Tag Archives: safety

Both the Honda and Chrysler ended up earning the Top Safety Pick accolade.

Martin Tripp, the former Tesla employee who was fired from Tesla and then  sued by the company, has tweeted a number of photos that allegedly show damaged batteries and flawed practices at Tesla’s battery factory, CNBC first reported . In an attempt to corroborate some of his claims, Tripp has posted photos of vehicle identification numbers that he says were delivered with faulty, punctured battery cells. “As we’ve said before, these claims are false and Mr. Tripp does not even have personal knowledge about the safety claims that he is making,” a Tesla spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. “No punctured cells have ever been used in any Model 3 vehicles in any way, and all VINs that have been identified have safe batteries. Notably, there have been zero battery safety issues in any Model 3.” Here's what many of your M3 modules look like before and after, because they are generally reworked! Aren't they beautiful? pic.twitter.com/QyoM0K2ozf — Martin Tripp (@trippedover) August 15, 2018 Are any of these VIN's YOUR car? If so, you have a module(s) that IS punctured/dented/damaged. #TSLA #TSLAQ @elonmusk (Subsidy Fraud-Boy) pic.twitter.com/pOZWDeeXcO — Martin Tripp (@trippedover) August 15, 2018 In one tweet, Tripp shows what he alleges is proof that Tesla stores waste and scraps in open parking lots and trucks at the Gigafactory, instead of properly storing them in temperature-controlled warehouses. Hmmm.. #TSLA commented several times that all their scrap/waste is being stored in climate controlled warehouses…could this be true?! Let these pics speak for themselves: HUNDREDS of trailers at the new parking lot at GF1… pic.twitter.com/4Agz80j5Ow — Martin Tripp (@trippedover) August 15, 2018 Tesla sued Tripp in June for $1 million alleging he leaked information with the intent to sabotage Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk. Tripp then filed a formal whistleblower tip to the U.S

In a speech before the Department of Defense at the Pentagon today, Vice President Mike Pence outlined the broad contours of the new Space Force that the Trump administration wants to create as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. Emphasizing the need to both further militarize and privatize space as a new war-fighting domain, Pence stressed that the new branch of the military is targeted for a 2020 implementation date. The administration is pushing for $8 billion in new space spending. “While other nations increasingly possess the capability to operate in space, not all of them share our commitment to freedom, private property and the rule of law,” said Pence. “As we continue to carry American leadership in space, so also will we carry America’s commitment to freedom into this new frontier.” Pence cited threats from North Korea, Russia, China and Iran to the safety of the U.S. space program. Newer threats include the Chinese government’s 2007 launch of a satellite-destroying missile and the development of hypersonic missiles that can evade U.S. missile defense capabilities. The Chinese government has set up a separate division within its own military to address space as a war-fighting domain, Pence said. “Our adversaries have transformed space into a war-fighting domain already.” “It is not enough to have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” Pence said quoting the president. “What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial.” To advance its goals of creating the new Space Force, the Trump administration had commissioned the Department of Defense to issue a report on the necessary steps to create the new military branch

It's important for all of us to stay safe and act responsibly when we're online, and that holds doubly true for young people. To help educators teach kids how to be more mindful when they use the internet, Facebook has released a batch of resources i...

Facebook this morning announced the launch of a new set of educational resources focused on helping young people think critically and behave thoughtfully online. The Digital Literacy Library , as the new site is being called, is aimed at educators of children aged 11 to 18, and address topics like privacy, reputation, identity exploration, security, safety, wellbeing and more. There are 830 million young people online , the company notes, which is why digital literacy is necessary. We’ve seen the results what can happen when people are lacking in digital literacy – they’re susceptible to believing hoaxes, propaganda and fake news is true; they risk their personal data by using insecure apps; they become addicted to social media and its feedback loop of likes; they bully and/or are bullied; and they don’t take steps to protect their online reputation which can have real-world consequences, to name a few things. However, many teachers today lack the educational resources that would allow them to teach a digital literacy program in their classroom, or in other less formal environments. Facebook says the lesson plans in the new library were drawn from the Youth and Media team at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where they were released under a  Creative Commons license . In other words, the company itself did not design the lessons, it’s only making them more broadly available by placing them on Facebook where they can be more easily discovered and used. The lessons themselves are based on over 10 years of academic research from the Youth and Media team, who also took care to reflect the voices of young people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, geographies, and educational levels, Facebook says. Initially, the 18 lessons are launching in English, but they’ll be soon available in 45 additional languages. For educators, the lessons are ready-to-use as free downloads, and state how long each lesson will take. Outside the classroom, parents could use them to teach children at home, or they could be used in after-school programs. Teachers can also modify the lessons’ content to meet their own needs, if they choose

The Trump administration is planning a proposal that would seize control away from California regulators and prevent them from enforcing the state’s own emissions standards. The planned proposal, revealed in a report by Bloomberg , aims to revise standards that are among the strictest in the country. The revision would also impact California’s mandate on electric vehicle sales in the state. California is the only state allowed to regulate tailpipe emissions under the federal Clean Air Act thanks to a waiver it received in 2009 from the Environmental Protection Agency. Other states can follow the federal regulation or the stricter standards set by the California Air Resources Board, but they can’t set their own. The EPA and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are reportedly backing the proposal, each agency providing its own remedy to strip California of its authority. The EPA is expected to propose revoking the Clean Air Act waiver given to California. NHTSA is planning to argue that a 1975 law that enacted the first federal fuel efficiency standards prohibits the state from regulating tailpipe emissions. California is hardly going to roll over on this proposal. The state is in the midst of hitting aggressive goals as part of a plan approved last year to cut emissions in the state by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. The proposal — presuming it sees the light of day — will be the first shot in what is expected to be a long battle in the U.S.

