Category Archives: Technology

Other than its safety pedigree, the $74,400 XC90 T8 Inscription shares little with the automaker's older wagons. It's a visually striking SUV both inside and out, with clean lines, subtle accents and a few hints of chrome on the outside. The interior is reminiscent of a stylish mid-century modern office.

But more than its looks make the T8 worth considering when you're in the market for a luxury SUV. Volvo has been working hard to pack its cars with high-end technology, including semi-autonomous driving. While some automakers have spent the past five years attempting to catch up with the future of driving, Volvo has been quietly developing a top-notch SUV that's not only smart but also stylish.

At the heart of the XC90's technological prowess is the latest version of Pilot Assist (this tech was first introduced on the 2016 XC90). The feature combines the car's adaptive cruise control and lane assist to create a semi-autonomous driving experience similar to Tesla's Autopilot. During my tests on freeways, city streets and the notoriously narrow lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge, it worked as advertised most of the time. What seemed to trip up the system were sharp curves. Anything that required the wheel to turn beyond a few degrees usually required driver assistance.

Meanwhile the adaptive cruise control was spot-on, if a bit overzealous when it came to putting space between the XC90 and the car in front of it (there's that safety pedigree rearing its head). The system was also extremely aggressive about my keeping my hands on the wheel while Pilot Assist was in use, more so than other vehicles I've tested with similar technology. I'm not complaining, though: Until we have fully autonomous vehicles, it's important for drivers to continue to pay attention while using these semi-autonomous features.

With all that in mind, Pilot Assist is great for highway gridlock and cruising on the freeway. It brings the SUV to a complete stop in stop-and-go congestion, and once traffic starts moving again, a quick tap of the accelerator gets the SUV moving.

That focus on safety continues throughout the vehicle, with both low- and high-speed collision avoidance. In addition to knowing when cars are in its path, the XC90 can detect pedestrians, bicyclists and large animals (like moose!) both day and night and will apply the brakes when necessary. Unfortunately, it's tough to test this type of feature without putting people in danger, and I sadly couldn't find any moose or caribou in the San Francisco area up to the challenge.

The rest of the vehicle's tech features were easier to try out. Inside the car, Sensus infotainment is presented on a 12.3-inch portrait-mode touchscreen display. Volvo is aiming for an easy-to-use and uncluttered experience, and while it does indeed deliver that, there are a few oddities. One confounding thing was the grouping of car features. For example, instead of all the parking buttons being lumped together, they're scattered across two groups with other systems sprinkled in.

While that's a strange design decision, the rest of the Sensus layout gives drivers quick access to apps and features without forcing them to tap on the screen seven times to turn on Parking Assist or launch the in-car weather app. For finer control of the vehicle, Volvo placed deeper-level controls in the Settings area.

As for physical buttons, the XC90's interior is a perfect example of the "less is more" school of thought. None of the buttons feel incongruous or extraneous. It's a clean, well-thought-out layout that understands how people interact with their vehicle while driving. It's the first car I've driven in a long time where I was able to master every feature within a few minutes and didn't have to hunt for buttons to make something happen. Everything was where I expected it to be.

It also helps that the interior is beautiful. The leather and wood complement each other, making for a warm, inviting environment. It's not without its extravagances too. The shift knob is a hand-crafted glass crystal. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it glows a bit at night, which is cool.

The over-the-topness doesn't stop there. Volvo added "Thor's hammer'' running lights/blinkers to the front of the car. I'll admit they look remarkable, but they resemble a chisel or pickax more than a hammer. Still, it's fun to say, "Yeah, my car has Thor's hammer lights."

The XC90 T8 has room for seven, so that boasting might indeed take place on a road trip. But as with most SUVs, that third row can be tight. At six-foot-three, I didn't bother sitting in that back row for fear I'd never be able to squeeze my way out. With those rear seats folded down, five passengers (and their glamping gear) should be comfortable during a long drive.

Which brings us to the actual driving experience. The hybrid has a four-cylinder turbo and supercharged engine up front and electric motor in the back. Together they produce 400 horsepower and 472 pounds of torque. In sport mode, you'll get an impressive jolt off the line, but drivers will likely stick to the default hybrid mode, which has a rating of 54 miles per gallon equivalent.

You can run it in pure electric mode, but during my tests I was only able to eek out 11 miles before depleting the battery. So it's fine for short jaunts around town but not much else.

