Cruise ‘driverless’ taxis require human help, Legend of Zelda to become movie
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt confirms reports that his AI robo-car maker’s now-paused driverless taxis need regular human intervention to help them make sense of the road, yet he is downplaying the severity. Vogt made his statement not on any official channel, but in a Hacker News thread about a New York Times story in which unnamed Cruise employees claimed the company’s robotaxis required human help “every 2.5 to five miles,” and had a support staff so large there were 1.5 workers per Cruise vehicle. The Register
The cost of charging an electric car is falling, but only for those who can charge their car at home, Money Mail has found. Charging at home can cost as little as 2p per mile thanks to new, lower electric car specific tariffs and falling domestic electricity prices. But electric car owners who are forced to use public charging points face costs of up to 24p per mile — 12 times more expensive than the cheapest methods. Electric car owners who can charge at home will now pay less to fill up their car than if they owned petrol or diesel. However, for those who use public chargers, a 200-mile journey could cost £10 more in an electric car than a petrol one. ThisIsMoney
Google and some of Europe’s largest telecoms operators have called on Brussels to designate iMessage as a “core” service that would require Apple to make the chat app fully compatible with rivals. The European Commission, the European Union’s (EU) executive body, is investigating whether iMessage should be on a list of services that must comply with the new Digital Markets Act, and so be able to connect seamlessly with competitors such as WhatsApp. Irish Times
OpenAI has unveiled a major new update for its popular AI chatbot, allowing anyone to create their own personalised version of ChatGPT. The purpose-built artificial intelligence is “designed for flexibility”, according to the company, allowing people to create anything from an AI-powered holiday planner, to a voice-controlled DJ. “Eventually you’ll just ask the computer for what you need, and it’ll do all of these tasks for you,” OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said during a keynote speech at the firm’s first developer conference in San Francisco on Monday. Independent
Nintendo and Sony Pictures are making a live-action film of the beloved video game series The Legend of Zelda. Renowned video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad of the Spider-Man trilogy will co-produce, with The Maze Runner’s Wes Ball directing. There is no word yet on who will make up the cast, or the plot of the film. In a post on Nintendo’s Japanese account on X, Mr Miyamoto revealed that he has been working on the film with Arad for some time. BBC
More than 150,000 adults and children with type 1 diabetes in England and Wales are to be offered an artificial pancreas on the NHS, which experts are hailing as a “gamechanger” that will “save lives and heartbreak”. The groundbreaking device, also called a hybrid closed-loop system, uses a hi-tech algorithm to determine the amount of insulin that should be administered and reads blood sugar levels to keep them steady. A world-first trial on the NHS showed it was more effective at managing diabetes than current devices and required far less input from patients. The Guardian
