Lyft and GM will test self-driving fleet within a year
General Motors and Lyft’s planned network of on-demand, self-driving taxis will begin testing in one undisclosed city sometime in the next year, the Wall Street Journal reports today. While the details of the plan are still scarce, the accelerated timeline will put a fleet of publicly available autonomous vehicles on the road ahead of either company’s major rivals in Silicon Valley.
Earlier this year, the Detroit automaker invested $500 million and secured a seat on the board of the ride-sharing service, with the goal of rapidly implementing their vision of a driverless taxi network. Back in March, GM also acquired San Francisco-based Cruise Automation to further speed up that goal. Prior to the acquisition, Cruise built aftermarket self-driving kits that could be added to several Audi vehicles for around $10,000.
The forthcoming fleet will use Chevy Bolt electric vehicles paired with Cruise’s self-driving technology. As a low-cost, long-range electric vehicle, the Bolt actually makes an ideal taxi platform with plenty of backseat legroom built into a compact profile. According to one Lyft executive quoted by the Journal, customers in the test market will be able to choose between a human driver or an autonomous vehicle when hailing a ride through Lyft’s app.
One major roadblock that remains for Lyft, GM and their competitors is the “patchwork” of rules governing autonomous vehicles at the state level. To head off any potential regulatory headaches, Ford, Google, Lyft, Uber and Volvo formed the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets last month to advocate for one set of federal laws and regulations around autonomous vehicles.
ICYMI: Google beats MS paint, gamified recycling and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: Google’s 3D painting app, Tiltbrush, has been used to make some beautiful things; a robotics company is gamifying trash sorting in a pilot program; and a 3D copier will let you make a double of any dang thing you like.
If you’re interested, GoPro sent a video camera to space with a rocket launch and the video is petty incredible. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Picasa is shutting down in favour of Google Photos
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Many of you will know the name Picasa as a place to store photos and many of you will have used it for many years. Unfortunately, that run is going to come to an end as Picasa is shutting down and Google focuses its development on Google Photos. While this will be a big inconvenience for some, Google understands that some people have put blood and sweat into their Picasa curations:
“We know for many of you, a great deal of care has gone into managing your photos and videos using Picasa—including the hours you’ve invested and the most precious moments you’ve trusted us with. So we will take some time in order to do this right and provide you with options and easy ways to access your content.”
So easy in fact that if you log into Google Photos right now, all your photos and videos from Picasa will already be there. If, however, you still want access to the tags, captions and comments you’ve accumulated on Picasa, Google will soon provide a way for you to keep these. You still have time to say your goodbyes though, as Google will only start the shutdown process on May 1st, 2016. Note that the Picasa desktop app is also going to have its support terminated from May 15th, 2016 – naturally, there is a Google Photos version should you choose to go down that path (and let’s be honest, you probably should).
What do you think about Picasa shutting down? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Google Picasa Blog via Droid-life
The post Picasa is shutting down in favour of Google Photos appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Mattel will launch a redesigned VR View-Master this fall
Mattel refreshed the View-Master for virtual reality last year with a version based on Google Cardboard, and this weekend it showed off an updated design at the New York Toy Fair. The View-Master Viewer DLX has better optical lenses, focal adjustment and, most importantly, a headphone connector. Gizmodo got some hands-on time with the device during the show, and also noticed a redesigned smartphone bracket that’s ready to deal with more phones no matter what size or shape they are. It will also apparently see a price bump from $30 to $40, but the changes seem worth an extra $10 — hopefully we’ll be able to give its VR / AR capabilities another look before it goes on sale later this year.
New York Toy Fair just got the first look! View-Master® Viewer DLX is launching this Fall with 🔑features! #VR #AR pic.twitter.com/MSoOqScgpr
— View-Master (@ViewMaster) February 14, 2016
Via: Gizmodo
Source: View-Master (Twitter)
Google’s self-driving car project is on a hiring spree
Google is on a hiring spree – only not all of its openings are for programmers or web designers. The internet giant is ramping up its self-driving car project, listing 36 jobs under its Google X project. Among them are positions in manufacturing and engineering related to developing systems including motion control, robotics, and sensors.