I found that while behind the wheel, the XC90 T8 is an incredible cruiser -- perfect for long drives. It has a smooth ride without sacrificing cornering on the freeway. I started to forget how large the SUV actually was while on the highway, but once I hit twisty back roads, its heft immediately became apparent. While it has a sporty mode, it's tough to slap that moniker on a vehicle that weighs over 5,000 pounds. That's not a slight as much as a reminder of how physics works.

In fact, the only real issue I had while driving the car was with the brakes. They took a few days to master, because as you come to a stop the car will slowly decelerate and then suddenly stop quickly. I adjusted my braking style so that I started a bit sooner than usual; after that I didn't have any more jarring episodes. Again, as a matter of safety, having a heavy car that can brake quickly is wonderful, so it's tough to fault it for keeping me safer; I just wish it could ease into that stop.

But overall, the XC90 T8 hybrid is a feature-rich SUV that combines style, technology and safety into a package that you would have never expected from the Swedish automaker a few decades ago. The company has evolved beyond the boxy wagon to something that should be on the radar of all car buyers.

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Volvo melds technology and luxury in the XC90 T8 hybrid - Engadget

Silicon Valley is justifiably proud of its record of technological innovation. But it is less clear that our ethical reflection has kept up with our technological advances.

We need to think carefully, every day, about how to develop, use, and apply the powerful new inventions coming out of this Valley.

The potential of artificial intelligence, big data, biotech and other breathtaking technologies gives us reasons to cheer. These technologies will help us cure diseases, increase prosperity and live sustainably. But we also need to aggressively address the complicated ethical choices that accompany each breakthrough.

Just in the past few weeks, many of these dilemmas have been on display. Is it the responsibility of social media sites to control the spread of fake news? Will the internet of things and the connected world it promises eviscerate all sense of privacy?

What capabilities and controls should the developers of driverless cars build into their technologies? Should drone manufacturers facilitate or fight restrictions on their products use? How much access should the government have to personal data to maintain national security?

Ethical reflection on technology is not a one-time event. We cant just say, This technology is good and serves society, that is bad and threatens society. Itis an ongoing process that should be applied as new technologies are imagined, developed and promoted. We have to be ready to reassess when a technology produces a problem we did not anticipate, or changes the nature of our day-to-day lives in ways we did not foresee.

Ethical choices include whether to take risks in the development and initial uses of a technology, such as a driverless car, as well as what capabilities to build in so the products will sell but also serve real human needs.

Ethical choices are made at every stage of the Silicon Valley innovation cycle: venture capital, research, design, development, marketing and sales and in executive offices.

Some scientists, engineers, marketers and executives already think deeply about them, but not all. Our monuments to innovation universities, corporate campuses, and, yes, technology museumsought to be places where ethical reflection is taught and takes place routinely.

In our Technology and the Ethical Imagination collaboration, we will try to make ethical reflection as commonplace and familiar as our fascination with the science and engineering behind technologies.

The Techs exhibits will have Ethics Inside. We invite all innovators to join us in ethical reflection.

Our first joint project explores the issues posed in the Techs newest exhibit, Biodesign Studio. Visitors will be provoked with questions about the uses and potential misuses of synthetic DNA and will be given a set of ethics resources on the Tech and the Ethics Center websites. Afree noon talk at The Tech on Feb. 11 called Can We Use Technology to Live Forever And Should We? will introduce the project.

Tens of thousands of creative minds are at work on the next breakthroughs in Silicon Valley. Tens of thousands of young people, the next generation of scientists and engineers, visit The Tech each year. All of them and all of us will benefit from making ethical reflection and ethical imagination a part of the DNA of Silicon Valley.

Tim Ritchie is president and CEO of The Tech Museum of Innovation. Kirk Hanson is executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. They wrote this for The Mercury News.

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Opinion: Ethics should be front and center with technology but isn't always - The Mercury News

It may not be obvious, but the U.S. presidential election offers critical lessons about how policy and technology leaders should think about the future of artificial intelligence. In fact, just days before Donald TrumpDonald TrumpThe court did its job on Trump's ban, time for Congress to do same Rosie O'Donnell hints at Steve Bannon portrayal Scarborough: Trump should redraft travel ban MORE was sworn into office, these lessons were a focus of the Davos meeting of the global elite.

Technology executives expressed concern over a growing fear throughout the world that robots destroy jobs and discussed the possibility of a backlash against innovation. It was this same fear of job loss that has contributed to the recent backlash against trade agreements.

