continents (sorry, Antarctica, you'll have to wait). As in other cases, the cartographic cars are really driver rides with mapping tech on top to collect data based on real trips. Privacy shouldn't be an issue, Uber says -- they won't keep imagery from the end points of your trip, and what data they do collect won't be made public.
MIT and Segway's robo-hackathon focuses on eldercare
Robots have become smarter and more useful over the last year alone, and Segway Robotics is turning to developers for ideas on more meaningful applications for its Loomo bot. For three days starting February 10th, the company is co-hosting the MIT Hacking Medicine Robotics hackathon in Singapore to create eldercare-based uses for Loomo. 75 teams, each consisting of three developers, a healthcare professional and a business manager, will work on ways to use Loomo to address elderly and medical care challenges in Singapore, where the population is rapidly aging. The winning teams' creations will be tested in Singapore, and successful applications will be rolled out globally.
Singapore hosts first full-scale autonomous truck platoon trial
A fleet of autonomous trucks is joining all the self-driving taxis and buses Singapore is testing on its streets. Toyota and Volkswagen subsidiary Scania will begin the first full-scale autonomous truck platooning trial in the country this month. For the next three years, the two companies will operate a fleet of trucks composed of three autonomous vehicles following a manned one to transport cargo between ports. Singapore's authorities organized the project, because aside from its desire to become the world's first smart city, it's also seeking to optimize road capacity. It's a relatively tiny city-state, after all, and the number of vehicles on its roads keep on growing along with its population.
How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech
The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It didn't. It was supposed to open repressed citizens' eyes, expose them to new democratic ideals and help them rise up against their authoritarian governments in declaring their basic human rights. It hasn't. It was supposed to be inherently resistant to centralized control. It isn't.
Stop pretending to be in Singapore on Instagram
If you were looking to juice your Instagram metrics, then changing your (digital) location as Singapore was a nifty shortcut. According to the Telegraph, the photo-sharing network's algorithm was more likely to put you on the Explore page if you were in the country. Unfortunately, the Facebook-owned company has now spotted the problem and squashed it, so you'll have to stop trying to pretend your bathroom selfies were taken on the island.
Singapore is striving to be the world's first 'smart city'
There are few places better positioned to become a "smart city" than Singapore. That's an easy statement to justify. Singapore is an island city-state just 30 miles across that has been governed by the same party for decades. Putting the implied democratic flaws to one side, the geography and political stability of Singapore have aided the city in preparing for the future. Two years ago, those preparations got a name: "Smart Nation," an ambitious program to push the city, its residents and its government into the digital age. Or perhaps, even further. A fiber network already stretches the length and breadth of the island, bringing high-speed internet access to every home and office; there are already three mobile devices for every two of its citizens. This is about the next step. The Smart Nation initiative looks to turn the island into a "living laboratory" -- a kind of playground for testing smart solutions to urban issues. Part of that plan is a network of sensors placed across the island that officials hope can solve the fundamental issues of Singapore's high-density living.
ICYMI: Treat all your wine right with a $1,500 fridge
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A wine fridge called Plum can scan your wine bottles, seals so they stay fresh and then calibrates the temperature inside for maximum deliciousness of pour for every glass. Downside? It's $1,500 so you could take a vacation to wine country instead. Meanwhile, Harvard scientists announced a 3D-printed heart on a chip that has integrated sensors, so it can be used to test medications, which should rapidly accelerate medical studies. The most detailed Milky Way Galaxy yet is here. The particle accelerator on a chip talk at the SLAC lab is here and the Singapore driverless bus news is here. For drones attempting a lightbulb change, go here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Singapore will trial a full-size autonomous bus
Singapore will trial a pair of driverless buses. No, not micro buses, nor "Ollis" -- full-sized buses, measuring 12 meters (40 feet) long. The vehicles will operate in the Jurong West region of Singapore, where the island's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is situated. The buses will ferry up to 80 people between NTU and the neighboring "eco-business" hub CleanTech Park -- around a one-mile journey. The team behind the trial is also considering servicing a nearby train station, which would extend the route to around a 5-mile round trip. The vehicles will charge at depots and at bus stops via charging masts.
Singapore's self-driving taxi service has its first accident
That didn't take long: One of Singapore's nuTonomy self-driving taxis has already been in an at-fault collision. Less than a month after the service launched, a slow-moving taxi hit a lorry (translation: a truck) while changing lanes, according to a Facebook post from Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA). Thankfully no one was injured in the accident, but that isn't stopping the LTA and local police from investigating the matter anyway.
Singapore wants a self-driving wheelchair by 2017
Singapore is pushing for businesses to develop an autonomous wheelchair that'll convey people around without instruction. The announcement came from Mark Lim, the official in charge of the country's digital services and commercial development division. According to GovInsider, the project is going to run until March 2017 and will harness computer vision, robotics and machine learning to ferry patients around hospitals. The report quotes Lim saying that "we have limited health care workers," and that "nurses are more precious in doing their work [...] than pushing them around in the wheelchair."
Delphi will test its self-driving taxi service in Singapore
Uber may be talking about it, but automotive technology parts supplier Delphi is doing it. Today the company announced a partnership with Singapore to start a pilot program for an on-demand autonomous taxi service.
UberEATS makes its way to Singapore
UberEATS exited NYC in April, so the company can "narrow its focus." Apparently, that includes testing the waters in Asia, because the 10-minute food delivery service is now available in Singapore. The country's residents can download the standalone UberEATS app from either iTunes or Google Play, but the service is only limited to 100 restaurants' menus and to Singapore's Central Area at this point. That region includes some of SG's busiest urban districts such as Orchard, a popular tourist destination where you'll find a slew of shopping malls.
uHoo edges out other air quality monitors with extra sensors
We've now gotten to the point where we can rely on pigeons for monitoring outdoor air quality, and there are plenty of conventional options for indoor as well. But there's always room for improvement, which is why we're looking at the uHoo. Impressively, this pint glass-sized device packs up to five air pollutant sensors, thus allowing it to measure the usual dust and volatile organic compounds, as well as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone -- these three can't be detected by most other monitors in the consumer market. On top of that, the uHoo can also keep an eye on the temperature, humidity and air pressure, which comes in handy as these contribute to our wellness, too. The live data is fed to your iOS or Android device via Wi-Fi, and the app will alert you when the air goes bad in one of the rooms.
