The autonomous vehicle took a small step toward viability last week as General Motors announced that it used mass production techniques to finish a batch of 130 Chevy Bolt EVs containing self-driving technology.

The mass production technique involved the addition of cameras, Lidar and other sensors in an automated assembly plant in Orion Township, MI. It may or may not be a first for an autonomous car, but either way, industry observers expect the batch of Bolts to be followed by many more such efforts, from GM and its competitors. “This is what we’re going to be seeing during the next few years – finished vehicles coming off assembly lines with all the automated driving hardware built in already,” Sam Abuelsamid, research analyst for Navigant Research , told Design News .

The 130 new Bolts will join 50 self-driving Bolts released last year to such locales as San Francisco, metro-Detroit and Scottsdale, AZ. Industry experts also expect GM to produce as many as 1,000 more autonomous Bolts later this year or early next. Similarly, Waymo LLC (formerly known as the Google self-driving car project) said in April that it is adding 500 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to its fleets.

“We’re going to be seeing the same kinds of numbers – from dozens to hundreds to thousands over the next few years,” Abuelsamid said.

The introductions are part of a grand industry plan to roll out vehicles in the next few years that can pilot themselves without the need for on-board “safety drivers.” Today, all autonomous vehicles deployed in various regions of the country still have drivers on board who monitor the vehicle’s ability to handle given situations.

Most automakers plan to enable their vehicles to reach SAE Level 4 capability in the next five years or so. SAE Level 4 calls for full automation, which means a driver could doze off or even leave the front seat, but only in limited domains. Drivers would have to be able to intervene in certain situations, such heavy snowfall or rain, as specified by the manufacturer.

Last year, Ford Motor Co. stated that it plans to remove the driver controls from some of its cars by 2021. “That means there’s going to be no steering wheel,” former Ford CEO Mark Fields said last August. There’s not going to be a brake pedal and, of course, a driver is not going to be required.”

Abuelsamid predicted this week that other manufacturers may reach the “no controls” point before Ford. “Going forward, as we get to 2019 and 2020, we’re going to see some of the first vehicles built without driver controls,” he told us. Full Level 5 automation – in which the autonomous car can operate in any situation – may not come until 2030, however.

Abuelsamid said the announcements are a reflection of the auto industry’s growing confidence in self-driving technology. But he added that the technology’s ultimate success will depend on

The VR180 format, which displays what’s in front of the user only, delivers good video quality both on desktop PCs and mobile devices.

While VR180 videos appear in 2D on desktops and mobile devices, they appear in 3D VR when viewed with Cardboard, Google’s Daydream headset or Sony’s PlayStation VR headset.

Creators “don’t have to choose between making a 360 video and/or providing new content for their subscribers,” said Google spokesperson Liz Markman.

“It’s easy for creators to start producing VR videos since they won’t have to change up their filming style or production techniques,” she told TechNewsWorld. “There’s no need to think about what’s behind the camera.”

YouTube supports VR180, so it “works anywhere YouTube is,” Markman pointed out. VR180 also supports live-streaming videos.

Video creators can set up and film videos just like they would with any other camera. They can use their existing equipment, or eligible creators can apply to borrow a VR180-enabled camera from a YouTube Space in certain cities, including London, Paris and New York.

They soon will be able to edit the videos using familiar tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro.

Content creation issues aside, “VR headsets are still very intrusive and cumbersome,” observed Trip Chowdhry, managing director for equity research at Global Equities Research.

“The VR industry is still not ready to take off,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Just 39 light-years away, seven planets, all roughly the size of Earth, whirl around a dim red star dubbed TRAPPIST-1, astronomers announced in February (SN: 3/18/17, p. 6). Three are potentially habitable. In April, a team reported the discovery of another world snuggled up to a red sun, LHS 1140b, described by researchers at the European Southern Observatory as perhaps the best candidate in the search for signs of life. And last August, astronomers revealed that not only does a small planet named Proxima b orbit the star closest to the sun, a red neighbor, but it too could support life (SN: 9/17/16, p. 6).

All of these worlds orbit faint ruddy stars known as M dwarfs, the most common type of star in the galaxy. Of the roughly 200 planets that have been spied around M dwarfs, dozens are in the coveted habitable zone. It’s this region around a star where a planet could have temperatures that support liquid water, widely considered an essential ingredient for life.

But M dwarfs are quite different from the sun, and their planets might be rough places to eke out a living — “the low-rent district of the galaxy,” says Victoria Meadows, an astrophysicist at the University of Washington in Seattle. Harsh flares, bright beginnings and a tight gravitational grip on the innermost planets could be disastrous for any liquid water that’s available.

