Daily Archives: December 22, 2023

Yikes. Accident Prone

It's not just you as it turns out, Teslas are astonishinglyprone to being involved in accidents.

According to a recent analysis of 30 car brands by online lending marketplace LendingTree, Tesla drivers have the highest accident rate out of all of them. Between November 2022 and November 2023, based on tens of millions of insurance quotes, Tesla drivers were involved in 23.54 accidents per 1,000 drivers. Ram truck drivers were a close second, at 22.76.

The award for worst overall drivers, however, went to Ram, which had the highest incident rates counting accidents but also DUIs, speeding tickets, and other citations overall, with Tesla being a close second.

The news comes as two million Tesla vehicles recently had to be recalled over safety concerns related to the company's infamous driver assistance software called Autopilot. The feature has already been under scrutiny by regulators for years with critics pointing out that Tesla's misleading marketing may give drivers a false sense of security and fool them into thinking their vehicles can drive by themselves.

LendingTree's data isn't entirely conclusive as to the exact cause of the accidents,and it also doesn't delve into questions of who was at fault.

Nonetheless, its conclusion about the Elon Musk-led EV maker shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Tesla actively seeks to attract thrill seekers who are after sports car-level acceleration. Insuring these vehicles can also be extremely expensive.

"Most people who drive minivans seem more interested in getting their kids around town safely than they are in zipping around in a high-horsepower vehicle," said LendingTree insurance expert Rob Bhatt in a statement.

According to the analysis, the car brand with the most DUIs was BMW and it wasn't even close. The number of DUIS was 3.13 per 1,000 drivers, compared to just 1.72 for Ram, the second highest DUI rate. In that category, Tesla drivers did great, coming in at number 20.

More on Tesla: National Forest Service Trolls Tesla After Cybertruck Gets Stuck in Forest

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Teslas Crash More Than Any Other Brand, Analysis Finds - Futurism

"Generative AI is going to add an emotional layer to interaction with the car." Car Talk

Remember those talking GPS monitors from the early-to-mid-2000s? They're back with a vengeance and will soon be AI-enabled, even though it's unclear who asked for that.

In a press release, the GPS company TomTom announced that it's teaming up with Microsoft to equip cars with a generative AI assistant named "Tommy" that will, for some reason, let people converse with their cars.

"If youve ever dreamed of being able to talk to your car as if it were KITT," the statement reads,making a deep-cut reference to 80s television,"your dream might soon be reality."

Using various Microsoft AI services, including its Azure OpenAI large language models (LLM), TomTom's new offering sounds like it will be like a yassified Siri or Alexa for your vehicle, enabling drivers to look up directions and other "infotainment" tools.

Curiously enough, the companies had beef before they ever collabed. Back in 2009, when GPS monitors were still a huge thing, Microsoft sued TomTom for allegedly violating Linux software patents. In response, the GPS company filed a countersuit claiming Microsoft had violated its patents. To settle the dispute, TomTom went ahead and bought the initial offending software, and by 2016, the duo announced an official collaboration.

Like many companies that have invested or perhaps over-invested in AI, TomTom's people have given some pretty telling soundbites about how excited they are to be working with robots.

"Generative AI is going to add an emotional layer to interaction with the car," Gianluca Brugnoli, the company's VP of design, said in the press release. "It will know where youre driving, your physical [well-being] and will adapt the driving experience and the technology in the cabin to match the experience each driver seeks."

As with everything else in the so-called "AI revolution," it's hard to imagine who asked for an AI assistant that lets one talk to their car "Knight Rider" style, and it's more difficult still to try to parse why TomTom seems to be indicating that it wants to create a vehicular, vibes-based FitBit when that is so far outside the realm of consumer wants or needs that it's nearly laughable.

TomTom, a vestige of the dot-com era, is clear trying to claw back relevance in a world where everyone has maps on their smartphones and for some reason believes "Tommy" will take them there.

More on AI-enabled cars: Teslas Crash More Than Any Other Brand, Analysis Finds

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Microsoft's Stuffing Talking Generative AI Into Your Car - Futurism

At this point, the texts have become commonplace someone asking for a veterinarian, and when you tell them they have the wrong number, the sender apologizes before introducing themselves and trying to start a conversation.

For most who receive them, the messages go largely ignored, but for those who fall victim, they end up being bilked out of their hard-earned money. While awareness-raising articlesand public service announcements have helped to an extent, the scammers are apparently often in a dire plight of their own: by and large,they appear to have been victims of human trafficking.

