Category: Technology

New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) has voted to increase the minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers. Per-minute rates are going up by 7.4 percent and per-mile rates by 24 percent. In practical terms, that means a trip of 7.5 miles that takes 30 minutes will earn a driver at least $27.15 — an increase of more than $2.50 compared with current rates.

The commission also agreed to increase yellow and green cab fares (for the first time since 2012) by 23 percent. The new rates are scheduled to go into effect by the end of the year.

The Uber and Lyft pay bump is in addition to a 5.3 percent increase drivers received earlier this year, the TLC confirmed to Engadget. Drivers sought higher pay amid higher inflation rates and increased operational costs.

Uber and Lyft drivers will receive another rate bump in March. The increase will be “based on inflation comparing December 2022 to September 2022,” the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) said in a statement. The union said this was part one of a drive to ensure drivers receive at least $25 per hour in take-home pay, after expenses. “We’re going to take the momentum of this driver raise which comes despite company opposition and after a long delay, and use it to power our fight for a job with dignified incomes, job security and retirement,” NYTWA executive director Bhairavi Desai said.

“Raising taxi fare rates and minimum pay for high-volume drivers is the right thing to do for our city,” TLC commissioner David Do said. “This is the first taxi fare increase in ten years, and these raises will help offset increased operating expenses and the cost of living for TLC-licensed drivers. We are confident that today’s unanimous commission vote will keep our taxi and [For-Hire Vehicle] fleets sustainable and ready to serve New Yorkers.”

 

Lucid had more to show today than its less expensive Air models. The auto startup has finally teased its second EV, the long-in-the-making Gravity SUV. The vehicle will share the swooping visual language of the Air while offering up to three rows of seating that can accommodate seven people. It should also have a next-gen version of Lucid’s touchscreen-heavy cockpit, and purportedly offer more range than “any other EV” outside of the Air.

The company cautions that the Gravity design and specifications aren’t final. What Lucid is showing now is largely what you’d expect, however — it’s a big people-hauler with perks like a panoramic roof. As with Tesla’s Model X, the three-row configuration doesn’t leave much room in the back for either passengers or cargo. The rear space is “flexible,” according to Lucid, so you might not be stuck if you need to carry a large load.

You will be waiting a while to buy the SUV. Reservations for the Gravity open in early 2023, and it won’t reach the US or Canada until 2024. Customers outside those countries will have to be more patient, and the firm hasn’t disclosed pricing. It’s safe to presume the EV will be expensive, though, when even the ‘entry’ Air starts at $87,400. This is more for customers who would otherwise consider a Model X, Mercedes EQS SUV or Polestar 3.

The Gravity could be Lucid’s most important EV to date, whatever it costs. The Air may be fast, but its sedan form factor limits its appeal in an increasingly SUV-centric market. The new model could help Lucid reach a wider audience, even if the clientele will still be limited to wealthy buyers willing to take a chance on a young brand.

 

Competition in the robot dog market is getting ugly. As The Robot Reportexplains, Boston Dynamics is suing Ghost Robotics for allegedly infringing seven patents linked to its Spot quadruped. The Spirit 40 and Vision 60 (shown above) purportedly borrow key technologies from Spot, including systems for self-righting and climbing stairs.

Boston Dynamics says it asked Ghost Robotics to review Spot-related patents in July 2020, five months after the launch of the Spirit 40. After that, Boston claims to have sent two cease-and-desist letters asking Ghost to stop marketing its robot canines. Ghost was thus well aware of what it was doing, according to the lawsuit.

We’ve asked Ghost Robotics for comment. In a statement, Boston Dynamics claimed it “welcome[s] competition” but would crack down on companies violating its intellectual property rights. The Hyundai-owned firm is seeking unspecified damages as part of the suit.

A lawsuit like this isn’t unexpected. Boston Dynamics initially focused on research, but it has increasingly turned to commercializing robots like Spot and Stretch. Rivals like Ghost Robotics could pose threats to Boston’s still-young business, whether or not they’re copying technology in the process. Even if the suit fails, it could deter other companies from making robot dogs of their own.

