instead of on particular projects that might save one patch of forest while pushing loggers, developers and landowners down the road to another patch.
The deal is expected to give Jatoil between 1, 000 and 2, 000 hectares of established jatropha-bearing land in Java.
The biosafety issue of Bt brinjal has been studied by more than 150 scientists and nothing new will come from fresh consultations.
who opposed the introduction of Bt brinjal citing what they called inadequate safety data provided by Mahyco.
since 2002 show that Bt brinjal is absolutely safe to eat. But Bhargava and activist groups argue that the GEAC did not get the company data independently analysed.
The only other study, by French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini of the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic engineering, branded Bt brinjal potentially unsafe for human consumption.
According to Seralini, eating Bt brinjal reduced appetite in goats, increased prothrombin time (the time it takes blood to clot) in goats and rabbits,
They have lost already the battle over Bt cotton the only GM crop grown in India
if they lose over Bt brinjal they lose the war, he says.
Argentina's forests dwindle: Nature Newsargentina, often perceived as a vast fertile territory, is losing its native forests.
and follows an increase in the volume of papers indexed by databases. India and Brazil show signs of following China's rise in the next decade.
The consortium's members will screen incoming orders against a single database still being developed that contains gene sequences identified as potentially hazardous by authoritative groups,
and Google. org unveiled an online tool that allows tropical countries, beginning in South america, to map deforestation using an automated system to analyse satellite imagery.
The crop carries a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and was developed by Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech, a joint venture between the Jalna-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company and the US seed giant Monsanto,
Bt brinjal was approved for cultivation by India's Genetic engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), a scientific regulatory body, in October 2009.
A 19-page statement issued by Ramesh said that his ministry had decided to impose a moratorium on the release of Bt brinjal until independent scientific studies had established that it would not adversely affect the environment or human health.
negative public reaction to the prospect of growing Bt brinjal; and advice from Monkombu Swaminathan, the agricultural scientist known as the father of the green revolution in India.
the founding director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular biology in Hyderabad and an active campaigner against Bt brinjal, added that he was pleased with the precedent-setting decision.
such as rice that is insect-resistant (Bt rice) or enriched with Vitamin a and micronutrients. Our national labs have all the genes for rice improvement,
Ramesh insists that the moratorium is specific to Bt brinjal and should not discourage ongoing research.
Kameswara Rao points out that even if Bt brinjal cannot be grown legally farmers may start cultivating it anyway,
as has happened with Bt cotton (see'Illegal seeds overtake India's cotton fields').'Indeed, Chinese farmers had been growing Bt rice for five years before receiving official government approval just four months ago,
says Kumar. To prevent an unauthorized release of Bt brinjal in India, Ramanjaneyulu believes that the environment ministry should now confiscate the transgenic brinjal seeds held by Mahyco.
News briefing: 11 february 2010: Nature Newspolicy Business People Events Awards Research Business watch The week ahead Number crunch Sound bites Policy Climate service:
to store and analyse data using Microsoft's cloud-computing service. Two related products developed by Google and IBM,
and by HP, Intel and Yahoo already offer some scientists access to their services (see Nature 449,963;
2007). ) The week ahead 11 february US Department of energy secretary Steven Chu is questioned on his agency's proposed 2010 research and development budget by the House Committee on Science
and his colleagues are compiling a database of genetic markers to verify the geographic origins of black truffle populations.
says Eva Huala, director of the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR), a database at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California.
Reached by phone, Hudson, 46, a former groundskeeper for a Catholic shrine, said he thought the result was so cool.
The new approach, published today in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases1, uses crystal proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt.
Organic farmers have used Bt to kill insects for decades, and plants have been modified genetically with Bt genes
since 1996 so crops such as corn and potato can produce the crystal proteins, protecting themselves from insects without any pesticides.
Aroian's previous study2 using a type of human intestinal roundworm parasite to infect hamsters showed a 90%reduction in three doses of Bt.