In an expos gleaned from eyewitness accounts and documents from Neo Lu, a 28-year-old man sold into servitude to a Chinese gang, the New York Times reports that the conditions these trafficked individuals are forced to live under make those "wrong number" texts all the more chilling.

Lu's terrifying ordeal began when he responded to an ad for a translator job in Bangkok. Everything from the listing itself to the horror that awaited him after he was smuggled over the border between Thailand and Myanmar had been expertly concocted and executed by the masterminds behind the scheme that the United States Institute of Peace calls a "criminal cancer."

As theNYT explains, the details, documents, and images Lu shared with the newspaper from his seven months in that Myanmar work camp align with other accounts from people who were trafficked for similar scams in other Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia and Laos.

Like other scams before it, the "pig butchering" scheme thus named because the person on the other end of the messages spends weeks pulling in lonely people, like fattening a pig for the slaughter generally involves tricking targets into investing in crypto rackets and then snatching their real cash, never to be seen again.

While Americans have been conned out of billions of dollars in these swindles, the trafficked scammers are broken physically and mentally, the newspaper reports. Those who disobey are beaten, and those who comply are duly convinced that they'll be arrested if they return to their home countries for their complicity and anyway, their passports and visas are often stolen by their captors, making escape all but a moot point.

As Lu told theTimes, he and his fellow captives were given small cuts of what they scammed to spend on distractions like sex, drugs, or gambling in the compound where they were held. That "payment" was another way they were kept in line.

"The scam groups need to give trafficking victims the illusion that they could work their way out of this system," Lu said. "Eventually the donkey goes from trying to avoid getting whipped to chasing after the carrot dangled in front of them."

Lu, who ended up working as an accountant for his incarcerators in an ultimately and violently denied bid to be released, contacted the NYT while still in captivity. After some amount of back-and-forth, he went silent, and claims that during that time he was subject first to regular beatings and then to torture after it was revealed that he'd sent incriminating information and photos both to American journalists and to his family back home in China.

In one particularly harrowing description, the meme "the beatings will continue until morale improves" took literal meanings, with Lu describing one time period where his captors attempted to convince him between beatings to give up on his attempts to leave.

"These Chinese gangs are spreading a form of modern slavery," Lu told the newspaper. "I want the whole world to know."

More on pig butchering: Crypto Company Says Oops, Its Coin Was Being Used in a Human Trafficking Scam

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Those Scam Texts You're Getting Are Sent By Victims of Human Trafficking - Futurism

They both died on the scene. Grand Deathed Auto

A man in Los Angeles has been ordered to pay more than $23,000 in restitution after killing two people with his Tesla back in 2019 while using Autopilot.

As Fortune reports, it's possibly the first time US prosecutors have brought felony charges against a motorist who was using driver assistance software.

It's also one of over a dozen deadly collisions currently being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which culminated in the recall of more than 2 million Tesla vehicles last week.

The latest court case could set a precedent for the future use of driver assistance software like Autopilot especially because$23,000 is an arguably pitifully small price to pay given the well-documented dangers of Tesla's driver-assistance software.

LA-based Tesla driver Kevin Aziz Riad pleaded not guilty last year to two counts of vehicular manslaughter. He was initially facing seven years in prison.

His vehicle, which had its Autopilot feature turned on at the time of the accident, struck a Honda Civic on December 29, 2019 while driving 74 mph. The Civic's two occupants died at the scene.

Aziz Riad is still facing two civil lawsuits filed against him by the families of the deceased, as Fortune reports.

Last week's recall, which was addressed through an over-the-air software update, was the result of the NHTSA deeming Tesla's Autosteer feature to be too easily misused.

"The remedy will incorporate additional controls and alerts to those already existing on affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged," the regulator's recall notice reads, "which includes keeping their hands on the steering wheel and paying attention to the roadway."

The recall may have come just under four years too late in the case of Aziz Riad.

"The recently announced recall, if it limits the use of Autopilot to controlled access highways, would likely have prevented this tragic incident," lawyer Donald Slavik, who is representing one of the victim's families, told Fortune.

