You can hail a self-driving Uber in Pittsburgh starting today

Uber’s self-driving cars have been spotted around Pittsburgh for a few months now, but starting today you can actually take a ride in one. The company announced that as of today, Uber’s most “loyal” Pittsburgh customers might receive a ride in a self-driving Ford Fusion when they request an Uber X. As predicted, being a test subject in the company’s cars will net you a free ride.

Uber made the announcement at its Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, a location founded about 18 months ago specifically to focus on autonomous vehicles. The combination of a local government friendly to some reasonable radical experimentation coupled with the nearby Carnegie Mellon University providing a pipeline of excellent engineerings made Pittsburgh a natural choice for the program, but it’s still a little surprising it has cars on the road already. Google has been testing its vehicles in California for some time, but the fact that customers will actually get rides in Uber’s vehicles is a major milestone.

Of course, there are plenty of limitations in Uber’s Pittsburgh pilot. Only an unspecified “small number” of vehicles are being deployed to customers, and only on certain roads and routes that the company has already mapped out and tested extensively. Uber told me that those routes are some of the most popular roads being taken by its normal drivers, so it’s not like these are unpopulated back roads, but you can’t take an autonomous Uber anywhere you want.

There’s also a safety driver behind the wheel waiting to take over the car at a moment’s notice. This handy human can correct the car if it ever gets confused about what to do next, and they can also drive you off of the currently available autonomous routes to get you exactly to your destination. But if you’re going far outside the range of where these cars can operate, you’ll just get a normal Uber X instead; there doesn’t appear to be any way to specifically request a self-driving car, so you’ll just need to keep your fingers crossed. Hailing the car itself is pretty straightforward: the Uber app will show you if you’re getting a self-driving car (should you want to cancel the ride or celebrate, depending on how you feel about autonomous vehicles).

The cars that Uber is deploying are Ford Fusions with a huge array of sensors on top, with more hidden around the vehicle. The main unit up top is a 360-degree LIDAR unit that shoots out some 1 million laser beams per second to make a three-dimensional scan of the world around the car. Of course, those scans aren’t in color, so there’s another camera right below it that recognizes colors so the car can stop at a red light. There’s also a large front-facing camera array that looks for vehicles, pedestrians, lights, signs and so on.

Those are just a few of the sensors blanketing the car, and there’s also onboard compute and storage units for processing data in real time. The whole thing looks pretty elaborate right now, but Uber also showed me a Volvo with a much smaller and more discreet roof unit. An Uber representative called the Ford’s unit the “desktop” version and the Volvo’s a “laptop,” while promising we’d see the “smartphone” sized version before long.

Uber isn’t the only company operating a self-driving pilot — Delphi is testing a self-driving taxi in Singapore, and there’s a self-driving bus in the Netherlands, but it hasn’t yet taken passengers. As for what it’s like to actually request and ride in one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles? Well, we got a chance to do that, too — read all about it here.

I drove around Pittsburgh in a self-driving Uber

“Did you do that, or did the car do that?” I first asked that of my self-driving Uber’s “safety driver” when the car pulled out of the lane it was in to go around a pedestrian on the side of the road. I then asked it another half-dozen times throughout the 30 minutes I spent as a passenger in one of Uber’s autonomous cars that are hitting the streets of Pittsburgh today. Nearly every time, the answer came back: “the car did that.”

Indeed, my time as a passenger in the self-driving Uber as it drove around downtown Pittsburgh was blessedly uneventful — and in that relative safety and peace, I got an up-close look at what the challenges will be in making autonomous vehicles a widespread reality. I even got behind the wheel to “not drive” the car for myself.

For starters, it’s important to note that I never once felt like the car made any unsafe maneuvers. It obeyed the speed limit, left plenty of space between it and the car in front of it, took turns slowly and smoothly and generally behaved like an excellent citizen in vehicular society. It decides on speed first by determining a safe driving distance from the vehicle in front of it, and then by going as fast as the speed limit when it was able to. Uber’s engineers are also able to call out roads in which the car can exceed the speed limit to drive safely with the flow of traffic.

All told, it was a pretty boring ride — aside from the fact that a freaking computer was driving me around downtown Pittsburgh. That’s all the more impressive when you consider how much harder making a self-driving car operate around a city is compared to on the highway (like Tesla’s autopilot feature does).

A freaking computer drove me around downtown Pittsburgh.

The times when my safety driver had to take control were less about the car doing something unsafe and more about it being confused about what its many sensors and cameras were recording. For example, the car didn’t know how to deal with a truck that was double-parked very well. It read the truck as a vehicle stopped in the road, but it didn’t have the context to know that it wasn’t going to move any time soon, so we just sat behind it until the driver pulled around it.