 

It’s been less than a month since Elon Musk began his chaotic takeover of Twitter but, to many, the platform already feels like it’s entered an inevitable death spiral. Advertisers are fleeing. The few remaining top executives are also leaving. Musk’s Twitter Blue rollout was a complete disaster. The FTC says it has “deep concern” about the company. Musk told employees bankruptcy is a real possibility. Former engineers say the site could break at any moment.

Unsurprisingly, the uncertainty has inspired many users to explore Twitter alternatives. Among them, Mastodon, a decentralized platform founded in 2016, has emerged as one of the top destinations for Twitter quitters. The service saw an earlier uptick in April, when Musk’s buyout was announced, but it’s seen an even bigger flood of new users since Musk’s takeover was completed.

Between October 27th and November 6th, Mastodon gained nearly half a million new users, almost doubling its user base, according to founder Eugen Rochko. Data from Similarweb, shows that the two most popular “entry points” to Mastodon, the mastodon.social server and joinmastodon.org, are getting more than four times the amount of daily traffic compared with the end of October prior to Musk taking over the company.

It’s not the first time upheaval at Twitter has driven new users to the “fediverse,” but it’s the largest exodus. And even many of those who haven’t quit Twitter entirely have begun promoting their Mastodon accounts.

But not everyone is ready — or able— to give up on Twitter. And many don’t see Mastodon as a viable substitute for what Twitter has provided.

For Beth Hyman, executive director of the SquirrelWood animal sanctuary in New York, Twitter has for years been a vital source of donations thanks to the rescue’s popular “Crouton & Friends” account. She began to grow SquirrelWood’s Twitter presence in 2018 by posting nightly videos of Crouton, a baby cow living at the sanctuary.

Now, Twitter, where Crouton has more than 65,000 followers, is one of the sanctuary’s biggest, and most reliable, sources of donations. For example, she was able to raise $30,000 for a used horse trailer in just three days in 2021, and frequently shares other fundraisers for the sanctuary. She worries about how Twitter’s current instability could affect them. “I don’t want to see the income that helps keep this sanctuary going, and all these animals fed, dry up,” Hyman tells Engadget.

She says she signed up for Mastodon as well as CounterSocial after noticing a dip in her followers in the days after Musk’s takeover, but she’s skeptical she will be able to recreate her Twitter account’s success on a new platform. “Our main home base has always been Twitter. A lot of work goes into this, and it’s not like you just flip the switch and walk away and reignite it somewhere else,” she says.

She’s also found that it’s just not as easy to share photos and videos of SquirrelWood’s animals — the main draw for her social media followers — on Mastodon due to its file size constraints. “We’re taking care of 70 animals, I need something that I can do on the fly very easily,” she said.

For others, the decentralized nature of Mastodon has other drawbacks. Eric Feigl-Ding is an epidemiologist who grew his Twitter following at the start of the pandemic when he was among the first to go viral tweeting about the potential threat posed by the novel coronavirus. He now uses his Twitter account, where he has more than 700,000 followers, to share updates about the pandemic and to promote public health policy.

He says he tried to sign up for the mastodon.social server only to find that it was full, and that he and some colleagues are now debating starting their own server, But he worries he won’t be able to reach the same people as he can on Twitter.

“I knew I wanted to reach policymakers, members of Congress, and journalists,” he says. “Basically, people who have the power to shape public opinion, and change policy, and to move the needle on this pandemic. And Twitter is that platform. Twitter is the platform to get your message out. They’re not sitting on Mastodon.”

Feigl-Ding, who has spent a lot of time debunking COVID-19 misinformation, also worries about the consequences of leaving. “You do not want to cede the town square to misinformation, to disinfo, to slanted views on things,” he said. “You want to be there to engage, you want to show up at the debate.”

Others worry about losing the friendships and community they’ve formed on Twitter. Steven Aquino, a tech journalist who covers accessibility, says that Mastodon isn’t a realistic alternative for many people with disabilities because it lacks many of Twitter’s accessibility features. It also just wouldn’t be the same, he says. “The whole point of social media is to be social, and for a lot of disabled people … social [media] is how they interact with other humans,” he tells Engadget.