Bt is grown in fermenters that hold thousands of litres for use as an agricultural spray
The cost to treat one child with Bt would be 28 cents, Aroian estimates. It could be driven down more with optimizations in production,
The new database, called the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas, is important because the summer monsoon,
According to the report, farmers who grow Bt crops, which are engineered to produce pest-killing toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, use less insecticide.
wind developers will pay part of the roughly $15 million cost for a replacement radar at Trimingham, Norfolk,
The Indian government on 15 may took over the Medical Council of India (MCI), three weeks after its president,
During that year, the government may also dissolve the MCI, which sets and maintains standards of medical education
Phones and cancer: There is no clear link between mobile-phone use and the risk of brain cancer,
according to a major study published this week (The INTERPHONE Study Group Int. J. Epidemiol. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyq079;
France, interviewed thousands of adults with and without cancer in 13 countries about their mobile-phone usage.
In 1997, the Chinese government approved the commercial cultivation of cotton plants genetically modified to produce a toxin from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that is deadly to the bollworm Helicoverpa armigera.
More than 4 million hectares of Bt cotton are grown now in China. Since the crop was approved
Their rise in abundance is associated with the scale of Bt cotton cultivation. Wu and his colleagues suspect that mirid populations increased
because less broad-spectrum pesticide was used following the introduction of Bt cotton. Mirids are not susceptible to the Bt toxin
so they started to thrive when farmers used less pesticide, says Wu. The study is published in this week's issue of Science1.
The rise of mirids has driven Chinese farmers back to pesticides they are currently using about two-thirds as much as they did before Bt cotton was introduced.
New york, concluded that the economic benefits of Bt cotton in China have eroded2. The team attributed this to increased pesticide use to deal with secondary pests.
since Bt cotton was introduced. Along with genetically modified crops, says Andow, farmers need effective systems for responding to changes in pest abundance.
Called the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), the inventory collects data from international, national and industrial sources to estimate emissions.
But I prefer a fax. Her father, Hasan Cemil¡ambel, was close to Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular Turkish republic in 1923.
In October 2009, India's Genetic engineering Approval Committee gave the go-ahead to commercial planting of Bt brinjal,
a variety of aubergine modified to produce a protein from the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium that is toxic to insect pests.
Bt Brinjal: A Pioneering Push, written by Kumar for the magazine Biotech News, and The Development and Regulation of Bt Brinjal in India by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, a lobby group based in Ithaca, New york,
and funded by biotechnology corporation Monsanto, headquartered in St louis, Missouri. Kumar had contributed also to this second report.
Bt brinjal...has been subjected to a rigorous biosafety regulatory process encompassing all aspects of toxicity, allergenicity, environmental safety, socioeconomic assessment etc.
Kumar says that the report's conclusion that Bt brinjal is safe is based largely on data analysed by the Genetic engineering Approval Committee last year suggesting that a report commissioned to supplement the committee's scientific guidance is actually based on the committee's recommendations.
I knew even before the moratorium was put on Bt brinjal, he told the Times of India this week.
The area includes provinces such as Bali and Java, as well as small, autonomous groups such as the Iban speakers living in Malaysia.
assessed the effects of planting maize (corn) genetically modified to produce Bt toxin, which kills the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis).
We were surprised to find that a higher proportion of the total benefit is actually going to the non-Bt farmers,
Not only does Bt maize suppress the corn-borer population in fields planted with the GM crop
This work provides strong evidence for the reduced pest burden for non-Bt corn caused by the Bt corn, based on a reduction in overall pest-population size
Conventional growers also help to stop corn borers becoming resistant to the Bt toxin by hosting pest populations that are susceptible to it, according to the team's research.
the corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea), has evolved resistance to Bt toxin in situations where GM-crop coverage is 100%.
Some farmers were very sceptical of entomologists telling them they needed to maintain non-Bt corn
and digitizing information from databases of different agencies, such as the US Forest Service or Fish and Wildlife Service, says Cameron, also a conference organizer.
based in Los Ba ae'Â os, the Philippines, and part of a consortium of leading agricultural research centres called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
Tianhe-1a was shown to have achieved 2. 57 petaflops (2. 57 ae'1015 floating point operations per second),
with Jaguar managing 1. 75 petaflops. The United states still boasts five of the world's top ten fastest computers.
based in Los Ba  os, the Philippines, part of a consortium of leading agricultural research centres called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Delaware, and Honeywell of Morristown, New jersey, in response to a 2006 European union law requiring car makers to reduce the greenhouse-gas potential of their refrigerants,
called Bt toxin. To prevent the spread of Bt resistance, farmers are required to plant nearby'refuges'of conventional crops.
