The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has granted Waymo and Cruise permission to start operating commercial robotaxi services as long as there's a safety driver in the car. The companies can now pick up passengers and charge for rides. They can also offer shared rides.
Under the Drivered Deployment permits, GM-owned Cruise can operate robotaxi services on certain roads in San Francisco between 10PM and 6AM with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour. Alphabet's Waymo, on the other hand, can run a robotaxi service around the clock in certain areas of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. Its automated vehicles can travel at up to 65 miles per hour. However, neither company's service can operate in heavy rain or fog.
Waymo says hundreds of riders have used a free version of the service since it started a trial program in August, while tens of thousands are on the waitlist. It plans to start offering paid trips in the coming weeks. The company says it will take what it learned from running its first commercial self-driving car service in Arizona to bolster its San Francisco operations. Engadget has asked Cruise for details about its rollout of commercial services in California.
Both companies have beentesting driverless rides in San Francisco, but they can't offer commercial services without safety drivers in California just yet.
Stellantis isn't just leaning on a Chrysler concept to define its EV future. As part of a new "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan, the automaker has unveiled the first all-electric Jeep SUV. The company didn't provide specifications or even a name, but the Jeep EV launches in early 2023 and appears to be relatively compact like the Compass. Autoblognotes Jeep might be using the STLA Small platform that supports up to an 82kWh battery and 300 miles of range.
More is coming in 2024. You'll find a more off-road oriented model and a "lifestyle family" SUV in 2024. Jeep won't be alone, either, as Ram will release an electric ProMaster van in 2023 and 1500 pickup truck (shown at middle) the following year.
Stellantis
The cautious rollout leaves Stellantis behind Ford, GM and other incumbent brands that already have multiple EVs either on the road or coming this year. That's not including electric-only badges like Tesla or Rivian. To date, the company has focused on either converted cars like the Fiat 500e or its 4xe plug-in hybrids.
The new machines and Stellantis' new plan might help with that, though. Under Dare Forward, the brand hopes to sell five million EVs in 2030. That's enough to completely replace its European passenger car sales, and half of all passenger cars and trucks in the US. There will be over 25 EVs aimed at American buyers. It's just a matter of whether or not the brand can make up for lost time, particularly with rivals like GM already planning to eliminate combustion passenger vehicle sales.
Facebook is taking new steps to curb the influence of Russian state media outlets on its platform. The company, which has already blocked access to RT and Sputnik within the European Union and Ukraine, now says it will demote all Russian state media across Facebook and Instagram around the world.
Calling the move “unprecedented,” Meta’s president of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, said the company was making Russian state media “harder to find” on Facebook and Instagram. “We are demoting content from Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts for Russian state controlled media outlets,” Clegg said during a call with reporters. “We have also begun to demote posts that contain links to Russian state controlled media websites on Facebook over the past few days.”
He added that Facebook will also add labels to all links to Russian state media websites that are shared on its platforms in order to “provide more information to people before they share them or to let them know that they lead to state controlled media websites.”
While Facebook has in the past down-ranked certain types of content, like vaccine misinformation, it’s unusual for the company to demote a wide swath of content entirely. RT in particular is prolific on social media, and has millions of followers on Facebook alone. On the call, Clegg called the move “unprecedented,” and noted that Meta has received requests from a number of governments to suppress Russian state media. So far, the company has only blocked the pages entirely in the European Union — following a ban from lawmakers — and inside of Ukraine.
Instagram's fierce competition with TikTok is bearing more fruit. The social network is matching its rival by introducing automatic captions (which TikTok has had since last April) to videos in your feed. They'll be enabled by default for creators, too. Auto-generated captions will initially be available in "select" languages, but Instagram hopes to expand them to more languages and countries.
The AI behind the captions won't be flawless. Instagram expects the quality to "continue to improve" as the AI learns, however.
The addition should improve accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, who'll have more choices for spoken-word video. Producers won't have to manually add captions themselves. However, Instagram also noted that this should help people who simply prefer to watch video with the sound off. You won't have to toggle the volume (and startle others in the process) just to understand what someone is saying.