More on Autopilot: Feds Blast Tesla for Massive Autopilot Issue in 2 Million Cars

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Tesla Driver Forced to Pay After Killing Two People on Autopilot - Futurism

This is eerie. Not Fake News

An upcoming news outfit called Channel 1 is launching its own network in February that it says will present the news almost entirely with AI-generated news anchors that it's presenting as strikingly capable and photorealistic.

The tech startup announced the launch date on Tuesday, sharing a 20-minute video demo on X-formerly-Twitter. It kicks off in much the same way your typical cable news channel might, but overlaying real images alongside AI-generated ones, and cutting between different AI personalities.

One stiffly assures the viewer that Channel 1's output is "not fake news." Rather than creating its own stories, says the AI anchor assuming the form of a man in a suit, Channel 1 will rely on content gathered from human-made, "trusted news sources" around the world, repackaged and personalized to each viewer's tastes and interests.

Even more strangely, Channel 1 will use AI to generate images and videos of events where "cameras were not able to capture the action." It likens this to how a courtroom sketch "is not a literal depiction of actual events" but helps audiences understand them.

In its demo program, Channel 1 uses mostly real news footage and b-roll taken from other sources. When an AI-generated image is shown, it's clearly indicated with a disclaimer that appears in the top right of the screen.

More impressively, the technology is leveraged to translate speech while keeping the voice of the speaker. One example shows a man explaining something in French in the original footage, and then afterwards speaking English in a convincing synthesized voice that sounds a lot like his own.

Another fake presenter in the video heralds Channel 1's "unique new way" to instantly gauge public sentiment through its "emoji meter." It uses the upcoming release of Tesla's Cybertruck as its guinea pig.

"I quickly read the most recent 30,000 tweets posted to X about the Cybertruck," says the fake presenter, showing a breakdown of all the emojis used in the tweets. "Sentiment on the vehicle is indeed very mixed."

The platform will debut on X and other streaming platforms as what sounds like a somewhat traditional program based on different regions and languages.

The ultimate goal, however, is to release a smartphone app that will allow Channel 1 to be fully personalized for each user, who can choose their favorite topics and even favorite fake news personalities. This stage of release is set for next summer.

Channel 1's reporting won't be run completely hands-off. Human editors and producers will be involved "in checking the stories for accuracy and clarity at every step of the process." If Channel 1 eventually achieves the levels of personalization it purports it will, around the clock fact-checking sounds like a tall order for its behind-the-scenes staff.

All told, what we've seen so far is undoubtedly interesting but it's worth noting though that this wasn't a live demo, so we don't know how well the finished product will hold up during its actual live "broadcasts."

More on AI: Sam Altman Says Hes Fascinated With the Terminator

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Channel 1 Says It'll Use AI-Generated News Anchors - Futurism

It really is that simple. Rock Marks

Despite major advances in the field of renewable energy generation, we still have yet to find a particularly scalable way to store all that power especially from solar and wind which vary greatly depending on the time of day and weather.

Relying on massive battery packs isn't just extremely expensive, it also comes with some inherent safety risks and relies on the mining of non-renewable minerals like lithium, an environmentally damaging process.

But there may be a much simpler alternative that could allow us to store this energy. As CNN reports, a new startup called Antora Energy is investigating ways to store energy inside boxes of extremely hot rocks.

"People sometimes feel like theyre insulting us by saying, 'Hey, that sounds really simple,'" founder Andrew Ponec told CNN. "And we say, No, thats exactly the point.'"

By collecting the heating rays of the Sun through photovoltaic solar panels, the startup is heating up rocks to almost 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Antora has chosen big blocks of solid carbon as its storage medium to soak up excess solar energy.

There's also precedent. Hot rocks inside equipment at smelting plants already store roughly ten times as much energy as all of the world's lithium-ion battery storage, according to CNN, which collect otherwise wasted heat from furnaces.

"The key thing that those furnaces didnt have is a way to get the heat back out," Ponec told CNN. "Weve added some cavities, some gaps in the carbon that allow light from deep within the system to shine out and some insulated doors that can open and close that allow that light to shine out when you want it."

The idea is to then turn this light into steam and electricity. Some of the energy could also be used to heat other equipment in the production of cement and steel.

Antora is only one of several startups looking to store energy in dense rocks.

In short, it could be s a fascinating simple solution that relies on an abundant raw material. But whether the idea will be able to scale along with our massively growing energy demands to make a difference remains to be seen.

Updated to better describe Antora's energy storage technology.

