Note to our readers: The Bulldog wrapup of technology news, which has been a staple of WRAL TechWire for years, is taking on a new look. We are expanding it to incorporate Triangle and regional headlines, not just news from The Associated Press and other wires. In effect, the Bulldog will become the new home for other occasional WTW posts such as Triangle Headlines. No one publication in the Triangle can adequately cover all the tech and life science news that’s happening daily – well, make that hourly. The Bulldog, which draws its name from an old newspaper term for early editions and from WTW Editor Rick Smith’s late bulldog Roxie, will attempt to bring you a daily wrapup of highlights.
Today’s headlines:
- No recall for Tesla
- Uber pays $20M to settle suit
- Samsung to disclose reason for fires
- SAS surveys users for big data feedback
- Lawsuits: Social media played role in terror
The details:
- No recall for Tesla in Autopilot system probe
U.S. safety regulators have closed an investigation into a fatal crash involving Tesla Motors’ Autopilot system without seeking a recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says Tesla won’t be fined, but the agency criticized the electric car maker for calling the semi-autonomous driving feature Autopilot.
Agency spokesman Bryan Thomas says advanced automated driving systems still require “continual and full attention of a driver” who should be prepared to take action. And he said manufacturers need to pay attention to how drivers actually use the technology, not just how they’re supposed to use it, and to design their vehicles “with the inattentive driver in mind.”
Tesla’s Autopilot system uses cameras, radar and computers to detect objects and automatically brake if the car is about to hit something. It also can steer the car to keep it centered in its lane. But drivers are instructed to keep both hands on the wheel at all times.
The investigation followed a May crash in Florida. The driver of a Tesla Model S was killed when the Autopilot system failed to spot a tractor-trailer crossing the car’s path.
- Uber pays $20 million to settle claims of driver deception
Uber Technologies is paying $20 million to settle allegations that it duped people into driving for its ride-hailing service with false promises about how much they would earn and how much they would have to pay to finance a car.
The agreement announced Thursday with the Federal Trade Commission covers statements Uber made from late 2013 until 2015 while trying to recruit more drivers to expand its service and remain ahead of its main rival, Lyft.
The FTC alleged that most Uber drivers were earning far less in 18 major U.S. cities than Uber published online. Regulators also asserted that drivers wound up paying substantially more to lease cars than the company had claimed.
“Many consumers sign up to drive for Uber, but they shouldn’t be taken for a ride about their earnings potential or the cost of financing a car through Uber,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
In a statement, Uber said it’s pleased to resolve the dispute.
- Samsung to announce cause of Galaxy Note 7 fire on Jan. 23
Samsung Electronics said Friday it will announce on Jan. 23 the reason why its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones overheated and caught fire.
The announcement will be livestreamed in Chinese, English and Korean on its websites. Koh Dong-jin, Samsung’s mobile president, will give details of the probe.
The Galaxy Note 7 was a fiasco for the world’s largest smartphone maker. Samsung recalled and eventually discontinued it after numerous reports of it overheating and bursting into flames.
Initially, Samsung said it found a small error in the manufacturing process for some of the batteries in the phones was to blame. It replaced the phones with a new battery but those replaced phones also overheated and caught fire, prompting Samsung to pull the phones from the market. That cost Samsung at least $5 billion.
The announcement comes after a South Korean court dismissed on Thursday a request by prosecutors to arrest Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong heir.
- SAS surveys big data users
“A new survey out of Cary analytics giant SAS Institute shows that, while big data may be getting bigger, it’s slow in showing value,” reports the Triangle Business Journal.
Read the details at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/01/19/sas-big-data-is-getting-bigger-but-its-value.html
- NY lawsuits blame social media in terror attacks
The families of victims of terror attacks in Paris, Brussels and Israel are blaming social media companies including Facebook and Twitter for facilitating communications among terrorists.
Twitter says it has suspended hundreds of thousands of user accounts in the past 18 months for threatening or promoting acts of terrorism.
But that isn’t enough, say lawyers for the families of terror victims, including a brother and sister killed in last year’s bomb attacks in Brussels and an American college student slaughtered in Paris.
In a string of lawsuits filed in New York, they say they want Twitter and Facebook to pay damages for failing to stop violent extremists from using their platforms to recruit followers, intimidate enemies and raise money.
“If you or I tried to send money to Hamas, you wouldn’t get around the block,” said Robert Tolchin, a lawyer for the families of Brussels attack victims Alexander and Sascha Pinczowski and Paris massacre victim Nohemi Gonzalez. “Banks are required to check before they do any wire transfers. Why is it any different to provide a communications platform to Hamas, to ISIS?”
Relatives of those three victims filed a federal lawsuit against Twitter earlier this month, saying the San Francisco company violated the U.S. Anti-terrorism Act by providing material support to terrorists. It seeks unspecified damages.