In that regard, automatic captions might change your Instagram habits. You might be more likely to watch a video right away instead of scrolling past or saving it for later. That's good news for Instagram's viewing stats, of course, but it could also help aspiring social media stars build their audiences.
NVIDIA confirmed Tuesday some of its data was stolen as part of a cyberattack that occurred last week. “We are aware that the threat actor took employee credentials and some NVIDIA proprietary information from our systems and has begun leaking it online,” a company spokesman told Engadget.
NVIDIA didn’t specify exactly what was stolen from its computer systems. But according to PCMag, a group called LAPSUS$ is claiming responsibility for the attack. It says it obtained 1TB of data, including schematics and driver source code. The collective is demanding a ransom paid in cryptocurrency to prevent NVIDIA’s files from becoming public. It says the company has yet to contact it.
It’s unlikely NVIDIA will get in touch. Following last year’s Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, the Biden administration has strongly discouraged businesses from cooperating with hackers. "We do not anticipate any disruption to our business or our ability to serve our customers as a result of the incident," the company said.
After becoming aware of the attack on February 23rd, NVIDIA says it notified law enforcement and began working with cybersecurity experts to respond to the incident. “We have no evidence of ransomware being deployed on the NVIDIA environment or that this is related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the company said. LAPSUS$ also claims its actions weren’t politically motivated. “We are not in politics AT ALL,” the group states in a post seen by PCMag.
Google has been working on a "new interaction language" for years, and today it's sharing a peek at what it's developed so far. The company is showcasing a set of movements it's defined in its new interaction language in the first episode of a new series called In the lab with Google ATAP. That acronym stands for Advanced Technology and Projects, and it's Google's more-experimental division that the company calls its "hardware invention studio."
The idea behind this "interaction language" is that the machines around us could be more intuitive and perceptive of our desire to interact with them by better understanding our nonverbal cues. "The devices that surround us... should feel like a best friend," senior interaction designer at ATAP Lauren Bedal told Engadget. "They should have social grace."
Specifically (so far, anyway), ATAP is analyzing our movements (as opposed to vocal tones or facial expressions) to see if we're ready to engage, so devices know when to remain in the background instead of bombarding us with information. The team used the company's Soli radar sensor to detect the proximity, direction and pathways of people around it. Then, it parsed that data to determine if someone is glancing at, passing, approaching or turning towards the sensor.
Google formalized this set of four movements, calling them Approach, Glance, Turn and Pass. These actions can be used as triggers for commands or reactions on things like smart displays or other types of ambient computers. If this sounds familiar, it's because some of these gestures already work on existing Soli-enabled devices. The Pixel 4, for example, had a feature called Motion Sense that will snooze alarms when you wave at it, or wake the phone if it detected your hand coming towards it. Google's Nest Hub Max used its camera to see when you've raised your open palm, and will pause your media playback in response.
Approach feels similar to existing implementations. It allows devices to tell when you (or a body part) are getting closer, so they can bring up information you might be near enough to see. Like the Pixel 4, the Nest Hub uses a similar approach when it knows you're close by, pulling up your upcoming appointments or reminders. It'll also show touch commands on a countdown screen if you're near, and switch to larger, easy-to-read font when you're further away.
While Glance may seem like it overlaps with Approach, Bedal explained that it can be for understanding where a person's attention is when they're using multiple devices. "Say you're on a phone call with someone and you happen to glance at another device in the house," she said. "Since we know you may have your attention on another device, we can offer a suggestion to maybe transfer your conversation to a video call." Glance can also be used to quickly display a snippet of information.
Google
What's less familiar are Turn and Pass. "With turning towards and away, we can allow devices to help automate repetitive or mundane tasks," Bedal said. It can be used to determine when you're ready for the next step in a multi-stage process, like following an onscreen recipe, or something repetitive, like starting and stopping a video. Pass, meanwhile, tells the device you're not ready to engage.
It's clear that Approach, Pass, Turn and Glance build on what Google's implemented in bits and pieces into its products over the years. But the ATAP team also played with combining some of these actions, like passing and glancing or approaching and glancing, which is something we've yet to see much of in the real world.
