Category: Technology

Back in 2022, Mercedes-Benz announced that it was going to release an electric G-Class by the end of 2024. Now, the automaker has formally introduced the electrified version of its iconic luxury vehicle that’s known for its exclusivity. The Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Technology comes equipped with a 116 kWh lithium-ion battery that gives it enough energy to run for up to 473 kilometers (294 miles) on a single charge. It also has a maximum total output of 432 kW and a maximum torque of 1,164 Nm.

The electric model looks pretty much like the gas-powered G-Class, with its sharp angles and its distinctive door handles, grilles and round headlights. Mercedes offers optional lighting exclusive to the EQ version of the vehicle, though, so you can change its looks and give it a design that’s considerably different from a standard G-Class. The vehicle is powered by four electric motors located near each wheel and has several modes for off-road use: G-TURN, which will allow you to turn the vehicle almost on the spot, G-STEERING, which could eliminate the need for multi-point turns, and the intelligent off-road crawl function that provides cruise control for off-road drives. 

Mercedes-Benz made sure the vehicle’s battery is ready for off-road journeys, as well, and encased it in a torsion-resistant casing that protects it from water and dirt. Since the vehicle can be driven in up to 33.5 inches of water, the battery definitely needs that kind of protection. It can charge with both alternating current and direct current, and when plugged into a fast-charging DC system, it can go from 10 to 80 percent in just 32 minutes. The G-Class can convert kinetic energy into electrical energy when you coast or hit the brakes, as well. 

EDITION ONE, the G-Class with EQ Technology coming out at launch later this year, will have an “an expanded palette of standard features.” A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that a range-extended version with a battery that uses a more energy-dense silicon-anode technology from Mercedes’ partner Silas will also be available in the next few years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mercedes-benz-finally-unveils-its-electric-g-class-luxury-off-roader-110040316.html?src=rss 

The European Union has adopted a right-to-repair directive that will make it easier for consumers to get their devices fixed. The new rules extend a product’s guarantee if it breaks under warranty, while obliging manufacturers to repair devices no longer covered. The law still needs to be approved by member nations. 

Devices sold in Europe already offer minimum two-year warranties, but the new rules impose additional requirements. If a device is repaired under warranty, the customer must be given a choice between a replacement or a repair. If they choose the latter, the warranty is to be extended by a year. 

Once it expires, companies are still required to repair “common household products” that are repairable under EU law, like smartphones, TVs and certain appliances (the list of devices can be extended over time). Consumer may also borrow a device during the repair or, if it can’t be fixed, opt for a refurbished unit as an alternative.

The EU says repairs must be offered at a “reasonable” price such that “consumers are not intentionally deterred” from them. Manufacturers need to supply spare parts and tools and not try to weasel out of repairs through the use of “contractual clauses, hardware or software techniques.” The latter, while not stated, may make it harder for companies to sunset devices by halting future updates. 

In addition, manufacturers can’t stop the use of second-hand, original, compatible or 3D-printed spare parts by independent repairers as long as they’re in conformity with EU laws. They must provide a website that shows prices for repairs, can’t refuse to fix a device previously repaired by someone else and can’t refuse a repair for economic reasons.

While applauding the expanded rules, Europe’s Right to Repair group said it there were missed opportunities. It would have liked to see more product categories included, priority for repair over replacement, the right for independent repairers to have access to all spare parts/repair information and more. “Our coalition will continue to push for ambitious repairability requirements… as well as working with members focused on the implementation of the directive in each member state.”

Along with helping consumers save money, right-to-repair rules help reduce e-waste, CO2 pollution and more. The area is currently a battleground in the US as well, with legislation under debate in around half the states. California’s right-to-repair law — going into effect on July 1 — forces manufacturers to stock replacement parts, tools and repair manuals for seven years for smartphones and other devices that cost over $100.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eus-new-right-to-repair-rules-force-companies-to-repair-out-of-warranty-devices-081939123.html?src=rss 

A bill that could ban TikTok is now all but certain to become law. The Senate approved a measure that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, in a vote of 79 – 18. The “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” will next head to President Joe Biden, who has said he would sign the bill into law.

While it’s far from the first effort to force a ban or divestment of the social media app, the bill managed to draw far more support than previous attempts. The bill was introduced in March and sailed through the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan agreement. A slightly revised version was approved as part of a package of foreign aid legislation on Saturday.

