Waymo killed its adorable self-driving cars to focus on minivans

You know those cute Waymo cars – the ones that are the size of golf carts? Well, don’t expect to see them on the road again.

Waymo is a self-driving car company that began at Google but was recently spun off by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The unit works on software and sensors originally developed in Google’s secret labs, but since 2015, it’s been testing fully autonomous car technology in a tiny prototype vehicle known as Firefly. Waymo even completed the “world’s first truly self-driving trip” in a Firefly just two years ago.

• What is Google Waymo and when can you expect the first cars
• Google Waymo offers self-driving car rides to public for first time
• Alphabet’s Waymo moves on from cars, now testing self-driving trucks

But now Waymo is done driving around that version of its self-driving car. In a blog post on 12 June, Waymo said its fleet of Fireflies has been retired. Going forward, it will focus on integrating its latest technology into vehicles like the new self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan:

“By focusing on mass-produced vehicles like the Pacifica minivan, we’ll be able to bring fully self-driving technology to more people, more quickly. The Pacifica minivans are equipped with our latest generation of custom-built radar, LiDAR and vision systems and an all-new AI compute platform, so they can see even further and sharper. They can also reach full speed (where the Firefly is limited to 25mph), and the interior is equipped with creature comforts that passengers expect in their vehicles today  —  which makes our initial fleet of 600 self-driving minivans a perfect fit for our early rider program.”

So, what does this mean?

For starters, Google’s Waymo has come a long way. It’s also obviously not interested in manufacturing self-driving cars, but rather partnering with other automakers so that third-party cars can be quipped to showcase and use Waymo’s autonomous car technology. The end goal, presumably, is to sell that technology to any automakers that are interested. But that’s just speculation for now.

Although you will no longer see Fireflies out and about, Waymo said you can see a couple Fireflies on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA and the Design Museum in London.

Waymo

What’s on TV: ‘John Wick 2,’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘American Gods’

While E3 rages on, there is a world outside of upcoming videogames. This week the NBA Finals will end (and it could be tonight), while on Blu-ray, John Wick 2 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are both available in 4K. It’s also time for the season finales of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Starz’ American Gods. There is one big videogame release this week though, as Arms arrives on Switch. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• John Wick 2 (4K)
• Power Rangers (VOD)
• The Lego Batman Movie (3D, 4K)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (4K)
• The Gumball Rally
• Cars 3: Driven to Win (PS4, Xbox One)
• Air Missions: Hind (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
• Moto GP 17 (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• Arms (Switch – 6/16)
• Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic (PS4)

Monday

• American Ninja Warrior (season premiere), NBC, 8PM
• So You Think You Can Dance? (season premiere), Fox, 8PM
• Shadowhunters, Freeform, 8PM
• NBA Finals: Warriors vs. Cavaliers, ABC, 9PM
• Superhuman (series premiere), Fox, 9PM
• Putin Interviews: Night 1, Showtime, 9PM
• Women Who Kill, A&E, 9PM
• Stitchers, Freeform, 9PM
• Whose Line is it Anyway?, CW, 9PM
• The Twins, Freeform, 9PM
• Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge (season premiere), NBC, 10PM
• #Murder, TV One, 10PM
• Better Call Saul, AMC, 10PM
• American Dad, TBS, 10PM
• The Therapist, Viceland, 11PM
• Angie Tribeca (season finale), TBS, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Tuesday

• Casual, Hulu, 3AM
• Terrace House: Aloha State, Netflix, 3AM
• Oh, Hello – On Broadway, Netflix, 3AM
• 30 for 30: Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies (Part 1 & 2 of 3), ESPN, 8PM
• America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
• Downward Dog, ABC, 8PM
• Pretty Little Liars, Freeform, 8PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9PM
• The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros, MTV, 9PM
• Famous in Love, Freeform, 9PM
• Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
• iZombie, CW, 9PM
• Switched at Birth, Freeform, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
• World of Dance, NBC, 10PM
• Team Ninja Warrior, USA, 10PM
• The Jim Jefferies Show, Comedy Central, 11PM
• Desus and Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• The Handmaid’s Tale (season finale), Hulu, 3AM
• 30 for 30: Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies (Part 3 of 3), ESPN, 8PM
• Dirty Dancing, ABC, 8PM
• Kingdom, DirecTV Audience, 8PM
• Big Star Little Star, USA, 9PM
• The F Word with Gordon Ramsey, Fox, 9PM
• Are You the One: All Star Challenge, MTV, 9PM
• The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
• Fargo, FX, 10PM
• Blood Drive (series premiere), Syfy, 10PM
• The Ultimate Fighter, FS1, 10PM
• Nobodies, TV Land, 10PM
• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS, 10:30PM
• Bong Appetit, Viceland, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Thursday

