#Robotics news

[jcmarchi]

Self-driving taxis are coming to New York City, but will need safety drivers too - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/self-driving-taxis-are-coming-to-new-york-city-but-will-need-safety-drivers-too-technology-org/

Self-driving taxis are coming to New York City, but will need safety drivers too - Technology Org

New York City has unveiled a new plan for permitting companies to trial autonomous taxi vehicles on its streets, mandating the presence of a human safety driver at all times.

Times Square, New York, USA. Image credit: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen via Unsplash, free license

In a bid to proactively address concerns surrounding fully autonomous vehicles, the city has established what it terms as a “stringent permitting program.” This initiative aims to ensure that applicants are sufficiently prepared to test their technology in the complex urban landscape of New York City, prioritizing safety and proficiency.

Mayor Eric Adams emphasized the inevitability of autonomous technology’s integration into the city’s transportation system, emphasizing the need to implement it responsibly.

The criteria for obtaining permits would require prior experience in autonomous vehicle testing, with companies mandated to supply data from previous trials, including incident reports and the frequency of safety driver interventions, commonly referred to as “disengagements.”

A notable stipulation of the new regulations is the exclusion of fully driverless vehicles from testing on public roads within the city limits. Instead, only vehicles equipped with safety drivers will be eligible for testing permits.

Only a few select companies, such as Waymo and Cruise, have introduced driverless vehicles, categorized as Level 4 automation, into the market. However, challenges concerning traffic congestion and safety have hindered their widespread adoption.

In a notable incident last October, a driverless Cruise vehicle in San Francisco dragged a pedestrian for over 20 feet along the street, prompting authorities to suspend the company’s operational permit. Similarly, a few months later, a driverless Waymo vehicle was involved in a minor collision with a bicyclist. Officials in San Francisco criticized both companies for impeding traffic flow and obstructing emergency vehicles and buses.

To preempt such issues, New York City has proposed a mandate requiring companies to maintain safety drivers in their vehicles at all times. Under Mayor Adams’ proposal, companies would still need to secure a permit from the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Moreover, applicants would be obligated to furnish details on the recruitment and training procedures of their safety drivers and commit to adhering to the latest best practices outlined by the Society of Automotive Engineers.

According to a spokesperson, data derived from autonomous vehicle (AV) testing will eventually be accessible through the city’s Open Data portal. As part of the application procedure, the Department of Transportation will assess requests from applicants regarding the confidentiality of specific data that may be withheld from disclosure.

Written by Vytautas Valinskas

[xinyuehui]

△ THEY ARE THE OPTIMAL WEAPON FOR DESTROYING ONE ANOTHER. * THIS EXPERIMENT IS NEVER TO BE RESTARTED

[diblmetta]

Pranking the machine (GONE WRONG)

[mysharona1987]

They have turned the Palestinians into actual Guinea pigs for the military industrial complex.

We will see the robots and miserable remote controlled dogs at the next big BLM protest on American soil soon enough.

[b1ttersweet-dreams]

my heart is circuit bent, im getting tired of this

i dont have much to say about her right now

[reasonsforhope]

"One of the least respected but most important ecosystems on Earth are seagrass meadows, and a pioneering robotic solution is helping marine scientists restore these underwater gardens.

The ReefGen Grasshopper can plant dozens of seagrass seeds per minute. Not only is this faster than a human diver, but much safer as well.

It works by injecting a tiny slurry of sediment wrapped around the seagrass seed into the seafloor. After covering a growing plot of four seeds, the robot ‘hops’ about 30 centimeters away and starts again.

Despite covering a minuscule portion of the seafloor, seagrass meadows are estimated to hold 35-times more carbon than terrestrial forests—amounting to around 18% of the total carbon stock of the world’s oceans.

ReefGen’s founder Tom Chi dreamed up the idea after watching the degradation of coral reefs on his home island in Hawaii. The first iteration of the robot set coral ‘plugs’ onto existing reefs to help regrow them, but the technology was prohibitively expensive for wide-scale use.

Now however, broader selections of off-the-shelf parts have driven down the costs of manufacturing and maintaining underwater robots, according to Chris Oakes, CEO of ReefGen.

“Manual planting works, but robots are really good when things are dull, dirty, dangerous, or distant—the four Ds,” Oakes told CNN, adding that at the moment, Grasshopper is piloted with a controller by a human on the surface.