The listings include a variety of roles, including mechanical, automotive NVH, vehicle safety, and reliability engineers. There are other positions for marketing, policy analysis, and even real estate and workplace services related to the project. The hiring spree suggests that Google is ramping up its self-driving car program.
“The self-driving car project aims to improve people’s lives by transforming mobility and making it easier and safer for everyone to get around, regardless of their ability to drive,” reads the introduction to many of the job listings. “So far, we’ve self-driven over one million miles and are currently out on the streets of Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas.”
Google has been one of several companies at the forefront of autonomous vehicle development. The big question remains whether it will go it alone in developing, manufacturing, and distributing its self-driving cars, or partner with an existing major automaker in bringing its technologies to the street. The company has been rumored to team up with Ford, but an expected announcement at CES focused instead on Dearborn’s partnership with Amazon. Meanwhile, General Motors has invested heavily in rival transport tech startups Lyft and Sidecar as the automotive giant seeks to transform itself into an on-demand mobility company.
Related Video:
Via: Reuters
Source: Google Careers
Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Tesla’s most affordable EV, and more!
Tesla just announced plans to launch its most affordable electric car next month. The Model 3 is expected to cost $35,000 and is set to debut on March 31st — but it already has competition. Chevrolet showcased the Bolt EV at the start of the year, and Volkswagen confirmed that it’s working on the world’s first mass-market electric car. Meanwhile, Google is developing electric cars that drive themselves, and soon they’ll be able to charge wirelessly. In aviation news, Easyjet announced plans to trial the first hybrid hydrogen plane, and Elon Musk is considering building a vertical take-off and landing electric jet.
Solar-powered homes are nothing new, but what about homes that run on hydrogen fuel? A new community in Thailand is powered by a hydrogen system that allows it operate 100 percent off-grid, rain or shine. You don’t have to rough it to live off the grid, Jeff Hobbs built a tiny sun-powered home that’s completely self-sufficient and packed with luxurious features. And for those who really want to escape civilization, the Bolt is a lightning-proof tent that will keep you safe in a storm.
This week astronomers made one of the most important discoveries of the decade. While listening to the sound of two black holes colliding, the LIGO observatory detected gravitational waves, confirming Einstein’s last unproven theory. In other science and tech news, MIT is close to cracking the genetic code that could eradicate mosquitos spreading the Zika virus. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley developed a clever app that uses your smartphone to help predict earthquakes. And an inventor developed a prosthetic arm that kids can customize with LEGO pieces.
Google Text-to-speech adds multiple male and female voices
Be together, not the same. Such is Google‘s motto as of late, so it makes no sense that everyone’s Text-to-speech voice sounds the same. I still wish I could listen to Snoop Dog’s graceful voice reading Android Authority articles out loud. We are not quite there yet, but at least things are getting a little better.
Google’s Text-to-speech tool has been updated to include multiple voice variations in all available languages. As of version 3.8, there is a bevy of options for both female and male alterations, making it easy to customize your experience and make your phone sound a little different from the crowd.
After playing around with it for a bit, I can tell the main difference is in speech flow. Each version seems to represent a different style of talking, but the voices themselves do sound very similar. Maybe they are simply manipulated via software? We wouldn’t be able to confirm that, but you can check them out yourself.
Simply go to Settings > Language & input > Text-to-speech output, then tap on the gear next to “Google Text-to-speech Engine” and select “Install voice data”. Select the language of your choosing and check out the different voice options available.
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Do you use Google’s Text-to-speech?
I have to say I rarely use Text-to-speech. In fact, the few times I have it is only to test it. I can see how it would be convenient when your hands are busy, though. Or when you simply don’t want to be looking at a screen. I am sure I would use it all the time if I could use Snoop’s voice, that’s for sure.
Do hit the comments and let us know what you think of this update. Will you be taking advantage of it?
Download
Don’t want to wait around for Google to push this update to your phone? We understand this may take a while. If you are the impatient kind, simply hit the button below to download the APK file and install the update manually. Enjoy!
