Gadgetory

who needs over when Google can give you a ride I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update google revealed a new twist on its self-driving car project if the car doesn't need a driver it also doesn't need a steering wheel or gas pedals that's the idea with Google's new two-seater prototype once you get in just buckle up and type in your destination on the smartphone app it will use sensors to safely avoid obstacles in the road and if at any time there's a problem well there is an emergency stop button and you can reactivate your trip with a go button it has plenty of time to judge traffic and avoid obstacles because it only travels at a max speed of 25 miles an hour and that's safe but it's not a practical speed limit for everyday use and it can't go on highways so for now you could just think of it as more of a futuristic personal shuttle to chauffeur you between buildings on a work campus or university campus Google would like you to be able to buy one in three to six years but there's also the issue of a little thing called laws the few states that do allow for self-driving cars require a human behind the wheel to take over in an emergency it may not look like a very safe car from the outside and you are putting your life in the hands of a robot that's using google maps but hey it looks like it has a cute little face with a nose and a mouth so that should help ease your fears now you won't be able to autopilot your car anytime soon but auto translating a video call that's another matter Microsoft will be rolling out a real-time language translation feature on skype by the end of the year it's called Skype translator now there was this live demo on stage during a recode conference or skype quickly translated a conversation between two people speaking english and german is vah justified not alone feast is it true that you were soon moving to London we're getting just a bit closer to a Star Trek future now if only Microsoft can make a food replicator so Google is working on taking cars to the next level and Microsoft has the next level of video communication but over at Samsung it wants to improve health tracking technology it's working on better sensors that go into wristband health trackers and a better way to collect a ton of data about your body and share it with you and doctors they call their device the sim ban but this is not for sale it's for other companies to build off of the point is maybe we can have a wristband that makes real sense about our body's health instead of just getting points for how many steps we took in a day that's your tech news update you can find more details on these stories at cnet com and be sure to follow along on Twitter from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey