Uber in Talks With Fiat Chrysler Over Self-Driving Car Partnership

Ride hailing company Uber has held talks with Fiat Chrysler about a potential partnership involving self-driving car technology, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The discussions are reported to be at a preliminary stage and a deal is yet to be confirmed, cautioned people familiar with the matter.

Google uses Chrysler Pacifica Minivans in its self-driving initiative (Image: Chrysler)
Chrysler is believed to be just one of several automobile makers that Uber has been in talks with in recent weeks, amid a “frenzy” of global alliances as the role of technology in transportation increases.

Uber’s desire to seek new partners follows Apple’s $1 billion investment in Chinese ride hailing startup Didi Chuxing last month, while similar partnerships have occurred between the likes of General Motors and Lyft earlier this year.

Also last month, Fiat Chrysler said it was working with Google to redesign the 2017 Pacifica Hybrid minivan and integrate its computers, sensors and software for testing purposes, in the same way that Google’s own self-driving cars are currently a purely experimental initiative.

Uber began its own autonomous driving project last year after hiring several robotics researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and opening its Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. Testing has begun in that city and Uber plans to incorporate self-driving vehicles into its fleet by 2020.

In related news yesterday, speaking at Alphabet’s stockholder meeting, executive chairman Eric Schmidt responded to an audience question about when self-driving cars might be an everyday reality on public roads.

It’s very hard to know. The consensus I think within the company is that it’s some years, not decades, but it is very much dependent on regulation. And it also depends on where you are. It’s obviously a great deal easier to do this in areas that, for example, have ample parking.

Google has previously stated that its self-driving project will free up parking space in congested areas because such cars can park further away and come to pick up passengers, although The Verge notes the irony of its chosen testing grounds in Mountain View, Austin, Kirkland, and Phoenix, where parking is far more available than in big cities like New York.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently commented on Apple’s project to develop its own car, codenamed “Titan”, claiming that any such vehicle was unlikely to hit full-scale production or be ready for shipping before 2020, a prediction that is somewhat in line with earlier rumors that a 2020 timeframe for the car’s launch is the most realistic prospect.

The bulk of Apple’s car research and development is thought to be taking place in secretive buildings in Sunnyvale, California, where late night “motor noises” have been heard.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tags: Uber, Fiat Chrysler
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‘Three-parent baby’ test success could mean human trials in two years

The theoretical and controversial method to make a baby from three parents, using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to insert certain genes from a third person into a growing embryo, has been a long time coming. But after years of restricted research and testing on donor eggs, scientists at Newcastle University have successfully tested their mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) method in healthy human embryos for the first time. Should it be deemed safe enough, human trials could start in one or two years.
MRT swaps out defective mitochondria passed down from mother to child with healthy versions from another female donor. Mitochondria provide energy to all living cells, and faulty ones can cause babies to develop degenerative diseases. The “three-parent” baby thus inherits most of its DNA and traits from the mother and father, with the third person supplying only .2 percent of the kid’s genes, none of which control characteristics like hair or eye color.

The Newcastle team showed that MRT worked in 2010 and have been refining their method since. In early experiments, faulty mitochondria still ended up transferring. But of the 200 successful MRT procedures, 79 percent of the test embryos have had less than 2 percent faulty mitochondria (children with less than 30 percent typically don’t develop degenerative diseases). The method isn’t perfect: compared to normal IVF embryos, some cells extracted from embryos with replaced mitochondria showed increased levels of defective DNA as the cells multiplied. And since we won’t know how MRT will affect children over time, the Newcastle scientists will likely only test the method on male babies for a full generation (only women can pass on defective mitochondria).

The UK Parliament permitted tests on human donor eggs in February 2015 amid protest by the Church of England and others. A year later on this side of the pond, a committee of bioethicists convened by the US Food and Drug Administration cautiously approved of MRT, but a congressional ban remains: Lawmakers snuck a provision in the 2016 Congressional budget preventing federal funding of experiments that alter human embryos. Until a new budget bill passes, it falls to countries without such restrictions to develop treatments that could help the roughly 1 in 4000 babies born with defective mitochondria.

Source: New Scientist

Periscope tips and tricks

Broadcasting is so in right now.

