Year: 2018

Ford Motor Co. is making Miami-Dade County its new test bed for self-driving vehicles. The automaker and its partners — Domino's Pizza, ride-hailing company Lyft and delivery company Postmates — are starting pilot programs to see how consumers react to autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. Self-driving startup and Ford partner Argo AI already has a fleet of cars in the area making the highly detailed maps that are necessary for self-driving. Ford also will establish its first-ever autonomous vehicle terminal in Miami, where it will learn how to service and deploy its test fleet. More services will likely be introduced as the partnership goes on, including Chariot, an app-based shuttle service owned by Ford. It's all part of Ford’s effort to find viable business models for fully autonomous vehicles and get…

Authorities in China have launched an intense crackdown on online commentary in the wake of a proposal by the country’s communist party leaders to amend the constitution and scrap a two-term limit on the president’s time in office. A wide range of phrases in Chinese have been banned such as “constitutional amendments,” “constitution rules,” “emigration” and “emperor.” Even the phrase “I disagree” has been blocked from China’s SinaWeibo social media site. Many were caught off guard by the announcement and the response online has been persistent, despite efforts to silence the debate. The announcement comes a little more than a week ahead of meetings for China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress. During the gathering, which wraps up around mid-March, the proposal is widely expected to become China’s new reality. And…

The U.S. Justice Department and Microsoft will face off against each other Tuesday when the Supreme Court hears arguments on whether tech companies’ desire to protect user data is at odds with the government’s interest in pursuing criminals who use the internet. The case, known as United States v. Microsoft Corp., has global implications and could potentially trigger an international backlash, subjecting Americans’ data to seizure by foreign governments, legal and digital rights experts warn. “The case is important for privacy, it’s important for security, it’s important for the future of the internet,” said Jennifer Daskal, a professor at American University Washington College of Law. At issue is whether a U.S.-based email provider can be forced, under the 1986 Stored Communications Act, to turn over communications stored outside the United…

After researching digital currencies for work last year, personal finance writer J.R. Duren hopped on his own crypto-rollercoaster. Duren bought $5 worth of litecoin in November, and eventually purchased $400 more, mostly with his credit card. In just a few months, he experienced a rally, a crash and a recovery, with the adrenaline highs and lows that come along. "At first, I was freaking out," Duren said about watching his portfolio plunge 40 percent at one point. "The precipitous drop came as a shock." The 39-year-old Floridian is part of the new class of crypto-investors who do not necessarily think bitcoin will replace the U.S. dollar, or that blockchain will revolutionize modern finance or that dentists should have their own currency. Dubbed by longtime crypto-investors as "the noobs" — online…

Only days after the spectacular liftoff of what is currently the heaviest space rocket, the privately built Falcon Heavy, NASA announced the next launch will carry a specially built atomic clock. The new device, much smaller and sturdier than earth-bound atomic clocks, will help future astronauts navigate in deep space. VOA’s George Putic reports. ...

Amazon's assault on the retail industry has brought misery to traditional retailers without a strong web presence. Less well noticed is the patchwork of European companies that are turning the e-commerce revolution to their advantage, supplying online giants with everything from forklift trucks and storage space to cardboard boxes and automated warehouses. Mainly bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Debenhams, H&M, and Marks & Spencer have faced a torrid few years as stretched consumers increasingly look online for bargains. Online retail sales are growing at double-digit percentage rates in every western European country, according to consultancy the Centre for Retail Research. In Britain, a fifth of transactions are now conducted online, a five-fold increase over the last decade. The world's dominant online retailer Amazon, whose shares have soared 73 percent in the last…

More than 40,000 middle-school-aged engineering students from around the world recently competed to design the city of the future. The competition started in the fall of 2017 and culminated in a grand-prize ceremony this week in Washington. Arash Arabasadi has more. ...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday updated guidance to public companies on how and when they should disclose cybersecurity risks and breaches, including potential weaknesses that have not yet been targeted by hackers. The guidance also said company executives must not trade in a firm's securities while possessing nonpublic information on cybersecurity attacks. The SEC encouraged companies to consider adopting specific policies restricting executive trading in shares while a hack is being investigated and before it is disclosed. The SEC, in unanimously approving the additional guidance, said it would promote "clearer and more robust disclosure" by companies facing cybersecurity issues, according to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, a Republican. Democrats on the commission reluctantly supported the guidance, describing it as a paltry step taken in the wake of a…

The latest variation of an Uber ride will require a short walk. In eight U.S. cities, the ride-hailing company is rolling out a service called "Express Pool," which links riders in the same area who want to travel to similar destinations. Once linked, riders would need to walk a couple of blocks to be picked up at a common location. They also would be dropped off at a site that would be a short walk from their final destinations. Depending on time of day and metro area, Express Pool could cost up to 75 percent less than a regular Uber ride and up to half the cost of Uber's current shared-ride service called Pool, said Ethan Stock, the company's product director for shared rides. Pool, which will remain in use,…