The idea behind the refuges is to keep a population of non-resistant moths close at hand as potential mates for any resistant moths that arise.
To his surprise, the models suggested that the combination of Bt cotton and sterile-moth releases could wipe out pest populations
and stave off Bt resistance for at least 20 years. In 2005, the Pink bollworm Rearing Facility in Phoenix began cranking out pinkies for the Arizona experiment.
Ideally, the same approach could be used in regions where poor farmer compliance with the refuge rule has contributed to widespread Bt resistance.
it's conceivable that farmers will someday no longer have a use for Bt cotton at all.
Beach says that surveys carried out using Google earth and remote sensing techniques suggest that this wetland system was probably around 100 kilometres across.
Events Tracking forests by satellite Google unveiled its much-anticipated'Earth Engine'at climate talks in Canc  n, Mexico, last week.
Peatlands have been the focus of a lot of attention by developers who want to convert them to agricultural use,
bankrolled by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, was unveiled officially on 12 april. The Seattle, Washington-based Allen Brain science Institute's human brain atlas (www. brain-map. org) logged gene expression patterns and biochemical activity at 1,
The International Rice Research Institute in Los Ba ae'Â os, the Philippines, won $10. 3 million to develop golden rice,
Coming up 24 墉 oe29 April The European Science Foundation is holding a week-long conference devoted to the science and technology of graphene, in Obergurgl,
says Roslyn Dakin, a Phd student in behavioural ecology at Queen's university in Kingston, Canada. Dakin and a colleague, Robert Montgomerie, tracked three populations of feral peacocks and peahens during the spring breeding season,
or consumers until they pass tests for biosafety in each country, says Gerard Barry, who coordinates the Golden Rice Network at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Ba  os
Royal Society intake Among 44 fellows elected to the Royal Society in London on 20 may were Nobel-prizewinning graphene researcher Kostya Novoselov of the University of Manchester;
translation of stem cells from research tools to therapies was a major selling point. 3d transistors Computer-chip manufacturer Intel has announced that it will mass-produce three-dimensional transistors for its next generation of chips.
what could be the world's largest research database linking genetic profiles with health records.
Developers then used genetic control elements derived from pathogenic plant viruses such as the cauliflower mosaic virus to switch on the genes.
By revealing similar elements in plants'DNA, genome sequencing has liberated developers from having to borrow the viral sequences.
and commercial release is Bt cotton which has added genes from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium, making the plant produce toxins that confer resistance to some insect pests.
A Bt cotton variety is being developed for Kenyan farmers at KARI. According to the regulations it will take a minimum of three months to get the green light for environmental release after permission is sought from the authorities.
Next in line will be Bt maize (corn also being developed by scientists at KARI, says Gichuki. Other crops undergoing confined field trials include virus-resistant sweet potatoes and drought-resistant maize,
RESEARCHGOOGLE ends RE<C Google has axed an initiative that aimed to make renewable energy cheaper than coal by improving solar thermal power systems.
Google says it still has more than US$850 million invested in other companies'wind, solar and geothermal products.
Earlier this year, a group of Czech researchers reported their failed attempt to replicate the finding using different Google earth images3.
the first private craft to reach suborbital flight) and Microsoft cofounder and billionaire Paul Allen.
and share it in international databases of genes and diseases. China is taking on about a quarter of the project's estimated 20
and two American online recipe databases, grouping recipes into North american, Western European, Latin american, Southern European or East Asian cuisine.
Another change weakens the status of  Permanent Preservation Areas (APP  the ecologically sensitive areas along rivers and streams, on steep slopes and hilltops throughout Brazil.
Database tallies US emissions"It s a great resource, and I m sure people will find interesting things to do with it,
but EPA officials continued to work on a database, which would still provide investors and consumers with statistics to help them pressure industry to cut emissions.
The online database allows users to compare and rank about 6, 200 facilities by state, sector,
Some database searches produce very familiar results. Carbon dioxide makes up about 95%of the greenhouse-gas emissions logged
And almost all of the United states emissions of trifluoromethane (also known as HFC-23), a potent greenhouse gas, come from just two facilities the Honeywell International plant in Baton rouge, Louisiana,
The annual totals in the database will certainly help to improve their atmospheric models, he says,
and it is keen to export the fuel, via US refineries, to Europe. Canada is also in the midst of negotiating a free-trade agreement with the EU. Spain
the peat forest contained trees that looked like feather dusters, with trunks twice the height of telephone poles;
Illumina takeover Illumina, the dominant developer of DNA-sequencing technology, has rejected, as expected a US$5. 7-billion takeover bid by drug giant Roche,
and pig flu deposited in the US National Center for Biotechnology Information s Influenza Virus Sequence Database between 2003 and 2011.
