đź”— Articles: Monday 01.Apr.2024
Teslarati: Tesla lead engineer defends Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system
One of the things that MKBHD praised in his review was the Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system, which Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill also noted has ruined everything else for him. With steer-by-wire, pretty much every vehicle that still uses a traditional steering system immediately feels outdated. Such a comment caught the eye of some critics, one of whom noted that no one wants steer-by-wire in sports cars and that Tesla engineers are engineers first and car guys second.Â
In response to the steer-by-wire critic, the Cybertruck Lead Engineer explained the advantages of steer-by-wire, including the system’s capability to behave like a power-assisted steering system if necessary. He also noted that drivers can amplify feedback in a steer-by-wire system.
I’m sure old pilots don’t like fly-by-wire either. But everybody uses it now.
NYT: California Highway 1 Collapse Leaves 2,000 Tourists Stranded
Officials in California on Sunday slowly began guiding drivers past a collapsed section of scenic Highway 1 in the Big Sur area, one day after the damage left about 2,000 motorists stranded overnight.
NYT: Magazine: Why Are American Drivers So Deadly?
After decades of declining fatality rates, dangerous driving has surged again.
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To Kuhls, it felt as if all the deadly habits that were on such flagrant display during the early months of the pandemic had become normalized. “We’ve all gotten stuck,” Kohls told me. “That’s true here; it’s true nationally. And it’s a scary thing to comprehend.”
CBS: Alex Murdaugh gets 40 years for stealing from clients, law firm
Murdaugh was punished - this time in federal court - for stealing from clients and his law firm. The 55-year-old disbarred attorney is already serving a life sentence without parole in a state prison for killing his wife and son.
Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty to more than a dozen counts, including money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud, in exchange for a 27-year sentence. The sentence must be approved by Judge Clifton Newman, who set a sentencing hearing for Nov. 28 at which victims or their families will get to speak.
Oops.
TheFocus: 8 incredible must-see movies added to Amazon Prime Video this week
The Focus breaks down a list of eight fantastic movies added to the Amazon Prime Video streaming library this week.
- The Aviator (2004)
- The Big Short (2015)
- Blockers (2018)
- Chaplin (1992)
- Cloverfield (2008)
- Fighting With My Family (2019)
- Nebraska (2013)
- Richard Jewell (2019)
TheFocus: Changing my morning coffee routine was the best decision for my energy levels
Unfortunately, this led to some less-than-ideal habits. For one, I grew attached to a Starbucks secret menu item called the Liquid Cocaine which is as deadly as it sounds. Secondly, I ignored scientific advice and drank coffee whenever I felt like it. Shock, it was all the time.
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While there isn’t a specific time to start drinking coffee, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman recommended waiting 90 to 120 minutes before partaking.
“The reason I delay caffeine is that one of the factors that induce a sense of sleepiness is the build-up of adenosine in our system,” he said. “The buildup of adenosine accumulates the longer we’re awake, so early morning, your adenosine levels are likely to be very low.”
Worth a try.
TheFocus: 7 April Fool’s Day products that brands need to make a reality
Each year, April Fool’s Day provides companies with the perfect time to trial potential products without the need to actually launch them.
e.g.
- Domino’s: The Edibox edible pizza box
- KFC: Mighty Mouth Expander
- Tinder: bans fish pictures
- Pringles: lip balm
- McDonald’s: milkshake dipping sauces
Apple Insider: macOS 15 at WWDC 2024: release date, features, rumors
Aside from comments from Tim Cook and Greg Joswiak effectively confirming AI will be a feature of the event, there have been various stories about Apple’s machine learning work that seem primed for launch.
For a start, Apple’s famous digital assistant Siri is expected to receive a massive upgrade for 2024. This includes claims of investing $1 billion into adding AI to Siri, and suggestions that generative AI elements are on the way.
It would be great to have an overhauled version of Siri.
The main claim is that new tools in Xcode will use AI to predict and automatically complete blocks of code. For developers this could save time in writing code elements for apps, as well as potentially reducing the amount of bugs caused by spelling mistakes, missing, or additional elements.
There is also the possibility of using AI to generate code for testing applications, saving developers time in a particularly tedious process.
Apple is working on AI-based image editing models
07.Feb.2024
Apple, in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, has released its own AI-based image editing model that and anybody can try.
The model has been dubbed “MGIE,” which stands for MLLM-Guided Image Editing and allows users to edit images based on natural language instructions. It leverages multimodal large language models (MLLMs), which combine various types of information, such as text, photos, and videos, to understand and generate human-like language.
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MGIE is open-source and available on GitHub for anyone to try. The GitHub page allows users to snag the code, data, and pre-trained models.
The speed of image generation will vary significantly based on hardware performance. Also, models such as this are incredibly RAM hungry.
Engineers Need Art: Virtual Pinhead
Jump to the fall of last year though and I read a post on Hacker News about virtual pinball. While the author did manage to make playing pinball sound more appealing to me (I was not aware that nudging a pinball cabinet was anything other than verboten), I think I was more drawn to the challenge of building a virtual pinball cabinet.
Six months after that blog post and virtual pinball (Visual Pinball specifically) has become a hobby that I have fully immersed myself in. I still think I am unlikely to get a real pinball machine, but I’m afraid that I have not just one, but two virtual pinball cabinets in my basement. I’m also experimenting with a more modest-size “controller” that others with a smaller budget (or with less woodworking skills) might find more approachable.
Reuters: Would-be Tesla buyers snub company as Musk’s reputation dips
The ranks of would-be Tesla buyers in the United States are shrinking, according to a survey by market intelligence firm Caliber, which attributed the drop in part to CEO Elon Musk’s polarizing persona.
While Tesla continued to post strong sales growth last year, helped by aggressive price cuts, the electric-vehicle maker is expected to report weak quarterly sales, as early as Tuesday.
Caliber’s “consideration score” for Tesla, provided exclusively to Reuters, fell to 31% in February, less than half its high of 70% in November 2021 when it started tracking consumer interest in the brand.
Last Updated: 01.Apr.2024 14:55 EDT