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Monday, March 1, 2021
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Google’s New Detroit Office

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Google’s New Detroit Office

Google has just announced it will open a Detroit office. The company has decided to lay down its self-driving car roots at the outskirts of Detroit. The tech company’s self-driving car project is ready to compete with big players and their traditional vehicles. The new garage will be set to open not far from the auto-industry hub.

The Silicon Valley Company’s new 53,000 square foot center is in Novi, Michigan. The small city’s efforts to put weight on car connectivity technology has apparently paid off. The self-driving car developer team is already working with a few companies located in the area, making the Novi facility an obvious choice.

The new shop is a lot smaller than what the 400,000 square feet the Mountain View Company is looking to buy in the San Francisco area, but for the priority of the team, the Detroit office space is enough. In the Google+ announcement the company said they want to use the Novi space as a base for the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica new hybrid minivans.

This news comes just weeks after Google has announced its partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). The collaboration was made so that Google’s self-driving technology would be implemented into one hundred custom made Chrysler Pacifica hybrids.

This project gives Google the opportunity to test its technology on larger vehicles. Up until now, the company has been using those pod-like vehicles and the Audi TT, Lexus RX450h and Toyota Prius cars.

Google stated that the goal of these collaborations was to “improve road safety and make transportation more accessible for millions of people,” thus “realizing the potential of self-driving technology.”

These strategic moves in the self-driving car industry come at a time when there is a lot of activity in the sector. Many alliances have been formed between traditional car companies and tech firms, including ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber. The idea is to become a more aggressive competitor in the areas of electric and self-driving cars.

Google’s new Detroit office news could actually be topped by the rumors revolving around Apple. Reports say Apple is working on its own self-driving technology. The buzz came after the announcement of the $1 billion investment Apple made in the Chinese ride-hailing Didi Chuxing Company.

Image source: Gizmodo

Google Patent for Self-Driving Cars

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Google Patent of New Technology for its Self-Driving Cars

Google has filed a patent for pedestrian safety that would go with its self-driving cars. The technology is similar to flypaper in concept.

The company has patented a new car technology to help protect pedestrians if they are hit by a Google self-driving car. The patent granted on 17 May is a “sticky” layer built into the front end of the car.

Google says that until technology evolves to the point when all accidents can be avoided, robot cars can also hit people.

So how would this sticky technology work? The adhesive coating on the front end would be covered with an “eggshell” exterior that would break immediately in the event of an accident.

The sticky adhesive layer could be instantaneously activated when in contact with the person involved in the crash. This action would constrain the movement of the individual until the brakes are applied by the driver or the autonomous car. Thus, both the vehicle and the casualty come to a more gradual stop than in the case of a bounce off.

To remove the pedestrian stuck on the front of the car, explains the patent, a “releasable adhesive” would allow the person to be unstuck after some time has elapsed from the moment of the impact.

The patent is made specifically for Google’s self-driving cars, but it can also be utilized with any other vehicle.

Even though technology aimed at protecting pedestrians from impact is available, they do little to lessen the secondary impact a pedestrian might face.

For example, Citroen and Jaguar added a 6.5 centimeter raised bonnet to cushion a pedestrian’s impact with the solid engine, and Volvo and Land Rover have introduced outside airbags to protect pedestrians from injury.

Turning a car into a glue trap might create its very own problem; the car could crash into another vehicle with the pedestrian stuck on the car. That would be even far more devastating for the person involved in the accident than if they were thrown over the car or to the side.

But despite these concerns, Google should be applauded for thinking not only about drivers and passengers but about others outside the vehicle too. This patent should mature into a real product.

Image source: Wikimedia

Google’s PlaNet Doesn’t Even Need Geotag to Tell Location of a Photo

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'Traveler'

Google’s ‘superhuman’ neural network PlaNet can identify random picture setting without geotagging info.

It comes natural to humans to tell where a photo was taken if the place is not new to them. But Google’s deep-learning machines are closer than ever to tell where you snapped that selfie last summer. And they do not need famous tourist attractions in the background to do so.