The database contains sequences from Genbank and several large flu sequencing projects, including the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project a major initiative run by the National Institute of Allergy
The number of avian flu sequences deposited in the database skyrocketed between 2003 and 2010, before dropping off in 2011.
The two agencies responsible for monitoring disease outbreaks in animals the Food and agriculture organization (FAO) of the United nations and the World organisation for Animal health (OIE) stipulate that sequences of potentially zoonotic viruses should be deposited in public databases within 3 months
and existing bar-coding databases tend to contain the longer stretches that were identified with old DNA sequencing technologies.
The researchers can then check the genetic sequences against databases to learn which plants or animals they come from.
because plant genetic databases are incomplete. The researchers also found DNA from eight genera of vertebrate animals.
the report urges that a global database be set up to track the spread of resistance,
I just did a quick Google search, he says. His longstanding interest in history was helpful,
The Reproducibility Initiative will work through Science Exchange, an online marketplace based in Palo alto, California, that connects researchers wishing to outsource their experiments with service providers.
said Science Exchange. Authors will pay for validation studies themselves, and will be able to publish the results in PLOS ONE.
Phones and tumours Italy s highest civil court has stated that mobile phones can cause brain tumours to the dismay of medical experts who say no study has proven a clear causal link between health risks
and mobile-phone use. In a 12 Â October decision made public last week, the court ruled in favour of a commerce manager who claimed his tumour was a consequence of the heavy phone usage demanded by his job.
See go. nature. com/bg6zly for more. Biodiversity cash Wealthy nations have agreed to double their support to developing countries for protecting biodiversity
MIT has asked one of its computer scientists, Hal Abelson, to review the university s conduct in the affair.
and to develop the potential of graphene. The projects should each receive  1  billion (US$1. 3  billion) over ten years.
Multilayered flakes or discs of graphene nanoplatelets which may find use in adding strength and conductivity to composites and coatings, are produced mainly in The americas and Asia, according to analysts Lux Research in Boston, Massachusetts.
Reicher, an attorney by training, previously headed Google s $1-billion initiative for investing in energy and climate, where he guided investments into solar technologies and electric transport.
To download map file to view in Google earth, click here.)The first known cases of human infection with H7n9 were reported in China on 31 march, with two cases in Shanghai on the eastern seaboard and one in the neighbouring province of Anhui.
and so may take several seconds to display in Google earth. To download map file to view in Google earth click here.
To stem the current surge of human cases, scientists must identify the sources of the virus,
and posting them on the GISAID flu database. If human-to-human transmission does start to occur,
Researchers hurriedly removed from public databases their recently published genome of the world s most famous cell line, Hela,
and published them on the GISAID flu sequence database on 31 march. Researchers around the world have
suggesting that DEET can deter mosquitoes not just via its smell but also via direct contact.
More than 150 Â scientists from such fields as neuroscience, engineering and computer science attended the conference in Arlington, Virginia,
His Turing machine concept is considered to underlie modern computer science. Pharma probe The Chinese government is investigating four senior executives of Glaxosmithkline (GSK) in China for allegedly bribing officials
which is modified to produce a protein called Bt that is harmful to insect pests, is one of only two GM CROPS approved for cultivation in the EU. The other is a high-starch GM potato called Amflora that is intended for industrial applications such as paper production.
"It s by far the largest, most comprehensive information database on the distribution of wild relatives around the world, says Colin Khoury of Wageningen University in The netherlands,
The finding may give some vaccine developers pause. Much of the work to develop a universal flu vaccine has targeted the stems of haemagglutinin proteins
And in Scotland, old industrial waste heaps known as shale bings are now home to rare and protected plants and animals.
