Sit back, relax, and enjoy a ride through the history of self-driving cars

Why it matters to you

Self-driving cars are a dream a long time in the making. Here are the 8 landmark events which got us to the present day.

Seemingly within just a few years, autonomous cars have gone from science fiction fantasy to reality. But while it seems like this technology emerged virtually overnight, the path to self-driving vehicles has taken a whole lot longer than that.

While it’s not easy to compress the near-100 year history of the field into just eight milestones, we’ve done our best. While there are dozens of autonomous vehicle projects which didn’t make our list, here are the major stops on the road that you need to know about as self-driving cars get set to change the face of transport as we know it!

The driverless dream begins

It didn’t take long after the birth of the motorcar for inventors to start thinking about autonomous vehicles. In 1925, the inventor Francis Houdina demonstrates a radio-controlled car, which he drives through the streets of Manhattan without anyone at the steering wheel. According to the New York Times, the radio-controlled vehicle can start its engine, shift gears, and sound its horn, “as if a phantom hand were at the wheel.”

As an amusing aside, Houdina’s name sounded sufficiently like that of the famous escape artist and illusionist Harry Houdini that a lot of people thought this was Houdini’s latest trick. Houdini visited the Houdina Company and got into a physical altercation, during which he broke an electric chandelier.

John McCarthy’s robo-chauffeur

In 1969, John McCarthy — a.k.a. one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence — describes something similar to the modern autonomous vehicle in an essay titled “Computer-Controlled Cars.” McCarthy refers to an “automatic chauffeur,” capable of navigating a public road via a “television camera input that uses the same visual input available to the human driver.”

He writes that users should be able to enter a destination using a keyboard, which would prompt the car to immediately drive them there. Additional commands allow users to change destination, stop at a rest room or restaurant, slow down, or speed up in the case of an emergency. No such vehicle is built, but McCarthy’s essay lays out the mission for other researchers to work toward.

No Hands Across America

In the early 1990s, Carnegie Mellon researcher Dean Pomerleau writes a PhD thesis, describing how neural networks could allow a self-driving vehicle to take in raw images from the road and output steering controls in real time. Pomerleau isn’t the only researcher working on self-driving cars, but his use of neural nets proves way more efficient than alternative attempts to manually divide images into “road” and “non-road” categories.

In 1995, Pomerleau and fellow researcher Todd Jochem take their Navlab self-driving car system on the road. Their bare bones autonomous minivan (they have to control speed and braking) travels 2,797 miles coast-to-coast from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to San Diego, California in a journey the pair dubs “No Hands Across America.”

The Grand Challenge is too challenging

In 2002, DARPA announces its Grand Challenge, offering researchers from top research institutions a $1 million prize if they can build an autonomous vehicle able to navigate 142 miles through the Mojave Desert.

When the challenge kicks off in 2004, none of the 15 competitors are able to complete the course. The “winning” entry makes it less than eight miles in several hours, before catching fire. It’s a damaging blow to the goal of building real self-driving cars.

Parking gets smarter

While autonomous vehicles still seem way in the future in the decade of the 2000s, self-parking systems begin to emerge — demonstrating that sensors and autonomous road technologies are getting close to ready for real world scenarios.

Toyoto’s Japanese Prius hybrid vehicle offers automatic parallel parking assistance from 2003, while Lexus soon adds a similar system for its Lexus LS sedan, Ford incorporates Active Park Assist in 2009, and BMW follows one year later with its own parallel parking assistant.

Google searches for an answer

Starting in 2009, Google begins developing its self-driving car project, now called Waymo, in secret. The project is initially led by Sebastian Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View.

Within a few years, Google announces that its autonomous cars have collectively driven 300,000 miles under computer control without one single accident occurring. In 2014, it reveals a prototype of a driverless car without any steering wheel, gas pedal or brake pedal, thereby being 100 percent autonomous. By the end of last year, more than 2 million miles had been driven by Google’s autonomous car.

