Latest News - Page 1098

Investigations into Tesla Autopilot led by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has produced a new report.

The NHTSA originally opened the investigation after multiple crashes involving Tesla vehicles "operating with Autopilot engaged" colliding with emergency vehicles either on the road or on the side of the road that were attending to pre-existing accidents. The report also investigates other Tesla crashes involving autonomous driving features like Autopilot or Full-Self Driving.

Potentially artificial signals were detected by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China.

Global Times, the self-described "China state-affiliated media" has reported that researchers from the Beijing Normal University have detected several signals using China's FAST. The signals are suspected to be from extraterrestrial civilizations," though the researchers are exploring further to confirm the findings.

FAST is the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope, and has been used since 2020 to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). According to a Chinese source translated by Andrew Jones on Twitter, a self-described "journalist tracking China's space program," several candidate signals of "possible technological traces and extraterrestrial civilizations" have been found using FAST, referred to as the "Chinese Sky Eye."

Court documents from Marion County in Indiana reveal that an Apple AirTag was used to facilitate a murder.

Twenty-six-year-old Gaylyn Morris was charged with murder after allegedly using an Apple AirTag to track her partner, 26-year-old Andre Smith, to Tilly's Pub, a shopping mall in Indianapolis, on June 3rd, 2022. According to an affidavit by Detective Gregory Shue, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers arrived at the scene around 12:32 a.m. to find Smith run over by Morris' blue Chevrolet Impala.

An eyewitness told the detective that she saw Morris arrive and asked them if they had seen "a guy with dreads," referring to Smith, enter the bar. Morris told the witness "that she had an AirTag on his car, and she knew his car was in the parking lot." After an altercation with someone accompanying Smith, both Smith and Morris ended up outside, where Morris got in her car and drove up the sidewalk to run Smith over, killing him.

Transcripts from conversations with a Google artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot have recently surfaced online.

The AI chatbot, known as LaMDA (short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications), conversed with Google engineer Blake Lemoine, who raised questions about the AI's sentience. However, the transcripts released show the conversation is an amalgamation of multiple conversations edited together; four separate conversations from March 28th, 2022, and five from the following day.

Contained within a document entitled "Is LaMDA Sentient? - an Interview" with the header "Privileged & Confidential, Need to Know" that was leaked to the Washington Post, are seventeen pages of transcripted dialogue between LaMDA and Lemoine. The document is written by Lemoine and an unnamed collaborator, and includes a short intro, a section on "Interview Methodology," and a section titled "The Nature of LaMDA's Sentience."

The Federal Aviation Administration has finally completed its environmental review of SpaceX's Starship.

The Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) is now available online, with the FAA concluding that SpaceX's plans for Starship and Starbase will "not result in significant environmental consequences." However, 75 actions are necessary before Starship will be able to launch. Following the conclusion of the assessment, SpaceX tweeted out, "One step closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship."

Following the news, Twitter users have queried Elon Musk when an orbital flight test of Starship might occur, after it was initially planned for late last year but delayed while awaiting the completion of the FAA's assessment. Musk responded by saying that Starship will be "ready to fly next month," indicating an orbital flight test as a possibility sometime in July.

A Chinese satellite launch center has experienced an explosion, according to a slew of high-resolution satellite images.

According to Spacenews.com, the explosion occurred at China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in the Gobi Desert between October 15 and October 16, 2021. Space enthusiast Harry Stranger found evidence of the explosion using images captured by Airbus and CNES (seen above). Reports indicate that the explosion didn't have any effect on China's future launches, as the nation's Shenzhou-13 mission launched from Jiuquan on October 15, 2021.

The publication reports that Chinese media didn't report on the explosion, which adds a certain mysterious element to what could have caused the explosion or what China was attempting to get off the ground. Spacenews suspects that China was attempting to construct, test, and launch solid rockets for orbital launches. This isn't the first time a launch was failed at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, as the Kuaizhou-1A and Kuaizhou-11 rockets both failed.

The below video was captured by Yellowstone's helicopter manager and showcases why the national park is now closed.

Taking to its official Twitter account, the Yellowstone National Park explains that the north entrance road to the park through to the Gardner Canyon between Gardiner, Montana, and Mammoth Hot Springs has endured mass flooding. The fast-paced water has destroyed large portions of the road and has created an overall hazardous situation for anyone on the ground.

Yellowstone National Park explains in a follow-up tweet that the high volumes of water came from the adjacent river that has overflowed and eroded the road as well as some banks. This recent closure of the park marks the first time Yellowstone has been forced to close in 34 years. Notably, the floodwaters have broken all previously set records and have caused more than 10,000 visitors to evacuate the park. Furthermore, officials at the park have said that repairs to the affected area will likely take months to complete.

A potential safety issue with the battery of approximately 49,000 electric vehicles has caused a mass recall, according to a spokesperson familiar with the matter.