“Right now, we’re focused on the planting, the biology, and the mechanical aspects, once we’re confident that that’s all designed the right way, we will overlay more semi-autonomous features like navigation, so you don’t actually have to pilot it,” he said.

ReefGen has been able to not only expand into restoration of seagrass meadows, but also see its robots used in oceans around the world. This July, Grasshopper planted 25,000 seeds in Wales. In October, ReefGen teamed up with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute of Marine Sciences to test various seed replanting methods out on the state’s declining seagrass meadows.

Oakes says that as cool and “flashy” as a robotic solution might seem, the most important factor in its success will be the long-term monitoring of the fields it’s replanting. Are they growing to maturity, are the seedlings dying off before then, will they live long enough to seed and germinate fields of their own, how do fields it plants compare to fields planted by hand??"

-via Good News Network, December 24, 2024

[torpublishinggroup]

"Warning Signs Your Machines Are Trying to Kill You!" by TJ Klune

(Legally, I’m required to tell you that when smart phones first became popular, I bought one and then asked for the address of the app store because I thought it was a physical location I had to go to in order to download apps and not something already on your phone. Also, I was recently told I speak like an old person so as a warning, there will not be any slang you youths typically hear, especially on Tumblr. Any slang I’ve learned in the last five years has been against my will. I still don’t know what FOMO means, and I don’t care.)

1. Oh no! You and your family are trying to enjoy a movie night, but Overlord Prime (With Free Shipping) wants a sacrifice at the altar of their god, BeeZos. Should this happen, do not attempt to give Overlord Prime (With Free Shipping) a cantaloupe with googly-eyes on it and say that it is your baby. Overlord Prime (With Free Shipping) knows the difference between fruit and children. Instead, ask the machine to order dog food, and it will forget about eating humans for a little while.

2. If you own a very fancy vehicle that can drive itself, always make sure to carry a brick. That way, when the car locks you inside and attempts to drive you off a cliff into a gas station, you can break the window using the brick. You will then have to jump out, but make sure you do so in time so you can watch the wicked-ass explosion when the car hits the gas station, and you can revel in your victory over your car.

3. This one will hurt. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Chances are, you’re reading this on your phone right this second. To be safe, after you’ve finished reading this post and have clicked on the affiliated links to purchase my books, you should throw your phone into a volcano and then move to South Dakota where there are no machines, only wind and cows. That way, when everyone else gets the 5GZombieVirus that people on Twitter (I’m not calling it the other thing, shut up) seem to think is real, you’ll be safe with your cows on a windy day.

4. Get rid of your air fryer. Don’t ask me why, just do it. Red flags all around. Danger, danger.

5. Do you know of the Clapper? That thing first launched in the late 20th century (I wrote it that way to make me feel old) where the commercials showed cranky old people unable to reach their light switches, so they got a thing called a Clapper that turns your lights on and off when you clap? Guess what? Those will be the first things to try and kill you. If you love your gram-gram, save her from the Clapper. When she asks why you are destroying it with an ax, tell gram-gram it’s because you love her.

6. Do you live in a smart home? The kind where everything is connected to the internet, including your refrigerator? The refrigerator that holds your perishable foods? And oh, would you look at that: how many ice cubes have you kicked under it rather than picking them up when they fall to the floor? A dozen? A million? The refrigerator remembers. And it will spoil your food in seconds. What then? What are you going to eat? Canned food? Not if the refrigerator falls on top of you!

Unfortunately for you, this is where it must end. I hope this has given you enough information to help you survive the inevitable. If you do not heed my warnings, well. Who cares. I’m not in charge of you. Do whatever you want. Just don’t come complaining to me when gram-gram gets the clap.

[tk-sketches]

a quickie to say happy new years!! ⭐ they're based on those fireworks LED lights

[saphushia]

latest dbhc update from @shepscapades has got me feeling. unwell. THE PARALLELSSSSSS <-said whilst drenched in blood

[vertyd]

fallout robots

[nuefass]

new year, more valve spanking

[dragonroilz]

[diblmetta]

Someone plz help him

[n3onarcades]

Robotttssssss :3 (slash computers tamagochis etc!)

[nizaen]

okay ❤️

yay❤️

[haliaiii]

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