After all, proponents of trade agreements won every argument except one: that trade increases employment. That made killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a central message of candidate Trumps campaign. It was one of the first things President Trump did after taking office.

The opportunity of automation is enormous. Consider that, as autonomous vehicles become the primary means of transportation, accidents will decline by 90 percent, saving lives and billions of dollars. Furthermore, automation will actually return jobs to the United States. One-quarter of the decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs is due to competition from China, driven largely by lower labor costs. But this offshoring is a station on the way to the new globally-competitive automated U.S. factories that are creating good paying jobs for skilled workers.

Of course, computer technology does affect the nature of work. It has eliminated some tasks and lowered demand for some workers. A recent study by McKinsey & Company estimates that almost half of all current tasks are subject to automation, providing fodder for arguments that widespread technological unemployment is near. But the story is more complex. Computers can eliminate all job-required tasks in only 5 percent of occupations, and there will still be plenty of tasks to perform in existing occupations, while many new tasks will be created.

Weve already seen the way automation creates efficiencies that lower production costs, thereby stimulating demand and creating more jobs. Recent history is filled with examples of lowering operating costs. ATM machines led to increased bank teller employment, and cost savings created by robots have actually increased human employment in warehouses. In the overall economy, automation has led to a greater need for non-routine, high-skill work that pays high wages and for low-skill work that pays lower wages.

While all this may be true, the reality is that the world is focused on bridging income divides and spreading economic opportunity. We have a responsibility to make certain that the bounty of automation can benefit everyone.

An important step is to match computers with human skills. On the computer side, this means creating programs that augment human skills. As described by IBM data scientists, humans and machines will need to collaborate to produce better results, each bringing their own superior skills to the partnership.

On the human side, people need to be trained for tasks computers cannot perform. This means prioritizing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. But thats not the only solution. Our computer-intensive work environment is creating high-paying jobs for those with credentialed skills from quality technical schools or training programs. Reauthorizing the career and technical education program with adequate funding will jump-start the programs that can match human skills with the new workplace, which has many unfilled jobs waiting for skilled workers.

Even with these efforts, some workers will not be able to gain the skills needed to flourish. A late-career truck driver without a college education cant be expected to become a coder. For many of these workers, a social safety net is essential, and that net can be supported by the wealth that technology generates. Policy and technology leaders must work together on programs that support the collective good.

Ultimately, technology can continue to create more jobs than it displaces, while driving U.S. economic gains. But the only way to achieve the full measure of this opportunity is to ensure that the benefits are clearly realized by those who see technology as more of a foe than a friend.

Mark M. MacCarthy is senior vice president of public policy at the Software & Information Industry Association. He has been a consultant on technology policy issues for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Aspen Institute. He is an adjunct professor of communication and technology at Georgetown University, where he teaches courses on artificial intelligence and the future of work.

The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Yes, there's a job creation argument for automation and technology - The Hill (blog)

BBC News

Aberdeen Oil and Gas Technology centre due to open BBC News A new research and development facility is due to open in Aberdeen to help breathe new life into the struggling North Sea oil industry. The Oil and Gas Technology Centre will partly fund the work while also acting as a bridge between small tech firms ... and more »

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Aberdeen Oil and Gas Technology centre due to open - BBC News

Scott Tilley 7:58 a.m. ET Feb. 9, 2017

A recent trip home from Montreal to Melbourne took me nearly 30 hours. It should have taken me 8. The cascade of mechanical problems, poor customer service, and overall incompetence left me tired and frustrated. I lost time. I lost sleep. But at least I eventually made it home safe and sound.

The whole experience made me realize how susceptible our air travel system is to a single point of failure. Just one thing going wrong causes a terrible domino effect. Unfortunately, I can only see the situation getting worse as traffic levels increase.

Air travel is just one form of transportation that makes up our national infrastructure. Consider cargo traffic, which has increased significantly in the last few years. Cargo ships have become gargantuan platforms that carry huge loads across the oceans. Ports around the world are constantly being re-dredged to accommodate these floating behemoths. One of the biggest cargo ships in the world, the CSCL Globe, is more than four football fields long. It can carry 19,000 twenty-foot containers. Think how many 18-wheel transport trucks that means on the highways.

How do we know whats inside each of these cargo containers? What technology do we use to ensure that weapons are not smuggled into the country? Once the containers are unloaded from the ship, what rail and road routes do they take before they reach their final destination?