The big car manufacturers dive in

By 2013, major automotive companies including General Motors, Ford, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and others are all working on their own self-driving car technologies. Nissan commits to a launch date by announcing that it will release several driverless cars by the year 2020.

Other cars, such as the 2014 Mercedes S-Class, add semi-autonomous features such as self steering, the ability to stay within lanes, accident avoidance, and more. The likes of Tesla and Uber also begin actively exploring self-driving technology, while Apple is rumored to be doing so.

The first autonomous car fatality

Sadly, but inevitably, the first autonomous car fatality takes place. The incident occurs in Florida while a Tesla Model S is in self-driving Autopilot mode. The Tesla’s human occupant dies when the car hits an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, failing to brake in time after the trailer turns in front of it.

The death sparks renewed debate about self-driving cars and some of the technical and ethical issues surrounding them on the road. It’s a setback, but one which underlines the fact that — like it or not — autonomous cars are well and truly here.

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Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes Apple apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest iOS app deals available from the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Cranky Weather

There’s always something to complain about, especially when it comes to weather. Cranky Weather gives you hilariously twisted weather reports for every situation.

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Remote Drive

Turn your iPhone or iPad into the wireless flash drive for your Mac. Have full access to your Mac files – use your iOS device to stream videos, and view photos and documents, from anywhere within your home.

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SafeRide/WalkSafe

SafeRide/WalkSafe is a travel safety app designed to give you peace of mind, especially when traveling alone. You can feel safe and secure by using SafeRide/WalkSafe when you take a taxi, use a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft, or walk alone at night.

Available on:

iOS

MosaLingua

Learn Italian in no time with this app. MosaLingua’s effective and addictive teaching method will help you memorize loads of vocabulary, key phrases,and conjugations in record time.

Available on:

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Vocabulary

Looking for tips for improving your vocabulary? Whether you are trying to strengthen and broaden your vocabulary for school or personal growth, the key is a commitment to regularly learning new words. This app can help.

iOS

Translate for Safari

The app is a Safari extension that translates and speaks aloud the entire web page of Safari app. A must have app to translate and speak aloud web pages of Safari.

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• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

These Terminal commands will take your MacOS skills to the next level

The MacOS Terminal can be pretty intimidating. It’s the kind of tool that can make anyone feel out of their depth. It lurks there in your Utilities folder beside all those other applications you only ever need to launch when there’s something seriously wrong with your Mac.

This application is a powerful tool that allows you to access the deepest recesses of your Mac and fiddle around with things that you may have thought were off limits. It’s frequently used by system admins and software developers, but it’s easy enough for the average person to use as well.

Let’s take a guided tour through the four most useful MacOS terminal commands, and how you can use them to tailor your MacOS High Sierra experience.

How to open the terminal

This is probably the most important part of this guide since many people don’t know that the Terminal even exists. To open the Terminal, all you need to do is open your Finder, click on Applications there on the left sidebar, and then open the Utilities folder all the way at the bottom. The Terminal icon looks like a little black window, ready to take your commands. The icon is fitting because that’s exactly what the application does.

Terminal is an interface through which you do nothing more than issue text commands to your Mac. Once you issue a command, the Terminal will respond in one of three ways: recognize and accept those commands, not recognize them, or prompt you for further input. It’s that simple.

The commands below will help familiarize you with how the Terminal works, and what you can use it for in your everyday life.

Keep your Mac from sleeping

Full command: caffeinate -u -t 600 

This command accomplishes one very simple problem: keeping your computer awake for a period of time. Just open the Terminal and type in ‘caffeinate’ and your Mac or MacBook won’t go to sleep until you terminate that Terminal window. You can also set a timer, by typing ‘caffeinate -u -t’ then how long, in seconds, you want to prevent your Mac from sleeping.

The completed command would look something like this: ‘caffeine -u -t 120’ — and that’ll keep your Mac from sleeping for just two minutes.