More on storing energy: MIT Scientists May Have Found a Cheap Way of Storing Huge Amounts of Energy in Cement

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Scientists Intrigued By Battery That Stores Energy in Hot Rocks - Futurism

Heads up. New Blue

Mercedes-Benz is trying out a new type of exterior car light in the United States. CNN reports that the German automaker has received approval to use turquoise-colored indicators in its head and tail lights to show when one of its vehicles is in self-driving mode an intriguing new experiment in trying to figure out a place for self-driving vehicles on the roads.

Mercedes's self-driving mode is called "Drive Pilot," and is the first of any self-driving systems to be certified as SAE Level 3, meaning that when it's enabled, drivers don't have to continuously keep their eyes on the road. They can even go fully hands off and take their feet off the pedals, but must take over when prompted. For now, Drive Pilot only enables this level of autonomy when cruising under 40 miles per hour.

Despite those limitations, Mercedes is still speeding past its competitors like Tesla, whose Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, both SAE Level 2, require drivers to stay alert and keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times (a safety guardrail that the automaker's enthusiasts proudly devise ways of getting around).

Now with a first-of-its-kind car light to herald its self-driving innovations, Mercedes is seemingly having it easier with US regulators while Tesla and General Motor's robotaxi division Cruise have incurred only further scrutiny over the safety of their systems.

So far, the turquoise self-driving lights have been approved in California and Nevada, which are also the only states to have certified Drive Pilot.

According to Car and Driver, California is letting Mercedes trial the lights in test vehicles for two years, starting in early 2024. Turquoise indicators will be embedded in these vehicles' headlights, tail lights, and side mirrors.

Meanwhile, Nevada has already approved the lights for use in two of Mercedes' production model vehicles: its 2026 EQS and S-class sedans.

The distinctive color, a lighter hue of blue, was chosen because it won't be mistaken for police lights or regular lights on a car. Mercedes said its use is meant to help ease drivers into sharing the road with self-driving vehicles.

It will also help anyone passing these cars, cops included, not be alarmed when they see the person behind the steering wheel with their hands off and their eyes off the road.

Who's to say that these turquoise lights won't be the cool new way of brandishing that you're driving a very advanced car? Of course, if you're skeptical of the technology, you can very helpfully use the flashy indicators to stay clear of these vehicles so perhaps it's a win for everyone involved.

More on self-driving cars: Tesla Driver Forced to Pay After Killing Two People on Autopilot

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Mercedes-Benz Installing New Tail Lights to Show When Car Is Self-Driving - Futurism

What's the spacecraft up to? Orbital Swarm

After embarking on its third mission, China's top-secret spaceplane, dubbed Shenlong, has released six mysterious objects into Earth's orbit and we have no idea what they are.

On December 14, the country launched its reusable spaceplane from the Gobi Desert, as the state-run news agency Xinhua reported at the time. According to the brief update, its third flight will be used to verify reusable spaceplane technologies and carry out science experiments.

But according to amateur astronomer and satellite tracker Scott Tilley, who's been closely tracking the spacecraft since its launch, it released six objects upon reaching orbit and they appear to be emitting a variety of signals.

All six are being tracked by the US Space Force and were designated the names OBJECT A through F by the US Department of Defense.

At least one of the objects appears to be closely following the spaceplane.

"OBJECT A's or nearby emission is reminiscent of earlier Chinese space plane 'wingman' emissions in the sense the signal is modulated with a limited amount of data," Tilley told Space.com.

According to the amateur astronomer's analysis, OBJECT B appears to be the spaceplane itself, with OBJECT A and B traveling "in a similar orbit and relatively close to each other," he tweeted.

OBJECT D and E are emitting idle "placeholder" signals without any accompanying data, Tilley told Space.com.

"It should be noted that unlike emissions early in the Chinese space plane missions 1 and 2, these emissions are very intermittent and do not stay on long," he explained.

According to Tilley, there's a chance A, D, and E could make several close approaches with each other given their orbits.

It's not the first time China's secretive spaceplane has placed a mysterious object into orbit. Last year, SpaceNews reported that the US Space Force was tracking an object released by the experimental spacecraft during its second mission.

And during its first mission in 2020, the spaceplane also released an object two orbits into its two-day journey. The object continued broadcasting S-band transmissions for weeks, per SpaceNews.

At this point, all we can do is guess as to what these objects are. Are they satellites? Service modules? Given the secrecy shrouding China's space program, there's a good chance we'll never find out.

