Latest news with #Wozniak
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
First look: Tesla's biggest bet in years makes street debut
It has been a long time coming, but the moment is finally here. Tesla (TSLA) has officially rolled out its robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, after years of promises and missed deadlines. Tesla has teased its robotaxi program since CEO Elon Musk first mentioned it in 2016, but its development has moved at a snail's pace. Related: Tesla takes drastic measures to keep robotaxi plans secret Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was a self-described early believer in Tesla, but in recent years, he has made it his mission to warn the world about its Full Self-Driving technology. "Boy, if you want to study AI gone wrong, and making a lot of claims, and trying to kill you every chance it can, get a Tesla," Wozniak told CNN in a 2023 interview. Wozniak was a former Tesla booster, dating back to 2016, when he said he had spent a lot of money upgrading his vehicle. The upgrade included a camera and radar in the vehicle, and Musk promised that the car would be able to drive itself across the country by the end of 2016. Musk then said, according to Woz, that a new vehicle upgrade with eight cameras and even more sensors would allow the car to drive itself cross-country by the end of 2017. Eight years later, Tesla still can't drive itself cross-country, but the company is showcasing its progress on the streets of Austin. Self-driving Teslas with no one in the driver's seat were spotted in Austin this week. The video circulating online does, however, seem to show a human inside. The car in the video, with the word "Robotaxi" written on the door, successfully yields to pedestrians legally crossing in the crosswalk. According to Musk, Tesla plans to test only about 10 vehicles during this initial pilot run. Still, the ultimate plan is to have every Tesla on the road capable of serving as a robotaxi. Related: Tesla faces new challenge as leader announces exit Earlier this year, Tesla said its FSD system has driven a cumulative total of 3.6 billion miles, nearly triple the 1.3 billion cumulative miles it reported a year ago. The company has fought to keep its robotaxi plans in Austin top secret. News organizations have requested Freedom of Information Act access to communications from the last two years between the company and city officials in February, after Musk announced in January that robotaxis were coming to Austin. The city's public information officer told the news agency that "third parties" asked the city to withhold those records to protect their "privacy or property interests." While Tesla recently killed its Cybercab concept, at least for now, the company plans to test Model Ys already on the road as part of its robotaxi program. "It's prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well, and then scale it up," Musk told CNBC's David Faber. Once it proves its concept in Austin, Tesla plans to expand the robotaxi program to Los Angeles and San Francisco soon after. California was Tesla's old stomping grounds before Musk moved the company's HQ to Austin in 2021 due to what he said were arduous regulatory practices, which may have been related to the company's operation during the Covid pandemic. With Tesla's plan to expand in the state, Musk will be heading back into that regulatory environment, except now the rules governing autonomous driving are much stricter. In April, the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced that it is seeking public comment on proposed regulations for self-driving vehicles. Related: Tesla's robotaxi rollout is alarming the public, new report shows The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Volcanic Eruption in Deep Ocean Ridge Is Witnessed by Scientists for First Time
Andrew Wozniak, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Delaware, struggled to process what his eyes were taking in. Dr. Wozniak was parked on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean beneath nearly 1.6 miles of water in Alvin, a research submersible. As far as he could see lay a mostly barren expanse of jet-black rock. Just a day before, at this same spot, a vibrant ecosystem had thrived in the sweltering waters of the Tica hydrothermal vent, about 1,300 miles west of Costa Rica. Creatures inhabited every inch of the rocky seafloor, writhing in a patchwork of life. The crimson tips of giant tube worms waggled in the current, tangling around clusters of mussels. Buglike crustaceans scuttled through the scene while ghostly white fish languidly prowled for their next kill. Now, only a single cluster of tube worms remained in the blackened terrain, all dead. A haze of particulates filled the water as glints of bright orange lava flickered among the rocks. 