• Maco Luque: Tamu Junto, Netflix, 3AM
• Beat Shazam, Fox, 8PM
• Naked & Afraid: The Ultimate Fan Challenge, Discovery, 8PM
• NBA Finals: Cavaliers vs. Warriors Game 6 (if necessary), ABC, 9PM
• The Putin Interviews: Night 4 (season finale), Showtime, 9PM
• The Tunnel (season premiere), PBS, 9PM
• Love Connection, Fox, 9PM
• King of the Road , Viceland, 9PM
• Queen of the South, USA, 10PM
• Party Legends, Viceland, 10PM
• American Boyband, Viceland, 10:30PM
• Impractical Jokers, TruTV, 11PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• Cardinal (S1), Hulu, 3AM
• Counterpunch, Netflix, 3AM
• The Ranch (S2 – Episodes 1 – 10), Netflix, 3AM
• Winx Club Wow (S2), Netflix, 3AM
• Vice, HBO, 7:30PM
• Dark Matter (S3), Syfy, 8PM
• The Originals, CW, 8PM
• Motherboard, Viceland, 9PM
• Reign (series finale), CW, 9PM
• Wynonna Earp, Syfy, 10PM
• Tanked, Animal Planet, 10PM
• Earthworks (season finale), Viceland, 11PM
• Motherboard (season finale), Viceland, 12AM

Saturday

• Idiotsitter (season finale), Comedy Central, 8PM
• Turn (season premiere), AMC, 9PM
• In an Instant, ABC, 9PM
• T.J. Miller: Meticulously Meticulous, HBO, 10PM
• Orphan Black, BBC America, 10PM

Sunday

• NBA Finals: Cavaliers vs. Warriors Game 7 (if necessary), ABC, 8PM
• Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, 8PM
• NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 8PM
• Bob’s Burgers, Fox, 8:30PM
• Claws, TNT, 9PM
• Grantchester (season premiere), PBS, 9PM
• American Grit, Fox, 9PM
• Fear the Walking Dead, AMC, 9PM
• Steve Harvey’s Funderdome, ABC, 9PM
• American Gods (season finale), Starz, 9PM
• Twin Peaks, Showtime, 9PM
• $100,000 Pyramid, ABC, 10PM
• Naked & Afraid XL, Discovery, 10PM
• Unsung, TV One, 10PM
• Silicon Valley, HBO, 10PM
• United Shades of America, CNN, 10PM
• Veep, HBO, 10:30PM
• Kevin Hart Presents (series premiere), Comedy Central, 11PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM
• Legends of Chamberlain Heights (season premiere), Comedy Central, 11:30PM

Herman Miller tries to cash in on our activity-tracking obsession

We already know that sitting all day damages our health, and plenty of companies have tried to do something about it. Now, furniture maker Herman Miller is getting in on the action with a line of smart furniture sensors called Live OS.

While Live OS does come preinstalled on Herman Miller’s stand-to-sit desks, you also can buy the sensors alone and use them with your existing furniture. On regular desks, whether standing or sitting, the sensor will merely collect anonymized data about when and how often a space is being used. On Herman Miller’s convertible standing desks, however, it can also keep tabs on how often users switch positions between standing and sitting. Through an app, users can set goals and receive gentle reminders when it’s time for them to stand up or sit down.

It’s unclear how Herman Miller’s Live OS desks will compare to other smart desks, such as Stir’s Kinetic furniture line; while Stir’s desks have an integrated touch screen controller, it appears as though Herman Miller’s smart features are controlled exclusively through their app. It’s also hard to compare the two because pricing details for Herman Miller desks integrated with Live OS haven’t been released.

We do know how much the tech will cost, and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t come cheap. The standalone sensors cost $100, with an additional $36 per desk per year in subscription fees. The per-desk subscription fee for the Herman Miller desk is slightly higher, at $60 a year. It’s a little strange that the fee is actually higher if you’re using it with a Herman Miller product; you’d think they’d want to incentivize buying one of their (pricey) desks, rather than consumers opting for the cheaper add-on.

Quartz notes that Live OS pricing goes down with volume subscriptions, as well as for longer commitments. Between the pricing and data collection features, it’s clear that Herman Miller’s target for Live OS is corporate customers, rather than individual home users.

Via: The Verge

Source: Herman Miller

We’re live from Sony’s E3 2017 keynote!

At this year’s E3, Microsoft and Sony have different approaches. As tradition dictates, Xbox got out of the gates first yesterday, but the console (and that “Scorpio” upgrade) had more to prove than PlayStation, which has been leading the market for several years now. So what will Sony’s 2017 plans involve? If the last few years are any indication, the company will probably stay focused completely on the games. We reckon we’ll hear news about the next Uncharted, hopefully something about that Last Of Us sequel, and an update on how Kratos is faring as a father in the next God Of War. Oh, and PlayStation VR: How’s that doing?

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Superhot is coming to PlayStation VR

Just last year, Superhot VR came out for PC and consoles with a fancy new game mechanic: time only moves when you do. The virtual reality version came out for Oculus Rift last October with a couple of twists: the player stays in one place while the enemies advance. In the PlayStation pre-show today, the company announced that Superhot VR will be coming to Sony’s PSVR system “in a couple of weeks.”

