Gadgetory

good morning afternoon and night no matter where you lie in this earth it is episode 154 of the 359 podcast I was right Fox Rubin and what's sadder is this is a second to last show of 2016 08 oh my gosh my last show of the year which fairway by the way our first show was on leap day so we be going a febuary 28th Wow so our one year anniversary won't actually be a one-year anniversary so we're gonna hate don't go for you like where it depends ants something like that sure okay yeah vaguely got that reference oh wait a minute I'm hosting today so I guess I should talk about what we're doing man what are we talking about it right so so in four minutes we're gonna try to get through like I think five stories we're gonna start with uber self-driving car program in San Francisco so cnet scooped by the way cnet scoop also Trump's tech summit Amazon's delivery drones and also amazon getting Prime video to 200 countries today so very busy day it's a lot more source you said five there's gonna be a secret additional 10 don't do that don't do that we're gonna flick to another one there's there's some additional like tech folks that are gonna be guessing the president well as it folks are tech people not math people it's okay yeah now we're gonna sneak it an extra story an extra headlines I'll try to figure that out either way as always sending your questions and comments Brian will get to them at the end of the show and let's go from there okay one second to cough it out very sex I yea sorry I don't even sex no I'm time to get sick yeah at this time of year right it is definitely here alright let's get this recording underway and here we go we back to take your questions and comments in three two welcome to the 359 where we talk about the top tech news of the day plus whatever crap we want to throw in I'm Ben Fox Rubin I'm not reach an uber is expected to launch a new fleet of self-driving cars in San Francisco as soon as today our own Dara Kerr got the scoop on that after finding a garage in the city filled with these autonomous vehicles the company already has a self in car program in Pittsburgh so Roger how soon until self-driving ride hailing cabs are going to be in the mainstream we're going to be seeing these on the streets everywhere I mean I think it's still give me a while right this is definitely a little test you know Pittsburgh's out there it's board a note that if you get into one of the self-driving cars it's not like you're getting in by yourself there is light safety driver safety I love that term patient driver just in case a car i guess breaks down with your drives on the clay yeah so what is a route to actually take control of the car yes look this is a good most of them for you know pushing for with this initiative this is a great scoop by our own darker correct and yet you know it's like said it's a great move for autonomous driving as a whole but we're doing really it's so early day we're getting there it's still baby steps and you still have these safeties you shouldn't get ahead of ourselves right absolutely also uber CEO Travis Travis kalanick and Tesla's Elon Musk are taking on strategic advisory roles to president-elect Donald Trump that announcement comes just after Trump plans to meet with a bunch of tech heavyweights today in Manhattan but more on that later today by the way that probably means that our budget for going to Mars is just gonna balloon but how's Eli Elon Musk right that's his big thing right I would love to go to Mars what's definitely let's send Ben de Mars just been we can do that next up more self driving or autonomous news next up is amazon delivery drones project kicked off a private test program with amazon delivering a fire TV and a bag of popcorn to a customer near cambridge in the UK and just get this 13 minutes after the customer clicked the button that's impressive that's awesome that's really i mean all this had to have been kind of stage right like the customer kind of you like the whole flight pattern was already probably put in way ahead of time like it was it wasn't role he was controlled but it wasn't a simulation Russ actually happened right and the highly autonomous drone actually made it to extinction been just a few years ago when when business of unveiled this yeah you know on TV there's really sort of looked as a blame publicity grab right and now it's like kinda actually happening they are very serious about delivery drones but there are still major regulatory and sanity hurdles that they need to get through so this is another one of those things this is good to talk to with self-driving cars yeah that this is going to take a really long time to get into the mainstream we're talking years so wait for that to happen also today amazon launched prime video in 200 countries following a similar effort by netflix in january yep that's pretty sweet going global matching netflix is reach one of the interesting parts is that china wasn't on the list just like with netflix then what China has its own issues right in terms of censorship in terms of Rights actually working in that country is exceedingly difficult copies he chopped he's like Google just decide it's better not to do it my god I moved so quickly that we still have 30 seconds left that's really impressive well you want to tap dance a little I guess so no let's talk more about this autonomous stuff I'm really interested in that so what did what are we going to see like one of the things that I think is really interesting also with the San Francisco effort is is that the DMV isn't even involved so yeah if they get it that's actually one of the questions because you know technically they're supposed to have the license for this but there aren't any better been as we know how long it actually less on the road yeah absolutely okay now we're out of time if you want to read more about these stories check us out on cnet i'm ben fox rubin I'm Roger Cheng thanks for