Technology News

Nissan to make new electric cars, batteries in Britain

LONDON (AP) — Japanese carmaker Nissan and its partners plan to invest 1 billion ($1.4 billion) pounds to expand production of electric vehicles and batteries in northeast England, a major victory for the U.K. government’s efforts to attract jobs and investment following the country’s departure from the European Union.

Nissan said Thursday it will build a new all-electric crossover sport utility vehicle at the company’s plant in Sunderland, creating more than 6,200 jobs at the factory and its suppliers. As part of the project, Envision AESC will build the U.K.’s first “gigafactory” to supply next generation batteries for the cars.

The announcement marks a turnaround for Nissan, which last year warned its U.K. operations would be “unsustainable” if Britain failed to secure a post-Brexit free-trade agreement with the EU. The government reached a deal with Brussels in December and, freed from EU competition rules, is now able to offer financial incentives to attract investment.

“Nissan’s announcement … is a major vote of confidence in the U.K. and our highly skilled workers in the Northeast,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggested the government would help finance the plant, but he declined to provide specifics because talks are continuing with other electric carmakers amid the shift away from fossil fuels.

“It’s no secret that across the world, governments are seeking to attract what is a once-in-a-generation opportunity … to build these gigafactories,’’ he told the BBC. “We’ve committed some measure of support, but the billion pounds that they’re giving far outweighs and is in far excess of the amount of support that we provided.”

Ashwani Gupta, Nissan’s chief operating officer, said the company made the decision to invest in Sunderland after Britain negotiated a “trade-friendly Brexit.”

Government funding was also critical, he said.

“The government support is not quantified in terms of numbers because we are still discussing, but for sure without the government support it would not have been possible,” he told the BBC.

The agreement will be seen as a huge boost to the U.K. auto industry, which has been struggling to cope with the new trading relationship with the EU and the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.

U.K. car production fell 29.3% to 920,928 vehicles last year, the lowest total since 1984, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, an industry trade group.

Automakers are also under pressure to invest large amounts of money in electric car production as countries around the world phase out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles due to concerns about global warming.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, said much more needs to be done if the industry is going to meet its goal of producing 1 million electric vehicles by 2030.

The U.K. will need to produce at least 60 gigawatt hours of batteries annually by the end of this decade, according to the SMMT. That’s about 20 times the current production capacity.

The Envision project in Sunderland will have the capacity to produce 9 gigawatt hours of batteries annually. Future investment could push that to 25 gigawatt hours.

“The future competitiveness of our industry depends on securing these investments but also wider support for manufacturing,’’ Hawes said. “We need a Build Back Better Fund to help manufacturing transformation, as well as a plan for charging infrastructure that will assure consumers to make the switch to these vehicles.”

Japan’s SoftBank says Pepper robot remains ‘alive’ and well

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology company SoftBank denies it’s pulling the plug on its friendly, talking, bubble-headed Pepper robot.

“There is absolutely no change to our Pepper business,” SoftBank Robotics Corp. spokesperson Ai Kitamura said Wednesday.

Pepper, introduced seven years ago, is centered around a rentals business, and production is regularly adjusted, the Tokyo-based company said.

While production was halted temporarily, Kitamura denied reports that set off speculation Pepper might be “killed.”

The company acknowledged the contracts of 330 workers at the Paris division of SoftBank Robotics were being reviewed, but the move was routine and did not spell a death knell for Pepper.

If anything, the need for social distancing during the pandemic has boosted demand for robots like Pepper, which sometimes is used to take people’s temperatures in stores.

Pepper robots, which have expressive hands but move around on wheels, have been cheering and dancing in the stands for the home games of the SoftBank Hawks Japanese professional baseball team in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan.

And Pepper’s latest gig involves computer programming education in Japanese schools.

Robotics technology is widely used in manufacturing production lines and the transport of goods around the world.

But SoftBank Group Corp. founder and chief Masayoshi Son and other experts say Japanese have a soft spot for robots like Pepper that look somewhat human and sometimes appear to show emotion.

Kitamura said the outpouring of reaction from Pepper fans was appreciated, and showed it has become a beloved icon.

“So many people said they would be sad if Pepper is gone,” she said.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

UN official warns digital technologies open areas for attack

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. disarmament chief warned Tuesday that digital technologies are lowering barriers to malicious intrusions and opening potential areas for governments, armed groups, terrorists and criminals to carry out attacks, including across international borders.