For all this to work well, Google's sensors and algorithms need to be incredibly adept not only at recognizing when you're making a specific action, but also when you're not. Inaccurate gesture recognition can turn an experience that's meant to be helpful into one that's incredibly frustrating.
ATAP's head of design Leonardo Giusti said "That's the biggest challenge we have with these signals." He said that with devices that are plugged in, there is more power available to run more complex algorithms than on a mobile device. Part of the effort to make the system more accurate is collecting more data to train machine learning algorithms on, including the correct actions as well as similar but incorrect ones (so they also learn what not to accept).
Google
"The other approach to mitigate this risk is through UX design," Giusti said. He explained that the system can offer a suggestion rather than trigger a completely automated response, to allow users to confirm the right input rather than act on a potentially inaccurate gesture.
Still, it's not like we're going to be frustrated by Google devices misinterpreting these four movements of ours in the immediate future. Bedal pointed out "What we're working on is purely research. We're not focusing on product integration." And to be clear, Google is sharing this look at the interaction language as part of a video series it's publishing. Later episodes of In the lab with ATAP will cover other topics beyond this new language, and Giusti said it's meant to "give people an inside look into some of the research that we are exploring."
But it's easy to see how this new language can eventually find its way into the many things Google makes. The company's been talking about its vision for a world of "ambient computing" for years, where it envisions various sensors and devices embedded into the many surfaces around us, ready to anticipate and respond to our every need. For a world like that to not feel intrusive or invasive, there are many issues to sort out (protecting user privacy chief among them). Having machines that know when to stay away and when to help is part of that challenge.
Bedal, who's also a professional choreographer, said "We believe that these movements are really hinting to a future way of interacting with computers that feels invisible by leveraging the natural ways that we move."
She added, "By doing so, we can do less and computers can... operate in the background, only helping us in the right moments."
There are only a few weeks left of winter, so it's time for many folks to start planning their outdoor setup so they can get the most out of the warmer months. Unfortunately, that means irritating bugs like mosquitos are on the way back. To ward off those pesky pests, Thermacell has released a smart mosquito repellent system called Liv.
Liv connects multiple repeller units to a smart hub. You can switch the system on and off using the hub, Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The Liv+ mobile app also offers control over the repellers. You can turn them on or off from anywhere, set timers and set up push notifications. Using a feature that's in beta, you'll be able to monitor the cartridge levels of each device.
Thermacell, which also offers battery-powered bug repellent units, says the system isn't designed to run around the clock. Cartridges should last for a season — around eight hours per week for 12 weeks — before requiring refills. The repellent uses 5.5 percent metofluthrin as the active ingredient, and the units heat the cartridges to emit a small amount of fog. Thermacell says the fog is odorless and provides a 20-foot radius of protection from mosquitoes.
Thermacell
Liv requires a wired setup, though Thermacell can connect customers who aren't keen on DIY with professionals who can install it for them. The company says the repellents are weatherproof, so you shouldn't need to disassemble the system and put it back together every year.
Thermacell had been teasing the system for a while and it's available to order now. Liv starts at $699 for a pack of three repellers (which the company says will cover up to 945 square feet), plus the hub, cables, standard mounts and ground stakes. Thermacell claims the $799 four-pack will cover 1,260 square feet and the $899 five-pack will cover 1,575 square ft. The system can connect up to five repellers — adding an extra one will run you $150. Refills, meanwhile, cost $120 for a pack of six.
It's not an inexpensive system, especially for those who spend a lot of time in the yard or on the porch. Still, if it works as promised, Liv could keep the mosquitoes at bay without relying on other, smellier deterrents.
It took a year and a half, but Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service finally exists as more than an early access project. Amazon has formally launched Luna in the mainland US for Android, iOS, Chrome OS, macOS and Windows. The core Luna+ service with over 100 games will normally cost $10 per month, with the kid-friendly Family Channel and Ubisoft+ Channels available for a respective $6 and $18 per month. Amazon hopes to reel in newcomers by dropping the monthly fees of Luna+ and the Family channel to $6 and $3 for anyone who signs up during March. Existing users just have to maintain their subscriptions to lock in that pricing.