Change screenshot formats

Full command: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG

MacOS makes it really easy to capture screenshots of your whole screen (Command + Shift 3) or just part of your screen (Command + Shift +4). However, it always saves those screenshots to your desktop as PNG files. That’s not always a bad thing, but sometimes you just need a JPG. If you’re not sure why that matters, check out our breakdown of image filetypes for the full explanation.

This Terminal command can solve that problem. It allows you to change the filetype your screenshots will be saved as — in this example, we’ve used JPG which will make all your screenshots save as JPG files. You can change it back at any time by typing the above command but instead of JPG, type PNG.

Show detailed file paths

Full command: defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

By default, when you open a folder in MacOS, the top of the window will show the name of the folder, but not where it is. For instance, open up your Pictures folder and the top of the finder window will just say Pictures, not ‘users/yourname/pictures.’ It’s not a problem, but it can be irritating, especially when you’re moving folders around or digging through folders trying to find a particular file.

This terminal command shows the full path of a folder in the Finder window of that folder. If nothing else it’s a helpful way to get an idea of how your files are arranged and keep your Mac nice and organized. Undoing this change is just as easy as typing out the above command again, and replacing YES with NO.

Show hidden files

Full command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Sometimes you just need to dig into the sensitive guts of MacOS to fix some problem or another, and that will require accessing files that your Mac would prefer you left alone. By default, most sensitive files and folders are hidden from view, including from Spotlight and Siri searches. With the right terminal command, you can peel back the curtain and peer into the darkest reaches of your Mac.

The above command un-hides all of your delicate system files. If you’d prefer those go back to being hidden, just re-enter the above command but swap TRUE with FALSE.

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Samsung offering free DeX or Gear VR with Galaxy S8 or Note 8 purchase

Available now through November 18.

Flagship phones are great, but they also have a tendency to be quite pricey. Samsung regularly runs promotions to help defer the cost of its Galaxy devices, and the latest one allows buyers to grab a free DeX Station or Gear VR with the purchase of a new phone.

You’ll need to make your order through Samsung’s website to claim your free gift, and with the DeX Station and Gear VR (with an included controller) regularly costing $149 and $129, respectively, this is a really solid deal to hop on if you’re looking to do some early shopping for the holiday season.

Eligible devices include the Galaxy S8, S8+, S8 Active, and Note 8. The deal is live now through Saturday, November 18, so be sure to act fast to ensure you don’t miss out.

See at Samsung

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What are Zigbee and Z-Wave? Everything you need to know!

Your connected home can be built a lot of different ways, but likely starts right here.

Maybe the most fun part of new tech and internets of things and stuff is all the crazy names attached to it. And there are a lot of them.

Two of the most popular, for now anyway, are Zigbee and Z-Wave. They are fun to say and have similar sounding names, and are mostly used for the same things. But there are some differences. We’ve seen more than a few questions about them and since we like to geek out over this sort of thing, we can talk about what they are and what they are used for. And bees.

What is Z-Wave?

Samsung’s SmartThings uses Z-Wave to control just about anything.

Z-Wave (or ZWave or Z Wave) is a way for two or more things to communicate wirelessly. It’s a low-energy mesh network where devices can communicate directly with each other by sending very reliable and very small low-latency bursts of data, but it still requires a hub or gateway so a device can control all the other devices. It’s almost exclusively used for residential applications — you use it around your home or small office — while other standards (like Zigbee, which we’ll get to in a minute) are better suited for industrial and wide-scale commercial applications.

Z-Wave is represented by names we already know, and there are 1,700 different products that are Z-Wave-certified.

Z-Wave is very well suited for home automation. Devices like door locks, thermostats, and light switches don’t send large packages of data and often only send or receive data while they are actually in use. Your garage may have a security system in place, but the door opener only needs to know when it’s time to open or close the door. Data speeds are capped at 100kbps and the maximum recommended distance between mesh nodes is 40 meters, though older Z-Wave gear has a maximum throughput of 9.6 kbps and a 30-meter range. A data packet can hop between four nodes before it’s discarded but Z-Wave’s network mapping is pretty good so the shortest distance with the fewest hops will usually be used.

