Waymo, Cruise get green light from California's DMV for self-driving taxi services
- Reference: 1633303984
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/10/03/amazons_astro_home_ai_bot/
- Source link:
Cruise has been given permission to operate “light-duty” self-driving cabs on San Francisco’s roads between the hours of 2200 and 0600 PT. They can only drive at a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour and when the rain and fog aren’t too heavy.
Waymo can also drive its self-driving taxi fleet in San Francisco plus San Mateo; its cars are allowed to go faster, up to 65 miles per hour, meaning they can drive on highways. Again, they can only operate up to light rain and light fog, and no hours of operation were specified.
[1]
The vehicles have to be capable of performing with Level 3 autonomy or higher. Both upstarts still need to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission before they can roll out their self-driving taxi services, [2]according to the DMV.
Can Apple's iPhone detect depression?
Apple and academics at the University of California, Los Angeles are working on algorithms capable of [3]detecting if an iPhone user has depression or anxiety. Experts aren't convinced the technology works, though.
It's difficult for software to understand and classify something as complex as human emotions, Jorge Barraza, assistant psychology professor at the University of Southern California and CTO of Immersion, a neuroscience tech vendor, [4]told TechTarget.
[5]
[6]
Even if AI algorithms can detect if we're happy or sad, it's difficult to tie that with diagnoses of mental health. "It's unclear how much meaning [emotion] has in order for us to understand what people's psychological experiences are. Different types of expressions or emoting might have different meanings whether it's in a social context or whether it is not," he said.
Undeterred, Apple and UCLA are pushing on with enrolling people to test its software. About 150 human guinea pigs joined in the study in 2020 and the number is expected to expand to about 3,000 people by the end of 2023.
Facial recognition and cloud-operated computer systems coming to GM next year
General Motors cars will operate and run AI applications from a Linux-based software platform known as [7]Ultifi by 2023, the company said.
Ultifi will act as a central hub controlling internet-of-things devices that power all sorts of abilities like facial recognition to recognize drivers or automatically closing sunroofs when raining is predicted, [8]according to The Verge.
[9]
Scott Miller, VP of software-defined vehicles, said the company was undergoing a “transformation... from an automaker to a platform innovator.” Ultifi will be cloud-connected; all updates will be pushed out over the air. Companies will be allowed to develop third-party apps on Ultifi.
Carmakers like General Motors will charge customers a subscription fee for using top-end features in Ultifi. Buying a car will no longer be a one-off purchase; it’ll be an expense that users will have to take into as the [10]car-as-a-service provides a way for automakers to keep extracting money from its customers. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YVp8jrBtsrRhvRdCkCD8zgAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/117199-2/
[3] https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-launches-major-mental-health-study-to-discover-insights-about-depression
[4] https://searchenterpriseai.techtarget.com/news/252507609/Experts-cautious-about-Apples-mood-detecting-AI-research
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVp8jrBtsrRhvRdCkCD8zgAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YVp8jrBtsrRhvRdCkCD8zgAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2021/sep/0929-ultifi.html
[8] https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22700400/gm-ultifi-software-ota-update-subscription-facial-recognition
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVp8jrBtsrRhvRdCkCD8zgAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/29/car_chip_makers/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
--As-a-service is nothing new
In the UK, in the very early parts of the Industrial Revolution, the makers od pumping machinery for pumping water out of mines, realised that selling a stem driven pump, outright only brought in one profit. Given that the machines would run for years, they would lease ot the machines, so gaining a running income. It ran even to installing pendulum driven counters, which would count the number of pumping strokes, so that they could charge for the gallonage of water pumped. It will be interesting to see if the car-as-a-service also includes a cost per mile charge.
Re: --As-a-service is nothing new
Cost per mile is how taxis charge over here. The is an initial charge that covers a couple of miles then a flat rate is charged for every fraction of mile. Also, the is a charge for each minute spent idling/waiting. So it is already done.
Re: --As-a-service is nothing new
They _might_ have had a chance at the car-as-a-service thing had they used Apple or Windows, but by using a *nix based software platform I doubt they'll get very far. How long before the first crack/hack/mod gets released to rip out the telemetry, remove any/all "because you haven't paid for it yet" limitations that will unlock _all_ of the "hidden until a proper unlock code is received" bits are made available, & the various code blobs are gone over with an ultra fine toothed comb to improve, remove the security holes, & (figuratively/literally) turbo charge the vehicle? If it includes software defined radios then how long before the MITM attacks begin from the hacking community to prevent any/all unwanted OTA updates? How long before the scum devise ways to interface with a car against the owner's wishes &/or without their knowledge? Will we need a firewall for our car? If the firewall also runs on *nix then how long before someone reverse engineers the sucker to hack/improve/modify/bypass it?
I honestly don't think the manufacturer's have put any _serious_ thought into the whole "interconnected cars" thing; if they _had_ then they'd see the same flaws I can already envision. What kind of carnage could/would a script kiddy wanna be hacker cause with a simple power boosted broadcast antenna & an RPi sitting beside the road with it aimed at passing traffic? Oh look, suddenly every connected car thinks it's alone on the road, the speed limit is x10 posted, & it's just been given the green light to try for a land speed record! The death toll would be catastrophic & the lawsuits would fly like buzzards over a battle field... =-/
Apple
"Apple and academics at [UCLA] are working on algorithms capable of detecting if an iPhone user has depression or anxiety."
To translate, Apple is working on a scheme to push targeted anti-depression and anti-anxiety ads to its flock.