Kalakshar US

Reports of David Limp’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated. The former SVP of Devices and Services announced last week at Amazon’s 2023 Devices Event that he would be stepping down from the role he had held for more than a decade. By Monday, however, Limp had reportedly been tapped by Jeff Bezos to take over for current Blue Origin CEO, Bob Smith, who is retiring at the start of December.

MSNBC reports that Smith will stick around until January 2, 2024 to assist with the transition. Bezos sent the following announcement to the Blue Origin’s workforce on Monday: 

I’m excited to share that Dave Limp will join Blue starting December 4th as CEO, replacing Bob, who has elected to step aside on January 2. The overlap is purposeful to ensure a smooth transition.

Before I provide some background on Dave, I’d like to take the time to recognize Bob and the significant growth and transformation we’ve experienced during his tenure. Under Bob’s leadership, Blue has grown to several billion dollars in sales orders, with a substantial backlog for our vehicles and engines. Our team has increased from 850 people when Bob joined to more than 10,000 today. We’ve expanded from one office in Kent to building a launch pad at LC-36 and five million square feet of facilities across seven states.

Our mission has grown too – we’ve flown 31 people above the Kármán Line, almost five percent of all the people who have been to space. Flight-qualified BE-4 engines are ready to boost Vulcan into orbit. New Glenn is nearing launch next year, and, with our recent NASA contract, we will land Americans back on the Moon, this time to stay. We have also engaged and inspired millions of children and educators through our Club for the Future efforts. We’ve made tremendous progress in building a road to space for the benefit of Earth, thanks to each of you and Bob’s leadership.

I’ve worked closely with Dave for many years. He is the right leader at the right time for Blue. Dave joins us after almost 14 years at Amazon, where he most recently served as senior vice president of Amazon Devices and Services, leading Kuiper, Kindle, Alexa, Zoox, and many other businesses. Before Amazon, Dave had roles at other high-tech companies, including Palm and Apple. Dave is a proven innovator with a customer-first mindset and extensive experience leading and scaling large, complex organizations. Dave has an outstanding sense of urgency, brings energy to everything, and helps teams move very fast.

Please join me in welcoming Dave and thanking Bob. Through this transition, I know we’ll remain focused on our customer commitments, production schedules, and executing with speed and operational excellence. I look forward to the many exciting and historic milestones ahead of us!

Jeff    

MSNBC obtained Limp’s welcome as well:

Team Blue,

It’s been about six years since I joined Blue Origin. During that time, our team, facilities, and sales orders have grown dramatically, and we’ve made significant contributions to the history of spaceflight.

With pride and satisfaction in all that we’ve accomplished, I’m announcing that effective December 4, I will be stepping aside as Chief Executive Officer of Blue Origin. I will remain with Blue until January 2 to ensure a smooth transition with the new CEO.

It has been my privilege to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin’s greatest achievements are still ahead of us. We’ve rapidly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent space business. We have the right strategy. a supremely talented team, a robust customer base, and some of the most technically ambitious and exciting projects in the entire industry. We also have a team that cares deeply about its mission, legacy, and how we contribute to the next generation and bring everyone into a brighter future.

Jeff and I have been discussing my plan for months, and Jeff will announce Blue’s new CEO in a separate note shortly. I’m very excited about the operational excellence and culture of innovation this new leader will bring to Blue. building on the foundation we’ve created over the past few years.

I’m committed to ensuring this transition is flawless, and everyone should know that Ill always be on Team Blue.

Gradatim Ferociter.

Bob Smith

Amazon has not officially named its successor for Limp, though Microsoft’s product chief, Panos Panay — who also just so happened to leave the role he held for two decades last week — has been rumored as a leading choice for that position.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dave-limp-will-lead-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-after-retiring-from-amazon-212411125.html?src=rss 

Huawei is moving deeper into the electric vehicle business with the help of Chery Autos and now we know when the first production model from their joint venture will arrive. Luxeed is slated to debut its coupe-style S7 in China in late November, according to the South China Morning Post.

Luxeed’s blend of Huawei’s tech and Chery’s manufacturing know-how could help the S7 to make a splash in an increasingly crowded EV market. There’s clearly some confidence in the car too. “It will be superior to Tesla’s Model S in various aspects,” Richard Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei’s car unit, said at an event.

The EV’s range, price and tech features weren’t disclosed at the event, the South China Morning Post noted. However, it emerged in August that the S7 will be based on state-owned Chery’s E0X platform, which is designed for two-motor, all-wheel-drive EVs.