The car also had a tough time dealing with a four-way intersection — while an autonomous car will obey the letter of the law, humans don’t. So, with safety as a top priority, the car sat at the stop sign, waiting for crossing cars to come to a complete stop before it would enter the intersection. But most people out there don’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign, so we just sat and waited while multiple cars crossed in front of us, glancing curiously at the strange bed of sensors on top of the vehicle.

Uber’s cars will likely learn these intricacies sooner than later, and I got to see examples of that learning on display in my drive. Apparently, when you’re stopped at a red light in Pittsburgh, it’s customary to let the first car across from you take a left turn if they need to before continuing straight through the intersection (it’s called the “Pittsburgh left,” appropriately). The autonomous cars thus are programmed to take a little pause before continuing through an intersection when a car across from it has its left blinker on. That’s not about driving “right” or “wrong” — it’s about knowing local rules of the road and respecting them. Every area these cars go into will have their own quirky rules like this they’ll need to learn.

The few hiccups we encountered didn’t really detract from the experience; the overall ride was a smooth as I’ve ever had with a human driver behind the wheel. The autonomous system is finely tuned to provide a smooth and safe ride, and it never accelerated or decelerated in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. If you’ve taken a cab around any major city, you’ve probably experienced some car sickness from a driver with a heavy foot on both the brake and gas, but there was none of that here.

I’m someone with a rather sensitive stomach, but I felt fine for the rather lengthy ride I went on. In fact, the ride almost felt too smooth, too in control. Like a computer was driving — which, of course, it was. That’s not a bad thing, but you can definitely tell the difference between a human behind the wheel and the autonomous system.

While sitting in the back of the Uber, I could look at an iPad mounted to show the riders some details on the car. You can see how far you’ve driven autonomously, the current speed and a graphic showing the movements of the steering wheel and when the brakes are applied. But most interesting was a view of what the car’s radar system is seeing at any given moment. You can see cars, buildings, pedestrians and anything else in range of the car. It’ll satisfy the curiosity of people interested in how the car works as well as provide some transparency and possible security to people skeptical about the system.

After cruising around Pittsburgh for a bit, I was offered my own chance to get behind the wheel. At first, I thought I was just getting a look at what the driver sees while they’re behind the wheel, but nope — I was getting a chance to sit up front while the car drove me around. The most interesting thing about that experience was the strange awareness I needed to keep while letting the car do its thing. I was tempted to look around and take in the sights of the city, because I felt totally comfortable letting the car do its thing.

Getting behind the wheel wasn’t any more nerve-wracking than riding in the back, because I was in complete control of the car.

Of course, the system is not even close to ready to have a driver totally check out, so I kept my hands touching the wheel and a foot ready to tap the gas or brake so I could take over. Fortunately, it’s dead simple to take control of the car: moving the steering wheel or applying any pressure to the brake or gas will deactivate the autonomous driving system. I took over the car a few times, mostly just to see how it worked, and it was dead-simple to both drive as normal and then hit a button near the shifter to put the car back into autonomous mode.

It’s not surprising that full manual control is so easy to activate, but it makes sense that Uber would want the press to see firsthand how easy it is to snap the car into your control. That said, I could definitely see a situation in which a “safety driver” couldn’t help but tune out a bit during a long shift behind the wheel. It’s also not the easiest thing to keep your foot hovering over a pedal and hands lightly gripping the wheel without accidentally engaging with them.

The fundamentals appear to be in place for Uber, here in Pittsburgh at least. But there’s a long way to go before its cars can navigate all of the city, let alone other cities. A number of Uber engineers and spokespeople I talked to made it clear the focus was to build out Pittsburgh first, both in terms of increasing the area that autonomous cars could travel as well as fixing little oddities like its performance at four-way stop signs. Other cities will likely come in the future, depending on how the pilot goes, but right now all thoughts are focused on Pittsburgh.

One of the big challenges for Uber will be learning more about how the cars deal with inclement weather. That’s one of the reasons they’re testing in Pittsburgh — between the complexity of the old city’s layout (small streets, lots of one-way roads, lots of congestion) and the fact that it sees all kinds of weather, there will be a lot to learn from testing here. Uber engineers feel that if they can master Pittsburgh, they can make the system work pretty much anywhere. (I’m thinking both Boston and Manhattan will make for a serious challenge.)

Good luck mapping out Boston and Manhattan, Uber.