Under the updated terms, TikTok would have up to 12 months to divest from parent company ByteDance or face a ban in US app stores and web hosting services. The company has called the bill unconstitutional and indicated it would mount a legal challenge to such a law, which could further delay an eventual sale or ban.

The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

TikTok has long been viewed with suspicion by lawmakers and the intelligence community. Ahead of votes in the House and Senate, members of Congress were briefed by intelligence officials on the alleged national security threat posed by the app. The exact nature of those concerns is still unclear, though some members of Congress have asked for details from the briefings to be declassified.

At the same time, some lawmakers have expressed skepticism, saying that the alleged threat posed by TikTok is largely hypothetical. Free speech and digital rights groups also oppose the bill, noting that comprehensive privacy legislation would be a more effective way of protecting Americans’ personal data. TikTok CEO Shou Chew has made a similar argument, telling Congress last year that a forced sale wouldn’t resolve data concerns about the app.

But TikTok’s recent efforts to muster opposition to the bill may have backfired. Lawmakers rebuked the company for sending in-app notifications to users about the bill after the alerts resulted in a flood of calls to Congressional offices. And the app may have drawn even more suspicion when Politico reported last week that Chinese diplomats were lobbying Congressional staffers to oppose the bill. Officials in China have condemned the measure. A Chinese law, passed in 2020, could prevent ByteDance from including TikTok’s recommendation algorithm in a sale of the app.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/senate-passes-bill-that-could-ban-tiktok-014124533.html?src=rss 

Tesla has shown off a preview of an upcoming ride-hailing feature in its app ahead of an August robotaxi unveiling. The company released mock-ups of the upcoming feature, which showed the ability to “summon” a ride from the Tesla app.

The company didn’t offer many details about how it would work, but images show Uber-like functionality, with the ability to remotely set the car’s temperature ahead of its arrival. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that the company would unveil its long-promised robotaxis August 8.

Tesla has been promising a self-driving ride hailing service for years, with Musk promising the company’s robotaxi would start picking up riders back in 2019. For now, it’s unclear exactly when such a service might launch. “We are currently working on ride-hailing functionality that will be available in the future,” the company wrote in its latest earnings report. “We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App.”

The update was shared in Tesla’s first-quarter earnings report for 2024. The automaker reported a revenue decline of 9 percent from last year, its steepest loss in more than a decade.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-previews-ride-hailing-experience-ahead-of-august-robotaxi-unveil-212738199.html?src=rss 

Leading artificial intelligence companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta and others have jointly pledged to prevent their AI tools from being used to exploit children and generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The initiative was led by child-safety group Thorn and All Tech Is Human, a non-profit focused on responsible tech.

The pledges from AI companies, Thorn said, “set a groundbreaking precedent for the industry and represent a significant leap in efforts to defend children from sexual abuse as a feature with generative AI unfolds.” The goal of the initiative is to prevent the creation of sexually explicit material involving children and take it off social media platforms and search engines. More than 104 million files of suspected child sexual abuse material were reported in the US in 2023 alone, Thorn says. In the absence of collective action, generative AI is poised to make this problem worse and overwhelm law enforcement agencies that are already struggling to identify genuine victims.

On Tuesday, Thorn and All Tech Is Human released a new paper titled “Safety by Design for Generative AI: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse” that outlines strategies and lays out recommendations for companies that build AI tools, search engines, social media platforms, hosting companies and developers to take steps to prevent generative AI from being used to harm children.

One of the recommendations, for instance, asks companies to choose data sets used to train AI models carefully and avoid ones only only containing instances of CSAM but also adult sexual content altogether because of generative AI’s propensity to combine the two concepts. Thorn is also asking social media platforms and search engines to remove links to websites and apps that let people “nudity” images of children, thus creating new AI-generated child sexual abuse material online. A flood of AI-generated CSAM, according to the paper, will make identifying genuine victims of child sexual abuse more difficult by increasing the “haystack problem” — an reference to the amount of content that law enforcement agencies must current sift through.

“This project was intended to make abundantly clear that you don’t need to throw up your hands,” Thorn’s vice president of data science Rebecca Portnoff told the Wall Street Journal. “We want to be able to change the course of this technology to where the existing harms of this technology get cut off at the knees.”

