[ad_1] In a statement, Waymo told Engadget that it was ramping up after “careful consideration” and that its team’s health and safety was its “number one priority.” You can read the full statement below. A driver talking to The Verge characterized this as Waymo exploiting a “loophole” to get back to testing, but that’s not […]
Category: alphabet
Alphabet’s balloon-powered Loon rural internet comes to Mozambique
[ad_1] Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth noted that Vodacom is one of Africa’s largest carriers, providing service to tens of millions of people in multiple countries. “We view this as the first step to a larger partnership that will allow us to serve more of those users throughout Africa,” he said in a statement. So far, […]
Eric Schmidt reportedly left Google in February
[ad_1] Still, it’s the end of an era. Schmidt ran Google during its rapid growth from a search startup to a tech colossus that branched out into smartphones, email and numerous other fields. Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired him to offer Google serious business credibility and leadership, and to that extent he succeeded. He […]
Google saw huge jumps in search usage and app downloads in March
[ad_1] Android users are also hitting their phones hard. Pichai said that people are spending significantly more time in apps, and Google Play Store app downloads in March were 30 percent higher than February. Overall, Google has over 2.5 billion monthly active Google Play devices. But, the company saw a decline in device activations this […]
Google’s data centers will process some tasks when clean energy is abundant
[ad_1] The system works by comparing two different forecasts each day. The first one predicts the average carbon output the local electrical grid the data center pulls from will produce every hour. The other one estimates how much electricity the data center’s computers will need to complete their tasks over the same period. Using both […]
Alphabet’s DeepMind AI is better than you at Atari games
[ad_1] According to MIT’s Technology Review, Pitfall and Montezuma’s Revenge require the AI to experiment more than usual in order to figure out how to get a better score. Meanwhile, Solaris and Skiing are difficult for the AI because there aren’t as many indications as success — the AI doesn’t know if it’s making the […]
Waymo suspends all services until at least April 7th
[ad_1] This is “a temporary measure to keep our riders, trained drivers, and the entire Waymo team safe,” the company said. Waymo will continue to monitor the coronavirus situation to determine when it’s safe to kickstart its ride services again. The company noted it will help its partners pay staff who had been scheduled to […]
Uber’s former self-driving lead pleads guilty to stealing from Google
[ad_1] After about three years of legal wrangling between Uber and Waymo over self-driving car tech, the engineer at the center of it has agreed to plead guilty to one count of stealing materials from Google. Anthony Levandowski was a lead engineer on the self-driving car project that’s now known as Waymo, until he left […]
Senators ask Alphabet how it will protect COVID-19 screening site data
[ad_1] The senators are concerned that any shortfalls in protection could leave people vulnerable to “identity theft, negative credit decisions, and employment discrimination,” pointing to data breaches at companies like Equifax as an example of what can go wrong. They also asked who exactly was in charge, with “specific concerns” about Google given its extensive […]
Waymo goes dark except for fully driverless rides
[ad_1] The freeze is taking effect in the context of not only widespread closures and shutdowns to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, but also hesitation within Waymo’s ranks. One backup driver for Waymo One refused to pick up a passenger at Intel’s Chandler, Arizona office after hearing reports of a COVID-19 case at […]