Google And Ford Will Reportedly Team Up To Build Self-Driving Cars

Google and Ford are planning to develop and build self-driving vehicles together in a joint venture and will announce the deal at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, says a report in Yahoo Autos. The partnership would represent a major collaboration between two of the biggest names in the tech and automotive industries.

According to Yahoo Autos’ sources, the deal is not exclusive, which means Google would be free to work with other automakers who are interested in its self-driving car technology.

Being the first company to strike a deal with Google, however, may give Ford an edge over rivals, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, and Tesla, that are also working on self-driving cars and eager to get them to market. During the last CES in January 2014, Ford chief executive offier Mark Fields said that he believes somebody will introduce autonomous vehicles within the next five years.

The report says the joint venture would legally be considered separate from Ford, which means the automaker would have a buffer against accepting responsibility if any of its self-driving cars were involved in a collision. This has been a sticking point for car companies, since there are currently no regulations in places that are tailored for autonomous vehicles (Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Google have each stated, however, that they will accept liability for autonomous vehicle accidents).

In turn, Google gets a partner to help it handle the expense and hassle of actually manufacturing autonomous vehicles, especially if it plans to make cars available for personal ownership as well as transportation systems. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has said that the company plans to work with “top-tier OEMs” instead of keeping everything in-house and will find partners to build cars.

Comments

Facebook Now Supports PGP To Send You Encrypted Emails

You can now instruct Facebook to encrypt every email it sends to you so nobody — not even the NSA — is likely to be able to read your messages anytime soon. All you have to do is import your public PGP key into your Facebook settings and you’re good to go. The problem here, of course, is that most people have no idea how public/private key email encryption works and how to even get started with it. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks, a number of organizations, including Google, promised to completely hide the complexities of end-to-end email encryption from regular users. Very few of these products have materialized so far, however — not for lack of trying, but because this is actually a very complex problem, both from a technical and user experience perspective. Facebook uses the well-established PGP scheme (the GNU Privacy Guard implementation of OpenPGP, to be precise) to encrypt messages and tools lik...

Laser gun is deployed and operational on U.S. Navy warship

After several years of research and testing, the U.S. Navy has introduced a new laser gun designed to protect ships without using ammunition. Another entry on our timeline is now a reality as the U.S. Navy has authorised the first operational use of a laser weapon. This new hi-tech system – known as the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) – is designed to serve as a form of defence against drones and other small flying vehicles or small-boat enemies including suicide attackers. It is highly accurate, able to hit objects moving at up to 300 mph (480 km/h). The LaWS fires a solid-state infrared beam with two modes: high output to destroy a target, and low output for optical "dazzling", warning shots or to cripple a potential attacker. Among the advantages of this device versus projectile weapons is the low cost per shot, as each firing of the weapon requires only minimal cost for generating the energetic pulse; by contrast ordnance for projectile weapons must be des...

Intel announces the first 14 nanometre processor

At the Computex conference in Taipei, chipmaker Intel has revealed a fanless mobile PC reference design using the first of its next-generation 14nm "Broadwell" processors. The 2 in 1 pictured here is a 12.5" screen that is just 7.2 mm thick with keyboard detached and weighs 670 grams. The Surface Pro 3 – for comparison – is 9.1 mm thick and weighs 800 grams. It includes a media dock that provides additional cooling for a burst of performance. The next-generation chip is purpose-built for 2 in 1s and will hit the market later in 2014 . Called the Intel Core M, it will be the most energy-efficient Intel Core processor in the company's history with power usage cut by up to 45 percent, resulting in 60 percent less heat. The majority of designs based on this new chip are expected to be fanless, with up to 32 hours of battery life, offering both a lightning-fast tablet and razor-thin laptop. Intel is also delivering innovation and performance for the ...

How to Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption Method and Cipher Strength in Windows 10?

BitLocker is an encryption method that enables users to lock the different drives in Windows . The drives which are protected by BitLocker are accessed by passwords. Windows has provided opportunity for users to choose and configure the cipher strength and algorithm used by BitLocker Drive Encryption. This can be achieved via the Local Group Policy editor. The Local Policy Editor will let you configure and select the cipher method for BitLocker encryption. By default it is not configured but you can choose your choiceable encryption method by enabling the Policy Setting. If the drive is already encrypted or if encryption is in progress, the encyption method will have no effect. If you leave the policy unconfigured, then BitLocker will use the default encryption method of AES 128-bit with Diffuser or the encryption method specified by the setup script. Steps to Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption Method and Cipher Strength in Windows 10 1. ...

Metaio’s Thermal Touch Gets A Little Bit Smaller At MWC 2015

We first reported on Metaio’s Thermal Touch concept for Augmented Reality interaction last spring. Still in its infancy, the concept relies on thermal imaging cameras to track residual heat your body leaves on surfaces that it touches. Metaio’s software can track these heat signatures so they act as “clicks” or “touches” in Augmented Reality interfaces that only the user sees on interactive eyewear or devices. It’s a pretty interesting concept and will undoubtedly open a new realm for User Experience and User Interface experts to ponder. The first prototype we looked at was crude and completely impractical—an iPad with a giant thermal camera attached to it. Indeed, a few people pointed out to me “why would you need to touch external surfaces, when the iPad screen is right in front of you?” However that question totally misses the point of the prototype, which was really just proving the concept was worth further exploration. This next concept for thermal touc...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog