Since June 2021, car makers operating in the USA have to report any crashes their vehicles are involved in with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) engaged. These are also known as "level 2" systems, usually a combination of lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control and are standard on most new cars. Tesla's Autopilot was involved in 273 of the 392 reported ADAS incidents between July 2021 and May 15th 2022. The data isn't perfect (doesn't account for the distance driven and the conditions, how many cars with these features are on the road, or the time before an accident ADAS was disengaged) so can be interpreted multiple ways, but damn that's a big chunk of incidents for Tesla cars.
A freedom of information request by iTnews has uncovered that Australian Border Force "inspected" 41,410 smartphones, computers and removable hard drives, legally without a warrant between 2017 and 2021. In 2019 (pre-COVID), ABF searched almost 15,000 devices. Apparently if the device has a password or passcode, you don't have to hand that over - but of course ABF won't tell you this. It's nice to have these numbers, but I have so many questions. What happened to the data when it was copied? Who saw it? What happens to the data after the investigation is over? What decision process is used to search someone's device? Did copying this data even make a difference in securing the border?!
Internet Explorer's death has been proclaimed multiple times over the years, but like a cockroach, it persists much to most people's disgust. Today marks another nail in IE's coffin with Microsoft ending official support and security updates - kinda. Gradually IE 11 will be removed from Windows 10 PCs via Software Update, but IE 11 will still be available in "Windows 7 ESU, Windows 8.1, and all versions of Windows 10 LTSC client, IoT, and Server" and "for supported operating systems, Internet Explorer 11 will continue receiving security updates and technical support for the lifecycle of the Windows version on which it is installed". There's also IE mode in Edge if you're happen to stumble across an IE only website. Arstechnica has a nice article on IE's history and legacy.
You may have heard yesterday that AEMO has suspended the national electricity market. If, like me, you have virtually no knowledge of the electricity market and why suspending the market still results in power flowing through the grid, this article on The Conversation is a good read. Normally the market sets the price of power and it floats around based on various factors, but now generators will "provide their availability and AEMO will tell generators when to run to ensure secure supply. Market prices are then fixed at the average of the past 28 days for that hour of the day – between $150/MWh and $300/MWh". Pretty wild that an entire market was just nationalised before our eyes. Maybe it'll lead to a re-think about how we generate and sell electricity in Australia.
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