listening you're just too damn good at your job it's like I don't know I gotta get through these cuz i was looking at the time as you were going through them like this is this is pretty fast I know or fish you know we got like a megan i did an amazing job doing the 359 and tech- so fast really that is our slogan so tap dance let's jump right into the chat because there are a number of skeptics about this autonomous driving mostly people that are worried about the drivers jobs but you said there's going to be a safety driver there in case flower malfunctions Argos Skynet takes over that is a temper I mean that's served the like both I think it helps psychologically and it helps sort of ease with the transition i mean the ultimate goal for uber is to get rid of the drivers for sure like that's for i think for them that human kinds ultimate goal is to render itself useless well I human grind but companies like uber I mean that's sort of what they've that's kind of mission right we can throw that in with amazon too I mean the thing is with the delivery drones is is that this is a great way for them to lower their shipping costs you're going to have fewer delivery drivers yeah there gave me the stuff a lot faster but on top of that you won't need as many truck drivers there you won't deal we want to do to delirium and reunions right it's another one of those and there's tips yeah well there are a ton of delivery people so this is a can of oil from the car right now yeah so that's I mean that's uh I think that's the biggest motivating factor here it's you know it's not just the whiz-bang feature of having self-driving car on the road like it's still eliminate for uber and particular one of the biggest x-factors for them into the human driver right Johnny cab yeah God job that is it yeah that is a major complication for them short time he does it yeah they're those are the people that they they need those folks so if they push too heavy into the self-driving car concept then there's what's going to happen a fine line because part of their argument in terms of ubers social impact is that they give drivers they give people jobs right they employ tons of folks give them an opportunity to make money that goes away though if they start rolling out of fleet of self-driving cars or they'll probably have to increase their employ of mechanics and technicians and true programmers that is usually what about accountability so I mean what if something goes wrong what if there isn't any that's why there's nothing let's always be hash to get the ticket the regulatory there's no regulations around this that's why I deal with insurance exactly there there are a number of regulatory issues that's why we think that you know pump your brakes in terms of excitement over this because it's not coming for a while right it's not coming in a real way for a while a lot of these questions still haven't really been answered you know what kind of site is gonna sound like I'm joking but like I enjoy taking an uber ride one smile because I've had really good experiences with ya uber drivers themselves yes I know this area is heavily you know we're all humans we all have different personalities but I kind of like striking up conversation with a new friend and I personally have had a lot of really grow conversations and just like this kind of cool new dude cool new lady let's chat it goes for me was interested we're gonna get like Knight Rider going on in there hit may well I don't know that could be the next thing well it'll be night it'll be kid but kiddo tribe you will try to sell you something now enjoy your ride Michael yeah this is what's gonna have joyride right by the way there's a Frappuccino right around the corner do you want to stop by starbucks first there it is generally this arrogance that's happening is is that you're gonna end up having to pay extra to get a human driver that's what's gonna happen yeah so interesting I call out to the chat would you would you pay slightly slightly less premium to get a Johnny cab driver though it's that robot that's there he kind of talks to do you like the Tory conference wait a min or so like a fake rogue robot person to you would you would you pay a slightly higher premium for that is supposed to like an actual human driver it's like that transition for anything the midway point between an actual human driver like full-on kit right you'll have Johnny Kemp so what is going to stop somebody's face what's going to stop a passenger from hijack in that car uh well I mean I think well if the ultimate is there gonna be no steering column a altima we should be a steer well the ultimate evolution is for a car with no steering column right that's what google was trying to do with way mo alphabet and so so you might essentially be in like a death machine rolling you towards your ultimate demise and have zero control is like well this is how I meet my maker that what happened to jared is Silicon Valley that's exactly what I was thinking it hit up in like a shipping container because he couldn't get out of the car welcome to the future I do not like this idea I'm gonna go right out there and say I do not like this there are ugly yellow cabs and I agree with you I enjoy what I'm an uber car I enjoy talking with the driver especially early on when it was like a new thing here's what they do they'll put skype in the cars so that they'll have a call center yeah just for like it'll be uber conversation so if you're lonely good if you're lonely in the long ride you can just call a random uber operator mmhmm yeah well eventually they'll just replace that with a chat bot oh my god you won't will at least take a job again yeah exactly it'll be teh oh man i don't know i just i don't like this I don't I mean I'm fascinated by technology this is cool there's a lot of potential for but I don't care for in like taking me and my physical form into other places because I fear for my physical