This story is developing.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Sony wants you to control PlayStation games on your phone

Sony doesn’t think your friends should have to sit on the sidelines while you’re engrossed in a PlayStation game… if anything, it wants them to dive in. It’s launching PlayLink, an effort that lets you participate in PS4 games from your Android or iOS device. Think of it like you would Jackbox’s party games, only on a grander scale — you can play or influence all kinds of games without picking up a gamepad. Sony has only shown a handful of examples of what you can do, but the initial game roster includes the quiz game That’s You, the drama Hidden Agenda (from the team behind Until Dawn), Frantics, Knowledge is Power and Singstar Celebration.

We’re still waiting on full launch details as we write this, but That’s You will be first out the gate with a July 4th launch. It’ll be free for PlayStation Plus members. From what we’ve seen, the concept is promising. The addition of a mobile component lets developers build games with collective decision making (Hidden Agenda is a notable example) and private information that wouldn’t be an option if you were only looking at a TV screen. It also makes PlayStation games more accessible by using a touch interface that many people already understand.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Source: PlayStation (Twitter)

‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ will get an expansion, ‘The Frozen Wilds,’ this year

Horizon Zero Dawn is undoubtably one of the best titles in this console generation, and if you haven’t gotten enough of the massive game, Sony has some good news for you. An expansion, entitled The Frozen Wilds, is set to launch later this year. An all-too-brief trailer was just shown off at Sony’s big E3 press conference — and as the name suggests, you’re fully out in the wilderness here, making your way through a frozen tundra.

The trailer didn’t show off much in the way of gameplay detail, but the environments, costumes and robotic animals of Horizon Zero Dawn were all unmistakeable. And, of course, protagonist Aloy shows up at the end. How this all ties into the main game remains to be seen — this trailer was short and mysterious. But, given how good the main game is, the more Horizon fun we can get, the better. Here’s hoping there’s a demo on the E3 show floor for us to check out.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Zombies aren’t the only threat in ‘Days Gone’

They’re called ‘infected’ in The Last of Us, ‘feral ghouls’ in Fallout and ‘unmentionables’ in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies — but put aside labels and physical differences, and they’re all the same: classic, terrifying horde monsters. In Days Gone they’re called ‘freakers,’ and there’s a lot of them. This open-world survival game made its debut at E3 2016 with an action packed trailer that took zombie hordes in gaming to a new level, but left us wanting for details. The gameplay looked great, but the demo lacked something of a human connection. Today, Sony showed us a bit more — showing us a taste of the game’s open world as Decon St. John’s human rides his motorbike across the game’s vast landscape on a quest to rescue a friend. Not from freakers, though — from other people.

The short gameplay demo is almost the polar opposite of the action-packed preview we saw last year. Instead of attacking a unending horde of monsters with grenades, guns and obstacles, St. John quietly sneaks through an enemy camp to find his missing friend. It’s refreshing, showing that there are more ways to navigate Days Gone’s post-apocalyptic world than just sheer firepower. Players can instead execute stealth take-downs, set up traps and quietly infiltrate enemy outposts.

Combined with the story and character driven aspects of the demo, the presentation goes a long way toward showing us the character’s motivation for survival. Unfortunately, the game still leaves a lot in the dark. Who are the other human factions St John is fighting? Is that bear at the end infected like the freakers? And,perhaps most importantly, when is this game coming out? Sadly, Sony provided no answers. At least not today. But hey, that trailer looks pretty cool, right?

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

‘Hidden Agenda’ is the next social game from the ‘Until Dawn’ crew

Until Dawn was one of the more unique attempts at cinematic gameplay, mostly because it was ready made for playing with a group of your friends. Now its developers, Supermassive Games, are gearing up for an even more social experience with their next PlayStation 4 title, Hidden Agenda. It’s one of the first games to support Sony’s new PlayLink feature, which lets a group of people play together with their smartphones.

Hidden Agenda centers on a group of people trying to stop a serial killer, so you can expect to see plenty of grizzly death sequences like in Until Dawn. The launch trailer shows a group of four friends using their phones to make group decisions — like sticking together or going separately, when entering a new area — and at other times one person is forced to make a choice. The game will also secretly give one player a secret objective (hence the name), that could put them at odds with the others. If anything, it looks like it’ll be another great party game from Supermassive.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Ni No Kuni II arrives on November 10th

Ahead of Sony’s highly anticipated E3 address on Monday, Bandai Namco confirmed that its sequel to 2013’s “Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” will arrive on November 10, 2017. The story follows young King Evan as he attempts to rebuild the kingdom of Ding Dong Dell after an attempted coup.

Level-5 productions is behind the game’s development and a collaboration with former Studio Ghibli artist Yoshiyuki Momose. In addition to the PS4, Ni No Kuni II will make its debut on PC as well.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!