At the same time, the fact that Musk cut Twitter’s accessibility team makes him worried Twitter itself could become less usable. “The fact that they laid off the entirety of the accessibility team says a lot about what they think about people like me, and where they want the service to be,” he says.

“There’s so much being written about what Elon is doing, and hiring and firing, and those are all important things. But there is no respect for what is the real impact on the people who use the service.”

 

Qualcomm has announced its latest flagship mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Along with making it more powerful and efficient than Gen 1 chips, Qualcomm says it has packed more AI smarts into the new platform.

The Snapdragon 8 will tap into the latest Qualcomm AI Engine and upgraded Hexagon processor to offer “faster natural language processing with multi-language translation and advanced AI camera features,” the company claims. The processor has architectural upgrades that will enable up to 4.35 times the AI performance of Gen 1 chips, according to Qualcomm. There will be support for an AI precision format called Int4, which the company suggests will lead to a 60 percent performance/watt improvement over the previous-gen chipset for sustained AI inferencing. Meanwhile, the Sensing Hub will have dual AI processors, which can support features such as custom wake words.

Qualcomm notes that the upgrades will enable new camera-focused features as will. It says Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will enhance photos and videos automatically and in real-time using semantic segmentation. This harnesses an AI neural network to make the camera aware of and individually optimize elements such as faces, hair, clothes and skies. Qualcomm has tuned the chipset to support new sensors, such as Samsung’s 200-megapixel Isocell HP3. Meanwhile, this is the first Snapdragon model with an AV1 codec that supports 8K HDR playback at up to 60 frames per second.

There’s an intriguing feature for mobile gamers: Qualcomm says there will be real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which should improve the visuals on supported games. The company claims the latest Adreno GPU and Kyro CPU deliver over 25 percent faster performance and 40 percent more power efficiency than the Gen 1 chip. Qualcomm adds that it will offer the first mobile-optimized support for the Unreal Engine 5 Metahumans Framework, claiming that this will let players “experience photorealistic human characters in their games.”

On the connectivity front, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will use AI to manage 5G download speeds, latency, coverage and power efficiency. There will be support for dual 5G SIMs as well as WiFi 7 (with speeds of up to 5.8 Gbps). In terms of audio, phones that use the chipset will be able to offer spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, 48kHz lossless music streaming and latency as low as 48ms.

Qualcomm notes that the first phones with the Gen 2 chipset should be available by the end of the year. Partners including ASUS Republic of Gamers, Honor, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Sharp, Sony, Xiaomi and ZTE plan to use the chip in their devices. There’s likely to be more news from Qualcomm in the coming days, as the company is hosting its Snapdragon Summit this week.

 

In YouTube’s latest move to woo TikTok creators onto YouTube Shorts, the streaming giant announced today that short-term video creators would soon be allowed up to a minute of copyrighted music in their Shorts. The change is a significant boost from the previous 15-second limit for any licensed song.

YouTube says its short-form creators will be able to use between 30 and 60 seconds of licensed music “for most tracks.” However, some songs will remain on the previous 15-second limit, with licensing agreements determining which tracks fall in which window. Creators can quickly see how much time each song allows in the YouTube app’s audio picker. The new song-length options begin rolling out today and will continue “over the next few weeks” on iOS and Android.

As user-created videos have exploded during the past decade, aggressive DMCA takedown notices have become a headache for streamers on all platforms. Record labels often automate their copyright enforcement, leading to overzealous claims. For example, creators have seen their videos flagged for accidentally including a few seconds of copyrighted audio from a passing car’s stereo. Some police officers have even exploited the DMCA to their advantage, blasting Taylor Swift songs to prevent bystanders from sharing their legally recorded videos.

The song-limit boost is YouTube’s latest attempt to woo TikTok creators (and therefore viewers and ad dollars) onto Shorts. In September, the company announced an ad-revenue sharing program to give qualified creators a 45 percent cut of ad revenue, regardless of whether they use music. TikTok launched a similar sharing program earlier this year following widespread complaints about its previous “static pool of money” approach.

