article thumbnail

Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

Cars That Think

Adapted from the book BUILD: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell. They were buying a $249 thermostat—they were expecting a different kind of experience. Nest Gets Googled. In 2014, Google bought Nest for $3.2 In 2016 Google decided to sell Nest, so I left the company. Problem solved.

Tahoe 96
article thumbnail

Univ of Utah studies find up to 27 seconds of mental distraction for drivers after using new hands-free technologies

Green Car Congress

One of the studies showed that it is highly distracting to use hands-free voice commands to dial phone numbers, call contacts, change music and send texts with Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri and Google Now smartphone personal assistants, though Google Now was a bit less distracting than the others. moderate distraction. Strayer, Joel M.

Utah 150
article thumbnail

Real Life EV Story : Arun has abandoned his ICE cars and only uses Tata Nexon EV

Plug In India

He had almost made up his mind to buy the e2o, but was only concerned that with the 100 km range, making trips from Bangalore to his hometown of Mangalore would be impractical. Arun can research elevation gains on Google and Strava, but bad roads tend to be the surprise factor while planning a trip.

Juice 52
article thumbnail

Just Calm Down About GPT-4 Already

Cars That Think

Brooks, who is now working on his third robotics startup, Robust.AI , has written hundreds of articles and half a dozen books and was featured in the motion picture Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. The example I used at the time was, I think it was a Google program labeling an image of people playing Frisbee in the park. More context.

Personal 145
article thumbnail

Finally, an eVTOL You Can Buy (Soon)

Cars That Think

The journey that made Leng’s dream a reality kicked into high gear in 2014 when a chance meeting with investor Sebastian Thrun at an aviation conference led to Google cofounder Larry Page investing in Leng’s project. So who might buy it? Ed Lu , a former NASA astronaut and executive at Google, sits on Opener’s safety-review board.

Buy 102
article thumbnail

L. Frank Baum’s Cautionary Tale About the Gifts of Electricity

Cars That Think

In those books and numerous other works, he wove together magic, adventure, and nature into fantastic tales that were beloved of children and adults alike. The book plays up both the promise and the perils of what was still a very new technology. The American writer. Occasionally, Baum also drew inspiration from technology.

Electric 133
article thumbnail

Volkswagen showcases inductive charging w/ “power lift”, autonomous and semi-autonomous capabilities & gesture control at CES

Green Car Congress

The three underlying software interfaces of App-Connect are the initial Mirror Link (2014), and now Android Auto (Google) and CarPlay (Apple). The numerous apps that can be incorporated via Android Auto include classics such as Google Maps, Google Play, WhatsApp and Spotify. Also included: SoundCloud, Text Me!,

Charging 150