Z-Wave transmits on the unlicensed Part 15 ISM band (Texas Instruments .pdf file link) at 908.42MHz in North America and 868.42MHz in Europe. Other countries have specific frequencies that Z-Wave is regulated to use and all this is important because Z-Wave can use the same radio frequency bands as consumer cordless telephones. This isn’t an ideal situation, but it does keep Z-Wave completely clear of the crowded 2.4GHz band that Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a host of less popular standards use.

Z-Wave was introduced in 2001, and as of 2012 is an option in the ITU’s (International Telecommunications Union) G.9959 standard for wireless devices under 1GHz.

What is Zigbee?

The new Echo Plus is also a Zigbee controller!

Zigbee is also a low-power wireless mesh network standard, designed specifically so devices will have a long battery life. Zigbee can be used for residential applications and it works well, but it’s also well suited for industrial and large-scale commercial use. The network layer supports star (a central hub and devices connected to it) and tree (groups of star networks connected to one linear backbone) networks as well as a generic mesh node-to-node layout. Every Zigbee network needs at least one controller device but can support more than one.

Zigbee is designed to work well in places where wireless is congested, but it also works great in our homes.

Support for numerous types of network topology and support for multiple coordinating devices are part of what makes Zigbee a good choice for more complicated applications. Zigbee support is included in microcontrollers with their own flash storage so automation routines can be built and triggered as needed by software. Other types of Zigbee devices include routers which can act as a network extender and ZEDs — Zigbee End Devices which can only receive data from a coordinator device and can’t relay data back.

Zigbee is one of the global standards covered by the IEEE 802.15 group. It operates in the unlicensed portion of the 2.4 GHz bands but can also operate in the unlicensed 902 to 928 MHz (Australia, North America, and South America) and the 868 to 868.6 MHz (Europe) ISM bands. Transfer rates cap at 250 kbps in the 2.4 GHz band, 40 kbps in the 915 MHz band, and 20 kbps in the 868 MHz band. Data rates will be slower than the maximum, partly because Zigbee has more overhead. It was designed to operate in “hostile” (think crowded, congested and always changing) 2.4 GHz band and has built-in collision avoidance and retry abilities. Typical range is between 10 and 20 meters depending on any obstruction, but in outdoor long-range applications, a range of 1,500 meters (line of sight) is possible as the output power of a Zigbee radio can reach 20 dBm at 100 mW (a lot stronger than you think).

Zigbee was named after the dance worker honeybees perform when they return to the hive. Bee’s zig-zag. Zig. Bee. And yes, I’m serious. 🐝

So which is better?

That’s going to depend on who you ask and what they are doing that uses either standard.

Z-Wave is more mature and easier to develop applications for. Almost every device will use the same Intel MCS-51 microcontroller and familiar names like Carrier, Honeywell, Black & Decker and Samsung are part of the Z-Wave Alliance and help keep Z-Wave robust yet simple in design and operation.

When it comes to consumer products, one is not better than the other.

Zigbee is great for devices that are hard to reach. A Zigbee certified device must have a battery life of over 2 years to pass testing. the protocol is just really friendly when it comes to power requirements. But Zigbee networks can be far more complicated, and even if you’re producing a simple switch you’ll need to be able to support any network configuration. Zigbee also competes for bandwidth with high-speed protocols like Bluetooth and IrDA (Infrared Data Association) that are built to use every bit of bandwidth possible for applications like voice or video transmission. This is why multiple network topographies and great collision and retry features are a big part of the standard.

So, yeah. It really depends on what you’re trying to do! SmartThings is a perfect use case for Z-Wave. A small hub in your house lets you control up to 230 devices with your phone, or over the internet or through Google Home. Zigbee is a better fit for something that needs to be able to stay connected under any conditions. Something like this SHURE wireless microphone developed in 2011 that was able to transfer in real time and in a very congested area. Though these microphones are now end-of-life with the dawn of 600 MHz cellular connections.