YouTube’s aggressive approach appears to be paying off, with Shorts tallying views from over 1.5 billion logged-in users per month. As of September 2021, TikTok had racked up 1 billion monthly users. However, given YouTube’s overall dominance in the video space, those numbers likely include people who were already on YouTube watching other content. TikTok’s numbers, on the other hand, more clearly include people looking for its distinctive short-form videos — an audience that YouTube and other media giants like Meta are continuing to chase.

 

We’ve finally reached the point where a robot can vacuum for us — but smart vacs aren’t cheap. Eufy, from parent company Anker, makes solid and affordable robot vacuums that often go on sale. In fact, we recommend waiting until a good deal like this comes around before diving in so you can join the robot revolution while saving some cash. Right now Amazon is hosting a sale on Eufy vacuums with discounts of up to 44 percent on the smart vacs. The sale includes the Eufy RoboVac 11S, which is down to $140 from its list price of $230, just be sure to click the box to apply the $60 coupon.   

Buy Eufy RoboVac 11S at Amazon – $140Shop the Eufy robot vacuum sale at Amazon

We tested the 11S in our budget robot vacuum guide and named it the best bang for your buck. We particularly liked the way the slimmer profile was able to get under low-slung furniture and thought its collision avoidance was remarkable. It’s relatively quiet, and did a good job of cleaning the carpets, only missing the occasional crumb. It doesn’t have WiFi, but the included remote takes on most of the scheduling features you’d find in an app. Overall, it impressed us with its smarts, especially for the price, which is now an even better deal. 

Another robot mentioned in our guide is the Eufy RoboVac G30, it’s just $180 right now, which is a steep 44 percent lower than its $319 list price. The G30 is a newer model than the 11S, and features Dynamic Navigation 2.0, improved navigation software that relies less on random patterns to choose its cleaning path. Anker gives the Pascal (Pa) units to rate the suction of Eufy vacuums, and the G30 is rated to 2000pa, which is on the higher end of the spectrum (the 11S above rates at 1300Pa). With WiFi and a dedicated app, you can control it from your phone, or even with Alexa if you have an Echo smart speaker or display. 

Eufy RoboVac G30 at Amazon – $180

The Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid got a well-deserved honorable mention in our best robot vacuum guide. It’s a robot vacuum and mop in one, which you can get for $320 right now, instead of its usual $650. The sale price takes 15 percent off, and the clickable coupon discounts another $230. We liked the amount of customization you get with the X8, including a “tap and go” feature that gets the vac to clean an exact spot. You can also straight up control the robot manually, which we thought felt like controlling a slow and slightly clumsy RC car. 

The “hybrid” in the name refers to the mopping features. When you want to wipe down your hard floors, there’s an on-board water tank to fill and included mopping cloths to attach. You’ll also want to mark off the no-go zones wherever there’s carpet. 

The X8 uses LiDAR laser scanning to navigate and unlike some smart vacs, the X8 can learn where not to go through virtual no-go zones you set within the app. We were impressed by how well the X8 navigated, but you should note that if you prefer to set your boundaries using boundary strips, the X8 doesn’t come with any, you’ll have to buy those separately. 

Buy Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid at Amazon – $320

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

 

NASA and University of Michigan researchers have found a security flaw that could pose a threat to spacecraft in the right (or rather, wrong) conditions. The team has discovered that time-triggered Ethernet (TTE), a feature that lets critical systems sit alongside minor ones on the same networking hardware, is vulnerable to a spoofing attack. An intruder can send fake sync messages by conducting electromagnetic interference through copper Ethernet cables into network switches, creating a “gap” in a switch’s activity that lets bogus data slide through. Over time, the TTE device will lose sync and behave erratically.

The attack requires placing a small device on the network, so remote breaches are unlikely. However, the consequences could be serious. The scientists tested the vulnerability using real NASA machinery to recreate a planned asteroid redirection test. In a simulation, the TTE exploit produced a knock-on effect severe enough that the crew capsule strayed from its course and missed a crucial docking procedure.

