Month: October 2017

Enlarge / If you have these lying around, dig them out of the closet for some Switch action!

Classic Nintendo GameCube controllers can now work with the Nintendo Switch via a USB adapter, following a version 4.0.0 system update released late last week. While Nintendo didn't list the feature in its official release notes, the new controller support was discovered and spread on Twitter yesterday, then quickly confirmed by others.

GameCube controllers show up on the Switch controller-calibration screen with a "USB" label when plugged into the system dock via Nintendo's official GameCube controller adapter, which was first released years ago alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (third-party adapters may not work as well, from reports). The controllers seem to work with every available Switch game, though the GameCube controller lacks an equivalent for the Switch's "minus" and "ZL" buttons, limiting the functionality in some titles. Other USB controllers, such as wired Xbox 360 game pads, still aren't recognized when plugged into the Switch.

The surprise controller addition will be welcome news for the many longtime Nintendo fans who think Nintendo never really improved on the oddly shaped GameCube controller design and for those who want to use bigger analog sticks on the system without having to invest in the Switch Pro Controller.

Enlarge / nuTonomy was spun out of MIT and has stayed true to its New England roots. (credit: nuTonomy)

On Tuesday we learned that Boston-based nuTonomy is being bought by tier-one auto supplier Delphi. Delphi is paying $400 million for the startup, plus about $50 million more in earn-outs. In return, it gets an extra arrow in its self-driving quiver. Four-year-old nuTonomy is developing an automated driving "stack"—the combined software programs that do everything from fusing sensor inputs that perceive the environment around a vehicle to facilitating the decision-making of where to actually drive.

"Our mission has always been to radically improve the safety, efficiency, and accessibility of transportation worldwide," said nuTonomy cofounder and CEO Karl Iagnemma. "Joining forces with Delphi brings us one step closer to achieving our goal with a market-leading partner whose vision directly aligns with ours. Together, we will set the global standard for excellence in autonomous driving technology."

Automotive suppliers like Delphi and Bosch are just as heavily committed to self-driving technology as OEMs like General Motors, Tesla, and Volvo. Last year, Delphi and Mobileye revealed plans for a production-grade autonomous system planned for 2019.

Enlarge (credit: National Weather Service)

Over the last few decades, a warming Atlantic Ocean has produced a number of very powerful hurricanes, some of which retained strength much further north than usual. Fortunately for the US, however, few of them made landfall on the continental US, leading to talk of a "hurricane hiatus" that came to a decisive close this year.

A new analysis of New York City's hurricane risk suggests that a similar fate might be in store for the city. While warming waters will produce more powerful storms in the future, climate models suggest that they'll generally track further offshore of the city, a combination that ends up cancelling itself out. Unfortunately, due to rising oceans, the risk of flooding will keep going up, with what was once a 500-year flood occurring every 25 years by mid-century.

Out to sea

As with many studies, this one started with two emissions pathways defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One of these is RCP 4.5, in which the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide finally stops towards the end of this century. The second is RCP 8.5, which represents a "business as usual" approach to emissions, bringing a continued rise in atmospheric CO₂. These were used to drive three climate models that tracked two different periods: the remainder of this century, and a period extending from the present to the year 2300. Approximately 12,000 storms were tracked per century under these models. 1970-2005 was used as a baseline comparison period.