But it’s not clear exactly how Uber will deal with bad weather. The team said they’ve tested in rain and had good success thus far, but I wasn’t able to get a straight answer when I asked about how it’ll recognize and account for snow. It seems that it’ll be up to the safety driver to decide when to engage the autonomous features, and I have a feeling that in the winter these cars will be operated in traditional fashion to be on the safe side.

As much as the pilot is to gauge Uber’s technical prowess, it’ll also be a judge to how the public reacts to self-driving cars. In some ways, it’s like Google’s very public beta of Glass — except that no one was going to die if Glass went horribly wrong. Consumers will understandably be a bit nervous the first time they get into one of these vehicles. But with a human being behind the wheel and the cars operating at relatively low speeds around the city, the potential for true disaster seems pretty low.

The 1.3 million who Uber said die every year in car accidents is a big part of why they’re doing this in the first place. The company says that 94 percent of those accidents are caused by some variety of human error, and it believes that self-driving cars can see and process more than humans, making them safer. There’s a lot to be done before that’s a reality, and Uber’s definitely starting small. But right now, they have a lead on just about every other company working on self-driving cars.

Apple Facing iPhone Security Battle With Indian Government

India is seeking discussions with Apple about including state-funded biometric ID technology to authenticate its citizens, according to Bloomberg.

The government initiative is part of a national biometric identity program called Aadhaar (Hindi for ‘foundation’), which already covers fingerprint and iris-scanning authentication across a range of public and private services including banking.

Apple is expected to resist opening up its hardware and software to the registration, encryption, and security technology, but doing so could see the company excluded from India’s thriving smartphone market.

One consulting group in India is predicting “a battle of ecosystems” between the state and tech companies. Indeed, signs of division already appear to have emerged. Just a few weeks ago, government officials are said to have invited executives from Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Google to a meeting to discuss embedding the technology into their devices, but Apple didn’t even show up.

According to Ajay Bhushan Pandey, who runs the Unique Identification Authority of India and convened the meeting, company representatives who did attend listened politely but were noncommittal. However, Pandey says he was unequivocal about the government’s position and told the executives to return to headquarters and “work this out so we can have Aadhaar-registered devices”.

Since September 2010, India has collected citizens’ biometric and demographic data and issued ID numbers to every man, woman, and child. More than one billion people have signed up to Aadhaar – over four fifths of the population.

The initiative is designed to catch criminals who defraud the welfare state, but civil liberties groups say the program violates public privacy. Despite opposition, the government is moving ahead with Aadhaar and recently rolled out a digital payments system built on the program, which is part of an effort to make financial services available to millions of people who don’t hold a bank account.

Apple is expected to fight the government’s demands following its recent public dispute with the FBI, which wanted to install a backdoor into the company’s mobile operating system in order to provide access to data in criminal investigations. Apple insisted any such intrusion would make users’ devices less secure and open to hacking. It appears to have won the battle in its own country, at least for now, but given that Apple’s stance on Aadhaar could affect its access to a hugely lucrative overseas market, India could be a whole other story.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: What’s the difference?

Motorola offers both the Moto Z and the Moto Z Play in the UK. The two devices can both be used with Moto Mods and they are both customisable through Moto Maker.

The Moto Z starts at £499, while the Moto Z Play starts at £370, but how do they differ?

We have compared the Moto Z to the Moto Z Play to help you find out what the differences and similarities are. Read on to find out.

Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: Design

The Motorola Moto Z features an aluminium body and it measures 153.3 x 75.3 x 5.19mm, meaning it is super slim. It is also very light, weighing just 136g.

The Motorola Moto Z Play has an aluminium frame, but a plastic rear. It measures 156.4 x 76.4 x 6.99mm and weighs 165g so it is little bigger, thicker and heavier than the Z.

Both devices have a water repellent nano-coating and both have a fingerprint sensor built into the square home button on the front. The Moto Z ditches the 3.5mm headphone jack in favour of USB Type-C only, while the Moto Z Play keeps the headphone port, whilst also including USB Type-C.

As we mentioned, the two devices can also be customised with Moto Maker, though there are more base colour options on the Z, and they are both compatible with Moto Mods, allowing you to add various modules to enhance certain areas.

Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: Display

The Motorola Moto Z and Moto Z Play both feature a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass.

The difference between the two devices comes down to the resolution. The Moto Z opts for a Quad HD resolution meaning a pixel density of 535ppi. The Moto Z Play on the other hand opts for Full HD, resulting in a pixel density of 403ppi.

Theoretically, that should mean the Moto Z delivers sharper and crisper images than the Moto Z Play, but the colour vibrancy should be similar on the two devices, with rich, punchy colours thanks to the AMOLED technology.

Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: Camera

The Motorola Moto Z has a 13-megapixel rear camera offering an aperture of f/1.8, along with optical image stabilisation, laser autofocus and 8x digital zoom. There is also a Color Correlated Temperature flash with dual-LEDs.

The front camera is 5-megapixels with a wide-angle lens and an aperture of f/2.2. There is a flash, along with beautification software and an auto night mode. A professional mode is present on both the front and rear cameras.

The Motorola Moto Z Play has a 16-megapixel camera with an aperture of f/2.0. It doesn’t have optical image stabilisation, but it does have both laser autofocus and phase detection autofocus. There is a colour balancing dual LED flash and 4x digital zoom.

The front camera on the Moto Z Play is the same as the Moto Z, with a 5-megapixel sensor, f/2.2 aperture and wide-angle lens. It too has a flash, beautification software and a professional mode.

Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: Hardware

The Motorola Moto Z has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor under the hood, supported by 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and microSD for storage expansion. It has a 2600mAh battery and it offers TurboPower, which is claimed to deliver 7 hours of power in 15 minutes.

The Motorola Moto Z Play has the Qualcomm 625 processor on board, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and microSD for storage expansion again. Its battery is larger than the Moto Z at 3510mAh, and it too has TurboPower, but in this case it will offer 9 hours in 15 minutes.

As we mentioned previously, both the Moto Z and Moto Z Play have a fingerprint sensor and USB Type-C. They also both have NFC so they will work with Android Pay and they both have a nano-SIM.

Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: Software

The Motorola Moto Z and Moto Z Play both run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with very little modification from pure Android.

They have a couple of extra apps on board, such as Moto Migrate, but the experience on both devices is a very close to vanilla Android experience.

Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Play: Conclusion

The Motorola Moto Z offers a more premium design to the Moto Z Play, along with a higher resolution display, more powerful processor and a slimmer, lighter build. It also has a few more rear camera functions, like OIS.

The Motorola Moto Z Play is cheaper however, and although it offers a softer display, more plasticky body and a less capable rear camera, it does have a significantly larger battery than the Moto Z.

For those that want a slender, premium Moto phone, the Z is a great choice based on the numbers. For those that want to save the £130 and add a good few hours to the battery life, the Moto Z Play is the one to go for.

• Motorola Moto Z Play preview: Moto Mods meet mega battery life
• Motorola Moto Z vs Samsung Galaxy S7 vs HTC 10 vs LG G5: What’s the difference?
• Motorola Moto Z vs Moto Z Force: What’s the difference?
• Moto Z vs Moto X: Force, Style, Play compared

Huawei Mate 9 all but confirmed for December release

Rumours surrounding what the Huawei Mate 9 will look like, what features it will have and when it will be released have been circling for some time. We could now finally have an answer to that final question: December.

At least, that’s according to Chinese site Weibo, and then picked up by Dutch site TechTastic. The rumour says because the Mate 7 was released in October and the Mate 8 in November, logic suggests the Mate 9 will appear in December. If not then, then at least the fourth quarter of 2016.

The specs we’ve already seen tipped for the Huawei Mate 9 have been pitched once again: 2.8GHz Kirin 960 processor,  6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It’s also predicted the Mate 9 will come with a dual lens camera, which this time round is said to be a 20-megapixel affair.

Up until now, rumours have suggested it will come with either a 12-megapixel or a 20-megapixel sensor, we’re hoping for the latter.

The dual lens setup will combine a black and white image sensor with a full colour one and combine the two images to hopefully produce more accurate pictures. The Huawei P9 used Leica imaging technology for its camera, but it’s not clear if the Mate 9 will have the same benefits.

Elsewhere, specs are said to include a 5.9-inch Full HD screen and Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

FIFA 17 demo out now, download links for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC right here

Electronic Arts has released a mighty demo for FIFA 17, two weeks before the final game’s official release.

It’s available across all formats – Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC – and you can start the download process by clicking on the individual links below.

The download itself might be lengthy. The PS4 version, for example, exceeds 8GB and we’ve found the download server to be slower than usual – thanks to the popularity of the demo. Even with 200Mbps broadband, it’s taken us an hour or more to complete.

• FIFA 17 preview: Not just a seasonal update
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You get to play part of the all-new story mode, The Journey, and exhibition matches with 12 full teams to choose from. Included in the demo are Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and a few more major clubs from around the world.

It should keep you going for a couple of weeks. Xbox One owners with EA Access subscriptions can even download and play the full game from next week.

Here are the download links to the demo on each format:

• Xbox One FIFA 17 demo
• Xbox 360 FIFA 17 demo
• PC FIFA 17 demo
• PS4 FIFA 17 demo
• PS3 FIFA 17 demo