Amazon Uses An App Called Mentor To Track and Discipline Delivery Drivers

Amazon has for years been using an app called “Mentor” to monitor and track delivery drivers’ behavior on the road. “The app, which Amazon bills as a tool to improve driver safety, generates a score each day that measures employees’ driving performance,” reports CNBC. From the report: Just like the AI-equipped cameras rolling out to contracted delivery companies, Mentor is framed…

Will Tesla Update Bring Remote Access To Car Cameras?

“Tesla’s Sentry Mode is about to bring things to a whole new level by enabling Tesla owners to remotely see what their cars can see through Autopilot cameras,” claims Electrek — citing a Twitter user named green “who has been revealing new Tesla features found in software updates.” “It’s not certain when the live camera update would arrive, provided it’s not…

FAA Chief ‘100% Confident’ of 737 MAX Safety As Flights To Resume

Hmmmmmm shares a report: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Steve Dickson is “100% confident” in the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX but says the airplane maker has more to do as it works to improve its safety culture. Dickson on Wednesday signed an order to allow the best-selling plane to resume flights after it was grounded worldwide in March…

SpaceX Starship as a trash collector in Earth orbit?

SpaceX Starship’s many tasks may include launching humans into space, carrying satellites into orbit and — perhaps — removing troublesome pieces of space debris. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/spacex-starship-clean-up-space-junk…

Split-Second ‘Phantom’ Images Can Fool Tesla’s Autopilot

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev have spent the last two years experimenting with “phantom” images to trick semi-autonomous driving systems. They previously revealed that they could use split-second light projections on roads to successfully trick Tesla’s driver-assistance systems into automatically stopping without warning when its camera sees spoofed images…

Boeing Whistle-Blower Says Proposed 737 Max Fixes Aren’t Enough

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A whistle-blower at Boeing Co. is urging aviation regulators to add additional protections to the grounded 737 Max. Curtis Ewbank, who has previously raised concerns about the plane’s design with congressional investigators, said in comments filed with the Federal Aviation Administration that a proposal to mandate fixes to the jet didn’t address multiple…

Is it possible to hear meteors?

Can you hear a meteor as it streaks overhead? Some people have reported hearing meteors with a sizzling sound like bacon frying. Scientists now say you can, and explain how it happens. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/whoosh-can-you-hear-a-meteor-streak-past…

Self-Driving Cars Would Only Prevent a Third of America’s Crashes, Study Finds

An anonymous reader quotes Reuters:
Self-driving cars, long touted by developers as a way to eliminate road deaths, could likely only prevent a third of all U.S. road crashes, according to a study released on Thursday. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a research group financed by U.S. insurers, found the remaining crashes were caused by mistakes that self-driving systems are…

Ask Slashdot: Did Fear and Groupthink Drive Unnecessary Global Lockdowns?

An anonymous reader writes: There’s an interesting analysis, which looks at several data points, to conclude that media may have flamed fears that drove the world to enforce lockdowns. From the story: “To put things in perspective, the virus is now known to have an infection fatality rate for most people under 65 that is no more dangerous than driving 13…