Author name: Mike M.

unveiling-the-future-of-driving:-mercedes-benz-vision-one-eleven-concept-car-uses-magic-leap-2

Unveiling the Future of Driving: Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven Concept Car Uses Magic Leap 2

AR glasses, augmented reality, Automotive & Transportation, automotive industry, featured, magic leap / /

The German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz recently introduced its Vision One-Eleven concept car the Vision One-Eleven. On top of incorporating sustainability with its electric motor engine alongside a dynamic redesign, Vision-One Eleven uses Magic Leap 2 AR glasses for a more immersive car experience.

This approach reflects Mercedes-Benz’s commitment to creating better cars that provide the best possible driving experience to consumers while accommodating concerns about sustainable driving and introducing new tech. By partnering with Mercedes-Benz, Magic Leap also takes another step towards making AR experiences a part of everyday life.

Vision One-Eleven: A New Twist on an Old Classic

The Vision One-Eleven is a revisited concept car built on another beloved Mercedes-Benz classic, the C 111. The C 111 concept car incorporated iconic gullwing doors for a truly one-of-a-kind design in its day. Combined with its modern interiors, it proved to be an appealing concept car that influenced modern luxury vehicles.

Vision One-Eleven concept car

With the Vision One-Eleven, Mercedes-Benz further improves on the characteristics that set the C 111 apart, blending luxury interiors with intelligent design for a truly futuristic car. A sports vehicle with a lounge interior and a sleek body, the Vision One-Eleven is an exciting peek as to what the cars of the future may look like—from looks all the way to its electric motor.

The Capabilities of AR Glasses on the Road

Aside from visual and engineering overhauls, Vision One-Eleven also incorporates another rapidly growing technology: augmented reality. Since the adoption of full AR experiences has been slow in the larger market, XR companies like Magic Leap pivoted to a slower but steadier approach by bringing tech like the Magic Leap 2 into specific industries.

Drivers often have to manage a large amount of information to navigate and keep safe on the road. With the integration of technology such as built-in navigation or car sensors, drivers can rely on various tools that can help improve their driving efficiency.

This isn’t just progress for the sake of progress either: the introduction of AR technologies to drivers has plenty of benefits, from reducing the cognitive load to helping them navigate hazardous driving conditions.

While these applications have yet to be fully adopted by the market, the partnership between Mercedes-Benz and Magic Leap shows that this is an avenue both AR companies and car manufacturers can benefit from.

An Augmented and Seamless Driving Experience

Specific details about how Magic Leap 2 will integrate with Vision One-Eleven’s driving systems have yet to be released. Still, the goal is to create a configurable, immersive AR interface between the driver and their vehicle. This interface can display information about driving conditions on-demand, from the selected drive mode to information about the driver’s destination and current location.

Vision One-Eleven concept car and Magic Leap AR glasses

With Magic Leap 2, this system transforms the conventional dashboards of cars into a dynamic cockpit where drivers can fully use their field of vision to navigate the roads better. This drastically helps improve both the driving experience and car safety for car owners, passengers, and passersby—while also implementing an intelligent driving model that may potentially reinvent the way people drive.

A Partnership Built On Innovation

The Vision One-Eleven isn’t the first collaboration between Magic Leap and Mercedes-Benz: the two companies worked together in 2019 for the Mercedes Immersive Roadshow. While Magic Leap’s role in that collaboration was to enrich the viewing experience by augmenting the visual aesthetic of the exhibit, their new partnership with Vision One-Eleven shows Mercedes-Benz’s confidence in the potential of AR experiences.

Given the increasing entry rate of other competitors into the AR market, Mercedes-Benz and Magic Leap have secured themselves a lead over the competition when introducing AR into the driving experience. Whether they can hold on to this head start is something else altogether—but for now, the Vision One-Eleven holds the spotlight as a blend of technology and good car design.

What’s Next?

The Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven, like most concept cars, is unlikely to be produced in its current form. However, its design, technology, and engineering innovations will undoubtedly be integrated into future Mercedes-Benz production vehicles. And it’s pretty certain that XR technology will find its place in those vehicles.

According to Mercedes-Benz, “The spatial user interface is a beacon for a Mercedes-Benz user experience that is unencumbered by technology. It is part of a wider vision that looks towards extended reality, whereby technology and hardware cease to be the focal point; instead becoming fully integrated and seamless facilitators of user needs and wishes.”