'My brain was trying to understand what was going on,' Dr. Wozniak said. 'Where did things go?' Eventually it clicked: He and the sub's other passengers were witnessing the tail end of a submarine volcanic eruption that had entombed the flourishing ecosystem under fresh lava rock. This was the first time scientists had witnessed a clearly active eruption along the mid-ocean ridge, a volcanic mountain chain that stretches about 40,000 miles around the globe, like the seams of a baseball. The ridge marks the edges of tectonic plates as they pull apart, driving volcanic eruptions and creating fresh crust, or the layer of the Earth we live on, beneath the sea. About 80 percent of Earth's volcanism happens on the seafloor, with the vast majority occurring along the mid-ocean ridge. Before this latest sighting, only two underwater eruptions had been caught in action, and neither was along a mid-ocean ridge, said Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at Oregon State University who was not on the research team. 'That's a super exciting first,' he said. Observing such an event live offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study one of our planet's most fundamental processes: the birth of new seafloor, and its dynamic effects on ocean chemistry, ecosystems, microbial life and more. 'Being there in real time is just this absolutely phenomenal gift — I'm really jealous,' said Deborah Kelley, a marine geologist at the University of Washington who was not part of the research team. Dr. Wozniak and colleagues sailed on a ship, the R/V Atlantis, before setting out in the Alvin sub. Their original goal was to study carbon flowing from the Tica vent, funded by the National Science Foundation. Hydrothermal vents are like a planetary plumbing system, expelling seawater that's heated as it seeps through the ocean floor. The process transports both heat and chemicals from Earth's interior, helping regulate ocean chemistry and feeding a unique community of deep marine life. The dive on Tuesday morning started like any other. Alyssa Wentzel, an undergraduate at the University of Delaware who joined Dr. Wozniak aboard Alvin, described the enchantment of sinking into the darkness of the ocean depths on the 70-minute journey to the seafloor. As the light vanished, bioluminescent jellies and tiny zooplankton drifted by. 'It was magical,' she said. 'It really takes your words away.' But as they approached the site, a darker magic set in as temperatures slowly ticked upward and particles filled the water. The usual dull gray-brown of the seafloor was capped by tendrils of inky rock that glimmered with an abundance of glass — the result of rapid quenching when lava hits chilly water. As particulates clouded the view from Alvin, Kaitlyn Beardshear of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the pilot in command of the day's journey, slowed the sub, keeping close watch on the temperatures. As they ticked up, so too did concerns for safety of the submersible and the crew. Eventually, the pilot made the call to retreat. 'It was an incredible sight to see,' they said. 'All the life and features that I had seen just a few days before, wiped away. I can't believe we were so lucky to have been there within a few hours of eruption.' The team learned after returning to the ship that sensitive microphones, called hydrophones, aboard the Atlantis had detected the volcanic eruption earlier in the day. It registered as a series of low frequency booms and campfire-like crackle. This was the third known eruption at the Tica vent since its discovery in the 1980s. Over the decades, Dan Fornari, a marine geologist at Woods Hole, and his colleagues have closely monitored the site, tracking changes in temperature, water chemistry and more. Combining these analyses with modeling of seafloor spreading, they realized the site seemed poised for an eruption, proposing it would happen either sometime this year or last. In 1991, he and his colleagues had arrived at Tica within days of an eruption's start. It might even have still been active, he said, but they saw no flashes of lava to confirm. This time, he said, there's no doubt of what the Alvin crew saw. 'This has been the closest that we ever come to witnessing the initiation of an eruption' along the mid-ocean ridge, he said. The team is continuing to study the volcanic activity. Given safety concerns, they're collecting data and taking photographs remotely from the Atlantis. The data will help researchers unravel the mysteries of deep-sea volcanism and the role it plays in marine ecosystems. 'All of this has to do with understanding this holistic system that is Earth and ocean,' Dr. Fornari said. 'It's so intertwined, and it's both complex and beautiful.'
