State roads adapting for autonomous vehicles

In yet another sign of the rapid advance of self-driving technology, California has already started adapting roads for autonomous vehicles.

Because autonomous and semi-autonomous cars use cameras to “see” road markings, those markings are being changed, Caltrans director Malcolm Dougherty told KPCC Southern California Public Radio.

“All of our lane lines are going to get thicker,” Dougherty said, according to the station.

“Today our lane lines are only four inches thick. Now every lane line we lie down going forward is going to be six inches thick. I’ve already started to see some of this transition.”

Another roadway modification concerns the rounded Botts’ Dots that mark lane divisions and make cars go bump when they’re driven over.

“The automated vehicles (AVs) can follow lane lines,” Dougherty said.

“They can’t follow the Botts’ Dots, so we’re actually changing our delineation standards to go away from the Botts’ Dots which we’ve been using for decades because AVs have a difficult time following those.”

To make California’s 50,000 lane miles of road robot-car ready, the new markings will be put down during construction projects and the regular re-striping of roadways, Dougherty said.

“I would say we would at least prioritize the interstates and freeways and have that done in the next two or three years,” he said.

Hackers could take over iPhone, iPad

If you ever use Wi-Fi on your iPhone or your iPad, you should consider upgrading your device’s iOS to protect against a potentially dangerous hack.

Apple patched more than 40 issues in its new 10.3.3 update, but the one that matters most is its fix against the “Broadpwn” exploit. Through this exploit, hackers can take over a person’s device if the target is within their Wi-Fi range.

This is possible because of a vulnerability in the Wi-Fi chipset, which allows hackers to get inside the device and execute “arbitrary code” to complete the takeover.

Apple’s new update to patch this issue affects all recent devices dating back to the iPhone 5 and iPad 4th generation.

“Broadpwn,” discovered by cybersecurity researcher Nitay Artenstein, has affected Android devices as well. Google patched this issue in its newest update earlier this month, which affects phones from Samsung, LG, and its own in-house Nexus phones.

The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology gave Broadpwn a “critical” 9.8 out of 10 on its severity scale.

Apple says it does not discuss security issues for consumer protection. But it acknowledged Artenstein as the discoverer of the exploit in its company blog explaining all the fixes in the new iOS update

It is unclear who created the Broadpwn exploit or when it was created. Artenstein is scheduled to present the details of his Broadpwn findings at the Black Hat security conference next week. — Seung Lee

Google bikes being stolen, dumped

Those multi-colored Google bikes may look kind of cool and funky being ridden around the Googleplex, but it’s a different story when they end up in a creek covered in muck and bleaching in the sun.

The bikes are supposed to be for Googlers only. But because multitudes of them are typically left unlocked in and around Google’s headquarters campus, they’re sometimes taken for a joy ride by tourists — or pilfered by the ill-intentioned.

One or more of the latter, it appears, has taken to disposing of stolen Google bikes in a local creek. Local residents are decrying a new eyesore, with one complaining that Google should be doing a better job at preventing the problem.

Recently, every week has seen more Google bikes dumped into Stevens Creek in the North Whisman neighborhood of Mountain View, according to a new report in the Mountain View Voice.

“Within a quarter-mile stretch, there were at least 13 bikes down in the creek bed,” the news website reported. “Some were covered in algae and sun-bleached, indicating they had been there for no short amount of time.”

Aaron Grossman, executive director of the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail, went fishing for Google bikes in the creek on a recent weekend, hauling out a half dozen of them.

“This is an annoyance and a real concern for us,” Grossman told the Voice.

“Years ago people used to toss industrial waste into the creek. Bikes by comparison are pretty mild, but it’s still inappropriate.”

Grossman supports Google’s bike program, and said he hadn’t seen bikes in the creek until recently.

The Voice said Google admitted more of its bikes were being stolen this year, but the firm wouldn’t provide any numbers. A company bike-retrieval team patrols the campus and surrounding areas daily, Google told the Voice.

Local resident Steven Chandler, who reportedly has been pressing Google to do more about the dumped-bikes eyesore, took a dim view of Google’s response and of the bike program itself.

“It just seems wrong that we have someone who is so wealthy that they have these throwaway bicycles,” Chandler told the Voice.

“It feels like Google is too high up to go down and pull their bikes up.”

Google officials are considering adding GPS tracking devices to the bikes, the Voice reported.

Wayward or dumped Google bikes can be reported to the company at lostgbike@google.com or (650) 253-5353. — Ethan Baron

Elon Musk warns governors about AI

Elon Musk offered a simple message for weary governors struggling with budget shortfalls, healthcare repeal and natural disasters: Beware of the robots.

“There certainly will be job disruption. Because what’s going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us,” the Tesla CEO told elected leaders Saturday at the National Governors Association conference. “I mean, all of us.”

A robot governor? Who will lead the July 4th parades? Cut ribbons? Cuddle babies and twist lawmakers’ arms?

“Yeah, I am not sure exactly what to do about this,” the tech mogul said during a far-ranging conversation. “This is really the scariest problem to me, I will tell you.”

Musk has warned about robot overlords in the past. He launched an artificial intelligence company, Neuralink, this year to develop an interface between the human brain and computers. He told the bipartisan group of governors that he has access to cutting-edge AI research, and believes it’s a fundamental risk to human civilization.

He has also focused on colonizing Mars as a way to preserve and spread humanity. — Louis Hansen