This isn’t exactly Huawei’s first foray into EVs. The company collaborated with automaker Seres to create the Aito brand (which Huawei now fully owns) in 2021. Aito’s first all-electric model, the M5, arrived last year. Aito will start deliveries of its M9, a luxury electric SUV, in China in December. Huawei has also been supplying other automakers with its Huawei HI intelligent automotive solution that includes a 4D imaging radar and an autonomous driving platform.

Don’t expect to see Luxeed’s S7 make its way over to the US anytime soon, if ever, though. Huawei is still subject to sanctions in the country.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/huawei-and-chery-autos-claim-their-first-production-ev-bests-the-tesla-model-s-200918326.html?src=rss 

Reddit announced today that it will begin paying top contributors for gold. The platform’s new Contributor Program allows redditors who meet certain requirements to receive real-world money (distributed monthly) for their awarded content. The company is also revamping how post / comment rewards work by eliminating Reddit Coins (and all associated awards) in favor of all gold all the time.

The Contributor Program is open to redditors who are 18+ years old, in an eligible location (only the US at the beginning), have an account “in good standing” and meet karma minimums. Reddit will grant “standard contributor” status (earning 90 cents per gold awarded) to those with at least 10 gold who received between 100 and 4,999 karma in the last 12 months. Beyond that, “top contributors” (earning $1 per gold awarded) will need a minimum of 10 gold and over 5,000 karma from the preceding 12 months. Redditors falling below those thresholds won’t be eligible for real-world payments until they reach the goals.

You can check your eligibility by navigating to the program page via your profile menu. If you can join, the “Get Verified to Start Earning” button will be highlighted and tappable/clickable.

Reddit also made some interface changes to match the new emphasis on gold. Gilded posts and comments will now display a gold upvote icon in place of the standard one. The platform also now lets you award and purchase gold straight from a post: You can now long-press on the upvote icon for a post or comment in the Reddit mobile app (or, eventually, hover the cursor over the symbol on the web) to choose between giving one and 25 gold awards. A single gold will cost users $2, while they could pay up to $49 for 25 of them. The new gold system is available now on mobile and will roll out to web users “later this year.”

Reddit’s API changes from earlier this year make it much more difficult for third parties to track engagement on the platform. However, with anecdotal reports of engagement dropping after the API protests, today’s moves could be viewed as a carrot to lure / retain prolific contributors who will help the platform build engagement — similar to creator programs from X, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/reddit-turns-top-contributors-reddit-gold-into-real-world-money-203036387.html?src=rss 

Amazon is paywalling more formerly free features on its smart home devices. Several months after it moved some basic Ring alarm system features behind a subscription plan, Amazon is doing something similar for several Alexa Guard functions.

Alexa Guard is a free security feature that came as standard on Echo devices. It listens out for things like alarms and intruders when you aren’t at home. However, the company is shutting down Alexa Guard, as The Verge reports.

Some Alexa Guard features will remain available to everyone at no extra cost as part of the core Alexa experience. These include the Home and Away modes (for arming and disarming a Ring Alarm system) and Away Lighting, which turns on smart lights to make it seem like you’re en casa.

However, you’ll need to pay for the new Emergency Assist service to keep using several features. Amazon is paywalling Alexa Guard’s smoke and CO alarm detection functions. You’ll also soon have to pony up for a subscription if you want Alexa to keep an ear out for the sound of breaking glass, signifying a possible intruder.

There’s at least some good news for Ring Protect Pro members who linked their Ring and Alexa accounts as of September 20. Those folks will get an Alexa Emergency Assist membership at no extra cost until October 31 next year. Guard Plus, which added some extra features to Alexa Guard for a monthly or annual fee, is no longer available for purchase. It was included with a Ring Protect Pro plan.

Alexa Emergency Assist currently costs $6 per month or $59 per year. However, that’s listed as an introductory price that will only remain valid for everyone until January 8. After that time, non-Prime subscribers will have to pay extra for Emergency Assist. Much like Guard Plus, Alexa Emergency Assist enables users to call emergency services via the voice assistant on an Echo device.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-will-start-charging-for-formerly-free-alexa-guard-smoke-and-security-alerts-184602106.html?src=rss 

NASA’s pioneering OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully returned from its journey to the asteroid Bennu. The robotic spacecraft briefly set down on the celestial body in a first-of-its-kind attempt (by an American space agency) to collect pristine rock samples, before alighting and heading back to Earth on a three-year roundtrip journey. The samples impacted safely on Sunday in the desert at the DoD’s Utah Test and Training Range and Dugway Proving Grounds.

Even more impressive, the spacecraft performed its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) maneuver autonomously through the craft’s onboard Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) visual navigation system — another first! Engadget recently sat down with Guidance Navigation and Control Manager at Lockheed Martin Dr. Ryan Olds, who helped develop the NFT system, to discuss how the groundbreaking AI was built and where in the galaxy it might be heading next.