The volume of trucks and cars on our roads is also growing. In many parts of the world, the rising middle class is resulting in a surge of highway traffic. In 2010, there was a traffic jam outside of Beijing, China that lasted for almost two weeks. Nearly 20 lanes of traffic stretched for more than 60 miles.

And you thought your commute was bad.

The amount of time people waste in their car, stuck in traffic during their daily commutes, continues to increase. In some big cities, spending more than four hours a day each way has become the norm. Not only is this terribly stressful on the driver (and passengers), its a colossal loss of productivity. Our national GDP suffers from gridlock. Its also a mounting security risk.

Tonight at 8:00pm in the Henegar Center, Dr. Cliff Bragdon will be speaking about transportation security as part of the Center for Technology & Societys Tech Talk series. Tickets are just $10 and can be ordered online at http://www.henegar.org or by calling the box office at 321-723-8698. I hope you come to hear about some of the many challenges facing our national transportation system and some of the possible solutions to avoiding intermodal gridlock in the future.

Scott Tilley is a professor at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Contact him at Technology Today@srtilley.com.

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A growing concern: Technology and transportation - Florida Today

Wall Street Journal

United Airlines Experiences Another Technology Glitch Wall Street Journal United Continental Holdings Inc. said it suffered its second technology glitch in just over two weeks on Wednesday, resulting in delays to about 500 flights, or about 10% of its daily schedule. The Chicago-based airline said that early Wednesday ... Technology Problem Causes Flight Delays at United AirlinesABC News all 43 news articles »

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United Airlines Experiences Another Technology Glitch - Wall Street Journal

By Ed Hess By Ed Hess February 8 at 10:53 AM

American manufacturing job losses to China and Mexico were a major theme of the presidential campaign, and President Trump has followed up on his promise to pressure manufacturers to keep jobs here rather than send them abroad. Already, he has jawboned automakers Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler and heating and cooling manufacturer Carrier into keeping and creating jobs in the United States.

What he hasn't yet addressed but should is the looming technology tsunami that will hit the U.S. job market over the next five to 15 years and likely destroy tens of millions of jobs due to automation by artificial intelligence, 3-D manufacturing, advanced robotics and driverless vehicles among other emerging technologies. The best research to date indicates that 47 percent of all U.S. jobs are likely to be replaced by technology over the next 10 to 15 years, more than 80 million in all, according to the Bank of England.

Think back to the human misery in this country during the financial recession when unemployment hit 10 percent. Triple that. Or even quintuple it. We as a society and as individuals are not ready for anything like that. This upheaval has the potential of being as disruptive for us now as the Industrial Revolution was for our ancestors.

Techno-optimists tell us to relax dont worry, technology will produce lots of new jobs just like it did during the Industrial Revolution. History will repeat itself, they say. Well, not so fast.

First, human disruption caused by the Industrial Revolution in Britain lasted 60 to 90 years, depending on the historical research. That is a long time for society to right itself, and lot of personal pain. Second, this time will be different because there will be new questions: Will technology produce lots of new jobs that advancing technology itself cant do? And will displaced workers be able to keep up with the pace of advancing technologies?

These issues should be front and center on the presidents agenda. Planning for how our country will adapt to the coming technology tsunami must start now. We are talking about a major societal challenge preservation of the American Dream as well as the future of work in the United States and the world.

Jobs at risk include a diverse range of service and professional positions. Retail and fast-food jobs will be almost entirely automated. Manual laborers and construction workers will be replaced by robots; long-haul truck drivers by self-driving trucks; accountants, clerks, paralegals, telemarketers and customer-service reps by artificial intelligence; and security guards by robots and drones. Even professionals in the fields of accounting, law, finance, consulting, journalism and medicine are at risk of losing their jobs to smart machines.

What jobs will be secure? Well, that will change as technology advances. For now, the consensus is that humans will be needed to perform those tasks that require higher-order critical thinking, innovation, creativity, high emotional engagement with other humans and trade skills requiring real-time problem-solving and manual dexterity. Humans will need to excel at doing those things that are, for now, uniquely human. Good will no longer be good enough.

We need to begin planning for what is coming. Our political leaders need to embrace this challenge. We need an American Dream 2.0 Plan for how we, as a society, will remain the land of opportunity as technological advances cause massive job losses. The stresses upon our system and way of life will be huge. This is not science fiction.

