Police have caught yet another driver abusing Tesla’s Autopilot system — but this time, he was cleaning his tooth

On Wednesday 9th January, Sergeant Kerry Schmidt of Ontario Provincial Police tweeted that an officer had charged a 58-year-old man with careless driving. The explanation? He was flossing his teeth using both hands while his Autopilot-enabled Model S was driving 135 kilometers per hour (84 mile per hour).

In its current form, Tesla’s Autopilot system can only assist drivers, not free them from the task of driving altogether — a distinction the company makes clear on its website.

“Autopilot enables your car to steer, accelerate, and brake automatically within its lane,” Tesla writes. “Current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”

However, that hasn’t stopped countless Tesla owners from letting Autopilot take over while they sleep, drive drunk, and even having sex.

After a video of yet another sleeping Tesla owner made the rounds online in September, Tesla released a statement clarifying that its driver-monitoring system issues warnings designed to prevent drivers from relying on Autopilot.

Clearly, those warnings didn’t stop the flossing Tesla owner, demonstrating once again that the company should probably be doing more to keep its drivers’ attention on the road.

READ MORE: Tesla driver charged with careless driving for flossing his teeth on Autopilot at 84 mph [Electrek]

BMW thinks their self driving cars could be better use for Sex !!

Autonomous driving will bring us a number of freedoms. Passengers will be able to watch movies, read newspapers — if they still exist — or play video games while the AI drives.

But BMW thinks being chauffeured by a self-driving car can get a whole lot more exciting than that. The German carmaker released — and then promptly deleted — an ad called “New Moments of Joy,” about a future where people can have sex inside their self-driving BMW version iNext cars.

Sexual Interstate

The racy ad was uploaded to BMW’s futuristic sub-brand BMWi’s Twitter account on Monday, but has since been taken down.

It’s unclear why exactly BMW removed the ad, but here are a couple of hints as to why they might have: encouraging people to drive without wearing seat belts isn’t exactly the best idea in 2019, despite a warning in the ad noting that it’s “a demonstration only” and that “BMW does not offer self-driving cars.”

Future Shock

Companies like Tesla have come under increased scrutiny for advertising self-driving features of their vehicles that might mislead customers about the tech’s limitations.

Or was it the raciness of the ad that raised one too many eyebrows? It’s a controversial ad that was bound to start a conversation about the future of self-driving. And it makes a good point: why stop at reading a book or watching Netflix while inside the car? Perhaps the world just wasn’t ready for that vision.
READ MORE: BMW ad hints in-car sex is part of our self-driving future [CNET]

Soon, you could upload your thoughts to a computer !

New Firm Working On Merging Brains And Computers

Tesla Inc founder and chief executive Elon Musk has laun ched a company called Neuralink Corp through which computers could merge with human brains, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Neuralink is pursuing what Musk calls the “neural lace“ technology , implanting tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts, the Journal reported. Musk has not made an official announcement, but Neuralink was registered in California as a “medical research“ firm, and he plans on funding the company mostly by himself, a person briefed on the plans said. It is unclear what sorts of products Neuralink might create, but people who have had discussions with the company describe a strategy similar to space launch company SpaceX and Tesla, the Journal report said. The technique could be used to improve memory or give humans added artificial intelligence.According to the Journal, leading academics in the field have been signed up to work at the company which is being funded privately by Musk, whose name is also tied to ambitious projects in space and electric cars. Specialists in the field envision a time when humans may be able to upload and download thoughts. In a tweet, Musk confirmed the existence of the company and said more details about the firm would be made public next week.

As well as heading electric car maker Tesla, Musk is involved with running space exploration company Space X, a project to reinvent transport called Hyperloop and, most recently , a firm investigating the feasibility of boring tunnels underneath Los Angeles -and a new project to power Australia. Tweeting about Neuralink, Musk conceded it would be “difficult to dedicate the time, but existential risk is too high not to“.

The hurdles involved in developing these devices are immense.Neuroscience researchers say we have very limited understanding about how the neurons in the human brain communicate, and our methods for collecting data on those neurons is rudimentary . Then there's the idea of people volunteering to have electronics placed inside their heads.

Volvo Plans to Take on Tesla

Volvo plans to launch its first all-electric vehicle by 2019. The Swedish automaker, which is now owned by Chinese company Geely, wants to compete with Tesla's Model 3 in terms of price.

When electric vehicles were first introduced, people weren’t quick to buy into the idea due to fears of limited mileage on a single charge. EVs were also generally more expensive compared to gas-powered cars. But all that is changing.

EVs can now compete with other cars in terms of price, and a single charge can support a much greater range. Traditional car manufacturers are quick to adapt these new technologies to develop their own EVs, and among them is Volvo. The Swedish company, now owned by Chinese manufacturer Geely, has just revealed their first all-electric car.

It’s not clear yet whether Volvo’s new concept will be a sedan or an SUV, but reports do indicate that it will be able to cover roughly 402 kilometers (250 miles) on one full charge. The vehicle is expected to be priced between $35,000 and $40,000, putting it in the same range as Tesla’s Model 3. No word yet if this concept EV will also be equipped with Volvo’s autonomous driving system.

In any case, the vehicle will be made at the company’s factory in Luqiao, China, and is set to go into production in 2019. The Swedish car manufacturer is also planning to build a larger EV for 2019, making that a big year for Volvo EVs.

Volvo has said they expect to sell one million EVs by 2025, and this new all-electric vehicle will likely put a big dent in that goal. As more EVs like it hit the roads, we should be able to put a dent in the carbon emissions currently wreaking havoc on our planet as well.