Some companies, Portnoff said, had already agreed to separate images, video and audio that involved children from data sets containing adult content to prevent their models from combining the two. Others also add watermarks to identify AI-generated content, but the method isn’t foolproof — watermarks and metadata can be easily removed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-worlds-leading-ai-companies-pledge-to-protect-the-safety-of-children-online-213558797.html?src=rss 

You may be able to give those plastic Rock Band guitars you have stuffed away in the attic a new lease of life. Fortnite Festival (a Rock Band-style mode that debuted in Fortnite in December) now supports several Rock Band 4 controllers across PlayStation, Xbox and PC, as detailed in a blog post.

If you have a compatible plastic guitar, you can use it to play new Pro Lead and Pro Bass parts in any Jam Track. These parts have colored notes for each lane that match with the guitar controller buttons. They also include hammer-on and pull-off notes — just like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Epic Games (which bought Rock Band developer Harmonix in 2021 to build music experiences for Fortnite) plans to add support for more peripherals down the line. Hopefully, the developers will make the whammy bar more useful beyond triggering a visual effect too.

Epic previously said it would add support for Rock Band guitars. Earlier this year, third-party peripheral maker PDP (which Turtle Beach recently purchased) unveiled a new Xbox and PlayStation wireless guitar controller for Rock Band 4 and Fortnite Festival.

Support for the Rock Band peripherals come just as Billie Eilish joins the game as its new music icon. Several of her songs are available to buy and use in Fortnite Festival, and you’ll be able to purchase an Eilish outfit (or unlock one through a secondary battle pass) and play as her in the Battle Royale mode.

Meanwhile, Epic has added a setting that allows players to hide certain emotes that others often use for trolling in Battle Royale. For instance, after being eliminated, a player might not want to see a rival using the “Take the L” emote, which involves making the shape of an “L” (for “loser”) on their forehead and doing a silly dance. The setting won’t stop players from using any emotes and it only hides four of them for now. Somehow, one of the emotes that the setting doesn’t hide is a personal favorite called “Rage Quit.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/your-old-rock-band-guitars-now-work-in-fortnite-festival-164054839.html?src=rss 

If you’re in the market for a new mechanical keyboard with some retro flair, here’s a deal worth noting: the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is down to $70 at Amazon subsidiary Woot. That’s the lowest price we’ve tracked. This offer has been live for a few days, but it comes in $30 below 8BitDo’s list price and $10 below the wireless keyboard’s previous low. Unfortunately, the deal only applies to the device’s Fami Edition, which has a color scheme and Japanese characters inspired by the Famicom console Nintendo released in Japan during the ’80s. 8BitDo sells another variant that’s modeled after the US NES, but that one costs $20 more as of this writing. (A third model based on the Commodore 64 is also on the way.) 

Though it isn’t a formal pick in our guide to the best mechanical keyboards, the Retro Mechanical Keyboard earned a spot in our retro gaming gift guide last year. The vintage aesthetic is the main reason to consider it: If you dig old tech, there aren’t many options going for this kind of look. Still, this is a solid keyboard in its own right. Its tenkeyless form factor should be comfortable for most people, and it can connect over Bluetooth, a wireless dongle or a detachable USB-C cable. While it’s made from plastic, the chassis doesn’t come off as cheap. Its PBT keycaps are crisply textured, and its keys largely feel stable, with no major rattling on larger inputs like the space bar. It also comes with a goofy yet fun pair of NES-style “Super Buttons,” which you can program to perform different commands.

Be warned, though: It’s on the louder side. The Retro Mechanical Keyboard ships with clicky Kailh Box White V2 switches, which are generally satisfying to press but have a high-pitch tone that your spouse or coworkers may find aggravating. This fits with the retro aesthetic, but the keyboard might be best kept tucked away in a home office. There’s also no backlight or adjustable feet. The switches are hot-swappable, however, so it’s easy to change them out for a different feel down the road. 

In the end, how much you enjoy the old-school styling will determine whether the Retro Mechanical Keyboard is worth getting. If you want something a little more subdued that costs less than $100, we recommend Keychron’s V Max series in our buying guide. But 8BitDo’s board is still a decent value, and this discount only furthers that. Woot says the offer will run for six more days or until the device sells out.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/8bitdos-nintendo-style-retro-mechanical-keyboard-hits-a-new-low-of-70-at-woot-170000966.html?src=rss