Izumi Nakamitsu told a U.N. Security Council meeting on cybersecurity that there has been “a dramatic increase in the frequency of malicious incidents in recent years” ranging from disinformation to the disruption of computer networks which are contributing to “a diminishing trust and confidence” among nations.

The political and technical difficulty of determining responsibility for cyber attacks “could result in significant consequences, including in unintended armed responses and escalation,” she warned. “These dynamics can encourage states to adopt offensive postures for the hostile use of these technologies.”

As of January, Nakamitsu said, there were over 4.6 billion active users of the internet worldwide and it’s estimated there will be 28.5 billion “networked devices” connected to the internet by 2022, a significant increase from 18 billion in 2017.

“As advances in digital technologies continue to revolutionize human life, we must remain vigilant in our understanding of malicious use of such technologies that could imperil the security of future generations,” she said. “Digital technologies are increasingly straining existing legal, humanitarian and ethical norms, non-proliferation, international stability, and peace and security.”

Nakamitsu cited risks to critical infrastructure that rely on communications technologies including the financial sector, electrical power grids, nuclear facilities and hospitals and health care facilities.

Over the past 15 years at the United Nations, she said, five groups of government experts have recommended measures to address cyber threats and a sixth group and an Open-ended Working Group that includes all 193 U.N. member nations have recently adopted “concrete action-oriented recommendations” for an initial framework on responsible government behavior in the use of information and communications technologies.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that both governments and “non-state actors” are taking advantage of the increased reliance on cyber technologies, pointing to recent high-profile ransomware attacks that disrupted the major food processing company JBS and Colonial Pipeline, which provides fuel to much of the U.S. East Coast. These attacks demonstrate “the unacceptable risk that cybercrime poses to critical infrastructure,” she said.

Thomas-Greenfield said malicious cyber activities are often not contained within borders, citing the targeting of software company SolarWinds and Microsoft’s Exchange Server as examples.

She said “the rules of the road” that the government experts and working group have worked hard to develop must now be put into practice.

At the same time, Thomas-Greenfield said, internet freedom must be protected and the “same rights that people have offline — including the rights of freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly – must also be protected online.”

Estonia, which holds the council presidency this month, organized the meeting. Its prime minister, Kaja Kallas, who presided, said the solution to malicious actors in cyberspace is to ensure that all countries “collectively take on the role of guardians.”

“Estonia holds the strong view that existing international law, including the U.N. Charter in its entirety, international humanitarian law and international human rights law, applies in cyberspace,” she said.

Kallas said implementing the framework agreed on by both the government experts and working group “is a major goal for the international community,” but regional activities are also needed and cyber threats must also be tackled with the private sector, civil society and academia.

Lord Tariq Ahmad, Britain’s Foreign Office minister of state for South Asia and the Commonwealth, said the United Kingdom wants to go further than the norms, rules and principles of cyberspace agreed on by the government experts and working group.

“It is no secret that states are developing cyber operations to support their military and national security capabilities. Indeed, the United Kingdom is one of them,” he said. “Let me be clear: We will use these capabilities to defend ourselves against those who seek to harm us.”

Ahmad said the challenge is to clarify how the rules of international law apply to state activities in cyberspace, “guard against malicious actors bending the rules, and enforce the consequences for those who commit malicious cyber activity.”

In December 2019, the U.N. General Assembly approved a Russian-written resolution to start the process of drafting a new international treaty to combat cybercrime over objections from the European Union, the United States and other countries.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called on all countries Tuesday “to contribute meaningfully” to the work of the committee tasked with drafting the convention by 2023.

He welcomed the multilateral discussions at the U.N. by the government experts and the working group but expressed concern “over the resolve of some technologically advanced states to militarize information space by promoting the concept of `preventive military cyberstrikes’ … against critical infrastructure.”

Nebenzia said this runs counter to the goal of preventing conflicts in cyberspace and Russia perceives it as an attempt by “some actors to impose their own `rules of the game’ in the information space from the position of force.”

Update on the latest in business:

FINANCIAL MARKETS

Asian shares advance despite weaker factory data, outbreaks

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares are mostly higher in Asia despite new data showing Asian factory activity slowed this month as virus outbreaks disrupted shipping at some Chinese ports.