As for Magic Leap 2, the company shows no signs of slowing down with potential partnerships with established brands. Some of its latest potential forays include a partnership with Audi, as well as early talks with tech giant Meta, perhaps looking to expand towards more consumers in the AR space.

As for the future of AR driving? It’s difficult to tell, but one thing’s certain: everyone will be in for an interesting ride.

Unveiling the Future of Driving: Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven Concept Car Uses Magic Leap 2 Read More »

digital-ids-—-the-need-for-a-global-passport

Digital IDs — the need for a global passport

Future of Work, Government and policy / /

We live in a world characterised by mobility. More and more people are choosing to work remotely and live wherever they want without damaging their careers.

While this trend had been on the rise in recent years, since the pandemic, the number of digital nomads worldwide is now up to 35 million. About 17 million of them are Americans, mostly setting up shop in European nations.

Technology has improved in tandem with the willingness to explore working from anywhere. Now it sets the stage for the creation of a new, larger generation of digital nomads.  The question, however, remains — will the necessary conditions for a global world of work be ready to meet them?

Complicated forms and bureaucracy

International mobility has a high barrier to entry, namely because of the complex and exaggerated bureaucracy involved in migration processes in many countries.

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These issues hinder people who want to resettle in another country, as filling out all the necessary documentation for visa applications is already a lengthy process and waiting to receive the final documents is even worse.

Although many countries in Europe make it easier for new residents to get an EU work permit through the Blue Card Network, it can still take anywhere from several weeks up to several months until a work visa is issued.

Moreover, this system heavily favours talent coming from other EU nations, it doesn’t include key nations like the UK and Ireland and was designed for folks relocating to work at companies based in their new nations and to live there more permanently. It was not designed for digital nomads.

It starts with the passport

Nations across the world look at the passport as the crossing ticket between borders — the essential document that allows citizens to leave and enter different countries.

The modern-day passport has its origins in the post-World War I era and was created with the aim of helping citizens from Western countries move around the world. More than a century later, the same document remains standard practice. But the world is a very different place than it was, as travel is available to more people and due to transportation advances, much more frequent.

An example of how this mechanism fails to meet the needs of today’s modern workforce can be seen in countries such as China, the Philippines, and India. These countries are attractive for recruiting their highly skilled talent, particularly for technology companies in both Europe and the United States. Conversely, as per the 2023 Henley Passport Index, the three countries possess some of the “least powerful” passports globally.

EU nomad visas = progress!

In the past couple of years, several nations across Europe have taken new steps to address the needs of nomadic talent by implementing nomad visas. These visas are mutually beneficial, as they simplify the processes required for non-residents to work in a foreign country (usually not requiring them to pay local taxes), while making these countries more attractive to international workers. In turn, this attracts more skilled talent that spends more money in the countries.

The trend is rising amongst EU nations, with countries such as Croatia, Greece, Estonia (the first one to do so), Hungary, Portugal, and Spain now offering some variation of this kind of visa, with likely more to follow suit in the future. In fact, Spain is already the second most popular country for digital nomads — with over 125,000 of them.

Though these visas are a very good first step toward modernising global passport systems to meet new migration and global mobility trends, it is more of a band-aid for a wound, and not a disease-stopping antibiotic. To redefine the passport system, the world needs to think bigger by deploying one that can be utilised everywhere.

Digital IDs
 Please

The answer to modernising the passport system globally is to create a secure digital identity for everyone. Creating a secure digital platform where everyone’s documents are shared with governments worldwide would enable the development of a digital passport that is accepted and recognised by all countries.

While some may have concerns about sharing personal information on globally shared databases (or fear conspiracy theories about a new world order), creating a secure digital platform with proper protections would provide global citizens with a safer and more secure method than the existing systems.

This system would drastically reduce the time required for approval of entry into the country, while at the same time contributing to a more sustainable future where it would not be necessary to produce paper for passports.

The use of automation technologies in the resettlement and immigration processes helps both those who want to relocate as well as companies looking for international talent. Using technology in relocation processes saves time, reduces the workload for companies and professionals, and boosts control and effectiveness.

Estonia and X-Road

In a short period of time, I have seen Estonia transform from one of the poorest countries in the world to an open and democratic society that not only functions but thrives as a poster child for technology-driven governance and innovation. This is because more than 20 years ago, the country decided to build a platform called the X-Road, the backbone of digital Estonia.

