The solution to all of our autonomous driving issues could lie on the iconic Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Indy Autonomous Challenge, which is in its fourth year, has returned to offer a select few college students a chance to develop and perfect their own self-driving technology. Students from 21 universities across nine countries compete to see whose self-driving tech will carry their team past the checkered flag on race day.
Not only does the winning university get to compete for bragging rights and a $1 million prize, the tech they develop could also be brought to market for commercial use.
The students push the race cars to their physical limits, sometimes topping speeds of 170 mph. The hope is to identify how autonomous capabilities degrade over time so that they can be perfected for commercial use.
"I would probably say rather than implement unique strategies, we're all trying to be the best at perfecting our bugs and our problems. We're trying to do it quicker than the rest to achieve that basic autonomy," Stephanie Meyer, team lead at Autonomous Tiger Racing, told Cheddar News.
She also said the one of the biggest goals is to change public perception about autonomous driving and reassure them that it can be a safe and fun technology to use.
The Trump administration has issued its first warnings to online services that offer unofficial versions of popular drugs like the blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy.
Parents of teenagers who died by suicide after interacting with AI chatbots are set to testify before Congress.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into several social media and artificial intelligence companies about the potential harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions.
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