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Genetic testing IDs some at higher risk for colorectal cancer
DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. (WGN) — It's a quiet day in Wheaton, and Jessica Wozniak is in her kitchen, making a cup of tea. The mother of a preschooler is taking advantage of some time to relax, read, and rest. The 36-year-old needs to save the strength she has for what's coming the next day: chemotherapy at Duly Health's cancer infusion center in Hinsdale. 'Chemo's miserable,' she said. 'It's really, really not fun.' With her husband Patrick by her side, she's undergoing her eighth cycle of chemotherapy. Her hands and feet are covered in 'cold gloves and socks' to reduce two of chemo's most uncomfortable side-effects: cold sensitivity and neuropathy. Her health ordeal started about one year ago when she came down with norovirus, an intense flu-like sickness that usually passes through the body within about 48-hours. But her abdominal pain lingered much longer. 'About a month after that, I was still having intermittent symptoms stomach pain,' Wozniak said. 'Diarrhea. Something was unsettled. But it seemed like I couldn't have a virus for that long.' At first, doctors suspected that she had developed an ovarian cyst. 'I still was just feeling – in the morning – a cramping pain,' she said. 'Doubling over. I thought this was just not normal. So, I went to my primary care doctor, and she said this doesn't sound like it's only a cyst, let's send you for a CT. Sure enough, they saw some inflammation in my colon.' Doctors ordered a colonoscopy and found she had two masses in her colon. It was cancer. 'I realized right away that everything was going to be different, especially when I had another CT that showed some lesions on my liver, and again I was told, 'oh these could just be fluid filled cysts, nothing,'' she said. 'But it was this kind of intuition that this is not good, and sure enough those came back as cancerous, too.' The cancer had advanced to stage four, meaning it had spread to other organs. 'Everything you hear about stage 4, you think this is not, this is going to be terminal for me, what am I going to do, I'm 35, I have a three-year-old, so it was pretty devastating and dark for those first few months,' she said. According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men younger than 50, and the number two cause of cancer death among women under 50. 'There were a lot of moments where I just cried,' Wozniak said. 'I sat there crying and thinking, 'why is this happening to me?'' Wozniak is one of nearly 20,000 people younger than 50 who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year – a dramatic increase and a medical mystery. 'A lot of the media about it is in terms of, like, the environment, what people are eating, lifestyle choices and whatnot,' said Patrick Woulfe, Wozniak's husband. 'I think in Jessica's case that's not necessarily true because hers is due to a genetic condition.' In Wozniak's case, the cause is clear. She has Lynch Syndrome, an inherited genetic condition associated with an increased risk for colon cancer. 'When I received the genetic test results that almost gave me some piece of mind because I thought, I was blaming myself a lot,' she said. 'Did I eat something that wasn't right? Did I do something to my body? What caused this? The genetic tests made me feel like, in a way, this was inevitable.' Outside of genetic testing, colorectal cancers can be detected with colonoscopies. In 2021 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age of screenings from 50 to 45. It's still not young enough to catch many of the new cases. 'I would have rather had a million colonoscopies than deal with this,' Wozniak said. 'A colonoscopy is nothing compared to going through colon cancer.' Wozniak is sifting through a pile of medical bills, and insurance information, wearing bracelets with the words 'fearless,' 'tough kid,' and her daughter's name. She said she wants to tell her story for her daughter and for everyone else who may have a chance to get screened before they get sick. 'I wish I would have known much sooner, so I could have been screened sooner and caught this sooner,' she said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak says Tesla is 'The Worst' at the Only Thing That Sets It Apart
For modern vehicles—particularly EVs—in-car software is among the most critical features for buyers. To some, what you see on screen is more important than range, ride comfort, or any number of other metrics we rate vehicles on. Tesla might have pioneered the modern everything-behind-a-screen ethos for automakers, but tech pioneer and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says Tesla is actually pretty bad at improving its software. Wozniak was an early supporter of Tesla, once calling his Model S the 'favorite' of all the vehicles he owns. Like many, Wozniak seems to be looking at Tesla through a different lens and throwing an appropriate amount of shade at Tesla. In an interview with CNBC, Wozniak said, "Every step up where they changed things in the car, it got worse and worse and worse, and now it is just miserable for the user interface. Coming from Apple, the user interface and the way you deal with technology are the most important things in the world to me. And Tesla is the worst in the world at that.' 