Apps like Snapchat let you publish videos in real-time for the world to see, for instance, and then there’s social networks like Facebook, which have added live-streaming tools for its users. Because these types of streaming features are in high demand, it’s easy to see why standalone products are popping up specifically for streaming our moments exactly as they happen. Twitter-owned Periscope is one such example.

It debuted a few years ago, contended with a similar app called Meerkat, but eventually became the go-to broadcasting app for people wanting to live-steam video. One year after its public debut, Periscope revealed its users have created 200 million streams and watched 110 years of video daily. With that in mind, here’s some tips and tricks to help you jump in on Periscope and master broadcasting in no time.

What is Periscope and how does it work?

Twitter bought Periscope in February 2015 – before the app even launched.

It is a free live-streaming app that allows you to live-stream video through your iPhone or Android. You can make your videos public or private. It is basically your own broadcasting station, because you can go live anytime and anywhere. And anyone who joins your video can interact with it by “liking” (clicking hearts on the screen) or getting involved via commenting. You and your follows can also share live broadcasts on Twitter.

Once the broadcast is over, others can replay it (if you’ve enabled this option under your settings). Your broadcasts are automatically saved to your phone as well, where you can then treat them like any other video (publish them online, send through email, re-watch, etc). Also, although Periscope doesn’t yet have a website where you can explore live and finished broadcasts, it does have an Apple TV app with such options.

• For more information about how to actually start broadcasts (also dubbed scopes), check out Pocket-lint’s guide.
• Pocket-lint also has this round-up of the best Periscopers to follow.

Pericope tips and tricks

Now that we’ve covered the basics of Periscope, let’s get into how you can really use and leverage this app…

Starting a broadcast

Tap the Camera icon (under People tab in iOS; at the bottom of the app in Android), enter a title that describes your broadcast, manage your options like location settings, private/public broadcasts, limited chats, tweeting a live stream, then tap Start Broadcast.

Ending a broadcast

To end a broadcast, swipe the screen down during a broadcast and tap Stop Broadcast.

Searching for broadcasts

Under the World Tab, select the search icon to find any public broadcasts by title. You can also search for broadcasts by city, state, or country.

Setting broadcasts to public or private

By default, Periscope sets all broadcasts to public so that they are visible on everyone’s global feed. However, before you start broadcasting, you can tap the lock icon to start a private broadcast. You’ll then be asked which followed you’d like to share the broadcast with, but keep in mind you will only be able to invite users you are following and who follow you.

Liking a broadcast

If you like what you’re seeing in a broadcast, just tap the screen to like the stream/give the broadcaster a heart. Keep in mind hearts are only available in public broadcasts and replays, and hearts in private broadcasts are not counted toward your overall heart count.

Screen-shotting a broadcast

If someone takes a screenshot with their device while you’re broadcasting, a camera icon will appear on the screen alongside any hearts.

Switching between cameras

To switch between a front-facing camera and a rear-facing camera during your broadcast, double tap the screen. You can also swipe down to switch the camera with the camera icon.

Going between landscape and portrait mode

You can broadcast either in portrait mode or landscape. Simply rotate your device.

Zooming in during a broadcast

Simply pinch to zoom on your device’s screen.

Sharing your location

Before you start a broadcast, you will see the option to share your location and make your broadcast discoverable on the Global Map. This will also allow users who search for your location to discover you. To turn your location on or off, use the Compass icon on the Broadcast Tab.

Limiting comments

You can allow everyone in your broadcast to comment, or you can limit comments to only users that you follow. This setting can be enabled or disabled before each broadcast by tapping the chat icon on the broadcast screen.

Hiding chat

Both broadcasters and viewers can hide chat during a broadcast by tapping Hide Chat (swipe right in iOS, or swipe up in Android). When you hide chat during a live broadcast, you won’t be able to see any comments, though all comments will still be viewable in replay and will need to be hidden again if you want to watch the chat without seeing comments. You can do so by tapping the Chat Hidden in chat bar.

Opting out of comment moderation

Periscope lets users report and vote on comments that they consider to be spam or abuse during a broadcast. Broadcasters can opt out of having their broadcasts moderated and viewers can opt out of participating by adjusting settings in the app: Profile > Settings > Comment Moderation.

Entering Cinema mode

You can enter a Cinema mode on the web player by pressing H. This will toggle the display of hearts, comments, titles, and app links, providing you with an unobstructed viewing experience.