The official debut comes alongside some new channels. A Prime Gaming channel, as the name implies, gives Amazon Prime members a free, rotating mix of games. The March selection will include titles like Devil May Cry 5 and Flashback. Pay $5 per month for the Retro Channel and you'll get Capcom and SNK classics like Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting and Metal Slug 3, while a similar outlay for the Jackbox Games Channel provides access to all eight Jackbox Party Pack titles.
Luna's latest update also makes it simpler to stream gameplay from a Fire TV device, Mac or Windows PC on Twitch. You'll need a webcam and mic if you want to interact with viewers, but this might be an option if you're determined to broadcast and don't have a brawny-enough computer to play demanding locally-stored games.
Amazon's challenge, as with comparable services like Microsoft's Game Pass Ultimate, is to convince players that subscription-based game streaming is a good supplement or even replacement for conventional PC and console gaming experiences. You'll have the convenience of playing on seemingly every device you own, but you'll also be limited by what you can play and the quality of your internet connection. Amazon's main advantage is its ubiquity — it can make sure people are aware Luna exists, whether they're watching on Twitch or buying a Fire TV gadget for the living room.
You didn't think Disney+ would only offer Marvel's Netflix shows in Canada, did you? Sure enough, Disney+ has confirmed it will carry Daredevil, Jessica Jones and other former Netflix exclusives in the US starting March 16th. Agents of SHIELD will be available, too. As you might imagine, though, Disney isn't about to release that decidedly darker content without a heads-up to parents used to more family-friendly material — it's going to make everyone reconsider their content settings.
The first time you use Disney+ from March 16th onward, you'll be asked to update your parental controls. You'll have the option of setting per-profile content rating levels, PIN codes for more mature accounts and "Kid-Proof Exit" questions for child profiles. You'll remain at the usual TV-14 rating if you stick with the existing settings. The service has used strategies like this in places like Africa, Europe and the Middle East, but is now expanding that approach to the US.
Disney wasn't shy about the reasons for bringing the Netflix shows to Disney+ instead of Hulu, where mature shows are more expected. It "made the most logical sense" to serve Marvel fans by streaming more content in one place and reach a "broader audience," the company said. The parental controls will help Disney+ preserve both its trust and its reputation.
The Marvel productions were slated to leave Netflix as of today (March 1st). Disney telegraphed its attention for years, warning as early as 2017 that it would drop Netflix in favor of its own services. Netflix cancelled all of its Marvel shows by 2019, and Disney has given former Netflix characters limited roles in Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The US additions reflect the careful balance Disney+ has tried to strike since launch. While it's eager to maintain the stereotypically clean Disney image, it's also determined to attract subscribers drawn to content that doesn't quite fit that mold, whether it's Star's wider selection in some countries or exceptions like Hamilton. This latest expansion appears to continue the strategy — Disney+ isn't about to sacrifice viewers to avoid an inconsistency between the Netflix productions and its 'safer' Marvel fare.
Microsoft has revealed a solid list of titles that are coming to Game Pass this month. Starting today, you’ll be able to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox One, phones, tablets and web browsers via the cloud (fittingly enough). It was already on Xbox Games Pass and PC Game Pass, but now it’s available on the service formerly known as xCloud, more folks might be tempted to try the game. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who normally play on PC might be swayed if they don’t have a rig that can get the most out ofFlight Simulator.
Also hitting Game Pass today on console, PC and cloud is Far: Changing Tides, in which you’ll explore a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape and search for a new home. On March 3rd, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII comes to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
March 10th is shaping up to be a busy day for Game Pass. Subscribers will be able to play Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy via console, PC and the cloud at no extra cost. Square Enix Montreal offered a different spin on the quintet of superheroes than the Marvel movies. It dropped them into a surprisingly enjoyable adventure that bursts at the seams with jokes.
The other additions to Game Pass next Friday are Kentucky Route Zero, the Xbox One version of Lawn Mowing Simulator and a new brawler-RPG hybrid called Young Souls. Meanwhile, a few games will be leaving the lineup on March 15th: Nier: Automata, Phogs!, Torchlight III and The Surge 2.
Microsoft also noted the Xbox app for PC has been updated with a few features it started testing a few months ago. Players can now choose which folder they want to install games to, while they'll have the ability to mod more games.