The key to it is a digital identity for every citizen that allows public and private databases to link up and operate in harmony. Estonians can do everything online (except for getting married or divorced). From doing taxes to voting in elections, everything is securely done online and takes about the same time as checking an Instagram account.

The digitalisation saves Estonia a stack of paper as high as the Eiffel Tower every month and according to Siim Sikkut, the CIO of Estonia, the digital signature alone enables Estonia to save two percent of its GDP every year.

Now imagine a similar system on a global scale that lets people upload their data and documents (e.g., passport, marriage and education certificates) into a smart system that converts the data into pieces that can be matched to relevant government forms in different government systems worldwide.

These digital IDs shared on this interlocking system could act as a digital passport and with the click of a button, immigration applications are created, submitted and digitally tracked. Imagine if digital nomads never have to fill in any immigration forms ever again, regardless of the country they are moving to. Add to that all the processes, paperwork, and red tape employers would never have to waste time on ever again.

Building a richer world

Though the passport defines our specific residence and home country, I truly believe that these days we are all citizens of the world. We want to be workers based anywhere, for any company, and a universal digital passport could truly make this scalable without wasting time and resources. Digital passports could expand opportunities beyond borders and help us build a richer world for all.

Karoli Hindriks is the CEO and founder of Jobbatical and has been an entrepreneur since the age of 16 when she founded her first company – making her the youngest inventor in Estonia. She has been named one of the 50 most influential women in the European startup and VC space by EU-Startups and in 2020, the EU Council named her one of the eight most inspiring women in Europe. Karoli was nominated to speak at the Fortune Magazine Most Powerful Women International Summit in 2017 and in 2021 she was a speaker at the TED conference in Monterey, California, as her talk has been already translated into fourteen languages.

Digital IDs — the need for a global passport Read More »

a-world-first-spacecraft-reentry-to-earth-is-approaching

A world-first spacecraft reentry to Earth is approaching

Deep tech, Ecosystems, Insider / /

A car-sized spacecraft is falling down to Earth — but there’s a plan to catch it.

Aeolus, the first satellite to directly observe wind profiles from space, is almost out of fuel. Earth’s atmosphere and gravity are now dragging the 1360-kg craft down to our planet at increasing speed.

In the original plan, Aelous was expected to fall naturally back to Earth. But the European Space Agency (ESA) has proposed another idea: an assisted re-entry — the first of its kind.

Aeolus measurement geometry
Data from Aeolus was used by meteorology centres to improve weather forecasts. Credit: ESA

To reduce the threat of space junk, rockets and satellites are designed to safely reenter Earth’s atmosphere once their missions end.

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The rapid descent generates so much heat and friction that smaller objects often disintegrate in the sky — but larger bodies can stay intact. To reduce the risks to human life, these entities need to safely land in uninhabited regions.

Under current regulations, spacecraft must either burn up entirely or undergo a controlled reentry. But Aeolus was designed before these rules were made. 

How ESA plans to guide a falling satellite safely back to Earth
Credit: ESA
Aeolus is currently falling at around 1km a day, but it will rapidly accelerate. Credit: ESA

The Aeolus mission was planned in the late 1990s, when there were no guidelines about reentries. At the time, Aeolus was designed to fall on an area of Earth that would be quite random.

To comply with today’s requirements, ESA changed the plan. Mission control will now use the satellite’s last drops of fuel to bring the satellite back to Earth.

“This assisted reentry attempt goes above and beyond safety regulations for the mission, which was planned and designed in the late 1990s,” said Tim Flohrer, head of ESA’s Space Debris Office, in a blog post.

“Once ESA and industrial partners found that it might be possible to further reduce the already minimal risk to life or infrastructure even further, the wheels were set in motion. Should all go to plan, Aeolus would be in line with current safety regulations for missions being designed today.”

In 2019, ESA performed a 'collision avoidance manoeuvre' to protect Aeolus from colliding with a satellite in SpaceX's Starlink constellation
In 2019, ESA performed a ‘collision avoidance manoeuvre’ to protect Aeolus from colliding with a satellite in SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. Credit: ESA

Aeolus will first naturally descend from its operational altitude of 320km to a lower orbit. When it reaches an altitude of 280km — a process that can take weeks — ESA will attempt the first re-entry manoeuvres.

A sequence of moves will then bring the satellite down to 150km above Earth. The final, critical commands will guide the satellite to an altitude of 80km, where most of the satellite will burn up in the atmosphere. Some debris, however, may still make it to our planet’s surface.

