RoBattle is a modular, autonomous combat robot

Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) new combat robot has a wide variety of applications. The machine called RoBattle can be used as an advance guard, as a decoy or for surveillance missions. Why? Because it uses a system that the manufacturer calls modular “robotic kit” made up of several components: vehicle control, navigation, RT mapping and autonomy, sensors and mission payloads. Since it has a modular design, the company can swap in parts depending on what a particular mission needs. For instance, it could either use wheels or tracks, and its payload could be anything from robotic arms and sensors/radars to remote-controlled weapons.

IAI is showing it off at the Eurosatory airland defense and security exhibition in France, which starts on June 13th. If you can’t make it there, don’t worry. The video below demonstrates some of the machine’s skills, particularly its ability to cross rough terrain and even climb over walls.

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Via: Defense Update

Source: Israel Aerospace Industries

Tesco Mobile will cut your bill if you agree to view ads

Smartphone contracts can be expensive, especially if you want a deal with a sizeable data allowance. To help you save money, Tesco is offering an unusual deal — put up with ads on your lock screen and in exchange, you’ll get £3 off your monthly bill. The offer is being handled by Unlockd, a startup that’s already partnered with Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint in the US, and Lebara, a network in Australia. You simply download the Android app, log in with your Tesco account and set some preferences. An ad will then be shown “every few times” you unlock your phone.

A price worth paying? We’ll let you be the judge. The ads, offers and other paid-for content will come from brands such as British Airways, McDonalds, Doritos and Branston. Unlockd has also partnered with Facebook to deliver “relevant and personal” Facebook ads, and the Sun for what it hopes are interesting news stories. Everything can be dismissed by tapping a small cross mark, or, if you’re taken by something, you can swipe through to see more information or hit a heart icon to save it for later.

Many will bristle at the notion of choosing to see more ads on their phone. The concept runs counter to other mobile networks, such as Three, which are looking to block mobile ads altogether. Here, of course, the proposition is a little different. Tesco and Unlockd are offering advertisers a prime position on people’s phones — one that would normally be impossible to reach. Whereas customers choose ad-blockers to improve their experience — usually for free — here they can degrade it (the occasional ad can be useful, of course) in order to receive some financial gain.

Source: Tesco Mobile Xtras

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