Duplicate Files Fixer review: automatically detect and remove duplicate items to save space.
Does your device run out of storage, forcing you to painstakingly go through your phone and delete your contents ? Too busy or just too tired to go through your contents? Worry no more! Duplicate Files Fixer(free), available and rated 4.5 stars on the Google Play Store, does all this for you.
Objective View
Entailing a simplistic and easy to use interface, this is a user-friendly application that can be operated 
by anyone. Within the program, you are met by several options including Scan Audio, Scan Videos, Scan Pictures, Scan Documents and Full Scan.
Upon inspecting the miscellaneous categories, your device will scan each for the respective content and display a screen with all the duplicates. It then has all the duplicates selected and gives you the ability to unmark the duplicates you intend on keeping. After pressing the delete button, you are asked to confirm your decision in the event of you making an error.
Although the purpose of this application is to optimize your tech by cleaning duplicate files, it does not include the option to delete the original file. Sometimes when choosing what to clean, you may come across files you have no intention of keeping and want to delete it as well as the duplicate, but alas, you can only remove the duplicate and have to locate the original afterwards. Perhaps developers would take a look into that matter.
Summary
I used this application for a mere few hours and found that it is an absolute blessing. I was able to delete approximately 800 megabytes of duplicate files alone, including pictures, voice notes, music tracks and documents. It’s a really simple program and has only one screen excluding 
the help menu which includes a basic tutorial of pictures. Despite the few flaws and improvements which could be made, Duplicate Files Fixer was definitely well thought out and has a smooth and polished UI.
In conclusion, this simple program is definitely worth downloading, and it will most definitely help you clean up your device and free some space for your more important information, but more so, it will help save your time.
Google Play Store – Duplicate File Fixer
The post Duplicate Files Fixer review: automatically detect and remove duplicate items to save space. appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google updates My Maps for Android with new UI
If you’re a regular user of Google’s custom mapping platform, My Maps, you may be glad to learn that the application has today received a fairly interesting update in the Play Store. The upgrade injects a new “look and feel” to the service, together with a new imagery feature, which enables you to view all of your map points using Street View — so you can now take a look at your destinations on the ground without having to open up Google Maps.
This latest release also makes it possible for you to add images to your cloud-based gallery from your smartphone, which is perfect for mapping routes on-the-go as you no longer have to wait until you return home to add content to the route-planning tool.
The full changelog can be seen below:
- Experience the new look and feel
- Get started with our welcome guide for new users
- Work faster with improved performance
- View photos and videos added on web
- Get directions to saved points
- Explore Street View imagery for many places
To install the update on your smartphone or tablet, open up the Play Store, toggle the hamburger menu by swiping in from the left-hand side of your display, select ‘My Apps’, click on ’My Maps’, then tap the ‘Update’ button. Alternatively, you can hit the download link below to initiate the upgrade from your computer.
Come comment on this article: Google updates My Maps for Android with new UI
Google waves goodbye to Picasa to focus on Google Photos
Photo-sharing service Picasa will soon cease to exist, after a statement from Google explained that it’ll be retired to allow Google Photos to grow further.
The move, announced today, means that folk with existing Picasa Web Albums will be able to access their snaps through Google Photos. All the pictures and videos from the old Picasa account will be carried over, and the changes take effect on the 1st May.
Picasa’s makers note that for those not willing to switch over to Google Photos, they’ll be creating ‘a new place to access Picasa Web Albums’.
Speaking via a Google Picasa Blog post, Anil Sabharwal, Head of Google Photos, said:
“After much thought and consideration, we’ve decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos.”
“We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products.”
As for Picasa’s desktop application, that’s being shown the door too. From March 15th, the software will no longer be officially supported.
Sabharwal signs off by apologizing for the inconvenience to regular Picasa users, keen to assure account owners that the transition to Google Photos will treat them to a ‘new and smarter product’.
Farewell, Picasa.
Come comment on this article: Google waves goodbye to Picasa to focus on Google Photos
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