To avert the extremely remote risk that debris poses to life, ESA is targeting the reentry at a vast expanse of ocean far away from land.

If the manoeuvres are successful, ESA expects to complete the journey in late July or early August. However, as a first-ever attempt at an assisted reentry, it’s not guaranteed to work. If the plan has to be aborted, Aeolus’ natural descent will continue.

But if the mission is accomplished, it will set a new standard for satellite reentry and space junk mitigation.

A world-first spacecraft reentry to Earth is approaching Read More »

cowboy-releases-digital-ebike-key-to-keep-vanmoof-riders-on-the-road

Cowboy releases digital ebike key to keep VanMoof riders on the road

Ecosystems, Investors and funding, Startups and technology / /
Cowboy releases digital ebike key to keep VanMoof riders on the road

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll probably know that ebike darling VanMoof is facing bankruptcy.  

Obviously, this isn’t good news for VanMoof riders, who could be locked out of their own bikes which largely rely on a unique software app created by the Dutch company.

But fear not VanMoofers, Belgian ebike rival Cowboy has released an app to keep you on the road. ‘Bikey’ enables VanMoof riders to generate and save their own unique digital key in case VanMoof’s servers go offline.

The app is now live on the Apple app store in beta, but will be available for Android soon, said the company. The app currently works with the popular S3 and X3 ebike models, with plans to extend support for new S5 and A5 ebikes. 

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cowboy-app-vanmoof

“Our software team worked through the night on this and we must stress that it’s a beta so bugs may be experienced
 but we wanted to get this shipped ASAP because it will only work while the VanMoof servers are still live,” a spokesperson from Cowboy told TNW. 

Without the key, VanMoof owners would essentially lose total access to most of the functionalities of their ebikes, which can cost in the region of €‎3000. 

While the move is a touch audacious, Cowboy’s spokesperson insists that “this is about keeping bikes on the road, which is our no.1 mission as a company, regardless of whether the bikes are made by a competitor or not.” 

“People rely on their ebikes for their livelihoods,” the spokesperson added. 

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Meta CTO Says Quest 3 Announcement Timing Had ‘Nothing to do with Vision Pro’

andrew bosworth, apple vision pro, boz, Meta, News, quest 3, VR Industry / /

Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said this week that the announcement of Quest 3, which came just days ahead of Vision Pro reveal, had nothing to do with the timing of Apple’s first public foray into XR.

“People won’t believe me, I don’t care—I’m telling the truth, you can believe me or not, that’s up to you [
],” Bosworth began in a Q&A hosted on Instagram this week in response to a question about the curious timing of Quest 3’s announcement, which came just days ahead of the reveal of Apple Vision Pro. He continued:

What we found out
 especially last year
 is that when we announce a new headset in September/October, a lot of people—especially when you already have headsets out in market—a lot of people have already made buying decisions in the summertime, or they’re kind of committed to a path, so you’re not capturing the full holiday season.

So we sent a note to [Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg] long before we even knew about WWDC timing or substance, saying ‘hey for Quest 3 we want to announce it early, so that people know it’s coming, so they can plan well in advance of the holiday season what they want to do’.

So that was our plan from a long time ago, and the timing worked out unbelievably well [laughs]. I’m not mad about it
 I’m not saying I’m mad about it, I’m just saying that was the plan that we developed in terms of go-to-market, and it had nothing to do with [Vision Pro].

The announcement of Quest 3—which came four days before Apple’s Vision Pro reveal—was certainly curious as far as the company’s prior patterns. Compared to the kind of formal announcement we’ve seen, the new headset was first teased and then revealed on social media through Mark Zuckerberg’s feeds. Even when more formal information was shared shortly thereafter, the company didn’t share the headset’s full specs, instead promising more details to come at the annual XR event, Meta Connect, which wouldn’t be held for nearly four more months.

Regardless, Bosworth maintains the Quest 3 announcement was decided well before the company knew what Apple would reveal or when.

Bosworth, who heads Meta’s XR division, Reality Labs, also answered some other questions about Apple Vision Pro during the Q&A.

Q: Thoughts on Apple’s decision to have attached battery pack rather than all-in-one headset?

A: At some point these headsets are a physics problem. You can spend your thermals and your weight one way, or another way, but at some point the equation has to square. [Apple’s] headset, I think, is roughly in the same ballpark of weight as our headsets, and they wanted to have this battery life, so they wanted to go external with [the battery]. It doesn’t matter who you are, what company you are, who you work for
 physics is a uniform belligerent to this space. We’re making progress hand-over-fist as an industry; I think Apple’s entry is going to help with that a lot. But yeah, you have to square the circle somehow, and they had to do it with an external battery pack and a cord.

