Toyota is winning the race to buy Alphabet’s Boston Dynamics
Over the past couple of months, Google’s parent company Alphabet has been looking to offload its robotics division, Boston Dynamics, as it seeks to divert its attention to self-driving cars. Toyota’s Research Institute was thought to interested in picking up the company from the start, but Nikkei is now reporting that the car maker’s R&D arm is close to signing a deal for not only Boston Dynamics, but also Google’s Japanese robotics company, Schaft.
According to the newspaper, the Toyota Research Institute will use its $1 billion budget to purchase both companies. The Institute was established in November 2015 to develop AI, robotics and autonomous car technologies and opened its first facility in Silicon Valley in January.
Earlier this week, Tech Insider reported that the “ink is nearly dry” on the deal, suggesting it won’t be long until Alphabet and Toyota formally announce the trade. It added autonomous vehicle specialist Jaybridge Robotics to its team in March, now it’s looking to bolster its team ahead of a possible rollout of self-driving cars in 2020. Let’s hope Spot, Atlas and AlphaDog make the journey too.
Via: Reuters
Source: Nikkei
Mobile ad blocking is still relatively uncommon in the U.S.
Out of 1.9 billion smartphone users on the planet, about 419 million — or 22 percent — of them use mobile ad blocking tools, a new study from PageFair has found. While ad blocking has barely caught on in the United States, more than a third of all the smartphone users in the Asia-Pacific region use an app or browser to stop advertisements from reaching their phones.
55 percent of that global smartphone userbase lives in the Asia-Pacific region, NiemanLab notes, but it makes up 93 percent of the people who use ad blocking services. According to PageFair’s head of ecosystem Johnny Ryan, slower devices and expensive mobile data are to blame for the sudden surge in popularity in places like China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. By comparison, slightly more than two percent of smartphone users in the U.S. use ad blocking apps like Brave or Opera on their phones.
Given this popularity in Asia, it should be of little surprise that four out of the top five ad blocking apps are variations of Alibaba’s UC Browser. (Although PageFair’s report notes that lead might be shaken up by ASUS’ plan to ship phones with built-in ad blocking.) Now that Google has loosened restrictions around ad blocking on Android, the coveted fifth-place spot goes to the simply named “Adblock Browser for Android.”
Google Home reportedly has Chromecast roots
Google Home promises a minor revolution as far as around-the-home voice assistants go, but its hardware roots may be more than a little familiar. The Information’s source understands that Home ultimately boils down to a Chromecast with a microphone, a speaker and a nice case — it reportedly has the same processor and WiFi chipset. The simple Linux-based operating system is also supposed to be similar (minus the voice command part, of course), although the same insider claims that a future Home might run on Android.
We’ve asked Google if it can confirm the report. However, using the Chromecast as a starting point makes sense. Google Assistant’s voice processing happens primarily in the cloud, so Home doesn’t need much in the way of local computing power — just enough to play music and listen for commands. It’s also reasonable to presume that Google wants to keep costs down, and using low-cost innards is bound to help on that front.
Source: The Information
A 45-year-old New York law is holding up autonomous vehicles
In New York state, legislators are worried a law from 1971 could be a roadblock for autonomous vehicles in the near future. As the New York Daily News reports, the state is the only one in the country that requires drivers to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel while driving. Obviously, this could be a problem for self-driving cars, since they don’t have hands.
Leading the charge to update the traffic code is New York Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Joseph Robach, who also fears the law could allow police to ticket drivers for using vehicle features that are already available like assisted parking or Tesla’s Autopilot. Due to the outdated law, Audi was reportedly unable to demonstrate the technology when it showed up in Albany with one of its self-driving vehicles last week.
“We are just trying to have the law match up to the technology that people are using today and I think is only going to grow down the road,” Senator Robach told the Daily News.
Although six other states and Washington, D.C. have already passed legislation allowing autonomous vehicles on public roads, Robach’s bill is meeting some resistance from other state lawmakers who don’t believe the technology is quite ready yet. Earlier this year, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decided that an autonomous vehicle’s piloting system can be considered “the driver” under federal law. The agency is expected to issue a complete set of standards for self-driving vehicles later this summer.
Plug this into your Android phone and it records 3D video
As the latest Android phones cram more camera tricks up their unibody sleeves, what about your current smartphone that’s barely a year old? Well that might be where the Eye-Plug comes in. Hidden inside a humble stand deep within Computex here in Taipei, the USB-C accessory plugs into your (currently Android-only) smartphone, adding another camera sensor to your phone for front- and rear-facing dual camera frivolity. (That’s where you need that handy reversible connection.) I tested out the prototype accessory, with full production scheduled for later this year. 3D selfie videos could be a horrifying reality.
The company’s spokesperson told us it would be priced at around $35, which sounds insanely cheap — we’re double checking that. The company alsowasn’t specifying the resolution of the camera, but the live preview footage we recorded and tested was a perfectly acceptable resolution for Google Cardboard 3D viewing. Alongside shooting your own 3D video, you can also do some post-processing focus and blurring, with the second camera helping to define depth.
There’s some caveats: there’s no iPhone model (it’s in the works), your Android phone needs a USB-C port, and the camera quality may not perfectly match your smartphone’s own shooter — not all sensors are made equal — so color accuracy could be wobbly. The accessory pairs with custom-made camera and 3D viewing apps, and don’t worry if your smartphone’s camera isn’t center-aligned: the software compensates and calibrates when you use the Eye-Plug, to keep things as 3D-ish as possible.
Stay on top of all the latest news from Computex 2016 right here.