Markets advanced in Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul but slipped in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks drifted further into record heights in listless trading, as investors wait for heavyweight economic data coming at the week’s end. On Friday, the U.S. government will give its monthly update on job growth and wage gains for workers. On the last day of June, the S&P 500 is on track for a gain of 14.3% for the first half of the year, more than double its average for a full year.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-AUSTRALIA

Australia official urges against AstraZeneca

BRISBANE, Australia — The top health official in Australia’s Queensland state is advising adults under age 40 not to take the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine because of the risk of a rare blood clotting disorder, even though the Australian government is making those shots available to all adults.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says younger adults should wait for the scarce Pfizer vaccine to become available. Young says AstraZeneca is not worth the risk for younger adults. The federal government decided Monday to make AstraZeneca available to all adults as concerns grow about clusters of the delta variant of the coronavirus. Australian authorities still say Pfizer is the preferred option for people younger than 60.

UNITED NATIONS-CYBERSECURITY

UN official warns digital technologies open areas for attack

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. disarmament chief is warning that digital technologies are lowering barriers to malicious intrusions and opening potential areas for governments, armed groups, terrorists and criminals to carry out attacks, including across international borders.

Izumi Nakamitsu told a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday on cybersecurity that there has been “a dramatic increase in the frequency of malicious incidents in recent years” ranging from disinformation to the disruption of computer networks that are diminishing trust among nations. Nakamitsu warns that the difficulty of determining responsibility for cyber attacks “could result in significant consequences, including in unintended armed responses and escalation.”

FLIGHTS-BELARUS

US proposes to ban air travel between US and Belarus

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is proposing sharp restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Belarus.

It’s the latest fallout from the forced landing of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident Belarussian journalist. The Transportation Department says the order would bar airlines from selling tickets for travel between the two countries, with possible exceptions for humanitarian or national security reasons. There are no direct passenger flights between the U.S. and Belarus. The move follows the May 23 diversion of a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, so authorities could arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich after the plane landed in Minsk.

RACIAL INJUSTICE-FCC

Congressional leaders urge FCC to perform equity audit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders and a media advocacy organization are urging the Federal Communications Commission to investigate how policy decisions have disparately harmed Black Americans and other communities of color, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the acting FCC chair.

In the letter first shared with The Associated Press, Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York, Yvette Clarke of New York, and Brenda Lawrence of Michigan along with Media 2070 say the FCC needs to address its role in creating and perpetuating systemic inequities that have excluded people of color from media ownership opportunities. A lack of diversity and representation has long been a concern for media advocates and experts who argue that racism has historically permeated the nation’s media industry.

FOX NEWS-HARASSMENT

Fox News fined $1 million for sex harassment and retaliation

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s human rights commission has fined Fox News $1 million for violation of laws protecting against sexual harassment and job retaliation.

It’s the largest such penalty in the commission’s history. It was announced as part of a settlement agreement with Fox News, which also requires that the network’s New York-based employees and contributors receive training on how to fight gender-based discrimination. The investigation was launched following media reports of misconduct cases, which cost the late Fox News chief Roger Ailes and prime-time personality Bill O’Reilly their jobs. The fine was based on four separate violations, which the commission would not detail.

BORDER CLOSURE-GROCERY STORE

Money coming to keep grocer in US-Canada border community

SEATTLE (AP) — Money is on the way to help save the only grocery store in an isolated Washington state community that’s been especially strained by the pandemic-related closure of the U.S.-Canada border.

About 1,300 people live on Point Roberts, on the tip of a peninsula south of Vancouver, British Columbia, that juts into U.S. territory. With the border closed to nonessential travel since March 2020, the Point Roberts International Marketplace has lost much of its business and faced possible closure July 15. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday the state would give the market $100,000 from its strategic reserves, preserving its 10 jobs and avoiding a food security crisis in the community.

JAPAN-SOFTBANK-ROBOT

Japan’s SoftBank says Pepper robot remains ‘alive’ and well

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology company SoftBank denies it’s pulling the plug on its friendly, bubble-headed Pepper robot.

A SoftBank Robotics spokesperson says there is no change to the Pepper business, which is centered around robots, after reports said it was “dead.”

The company acknowledged the contracts of 330 workers at the Paris division of SoftBank Robotics were being reviewed, but the move was routine and did not spell a death knell for Pepper. The company says that if anything, the need for social distancing during the pandemic has boosted demand for robots like Pepper, which sometimes is used to take people’s temperatures in stores.

NCAA-COMPENSATING ATHLETES

NCAA’s NIL era arrives, some athletes are ready to cash in

UNDATED (AP) — A new era in college sports has arrived. for the first time, NCAA athletes will be permitted to profit from their fame.

The transition has been anything but smooth. Seven states have laws set to go into effect Thursday designed to open up the market for athletes. The NCAA is on board with the idea of reforming its rules but is only in position to consider a temporary fix. At some point Congress is expected to step in and provide a law that brings uniformity across the country.

Edmunds demystifies advanced driver aids in new vehicles

There’s some hesitancy from the public regarding the future of self-driving cars; a survey by Autolist says that most shoppers are split about whether having self-driving capability on a vehicle makes it safer. Thankfully, real automated driving vehicles are still years away. But considering that nearly every new car on sale today comes standard or is available with some level of driver-assistance technology, it’s best to stay informed on what these features actually do and whether you would want to pay extra for them.

These driving-assist technology features are often referred to as advanced driver-assist systems, or ADAS. Some ADAS are more advanced than others, and capabilities vary from vehicle to vehicle. Let’s be clear: There are no fully automated or self-driving cars for sale today. For example, General Motors’ Super Cruise system and Ford’s upcoming BlueCruise system allow for limited hands-free driving, but most new vehicles do not. All ADAS today — even hands-free ones — require the driver to pay attention to the road and be ready to take over at any time.

The actual function of ADAS is similar among automakers, but mixed messaging and confusing names don’t make it very clear how vehicles compare. Edmunds is here to help break down what these terms actually mean and what some of these systems can do.

ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL

Adaptive cruise control can adjust your speed to maintain a constant distance between your vehicle and the car in front. Some systems can bring a vehicle to a complete stop and then speed up again when traffic starts to move. Others can also react to traffic signs and set speed accordingly. Some manufacturer names you might come across include Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (Toyota), Smart Cruise Control (Hyundai) and Intelligent Cruise Control (Nissan).

AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING

Automatic emergency braking paired with forward collision warning can alert you if a front impact is imminent and can apply your vehicle’s brakes if you don’t respond in time. As with adaptive cruise control, there are a variety of names that automakers use to refer to automatic emergency braking. They include Collision Mitigation Braking System (Honda), Forward Collision Mitigation (Mitsubishi) and Collision Prevention Assist Plus (Mercedes-Benz).

Some more advanced systems include features such as evasive steering assist, which enhances the forward collision mitigation system and can help steer a vehicle to possibly avoid a collision.

LANE-KEEPING ASSIST

Lane-keeping assist can help steer your vehicle back into its lane if it begins to drift over the lane marker. Drivers might feel a small tug on the wheel as well as see a warning that the vehicle isn’t staying in its lane. Various names include Active Steering Assist (Mercedes-Benz) and Intelligent Lane Intervention (Nissan). A lane-departure warning system only alerts you about drifting out of your lane and cannot make any corrective action.

SUPER CRUISE AND AUTOPILOT

General Motors’ Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot are some of the most advanced driver-assist systems available. Super Cruise was the first hands-free system to hit the market, though it currently only works on highways. Besides adjusting speeds with adaptive cruise control, Super Cruise can change lanes for you. You still have to be ready to take over at any time, and the car monitors the driver to make sure he or she is paying attention to the road.

Autopilot works fairly similarly, though at the moment it doesn’t allow for hands-free driving even with the so-called Full Self-Driving Capability. When using the Navigate on Autopilot feature, the Tesla will suggest lane changes and can automatically steer your vehicle toward the proper highway exit. Tesla is also phasing in a camera-based driver monitor since its current monitoring system can be easily bypassed.

OTHER DRIVER-ASSIST SYSTEMS

Automated parking systems steer into a parking spot with little or no driver intervention. These systems work with parallel parking too. Many cars today have automatic high beams that use sensors to automatically turn the high beams on and off. Surround-view or 360-degree cameras can show a top-down view of a vehicle, which can be helpful when parking. Some new trucks have trailer assist systems that can help when hooking up a trailer or help reduce sway when towing.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW?

Many automakers bundle these systems into suites or packages under a single moniker. Names include Nissan ProPilot Assist, Toyota Safety Sense, Honda Sensing and Mazda i-Activsense.

EDMUNDS SAYS: Advanced driver-assist systems are making their way into more and more new cars, though no car today is truly self-driving. Knowing how they work and the general terminology is important for any car shopper today.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

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