Kalakshar US

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its final pollution emissions standards for the auto industry on Wednesday. The regulations, which include a looser timeframe than those proposed last year, mandate that by 2032, most new passenger car and light truck sales in the US must be electric or hybrid.

Earth is on a disastrous trajectory with climate change, and no amount of baseless conspiracy theories or talking points from the oil and gas industry, Donald Trump or anyone else will change that. Only phasing out fossil fuels and emissions will beat back its worst effects. The Biden Administration’s EPA is trying to do that — while throwing a bone to stakeholders like unions and automakers to navigate the landmines of today’s political realities.

The final rules present a timeline to wind down gas-powered vehicle purchases, making most US auto sales fully electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or advanced gasoline by 2032. The transition begins in 2027 but moderates the pace until after 2030. That’s a key change from last April’s proposed standards, which called for EVs to make up two-thirds of vehicle sales by 2032.

The shift was an election-year compromise for Biden, who has to balance the crucial battle against climate change with 2024 auto union endorsements. Labor unions had pushed for the more relaxed pace out of fears that a more aggressive transition, like the EPA proposed last year, would lead to job losses. EVs typically require fewer assembly workers than traditional gas-powered vehicles.

Last year, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain withheld support for Biden’s reelection due to concerns about the EV transition. But (perhaps after hearing assurances about the revised rules) the UAW endorsed his reelection bid in January.

“The EPA has made significant progress on its final greenhouse gas emissions rule for light-duty vehicles,” the UAW wrote in a statement about the new rules published by the EPA. “By taking seriously the concerns of workers and communities, the EPA has come a long way to create a more feasible emissions rule that protects workers building ICE vehicles, while providing a path forward for automakers to implement the full range of automotive technologies to reduce emissions.”

Contrary to what online misinformation or your uncle may tell you, the rules — aimed at the auto industry and not consumers — don’t make gas-powered cars and trucks illegal. Instead, they require automakers to meet specific emissions standards throughout their product lines. The rules apply to new vehicle sales, not used ones.

The EPA says the final rule will lead to $99 billion in benefits and save the average American driver $6,000 in fuel and maintenance over the life of their vehicles. Other advantages include avoiding 7.2 billion additional tons of CO2 emissions through 2055 and offering “nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society.” The reduction in fine particulate matter and ozone will allegedly prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths in 2055 while reducing associated health problems like heart attacks, asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” President Biden wrote in a statement supplied by The White House to Engadget. “I brought together American automakers. I brought together American autoworkers. Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs. And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead. Today, we’re setting new pollution standards for cars and trucks. U.S. workers will lead the world on autos making clean cars and trucks, each stamped ‘Made in America.’”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-epa-reveals-final-auto-industry-regulations-to-try-to-keep-the-world-habitable-195612588.html?src=rss 

Several notable names have joined Epic Games in taking a stance against Apple’s decision to charge a fee for iOS payments made outside of the App Store. Meta, Microsoft, X and Match Group filed an amicus brief in the case, as The Wall Street Journal reports. That lends some heavyweight backing to Epic’s cause.

Apple was forced to enable third-party payments on iOS due to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and a court ruling in the US. It also has to allow alternative app marketplaces on iOS in the EU. The company takes up to a 30 percent cut of App Store purchases. Perhaps fearing that it was about to lose out on a significant chunk of commission, Apple said it would charge a fee of up to 27 percent when developers process purchases outside of the App Store.

Epic this month filed a petition asking District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to enforce a permanent injunction she issued against Apple in 2021 as part of her ruling in the case between the two companies. The decision compelled Apple to allow developers to direct users to alternative payment systems.

Most of Rogers’ ruling was in Apple’s favor, however, and both companies appealed the decision all the way up to the Supreme Court. However, in January, the highest court in the US declined to hear the appeals. That means Rogers’ permanent injunction against Apple stood, but Epic was not happy about the way Apple implemented the third-party payment changes.

The four companies supporting Epic’s petition claim that the fee Apple is charging on external payments effectively leaves the previous rules in place. “The Apple Plan comports with neither the letter nor the spirit of this Court’s mandate,” their brief states.

As X put it, the 27 percent fee doesn’t give developers much incentive to link to external payment methods. Microsoft, which has been working on its own mobile game store, noted that Apple’s latest policy limits its ability to offer users subscriptions and discounts. Match Group argued that Apple’s decision will affect many developers and users, and that it stymies the court’s attempt to offer consumers competition on pricing.