There are simple safeguards, if not necessarily problem-free. Vehicle designers could replace copper Ethernet with fiber optic cables or place optical isolators between switches and devices, so long as they’re willing to accept sacrifices in cost and performance. Engineers could also change the network layout to prevent fake sync messages from taking the same path as legitimate ones, although that will clearly take time.

NASA and the university stress that there’s no “current” known threat. However, the method could also be used to compromise aircraft, power plants and industrial control systems that rely on TTE. Theoretically, a saboteur with physical access could disrupt critical infrastructure in a way that might not be immediately obvious.

 

Starting today, Netflix users will be able to see all the devices linked to their account and have the option to remotely log out of each one individually. For each device, you’ll see the type of hardware (say, a smart TV or Android phone), the profile that was most recently used to watch something on that device, the last time Netflix streamed something to it and the approximate location based on the IP address. The new Manage Access and Devices page will be available on the web, iOS and Android.

Netflix suggests this could be helpful for when you’re traveling over the holiday period. Perhaps you might use your account on a hotel’s smart TV, but you forget to log out before leaving. From the Manage Access and Devices page on your account settings, you’ll be able to sign out from that specific device remotely. Until now, Netflix has only offered the option to log out of all devices.

The company has been making moves in recent weeks that will make it easier for you to kick someone out of your account ahead of a crackdown on password sharing. It started rolling out the option to transfer a profile with all data and preferences to a new account. If you’re generous enough, you can give your ex, old roommate or kids a chance to keep their watch history, My List, game save data and so on before you give them the boot.

A key reason why this feature is important is the fact that Netflix will start charging extra fees for users who are accessing the service outside of the account holder’s immediate household. So, you can more easily get rid of moochers who are using your account before Netflix starts charging you more for them.

Moreover, the Manage Access and Devices feature could help you figure out if someone is accessing your account using a leaked password. In any case, if you remotely log a certain device out, it might be a good idea to change your password to ensure only the people you want to access your Netflix account can do so.

 

Hybrid cars aren’t just valuable for their fuel efficiency, apparently. Consumer Reports has published annual reliability survey data indicating that hybrids are generally more reliable than their gas-only equivalents. Hybrid cars were the most reliable among vehicle types, with their SUV siblings ranking third. Certain models were stand-outs, including the Ford Maverick pickup, Lexus NX luxury SUV and Toyota Corolla sedan — they all had above-average reliability on top of major fuel savings.

That trustworthiness doesn’t always extend to other electrified cars. The publication found that plug-in hybrids aren’t as reliable. Toyota’s Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime are less reliable than their conventional hybrid versions, and the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid was one of the most unreliable vehicles in the survey. EVs continue to struggle, too. While there are some exceptions, such as the “outstanding” reliability of the Kia EV6, the category is still plagued with glitches — and not just Tesla’s build quality issues. Ford’s Mustang-Mach-E dipped to below average due to its electronics flaws. Only four out of 11 models with enough survey data had average or better reliability.

A straightforward hybrid isn’t always the best choice, either. Consumer Reports warns that BMW, Mercedes, Ram and others offer “mild” hybrids that don’t offer much in the way of fuel savings, and are sometimes focused more on adding power. These vehicles weren’t included in the hybrid reliability rankings.

The greater reliability of hybrids isn’t a total surprise. While they offer improved fuel economy, they’re ultimately based on familiar model lines using well-established combustion engine technology. EVs are more likely to be brand new models based on young electric motor systems and don’t have years of refinement.

Automakers will have to improve their safety tech if they want to stay in Consumer Reports‘ good graces, whatever powertrain they’re using. As of November, the outlet will penalize models that don’t include pedestrian-aware automatic emergency braking as a standard feature. CR will also stop handing out bonus points to vehicles that only have blind spot warnings (they’ll need rear cross traffic warnings as well) and forward collision alerts. This will theoretically push car creators to strengthen their default safety packages and potentially save lives.