Month: February 2022

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Tesla's controversial hands-free driver-assistance system is the subject of yet another safety recall. In November, the automaker had to recall nearly 12,000 cars after a software update affected some of the cars' forward-looking safety systems. Now, Tesla wants to recall 53,822 cars to remove a "rolling stop" feature that flouts traffic laws.

The issue affects Models 3, Y, S, and X running firmware 2020.40.4.10 or newer and participating in the "full self-driving" beta program. This software allows selectable moods for the car's driving style—chill, average, and assertive. And it's the last of those that's the problem.

In assertive mode, if a Tesla approaches a four-way stop intersection at less than 5.6 mph (9 km/h) and it detects no other road users or pedestrians near the intersection, it will carry on traveling at that speed instead of coming to a complete stop at the stop sign.

Enlarge (credit: Financial Times)

The world’s largest technology companies are pouring money into the biggest foreign policy think tanks in the US, as they seek to advance the argument that stricter competition rules will benefit China.

Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple are behind an increase in funding to four of Washington’s most prestigious research groups: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Center for a New American Security, Brookings, and the Hudson Institute.

Total donations from Big Tech companies to the four think tanks have risen from at least $625,000 in 2017-18 to at least $1.2 million in 2019-20, according to a Financial Times analysis of financial disclosures. These figures could be as high as $1.2 million in 2017-18 to $2.7 million in 2019-20.

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  Launch of the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation satellite on January 31. [credit: SpaceX ]

For a few days there, it sure seemed like a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket carrying a satellite for the Italian air force would never get off the ground from Florida.

On January 27 and 28, poor weather scrubbed the rocket's launch during the countdown. On January 29, foul weather precluded pre-launch activities from taking place. Finally, the skies cleared on Sunday, January 30. But there was another issue—Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas cruise ship had moved into the marine exclusion zone beneath the Falcon 9 rocket's flight path.

Harmony of the Seas thereby caused discord on land as SpaceX had to scrub the launch of the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation at T-33 seconds. Weather was good again on Monday evening, and this time, there were no wayward cruise ships to scuttle the flight. Instead, there was harmony on the launch pad, harmony on the seas, and ultimately harmony in space as the Italian satellite successfully made it to orbit.