Apple AI chief reveals more progress on self-driving car tech
After remaining tight-lipped for years, Apple is now more than eager to share how much progress it’s making on self-driving car technology. AI research director Ruslan Salakhutdinov made a presentation this week that revealed more of what the company’s autonomous driving team has been up to. Some of the talk was familiar, but there were a few new examples of how far the fledgling project had come.
To start, Apple has crafted a system that uses onboard cameras to identify objects even in tricky situations, such as when raindrops cover the lens. It can estimate the position of a pedestrian even if they’re hidden by a parked car. Other additions included giving cars direction through simultaneous localization and mapping, creating detailed 3D maps using car sensors and decision-making in urgent situations (say, a wayward pedestrian).
It’s still not certain if or how Apple will commercialize its self-driving know-how. At the moment, its next goal is to produce driverless employee shuttles. The company isn’t currently expected to sell its own cars, but licensing its work to others would be unusual when Apple is well-known for preferring to develop everything in-house.
The talk in itself is notable. Apple has been slowly opening the kimono on its AI research, but it hasn’t been clear on just how much it was willing to discuss. Salakhutdinov’s chat shows that it’s willing to offer at least some kind of consistent openness rather than maintaining its legendary secrecy. Not that it has much of a choice. Apple has struggled to attract AI talent in part because its secretive approach has been unappealing for researchers used to receiving academic and industry recognition. Presentations like this could keep Apple’s AI team in the spotlight and reel in scientists who’d otherwise go to Facebook, Google or tech giants.
Source: Wired
First US bitcoin futures start trading at 6PM Eastern
Bitcoin is one step closer to becoming a part of the mainstream financial world. Cboe is launching the first US bitcoin futures exchange at 6PM Eastern, giving speculators a chance to bet on the value of the cryptocurrency through a listed (XBT), regulated entity. You don’t use a digital wallet or otherwise require bitcoins — instead, you trade and settle futures contracts using cash, with a $10 minimum price interval and a $1 transaction fee from January onward. There aren’t any price limits, and you can short your futures (that is, immediately sell them in hopes of turning a quick profit) if your broker allows it.
This isn’t going to be as huge as the expected Nasdaq bitcoin futures exchange. Also, don’t be surprised if your brokerage of choice either doesn’t allow bitcoin futures trading or limits what you can do. Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade and others are barring trades at the moment, while Interactive Brokers is both preventing customers from shorting futures and setting a minimum margin of 50 percent. Goldman Sachs is open to them, but only expects to approve futures trading for some of its clients.
Still, Cboe’s exchange could be important. The regulation and added transparency may give more legitimacy to bitcoin, particularly among institutions and investors who see it as a wild experiment. Also, it could help calm down bitcoin’s extreme volatility in recent months. A single bitcoin is worth about $15,550 as of this writing, or roughly $10,000 more than it was worth in mid-October — those kinds of increases (and the crashes that follow) aren’t healthy for a financial industry that needs some predictability. As futures have historically calmed markets down once introduced, there’s a chance bitcoin could enjoy much-needed stability.
Via: Guardian
Source: Cboe
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