Google engineers explained that humans need a lifetime to enrich their knowledge on different places, architectures, vegetation, natural and artificial settings around them, which are commonly-used cues by geolocation-powered devices.

So, you may think that machines would never be capable of such feat. Yet, you should think again. A team of computer vision specialists at Google have trained a super computer to recognize the place where an image was taken by just looking at its pixels.

Developers say that the machine is so powerful that it can outperform even the savviest human. It can also tell the location of most indoor pictures and images that feature no specific background but a pet or random object.

The Google team instructed the computer to divide the planet into a grid, which has a variable density depending on how many photos a location may be home to. The team said that polar regions and oceans were not mapped as few people ever take pictures there. But above large urban areas the grid has the largest density for obvious reasons.

Google engineers also created a monster database containing 126 million geolocated photographs picked from the internet. Each image was automatically matched with the place it was taken at.

Next, researchers instructed the super computer which acts like a huge artificial neural network to detect where 91 million of those photos were taken on the grid by simply scanning each picture.

They used the remaining 34 million pictures to validate the data set in the network dubbed “PlaNet.” Finally, they tested the machine to see how well it works.

For this purpose, they ‘fed’ the computer 2.3 million photos with geotag information harvested from Flicker. The network was able to tell the location of photos in 3.6 percent of cases at street level and 10.1 percent of cases at city level. In 28 percent of cases, the machine was able to tell the country in the pictures, and in 48 percent of cases it was able to accurately tell the continent.

The researchers further tested the machine against humans. They picked human participants with vast traveling experience, and asked them to identify random images at street level from Google Street View.

In the end, PlaNet won the competition with 28 right guesses of 50. Plus, the network had a localization error of 703 miles, while humans had an average localization error of 1,441 miles. Its creators deemed the machine ‘superhuman.’

Image Source: Flickr

Google Teams Up with Telecom Operators to Replace SMS on Android

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'WhatsApp'

Google’s new messaging standard is expected to rival hugely popular messaging services such as Facebook’s WhatsApp (pictured) or Apple’s iMessage.

According to a recent report, Google teams up with telecom operators to replace SMS on Android with a new standard called Rich Communications Services (RCS). The new platform is more promising than the traditional Short Message Service because it allows users to insert videos, photos and other media with greater ease in their communications.

The web search giant is currently working with a slew of mobile carriers to implement the new standard on all Android devices. Still, RCS is not a Google invention. It was developed by mobile operators.

Reportedly, the new standard will be adopted by all 800 mobile operators that are part of a global consortium called the GSMA. The client that will use the standard is currently dubbed Jibe, and a Google team is working on its compatibility across all mobile platforms.

Experts explained that RCS is the next best thing for mobile messaging because it supports high-resolution images, group chat, and easy to access links just like popular messaging apps can. Developers are trying to implement video calls on the new standard, as well. Fortunately, the new standard will not ditch SMS and MMS for now.

But the GSMA has been trying to implement the new standard on all devices for more than decade. And now it has apparently found an enough-motivated partner in Google which needs to find a better alternative to Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage.

Nevertheless, since Apple has developed its own standard it is less likely that it would adopt RCS on its devices. But the fact that 80 percent of mobile devices across the world are powered by Android, RCS may grant Google a significant edge against competitors in the messaging war.

Plus, RCS may soon become more popular than its competitors since it will be compatible with all devices across all carriers. So, it won’t be a surprise, if it becomes the next universal standard.

On the other hand, some security experts are concerned that the new standard may make communications less secure than those on popular messaging apps. Experts explained that Apple and Facebook have closed systems, while RCS uses nodes from several carriers to convey the message, which makes it more vulnerable to malicious attacks and government prying.

Philip Lieberman of the cybersecurity research firm Lieberman Software described the new standard as ‘primitive.’ He explained that the system connects one carrier to another, thus, putting encryption at risk.