Source: Eye-plug (Facebook)
Google wants to give its AI assistant a childhood
Now that Google Assistant is promising two-way conversations, Google wants to give the artificial intelligence a little more personality. The company has asked both a freelance artist (Emma Coats) and the head of its Doodle team (Ryan Germick) to make Assistant more relatable to its human users through multiple techniques, including a possible “childhood” that you might identify with. You could also see a more Siri-like playfulness, with both ready-made answers for silly questions as well as a little vulnerability.
There’s a practical reason for making you feel more at home with Assistant, of course. The easier it is to get along with the AI, the more likely it is that you’ll use it — and that, in turn, could lead to more internet searches. Not that many are likely to object. One of the biggest gripes with the current generation of AI helpers is their tendency to be cold and strictly task-oriented. Adding some character, even if it’s pre-programmed, could help bring this smart software into the mainstream.
Source: Fast Company
Europe enlists tech companies to help end online hate speech
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft have signed up to stop the spread of hate speech online. The group have committed to a European Commission (EC) code of conduct that ensures their respective platforms “do not offer opportunities for illegal online hate speech to spread virally.”
As the quote suggests, many EU member states have stipulations in their freedom of speech laws that make, for example, expressions of hate based on race, skin color, nationality, religious belief or sexual orientation illegal. A quick search of your social media platform of choice will tell you that all of these expressions are commonplace.
The code of conduct isn’t legally binding, but it does include public commitments that Facebook et al. will try to stick to. They’ll need to ban hate speech in their community guidelines for the region, and implement “clear and effective processes to review notifications regarding illegal hate speech.” Dedicated teams in each company will review potentially offensive content against their own community guidelines and relevant national laws, targeting the removal (or regional disabling, if appropriate) of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours.
The code should standardize companies on a simple reporting process for online hate speech that will hopefully be more effective than those currently in operation. This process will be there for the public, but also for governmental bodies to act as “trusted reporters.” There will also be some crossover between the companies and law enforcement agencies in the region. The EC wants such agencies to be familiar with the reporting process, for obvious reasons. A two-way dialog will help police know how to remove illegal content, and could also see something like a death threat for delaying a game be actioned on more swiftly by local police.
In addition to adhering to the new reporting guidelines, the companies will share their methods with one another and other social media companies not signed up to the code of conduct. This, it’s hoped, will help spread “best practices” beyond the four companies directly involved. They’ve also committed to raise awareness of the new rules and reporting processes, support educational programs in the field and promote “independent counter-narratives” to hateful rhetoric and prejudice.
The EC, for its part, will be working with the companies to aid them in meeting the code of conduct, and will also be promoting its efforts in an effort to get other companies to sign up.
Source: European Commission
Pope meets YouTube creators from around the world
Popes are no stranger to YouTube (Benedict XVI got a YouTube channel years ago), but Pope Francis is stepping things up a notch. He just met with 11 YouTube creators from around the world in a “first-of-its-kind” chat to share perspectives on issues of peace and tolerance, such as gender equality and immigrant rights. In the weeks ahead, each of those online video makers will produce clips sharing what they learned from the meeting. This probably won’t usher in a brave new era of generosity and kindness, but we also haven’t seen YouTubers get this kind of access before. At the least, it should lead to fresh perspectives on important topics.
Source: YouTube Official Blog
Google won’t get a deal on French taxes
If Google was hoping that France would give it a UK-style tax break, it’s going to be in for a rude surprise. The country’s Finance Minister Michel Sapin informs Reuters that there won’t be any negotiations with Google over the €1.6 billion in back taxes (roughly $1.76 billion) the company reportedly owes. The French “don’t do deals,” Sapin says. He adds that the recent raid on Google’s Paris office over alleged tax fraud was really just the next step for investigations that started a few years ago.
Google maintains that it’s already obeying the law through its current approach, which uses international tax loopholes to report sales in Ireland. However, that clearly doesn’t matter to France — it’s convinced that foreign companies are evading their legal responsibilities, and it’s cracking down wherever it can. McDonald’s is also a target, for instance. Barring some new discoveries, Google might not have much choice but to pay up.
Source: Reuters
Inhabitat’s Week in Green: A VW bug made out of timber
Six years ago a Beijing company proposed an insane lane-straddling bus that could soar over congested freeways. The project just took a step closer to reality, as the Transit Explore Bus is set to begin testing this summer. In other transportation news, Airbus just unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed motorcycle, which has a range of 37 miles and a top speed of 50 mph. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced plans to build transit pods from Vibranium, which takes its name from the fictional metal used to create Captain America’s indestructible shield. A Bosnian retiree handcrafted a gorgeous VW bug exterior from over 50,000 pieces of oak. Vanmoof launched the SmartBike — a next-gen cycle that is virtually impossible to steal — and Google partnered with Levi’s to create a smart jacket for urban cyclists.
Google’s Project Sunroof is a free tool that determines the solar energy generating potential of your home, and this week the program expanded to reach 43 million additional rooftops across 42 states. Meanwhile, MIT developed a new solar cell that breaks theoretical energy conversion limits by turning heat into light. Japanese scientists found a new way to generate energy using ocean water and sunlight. IKEA announced plans to produce more energy than it uses within the next four years. And the world’s biggest floating wind farm is set for completion in 2017.
Building technologies have come a long way in the past 10 years, and this week Dubai debuted the world’s first building to be fully produced by a 3D printer. Danish firm EFFEKT has designed a utopian off-grid town that can produce all of its own food an energy, and a new Green Village in South Africa will be solar-powered and 100 percent car-free. Apple launched its latest store in San Francisco this week: It’s filled with trees and topped with photovoltaic panels. And a brilliant new design for highway interchanges takes a diamond shape to eliminate dangerous left-hand turns.
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