I ask the president to appoint a diverse blue-ribbon committee to study and make recommendations about how we, as a nation, will prepare for the coming technology tsunami and answer the tough economic questions of our time: How will we keep the American Dream alive in the Smart Machine Age? How will people find meaning and purpose in a world where full-time work will be limited? How must our public education system be transformed to better prepare our children for this new world? How do we, as a society, deal with the fact that the future of work for many will be no work at all?

We need to begin preparing ourselves, our families and our nation by mastering those skills that technology cannot replace. We need to rethink human excellence for the Smart Machine Age.

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Coming technology will likely destroy millions of jobs. Is Trump ready? - Washington Post

Forbes

How Technology Transforms Dreamers Into Economic Powerhouses Forbes Want more jobs, not just here but around the world? Easy! Give dreamers the tools to become doers. Photo by The Videographers courtesy of Makerarm. Back in 2013, Zaib Husain, a Muslim, Pakistani-born, Austin-based, female founder started work on a ...

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How Technology Transforms Dreamers Into Economic Powerhouses - Forbes

In its State of UX in 2017 report, the uxdesign.cc team commented that phrases like "intuitive" and "human-centered" are disappearing from developers' and designers' vocabularies.

Related:Tech Moguls Such as Musk and Bezos Declare Era of Artificial Intelligence

But I would arguethat those UX traits aren't disappearing; they've become requirements rather than perks. Saying that a product is"intuitive" shouldn't be necessary because that should be a given property of its functionality.

If a user can't intuitively utilize a particular function, it becomes irrelevant.

The merger of UX and functionality poses a tough problem for developers, especially those working on global consumer apps likeUber. Those developers have to cater to the needs of a group of users wildly diverse not only in age and ethnicity, but in terms of the languages they speak, the values they hold and the devices they use.Plus, developers must account for varying levels of connectivity and make design choices accordingly.

All of this means there is no magic bullet when it comes to advancing technology. Change isn't going to appeal to everyone, but it's still inevitable. Here are four technology trends that will define 2017 and how companies can use them to improve their UX:

As its name implies, collective intelligence encompasses the evolving knowledge base of a group. It's been a hot topic since the inception of the internet, which is in and of itself a CI platform. There are two sides to the CI discussion.

On the one hand, platforms relying on big data, artificial intelligence and automated objective data collection will keep getting smarter. Tools such as Amazon's Alexaaggregate human-generated information in real time to help users navigate potentially changing environments.

On the other hand, we'll see the continued prevalence of human-generated, open-source communities, which often serve as repositories of CI. For years, websites such as Quora, Reddit and StackExchange have allowed users to rely on one another for answers (and entertainment). More recently, my company was asked to build open-source communities to facilitate collaboration and learning among internal teams of developers and designers at large corporations. We have also seen the same principle applied to employee feedback and HR, such as withPOPin.

So, if you're pondering how best to take advantage of CI, rethinkyour company's decision-making processes and its approach to the curation of company knowledge bases. Companies structured the way most companies still are --with a single key decision-maker at the top --will inevitably make some suboptimal choices.

Thats because one single person can't have all the knowledge necessary to make the best decision in every circumstance. But byflattening your organizational structure and giving more people the authority to make key decisions that fall under their individual areas of expertise, your entire company will benefit.

We're in the midst of a chatbot craze, but the importance of including rapidly evolving technology is more than just hype. A chatbot that offers a great UX is a thing of beauty -- and it can work wonders for your organization.

While having a conversation with a chatbot still doesn't feel quite like a mind-altering experience, we are reaching a tipping point where AI-based bots will be be key to forming better, more efficient connections with customers. Everyday AI can give businesses access to customer feedback as fast as their customers can type it.

Chatbots can handle issues that involve basic trouble-shooting, leaving customer-success team members to actually interface with customers. Bots can also drive engagement and growth by continuously creating opportunities for dialogue with customers.

But, remember, not everyone likes talking with bots, so if you're implementing chatbots, be sure to inform customers beforehand. Likewise, make sure to include privacy safeguards, and be clear with customers about what your bot can and can't do. Better yet, add monitoring mechanisms that allow real humans to step in when necessary.

Related: Pretty Soon, Chatbots Will Be Able to Understand How You're Feeling

Augmented reality and virtual reality are getting closer to being both affordable and functional enough to have major consumer and business applications -- close but still not quite there yet. Major smartphone manufacturers, including Google, Samsung and Apple, are rushing to improve on VR-compatible devices, though, which means the technology will be mainstream sooner rather than later.

