Month: October 2022

Enlarge / When Tesla first started marketing its driver assists, it relied on radar, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors all working together. (credit: Tesla)

On Wednesday, Tesla announced that it is dropping yet another set of sensors from its electric vehicles. The latest casualty? Ultrasonic sensors, usually found embedded in the bumpers, that allow for assisted parking features.

At first, it will just be the Models 3 and Y that rely solely on cameras for the entire array of driver assists that Tesla offers. However, the automaker says that after rolling out this change globally, it will then do the same for the Models S and X in 2023.

Tesla says that despite dropping radar from its adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking functions—which now rely solely on cameras—its vehicles "have either maintained or improved their active safety ratings in the US and Europe and perform better in pedestrian automatic emergency braking (AEB) intervention."

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It's time for another mid-week Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes a new low on Google's Pixel 6a smartphone. Priced $100 less than its original selling price, the $349 Pixel 6a delivers flagship performance in an already value-stuffed package. Using the same SoC as the Pixel 6 Pro, the Pixel 6a roared through benchmarks in our testing and offered the same competent photography we've come to expect from Pixel phones. The Pixel 7 is set to be announced tomorrow, but that device will likely cost more than double the 6a's current price, and the 7a is a bit farther off, with the line typically launched in spring.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4 are also on sale for record lows. In our review, we called the Pro 8 "the best version of [the tablet first, laptop second] that you can get." It showed laptop-class performance in a form factor that continues to improve its usability with a bigger screen, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and replaceable SSDs. The midrange i5 Core Intel Evo variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage is down from $1,000 to $865 at Amazon. You can also snag one from Best Buy with a TypeCover for $1,000, saving you about $20 on the separately sold accessory, on top of the noted discount.

Elsewhere around the web, we have discounts on our favorite 4K streaming stick, Google's Chromecast with Google TV ($40 $50); one of our top picks for an activity-tracking smartwatch, the Garmin Venu Sq ($149 $200); and continued price cuts on last year's 13-inch MacBook Pro and LG's C2 4K OLED TV, among many others. You can check out our full curated list of deals below.

Enlarge / Artist's conception of Blizzard fighting off DDoS attackers.

When a highly anticipated online game launches, unforeseen server capacity issues and long entry queues are nothing out of the ordinary. In the case of this week's Overwatch 2 early access launch, though, the usual crowding problems are apparently being exacerbated by coordinated distributed denial of service attacks.

On Tuesday evening, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra issued a generic tweet warning that "Teams are working hard on server issues with Overwatch 2." Less than an hour later, though, he followed up with some more worrying specifics. "Unfortunately we are experiencing a mass DDoS attack on our servers," he said. "Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage. This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues."

Overnight, Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller posted an update saying that "we’re steadily making progress on server issues and stability, as well as working through a second DDoS attack. We’re all hands on deck and will continue to work throughout the night. Thank you for your patience—we’ll share more info as it becomes available."

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB)

Why did Elon Musk agree to buy Twitter again instead of continuing to argue his claims that Twitter violated the merger agreement by lying about bots? There are a few answers, but "the biggest one of all is that he's almost certain to lose [in Delaware Court of Chancery]. And of course, if he loses, he has to do exactly what he's just agreed to do, which is close the deal at the original price," law professor Robert Miller told Ars in a phone interview yesterday.

Miller is the F. Arnold Daum Chair in Corporate Finance and Law at the University of Iowa College of Law. "The Delaware Supreme Court and the Delaware Court of Chancery have cited Professor Miller's articles on material adverse effects, an issue the Court of Chancery has described as 'one of the most difficult issues under Delaware law,' more than forty times," his University of Iowa bio says. Musk's defense against Twitter's lawsuit depended heavily on whether he could prove that Twitter suffered a material adverse effect.

Musk tried to get out of the $44 billion deal by claiming that Twitter lied in its estimate that fewer than 5 percent of its monetizable daily active users (mDAU) are spam or fake. But his claims seemed to have no solid proof, and with the scheduled trial less than two weeks away, Miller says Musk probably finally realized his case likely isn't a winner.