This is why self-driving cars suck at making unprotected left turns

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Human or robot driver, left-hand turns in a car are tough. Unprotected turns? Even harder.

Cruise, the self-driving car company backed by General Motors, put out a video Thursday showing its self-driving electric Bolts making left turns all over San Francisco’s busy streets. The company says it makes 1,400 unprotected left turns every 24 hours.

For an autonomous car company it seems like this shouldn’t be hailed as such an achievement, but it is. Waymo, the Google self-driving car spinoff company, notoriously struggled in Phoenix to turn left during testing on public roads. Its Chrysler Pacifica minivans were just too timid to make it through the oncoming traffic. People have noted that the robo-taxis have improved in those situations. Read more…

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Fake ‘drunk’ Nancy Pelosi video goes viral, and it wasn’t even that hard to make

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Who needs deepfakes when you can just run a video at reduced speed?

An edited clip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, altered to make it look like she’s slurring her words, is making the rounds online following a Wednesday discussion at a Center for American Progress event.  

The news comes by way of the Washington Post, which notes that the only digital trickery required to fool millions of Americans into thinking the Democratic congresswoman was drunk in public was to run the video at 75 percent speed and tweak the pitch. 

That’s it. No fancy AI or special video editing skills were needed. If you just let out a heavy sigh, you’re not alone.  Read more…

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‘John Wick: Chapter 3’ fight scenes, ranked by animal involvement

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Warning: Major spoilers ahead for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

“All this because of a puppy?”

“It wasn’t just a puppy.”

Animals rule the third instalment of the John Wick franchise, Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which rolls around in dirty action, drops a bunch of kills at your feet, and rarely raises a snoot for air. 

Director Chad Stahelski’s Keanu Reeves-fronted action thriller pounces from one elegantly choreographed yet brutal fight scene to the next, with our titular hero piling up the body count faster than the audience can tally (I tried). But at the core of the films lies a secret weapon — doggos, horses, pigeons, camels, and one cat. Read more…

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Facebook reveals more details on AR glasses in new patent

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We may still be years away from Facebook’s augmented reality glasses becoming an actual product, but we now know a little more about how they might work.

A new patent filing reveals additional details about Facebook’s AR glasses, including how they might handle audio. The patent, originally filed in January but published Thursday, describes a “cartilage conduction audio system for eyewear devices.” 

The glasses’ overall design is similar to what we saw in a previous patent published in 2017, though it now appears plans for the glasses are much further along. 

Using sensors, as well as those that sit inside the ear, the glasses would be able to project sound into your ear while also allowing you to hear ambient noise around you. The idea is similar to headphones that use bone conduction technology, though the patent notes that its cartilage conduction method is more comfortable and reliable than bone conduction. Read more…

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Nostalgic meme remembers the absurd bowling alley animations we all love

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Why are bowling animations like this? 

If you’ve ever been bowling, you probably remember the absurd 3D-animated scenes that played after each turn. Sometimes it’s an anthropomorphic pin flashing you a thumbs up after a strike, jerkily rubbing its bowling pin head as if you personally hurt it. Other times an animated bowling ball will fly through the alley and straight into a terribly rendered galaxy. Whether you’re scoring well or not, the most memorable part of the game is often the scorekeeping console’s animations. 

Bowling alley memes have taken over Twitter and Reddit. The nostalgic memes poke fun at the outdated, surreal, mildly horrifying animated scenes that fall right in the uncanny valley.  Read more…

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WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange charged under the Espionage Act

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The U.S. government is going after Julian AssangeAgain. 

The Wikileaks founder and current resident of a London jail cell was charged Thursday under the 102-year-old Espionage Act, with 18 separate counts carrying a possible 170 prison sentence if he’s found guilty. So reports the Washington Post, which notes that federal prosecutors accuse the publisher of encouraging sources to steal classified information. 

“Assange, WikiLeaks affiliates and Manning shared the common objective to subvert lawful restrictions on classified information and to publicly disseminate it,” the New York Times reports the indictment as reading. Read more…

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NYC subway will soon accept Google Pay at select turnstiles

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New York City straphangers, rejoice!

The city’s subway and bus systems are adding new contactless payment readers to select stations, enabling passengers to pay for rides using their smartphones.

Beginning May 31, you’ll be able to purchase a single-use digital MetroCard using Google Pay. The local transportation authority will be rolling out the feature to all Staten Island buses and all subway stations on the 4, 5, and 6 lines between Grand Central and Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center.

In short: You’ll be able to easily buy a ticket and travel between much of Manhattan and Brooklyn without having to buy a physical MetroCard. It’s expected to be a huge deal for visitors and tourists who often struggle to navigate the aging kiosks that sell physical MetroCards. Read more…

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Facebook has already removed more than 2 billion fake accounts this year

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Facebook’s fake account problem keeps getting bigger.

The company is removing more fake accounts than ever, taking down more than 2 billion accounts so far in 2019 alone, Facebook disclosed in a new transparency report.

Company executives said there’s been a sharp uptick in the number of fake accounts created this year. There were 2.19 billion accounts removed during the first quarter of 2019, nearly double the 1.2 billion removed during the fourth quarter of 2018.

SEE ALSO: Every Facebook insider who has turned against the company

That rise was largely due to spammers and other “bad actors who attempt to create large volumes of accounts at one time,” Facebook’s VP of Integrity Guy Rosen wrote in a blog post. Read more…

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