About nine months before George W. Bush became president I, along with about 70 others, were asked to join an independent tech advisory board to help Bush, then governor of Texas, understand the role of tech in the new decade and help craft a tech policy should he become president. Our first meeting took place in Austin, and from that came various subcommittees to research […]
With Tesla’s success and financial muscle, its CEO Elon Musk is free to explore new ventures such as his SpaceX and the solar roof project he has just unveiled. His latest interest seems to have zoomed in on tunnels. Musk vs. Traffic This came after an exasperated Musk posted at Twitter that the traffic is driving him nuts so he is going to build a machine that will bore […]
On a clear afternoon on September 28, 2008, Elon Musk was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Years earlier he had sunk most of his internet fortune into a commercial space company – SpaceX – and was now vying for a lucrative deal with NASA to resupply the International Space Station. There was only one problem: the last three attempts to send a rocket into space […]
Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. Indra Nooyi is the latest Indian American to be hand-picked by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to advise him and help him run the country. Ms. Nooyi’s appointment to his strategic and policy forum was announced Wednesday by Mr. Trump’s transition team as one of three new appointments to the 16-member group. SpaceX Corp’s Elon Musk and Uber Technologies Inc.’s Travis Kalanick were […]
By Julia Love and Ginger Gibson | SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON Alphabet’s Google is racing to hire more conservatives for its lobbying and policy arm, trying to get a foothold in President-elect Donald Trump’s Washington after enjoying a uniquely close relationship with the administration of President Barack Obama. In the weeks since the Nov. 8 election, Google has ramped up efforts to hire Republican lobbying firms and […]
The Abu Dhabi government has signed an agreement with a US-based research firm to study the feasibility of a Hyperloop transport system between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) announced in a statement on Monday that it had inked a deal with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (Hyperloop TT) – one of several companies working to bring the technology first conceived by […]
Low interest rates pose one of the biggest threats to the US economy and expose investors to the potential for heavy loses from a price shock across a range of markets, according to an independent arm of the US Treasury. The concerns are raised in the Office of Financial Research’s annual financial stability report to Congress, which concludes that threats to stability remain “in a medium range”. […]
Apple has written a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration telling that new companies entering the auto industry should be given the same rights as established companies. This letter hints that Apple has the rumored iCar in the works. Apple’s Letter To NHTSA Apple’s letter to the NHTSA indicates that the company still has plans of testing autonomous cars. “Apple uses machine learning to […]
The notion of machine-powered facial recognition is one that predates today’s actual technology for it by many years, thanks to robot POV shots from sci-fi films such as The Terminator and Robocop. But while many advances have been made, facial recognition software is far from infallible, as researchers from Carnegie Mellon University recently found. Here are the details from a report in Quartz: Researchers showed they could […]
Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto Neural networks, machine-learning systems, predictive analytics, speech recognition, natural-language understanding and other components of what’s broadly defined as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) are currently undergoing a boom: research is progressing apace, media attention is at an all-time high, and organisations are increasingly implementing AI solutions in pursuit of automation-driven efficiencies. The first thing to establish is what we’re not talking about, which is human-level AI […]
By Alexandria Sage | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Volvo’s North American CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, lost his cool as the automaker’s semi-autonomous prototype sporadically refused to drive itself during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show. “It can’t find the lane markings!” Kerssemakers griped to Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was at the wheel. “You need to paint the bloody roads here!” Shoddy infrastructure has become a […]
Solar panels at the moment are not super-affordable, and they are not yet at a position where homeowners could replace their regular roofs with only solar panels. However, Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla and SpaceX, is hoping to make some big changes in this field. Not long ago, Tesla merged with SolarCity, and 85 percent of the shareholders approved the deal. Now, after a meeting with […]
Submitted by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com, It is good that Hillary lost – obviously. But it may prove to be the worst thing that could have happened. Depending on what Trump does as president. If he governs as a Republican, it is time to pack bags. Because the clock is ticking. We will have – at best – four years before something far worse than Hillary returns, […]
U.S. stocks looked set to open little changed on Friday, with all three major indexes near record highs, a day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sent a strong signal that interest rates would be increased next month. The Fed could raise rates “relatively soon”, Yellen said in a congressional testimony on Thursday, adding that she would serve out her term. Traders are pricing in an 83 […]
By Alexandria Sage and Nichola Groom | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk won approval on Thursday from the electric luxury automaker’s shareholders for an acquisition of SolarCity Corp, the solar energy system installer in which he is the largest shareholder. The stock swap deal, worth about $2 billion, caps a tumultuous year for Musk and Tesla. The proposed acquisition of SolarCity, […]
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below. These past couple episodes of South Park have served as a major showcase for just how adaptable Trey Parker and Matt Stone can be. Last week, “Oh, Jeez” had to be reworked at the very last minute to reflect Donald Trump’s unexpected election victory. And as continuity-driven as this season has been from the start, that shake-up is still having […]
Samsung has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Harman, the designer and maker of connection products for automakers, in a bid to expand and accelerate its growth in connected technologies. On Monday, Nov. 14 the Korean company confirmed that it will buy Harman for $112 per share, which brings the cost of acquisition to about $8 billion. Harman has a strong presence in […]
Television viewers have a chance to follow in the big-screen footsteps of Matt Damon and explore the Red Planet, thanks to an innovative dramatised documentary that begins on National Geographic Abu Dhabi on Sunday (November 13). Mars, the first episode of which starts at 10pm, is six-part documentary series that blends fact and fiction as it explores the planet’s formation. Produced by the Academy Award-winning team of […]
Before he was elected to be the next US president, Donald Trump had garnered the support of just one prominent billionaire in Silicon Valley: billionaire Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Facebook board member. The US technology industry had been shocked that one veteran from the Valley, which prides itself on liberal values, had supported, funded and even spoken for Mr Trump at his convention — and […]
As of this morning, several hours after the U.S. presidential race was called for Donald Trump, some of the tech world’s leading voices had yet to weigh in on what those results could mean for Silicon Valley in particular and innovation in general. But many news outlets are saying the impacts could be disruptive in ways that the otherwise disruption-loving tech sector might not like. Meanwhile, venture […]
Recently, Tesla’s Elon Musk suggested that driving your car could someday become illegal. Don’t start shredding your driver’s license just yet, but he’s right — and that day could be here sooner than you think. According to Business Insider, fully autonomous vehicles – those that can drive from point A to point B without driver interaction – will debut as soon as 2019. And these autos will be only a […]
SolarCity Corp (SCTY.O) agreed to Tesla Motors Inc’s (TSLA.O) $2.6 billion offer to buy the solar panel installer, the companies said on Monday, clearing one obstacle in the way of Elon Musk’s ambitious plans for a carbon-free energy and transportation company. Tesla’s offer represented about half of SolarCity’s value a year ago, a tumble reflecting the solar company’s slowing growth, complex financial structure and the increased scrutiny […]
A Tesla logo adorns a ‘Model S’ car in the dealership in Berlin, Germany, November 18, 2015. Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo Tesla Motors Inc and SolarCity Corp have made progress in putting together a deal that will merge the electric car maker and the solar panel installer, people familiar with the matter said. The two companies, which count billionaire Elon Musk as a major shareholder, are in the […]