Choosing to explore VR and AR technologies in 2017 can help brands position themselves at the forefront of technology. One of the foremost (yet one of the least-suspected) examples is Snapchat's AR geofilters, which frame, warp or magnify users' photos with different graphics and illustrations.

And for companies that can deliver a branded VR/AR experience to customers in a creative way, the impact could be profound. Snapchat reels in anywhere from $250,000 to $750,000 per branded geofilter, and the brands buying those filters reap benefits, too. Taco Bell's Cinco de Mayo filter, for instance, was viewed 224 million times in just a day.

Technology platforms are the foundation for new value creation. Of course, platform-based companies aren't new. According to Accenture, the global market capitalization of platform companies is around $2.6 trillion. And in 2017, they aren't going away.

Digital platforms and UX go hand in hand. When companies prioritize platforms (which are designed for growth), their business models become more connected, collaborative and scalable, creating plenty of opportunities to put the end user first. One of the most recognizable examples is Apple's iCloud. With iCloud, users have the advantage of accessing photos, notes, contacts and more, no matter which of their Apple devices they're using at that moment -- there's no need to switch back and forth.

So, whether companies are focusing on their competitive edge, potential partners or their own product innovation, they need to look at the emerging and thriving platforms within their industry and figure out how those models can take their own business further.

Related:How Augmented Reality Startups Can Change Our Work Reality

Regardless of how your company chooses to implement new technology in 2017, one thing that won't change is the importance of putting customers first. Research your customers, talk with them, observe what technologies theyre using, and work from there. Don't assume all change is good change, but if a new technology is getting the attention of your customers, it's time for you to pay attention, too.

Kevin Yamazaki is the founder and CEO of Sidebench, a leading digital product and venture studio that creates custom software and apps. He works as a passionate solutions architect and product designer. Because of Yamazaki's innovations...

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Technology Trends That Will Shape 2017 and Boost Your Company's UX - Entrepreneur

SAN FRANCISCO Shares of Panera Bread (PNRA.O) surged to a record high on Wednesday and were on track for the biggest one-day move in almost two years after the company gave an upbeat forecast and said technology investments at its restaurants were paying off.

The St. Louis, Missouri-based company late on Tuesday reported quarterly results above Wall Street's expectations and offered a strong outlook for 2017. Its stock on Wednesday jumped as much as 9.6 percent before paring gains to trade up 8.3 percent.

Recent investments to add ordering kiosks and other technology upgrades to Panera's retail locations are beginning to show results, company founder and Chief Executive Ron Shaich told analysts on a conference call late on Tuesday.

Such changes may help offset rising labor costs - driven by rising minimum wages and declining unemployment - that have hurt the profits of many restaurant chains.

Following the lead of Domino's Pizza (DPZ.N) and other pizza chains that have successfully used smartphone apps to drive growth, Panera said a quarter of its sales are now online.

Panera last month said it completed a goal of removing artificial ingredients, which are federally approved, from its menus in U.S. restaurants, in response to customer desire for foods they believe are healthier.

"Panera has really staked its claim on trying to get rid of artificial ingredients," said Maxim analyst Stephen Anderson. "That's been the halo they've had, and they've been able to gain share."

Panera has won attention from mutual fund managers. Seventy-five mutual funds disclosed that they were new owners of the stock in recent quarterly filings, compared with 50 mutual funds that sold all their Panera shares, according to Morningstar.

Panera's stock is up 13 percent so far in 2017, compared with a 7 percent increase in rival Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG.N), which is trying to win back diners after a series of food safety lapses.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Leslie Adler)

SINGAPORE/PARIS Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced a $13.8 billion order to buy 39 Boeing wide-body aircraft as it pursues expansion opportunities, a setback for the U.S. planemaker's rival Airbus Group in the fight for long-term orders.

NEW YORK/LONDON Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP), which opened in 2008 with one of the biggest launches in hedge fund history, is folding its London operations into the United States and shifting staff members to New York, four sources told Reuters.

BEIJING China vehicle sales in January fell by the largest margin since 2015 for several global automakers, with General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co blaming the roll back of a tax cut on small-engined vehicles and the Lunar New Year holiday.

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Panera surges to record as Wall Street eyes payoff from technology - Reuters