More on the spaceplane: Chinese Spaceplane Releases Mystery Object Into Orbit

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Chinese Spaceplane Releases Six Mysterious Objects That Are Emitting Signals - Futurism

"Where to start with this one." Icy Dip

What if the Titanic never sank and Rose and Jack decided to go for a frosty dip in the Atlantic to take a selfie?

A new AI-generated image that's making its rounds on social media has us completely mystified. The almost-photorealistic image shows the pair as they were portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in James Cameron's 1997 epic "Titanic," having an intimate photo opp.

The image has plenty of the hallmarks of an AI-generated image, from the filtered-looking smooth skin to the excessive number of smoke stacks adorning the Titanic (the real ship only had four, not six). Needless to say, smartphones weren't a thing 111 years ago, either.

But perhaps most glaring of all is that the Titanic hasn't actually sunk in the image, suggesting that Jack and Rose intentionally chose to plunge into the icy waters for a selfie opportunity.

"Why are they in the water if the boat still floats?" one user on the Titanic subreddit suggested.

"Where to start with this one," another user wrote.

The image was also being used by Facebook accounts to take potshots at a younger generation (although it's not entirely clear which).

"If the Titanic happened today," was the most prevalent caption accompanying the many repostings of the odd image. That's characteristic of the annoyingly persistent boomer memes complaining about how younger folks have become obsessed with their phones. What year is it, people?

"They had to use AI to joke about technology being bad," one user on the boomershumor subreddit pointed out.

While this particular meme was unlikely to fool anybody into thinking it's real, the advent of AI image generators has flooded social media with almost photorealistic posts that are far more likely to convince out-of-the-loop users.

As 404 Media reported earlier this week, people are using "image-to-image" AI generators to riff on real photographs, resulting in an endless stream of posts being used to pad out feeds and generate comments.

It's a dangerous trend, especially as these tools are able to produce more and more convincing imagery, further eroding the trust we have in the content we encounter online.

Some of these AI-generated memes may be real stinkers, like this rendition of Jack and Rose going for an icy dip but the same tech could be used for far more nefarious purposes as well, like spreading misinformation or scamming people.

More on AI image generators: Image Database Powering Google's AI Contains Explicit Images of Children

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We Are Completely Mystified by This AI-Generated Image of Jack and Rose Taking a Selfie in "Titanic" - Futurism

Then it becomes a submarine permanently. Watery Grave

Remember when Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to strap SpaceX rockets onto the back of a Tesla Roadster?

Not only has the feature failed to materialize well over three years later, but even the next-gen Roadster seems to be more of a distant dream than an actual product.

Now, the mercurial CEO is offering uphis next fantastical add-on: a "mod package" that would allow the Cybertruck to "traverse at least 100m [330 feet] of water as a boat."

"Mostly just need to upgrade cabin door seals," he claimed.

To be clear, there are plenty of reasons we shouldn't take Musk at his word. Besides, the last time we've checked, an actual boat can float indefinitely. What good is a vessel that can only cover 330 feet? What happens after it covers that distance?

Presumably, the answer is "it becomes a submarine permanently."

Musk was replying to a post showing a "Jay Leno's Garage" clip in which Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering Lars Moravy told Leno that "the vehicle almost floats."

"Maybe you have to add a little bit of extra buoyancy just to keep it up," he added.

Considering that even the company's own head of engineering seemingly still has a lot to figure out, it sounds like Musk didn't even bother to consult anybody at his EV firm before promising a "mod package."

"If you're creative, and you want, you could figure out how to put an outboard motor, plugged into your outlet there, turn it on from your screen, and go boating," Moravy added.

It's not the first time Musk has promised that the Cybertruck will be able to double as a boat. Last year, Musk said that the truck "will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that arent too choppy."

In other words, even if the entrepreneur makes good on his promise, the Cybertruck won't actually be much of a seaworthy vessel and it's an extremely charitable use of the word "boat," which generally means a watercraft designed to be propelled on water.

And chances are, given the behavior we've seen from other Tesla enthusiasts, it's only a matter of time until someone actually tries it and a Cybertruck sinks to the bottom.

More on the truck: National Forest Service Trolls Tesla After Cybertruck Gets Stuck in Forest

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Elon Musk Says the Cybertruck Will Be Able to Travel as a Boat, Until It Sinks - Futurism