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Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

Cars That Think

If I could just connect the HVAC system to my iPhone, I could control it from anywhere. But the technology that I needed to make it happen—reliable low-cost communications, cheap screens and processors—didn’t exist yet. How did these ugly, piece-of-crap thermostats cost almost as much as Apple’s most cutting-edge technology?

Tahoe 95
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Volkswagen Group invested €11.5B (US$12.9B) in R&D in 2014; ongoing focus on electromobility and digitalization of vehicles

Green Car Congress

We develop technologies that point the way well into the future. ”. It may come as a surprise for you, but I highly welcome the interest of Apple, Google and others in the automobile. Winterkorn stressed that “ at Volkswagen, technology is never an end in itself. All these technologies serve people, our customers.

2014 150
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Who Really Invented the Thumb Drive?

Cars That Think

The gadget, roughly the size of a pack of chewing gum, held 8 megabytes of data and required no external power source, drawing power directly from a computer when connected. Computer users badly needed a cheap, high-capacity, reliable, portable storage device. Flash memory became cheap and robust enough for consumer use by 1995.

Singapore 144
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Just Calm Down About GPT-4 Already

Cars That Think

Rapid and pivotal advances in technology have a way of unsettling people, because they can reverberate mercilessly, sometimes, through business, employment, and cultural spheres. 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. And it’s really cheap.

Personal 145
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The Top 10 Semiconductor Stories of 2023

Cars That Think

In 2022, a schism in the chip design world and at Google erupted into the open. At issue was a reinforcement-learning AI system that Google uses to do a key step in laying out chunks of logic and memory for its AI accelerator chips, or TPUs. New technology, resembling a fuel cell operating in reverse , will make the technology greener.

Google 125
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Volvo XC40 Recharge and Polestar 2: EV cousins offer different takes on “premium”

Charged EVs

It’s called the XC40 Recharge, and the earliest versions aren’t cheap, priced from about $55,000 including delivery. Android running the dashboard means Google Assistant, Google Maps, Google Play Store, and more, are instantly available and work the way you already use them. Until now, it’s had no plug-in option.

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Europe Expands Virtual Borders To Thwart Migrants

Cars That Think

If it were legal to deliver rescued migrants to Libya, it would be as cheap as sending rescue boats a few extra kilometers south instead of east. requests for orientation on the latest technology. Frontex officials must have considered the technology promising, because in 2020 they issued another. One migrant with no money.

Europe 143