Aggregator

It is often the busiest fireworks display of the year at the pier

One of the world's quirkier new anti-aging concoctions is the salmon sperm facial. Nicky Kelvin heads to South Korea to find out exactly what it's like.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: Robotaxi development is speeding at a fast pace in China, but we don't hear much about it in the USA, where the news focuses mostly on Waymo, with a bit about Zoox, Motional, May, trucking projects and other domestic players. China has 4 main players with robotaxi service, dominated by Baidu (the Chinese Google.) A recent session at last week's Ride AI conference in Los Angeles revealed some details about the different regulatory regime in China, and featured a report from a Chinese-American YouTuber who has taken on a mission to ride in the different vehicles. Zion Maffeo, deputy general counsel for Pony.AI, provided some details on regulations in China. While Pony began with U.S. operations, its public operations are entirely in China, and it does only testing in the USA. Famously it was one of the few companies to get a California "no safety driver" test permit, but then lost it after a crash, and later regained it. Chinese authorities at many levels keep a close watch over Chinese robotaxi companies. They must get approval for all levels of operation which control where they can test and operate, and how much supervision is needed. Operation begins with testing with a safety driver behind the wheel (as almost everywhere in the world,) with eventual graduation to having the safety driver in the passenger seat but with an emergency stop. Then they move to having a supervisor in the back seat before they can test with nobody in the vehicle, usually limited to an area with simpler streets. The big jump can then come to allow testing with nobody in the vehicle, but with full time monitoring by a remote employee who can stop the vehicle. From there they can graduate to taking passengers, and then expanding the service to more complex areas. Later they can go further, and not have full time remote monitoring, though there do need to be remote employees able to monitor and assist part time. Pony has a permit allowing it to have 3 vehicles per remote operator, and has one for 15 vehicles in process, but they declined comment on just how many vehicles they actually have per operator. Baidu also did not respond to queries on this. [...] In addition, Chinese jurisdictions require that the system in a car independently log any "interventions" by safety drivers in a sort of "black box" system. These reports are regularly given to regulators, though they are not made public. In California, companies must file an annual disengagement report, but they have considerable leeway on what they consider a disengagement so the numbers can't be readily compared. Chinese companies have no discretion on what is reported, and they may notify authorities of a specific objection if they wish to declare that an intervention logged in their black box should not be counted. On her first trip, YouTuber Sophia Tung found Baidu's 5th generation robotaxi to offer a poor experience in ride quality, wait time, and overall service. However, during a return trip she tried Baidu's 6th generation vehicle in Wuhan and rated it as the best among Chinese robotaxis, approaching the quality of Waymo.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cody Balmer has been charged with attempted homicide, aggravated arson and terrorism for the Saturday night attack on the Pennsylvania Governor's home.

Iain Mackay, who became the school's artistic director last September, has said that the future of ballet lies in breaking away from outdated ideals of body image and gender roles.

Nick Carter faces new legal woes after he was accused of raping a woman multiple times after they began having sex when she was 19.

Jordon King, 28, was jailed for stealing five Easter eggs worth £100 from a Tesco supermarket in Nottinghamshire after he was caught on CCTV becoming trapped in the store as he tried to flee.

The vandalism, including grave markers snapped in half, was discovered at Carpenders Park Lawn Cemetery in Watford on Sunday morning, with police launching an investigation.

The 40-year-old is seen collecting waste before the truck unexpectedly rams into him from behind.

HBO 's upcoming Harry Potter TV series has finally revealed the first members of its spellbinding new cast - and fans are absolutely buzzing.

The climate crisis has tripled the length of ocean heatwaves, a study has found, supercharging deadly storms and destroying critical ecosystems such as kelp forests and coral reefs. From a report: Half of the marine heatwaves since 2000 would not have happened without global heating, which is caused by burning fossil fuels. The heatwaves have not only become more frequent but also more intense: 1C warmer on average, but much hotter in some places, the scientists said. The research is the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of the climate crisis on heatwaves in the world's oceans, and it reveals profound changes. Hotter oceans also soak up fewer of the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving temperatures up. "Here in the Mediterranean, we have some marine heatwaves that are 5C hotter," said Dr Marta Marcos at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Mallorca, Spain, who led the study. "It's horrible when you go swimming. It looks like soup." As well as devastating underwater ecosystems such as sea grass meadows, Marcos said: "Warmer oceans provide more energy to the strong storms that affect people at the coast and inland."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new model created by Google could reveal the secrets behind how the animals communicate for the first time, with hopes we may be able to 'speak dolphin' in the future.

Not so long ago, when a British woman looked in the mirror and felt in need of a little anti-ageing advice, she'd turn to the French.

Andy Price abruptly closed the The Tandy eatery in January with the loss of all the staff after running into financial troubles. The restaurant is reportedly in debt to 52 different creditors.

Abedi attacked three warders with burning cooking oil and a makeshift blade at HMP Frankland, County Durham on Saturday, leaving them with life-threatening injuries.

The new PJs are on sale now in all Primark stores

The family of a disabled veteran adds to the list of critics slamming Katy Perry for her trip to space with Blue Origin.

Fans of the former glamour model, 46, have pleaded for her to 'get help' after she was seen with a slimmer frame while sporting black exercise gear.

Jacqueline Jossa and Dan Osborne looked very loved-up this week during their 'make or break' family holiday in Mexico.

A large home in Ridgely, Tennessee was left untouched by flood water after a family took matters into their own hands to protect it against disastrous storms that hit the Midwest last week.