(Reuters) — Facial recognition vendor Rank One Computing said on Wednesday it would “add legal means” and research other ways to thwart misuse after its software was involved in the first known wrongful arrest based on the technology in the United States. Robert Williams, who is Black, spent over a day in Detroit police custody […]
Read More
(Reuters) — Several U.S. civil rights groups called upon some of the world’s largest companies to pause advertising on Facebook in July, saying the social network is not doing enough to stop hate speech on its platforms. The groups, which include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Anti-Defamation League […]
Read More
(Reuters) — Amazon said on Monday its founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos was willing to testify to a congressional panel investigating potential violations of U.S. antitrust law by big technology companies. The company’s attorney sent a letter to members of the House Judiciary Committee, saying Amazon had cooperated with the probe. “This includes making […]
Read More
The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) division of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today detailed the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing (AV TEST), a program that’ll provide an online, public-facing forum for sharing automated driving system on-road testing activities. When live, NHTSA’s website will show whether companies or authorities are […]
Read More The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) division of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today detailed the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing (AV TEST), a program that’ll provide an online, public-facing forum for sharing automated driving system on-road testing activities. When live, NHTSA’s website will show whether companies or authorities are […]
Read More
(Reuters) — U.S. auto safety regulators will unveil on Monday a voluntary effort to collect and make available nationwide data on existing autonomous vehicle testing. U.S. states have a variety of regulations governing self-driving testing and data disclosure, and there is currently no centralized listing of all automated vehicle testing. California, for example, requires public […]
Read More
(Reuters) — Self-driving cars, long touted by developers as a way to eliminate road deaths, could likely only prevent a third of all U.S. road crashes, according to a study released on Thursday. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a research group financed by U.S. insurers, found the remaining crashes were caused by mistakes […]
Read More
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a group of organizations filed a lawsuit against Clearview AI today in an Illinois court alleging privacy and safety violations and asserting that Clearview “will end privacy as we know it if it isn’t stopped.” According to ACLU vs Clearview AI court filings, the startup violated the Illinois […]
Read More
Clara Analytics, a predictive analytics company for workers’ compensation claims, today announced that it has raised $25 million. The company says the proceeds will help extend its product suite, attract talent, and expand its global reach. Insurance companies are increasingly applying AI across all aspects of their business. A study by Genpact found that 87% […]
Read More
Nearly two months after announcing it would halt operations around the country in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Waymo today said it will begin limited driving tests in the Metro Phoenix area starting on May 11. The Alphabet-backed autonomous vehicle startup described this as the first part of a “tiered approach” to gradually relaunch operations […]
Read More
Legal tech startup Bodhala this week closed a $10 million round, the bulk of which will be put toward product R&D and sales efforts, cofounder and CEO Raj Goyle told VentureBeat. The company’s platform taps AI and machine learning to help companies analyze and optimize legal spend — a valuable service in light of the […]
Read More
A consortium of organizations including Intel, Mozilla, and Creative Commons have joined the Open COVID Pledge, an effort led by legal experts and scientists to make intellectual property (IP) available for the fight against COVID-19. The aim is to bolster cooperation in pursuit of an end to the coronavirus pandemic; companies, institutions, and universities will […]
Read More
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) today issued a permit authorizing Nuro to test driverless delivery vehicles on public roads within a portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. It follows the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) decision in February to grant the company an autonomous vehicle exemption, which allowed Nuro to […]
Read More
When VentureBeat asked Andrew Burt why he was starting an AI-focused law firm, Burt was quick to clarify that it’s about AI and analytics. But that didn’t answer the underlying question of why the world needs a law firm focused so precisely on this one key area. “The thesis behind the law firm is that […]
Read More
Just over a month after Uber received a California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) license to test driverless cars on public roads, the company has resumed autonomous testing in San Francisco. Uber says it will limit its time on the road to a “few weeks” while it completes a codebase and infrastructure update and that […]
Read More
FairShake (formerly Radvocate) is a startup that taps automation and human review to expedite settling consumer disputes with companies. It helps deliver legal notices to companies and, if necessary, bring the claims to consumer arbitration. And three years after FairShake’s founding, investors are warming up to the idea. FairShake today announced that it’s secured $3 […]
Read More
(Reuters) — Apple has agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle litigation accusing it of quietly slowing down older iPhones as it launched new models, to induce owners to buy replacement phones or batteries. The preliminary proposed class-action settlement was disclosed on Friday night and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila […]
Read More
A few weeks ago, Maribel Cortez was at home in Rockville, Maryland with her five kids and husband when one of her kids opened the door. ICE officers then arrested her husband in front of them. “They didn’t give any explanation. It wasn’t until they were detaining him and putting him in the car that […]
Read More
This morning, as it’s done for the past several years, the California Department of Motor vehicles released a batch of reports from the companies piloting self-driving vehicles in the state. By law, all companies actively testing autonomous cars on public roads in California are required to disclose the number of miles driven and how often […]
Read More
(Reuters) — U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday questioned whether Facebook, Google, and other major online platforms still need the immunity from legal liability that has kept them from being sued over material their users post. “No longer are tech companies the underdog upstarts. They have become titans,” Barr said at a public meeting […]
Read More
On Friday, February 7, the California Office of the Attorney General (CAG) published a “notice of modifications” to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), followed by an update on Monday, February 10. Although the CCPA is now law, the rulemaking process is still ongoing, with a final draft of the law expected sometime before the […]
Read More
(Reuters) — China’s Huawei has launched legal action against Verizon Communications, alleging the U.S. carrier used 12 of its patents without authorization. The telecommunications equipment maker is seeking compensation for the use of its technology in areas such as computer networking, download security and video communications, and is also seeking ongoing royalty payments, showed documents […]
Read More
In May 2018, Uber announced it wouldn’t renew its permit to test self-driving vehicles in California, citing caution in the wake of a fatal accident involving one of its autonomous cars in Arizona. (The California Department of Motor Vehicles requires that companies apply to test autonomous cars in the state.) But in a bid to […]
Read More
(Reuters) — The U.S. Justice Department has reached out to app developers as part of its investigation into Apple, one of the four big tech companies being probed for alleged anti-competitive behavior, according to one of the developers and another person familiar with the investigation. The chief executive of developer Mobicip, Suren Ramasubbu, told Reuters […]
Read More
(Reuters) — The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it will hold a public meeting on Feb. 19 to discuss the future of a federal law which largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post. The meeting will examine the future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which […]
Read More
Amazon-backed autonomous vehicle company Aurora is in search of better metrics by which to compare driverless system safety. In a Medium post this morning, CEO Chris Urmson noted that the commonly used disengagement number, which indicates how often a vehicle switched from autonomous to manual mode, doesn’t adequately capture improvements or their impact over time. […]
Read More
Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communications will be one of the lynchpins for future autonomous driving, enabling cars to directly communicate with one another and local traffic infrastructure using wireless signals. Today, Audi, Qualcomm, and the Virginia Department of Transportation announced that they will bring the new communications technology to actual streets in Virginia later this year, […]
Read More