LOW-SPACE RACE
Among Elon Musk’s ambitious tech plans is to ultimately get 42,000 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit with the aim of bringing Internet to some of the world’s most remote places. As of this April, the company had nearly 5,900 of the devices in space. But a Chinese company is giving Musk a run for his money: The Shanghai Lanjian Hongquing Technology Company, affiliated with rocket maker Landscape, filed for a 10,000-satellite network with the International Telecommunication Union on May 24. No timeline has been released for the satellites’ launch.
Source: Interesting Engineering
50,000
That’s how many paid trips robotaxi company Waymo reports it’s now giving weekly in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Waymo credits its success to a “safe and deliberate approach” to increasing ridership: “We see people from all walks of life use our service to travel carefree, gain independence, reclaim their commute and more,” the company said in a press release. But that doesn’t mean the driverless taxis aren’t without their negative headlines. Six Waymo taxis blocked traffic on a San Francisco freeway onramp in April, and in early 2024, two of the company’s cars crashed due to a software malfunction.
Source: Engadget
FACE TIME
It turns out that parrots might benefit from technology to better their social lives. A study from the University of Glasgow and Northeastern University looked at parrots’ responses to recorded videos of other birds versus live video chats and found that the highly social animals preferred real-time conversations. The parrots’ caretakers reported that during FaceTime chats, their birds were more engaged than during the pre-recorded sessions. They spent a total of 561 minutes live video chatting versus just 142 minutes watching recordings.
Source: Engadget
$250B
Source: Ars Technica
This story originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to view the full digital edition online.