CNBC has learned that Ford Motor has issued a mass recall for its electric Mustang Mach-E, as the car manufacturer has informed dealers to halt sales of the EV temporarily. According to a notice sent out to dealers on Monday, the affected EV is (potentially) 2021 and 2022 Mach-E's that were built at the Cuautitlan plant in Mexico from May 27, 2020, to May 24, 2022.

Reports indicate that the recall is due to a potential overheating issue with the vehicle's battery, which can possibly lead to the car not being able to start or lose propulsion power while it's being driven. Notably, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states on its website that Ford has issued several recalls for its Mach-E, with the company citing software issues that caused unexpected acceleration (500 vehicles or less) and poor construction of the Mach-E's glass roof panels.

Netflix is going all in on Squid Game, with the streaming company announcing a second season of the hit show is on the way, as well as a reality competition show based on the series.

Squid Game was one of, if not the biggest series to ever arrive on Netflix, and the streaming company seems to want to fully capitalize on the popularity of the show by bringing out a second season and giving people an opportunity to actually compete for money in a similar way to the characters in the show. The coming reality show will be a 10-episode series called Squid Game: The Challenge and will feature games that are "inspired" by the events that take place in the show.

Much like the Squid Game series, contestants will be competing for a multi-million-dollar prize pool that will be an astonishing $4.56 million, which seems to be a reference to the number assigned to the main character - 456. Notably, Netflix has already begun casting efforts as the streaming platform is recruiting English-speaking contestants from around the world. Filming will take place in the UK, and according to Netflix, participants will be required to film for approximately four weeks throughout 2023.

Adobe is planning on rolling out a free-to-use web-based version of Photoshop, and testing has already begun in Canada.

Adobe wants to give creatives the power of photoshop in a web-based browser as the massive software company has begun testing a "freemium" version of Photoshop that can be accessed through a free Adobe account. The "freemium" aspect of the software is described that way by Adobe because the company plans to eventually put pay-walls up for some features that will be accessible to those that have subscribed.

The idea behind the web-based free version of Photoshop is to allow users to try out the software before they subscribe to receive the full product. Additionally, as explained by Maria Yap, Adobe's Vice President of Digital Imaging, the free version of Photoshop won't require a high-end machine to run, making the program much more accessible to users.

Elon Musk has posted to his personal Twitter account an image of the launch vehicle poised to land the first humans on Mars.

The above image showcases Starship SN24 in the "high bay" at what seems to be SpaceX's South Texas launch site called Starbase. The photograph from Musk comes a day after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finally released its evaluation of the environmental impacts of Starbase, which requested SpaceX make more than 75 changes to its facility before the regulator can grant the space-faring company approval to launch Starship.

The report from the FAA puts SpaceX at a metaphorical yellow light, and the company seemingly took the news in stride as it wrote on its Twitter that it's now "one step closer to the first orbital test of Starship". Notably, the report from the FAA states it "Finding of No Significant Impact" for SpaceX's plans to conduct orbital launches with its Starship, or the Super Heavy rocket. Furthermore, the FAA will only approve SpaceX for five orbital and suborbital launches per year.

Apple has been accused of "intentionally crippling" web apps, so users are forced into downloading native search apps such as Safari.

The accusations come from Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who explained in a post that web apps on iPhone are forced to use WebKit to develop web-based apps, and within this WebKit are a slew of problems that Apple has reportedly ignored for approximately 15 years. Apple guidelines dictate that all apps listed on the App Store are prevented from unrestricted public channels, hence developers turning to web-based applications as a workaround.

The Telegram founder says Apple forces developers to use WebKit for all browsers on iOS, which means users can't simply download Firefox or Chrome to get around the issues. Additionally, since no improvements are being issued for the WebKit so developers can improve the performance/experience of web-based apps, it seems that Apple is attempting to steer users to Safari where it can collect its 30% commission.

AMD has been detailing more and more about its next-gen RDNA 3 GPU architecture, but now leaker "Greymon55" has said when the launch will take place.

The next-gen RDNA 3-based AMD Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs will reportedly be launching in "late October, no later than mid-November" with a nice 'wink' emoji at the end. The leaker quickly followed it up with a tweet, starting with a 'whisper' emoji and then '3rd gen DNA'.

Before AMD unravels and releases its new Radeon RX 7000 series CPUs we'll see the company push out its next-gen Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. The new Zen 4 processors will be on a new AM5 socket, with the upcoming X670E + X670 motherboards packing both next-gen DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies. The new RDNA 3-based GPUs are rumored to be new PCIe 5.0 x16 on the flagship Navi 31-based graphics cards.

Blizzard has announced that its upcoming Overwatch 2 beta will kick off for players on June 28 on both the PC and consoles, with sign-ups starting June 16... barely 24 hours from now.

The new Overwatch 2 beta will include one of the new heroes that Blizzard just announced -- Junker Queen, a new Australian character joining Junkrat on the roster -- once it begins on June 28. Blizzard will also be unleashing a new map for the Overwatch 2 beta, reworks, and I'm sure some changes to its heroes, too.