It has spent also more than $1 Â billion establishing databases of invasive species, monitoring their spread,
They validated their maps using remote-sensing data and images from Google earth.""The Soviet union strived for complete agricultural self-sufficiency,
Organizers of the ORCID database hope to link researchers identities across publications grant applications, patents and other activities (see Nature 485,564;
Google thinks deep Google has purchased the London-based artificial-intelligence company Deepmind, which uses human neuroscience to inspire computer algorithms.
Google, of Mountain view, California, confirmed the deal this week; in the past few years it has hired several big names in artificial intelligence,
and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton (see Nature 505,146-148; 2014). ) The company may use artificial intelligence to improve picture tagging, voice recognition and search engines.
Granbio and Fulcrum Bioenergy are all hoping to start producing cellulosic ethanol in commercial amounts in the United states
and graffiti around the neighbourhoods where the scientists live, giving their names, photographs, addresses and telephone numbers.
and exhorted readers to harass the scientists by phone. NASA/ESA/J. Lotz, M. Mountain, A. Koekemoer & the HFF Team (STSCI) Super-distant galaxies glimpsed Astronomers unveiled pictures of the deepest galaxy cluster ever imaged at the annual meeting
Cloud computing IBM has invested US$1 Â billion in the IBM Watson Group, a business unit to commercialize artificial-intelligence applications that can be accessed by customers remotely.
so that relevant mental-health records can be submitted to the national databases used to screen potential gun buyers.
and his concept of a universal Turing machine, a programmable system that stores and processes information, is considered a cornerstone of computer science (see Nature 482,441;
Many eyes on Earthimagine using Google earth or other online mapping tools to zoom in on high-resolution satellite images of the planet taken just hours or days ago.
"It will almost be like updating Google earth each day, he says
Anti-tobacco efforts have saved millions of lives around the globehalf a century after the US government sounded an influential alarm about the health dangers of smoking,
including Google. Source: Moneytree report/Pwc/NVCAUS venture-capital investment rose to US$29. 4 Â billion in 2013, a 7%increase on the year before.
Gibberish papers The publisher Springer will remove 16 computer-generated nonsense papers that it had published in its subscription database,
were spotted by computer scientist Cyril Labbã of Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France. Last week, Nature revealed that Labbã had informed privately Springer of the problem.
and that mass killing them via pesticides isn't good. Sharks are considered ugly by many people yet many are against finning them.
Simply google searching Elephants are ugly/why are elephants so ugly? brings up some not so nice results etc.
and you can find the source code for the hives at the project site. Boing Boing o
The tour app will be available on itunes November 2013 l
#Spain Considers Release Of Genetically Modified Olive Fruit Fliesa company involved in creating genetically modified mosquitos has another project nearing outdoor testing.
me via email In the lab by artificial stimulation it is possible to trigger female orgasm in virtually any primate species. At the Institute for Primate Studies in Norman Okla. psychologist William Lemmon
As Birkhead described to me via email the bird shudders its wings and clenches its feet as it ejaculates--who knows
or not because there is no study to measure brain response during sexual activity in dolphins he told me via email.
North street Labs programmer Steve Shaffer reacted with apprehension. âÂ#Âoeuh-ohã¢Â# he thought âÂ#Âoei m deaf
This is the future of space crafthttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nautilus-XNOW compare that with the pod that was sent not to the moon.
http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Solar windand I have a final plea. Don't post about what you know little to nothing about.
And with that Levandowski has handed off control of his vehicle to software named Google Chauffeur. He takes his feet off the pedals and puts his hands in his lap.
It's not just Google that's developing the technology but also most of the major car manufacturers:
Following Google policy Levandowski drives through residential roads and surface streets himself while Chauffeur drives the freeways.
Levandowski works at Google's headquarters in Mountain view California. He's the business lead of Google's self-driving-car project an initiative that the company has been developing for the better part of a decade.
Google has a small fleet of driverless cars now plying public roads. They are test vehicles
but they are also simply doing their job: ferrying Google employees back and forth from work. Commuters in Silicon valley report seeing one of the cars easily identifiable by a spinning turret mounted on the roof an average of once an hour.
Google itself reports that collectively the cars have driven more than 500000 miles without crashing. At a ceremony at Google headquarters last year where Governor Jerry brown signed California's self-driving-car bill into law Google cofounder Sergey Brin said you can count on one hand
the number of years until ordinary people can experience this. In other words a self-driving car will be parked on a street near you by 2018.