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) is America’s first attempt at retrieving physical samples from a passing asteroid (Japan has already done it twice). Bennu, being roughly 70 million miles from Earth when OSIRIS first intercepted it, presented far more of a challenge in landing than previous, larger targets like the also-not-particularly-easy-to-reach targets of the moon or Mars

“There’s so many different factors,” in matching the myriad velocities and trajectories involved in these landing maneuvers, Olds told Engadget. “So many little details. A lot of what we’re doing is based on models and, if you have little error sources in your model that aren’t being taken into account, then those can lead to big mistakes. So it’s really, really important to make sure you’re modeling everything accurately.”

In fact, after OSIRIS-REx rendezvoused with Bennu in 2020, the spacecraft spent more than 500 days circling the asteroid and capturing detailed images of its surface from which the ground control team generated digital terrain models. “It takes a lot of research to make sure you’ve got all the effects understood,” Olds said. “We did a lot of that with our work on Natural Feature Tracking to make sure we understood the gravity field around the asteroid. Even little things like the spacecraft’s heaters turning on and off — even that produces a very, very tiny propulsive effect because you’re radiating heat, and on really small bodies like Bennu, those little things matter.”

Since the asteroid revolved around its axis, the surface transitioning from sunlit side to dark and back again, every four hours, the OSIRIS team had to, “design all of our TAG trajectories so that we were flying over the lit portion of the asteroid,“ Olds said. “We didn’t want the spacecraft to ever miss the maneuver and accidentally drift back into the eclipse behind the asteroid.” The NFT system, much like a Tesla, relies primarily on an array of visual spectrum cameras to know where it is in space, with a LiDAR system operating as backup.

LiDAR was initially going to be the primary method of navigating, given the team’s belief during the planning phase that the surface of Bennu resembled a sandy, beach-like environment. “We weren’t expecting to have any hazards like big boulders,” Olds said. ”So the navigation system was really only designed to make sure we would land within about a 25-meter area, and LiDAR was the system of choice for that. But quickly once we got to Bennu, we were really surprised by what it looked like, just boulders everywhere, hazards everywhere.”

The team had difficulty spotting any potential landing site with a radius larger than eight meters, which meant that the LiDAR system would not be precise enough for the task. They racked their brains and decided to switch over to using the NFT system, which offered the ability to estimate orbital state in three dimensions. This is helpful in knowing if there’s a boulder in the lander’s descent path. The spacecraft ultimately touched down within just 72cm of its target.

“We did have some ground-based models from radar imagery,” Olds said. “But that really only gave us a very kind of bulk shape — it didn’t give us the detail.” OSIRIS’s 17 months of flyovers provided that missing granularity in the form of thousands of high-resolution images. Those images were subsequently transmitted back to Earth where members of the OSIRIS-REx Altimetry Working Group (AltWG) processed, analyzed and reassembled them into a catalog of more than 300 terrain reference maps and trained a 3D shape model of the terrain. The NFT system relied on these assets during its TAG maneuver to adjust its heading and trajectory.

That full maneuver was a four-part process starting at the “safe-home terminator orbit” of Bennu. The spacecraft moved onto the daylight side of the asteroid, to a position about 125m above the surface dubbed Checkpoint. The third maneuver shifted OSIRIS-REx to Matchpoint, 55m above the surface, so that by the time it finished descending and came into contact with the asteroid, it would be traveling at just 10 cm/s. At that point the ship switched from visual cameras (which were less useful due to kicked-up asteroid dust) to using its onboard accelerometer and the delta-v update (DVU) algorithm to accurately estimate its relative position. In its fourth and final maneuver, was the craft — and its approximately eight-oz (250g) cargo — gently backed away from the 4.5 billion-year-old space rock.

Sunday’s touchdown was not the end of the NFT’s spacefaring career. An updated and upgraded version of the navigation system will potentially be aboard the next OSIRIS mission, OSIRIS-APEX. “Next year, we’re going to start hitting the whiteboard about what we want this updated system to do. We learned a lot of lessons from the primary mission.”

Olds notes that the asteroid’s small stature made navigation a challenge, “because of all those little tiny forces I was telling you about. That caused a lot of irritation on the ground … so we’re definitely wanting to improve the system to be even more autonomous so that future ground crews don’t have to be so involved.“ The OSIRIS spacecraft is already en route to its APEX target, the 1,000-foot wide Apophis asteroid, which is scheduled to pass within just 20,000 miles of Earth in 2029. NASA plans to put OSIRIS into orbit around the asteroid to see if doing so affects the body’s orbit, spin rate, and surface features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/osiris-rex-used-a-tesla-esque-navigation-system-to-capture-45-billion-year-old-regolith-192132417.html?src=rss