For the things we as consumers love to use, both are great. The characteristics of Z-Wave make it more robust in a house filled with walls and multiple floors, but Zigbee devices are also trouble-free in the home most of the time. And there are cool gadgets that use either protocol or even both. you can do amazing things in your home with SmartThings or Wink hub and control it all with your phone or you watch or something like an Amazon Echo or Google Home.

These products and services work with Google Home

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Latest OnePlus 5 update resolves KRACK vulnerability

OxygenOS 4.5.14 is rolling out to some users starting today, with a larger rollout taking place over the next few days.

Say what you will about OnePlus, it’s no secret that the company does a solid job at pushing out speedy software updates to its latest devices. Although the OnePlus 5T is right around the corner, the latest update for the OnePlus 5 is here, and its main focus in on making the phone more reliable and secure.

The biggest thing to take note of is that updating to OxygenOS 4.5.14 will get rid of the WPA2 vulnerability that was introduced with KRACK in mid-October. This is big news for all OnePlus 5 users, and it’s great to see OnePlus pushing out a fix so soon.

In addition to this, the update also includes support for Airtel VoLTE in India, Band 66 support for Freedom customers in Canada, optimized battery usage and GPS accuracy, as well as general bug fixes throughout the OS.

OnePlus says that the over-the-air update will start to hit some users’ devices starting today, with a larger rollout happening over the next few days.

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The Spinner Cube is the ultimate desk toy for fidgeters!

Fidget spinner or fidget cube? 🤔 Why not both! 🙌

It’s safe to say that fidget spinners and fidget cubes were some of the biggest trends of the past year. They’re especially popular with school-age kids who have issues with stress or a lack of focus, but they’ve struck a chord with all ages and are a popular desk toy — I got my fidget cube right next to me right now!

Given the popularity, it seemed like only a matter of time before the next evolution of fidget toy emerged and here it is: The Spinner Cube

While this might look like your standard fidget cube looks can be deceiving. Four of the sides have a unique feature for your fingers to fidget with — a joystick for your itchy gamer’s thumb, a spring-loaded trigger that also mimics a game controller, three rolling clickable balls, and five audible and silent clicker buttons for the pen clickers in the crowd. The remaining two sides features spinning pads with high-quality ball bearings that will spin up to 60 seconds unassisted, or indefinitely with a few shakes thanks to the off-balanced design.

Check out this (quite literal) breakdown of what’s inside the Spinner Cube:

The Spinner Cube has already well surpassed its goal, but there’s still time to back the project and get your own Spinner Cube at a discounted price. The team behind the Spinner Cube has spent a year designing and setting up production facilities in China, and have turned to Kickstarter to cover costs as they ramp up production overseas — and as always, that means there are deals to be had for backing this campaign.

The Spinner Cube will retail for $25, but you can save 28% and get a Spinner Cube of your own with an early bird pledge of $18. Got a couple people on your shopping list that would love a Spinner Cube? The savings and perks only increase as you pledge more — get two cubes at the $34 level, three with a pledge of $48, and so on up to a 100 Spinner Cube perk for a pledge of $900 or more — a great option if you happen to own a small business. They’re also available in four color styles.

This is the first Kickstarter campaign created by this team and the good news is they’ve already well surpassed their goal of $9,000! This is arguably the ultimate fidget toy and just might keep the wheels spinning on this fad well into 2018!

See Spinner Cube on Kickstarter

Amazon’s new Retro Zone sells video games and nostalgia

Nostalgia sells. Retro games sell, too. Amazon just wants to capitalize on that venture.

Amazon has opened a new section of its site called “Retro Zone.” This is a curated section that mostly features older video games and video game peripherals. Right now the site is divided into sections featuring retro apps, console games and gaming peripherals, retro clothing with t-shirts that say “Pong” on them, toys, and books. Dive into nostalgia with a Sonic plush toy, Pac-Man mini arcade, or artwork from Atari.

