IIHS will rate driver assists like Autopilot and Super Cruise for safety

Robust driver monitoring is essential if you want a good score.

GM's Super Cruise system is tightly geofenced to divided-lane highways and only operates if the system can determine that the human in the driver's seat is paying attention to the road ahead, ready to respond if there's a problem.

Enlarge / GM's Super Cruise system is tightly geofenced to divided-lane highways and only operates if the system can determine that the human in the driver's seat is paying attention to the road ahead, ready to respond if there's a problem. (credit: General Motors)

On Thursday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced that it is creating a rating system for hands-free advanced driver-assistance systems like Tesla's Autopilot and General Motors' Super Cruise. Later this year IIHS will issue its first set of ratings, with grading levels of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor. Having a good driver-monitoring system will be vital to getting a good grade.

And the institute is not alone. Also on Thursday, Consumer Reports revealed that it, too, will consider the safety of such tech features, adding points if there's a good driver-monitoring system. CR says that so far, only Super Cruise and Ford's BlueCruise systems are safe enough to get those extra points. Meanwhile, from model year 2024, CR will start subtracting points for cars that offer partial automation without proper driver monitoring.

"Partial automation systems may make long drives seem like less of a burden, but there is no evidence that they make driving safer," says IIHS President David Harkey. "In fact, the opposite may be the case if systems lack adequate safeguards."

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Biden revives climate portion of failed Build Back Better bill

Until recently, agreement on any climate legislation seemed far-fetched.

President Joe Biden talks to reporters during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on January 19, 2022, in Washington, DC.

Enlarge / President Joe Biden talks to reporters during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on January 19, 2022, in Washington, DC. (credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden yesterday expressed support for breaking up the Build Back Better Act, saying that the parts intended to combat climate change appear to have the most support.

“I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now, and come back and fight for the rest later,” Biden said at a press conference. “I’m confident we can get pieces—big chunks—of the Build Back Better law signed into law.”

The initial Build Back Better bill contained provisions for universal preschool, paid family leave, and free community college in addition to clean energy tax credits and other climate-related measures. That bill, which weighed in at $3.5 trillion, was met with skepticism by some moderate Democrats and was pared down to $1.75 trillion after jettisoning free community college and 12-week paid family leave. 

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COVID testing firm piled unprocessed swabs in trash bags, billed feds $113M

Many consumers never got results; others got results for tests they never took.

A person takes a rapid COVID-19 test.

Enlarge / A person takes a rapid COVID-19 test. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

Federal and state investigations into a large national chain of COVID-19 testing sites have turned up tests that were never labeled with patients' names, tests piled into trash bags stored for long periods at room temperature, tests that were never processed, and test results that were clearly fake.

Behind the testing sites are two Illinois-based companies: Center for COVID Control (CCC) and Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc., which is said to carry out COVID PCR testing for CCC. The two companies share the same address, though CCC is owned by Chicago-area couple Akbar Syed and Aleya Siyaj, while the clinical company is owned by Mohammed Shujauddin.

Together, the companies claim to provide rapid and PCR testing for COVID-19, with fast turnaround times and no appointments necessary. So far, they have collected more than 400,000 samples from over 300 locations across the US. And they have billed the federal government over $113 million for running many of those tests.

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OAN panics as DirecTV drops network, asks viewers to find “dirt” on AT&T chairman

OAN host asks viewers to find proof that AT&T chair is racist against white people.

OAN host Dan Ball urges viewers to contact AT&T.

Enlarge / Dan Ball, host of One America News show "Real America." (credit: One America News)

One America News is in panic mode after DirecTV decided to drop the right-wing network from its channel lineup.

OAN host Dan Ball on Monday night urged viewers to dig up "dirt" on AT&T Board Chairman William Kennard, a Democrat who was Federal Communications Commission chairman during the Clinton administration and US Ambassador to the European Union under Obama. (AT&T is DirecTV's majority owner.)

A Daily Beast article said Ball told viewers that OAN "is now at war with AT&T." The Daily Beast article continued:

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Report: Google is making an augmented reality headset, won’t call it Google Glass

Google was one of the first big tech companies to make a play for the augmented reality space with the launch of Google Glass nearly a decade ago. But Glass never made much of a splash in the consumer space, and is now strictly an enterprise product. But now that virtual reality (VR) and augmented […]

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Google was one of the first big tech companies to make a play for the augmented reality space with the launch of Google Glass nearly a decade ago. But Glass never made much of a splash in the consumer space, and is now strictly an enterprise product.

But now that virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets are hot again, rumor has it that Google plans to give it another try: The Verge reports that Google is developing an AR headset that could launch as soon as 2024, although many details are still up in the air.

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2

The news comes shortly after Facebook changed its parent company’s name to Meta in an attempt to either put itself at the front of the Metaverse revolution or to actually make the Metaverse happen in the first place, depending on who you ask. Right now Meta’s biggest success is probably the acquisition of Oculus, which has made out some of the most popular VR headsets in recent years.

Meanwhile other companies, including Apple, are also said to be working on their own VR and/or AR headsets.

According to The Verge, Google’s version is expected to use front-facing cameras and a built-in display to blend virtual graphics with your real-world view. The headset is expected to feature a custom Google-designed processor (much like the company’s Pixel 6 smartphones), while offloading some processing to cloud servers in an attempt to keep the headset itself low-power and lightweight.

Current prototypes are said to use an Android-based operating system, but future versions could use a custom OS. And while The Verge’s sources say some of the folks working on the headset come from Google’s Pixel team, it’s unclear if the final product will have the Pixel name.

For now, the headset is code-named “Project Iris,” and the only information we have about it comes from leaks. So even if The Verge’s report is accurate, there’s still plenty of time for things to change before Google is ready to launch a new headset… if it ever does.

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Where does PlayStation fit into Microsoft’s Activision purchase?

Bethesda acquisition offers a cautionary tale for hopeful PS owners.

A small selection of the characters that may not be appearing on PlayStation in the long term.

Enlarge / A small selection of the characters that may not be appearing on PlayStation in the long term.

In the wake of Microsoft's announcement that it intends to acquire Activision, it has been fun to gawk at the big numbers and speculate about the fate of rich CEOs, among other business implications. But for many PlayStation owners, there's only one question that matters: will I need to buy an Xbox or PC to continue playing Activision franchises in the future?

Microsoft's acquisition, which could be finalized as early as July 1, could threaten PlayStation owners' access to everything from Diablo and Overwatch to Spyro and Tony Hawk. Even Crash Bandicoot, which used to be synonymous with the PlayStation brand, would be a Microsoft property after the deal closes.

And then there's Call of Duty, the annual first-person shooter mega-franchise that's particularly hard to imagine not being a part of the PlayStation universe anymore. Call of Duty games continue to be some of the PlayStation's bestsellers year after year, so a Microsoft acquisition could leave a big gap in the PlayStation catalog. Sony also declared that PlayStation was "the new home of Call of Duty" back in 2015, hyping up early access to betas and map packs for PlayStation owners, and Call of Duty's official esports home shifted over to PlayStation that same year.

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Anzeige: Sicherheitslücken identifizieren und ausmerzen

Cyberattacken sind für viele Unternehmen ein Risikofaktor. Wie sich Sicherheitslücken finden und Systeme schützen lassen, erläutern drei Online-Workshops der Golem Akademie. (Golem Akademie, Server-Applikationen)

Cyberattacken sind für viele Unternehmen ein Risikofaktor. Wie sich Sicherheitslücken finden und Systeme schützen lassen, erläutern drei Online-Workshops der Golem Akademie. (Golem Akademie, Server-Applikationen)