Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Transportation

Americans Shouldn’t Have to Drive, but the Law Insists on It

The Atlantic – Gregory H. Shill – The automobile took over because the legal system helped squeeze out the alternatives. “…In America, the freedom of movement comes with an asterisk: the obligation to drive. This truism has been echoed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has pronounced car ownership a “virtual necessity.” The Court’s pronouncement… Continue Reading

Opting out of facial recognition at the airport is extremely difficult

Wired – “…The facial recognition plan in US airports is built around the Customs and Border Protection Biometric Exit Program, which utilizes face-scanning technology to verify a traveler’s identity. CBP partners with airlines—including Delta, JetBlue, American Airlines, and others—to photograph each traveler while boarding. That image gets compared to one stored in a cloud-based photo-matching… Continue Reading

The Wheel Friends Podcast

Via The Stitcher – “The Wheel Friends is a comedy podcast that exists in the universe of bicycling. Hosted by Craig Richards and featuring local riders of various skill levels, The Wheel Friends Podcast is a funny and fresh take on Bicycling Podcasts. The Wheel Friends is educational, approachable, digestible, funny, and a little weird.… Continue Reading

How to Read an Aircraft Seat Map

the Points Guy: “If you’ve checked in online for a flight or selected your seat in advance, you may have been presented with a visual seat map — either allowing you to choose which available seat you would like or showing you where on the plane you will be sitting. Some seat maps are very… Continue Reading

How China Is Planning to Rank 1.3 Billion People

Bloomberg: ” China has a radical plan to influence the behavior of its 1.3 billion people: It wants to grade each of them on aspects of their lives to reflect how good (or bad) a citizen they are. Versions of the so-called social credit system are being tested in a dozen cities with the aim… Continue Reading

Internet of Things – An Introduction

CRS Report via LC – Internet of Things (IoT): An Introduction, June 4, 2019 – “The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated devices that are connected to a network and/or to each other, exchanging data without necessarily requiring human-to-machine interaction. In other words, IoT is a collection of electronic devices that can… Continue Reading

Inc. – Meet the Most Inspiring Companies of 2018 If entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of an economy

Inc. – “If entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of an economy, consider Inc.’s ranking of 5,000 companies America’s circulatory system. Our annual report looks at these fast-growing innovators–and how they made our list. The fastest-growing companies in America are a force, notching collective revenue of more than $206.2 billion in 2017 and three-year revenue growth rates… Continue Reading

Here’s a prediction: In the future, predictions will only get worse

Quartz: “The Australian election produced a winner no pollster predicted: Prime minister Scott Morrison’s ruling coalition remained in power, despite all expectations to the contrary. After the surprise outcomes of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump as US president, what now feels like the most predictable outcome of any election is that the… Continue Reading

Google Maps adds ability to see speed limits and speed traps in 40+ countries

TechCrunch: “Google Maps is gaining some features previously exclusive to Google’s navigation app, Waze. The company confirmed it’s rolling out the ability for Google Maps users to see speed limits, speed cameras and mobile speed cameras in more than 40 countries worldwide — an expansion of its earlier launch of these features, which were previously… Continue Reading

Your Car Knows When You Gain Weight

The New York Times – Vehicles collect a lot of unusual data. But who owns it?: “Cars produced today are essentially smartphones with wheels. For drivers, this has meant many new features: automatic braking, turn-by-turn directions, infotainment. But for all the things we’re getting out of our connected vehicles, carmakers are getting much, much more:… Continue Reading

Skunkworks: Inside the Innovation Labs of 3 Fortune 500 Companies

Fortune – Go behind the scenes at Facebook, Levi’s, and Ford. At the Facebook AI Research lab, the online publisher is teaching robots how to learn. It promises to share the results with its friends…. Levi’s Eureka Innovation Lab in San Francisco uses lasers, pigments, and ingenuity to keep the jeansmaker technologically fashion-forward… At the… Continue Reading