Image Source: Flickr

Congress to Bar States from Eavesdropping on their Citizen’s Phone Calls

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The U.S. House of Representatives plans to introduce a new proposal to prevent warrantless government surveillance across the U.S.

With a bipartisan bill to prevent encryption backdoors from being embedded in smartphones’ security software at state agencies’ request, Congress plans to bar states from eavesdropping on their citizens’ phone calls.

The U.S. House of Representatives announced that the new piece of legislation will be advanced Wednesday. Lawmakers hope that the new rules will help resolve the ongoing tensions between the White House and Silicon Valley.

So far, tech companies and smartphone makers have opposed federal requests to weaken their products’ encryption, or create the so-called encryption backdoors that in theory can only be accessed by state-run agencies.

In the meantime, federal agencies have often complained that they are left in the dark by the strong encryption methods used by criminals to communicate to one another via their phones.

The new law dubbed The ENCRYPT Act explicitly states that no local government or locality can force a “manufacturer, developer, seller, or provider” to create security weaknesses in their products which can be later used by authorities to surveil unsuspecting citizens.

The bill comes months after both California and New York proposed new rules to force phone and app manufacturers to insert security backdoors in smartphones produced after 2017.
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Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, one of the proponents of the new law, explained that encryption backdoors are not only a threat to individuals’ privacy but they are also ‘technologically unworkable.’ For instance, California cannot order Apple to create a different handset from the ones’ distributed in other states.

As of now, we do not know what fate The ENCRYPT Act will have but in recent years, House members have leaned to a pro-privacy position.

The tensions between federal government and tech companies have subsisted for years now. But the issue became a national controversy after Washington’s reaction to Apple’s and Google’s 2014 decision to make encryption on their products stronger.

FBI Director James Comey recently told Congress that his investigators were not able to access the handset of one of San Bernardino shooters because of the strong encryption methods in his smartphone.

On the other hand, digital privacy right advocates and tech experts have been arguing that any encryption backdoors can be exploited by cyber attackers as well not only intelligence agencies.

But a recent Harvard University report shows that concerns over security of communication may be overblown since with the current state of technology there are other means to track suspects.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Google Takes Stance against Sites Promoting Phony Download Buttons

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Some sites hide advertising under fake download or play buttons.

According to a recent report, Google plans to take a stance against sites promoting phony download buttons, fake play buttons and pesky pop-up ads that require you to do something you would rather not such as downloading a software to remove zillions of computer viruses that were reportedly found on your device.

The web search giant said that these sites would be blocked by default. But the move would be gradual as users are required to submit reports whenever they stumble upon one such site. So, Google will need some extra time to process consumer reports and see which sites made a habit of these practices.

The company explained that the sites would be blocked through the feature called Safe Browsing. The feature was rolled a few years ago with the sole purpose to shield users from accessing sites laden with malware or other sites that were simply considered unsafe by the search engine.

But last fall, Google started to block websites that tricked users into installing unsolicited software or reveal personal information to third parties. These moves are also known as social engineering attacks, Google experts explained.

The search giant, however, now wants to cleanse the internet even more, and block sites that deliver phony embedded content to make some cash. Unfortunately, some major tech sites sometimes insert a phony download button near the real one, as well. So expect Sourceforge and CNET among others to be blocked by default on Google’s search results pages.

Webmasters have already complained that they cannot manage the situation all on their own since oftentimes the deceiving content is delivered by random ad servers. And Google does not have a solution to the problem. It only says that ad providers may rotate ads on pages so users need to hit refresh several times to see the deceiving ads appear.

Webmasters aside, most Google users would benefit from the change. Google’s search engine records billions of search queries every day and tens of thousands of sites promote false advertising to get some extra cash. Unfortunately, the phony links also redirect users to dubious sites that infect their systems with malicious software such as keyloggers and viruses.

Google said that sites that contain phony download and play buttons, phony alerts to update an ‘out-of-date’ Flash player and other ads that try to mimic their functionality would be blocked and users would see a big red pop-up warning before trying to access the sites.

Image Source: Malwarebytes

Is Google Going to Pour More AI into its Search Engine?

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With the incoming appointment of AI research boss as head of the search division, Google’s search engine could benefit from more AI influx.

With the incoming appointment of the AI research boss as head of the web search division, Google’s search engine could soon benefit from out-of-this world AI-based features.

Following the announcement that the web search giant plans to promote the head of its Artificial Intelligence research department as head of its search division, many people started asking themselves: is Google going to pour more AI into its search engine?

Google said Feb. 3 that John Giannandrea will now lead the search department as former search king Amit Singhal who led the division for 15 years announced that he will retire to pursue his philanthropic purposes.

But the piece of news may mean more than we see at a first glance. The move may be a sign that the tech behemoth has big plans to implement more AI into its largest business. So far, Google paired AI with its efforts to prevent online fraud, its smart word identification programs, and driverless cars.

Singhal wrote in a recent blog post that more than 1 billion people use the company’s search engine, so expectations are high. Plus, online search is ‘stronger than ever,’ former search boss said, and it would become even stronger with the new leaders.

With the new AI boss in charge of the world’s most popular search engine, we could see the search engine morph into a system that can accurately predict what you are looking for, with minimum keyboard input.

The idea was touted by Google’s co-founder Larry Page in the early 2000s when he said that AI could turn Google into “the ultimate search engine that would understand everything on the Web.”

The idea was confirmed by Google employees, as well, who said that anything Page could thing about was how to implement AI into the company’s crown jewel. In 2015, an anonymous Google engineer said that the tech giant was scanning all those books not for people, but for machines.

A few days ago, Google announced that it is the proud owner of a software that defeated a human champion at Go, a Chinese strategy game that is even more difficult than the traditional chess. Earlier this week, the company’s CFO said that artificiall intelligence was listed as one of the most significant ‘moon shots’ on its to-do list.

But in the meantime Singhal made all these possible. Over the last 15 years, the amount of work he put into the web search business was so tremendous, and he helped the business flourish so much that someone even likened him to Apple’s famed designer Jony Ive.

Image Source: Pixabay

Tech companies Request Senate to Pass NSA Reform Bill

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Reform Government Surveillance, a group that is representing large technology companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple asked the U.S. Senate on Tuesday not to push back reform of National Security Agency surveillance. The Reform Goverment Surveillance requested lawmakers not to extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act.

The companies that have formed the Reform Government Surveillance group are Apple, AOL, Evernote, Dropbox, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Twitter and Yahoo.

Only last week, the House of Representatives voted 338-88 to approve the USA Freedom Act which would, among other specifications and results, stop the highly controversial bulk collection of phone records of American citizens by the NSA. The Freedom Act also induces placing restrictions on the search terms that are used to retrieve the records.

The bill has been facing opposition in the Senate from Republican members who are supporting the renewal of the actual Section 215 of the Patriot Act which provides the legal framework for the process of collecting phone data.

The importance for Congress to pass legislation is underlined by the upcoming expiry on June 1 of specific parts of the Patriot Act, among which is Section 215. Under a so-called “sunset” clause, the specifications will lapse unless they are reauthorized in the same or in a modified form.

A bill pushed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in May would assure the surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act stay in place until 2020. To buy time as efforts are concentrated on reform, another bill has been introduced in the senate calendar in order to extend Section 215 and other provisions which are set to expire in the current form until July 31.

The technology giants announced that the USA Freedom Act averts the bulk collection of Internet information and provides for more transparency regarding government demands for user data from technology companies. It also assures that the relevant accountability and oversight mechanisms are in place.

The USA Freedom Act targets, for example, to change the specifications for national security letters, that are used by the government to obtain information from electronic or wire communication service providers but also from other agencies as well. Recipients will be permitted to challenge the nondisclosure conditions, which are associated with these documents, and also the national security letters.

The open letter signed by the tech companies and sent to members of the Senate warns that pushing back action on reform would “a missed opportunity.”

Image Source: Pro Publica

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