Q: How does the Vision Pro change Meta’s roadmap?

A: Andy Grove—famous Intel CEO and kind of godfather of Silicon Valley—always used to say “only the paranoid survive,” and we try to embody that. You try to approach your work with a lot of humility. Whenever a great competitor comes out, whether it be the Pico, whether it be Apple Vision Pro, certainly; you’re trying to look and see, what did they do differently, and why? What did we miss? Did we get it wrong, or did they figure something out? So you try to learn from it. And then be humble about it. At the same time, you can’t constantly be chasing every competitor because then you’re getting thrown off your own game. You’re getting thrown off what you can uniquely do and what you’ve done right, and that they need to learn from. In our case I think we’ve got a great ecosystem, we’ve got a great set of devices, we’ve got a great price point. So it’s a balance to try to learn from them and not over-rotate on that. Nothing that we hadn’t looked at before [
] we were focusing on gaze and touch for AR as well—it’s a natural AR interaction—is that something that needs to get more priority in VR? Not sure yet. So we’re looking at it
 we’re not sure yet.

Meta CTO Says Quest 3 Announcement Timing Had ‘Nothing to do with Vision Pro’ Read More »

oecd:-60%-of-finance-and-manufacturing-workers-fear-ai-replacement

OECD: 60% of finance and manufacturing workers fear AI replacement

Deep tech, Future of Work, Government and policy / /

While AI’s impact on the labour market has been limited so far, concerns about job security are heightened, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found.

To assess the emerging opinions around artificial intelligence in the workplace, the OECD surveyed over 2,000 employers and 5,300 workers in finance and manufacturing across seven of its member countries.

The survey showed that three in five employees working in these sectors fear they’ll be replaced by AI in the next decade. Two in five are worried about AI-related wage decreases.

Overall, jobs with the highest risk of automation (those relying on more than 25 out of the 100 skills considered easily automable) account for 27% of the labour force in the 38 OECD countries. The most exposed among them are Eastern European nations, including Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Czechia, and Poland.

On the bright side, 63% of the respondents said AI has increased their enjoyment at work, by automating, for instance, dangerous or tedious tasks. Eight in ten employees have seen their performance improve, and a little over 50% said AI has boosted their mental health. Around the same number of employers reported that artificial intelligence can help disabled workers.

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But despite the positive feedback, a number of tangible concerns remain. These include not only job loss, but also work intensification and ethical challenges.

The OECD is urging its member countries to act fast and ensure that AI’s benefits in the workplace outweigh the risks. It stresses the need for training programmes and — most importantly — policies to facilitate AI’s deployment in a responsible, trustworthy, and unbiased way.

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Amazon sues EU for calling it a ‘Very Large Online Platform’

Corporates and innovation, Data and security, Government and policy / /

Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ online retail behemoth that registered over 300 million active users and raked over $500bn last year, says it doesn’t fit the EU’s definition of a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP). 

The Silicon Valley firm is so adamant it isn’t a VLOP, it is suing the EU over the matter, making it the first (and probably not the last) US company to challenge the bloc’s new digital content rules.  

Amazon was among the first of 18 companies to be designated a VLOP in late April under the EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA), designed to curb hate speech and disinformation online. A VLOP designation requires companies to do more to tackle illegal online content, undertake risk management, conduct external and independent auditing, and share data with authorities and researchers. 

All platforms that reach at least 45 million monthly active users are required to comply with the full obligations of the DSA, which comes into force on August 25. Facebook, Twitter, Apple’s App Store, Google Play, YouTube, and German retailer Zalando are all included, among others.  

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According to Amazon, the DSA was designed to address systemic risks posed by very large companies that distribute speech and information and rely on advertising as their primary revenue. “Amazon doesn’t fit this description of a ‘very large online platform’ under the DSA and should not be designated as such,” it said. The retail giant said its addition to the EU’s naughty list means it would be “unfairly singled out and forced to meet onerous administrative obligations that do not benefit EU consumers.” 

Last month, Germany’s Zalando, Europe’s largest online retailer, became the first company to start a lawsuit over the designation. The company claimed its active European user base figures aren’t substantial enough for it to be considered a VLOP. It has long been expected that Silicon Valley groups would also challenge the rules. 

