Facebook/Insta to offers subscription tier in Europe, EV engages autopilot without warning
Facebook and Instagram are launching subscriptions in most of Europe that will remove adverts from the platforms. People using the Meta-owned platforms will be able to pay €9.99 (£8.72) per month for an ad-free experience. It will not be available in the UK. In January, Meta was fined €390m for breaking EU data rules around ads. The regulator said at the time the firm could not “force consent” by saying consumers must accept how their data is used or leave the platforms. The subscription tier will be exclusive to people in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland from November. BBC
Toyota intends to offer its manual transmission for electric cars as an option on its next-generation of EVs to ensure they’re not a “commodity”, and remain as fun and involving to drive as internal-combustion-engined cars. The system, which has been in development for three years, will be a factory option for buyers of models created on the new modular architecture being developed for launch in 2026. Autocar
An electric car owner has claimed her vehicle’s autopilot engaged without warning and accelerated to 65mph, zigzagged across the road and caused a serious crash, the Guardian can reveal. The alleged incident involved a doctor, Ravpreet Kaur, who was travelling in Buckinghamshire with her son in the family’s £80,000 BMW iX. Her husband said they were lucky to escape unhurt. The manufacturer has strongly disputed the claims, saying that an investigation had found nothing wrong with the car. The Guardian
Apple is hosting an online streaming event for the public and press on Monday, October 30, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The company is expected to announce new Macs, and potentially other products during the event, dubbed “Scary Fast.” Holding an event at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time is an unusually late time for Apple, and for most regions and territories east of London it will actually take place on the morning of Tuesday, October 31 — or Halloween for many. With the Apple Events website, you can watch the event live on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, PC, or any other device with a web browser. Mac Rumours
Britain should build a rival to ChatGPT for the UK’s security services, the chief executive of a key government artificial intelligence (AI) supplier has urged. Marc Warner, whose company Faculty has been hired by officials to conduct research ahead of the AI Safety Summit, said such a system would be a “crucial capability for national security and defence”. Government advisers have been debating whether Britain should develop a sovereign capability to rival that of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Telegraph
It may come as a shock to many gamers, but Call Of Duty is 20 years old. It’s a franchise that has entertained hundreds of millions of players, and generated billions of dollars for its developers and publishers. Since it first appeared as a PC game in 2003, it’s been called many things – not all of them complimentary. But there’s no doubt that gamers around the world love the franchise which transports the player from the Second World War to the future, via real and imaginary conflicts. Sky News
