
Google launches Audio Overviews experiment for Search queries
Google said in a blog post that it is launching a new Search experiment in Labs – Audio Overviews, which uses its latest Gemini models to generate quick, conversational audio overviews for certain search queries. 'Searching for a topic you're not familiar with? An audio overview can help you get a lay of the land, offering a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information whether you're multitasking or simply prefer an audio experience,' the company said. 'Want to explore a topic further? We display helpful web pages right within the audio player on the search results page so you can easily dive in and learn more. To try it out, opt into the experiment in Labs. When our systems determine it might be useful, you'll see the option on the search results page to tap to generate a short audio overview on the topic of your query. You can give a thumbs up/down on each discussion, and the experiment as a whole in Labs.'

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Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Waymo cars became sitting ducks during the L.A. protests
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While it's impossible to know if a human driver behind the steering wheel could have deterred or escaped vandalism in any specific case involving a robotaxi, driverless vehicles are generally designed to stay put if there's any risk that they'd hit a person while moving. 'There's been so much effort into making sure they can't hurt human beings,' Fong said. 'That's the problem Waymo has been solving for, rightfully so, but when you have the problem where a human wants to do harm, these cars have no countermeasures.' Autonomous technology companies, including Waymo, appear to be largely at a loss for ideas on how to deter vandalism over the long term. Their cameras may be a partial deterrent — Waymo says each of its cars has 29 cameras — and the company has cooperated with police to help find vandalism suspects after the fact. But Waymo's collection of street data through its cameras and sensors is also one of the sources of anger against the company and other startups like it. Some Uber and Lyft drivers have said that vandalism incidents bolster the importance of human drivers as a deterrent. A spokesperson for Waymo said that in response to the protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere, it was temporarily adjusting its service area. Waymo declined to make anyone available for an interview about the problems of arson and vandalism and how the company plans to deal with such incidents in the long term. The vandalism problem is mostly limited for now to Waymo, which is the biggest self-driving car company. It has about 1,500 vehicles operating in four regions, with additional cities scheduled to come online this year. But the market is set to become more competitive soon, with Tesla saying it plans to launch a robotaxi service this month in Austin, Texas, and Amazon-backed Zoox planning a service in Las Vegas and San Francisco. 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The incidents are problematic for Waymo on multiple levels: not only the cost of repairing or replacing the vehicles, but also the reputational risk when images and videos spread widely online. There's also the possible danger to passengers. And although no passengers were harmed in the arson incidents, some passengers have been delayed or reported feeling threatened when the cars they were riding in were vandalized from the outside. Last year, a San Francisco woman posted a video online after she said two men targeted her while riding in a Waymo. Then there's the lost business from what Waymo calls 'temporary service adjustments.' In Los Angeles and San Francisco this past week, Waymo stopped serving certain areas that are part of its normal service area. People using the company's app in recent days were greeted with a message, alluding to the street protests: 'Pickup times and routing may be affected by local events. Thank you for your patience.' 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A Waymo spokesperson said: 'We're taking these heightened measures now out of an abundance of caution.' They said the situation was temporary and subject to change quickly in response to conditions on the ground. Waymo hasn't published a map of which areas are restricted. Mass anti-Trump protests advocating for 'No Kings' are scheduled for Saturday nationwide, providing another potential disruption for robotaxis. Though the service restrictions may be temporary, they struck some people as discriminatory against poorer neighborhoods, with some social media users on X calling the practice 'redlining' on the part of Waymo. The term refers to the decadeslong practice of refusing home loans to predominantly Black neighborhoods. In contrast, ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, which use human drivers, still offered rides to the Mission in recent days, according to NBC News searches of their apps. San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency rerouted some buses during the height of anti-Trump administration protests, but then resumed regular service. There have been no arrests for the attacks on Waymo vehicles in Los Angeles last Sunday. On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said it was taking the lead in investigating the Waymo attacks, making them the subject of a federal investigation. 'The cause of these fires is quite obvious,' ATF special agent in charge Kenneth Cooper of the Los Angeles Field Division said in a statement. 'The task at hand now is to determine who is responsible. ATF's National Response Team is going to be a tremendous asset, and we look forward to the results of their efforts to hold the responsible parties accountable,' he said. This article was originally published on


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