When Liu Yang started off his existing work, he found it tough to go back to driving his individual vehicle: “I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would assume the car or truck to brake by alone,” claims the 33-year-outdated Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver.
Robotaxi driver is an profession that only exists in our time, the result of an evolving technology that’s sophisticated ample to get rid of a driver—most of the time, in managed environments— but not fantastic ample to influence authorities that they can do absent with human intervention entirely.
Liu is a single of the hundreds of basic safety operators used by Baidu, “driving” five times a 7 days in Shougang Park. But inspite of obtaining only labored for the firm for 19 months, he presently has to consider about his subsequent occupation shift, as his job will possible be eliminated inside a couple years. Go through the total tale.
—Zeyi Yang
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The need to-reads
I have combed the online to come across you today’s most enjoyable/critical/scary/fascinating stories about technological know-how.
1 ByteDance’s US information app reportedly pushed pro-China messaging
Previous employees say they were also instructed to censor criticism of Beijing. (Buzzfeed)
+ Smartphone income in China are at their most affordable degree for a 10 years. (The Sign-up)
2Mark Zuckerberg is likely into overdrive
In purchase to make the metaverse work, he desires his employees to operate even harder. (NYT $)
+ He’s ideal to be worried—Meta is possible to report its to start with-ever revenue drop now. (Reuters)
+ Fb workers hoping for more days off can feel yet again. (The Verge)
+ Meta is boosting the selling prices of its Quest 2 VR headset, way too. (ZDNet)
+ A metaverse stability update is bothersome its early buyers. (Motherboard)
3 An AI convincingly masqueraded as a philosopher
Which could be very risky in the mistaken arms. (Motherboard)
+ The new variation of GPT-3 is a great deal greater behaved (and need to be significantly less toxic). (MIT Technology Evaluate)
4 How Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing algorithm experiment backfired
Charging Bruce Springsteen admirers up to $5,000 for every ticket was not a great shift. (Wide range $)
+ How pricing algorithms discover to collude. (MIT Know-how Review)
5 The new psychedelic drug renaissance is listed here
But critics are wary it is fueling psychedelic capitalism. (Wired $)
+ What do psychedelic drugs do to our brains? AI could enable us obtain out. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Russia claims it’ll withdraw from the ISS partnership in 2024
NASA says it has not been formally instructed, even though. (The Verge)
+ Spacetime warped all over the Sunlight could keep the important to discovering alien lifetime. (Motherboard)
7 New York’s e-bikes keep catching fire
Lithium-ion batteries from China seem to be the offender. (Motherboard)
+ How bike parking pods could make US towns much better for cyclists. (MIT Technologies Overview)
8 Floating plastic in the ocean is harboring unpleasant micro organism 🦠
Urinary tract, pores and skin and abdomen bacterial infections are just some of the a lot less-than-pleasurable ailments they could lead to. (Hakai Magazine)
+ A kidney-stone feeding on pseudo-parasite seems to have specified up parasitism. (The Atlantic $)
9 Undersea online cables could shortly detect tsunamis 🌊
And track them in genuine time to support swerve long term disasters. (New Yorker $)
10 Turns out that dead spiders make great robots
Specifically hydraulic grippers. (Spectrum IEEE)
+ This robotic taught alone to walk entirely on its individual. (MIT Engineering Critique)