Blizzard will be detailing more during its Overwatch 2 showcase on June 16, where I'm sure we'll get the nitty-gritty on everything Overwatch 2 -- new heroes, maps, tweaks, and everything in between -- with the full beta open to both PC and consoles starting June 28.

Amazon has updated the world on its upcoming Prime Air drone deliveries, where residents in Lockeford, California, will be some of the first people to get their deliveries... by drones.

The company has published a new blog post that explains that Amazon's teams of "hundreds of scientists, engineers, aerospace professionals, and futurists have been working hard" on the Prime Air drone delivery side of Amazon's continuously expanding business.

Lockeford is also no stranger to the aviation industry, with Amazon pointing out that one of the early pioneers of aviation -- Weldon B. Cooke -- built and flew planes in the early 1900s, and was a resident of Lockeford. Now, 100+ years later we're seeing the next generation of delivery technology: drone delivery. Lockeford residents will be providing feedback to Amazon over the Prime Air drones delivering packages to their backyards.

Coinbase is slicing and dicing 18% of its global workforce as its stock price, and the ground falling out from the price of Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency exchange staffs around 5000 people, meaning that Coinbase culling 18% of its workforce will result in around 1100 people losing their jobs in an already messy economic situation worldwide. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said: "We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year economic boom. A recession could lead to another crypto winter, and could last for an extended period".

"While it's hard to predict the economy or the markets, we always plan for the worst so we can operate the business through any environment. Our employee costs are too high to effectively manage this uncertain market. While we tried our best to get this just right, in this case it is now clear to me that we over-hired".

I'm sure the day of June 13, 2022, will be a day that crypto investors, experts, traders, and everyone in between will mark as a day of reckoning for not just Bitcoin, but most cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin has tumbled down from its $29,000 support down to $23,000 to start the week -- dropping to $21,000 today -- meaning Bitcoin has dropped to its lowest level since December 2020. With BTC down to $23,000 it means that a huge $200 billion in market cap was wiped away, with Bitcoin sitting at $22,000 at the time of writing. There's now a "crypto winter"

It was only in November 2021 that Bitcoin breached a new all-time high price of over $68,000 but those days are over (for now) with Bitcoin dropping from its $29,000 support down into $21-$22,000 we're looking at a bigger plunge down 80% from its ATH to $14,000 or so. The headlines and panic will only get worse if that happens, more so than the end of days headlines, there are now.

Webex has just announced its latest feature that enables Apple CarPlay support, with the introduction of Move to Mobile.

The new Move to Mobile feature from Webex lets you seamlessly transition between your desktop and your iPhone, and then right into your car. By simply transferring your Webex Meeting from your desktop to your iPhone, you plug your iPhone into your CarPlay and away you go with your meeting, literally. Better yet, once you're at your destination, you can flick the Webex meeting from your iPhone, and into the Webex device there.

Once the call ends, you can see upcoming calls and then join other calls from CarPlay... keeping the Webex experience mobile, with Move to Mobile. Self-explanatory. There are more functions coming to Webex's new CarPlay integration, which will include listening to past records, with Webex explaining "so while sitting in traffic on your way home, you can catch up on any meeting you may have missed during the day".

Sony's new ultra-high-end Walkman is so hardware super-powered that you probably won't have the music collection to truly unleash it, but the new NW-WM1ZM2 is here, and it costs a whopping $3700.

So... what does a $3700 ultra-high-end Sony NW-WM1ZM2 Walkman get you? Inside, Sony is using an S-Master HX digital amp with "fine-tuned" capacitors, thick Kimber Kable (which links the amp to the headphone jack), and a 99.99% pure gold-plated, oxygen-free copper chassis.

Sony is using a larger 5-inch 720p display, a larger power supply, and an improved upscaling algorithm that's capable of CD-quality audio (16-bit, 44/48kHz). Inside, Sony gives you 256GB of expandable storage, Wi-Fi streaming, a USB-C port, and up to 40 hours of battery life if you're listening to 96kHz FLAC audio. There's also support for 32-bit, 384kHz audio in MQA and WAV formats, but I'm sure you know about the NW-WM1ZM2 if you're using those audio formats.

Call of Duty: Warzone is about to go through some huge changes with Season 4 right around the corner, with Warzone's new map being introduced as a cool 12-piece puzzle. Introducing Fortune's Keep:

Fortune's Keep is the new Warzone Rebirth map, with the official Twitter account for Call of Duty tweeting: "Thank you to our community for helping reveal Fortune's Keep, a new #Warzone Resurgence map, where the amount of danger and action is second only to its riches".

The new Fortune's Keep map is reportedly a fast-paced and close-quarters combat-focused map, which is just how Rebirth players like it. We don't have much to go by other than some photos, but Fortune's Keep looks like it's at least double the size of Rebirth Island -- with some more island-y vibes to it -- where you'll be battling it out in the Camp, Graveyard, Lighthouse, Smuggler's Cove, Terraces, and more.