'Where to find the time of day changes depending on what [driving] mode you're in,' he continued. 'The buttons that go through your six favorite channels don't work if it's satellite radio channels. It takes so many tries to hit one button in your jiggly car, and it just doesn't work.' Wozniak also doesn't care for Tesla's Full Self Driving and Autopilot driver assistance features, pointing out the serious safety concerns with both platforms. Wozniak has salient but subjective points. It's worth noting that most platforms with software-based interfaces—like the iPhone or the Mac—have undergone nearly total upheaval and reimagining of their software and interface. Tesla hasn't really had that moment, at least not yet. Over time, Tesla seems to have made the same mistake many tech companies do: iterative change for the sake of change, not because it's an improvement. Too many layers of obfuscation for simple commands or accessing features make the in-car experience confusing and more dangerous for many drivers. With its latest Model Y refresh, Tesla made several changes to the exterior and interior - but failed to use that opportunity to revamp its software. It would have been an excellent opportunity to introduce a new in-car interface, but Tesla didn't. And that's likely because there isn't anything new on the software front to roll out. However, it is creating a lower-cost Model Y for the Chinese market and may have scammed the Canadian government out of millions. It almost seems that Tesla is doing everything but paying attention to its in-car software. Maybe the company fundamentally disagrees with naysayers and thinks its software is great. Wozniak admitted he has likely run afoul of Musk, which might be why he's speaking freely about Tesla's software woes. Subjectivity aside, Wozniak has good points, and Tesla should address them. Drivers have been unhappy for years about the automaker's software interface and the inability to access necessary features that are far simpler in other vehicles from other manufacturers. Still, it seems Tesla is unlikely to change anything soon.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak says Tesla ‘is the worst in the world' at improving its technology for drivers
cofounder Steve Wozniak says a software's user interface is 'the most important thing'—and on that metric, fails miserably. An early Tesla adopter, Wozniak has since soured on the carmaker and CEO Elon Musk after a number of software changes he says destroyed the driving experience. Wozniak detailed his complaints in a recent interview. Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak was once bullish on Tesla—a decade ago, the early adopter waxed rhapsodic about loving his Model S 'the most of all our cars—ever.' But Wozniak has soured on Tesla and CEO Elon Musk after a series of changes to Tesla's interiors he said degraded the driving experience. 'Coming from Apple, the user interface, the way you deal with technology, is the most important thing in the world to me,' Wozniak said in an interview with CNBC Wednesday. 'And Tesla is the worst in the world at that.' 'Every step up, where they changed a thing in the car, it got worse and worse and worse. And now it is just miserable for user interface,' he continued. What makes it miserable, according to Wozniak, is the system's constant changes. 'Where to find the time of day changes depending on what [driving] mode you're in,' he said. 'The buttons that go through your six favorite channels don't work if it's satellite radio channels. It takes so many tries to hit one button in your jiggly car, and it just doesn't work.' Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. The carmaker was an early pioneer of now-ubiquitous touchscreens in cars. Where drivers once had an array of knobs and switches in their vehicles' dashboards, Tesla offered a single sleek screen, with options that could change based on a driver's earlier selections. 'Why have buttons when you have a screen?' one driver asked, praising Tesla's approach not just for its futuristic look but for the way it allows the carmaker to update its controls seamlessly. (With no physical buttons, Tesla could rearrange the entire dashboard with a single software update). But this futuristic look comes at a price, and for Wozniak, it's the inability to ever truly know where a screen option is or what it does. 'The modes hide things that aren't there, and your finger knows how to get them,' he told CNBC. 'Nothing makes sense in that car, intuitively.' Wozniak shared the story of his wife, who was once pulled over after failing to signal a turn while driving a Tesla. The policeman had 'never seen this yoke steering wheel,' Wozniak said. 'When you're already turning you can't find the buttons for the turn signal.' But the kicker was when the cop asked for the driver's insurance information, which most drivers typically keep in the glove compartment. 'It's kind of a new Tesla, with new software–[and] there's no button for the glove box,' Wozniak said. 'You have to go and search in menus until you stumble into finding it—it's horrible.' This story was originally featured on