The site is mostly just a collection of stuff from around Amazon. There are a few unique additions, though. Some of the retro apps, which are accessible via Amazon’s Android Appstore, come with Amazon-exclusive in-game skins. Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, for example, comes with an orange skin for Abe.

Retro doesn’t always mean old, either. Some of the apps are actually modern games with a retro style, like Stranger Things: The Game. As time goes on, we’ll probably see a much wider variety of both older games and games made in an older style added to this section.

Beyond the few products you can buy, the best part about Retro Zone right now is the giveaway Amazon is doing to promote it. You can enter for your chance to win one of five SNES Classics. Given how fast the supplies run out for those, this giveaway probably gives you some of your best odds of getting one.

While this section seems to mostly be a place for Amazon to peddle the few retro-style products they already sell and push apps from the Appstore, it would be interesting if the section on games set its eyes on platforms like Steam or GOG.com. I’m not saying it will, but that sort of competition could mean big savings for gamers down the road. Now that would be interesting.

Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition comes with three years of security updates

Available now for $994 per device.

There’s already a lot to love with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8. The S Pen’s huge feature-set is endless amounts of fun, the 6.3-inch QuadHD Super AMOLED display is a thing of beauty, and the dual-camera system allows for all the portrait shots you can capture. Samsung recently announced the Note 8 Enterprise Edition, and while it’s mostly the same as the regular Note 8, it’s most distinguishing fact is its three years of guaranteed security updates.

There are two main selling points for the Note 8 Enterprise Edition, and Samsung is referring to these as “Customization with Simplified Deployment & Management” and “Enhanced Security & Business Continuity.”

Monthly security updates are guaranteed for three years.

The three years of security updates are part of the latter of those two things, and those updates will be pushed out every single month for that entire three-year span. Samsung is also advertising to business owners that they’ll be able to purchase the same device model for up to two years to ensure that all employees are rocking the same hardware.

As for “Customization with Simplified Deployment & Management”, the Note 8 will come equipped with Samsung Knox Configure for remote IT support, as well as Samsung Enterprise Firmware Over the Air services to “reduce downtime and simplify the complexity of enterprise-wide smartphone deployments.”

The Note 8 Enterprise Edition costs $994, and it’s now available for purchase through authorized Samsung partners.

See at Samsung

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Virtual reality could be the answer to treating phantom pain

People who become paraplegics due to a spinal injury usually have to deal with more than just losing the feeling in their legs. They also have to battle excruciating phantom pain, which doctors can’t cure with medicine. Now, scientists from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have found a way to alleviate the pain they feel using a pair of fake legs and the magic of immersive virtual reality.

The team had test subjects wear VR goggles showing live feed from a camera filming a set of dummy legs. Since the camera was positioned to mimic a person’s POV in relation to their legs, the VR provided the illusion that the dummy legs were truly theirs. So, when the scientists simultaneously tapped the dummy legs and the area above the subjects’ spinal lesions caused by their injury, the subjects eventually felt like it was their own legs being tapped. They told the researchers that the sensation diminished the neuropathic pain they felt.

Team leader Olaf Blanke said that “it takes about a minute of simultaneously tapping for the illusion to take place.” He explained that “the tapping on the back gets translated onto the legs because the visual stimulus dominates over the tactile one.” His researchers are now developing what they’re calling an immersive digital therapy that automates visuo-tactile stimulations for spinal injury patients and people suffering from chronic pain conditions.

EPFL didn’t say whether it could also work for amputees and people who have other types of conditions, but this is far from the first time scientists thought of using virtual reality in medicine. There’s a team of researchers from Duke University who developed a VR system that helped paralyzed patients regain some movement. Another team from Europe is exploring the use of VR to fight depression, while a group from Oxford University conducted experiments that used VR to help paranoia patients confront their fears.

Source: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne