Latest News - Page 1016

Toyota, the No. 1 largest car company in the world based on sales, is under criticism for a lagging electric vehicle strategy that still relies heavily on Prius and other hybrid models. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda still has a cautious approach to EVs, while the Japanese automaker still has its sights set on new hybrid models.

As stricter regulations related to engines are on the horizon, including banning new sales of vehicles with internal combustion engines, Toyota wants to make a dent in the on-board hydrogen fuel cell market. The only emissions would be water vapor, and that complies with these new rules that all automakers will have to adhere to once bans begin to go into effect.

The auto industry is extremely competitive, so financial analysts expect fast movement in a rather fluid industry. Toyota set itself apart from its competitors when it released the Prius hybrid more than 20 years ago, adapting to a market that forced its rivals to keep up. This time around, however, Toyota is earning criticism from its reluctance to heavily support the battery-powered future of the auto industry.

Google's own teams were kept in the dark about Stadia's closure before the announcement was made, and partnered developers found out with the rest of the internet.

Yesterday Google announced its failed game streaming service Stadia would be shut down in January 2023. Google promised to refund all game and hardware purchases, and the store was abruptly pulled offline. No one can purchase games on Stadia, which is pretty bad news for developers like Milestone, who had released Hot Wheels Unleashed on the platform earlier that day.

It turns out that Stadia's closure was a surprise to everyone. Game developers weren't told ahead of time, a few of which had planned to release games on the platform. Even Google's own engineers weren't told before the announcement.

NASA has teamed up with Apptronik to accelerate the commercialization of the Apollo humanoid robot system. The company founded in 2016 has created several robotics platforms that include exoskeletons to humanoids and aims to create general-purpose robots able to endure multiple environments.

Apptronik has a specific focus on human-centered design, so its robotic systems are user-friendly and the robots are able to work alongside humans. These humanoids will be able to operate in dangerous or unhabitable environments while still able to use tools that actual astronauts can.

NASA and Apptronik worked together starting in 2013 as part of a DARPA Robotics Challenge. In this most recent venture, Apptronik has the chance for its robots to work on Earth and one day in space. As noted by Jeff Cardenas, CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, in a press statement:

After multiple delays and five years of development, Scorn is finally releasing this October...and now the launch date has been moved up so that Scorn will release sooner.

Scorn's release date has been moved up and the bizarre first-person shooter will now release on October 14, 2022 on Xbox Series X/S, PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, Gog, and the Windows Store, and also a day one release on Game Pass.

It's been a long five years for developer Ebb Software, who has established deals with Kowloon Nights and Kepler Interactive to help slowly evolve their ultra-weird vision from an interactive Giger painting into a game that's playable from start to finish.

The nonprofit organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine began a lawsuit against the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) in February 2022 after it refused to release 371 images from Neuralink experiments.

The committee requests that UC Davis release images that, as of September 7th, UC Davis acknowledges amount to 185 photographs. According to the university's veterinary records, the experiments in question involve Neuralink experiments where experimenters cut holes into monkeys' skulls to implant electrodes for the company's in-development "brain-machine interface." Neuralink paid UC Davis $1.4 million between 2017 and 2020 for access to its facilities and animals, but the company now conducts experiments out of its own facilities.

UC Davis also acknowledged it possesses an additional 186 photographs captured by Neuralink employees throughout the monkey experiments. Though the university is publicly funded and public employees engaged with the experiments, UC Davis maintains the images should be not be made public as they are "proprietary" and that the public would misunderstand them.

The latest 100-meter dash record to be set has been achieved by Cassie, a bipedal robot created by Agility Robotics.

The university announced on September 27th that Cassie had been awarded an official Guinness World Record, having run 100 meters (328 feet) in 24.73 seconds, setting the speed record for a bipedal robot to cover the distance and doing so on Oregon State's Whyte Track and Field Center. For comparison, the human world record was set at 9.58 seconds by Usain Bolt.

Notably, Cassie is the first robot to have utilized machine learning to control its running gait while outdoors. Its knees are bent the opposite way to humans and instead resemble those of an ostrich. It lacks any cameras or external sensors and thus operates blind, exemplified as the robot strays from its lane during the run. Before setting the record, Cassie has demonstrated its ability to run 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) on a single battery charge in 53 minutes.

NASA and SpaceX have signed a new agreement called the Space Act Agreement Thursday as of September 22nd, which aims to study the viability of extending the Hubble Space Telescope's mission.

The agreement will study the feasibility of SpaceX, in partnership with the Polaris Program, boosting Hubble into a higher orbit around Earth using SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. The agreement is currently unfunded, and NASA has no plans to conduct or fund its own servicing mission for Hubble. Instead, at no cost to the government, SpaceX has proposed this study to explore and understand the challenges of conducting similar servicing missions.

The study is expected to take up to six months, during which teams will collect and analyze technical data from Hubble and the Dragon spacecraft. They will assess whether the spacecraft could safely rendezvous, dock, and eventually move Hubble to a higher, more stable orbit. The study is non-exclusive, meaning other companies can use the strategies and concepts uncovered for other spacecraft with a near-Earth orbit.

A study on Bitcoin's climate impact titled "Economic estimation of Bitcoin mining's climate damages demonstrates closer resemblance to digital crude than digital gold" has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico have suggested the Bitcoin cryptocurrency be considered akin to "digital crude oil" instead of "digital gold," after revealing the scale of environmental damage caused by mining Bitcoin is comparable to that of producing beef, or other energy-intensive products such as natural gas and crude oil. The researchers assessed Bitcoin's climate damages, the estimated financial damage resulting from its associated carbon emissions, and the resultant impact of climate change on economies using three criteria.

The first criterion was whether damages were increasing over time. They found that energy emissions for Bitcoin mining have increased 126-fold, rising from 0.9 tons of emissions per coin in 2016 to 113 tons per coin five years later in 2021. The second criterion looked at whether the market price of Bitcoin surpassed the economic cost of its climate damages, which found that in 2021, climate damages associated with a single Bitcoin amounted to 11,314 USD, about a quarter of its market value at the time. Damages peaked at 156% of the coin price in May 2020.

A man known as "Kem" on Twitter has gone online to detail his recent exploits with 3D printed weapons.

Kem used a $200 3D printer he got for Christmas to create "a bunch of lower receivers and frames for different kinds of firearms," intending to sell them to the state of New York through one of its gun buyback programs. A buyback event was held at the Utica Police Department in August by the New York State Attorney General's Office, so Kem set to work and then drove six hours to reach Utica and begin haggling over costs with staff from the Attorney General's Office.

Kem stated that the interaction "ended with the guy and a lady from the budget office finally coming around with the 42 gift cards and counting them in front of me," amounting to $21,000 in the form of $500 gift cards. While the Attorney General's Office maintains the Utica gun buyback event was a success, Kem was less convinced, saying, "I'm sure handing over $21,000 in gift cards to some punk kid after getting a bunch of plastic junk was a rousing success."

A study on the black frogs titled "Ionizing radiation and melanism in Chornobyl tree frogs" has been published in the journal Evolutionary Applications.

Since the nuclear disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986, the surrounding environment has been cordoned off and dubbed the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, forbidding unauthorized human entry. The area has become one of the largest nature reserves in Europe, and many endangered species are now found there. However, the amount of radioactive material released by the disaster means these species have had to contend with radiation in their lives.

Researchers identified several Eastern tree frogs, or Hyla orientalis, that were found with an unusually black tint instead of their usual bright green coloration. Higher levels of melanin are responsible for the darker color of the frogs and other organisms and protect animals from ultraviolet radiation from the sun. However, melanin can also protect against ionizing radiation that the Chornobyl disaster released.

The hacking collective Anonymous has taken to YouTube to announce that its declaring war against the creators of one of the most popular NFT projects, the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Anonymous released the above video onto its YouTube channel on September 27, and in the almost 9-minute long video, the hacking collective accuses the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, Yuga Labs, of including "esoteric" Nazi, white supremacist, and pedophilic symbolism throughout its designs. These accusations aren't necessarily surprising, as Yuga Labs has previously denied any intentional inclusion of artistry that represents the aforementioned groups or ideologies.

Futurism reports that the accusations originally began with digital artist Ryder Ripps who published a website that connected symbols within some of the Bored Ape Yacht Club designs with Nazi symbolism. These allegations were seemingly picked up by Anonymous, which the hacking collective states in the above video it has found proof "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that Yuga Labs intentionally includes elusive Nazi symbolism within its digital art projects.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is currently engaged in a lawsuit with Twitter over his decision to back out of the $44 billion acquisition.

Leading up to the trial date, Twitter's lawyers requested that Musk provide the court with all his text messages with anyone that related to the purchasing of Twitter, and part of the lawsuit just released hundreds of those text messages.

As you can probably imagine, Musk's phone was swamped with messages from multiple prominent figures looking to get involved in the Twitter deal as soon as he revealed he was looking for financial backing, and among the hundreds of messages are conversations between Musk and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and celebrities such as Joe Rogan, Just Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty, and Gayle King. Notably, Musk also had extensive conversations with Twitter executives, including current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

NASA has taken to its blog to give an update on the recent flight by the helicopter Ingenuity and sample activities being conducted by Perseverance.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory took to Twitter on September 28 to announce that the Mars helicopter Ingenuity has completed its 33rd flight, soaring 365 feet over the Martian surface at an altitude of 33 feet. Ingenuity completed its relocation in 55.2 seconds, nearly being airborne for an entire minute. For those that don't know, Ingenuity is acting as NASA's newest Mars rover, Perseverance's scout, with the Ingenuity team using the small helicopter to look for prime locations to explore with the rover.

Ingenuity is used to look for locations and map strategic pathways for Perseverance to travel to and inspect. If determined to be a viable sample location, the rover will collect a sample which will eventually be transported back to Earth sometime in the late 2020s. For now, many samples are being taken, with NASA recently announcing a failure at sample collection with a rock nicknamed Chiniak. As explained on the NASA Mars website, Perseverance attempted an abrasion on the target rock and discovered that the target broke apart, preventing any future science operations.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided with asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, marking the very first planetary defense mission.

NASA's DART spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorphos of the binary asteroid system. Dimorphos is a moonlet that orbits its larger companion asteroid Didymos. NASA's plan was to demonstrate that a human-made spacecraft is capable of altering the orbit of the smaller asteroid Dimorphos by colliding a high-speed spacecraft into its surface. The test was a success in terms of collision, and now dozens of telescopes are pointed at Dimorphos to measure the impact and to see if the asteroid's orbit was changed.

Famous telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope have been used to observe just before the impact and the following minutes/hours after. Despite the multiple telescopes pointed at the Didymos-Dimorphos system, scientists argue that the study on DART's impact can't be completed without a close-up inspection that would provide accurate data.

The James Webb Space Telescope and the famous Hubble Space Telescope have teamed up provide two unique views of NASA's DART spacecraft colliding with an asteroid.

NASA has taken to its social channels to showcase the differences between the two famous telescopes, with the space agency posting on the Hubble Twitter account "after" shots from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. The images shown above in a GIF showcase NASA's spacecraft that intentionally collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in the very planetary defense mission.

As explained in NASA's recent blog post, the space agency decided to crash a spacecraft into the asteroid to see if the impact was able to change the orbit of the asteroid. If proven effective, NASA will have unlocked Earth's first planetary weapon used to protect our planet from dangerous asteroids. Observations were conducted with Webb and Hubble, marking the first time the telescopes have simultaneously captured imagery from the same target, according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

Tesla has been developing its highly anticipated Cybertruck since it was revealed back in 2019, and now Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed a new unique feature.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to announce that Tesla's Cybertruck, that's currently in development, will have a level of waterproof that will enable it to serve as a boat briefly. This new feature, previously mentioned by Musk in 2020, where he said that the Cybertruck is able to "float for awhile", has seemingly been expanded upon and further developed as Musk is now stating that Cybertruck can temporarily double as a boat.

Musk explains in the above tweet that Cybertruck will be capable of traversing rivers, lakes, and even seas that "aren't too choppy", with the Tesla CEO further explaining that the new feature came from the requirement of Cybertruck being able to get from Starbase spaceport, located at Boca Chica, Texas to South Padre Island.

Well, I guess it's confirmed: ASUS is really upgrading things across the board for NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 4090, with its custom ROG Strix RTX 4090 retail packaging teased... and it's way more than a handful.

The new ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition graphics card has arrived in the hands of the folks of Chiphell, with a shot of the retail packaging and man... there are just no words.

It's absolutely huge, and from the photo alone it looks far bigger than the retail packaging for the ASUS ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3090 Ti OC Edition graphics card that I reviewed not too long ago now. The packaging for that I said was absolutely huge, and would command a large portion of your shelf.

Intel is now shipping out its Arc A770 Limited Edition and Arc A750 Limited Edition review samples to tech media, ready for the review embargo on October 5... just days away from now.

The new Intel Arc A770 graphics card review embargo lifts on October 5 while the cards will be officially launched on October 12 -- the very same day NVIDIA's new flagship Ada Lovelace-powered GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card launches -- so it's going to be a busy few months for GPU reviewers, that's for sure.

Intel hasn't been clear with a full list of partners and retailers that will be selling Arc A-series desktop GPUs at launch, even though the promised Q3 2022 launch window has been missed, we STILL don't know which partners + retailers are participating in the launch with Intel. But don't worry, special communication is being done with China as there is a slick Intel Arc A750 Gold Edition graphics card teased.

Chevrolet has more than 60 years of experience manufacturing vehicles for law enforcement, but last month introduced its first all-electric vehicle for police use. The 2024 Blazer EV Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV), based off the Chevy Blazer EV SS, will include police-grade tires, underbody skid plates, emergency medical supplies, and other features that make it ideal for police use.

The interior is customized to support officers inside the vehicle, including front seats designed to accommodate an officer's duty belts and wearable gear. Final specifications and complete range information will be made available closer to the vehicle's launch for law enforcement.

The civilian Blazer EV features 557 horsepower and has a range of around 250 miles up to 320 miles on a single charge. Pricing starts at $44,995 for the standard version, and the SS has a starting price of $65,995.

NetEase continues scoring top talent to fill out its international game studios.

Watch Dogs creator Jonathan Morin has joined NetEase Games Montreal, the studio today announced. Morin not only established the concepts behind the Watch Dogs franchise but also served as creative director on both Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2 at Ubisoft. Now Morin is serving as a creative director to help form new IPs for NetEase's growing content label.

NetEase's Montreal division is focused on research and development, and published of Naraka Bladepoint's during its global worldwide launch (Naraka remains one of NetEase's most important games).