The Evolution of Automated Safety Technologies:

                         What does this mean for you as a driver?

                                           Is there anything unusual about this car?

General Motors is getting ready to ditch the driver for good—at least in its newest R&D vehicles. In 2019, Cruise—the self-driving startup acquired a couple of years ago by GM—wants to begin testing the fourth generation of its autonomous vehicle, the Cruise AV.
(This is a modified Chevrolet Bolt EV, no relation to the Chevrolet Cruze.)

The company has filed a safety petition with the US Department of Transportation requesting permission to deploy the fourth-generation Cruise AV, which will be completely driverless, without any steering wheel, pedals, or other form of manual controls.
— Read Full Article by Jonathan M. Gitlin /  Ars Technica

The Evolution of AST:
A number of today’s new motor vehicles have technology that helps drivers avoid drifting into adjacent lanes or making unsafe lane changes, or that warns drivers of other vehicles behind them when they are backing up, or that brakes automatically if a vehicle ahead of them stops or slows suddenly, among other things.
These and other safety technologies use a combination of hardware (sensors, cameras, and radar) and software to help vehicles identify certain safety risks so they can warn the driver to act to avoid a crash.

The continuing evolution of automotive technology aims to deliver even greater safety benefits and – one day – deliver Automated Driving Systems (ADS) that can handle the whole task of driving when we don’t want to or can’t do it ourselves.

Overview of AVS

Automated Vehicles for Safety

The continuing evolution of automotive technology aims to deliver even greater safety benefits and Automated Driving Systems (ADS) that-one day-can handle the whole task of driving when we don't want to or can't do it ourselves. Fully automated cars and trucks that drive us, instead of us driving them, will become a reality.

AVs full societal benefits are difficult to project, the transformative potential of automated vehicles and their driver assistance features can also be understood by reviewing U.S. demographics and the communities these technologies could help to support.

For example, automated vehicles may also provide new mobility options to millions more Americans. Today there are 49 million Americans over age 65 and 53 million people have some form of disability.

In many places across the country employment or independent living rests on the ability to drive. Automated vehicles could extend that kind of freedom to millions more.
One study suggests that automated vehicles could create new employment opportunities for approximately 2 million people with disabilities. A necessary conversation to continue; the benefits of this transformative technology.
The future is closer than you think.

Update: SAN FRANCISCO — A woman in Tempe, Ariz., died after being hit by a self-driving car operated by Uber, in what appears to be the first known death of a pedestrian struck by an autonomous vehicle on public roads. Report via NYT

Life-Enhancing Opportunities―

More than Living. It's time to Thrive!

'On a mission to end the stress and burnout epidemic;
by offering companies and individuals sustainable, science-based solutions to enhance well-being, performance, and purpose, and create a healthier relationship with technology. Recent science has shown that the pervasive belief that burnout is the price we must pay for success is a delusion.

We know, instead, that when we prioritize our well-being,
our decision-making, creativity, and productivity improve dramatically.
Thrive Global is committed to accelerating the culture shift that allows people to reclaim their lives and move from merely surviving to thriving.'― Thrive Global

Thrive Global

Thrive Global is a behavior change media and technology company offering science-based solutions to lower stress, and enhance well-being and performance.

Core Components
Corporate: Thrive’s corporate program brings the latest strategies and tools around health and well-being to organizations, inspiring and accelerating a thriving corporate culture.

Media: Thrive’s media platform serves as the global hub for the conversation about well-being and performance, with an emphasis on action and featuring original, expert, and community content.

Digital Products: Thrive Global’s suite of science-based digital products for companies and consumers help individuals improve well-being and performance, achieve sustainable behavior change and build a healthier relationship with technology.

The combination of corporate, media and digital products differentiates Thrive Global by reaching people at work, at home, and through the technology they use. Each core component reinforces the others, yielding a multi-pronged approach ending our stress and burnout epidemic.


" Whatever your entry point is, take it. Come for the performance-enhancing benefits, stay for life-enhancing opportunities. "― ARIANNA HUFFINGTON

      “ People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills . . . There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. . . . So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself. ”
 — Marcus Aurelius

Thrive Podcasts
Thrive Global Podcast, in partnership with iHeartMedia, is a bi-weekly series featuring Arianna in conversation with notable leaders, celebrities, athletes, academics, scientists and more about how they thrive. Listen to be inspired, informed and recharged.

The Future of AI Surveillance Cams: They won’t just watch you —

They’ll understand, too.
Until the past few years, just about all cameras — whether smartphones or point-and-shoots or CCTV surveillance — were like eyes disconnected from any intelligence. They captured anything you put in front of them, but they didn’t understand a whit about what they were seeing. Even basic facts about the world eluded them. But all that is changing.

Attribution: TheVerge

There’s a new generation of cameras that understand what they see.
They’re eyes connected to brains, machines that no longer just see what you put in front of them, but can act on it — creating intriguing and sometimes eerie possibilities. At first, these cameras will promise to let us take better pictures, to capture moments that might not have been possible with every dumb camera that came before. The case with CLIPS; it uses 'machine learning' to automatically take snapshots of people, pets and other things it finds interesting. It doesn’t take long to imagine the useful and very creepy possibilities of cameras that can decipher the world. Digital cameras brought about a revolution in photography, but until now, it was only a revolution of scale.
State of the Art Technology: Full Article by Farhad Manjoo/NYT

The Magic of AI. At Your Service
Lighthouse uses its exclusive AI Service, making it so much more than the best home security camera.

Building the Future: In time, some fundamental technologies — like artificial intelligence, computer vision, deep learning and natural language processing, will have even more of a huge impact on Society.

Blog Home

In episode 5, we take a look at how Lighthouse stacks up against one of the leading, traditional home security cameras to answer the question: why 3D sensors?

A better way to stay in the know – because life is more than just a stream of motion alerts.

When The Verge asked IC Realtime about problems of how AI surveillance could be abused, they gave an answer that’s common in the tech industry: these technologies are value neutral, and it’s only how they’re implemented and by whom that makes them either good or bad. “With any new technology there’s a danger it could fall into the wrong hands,” says Sailor. “That’s true of any technology … and I think the pros in this aspect greatly outweigh the cons.”

AI surveillance system built by Chinese firm SenseTime.

Image: SenseTime / YouTube

 Tech Talk
 Artificial intelligence surveillance goes into supercharge mode. Constant surveillance/social surveillance has become the norm. Embrace #FRT, get used to it: Alexa is at your door.