“The scope of the DSA is very clear and is deïŹned to cover all platforms that expose their users to content, including the sale of products or services, which can be illegal,” the European Commission said in a statement reported by the Financial Times. “For marketplaces as for social networks, very wide user reach increases the risks and the platforms’ responsibilities to address them.”

Amazon has opened the suit at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second highest. The Commission said it is “ready to defend its position”.

Amazon sues EU for calling it a ‘Very Large Online Platform’ Read More »

‘hotter-than-the-sun’-nuclear-fusion-rocket-could-halve-flight-time-to-mars

‘Hotter than the sun’ nuclear fusion rocket could halve flight time to Mars

Deep tech, Insider, Startups and technology / /

A UK startup is building a nuclear fusion rocket engine that aims to halve the journey time to Mars.

Pulsar Fusion, an aerospace firm based in Bletchley, expects the system to exceed speeds of 805,000kmph and the hottest temperatures in the solar system. To reach those eye-popping targets, the startup will harness nuclear fusion, a reaction that gives the Sun its energy.

In brief, nuclear fusion fuses two atoms together to liberate vast amounts of energy. Scientists believe the process can create limitless, zero-carbon energy to replace fossil fuels. But the benefits could reach space before they’re felt on Earth.

“Space is the ideal place to do fusion in terms of it being a vacuum and the extremely cold temperatures,” said Richard Dinan, CEO and founder of Pulsar Fusion.

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“Unlike a fusion power station, fusion propulsion doesn’t require a giant steam turbine and fuels can be sourced externally rather than needing to be created on-site.”

To reap these benefits, Dinan plans to produce propulsion directly in the fusion engine. He believes this can be achieved within just four years.

Pulsar Fusion CEO Richard Dinan
Dinan founded Pulsar Fusion in 2014. Credit: Pulsar Fusion

Dinan’s plan involves creating a plasma of electrically-charged particles. When the final plasma shot is fired in the eight-metre fusion chamber, the temperatures are set to reach several hundred million degrees — hotter than the sun.

“The difficulty is learning how to hold and confine the super-hot plasma within an electromagnetic field,” said Dr James Lambert, CFO of Pulsar Fusion.

“The plasma behaves like a weather system in terms of being incredibly hard to predict using conventional techniques. Scientists have not been able to control the turbulent plasma as it is heated to hundreds of millions of degrees and the reaction simply stops.”

Recent breakthroughs, however, have brought the concept closer to reality. In December, for instance, scientists produced the first fusion reaction that created more energy than it took to start the reaction. The milestone was hailed as “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.”

At Pulsar Fusion, hopes have been further buoyed by new advances in AI. To tap the benefits, the company has teamed up with the US-based Princeton Satellite Systems to predict how plasma behaves under electromagnetic confinement. The machine learning simulations will guide the rocket engine’s design.

Illustration of Pulsar Fusion
Pulsar Fusion plans to first develop a space propulsion solution and then a land-based fusion power station. Credit: Pulsar Fusion

In 2027, Pulsar Fusion plans to demonstrate that its rocket can achieve fusion temperatures. If the tests are successful, the company will move a step closer to creating the world’s first commercially viable fusion-based engine.

“The technology has the potential to half mission times to Mars, reduce flight time to Saturn from eight years to two and ultimately empower humanity to leave our solar system,” said Dinan.

‘Hotter than the sun’ nuclear fusion rocket could halve flight time to Mars Read More »

meta-platforms-top-the-list-of-uk-payment-scams,-finance-group-claims

Meta platforms top the list of UK payment scams, finance group claims

Ecosystems, Government and policy, Meta, UK / /

UK Finance, which represents more than 300 companies, has written to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, requesting that ministers make tech companies take responsibility for payment fraud on their platforms. Specifically, the lobby group is pointing the finger at Meta, which it claims is connected to over 60% of all push payment fraud.  

An Authorised Push Payment (APP) scam, also known as bank transfer fraud, is a type of scam in which fraudsters trick individuals or businesses into authorising the transfer of funds from their bank accounts to accounts controlled by the criminals. 

It typically involves social engineering techniques to deceive victims into believing that they are making legitimate payments or transfers. These include tactics such as brand impersonation, too-good-to-be-true crypto deals, online romances, overdue fines, or “relatives” asking for money.

As the victim is the one who initiates the payment, banks in most countries are reluctant to reimburse the funds. Starting in 2024, the government will require UK banks to reimburse fraud victims that have been tricked into sending money to fraudsters. 

