Bumps in the Road to Our Robo-Car Future
Uncanny Valley | WIRED2 Elo 2019

Bumps in the Road to Our Robo-Car Future

From fledgling startups to automotive giants like General Motors, there’s a whole lot of companies looking to develop fully self-driving cars. But that goal is still a long way from reality. The world is a messy, unpredictable place, and it turns out that robots aren’t that great at handling the array of variables that come up when trying to move around in it.

This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, WIRED transportation writer Alex Davies joins Mike, Arielle, and Lauren to talk about why it’s so difficult to program a fully autonomous vehicle, and how the companies making them have adjusted to the challenge.

Show Notes:

Read more from Alex Davies on GM’s robo-taxis, the startup developing self-driving vans for Walmart, and bike lane-bound autonomous delivery vehicles. Arielle has more on the Google Pixel 4’s gesture controls here. Lauren details Intel’s new processor line here. Read more from Lily Hay Newman about the Capital One security breach and the hacker who didn’t cover her tracks here.

Recommendations:

For all the baseball fans out there, Alex recommends MLB TV. Mike recommends letting a robotic-exoskeleton make you dance as part of the art project Inferno. Lauren recommends Workin’ Moms on Netflix. Arielle recommends Huji, the app that turns your phone into a disposable camera.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jaksot(431)

How Data Centers Actually Work

How Data Centers Actually Work

Tech giants have been investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI data centers just this year alone. But as the deals pile up, so have the concerns around their viability and sustainability. Mik...

23 Loka 202528min

BIG INTV: Zohran Mamdani, the Internet’s Mayor

BIG INTV: Zohran Mamdani, the Internet’s Mayor

Mere months ago, New York's mayoral frontrunner was polling at the same level as literally "someone else." Zohran Mamdani talks to Katie about building a social media juggernaut, Big Tech capitulation...

20 Loka 202532min

WIRED Roundup: Satellites Data Leak, Cybertrucks, Politicized Federal Workers

WIRED Roundup: Satellites Data Leak, Cybertrucks, Politicized Federal Workers

In today’s episode, Zoë is joined by WIRED’s Jake Lahut to run through five stories that you need to know about this week — from how satellites are leaking sensitive data to what Zoë learned after int...

17 Loka 202521min

The New Power of Far-Right Influencers

The New Power of Far-Right Influencers

History professor Mark Bray is no stranger to death threats. As the author of the book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, published in 2017, he has received backlash and harassment from far-right circ...

16 Loka 202532min

BIG INTV: Mark Cuban Would Still Have Dinner With Donald Trump

BIG INTV: Mark Cuban Would Still Have Dinner With Donald Trump

Billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs, talks to Katie about the state of entrepreneurship, American healthcare, and tech under Trump. The investor cam...

14 Loka 202544min

WIRED Roundup: Are We In An AI Bubble?

WIRED Roundup: Are We In An AI Bubble?

In today’s episode, Zoë is joined by WIRED’s Leah Feiger to run through five stories that you need to know about this week — from the Antifa professor who’s fleeing to Europe for safety, to how some c...

10 Loka 202521min

How China Is Hoping to Attract Tech Talent

How China Is Hoping to Attract Tech Talent

When news broke last month that H1-B visa holders in the U.S would be subjected to a new hefty fee of $100,000, chaos and confusion ensued for a lot of tech workers and their employers. It’s the lates...

9 Loka 202532min

BIG INTV: Patreon CEO Jack Conte Wants You to Get Off of Your Phone

BIG INTV: Patreon CEO Jack Conte Wants You to Get Off of Your Phone

Jack Conte, founder of Patreon tells Katie if we can send rockets into space and have self-driving cars we can figure out how to pay creators for their work. In this interview recorded in front of a l...

7 Loka 202532min