Sharing broadcasts

You can share a live broadcast you’re watching with your friends by swiping right in iOS or up on Android and then tapping Share. The shared broadcast will appear friend’s home feed.

Tweeting broadcasts

Before starting a public broadcast, tap the Twitter icon to tweet your broadcast. Your tweet will contain a URL to your broadcast on Periscope’s website, where anyone can watch the broadcast while it is live. To see an example, check out: https://twitter.com/periscopetv

Using tags

Periscope serves up Suggested Tags to make discovering content easier. Simply click on a tag to view live and replay videos related to that topic. To broadcast about a topic and use tags, tap the Broadcast button in the topic’s search results and add the relevant hashtags to your title.

Transition to another device with Handoff

You can start watching a broadcast on one device and transition to another while watching, thanks to Apple’s Handoff feature. So, when you’re using the web view to watch a broadcast on your desktop, you’re able to quickly switch to watching on your iOS device (or vice versa). Just be sure the devices are running iOS 8+ or OS X, have Bluetooth turned on, and are logged in to the same iCloud account.

Letting your broadcasts expire

Periscope allows you to control whether you keep broadcasts indefinitely. Otherwise, they automatically expire after 24 hours. If you would still like your broadcasts to expire after 24 hours, go to Settings and select Auto Delete After 24hr. When Auto-Delete is enabled, you will still be presented with the option to save each broadcast to your camera roll after it ends.

Saving broadcasts to your camera roll

To automatically save your broadcasts to your phone’s camera roll, go to the People Tab, then tap the Profile icon in the top right corner, and rom your Profile page tap Settings. You can then turn on Auto-Save to Camera Roll. To save an individual broadcast after it has ended, you can tap Save to Camera Roll/Gallery after ending a broadcast and download the video.

Replaying broadcasts

To access to your replays, open Broadcasts from your Profile Tab. You can replay any video that hasn’t expired or been deleted.

Deleting replays

If you would like your broadcasts to expire after 24 hours, go to Settings and select Auto Delete After 24hr. You can also delete your individual broadcasts beyond 24 hours by tapping the Delete Broadcast button immediately after your broadcast has ended, or you can open Broadcasts from your Profile, swipe left on the video, and click Delete/Remove Replay.

Understanding broadcast stats

As a broadcaster, you’ll see some stats during and after your broadcast. Live Viewers is the total number of viewers that watched your broadcast live. Replay Viewers is the total number of viewers that have watched your broadcast as a replay. Time Watched is the total amount of time that all viewers watched your broadcast. And Duration is the total length of your broadcast.

Finding people to follow

When you follow someone, you will be invited to join their public broadcasts via push notifications (if they are enabled), and their broadcasts will appear in your Watch Tab. You can also chat in their limited broadcasts.

To find someone to follow, tap the People Tab and browse the list of suggested users to follow, or you can then tap the magnifying glass icon, enter a name into the search bar, then tap the “+” icon for whoever you want to follow. To unfollow someone, go to the user’s profile and tap “unfollow” or uncheck them from your follower list. And that’s it.

Watching via web profiles

Web profiles show live and recent broadcasts with heart counts. People using a Mac or PC can view broadcasts by visiting a user’s web profile page. Profiles are located at periscope.tv/username.

Viewing broadcasts on TV

Periscope is available on the new Apple TV (4th generation). Go to the App Store, download and open the Periscope app, and you can start browsing a collection of live broadcasts from around the world with no account signup required. You can even send hearts to the broadcaster by tapping the Touch surface on the Siri Remote as well as read comments from other people.

This FAQ page has more details about how to use Periscope for Apple TV.

Discovering what’s trending

Periscope has a Trending section in the People Tab that highlights recently popular broadcasters.

Navigating the map

The Map is under the Globe tab. It allow you to access live and replay broadcasts from around the world. When you zoom to a new place on the map, Periscope will load live and replay broadcasts from the region. A broadcast will only show up on the map if the broadcaster is sharing their location. Red dots are live broadcasts, and blue dots are replays.

Pressing to use Force Touch

iPhone 6S and 6S Plus owners can press down on the Periscope app to search people, go to a random location in the world and view a live broadcast, start a private broadcast that only your mutual followers see, or start a public broadcast.

Reporting inappropriate content

If you see inappropriate content on Periscope, swipe left to access the info panel, scroll to the bottom, and tap the Report Broadcast button.