Yet releasing a car will require more than a website and a click here to download button.
In the language particular to Google the researchers are dogfooding the car driving to work each morning in the same way that Levandowski does.
Google needs to put the car in the hands of ordinary drivers in order to test the user experience.
We have a saying here at Google says Levandowski. In God we trust all others must bring data.
This spring Chris Urmson the director of Google's self-driving-car project told a government audience in Washington D c. that the vast majority of those are nothing to worry about.
For the errors worrisome enough to require human hands back on the wheel Google's crew of young testers have been trained in extreme driving techniques including emergency braking high-speed lane changes
There has been reported only one accident that can conceivably be blamed on Google. A self-driving car near Google's headquarters rear-ended another Prius with enough force to push it forward
and impact another two cars falling-dominoes style. The incident took place two years ago the Stone age in the foreshortened timelines of software development
and according to Google spokespeople the car was not in self-driving mode at the time so the accident wasn't Chauffeur's fault.
Considering that the Google self-driving program has clocked already half a million miles the argument could be made that Google Chauffeur is already as safe as the average human driver.
It's not an argument Google makes to the public because Levandowski says the system hasn't encountered enough challenging situations in its real-world commutes.
Google has been uncommonly secretive about its self-driving-car program. Though it began in 2009 the company first announced the project in a blog post a year later.
Google is still not saying much to reporters (including this one) about its plans but since it was accused of being the bad guy in a real-life Matrix the company has made a concerted effort to reach out to potential partners.
Google lobbyists have made the rounds with legislators in Washington. Its engineers have made pilgrimages to Detroit and abroad.
Google wants to make available to the rest of the auto industry all of the building blocks that we ourselves use he said
and then ticked off the goodies the Android operating system search voice social maps navigation even Chauffeur.
Instead of rebuilding a whole operating system from scratch he said automakers should focus on making the user experience their own.
if Google is proposing to give away the software. For the car companies the real cost of implementing the technology would be specialized in the peripheral that Chauffeur needs to run:
But at $75000 to $85000 each Google's lidar costs more than every other component in the self-driving car combined including the car itself.
A grizzled maverick of an engineer named David Hall designed the lidar that Google uses.
Industry scuttlebutt has it that Ford is giving Google the most serious consideration. Hall confirms that a major automaker recently summoned him to its headquarters to ask
Google to its credit shows no signs that it's allowing Detroit to slow it down.
Google is not a car manufacturer. Nor does it intend to be one Levandowski says. So what's the plan?
In other words Google thinks a new generation of bot-rodders may kick things off. Google won't say anything more
but since there's really only one place to turn for the all-important lidar I ask David Hall
and the super-high-resolution Google maps that go with it Hall doesn't see the point. He imagines talking to potential customers.
âÂ#ÂALMOST as good as Google's?''âÂ# The other fight is the legal one.
The Google car doesn't work without one as Chauffeur needs to be able to hand back the reins with 10 20 or maybe even 30 seconds'notice.
Some states prodded by Google lobbyists and looking to get ahead of the curve have made the cars explicitly legal.
What's going to happen no matter what the law says is people are going to get sued Urmson the director of Google's self-driving-car project allows.
Wayne Gerdes the father of hypermiling can nearly double the rated efficiency of cars using fuel-sipping techniques that could be incorporated into auto-driving software.
All kinds of problems crop up in real-world testing says auto-drive consultant Brad Templeton who worked with Google on its self-driving-car project for two years.
Google is betting that established car manufacturers working with low-cost radar and camera components will never adequately bridge that gap.
NHTSA's former deputy director Ron Medford has signed just on as Google's director of safety for the self-driving-car project.
Google's main focus and vision says Medford is for a level-four vehicle. Watching the video it reminded me of the old Test Driving video game on the PC a long time ago. lol---In space no one can hear a tree fall in the forest.
or 4 of the Microsoft Kinect devices put in various parts of the car to determine a 3d area?
Google would buy it right now.:Do not try and bend the spoon. That is impossible. Only try and realize the truth-there is no spoon.
To that end Google needs to do what it did for 1g fiber. Take it to some place where it can control the environment.
@jabailo...Google is way ahead of you...http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Google driverless car...they have logged a multitude of fully autonomous miles much more difficult than above
and with a legally blind driver as the article at the link explains cheers.>>we need 99.99999
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