PLUS: The latest AI and tech news.
By Jennifer Conrad | 07.11.22 |
| Happy Monday! It's official: The machines have turned on us. Cruise self-driving cars are blocking traffic in San Francisco. How long before we all take refuge in a cave in Alabama and subsist on see-through crayfish? | |
| Around midnight on June 28, Calvin Hu was stopped at an intersection in San Francisco when he says he found himself trapped in a robotaxi sandwich. His car was surrounded by white-and-orange autonomous Chevrolet Bolts operated by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors. The light turned green, but the cars, which operate in the city without drivers, didn't move. After a few minutes of bemused waiting, Hu resorted to driving over the curbs of the street's median to escape. As Aarian Marshall reports, the Cruise vehicles that trapped Hu weren't the only autonomous cars holding up traffic in San Francisco that night. Internal messages seen by WIRED show that nearly 60 vehicles were disabled across the city after they lost touch with a Cruise server. A letter sent anonymously by a Cruise employee to the California Public Utilities Commission that month alleged that the company loses contact with its driverless vehicles "with regularity," blocking traffic and potentially hindering emergency vehicles. A Cruise spokesperson said its vehicles are programmed to pull over and turn on their hazard lights when they encounter a technical problem or road conditions they can't handle, but the company did not respond to questions about multiple incidents in which Cruise vehicles stopped in traffic. Bryant Walker Smith, an associate professor at the South Carolina School of Law says that self-driving companies should be transparent about what's happening on public roads. "When the vehicles do something wrong or weird, it's on the company—the 'driver'—to really explain it." Read about incidents of Cruise autonomous cars stopping in traffic and trapping human drivers. | |
| In March, a troop of engineers gathered in rural Nottinghamshire, England, to test a drone that they hoped could one day help maintain the high-voltage pylons that transmit electricity across the country, writes William Ralston. The drone, steered by a computer in a control station hundreds of meters away, whizzed around taking photos to document the condition of the pylon's steel arms, fittings, and conductors. By the time the drone returned to the ground six minutes later, to a round of applause, it had already sent the photos to be analyzed by algorithms for signs of corrosion. In the future, the hope is that AI will be able to predict where corrosion is likely to develop. Pylons are traditionally inspected manually, either by workers making a risky climb using ropes, or from a helicopter, which is expensive and polluting. That limits how often companies can check on their pylons, which could allow unsafe levels of corrosion to build up—a common concern in the UK's rainy climate. Read about the computer-piloted drones that could save utilities millions in maintenance costs. | |
| Since Amazon began bringing robots to its warehouses in 2014, company executives have repeatedly claimed that they improve worker safety. But company records obtained by investigative news outlet Reveal show that between 2016 and 2019, serious injuries occurred more often in Amazon warehouses with robots than those without them, suggesting that robots made employees less safe by causing managers to raise performance quotas. As Khari Johnson writes, Amazon didn't mention that track record late last month when it announced a machine called Proteus, which company officials call their first fully mobile and collaborative robot. Proteus will initially ferry packages around the outbound dock in fulfillment centers, and Amazon hopes to eventually have it work directly with humans. Tye Brady, chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, likens Proteus to a server at a cocktail party, keeping its distance from people and slowing down to avoid collisions, using onboard sensors. Not everyone is convinced: Eric Frumin, health and safety director at the Strategic Organizing Center, says Amazon's promotion of the new robot is a distraction from the primary causes of injuries in its facilities, such as requiring workers to perform fast and repetitive motions when loading trucks. Read why robots alone won't fix Amazon's worker injury problem. | |
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| Creating more entry-level cybersecurity jobs could help with the talent shortage and diversify the field. (Protocol) Since the invasion of Ukraine, militaries have been investing heavily in AI capabilities—and Silicon Valley firms are cashing in. (MIT Technology Review) Scientists researching circadian rhythms hope a better understanding of our body clocks can lead to better health. (The New York Times Magazine) | |
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