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With the new rules looming on the horizon, it is understandable that the UK finance industry is pushing for tech companies to take more responsibility for financial online crime. 

UK fraud strategy to “incentivise” online scam investigation

According to a report from Outseer last year, APP scams now comprise 75% of all online banking payments fraud. Meanwhile, UK Finance claims that criminals stole ÂŁ485.2mn through APPs last year alone.

Promisingly, this was down 17% from the year prior, but fears are that the recent step-change in generative AI could help turbo-charge fraudulent tactics online and make scams more sophisticated.  

The UK government announced a new national fraud strategy in May this year, but stopped short of  forcing tech companies to pay compensation to victims of online scams. It did impose a “duty of care” on large platforms to protect users from fraud and other negative content. 

The data in the letter from UK Finance, as first reported by the Financial Times, says that platforms owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta — Facebook, Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, and WhatsApp — are the locations of 61% of all APP scams. 

A spokesperson for the company told the FT that it is an industry-wide issue with scammers using increasingly sophisticated methods to defraud people in a range of ways, adding that Meta was working with the police to support their investigations. 

According to the UK’s fraud strategy, tech companies must make it easy for users to report fraud on their platforms (“within a few simple clicks”). Furthermore, the strategy says it will “shine a light on which platforms are the safest, making sure that companies are properly incentivised to combat fraud.” 

Depending on how the government will implement this measure, it would seem Meta has its work cut out for it. According to statistics from UK bank TSB earlier this year, when taking into account the three biggest three biggest fraud categories — purchase, impersonation, and investment fraud — as much as 80% occur on Meta’s platforms. 

Meta platforms top the list of UK payment scams, finance group claims Read More »

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HTC Quietly Retires Vive Cosmos in the US

htc vive cosmos, htc vive cosmos elite, News, vive cosmos, vive cosmos elite, VR Headset / /

After being out of stock for months, HTC quietly removed the US-facing product page for Vive Cosmos, its modular PC VR headset released in 2019.

The discrepancy was first discovered by Reddit user ‘Kody1996’, who wondered why the Vive Cosmos product page was missing.

“I am afraid the VIVE Cosmos headset has been discontinued in the US. I suggest you to check with resellers if they have it available,” an HTC service representative confirmed with Road to VR, echoing the statement provided to Kody1996.

At the time of this writing, new units are still available direct from HTC in select markets, including Europe, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan.

Photo by Road to VR

Vive Cosmos has always been a bit of an odd duck. Launching a little over a year after Vive Pro hit the market, Cosmos was set to be the company’s first consumer VR headset since the original HTC Vive. Cosmos’ claim to fame in 2019: integrated audio, competitive displays, and an inside-out optical tracking, which was
 not great.

At its 2019 launch, the $700 Cosmos was sandwiched between two primary competitors: Oculus Rift S on the low-end at $400 and Valve Index on the high-end at $1,000 (controllers and base stations included). It would have to perform better than Rift S to defend its seat in the middle ground, but it was actually so bad at launch we postponed our review because we thought we had received a faulty unit. Nope. The headset’s inside-out tracking was just really unreliable in everything but perfect lighting conditions.

Those tracking woes were partially improved with successive updates, although the only real way to get ‘perfect’ tracking out of the headset was to ditch its modular faceplate and middling controllers and swap it out for the platform’s rock-solid SteamVR-tracking faceplate, courtesy of Vive Cosmos Elite. When Cosmos Elite launched in 2020, that would have set you back $900 for the all-in kit, putting it $100 below Index, which is still broadly considered the reigning champ for best all-around PC VR headset.

Despite lowering the price of the all-in Cosmos Elite kit in the US from $900 to $750, and even offering a headset-only option for as little as $550, HTC’s modular headset never really managed to serve up competition to Oculus or Valve, making only a sliver of an in-road on Steam in its first year.

HTC Quietly Retires Vive Cosmos in the US Read More »

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Netherlands first in Europe to approve lab-grown meat tastings

Europe, Government and policy, Politics, Sustainability / /

Yesterday, the Dutch government released an official letter announcing it will allow the tasting of meat and seafood products cultivated from animal cells under specified conditions.

Following in the footsteps of the US and Singapore, the Netherlands is now the first country in Europe to permit tastings of lab-grown meat, a move that is particularly welcome by leading Dutch startups in the field. 