Many more planets are expected to be found in habitable zones around M dwarfs. So researchers want to get a better handle on what these planets are up against. New observations and computer simulations reveal that, while it’s difficult for M dwarf planets to hold on to substantial amounts of water, not all hope is lost.

“There are always ways around these things,” says astrophysicist Rory Barnes, also at the University of Washington. M dwarfs and their planet families are plentiful, and there are many conditions in which these worlds can grow and evolve. What’s becoming clear is that any habitable locales around these stars will probably be quite different from Earth.

Most strategies for sticking don’t work in space. Chemical adhesives can’t withstand the wide range of temperatures, and suction doesn’t work in a vacuum.

Adhesives inspired by gecko feet — which use van der Waals forces to cling without feeling sticky (SN Online: 11/18/14) — could fit the bill, says Mark Cutkosky of Stanford University, whose team has been designing such stickers for more than a decade. Now his team has built robotic gripper “hands” that can grapple objects many times their size without pushing them away, the researchers report June 28 in Science Robotics.

The team first tested the grippers in the Robo-Dome, a giant air hockey table at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where two 370-kilogram robots gently pushed each other around using a small square of gecko gripper.

Then last summer, Aaron Parness and Christine Fuller, of the Jet Propulsion Lab, and Hao Jiang of Stanford took the full gripper hand, which includes several patches of gripping material in a specific arrangement, on a microgravity flight in NASA’s Weightless Wonder aircraft. The team used the hand to grab and release a cube, cylinder and beach ball, which represented satellites, spent rockets or fuel tanks, and pressure vessels.

Gripper hands could be used to repair or move dead satellites, or help miniature satellites called CubeSats stick to larger spacecraft like barnacles, Parness says.

What is happening?

It was a ceremony tinged with sadness and nostalgia, torrential rain adding to the gloom for the British delegation. And then on July 1, 1997, Prince Charles and Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, sailed away from the city on the royal yacht Britannia, ending more than 150 years of British rule in the territory and – some say – bringing down the curtain on the British Empire

It was a highly symbolic night for Britain that The Prince of Wales painfully endured (he later labeled the Chinese delegation “appalling old waxworks”), while Mr Patten struggled with his emotions.

But in China, rain symbolises good fortune, and the return of Hong Kong is remembered as a key moment in the country’s emergence as an Asian powerhouse.

Beijing is to mark the 20…

On Thursday Labour plans to table an amendment criticising what it says is the absence of measures to “reverse falling living standards” such as action on energy bills and wages.
And it will call on MPs from all sides to back a “jobs first” Brexit that delivers the “exact same benefits” of the European single market and customs union.
Like Mrs May, Labour backs leaving the EU single market but the party hopes this formula will satisfy Labour MPs who want continued single market membership as well as attracting support from Tories opposed to a “hard Brexit”.
Mr Corbyn, whose party made gains but still finished 55 seats behind the Conservatives in the election, said: “Theresa May does not have a mandate for continued cuts to our schools, hospitals, police and other vital public services or for a race-to-the-bottom Brexit.
“We invite MPs from across the House of Commons to take on board the strength of public opinion and desire for change in our country and vote for our amendment to bring forward policies to invest and improve public services, and put money in the pockets of the many not the few.”

Votes on the Queen’s Speech establish whether a government commands the confidence of the House of Commons. If the Conservatives were to lose them, it could trigger another general election.
Mrs May fell eight seats short of an absolute majority at the general election, meaning she is reliant on the support of others to govern and get legislation through the House of Commons.
With the backing of the DUP’s 10 MPs – all of whom backed the Tories in Wednesday’s pay vote – the prime minister has a working majority of 13, but is facing calls to reach out to other parties on Brexit and other issues.
‘Future leader’
Several ministers have suggested they will listen to the concerns of MPs about the impact of continued austerity on the morale and recruitment of NHS workers in particular.
Downing Street and a number of cabinet ministers, including Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, suggested the pay cap is now under review, saying they would await the recommendations of the professional pay review bodies in the autumn before deciding on future pay rises.
Mrs May, who is due to attend a meeting of fellow world leaders ahead of next week’s G20 summit, says the “confidence and supply” arrangement with the DUP brings stability to the government as Brexit talks unfold.
But former education secretary Nicky Morgan has cast doubt on her long-term future, telling the BBC’s Newsnight that the party could consider the question of succession as early as October 2018.
“Once that shape of Brexit is concluded, once those deals are very much on the table, the Conservative party must not miss the opportunity at that stage to think about who we want to be our future leader,” she said.

Brook sustained a broken eye socket while losing his IBF welterweight title in an 11th-round stoppage defeat to Errol Spence Jr at Bramall Lane in May and has since had surgery.

Hearn has confirmed that the operation was a successful one and the promoter believes that the Sheffield star will likely return to the ring in December, probably at the super-welterweight limit.

Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports, Hearn said: “Brook has just had an operation and it went very well, it was much simpler than the previous one he had on the other eye.

“He has had two bad injuries and to fracture both eye sockets in two consecutive fights is very unusual and very unlucky.

“But he hasn’t had too many hard fights and I still believe that he is one of the best fighters in world boxing. If he moves up to 154lbs, he will have a lot more in the tank and more energy to go on and achieve – he still has that fire inside him.

“I think December is realistic for him to be back and I want to bring him back at super-welterweight in a fight in Sheffield.”

Puerto Rican star Cotto is one standout name in the super-welterweight division should Brook move up and Hearn reveals that the four-weight world champion is certainly a target for the future.

“Brook definitely still has a future in the game and is very hungry following the Spence loss,” said Hearn.

“I think we will probably see his return in Sheffield in December and then we will target a mega fight in 2018, whether that is Miguel Cotto or alike.”

On Wednesday, the Fed said those lenders, including household names like JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, had passed the second, tougher part of its annual stress test. The results showed that many have not only built up adequate capital buffers, but improved risk management procedures as well.

One bank, Capital One Financial Corp, must resubmit its scheme by year-end, though the Fed is still allowing it to go forward with its capital plan in the meantime.

Fed Governor Jerome Powell, who is acting as regulatory lead for the U.S. central bank, said the process “has motivated all of the largest banks to achieve healthy capital levels and most to substantially improve their capital planning processes.”

Altogether, banks that went through the tests will be able to pay out 100 percent of their projected net income over the next four quarters, compared with 65 percent after last year’s results, a senior Fed official said. It would be the first time since the 2008 financial crisis that banks return at least as much money to shareholders as they produce in annual profit.

The verdict marks a significant victory for the banking industry, which has worked for years to regain its stature. The green light could also serve as a watershed moment for Wall Street, which is eager to get a lighter regulatory touch from policymakers in Washington.

After the Fed’s announcement, banks began to release details on how they plan to use their extra capital. Apart from Capital One, bank stocks rose in after-hours trading.

Citigroup Inc won a particularly notable victory, gaining permission to return nearly $19 billion to shareholders, or about 125 percent of projected earnings over the next four quarters – a big bump from last year, and more than analysts had expected.

Capital One must resubmit plans because it did not appropriately account for risks in “one of its most material businesses,” the Fed said. Concerns centered around internal controls and whether senior management and the bank’s board of directors would be informed about problems in a timely and appropriate way, the Fed official said.

The Fed did not identify which business was ill-prepared. Capital One’s most significant business is credit card lending. It has also built up a presence in auto lending. Both areas have been flagged by bankers and analysts as showing signs of weakness lately.

Capital One has until year-end to deliver an improved submission. In the interim, the bank can go ahead with its plan to repurchase up to $1.85 billion worth of stock, but the Fed can still object if the problems are not fixed.

Capital One had already reduced its capital request after the first set of stress-test results was released last week.

American Express Co had also resubmitted a plan with reduced requests, which was approved.

Other big banks, including Wells Fargo & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, also cleared the Fed’s bar, and most issued press releases detailing big increases in shareholder payouts.

In a twist, Bank of America’s planned dividend hike could lead Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc to convert a large preferred stake into common stock, which would turn it into the bank’s largest shareholder.

RELATED COVERAGE

FACT BOX Fed gives green signal to capital plans of large U.S. banks
This year was the first time all banks undergoing stress tests passed, although it was also the first time most were excluded from the “qualitative” component that Capital One failed. Only 13 of the 34 lenders were subject to that part, which bankers have criticized as being too opaque and subjective.

In response to those complaints, the Fed has now started to give banks more specific details on why they fail or where they need to improve, even if they sail through the tests.

To offer clarity to the public, the Fed also cited examples of where unnamed banks had stumbled in the past.

For instance, one lender failed the qualitative component in a prior year because senior management had told the board of directors and the Fed that a problem related to capital planning had been solved when it had not. Another management team had relied too heavily on experiences during the financial crisis, even though the bank’s business and risk profile had changed dramatically since then.

Although all the banks passed, some came close to missing a key financial hurdle known as the supplementary leverage ratio in the toughest part of the exam. That metric fell to as low as 3.1 percent at Goldman Sachs, just above the required minimum of 3 percent. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and State Street Corp also reported ratios below 4 percent.

The ratio’s requirements are not fully phased in, but the minimum is slated to move even higher over time. Wall Street has slammed the capital rule as overly burdensome, and it is being watched closely for change as part of the broader deregulation push in Washington.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and David Henry in New York; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra; editing by Leslie Adler and Phil Berlowitz)

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