Google’s AI is on the hook as self-driving car’s driver, says the Feds

You might wanna buckle yourself in for this one: The artificial intelligence behind Google’s self-driving car could be considered a car’s driver, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Google asked the federal organization for its interpretation of a handful of safety standards, and the NHTSA said it would consider the driver of one of Google’s autonomous cars to be the self-driving system and, more specifically, not any of its occupants. The rationale is this: Since these self-driving cars won’t have steering wheels or brake pedals – for fear that occupants might want to override the system, then they can’t be held accountable.

So you can’t be at fault for a wreck if you ride in an autonomous car. Interesting. We wonder what the insurance companies make of all of this. Does Flo have a discount for that?

If you’re a proud Sonos owner (because that’s really the only kind of Sonos speaker owner there is) then congratulations: Your system just got Apple Music.

Sonos released Apple Music as a beta program back in December, but as of today, the launch is being pushed out for all Sonos speaker system owners. This will help Apple Music help against Spotify, and of course this makes Sonos even more formidable than before. Sonos really is nailing the wireless music thing right now. You can check our video of the awesome Sonos Play:5 speaker here.

Before our final story, just wanted to point out this video of a bald Eagle that catches a fish so big it can’t fly off with it, so it swims across a lake. An Eagle swimming, people. Check it out. It’s pretty awesome. And … ‘Merica.

Finally, in a story that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but somehow still does: The Feds are warning that the ‘Internet of Things’ — all these connected appliances and lightbulbs and stuff — are the new frontier for spying. Not for the federal government, though. Oh no. They just mean the bad guys.

U.S. Intelligence chief James Clapper recently told the Senate Armed Services committee, “intelligence services might use the IoT for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and target for recruitment, or to gain access to users credentials.” In other words, Al Qaeda might try to get to you through your smart coffee maker.

Sadly, this is a real concern because IoT devices have terrible security, and anything with a microphone or camera is fair game to peeking inside your home. It’s already happened with Smart TVs, and now your blender is next, apparently.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/20phD8X
Caleb Denison