Tesla: Elon Musk’s EV maker to settle over fatal Autopilot crash | BBC

April 11, 2024April 9, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Electric car giant Tesla has agreed to settle a lawsuit over a crash in 2018 which killed Apple engineer Walter Huang after his Model X, operating on Autopilot, collided with a highway barrier.

The case, brought by Mr Huang’s family, was scheduled to begin in the California Superior Court this week.

If the trial had gone ahead, it would have brought increased scrutiny of the firm’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed and reports have said the deal still needs to be approved by a judge. Tesla did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

Before the settlement, Tesla argued that Mr Huang had misused the system because he was playing a video game just before the accident.

14 Best Deals From the Target Circle Week Deals Event (2024) | WIRED

April 9, 2024April 8, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

No, it’s not Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, but Target is back with yet another Circle Week deals event running through Saturday, April 13. Amazon had a spring sale two weeks ago, so it seems natural that Target would follow suit. The good news? Some of our favorite tablets, headphones, and kitchen items are discounted.

There’s a caveat: You need to be a Target Circle member. However, it’s free to join and nets you some solid savings throughout the year. Unlike prior Circle Week deals events that required you to clip the deals to your account first, these should automatically apply as long as you’re signed in to your Target account.

The Internet Archive Just Backed Up an Entire Caribbean Island | WIRED

April 9, 2024April 8, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Aruba has long been a special place for Stacy Argondizzo. For years, her family has vacationed on the tiny Caribbean Island every July. More recently it’s been more than just a place to take a break from her work as a digital archivist—becoming wholly a part of that work.

A project Argondizzo galvanized comes to full fruition this week. The Internet Archive is now home to the Aruba Collection, which hosts digitized versions of Aruba’s National Library, National Archives, and other institutions including an archaeology museum and the University of Aruba. The collection comprises 101,376 items so far—roughly one for each person who lives on the Island—including 40,000 documents, 60,000 images, and seven 3D objects.

Elon Musk: Tesla Robotaxi Is Arriving in August | Entrepreneur

April 8, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amid news of Tesla’s first year-over-year sales decline since 2020, the electric car company is setting the scene for a unique product launch.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X that the company will unveil its first robotaxi on August 8. However, the unveiling date does not mean that’s when deliveries will begin — the first deliveries of another Tesla product, the Cybertruck, arrived years after its unveiling.

Tesla’s first autonomous taxi will join a market that already features offerings from competitors such as Waymo, an independent company that started as Google’s self-driving car project, and Cruise, General Motors’ company.

How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Trademark Infringement | Entrepreneur

April 8, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you have developed a new product or service, the next step is to develop a memorable brand, or trademark and slogan. Before you begin displaying these on product packages or your website, take a few minutes to be sure each is available for use. If you don’t, you may run into an expensive problem in the future.

I’m talking about trademarks and the risk of infringing on someone else’s legal rights.

It takes only a few minutes to check whether the brand for your new product is already someone else’s trademark or confusingly similar to a trademark in use. Start by quickly searching Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and both of the major mobile app stores — Apple App Store and Google Play.

iPad 2024: 2 new models tipped to drop soon — and may come with this iPhone feature | Mashable

April 5, 2024April 4, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Time to add more fuel to the “new iPads” fire.

As spotted by 91Mobiles, the Bureau of Indian Standards (or BIS) let slip that two new iPads are coming soon by putting their model numbers on the BIS website. Basically, that means the new iPads have passed India’s regulatory standards and can legally be sold there.

That’s not surprising, as there have been rumors about new iPads launching in the first half of 2024 for months. What is sort of unexpected, however, is that MacRumors spotted some text strings in iPadOS 17.5 beta 1 suggesting that the iPhone’s “battery health” menu is coming to iPads.

Facebook mirrors TikTok’s vertical video format | Mashable

April 5, 2024April 4, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

According to Oscar Wilde, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s true, then TikTok must be the most flattered app out there. Everyone wants to be it or beat it or both — and Facebook just made another move to do just that.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced the newest TikTok-ification of its site by rolling out a new full-screen video player on its app, much like the vertical video format TikTok made so famous. All of the Reels you see on Facebook, along with longer videos and Live content, will all be shown to you via a full-screen, vertically-oriented video. The social media giant also purports to have “improved recommendations for videos of all lengths we think you’re most likely to enjoy based on your interests.”

New York closes bridges for its marathon. Runners should pay for the unpaid tolls, the MTA demands | CNN Business

April 4, 2024April 3, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Metropolitan Transit Authority says it wants the organizers of New York City’s marathon to pay $750,000 a year, citing the steep loss of bridge toll revenues for closing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Staten Island-Brooklyn connection that has served as the starting point for the race for decades.

“New Yorkers love Marathon Sunday, but taxpayers cannot be expected to subsidize a wealthy non-government organization like the New York Road Runners to the tune of $750,000,” MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Catherine Sheridan said in a statement. “The MTA is prepared to continue working towards a final agreement with the NYRR, provided it leads, over time, to full reimbursement for the lost revenue.”

With about 50,000 runners expected to participate in the marathon on the first Sunday in November, the $750,000 the MTA demands works out to $15 per runner. The Verrazano E-ZPass toll is $7.