A Fleet of Trucks Just Drove Themselves Across Europe: Here’s What We’re Reading Today

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Here’s what we’re reading today.

1. Weekend at Nicky’s

Venezuela just declared every Friday a holiday, though it’s not as fun as it sounds. The country has switched to a three-day weekend until the end of May, as massive power outages have forced President Nicholas Maduro to find new ways to conserve electricity. A prolonged drought has dried up water levels at the country’s hydro plants.

2. Fleet week

For the first time ever a fleet of self-driving trucks have completed a cross-Europe journey. The trucks, made by separate manufacturers, began their trek in their home countries, before meeting up in Rotterdam, Netherlands yesterday. One set of trucks travelled over 2,000 KM and crossed four borders. The exercise was a test of automated “platooning,” a process wherein self-driving vehicles, connected by wifi, follow each other more tightly than human-controlled cars. The process is said to reduce fuel consumption by up to 15 per cent.

3. Oculus Rift won’t track your movements — yet

“Facebook’s VR firm, Oculus, is fighting to combat suspicions raised by its privacy policy and terms of service that it will spy on users’ activity and pass information to third parties.

“The privacy policy warns about ‘information automatically collected about you when you use our services,’ including ‘information about your physical movements and dimensions when you use a virtual reality headset’ which may be used ‘to send you promotional messages and content and otherwise market to you.'”

4. Putin says Panama Papers allegations are an American plot

“President Putin has denied ‘any element of corruption’ over the Panama Papers leaks, saying his opponents are trying to destabilize Russia.” The statement is Putin’s first regarding the alleged $2 billion USD connected to his family and friends overseas.

+1: The Panama Papers could unravel the biggest corruption deal of the century.

5. A very good argument for just staring out the window

“The only thing you can do is look. You have no influence over what you will see. Your brain is forced to make drama out of whatever happens to appear. Boring things become strange.”

TAGS:

Oculus Rift,Panama Papers,Self-Driving Vehicles,TL;DR