Tesla advances towards a fully self-driving future

24

October

2016

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Many posts on this website have already discussed self-driving cars and systems, and the remarkable uprising of Tesla. A few weeks ago however, Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla Motors) announced the company would come with an exciting new announcement. As of this week, we know what he was pointing at, and it sure was a surprise.

So last week, Tesla announced that they are going to equip every new vehicle that is produced from this week with new equipment, consisting of 7 new cameras. Thanks to these cameras the Tesla cars are now able to drive fully autonomous, without requiring any human assistance. Although it must be noted that the software for fully autonomous driving is not ready for public release, the cars will be ready to receive this kind of functionality in the future.

In a short video released by Tesla, the company shows the new functionally. A Tesla vehicle drive from a residential area to an Tesla office in the United States. This whole trip is fully autonomous. A driver is seated behind the wheel, but only in order to comply the current laws. The car can be seen driving through several streets, often a bit aggressively (making it really human).

But the most exciting new feature is the ability to automatically park and summon the Tesla cars. When the vehicle drops the user at their destination, the car will automatically search for an empty parking place (while being empyt!). And even more conveinient, the car will pick the user up when the users summons the car via a special Tesla app.

So a lot of interesting developments are rapidly enveloping in this sector.

https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/20/tesla-shows-off-its-upgraded-self-driving-capabilities/

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Censorship and a lack of accountability: News on Facebook

23

October

2016

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For more and more people, Facebook has become the number one source for news information. News articles and opinions of friends in peoples Facebook timeline are becoming increasingly more important for . But in contrary to regular news channels and other social media platforms like Twitter, which content the user will see in the Facebook timeline is determined by algorithms. This monopoly to-be does have some ethical problems.

Firstly these algorithms are based on many inputs, but in general; every topic the user likes or clicks on, is prone to pop up in their timeline more often. The danger in this system, is that the user only sees news of his liking. Potentially giving the user a very polarised view on the world.

Secondly, Facebook is applying censorship on the articles that are posted on their website. Most of the times this censorship is understandable, deleting pornographic and violence. But often Facebook crosses a line by censoring accounts or articles that are important for the public debate. Just this September there was a huge controversy about a post containing the iconic napalm girl photo, and especially the way Facebook used censorship in this case.

Fortune: “Not only did Facebook delete the original image after a Norwegian newspaper editor uploaded it as part of a series on war photography, but the site deleted the editor’s post about the deletion as well. It then blocked his account, and even deleted a post by Norway’s prime minister, who protested Facebook’s censorship of the image.”

Following up, a major difference with traditional news media is the lack of accountability. Where other news media tend to have to explain their decisions regarding editorial decisions, Facebook is stating it is not a media company and does therefor it’s not obliged to explain itself.

Maybe it is time for Facebook to understand just how important they in the business for news gathering and start to act as a professional news outlet.

The TV-program ‘Zondag Met Lucbach’ made an interesting video on this topic (in Dutch with English subtitles).

 

http://fortune.com/2016/10/21/facebook-newsworthy/

http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/05/pew-report-44-percent-of-u-s-adults-get-news-on-facebook/
https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/09/facebook-bans-then-reinstates-iconic-napalm-girl-photo/
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/21/13361086/facebook-explicit-posts-newsworthy-violence-nudity

 

 

 

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