Collaborative competition in the lab-grown meat space

Cellular agriculture might not make a huge dent in the food industry for many years yet. However, given time, the breakthrough technology of growing meat in labs can form part of a desperately needed solution to transforming our food systems. 

There is no shortage of cultivated meat startups around the world, and in Europe. One of the keys to their success, apart from food safety and energy efficiency, is taste. For omnivores to pick lab-grown meat over that from a slaughtered animal, it needs to deliver when it comes to taste and texture. 

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However, up until now, scientists in Europe have faced a tremendous hurdle — they haven’t actually been able to let people try their products. As such, the move from the Dutch government to allow tastings under certain conditions is crucial to moving the budding industry forward.

Lawmakers established the “code of practice” in collaboration with cultivated meat startups Meatable and Mosa Meat, and sector representative HollandBIO. 

Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat which calls itself a food technology company making the “world’s kindest beef burgers,” called the landmark announcement a “great achievement.” 

“Mosa Meat will use these controlled tastings to gather invaluable feedback on our products and to educate key stakeholders about the role cellular agriculture can play in helping Europe meet our food sovereignty and sustainability goals,” Bosch said. 

“This is great news for the Netherlands,” said Krijn de Nood, co-founder and CEO of Meatable, with whom TNW sat down for an interview earlier this year. He further added that it meant the country would maintain its pioneering position in the field. “Meatable is looking forward to inviting the first people to try our sausages, dumplings, and pulled pork!”

Following in the footsteps of the US and Singapore

As previously mentioned, the landmark decision makes the Netherlands the first country in Europe to make pre-approved tastings of cultivated meat possible. The government has previously set aside €60mn to build a “cellular agriculture ecosystem” and make the country a hub for the emerging technology. It has also established the organisation Cellular Agriculture Netherlands, which will now be tasked with overseeing the code of practice for tasting approvals. 

A little over a week ago, the US approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells from startups Upside Foods and Good Meat, both based in California. Singapore, which was also the location for Meatable’s first public tasting of its cultivated pork products earlier this year, has been way ahead on the regulatory side. 

The city-state formed a Novel Food Safety Expert Working Group in March 2020, and approved the first product (cultivated chicken from Eat Just) for sale in November the same year. Meatable has chosen to create a base in Singapore, and over the next five years, the company plans to invest over €60mn and employ more than 50 people there.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of May this year, Mosa Meat opened a new 2,760 square metre scale-up facility in Maastricht in the Netherlands. When it comes to solving one of the key drivers of climate change and halting the killing of more than 70 billion land animals per year, a little healthy competition never hurt. 

Netherlands first in Europe to approve lab-grown meat tastings Read More »

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Europe makes unicorns at almost twice the rate of the US, report finds

Corporates and innovation, Ecosystems, Investors and funding, Startups and technology / /

Europe finally has all the pieces in place to challenge the US as the world’s leading tech hub, according to an analysis from venture capital firm Creandum and Dealroom, released today. 

Europe’s total number of unicorns has grown 88% compared to the US’ 56% since 2014. Moreover, its share of global VC funding has quadrupled in the last 20 years — the continent now takes more than a third of global investments at early-stage.

According to the report, Europe has the highest density of tech unicorn cities globally — with 514 companies valued at $1bn or more spread across 65 cities in 25 countries. These include fintechs like Adyen, Revolut, Klarna, Pleo and iZettle; digital health startups like Kry and Doctolib; and enterprise software startups like Factorial, Personio, and UiPath.

“In just 20 years, Europe has gone from being an outsider to a global challenger,” said Staffan Helgesson, general partner at Creandum — the first VC to invest in European success story Spotify. 

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While Europe is clearly doing a good job at producing world-leading companies, its biggest strength lies in emerging sectors like fintech, quantum computing, and climate tech, says the report. It already accounts for around a third of global funding in these key emerging industries, while the continent is home to half of the world’s top science clusters focused on these sectors. 

Climate tech especially has remained a key growth area despite the venture downturn, with 22% of total European funding going into climate tech in 2023 versus 7% for the US. Given that the climate transition is poised to transform industries, Europe’s strength in this sector alone presents a “huge opportunity” in the years to come, says the report. 

“We’re confident that in the next 20 years, Europe can take the lead in emerging tech sectors, including digital health, climate tech, fintech, and AI, that are critical to our economies and lives,” said Helgesson.

Europe makes unicorns at almost twice the rate of the US, report finds Read More »