Google is taking back Nest, the smart home unit of parent firm Alphabet, as part of an effort by the tech giant to battle rivals like Amazon and its Alexa digital assistant. Nest Labs, known for its smart home Wi-Fi thermostat, was acquired by Google in 2014 for $3.2 billion and later became an independent Alphabet “other […]
Continental Teams With NVIDIA On Self-Driving Car System
Software maker NVIDIA (Nah-VID-E-uh) and German auto parts supplier Continental are teaming to build a self-driving vehicle system that will hit the market in 2021. It’s the latest in a long string of tech-automaker partnerships in the race to get autonomous vehicles on the road. The companies said Monday that their system will be used for driver-assist […]
Researchers Demonstrate Graphene As A Source Of High-Speed Light Pulses
One of the key requirements of future optical communications technologies is a nanoscale light source capable of emitting ultrafast light pulses. In a new study, researchers have shown that graphene may be an ideal candidate for such a light source, by demonstrating graphene-based devices that emit light pulses with a bandwidth of up to 10 […]
Tesla, Australia To Turn 50,000 Homes Into Power Generators
Some 50,000 homes in South Australia will receive solar panels and Tesla batteries, the state government announced Sunday, in a landmark plan to turn houses into a giant, interconnected power plant. South Australia is already home to world’s biggest battery in an Elon Musk-driven project to provide electricity for more than 30,000 homes. The state […]
Beyond The Car: How Tech Firms Are Exploring The Future Of Transport
Carless commuting is cruising in the fast lane at the Consumer Electronics Show, with companies showing off electric bicycles, scooters, skateboards and more aimed at making the internal combustion engine a thing of the past. As the ranks of people around the world living in cities has grown, so too has the cost of car […]
Intel Halts Chip Flaw Fix Due To Problem With Patches
Intel on Monday called for a halt in deployment of patches for a troubling vulnerability in its computer chips because they could cause “unpredictable” problems in affected devices. Intel posted a list of chip models that could be tripped up by the patch, meant to prevent hackers from taking advantage of so-called Meltdown and Spectre flaws to steal […]
More Self-Driving Tech In VW’s Next-Generation Golf
The world’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen said Friday it would stuff even more technology into the next generation of its top-selling Golf model, bringing so-called “connected driving” deeper into the mainstream. Slated for release in 2019, the updated cars will be constantly connected to the internet, with greater self-driving capabilities and “more software than ever before […]
GM Seeks US Approval for Car With No Steering Wheel
General Motors is seeking approval from US regulators for an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, the automaker announced Friday. GM asked the Department of Transportation to allow it to deploy the Cruise AV that will travel the roads without human intervention. It describes the vehicle as “the first production-ready vehicle built from […]
GM Says It’s Mass-Producing Cars Without Steering Wheels
General Motors says it is making the first mass-production autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals. The company says it has filed a petition with the federal government seeking permission to put the vehicles on the road sometime next year with no human backup drivers. GM’s Cruise Automation unit has announced plans to carry […]
Forget The Self-Driving Car, Meet The Self-Driving Suitcase
Self-driving cars may take a while to arrive, but the self-driving suitcase is here now. Some of the technologies used in autonomous cars have been adapted in products unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, to help travelers with the weighty problem of dealing with baggage. The “robot suitcase” from California-based startup […]