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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 7 February 2020

U.S. agency approves vehicle designed not to have human driver

By TOM KRISHER generation of a vehicle
DETROIT (AP) — For the first that's custom built to de-
time, the U.S. government's liver goods, but not people.
highway safety agency has The company said it plans
approved a company's to deploy fewer than 100
request to deploy a self- vehicles this year, but has
driving vehicle that doesn't permission from NHTSA to
meet federal safety stan- eventually run as many as
dards for human-driven 2,500.
cars and trucks. The delivery vehicles,
The National Highway Traf- equipped with laser, cam-
fic Safety Administration era and radar sensors, will
granted temporary ap- travel with regular traffic on
proval for Silicon Valley ro- public roads.
botics company Nuro to The exemption from mo-
run a low-speed autono- tor vehicle standards from
mous delivery vehicle, with- NHTSA also allows Nuro to
out side and rear-view mir- run its rear cameras all the
rors and other safety provi- time. Current standards re-
sions required of vehicles quire the camera displays
driven by humans. Also not to turn off when the vehicle
on the safety feature list; is moving forward so they
windshield wipers, steering This undated image provided by Nuro in February 2020 shows their self-driving vehicle "R2" carry- don't distract human driv-
wheels or brake pedals. ing bags of groceries. ers, the company said.
The vehicles previously Associated Press Nuro said in a statement
were subject to federal that the R2 has a front-end
standards for low-speed nounced plans to use its Under the temporary ap- ate space for innovation that protects pedestrians
vehicles that travel under low-speed vehicles, called proval, Nuro will have to while prioritizing safety," the by collapsing inward. It's
25 miles per hour. Those "R2," in partnership with make real-time safety re- agency said in a prepared also equipped with tem-
didn't need steering wheels Walmart to deliver grocer- ports to the agency. Nuro statement Thursday. perature controls to keep
or brake pedals and didn't ies to customers in Hous- also will have to hold regu- The agency will use en- perishable goods or meals
have to have human back- ton. The service was to start lar meetings with the agen- forcement powers if it finds fresh.
up drivers. early this year and use the cy and reach out to the any evidence of an unrea- The vehicles make curb-
Nuro vehicles can be moni- vehicles as well as auto- community in areas where sonable risk to safety, the side deliveries to humans
tored and controlled re- mated Toyota Prius hybrid the vehicles will travel. statement said. who can open the storage
motely by a human opera- cars. Nuro also was testing "NHTSA is committed to Nuro, of Mountain View, compartments with a code
tor, if needed. deliveries with Kroger in Ari- working with industry and California, announced the that's sent to them and un-
In December Nuro an- zona and Houston. key stakeholders to cre- R2 Thursday, the second load the goods.q

Twitter to label altered media,

remove if it may cause harm

But deciding what might Google, Facebook, Twit- mation, which can spread
cause harm could be dif- ter and other technology quickly on social media
ficult to define, and some services are under intense even with safeguards in
material will likely fall into a pressure to prevent interfer- place.
gray area. ence in the 2020 U.S. elec- Facebook, for instance,
"This will be a challenge and tions after they were ma- has been using third-party
we will make errors along nipulated four years ago fact-checkers to debunk
the way — we appreciate by Russia-connected ac- false stories on its site for
the patience," Twitter said tors. On Monday, Google's three years. While the ef-
This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter app icon on a
mobile phone in Philadelphia. in a blog post. "However, YouTube clarified its policy forts are paying off, the
Associated Press we're committed to doing around political manipula- battle against misinforma-
this right." tion, reiterating that it bans tion is far from over.
By BARBARA ORTUTAY that is manipulated but isn't Twitter said it considers election-related "deep- Twitter said it was commit-
AP Technology Writer necessarily harmful may threats to the safety of a fake" videos. Facebook has ted to seeking input from
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — get a warning label. person or a group serious also been ramping up its its users on such rules. Twit-
Twitter will begin to label Under the new guidelines, harm, along with risk of mass election security efforts. ter said it posted a survey
and in some cases remove the slowed-down video of violence or widespread civil As with many of Twitter's in six languages and re-
doctored or manipulated House Speaker Nancy Pe- unrest. But harm could also policies, including those ceived 6,500 responses
photos, audio and videos losi in which she appeared mean threats to people's banning hate speech or from around the world. Ac-
that are designed to mis- to slur her words could get privacy or ability to freely abuse, success will be cording to the company,
lead people. the label if someone tweets express themselves, Twit- measured by how well the the majority of respondents
The company said Tuesday it out after the rules go into ter said. This could include company can enforce it. said misleading tweets
that the new rules prohibit effect March 5. If it was stalking, voter suppression Even with rules in place, en- should be labeled, though
sharing synthetic or manip- proven that it also causes and intimidation epithets forcement can be uneven not everyone agreed on
ulated material that's likely harm, Twitter could also re- and "material that aims to and slow. This is likely to be whether they should be re-
to cause harm. Material move it. silence someone." especially true for misinfor- moved or left up.q