Honda furthers AI tech development in its cars with SoftBank partnership

Artificial intelligence is at the heart of a new partnership between Honda and internet company SoftBank. The idea is that the AI in vehicles will be able to read and react to the emotions of the drivers as intelligently as it can. “"Imagine if robots, with their super intelligence, devoted themselves to humans,” SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son said during an event in Tokyo announcing the partnership. “And imagine that cars themselves became supercomputers or robots one day. Honda will be the first to adopt this technology.” The team suggests that Honda cars might interact with drivers using the technology used in SoftBank’s Pepper robot. And maybe Pepper could even meet Honda’s own Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) robot.

Honda’s team will be working with SoftBank’s Cocoro SB unit on AI research for cars. This team from SoftBank is currently studying cloud-based AI on their own.  SoftBank recently acquired chipmaker ARM, which is seen as an essential move needed for this partnership to work. Honda previously announced they were establishing a research facility this September dedicated to AI technology.

Source: Reuters | Via: SlashGear

Organize group dates with Tinder Social

Tinder isn’t just trying to set you up with your next date. This time, the dating app has introduced a new feature called Tinder Social to make it easier to setup group dates. Originally tested in Australia, the feature is now available in Canada, the US, the UK, New Zealand, and India. Unlike Tinder, it matches your group of friends with another group. If you think this is something your group of friends want to try, then the prompt for the feature should appear when you open the app after it updates.

It’s an opt-in feature and would require the people who want to participate to be on Tinder and have Tinder Social enabled. It works similar to the main Tinder feature in that you have to swipe like normal until you find a group you want to hang out with. If you’ve found one, the app will bring you into a group chat to help setup plans. The matches will last until noon the next day. After that you have to start the process again. One thing of note though is Tinder Social makes you visible to other Facebook friends that have the feature enabled. If you’re using Tinder discreetly, it might be best not to use this feature.

Source: Lifehacker + PCWorld

TELUS caters to Pokémon GO fans with range of free services

Mobile carriers are sone of the biggest winners of the Pokémon GO craze with their customers relying on data to catch the elusive monsters. TELUS is giving back to Pokémon GO trainers with a range of services.

In Toronto, TELUS is offering Pokémon GO trainers access to free in-store charging stations at TELUS House at 25 York Street, Dufferin Mall, Yonge & Eglinton and Queen Street at the Beaches locations.  You don’t need to be a TELUS customer to take part – just bring in your Pokédex and power up. 

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Uber partners with DigitalGlobe to use high-res satellite imagery for better pickups

A recent partnership between Uber and DigitalGlobe will make use of the high-resolution imagery from DigitalGlobe. This move is meant to “help identify and improve pickup and drop-off locations.” It wasn’t explicitly said if this’ll help with Uber’s self-driving initiative but mapping is an important aspect of that. Uber recently bought mapping company deCarta and uses Microsoft’s Bing vehicle imagery so this partnership boosts their mapping efforts further. DigitalGlobe also has a leg up over its competitors (like Google) since it can provide more detail than other private systems. With their WorldView-3 constellation, they can detect images as small as 12-inches across and can scan short-wave infrared frequencies.

For those worried if this might give a literal interpretation of Uber’s “God View,” which they have secretly used to follow clients. It’s unlikely that DigitalGlobe’s tech can do that, no matter how high-tech they are, because that will require renting a satellite for a fixed period of time, which can cost a lot.

Source: DigitalGlobe | Via: Engadget