Blocking and unblocking users

When you block a user on Periscope, he or she will not be able to follow you or view any of your content. The same goes for you. To block a user, tap the the user you would like to block. From there, while on their profile, tap the gear icon/menu icon and select Block User. To unblock, tap Blocked in your Profile, select the user, and tap Blocked to bring up the option to Unblock User. Tap this option.

Users will not receive a notification that you have blocked/unblocked them.

Changing usernames

When you sign up for Periscope, you must choose a unique username. You change this username at any time by select your Profile icon, going to Edit, and choosing the second entry (@) to edit your current username. Be sure to hit the Done button to save your changes. Keep in mind you will only be able to change your username twice in a 30-day period.

Changing display names

Your display name is the name located directly under the photo on the profile page. Unlike your username, your display name is not unique to only your account. You can change your display name by selecting your Profile icon, going to Edit, and choosing the first field to edit your display name. Again, be sure to hit the Done button to save your changes.

Switching between multiple Twitter accounts

You can have multiple Periscope accounts if you have multiple Twitter accounts. This FAQ page has more details about how that works.

Getting a blue verification badge

If you are verified on Twitter, your verification badge will carry over to your Periscope attached to your verified Twitter account. Periscope does not award verification badges to accounts yet. Verification is handled by Twitter and is closed to the public.

Editing your profile

To edit your Periscope bio, click the Profile icon in the top right corner on the People Tab, tap the Edit icon on the top right, and you will then see options to edit your photo, display name, and edit your bio inline. .

Managing push notifications

If enabled, you will receive a push when someone starts following you, someone you follow starts a broadcast, someone you follow invites you to a private broadcast, someone you follow shares another person’s live broadcast. This FAQ page has details on how to manage push notifications.

Deleting your account

To delete your Periscope account, you must email help@periscope.tv with subject line “Delete Account”. In the email, include your Periscope username and the email address or phone number associated with your account.

Want to know more?

Periscope has this handy Help Center with more useful tips and tricks.

Adidas uses robots to bring shoe production back to Germany

Years ago, clothing manufacturers started moving production to developing nations where the labor costs were cheap and employees were plentiful. Proponents of globalization said that jobs going to poorer regions was a great thing, but sportswear firms paying workers pennies to make $100 shirts certainly isn’t. But now, the robot revolution is likely to cause a retreat from the days of fashion houses opening sweatshops in far-flung lands. And Adidas, which has often come under fire for its use of unethical labor practices, is leading the charge.

The Financial Times is reporting that Adidas is going to bring back production to its native Germany for the first time in 30 years. It’s spent the last six months testing a robotic factory with automated production lines creating soles and uppers separately before stitching them together. Spurred on by the results, the company is working on a large facility near Ansbach which will begin making sneakers for sale at some point next year. Another facility will be built in the US, although both are expected to produce just a tiny fraction of the 301 million pairs the firm made last year.

The paper explains that a robot production line takes about five hours to create each pair of sneakers from scratch. By comparison, it apparently takes “several weeks” to do the same job in an Asian factory with human workers. Efficiency and cost savings may be the name of the game, but there are other perks for companies toying with robot production. Adidas will become more nimble when it comes to creating new sneakers, and can cut costs by only manufacturing a shoe when demand is high enough. That will end the days of unwanted stock being sold off on the cheap at the end of the season, reducing waste and boosting profits.

Of course, the end goal is surely to end the days of buying a sneaker off the shelf and simply have a custom-made kick sent to your home days after ordering. It’s another benefit of localization, since Adidas will be able to get product into the hands of consumers far faster if factories are located nearer to its audience. With advances in 3D printing likely to come in the future, the idea of things you want to buy being made in a far-flung land may be a thing of the past in three or four decades time.

But there’s a dark side to all of this, which is what’s going to happen to those communities when the sweatshops eventually close. In 1992, US Senator Tom Harkin proposed legislation that would block imports of goods produced by children under the age of 15. A year later, the Bangladesh garment industry dismissed 50,000 children in anticipation of the bill, which was never passed. A 1997 report by UNICEF tracked those children, and found that their situation had gotten worse, not better. As the report explains, the children wound up in “hazardous situations” where they were “paid less, or in prostitution.”

Source: Financial Times