There’s a special place in Hell for people who think it’s funny to rape a 7-year-old girl’s avatar in an online virtual world designed for children. Yes, that happened . Roblox, a hugely popular online game for kids, was hacked by an individual who subverted the game’s protection systems in order to have customized animations appear. This allowed two male avatars to gang rape a young girl’s avatar on a playground in one of the Roblox games. The company has now issued an apology to the victim and its community, and says it has determined how the hacker was able to infiltrate its system so it can prevent future incidents. The mother of the child, whose avatar was the victim of the in-game sexual assault, was nearby when the incident took place. She says her child showed her what was happening on the screen and she took the device away, fortunately shielding her daughter from seeing most of the activity. The mother then captured screenshots of the event in order to warn others. She described the incident in a public Facebook post that read, in part: At first, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My sweet and innocent daughter’s avatar was being VIOLENTLY GANG-RAPED ON A PLAYGROUND by two males. A female observer approached them and proceeded to jump on her body at the end of the act. Then the 3 characters ran away, leaving my daughter’s avatar laying on her face in the middle of the playground

Ubergizmo Self-Driving Car Completes Iconic Goodwood Hill Climb Ubergizmo The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed features drivers taking on the iconic Goodwood hill climb. They have to navigate narrow passages lined with hay and brick to complete the gradual 300-foot ascent. It requires a certain amount of skill on part of ... and more »

Background checks have been a problem for ride sharing companies for quite some time. Colorado fined Uber $8.9 million for hiring drivers with criminal records, while more than 8,000 Lyft and Uber drivers failed a Massachusetts background check last...

Years ago – six years ago, to be exact – a toy called Buckyballs came under attack by government officials intent on destroying fun. The Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the toys, which we noted were tiny rare earth magnets that were good for play but bad for a snack , because a few overzealous children swallowed one or two and found themselves in gastrointestinal distress. The lawsuit against ZenMagnets , creators of Buckyballs, began as a “recall prior to record of injury,” something unprecedented in this space. That meant the company had to stop selling its magnets before anyone was actually injured, an odd position for a small company to be in. Now, after six years of battle, Buckyballs are back. The company is now able to sell its biggest set, the Mandala and notes that the sets are not toys. They could cause intestinal pinching, writes the ZenMagnets team, and they recommend not leaving them around animals or small children. However, these odd and wonderful little toys are finally available for purchase. The kit now even comes inside a lockable box to ensure little hands can’t accidentally grab and eat them. “We remain willing to work with the CPSC to develop the magnet safety standards for which we’ve already petitioned, and which will be more effective and reasonable than the all-ages, nationwide ban we succeeded in vacating in the Tenth Circuit,” wrote founder Shihan Qu. “As we’ve already been doing, Zen Magnets looks forward to providing not just the highest quality magnet spheres on the market, but also the safest in terms of sales methods and warnings. Now that the war on magnets is over, hopefully we can all focus towards the war on magnet misuse.” “Magnets must be respected, but need not be feared,” he said. Truer words – besides these – were never spoken.

Welcome back to CTRL+T, the TechCrunch podcast that connects the tech to the human. This week we talked about the beta release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system and some of the issues we have with the Memoji feature. We also discussed the fact that Microsoft improved its facial recognition tech , making it easier to identify darker skin tones. Oh great. Finally, Karla Monterroso of Code2040 joined us in the studio to drop some pretty hard truths about diversity in tech. The CEO of Code2040, which aims to increase the representation of black and brown people in the industry, says that the tech workforce is segregated. In 2018. Think about that. And that often the burden to effect change from within a company is placed on those two or three — or one or two — black and Latinx folks. “Managers are asking the brown people to be the tech Ruby Bridges and to come in and be full-throated in their opinions, but you are not setting up the safety mechanisms for those people to be able to do that safely,” Monterroso says. She added that there’s a lot of data that says people of color drop out in the second or third years of their tech careers because they’re often stepping into a hostile environment. “You gotta be in this conversation thinking about risk and power,” Monterroso told us.

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Brian Brackeen Contributor Share on Twitter Brian Brackeen is the chief executive officer of the facial recognition software developer Kairos Recent news of Amazon’s engagement with law enforcement to provide facial recognition surveillance (branded ‘Rekognition’), along with the almost unbelievable news of China’s use of the technology means that the technology industry needs to address the darker, more offensive side of some of its more spectacular advancements. Facial recognition technologies, used in the identification of suspects, negatively affects people of color — to deny this fact would be a lie. And clearly, facial recognition-powered government surveillance is an extraordinary invasion of the privacy of all citizens, and, a slippery slope to losing control of our identities, altogether. There’s really no ‘nice’ way to acknowledge these things. I’ve been pretty clear about the potential dangers associated with current racial biases in face recognition , and open in my opposition to the use of the technology in law enforcement. As the Black chief executive of a software company developing facial recognition services, I have a personal connection to the technology both culturally, and socially. Having the privilege of a comprehensive understanding of how the software works gives me a unique perspective which has shaped my positions about its uses. As a result, I (and my company) have come to believe that the use of commercial facial recognition in law enforcement or in government surveillance of any kind is wrong — and that it opens the door for gross misconduct by the morally corrupt. To be truly effective, the algorithms powering facial recognition software require a massive amount of information. The more images of people of color it sees, the more likely it is to properly identify them. The problem is, existing software has not been exposed to enough images of people of color to be confidently relied upon to identify them. And misidentification could lead to wrongful conviction, or far worse

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : Amazon's FreeTime Unlimited, a $2.99/month subscription service of curated content for kids, launches on iOS App Store   —  Five and half years after it launched, one of the more popular apps for kids' reading and entertainment has finally arrived on the iOS.