This week’s headline story: Deliveries by Robot
While Amazon and Google are working hard on unmanned aircraft to make deliveries, Mercedes-Benz is developing “Robovan,” a vehicle designed to transport eight delivery robots from Starship Technologies and release them onto sidewalks to make deliveries. “By leaving the door-to-door part to delivery robots the van drivers’ productivity will significantly rise while reducing congestion on the streets and CO2 emissions,” said Allan Martinson, Starship’s chief operating officer. Left unsaid was that fewer van drivers will be needed for a given volume of business. The typical volume of deliveries is 180 packages per nine-hour shift, according to Martinson. The Robovan and its robots will more than double that, to 400 packages, he said.
Mercedes ‘Mothership’ Will Transport Robot Workers To Deliver Packages [newsfactor]
other Technology Headlines…
- FAA Warns Airline Passengers Not To Use Samsung Smartphone [newsfactor]
Samsung has ordered a global recall of Galaxy Note 7 phones after its investigation of explosion reports found the rechargeable lithium batteries were at fault. In one case, a family in St. Petersburg, Florida, reported a Galaxy Note 7 phone left charging in their Jeep caught fire, destroying the vehicle. U.S. aviation safety officials took the extraordinary step of warning airline passengers not to turn on or charge a new-model Samsung smartphone during flights following the numerous reports of the devices catching fire.
in Information Security News…
- Authorities Nab Two Teens Connected to Massive DDoS-for-Hire Scheme [newsfactor]
Alerted by the FBI, Israeli authorities have arrested two Israeli teens in connection with an online attack-for-hire service. In operation since 2012, the vDOS, “booter” service has earned more than $600,000 over the past two years by helping customers coordinate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on Web sites around the world
and in Tech Industry News…
- Apple Unveils iPhone 7, New Apple Watch Series and More [NewsFactor]
Apple iOS 10 with New Features Rolls Out September 13 [newsfactor]
Small Tweaks Are the Big Takeaways from the iPhone 7, Apple Watch Series 2 [newsfactor]
Apple Is Betting Big on a Wireless World [newsfactor]
Last week, Apple took the wraps off the iPhone 7. The latest iPhone is water-resistant and sports a speedier A10 Fusion processor, a brighter display, a better camera with optical image stabilization, and stereo speakers. A controversial change to the iPhone is the loss of a headphone jack in favor of bluetooth headphones. Apple unveiled new wireless AirPod headphones, and a new Apple watch. New Operating Systems have been released for both the iPhone and Apple Watch. The new iOS 10 can be loaded onto older iPhone5’s and 6’s. The new iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 will be available Friday. - Tesla Says It’s Improving Autopilot By Boosting Radar [newsfactor]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric car company is making major improvements to the Autopilot system used by its vehicles, which will dramatically reduce the number and severity of crashes in which they are involved. On a conference call with reporters, Musk said he thinks that the improvements, which will roll out globally in the next week or two in the form of a software update, probably would have prevented recent crashes.