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Uber manager warned of fatal self-driving trial risks
A manager on Uber's autonomous vehicle trial warned the company of major safety issues just a week before one of the cars hit and killed a pedestrian (TechCrunch).
In an email now published by The Information, whistleblower Robbie Miller wrote: “the cars are routinely in accidents resulting in damage. This is usually the result of poor behavior of the operator or the AV technology. A car was damaged nearly every other day in February. We shouldn’t be hitting things every 15,000 miles. Repeated infractions for poor driving rarely results in termination. Several of the drivers appear to not have been properly vetted or trained.”
New security hole sees Google+ shutdown date moved forward
Google has moved the official shutdown date of its ill-fated Google+ social network from August 2019 to April 2019, with all APIs allowing developers to access the service to cease operation within the next 90 days (Ars Technica). The accelerated shutdown is due to the discovery of yet another vulnerability – apparently never exploited – that exposed 52.2 million users' non-public profile data to app developers.
YouTube has a huge influence on toy trends
Google holiday shopping trend data shows that YouTube unboxing videos have become critically important to what gifts are most searched for on Google Shopping (TechCrunch). Particularly notable is the L.O.L. Surprise! range, gacha-style surprise egg toys with multiple layers containing accessories and mystery items to unwrap before you reach a toy animal or doll.
Why the UK is losing its costly battle against money laundering
Why do the world’s criminals come to London to launder their dirty money? (WIRED). “It’s a great place for people to settle. You’ve got people who want stable investments in real estate, and want to bring their families and children to a more stable regime,” says Friedrich Lindenberg of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Voyager 2 has crossed into interstellar space
Nasa's Voyager 2 probe has become the second man-made object to reach interstellar space, which crossed out of the heliosphere in 2013 (Gizmodo). On November 5, Voyager 2's Plasma Science Experiment returned measurements showing a steep decline in solar wind particles, which officially means that it's in interstellar space, although neither Voyager spacecraft has reached the Oort Cloud, some 300 years' journey away, which marks the edge of the Sun's gravitational influence.
Podcast 396: The CRISPR gene-edited baby scandal
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