Meta, meanwhile, charges more for its ad-free plans and boosted posts on its iOS apps than it does on the web. (The ad-free subscription is also more expensive in the company’s Android apps, as Google takes a cut of in-app payments too). Meta states in the amicus brief that it ought to be able to direct users to other payment options for boosted posts.

Apple claims to have complied with the court order. According to the Journal, the company (which is reportedly facing a Justice Department antitrust case) says its current external link policies are important to protect user privacy and security. Apple has also been dinged over its compliance with the DMA, with critics suggesting the company might be adhering to the letter of the law, but not its spirit. 

For what it’s worth, Meta, Microsoft, X and Match Group filed their petition one day after the EU’s antitrust chief warned Apple over new fees it’s charging developers (and Meta over its ad-free subscription). Margrethe Vestager told Reuters that feedback from developers would play an important factor in whether the bloc investages Apple, Meta or any other company subject to the DMA’s rules. She noted that she had received “quite a lot” of comments from third parties.

Meanwhile, Epic is gearing up to debut its game store on both iOS and Android later this year. The company said at the Game Developer Conference that the store would be cross-platform between mobile, PC and macOS. The company plans to charge developers of mobile games the same 12 percent cut it takes from PC game sales.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-microsoft-x-and-match-group-come-out-swinging-against-apples-third-party-payment-rules-200705867.html?src=rss 

Google just announced that it has been using AI to successfully predict riverline floods, up to seven days in advance in some cases. This isn’t just tech company hyperbole, as the findings were actually published in the esteemed science journal Nature. Floods are the most common natural disaster throughout the world, so any early warning system is good news.

Floods have been notoriously tricky to predict, as most rivers don’t have streamflow gauges. Google got around this problem by training machine learning models with all kinds of relevant data, including historical events, river level readings, elevation and terrain readings and more. After that, the company generated localized maps and ran “hundreds of thousands” of simulations in each location. This combination of techniques allowed the models to accurately predict upcoming floods.

The approach built “highly accurate models for very particular locations”, but Google hopes to use these techniques to eventually solve the problem at global scale. While the company did successfully predict some floods a full seven days in advance, the average came in at around five days. Still, Google’s confident that it has extended the “reliability of currently-available global nowcasts from zero to five days.” It’s also significantly improved forecasting in underrepresented regions, like some parts of Africa and Asia.

All told, this technology allowed Google to provide accurate flood forecasting in 80 countries, with a total population of 460 million. The company made these forecasts available in Google Search, Google Maps, and via Android notifications. This information is also available via the company’s proprietary Flood Hub web app, which began operations back in 2022.

So what’s next? Google will continue to explore the “potential of machine learning to create better flood forecasting models” and has teamed up with academic researchers to fine tune the AI-driven approach. The company hopes this will eventually result in a “global end-to-end flood forecasting platform.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-used-ai-to-accurately-predict-floods-up-to-7-days-in-advance-191353201.html?src=rss 

Threads has begun testing swipe gestures to help users improve the algorithm that populates the For You feed. It’s reportedly called Algo Tune as, well, it helps people tune their algorithms. It’s pretty rare when any social media site, particularly one run by Meta, allows users to adjust the parameters by which the great and powerful algorithm operates, so this feature is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

It works a lot like Tinder and other dating apps. If you don’t like something on your feed, you swipe left. If you like a post and want to see more like it, you swipe right. That’s pretty much it. The algorithm is allegedly tuned over time by these responses, adjusting your feed to provide more of the content you want and less of the stuff you don’t want. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls it an “easy way to let us know what you want to see more of on your feed.”

This is just an experiment, for now, so the feature’s only rolling out to a select number of Threads users. The company also hasn’t released any specific information as to how all of the swiping actually influences the algorithm, but that’s par for the course when it comes to these things. The algo must remain protected at all costs.

The social media app sure has been busy lately, adding new tools at a rapid clip. Threads finally rolled out trending topics to all users, after experimenting with the feature since February. Meta also recently previewed fediverse integration, which would allow Threads posts on fellow social media app Mastodon. The company’s also been testing some features that let users save drafts and take photos directly in the app.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/threads-begins-testing-swipe-gestures-to-help-train-the-for-you-algorithm-175004586.html?src=rss