form well what about what about the drones one of the drone thing like you know that also kind of potentially eliminates jobs delivery men sure but is that something that you would be more willing to embrace the little drone flying in and drop it off a burrito as a consumer myself I am less afraid of that because it's not flying me somewhere I I am NOT of in favor of more people losing their jobs but that again means that there would be more jobs in the technical building yes manufacturing construction at warehouses but that doesn't mean there are people who want to fill those seats yet you know there are people who have aspired to be delivery people who have aspired to work for the usps to work for the federal government for the mail they're probably less than thrilled with this outcome I don't know unfortunately it's like I said many many many years away from yeah of course real application is is that they really need to figure out a way to let the public know that this is actually safe you know because nobody wants the like a delivery to fall from the sky and like hit you in the head and that's that is like a real train yeah azizul is asking what will happen if that car suddenly stops it breaks is there an emergency plan in place I mean is that all going to be automated those are all questions answered it's a great recognize that like look it's uber drivers get in accidents cab drivers get in accidents humans are obviously at least make mistakes and so it's it's impossible to I don't think you can assume that any of these vehicles are going to be one hundred percent safe one hundred percent of the time that seems I'm actually pretty I'm pretty unlikely curious to see how technically savvy those safety drivers are if they're just they're basically to take over or are they like like Marvin gunjan you yeah are they knowledgeable enough that if the car breaks down or goes crazy they're like that person will know to figure out the problem or troubleshoot right on the right we all know them emergency brake pull pull the lever pull the cable something like that like on the train yeah there has to be right there used to be I haven't been in Pittsburgh so I'm not really sure it's well I don't know if there is an emergency ranked like that because that seems like that could be dangerous for other reasons well going more to the social aspect of this study and we are really just obliterating our social skills in the for coming years I went out I went out to eat the other night and it's like when I was growing up and I went out to eat with my family we went out to a restaurant erson like that or we even had like a group of people over for dinner or something like that it at best you know being a kid and the adults are adulting and I didn't want to participate in their political talk at most I was allowed to have a book at the table to entertain myself but you know they got the kids out they were the tablets and the phones and like they never want to look up until their mac and cheese shows up yeah now we're people gonna ride around in cars and is that no conversation that affects the generation before us like even kid yeah there's a wise man our kids wanted when I was growing up people were talking about just like the like the generation behind us like just four or five years difference right only there's a lot less willingness to talk to people like that's a shame that's why seamless exists I love talking to you guys well I don't know why it was very sweet abrigo we're terrible just that's that's definitely today well especially since I'm hacking around mr. Casas pulling the pessimist card though you know what where are we going with this that we ultimately just going to live in our little bubbles and no one ever talks to anyone language is one of the greatest things that humankind can take credit for yes yeah not text a mystic and not emojis no not it look the concept of automation is something that's existed for you know well over a hundred if not two hundred years right and automation has created a lot of positives in society I know that we're obviously very concerned about the potential of seriously disrupting a lot of major industries but at the same time what are we supposed to like put our heads in the sand in like right develop these technologies sure we should continue to try to figure out how exactly this is going to work and whether they are gonna work for Canadian better places like more of emergency services type things you know that morning there we end up that maybe you know where the where the actual usage is at the truth of it sometime there's change though there's there's gonna be this transition period we're sure for people organ where there's pain where people live jobs a lot of iteration yeah that that happens with every you know technological leap and that just that just happened that's unfortunately yeah that's just the way it is right understand I understand it is just it's kind of difficult to watch happen cuz ya you can already hear the workforce like waning into this well I I think the thing with delivery drones is is that I've heard this from a number of analysts that delivery drones it's very unlikely the delivery drones are ever going to make it for a very long time into cities it's much more like yeah rural and suburban areas where there's much more grass I can imagine in Manhattan like drones just flying around that doesn't mean they have to completely rewrite the regulations actually sylviane in the chat points that out with all the restrictions about drone flight in city limits with airports you know they straight up say we wish amazon good luck with bringing drones here and gonna leave it to thank you sylviane for that comment I don't think it's gonna happen identical rural areas the suburbs where there's a lot more air space out there literally places you can't take a truck up somebody's 90-degree no driveway yeah I think it would make a lot more sense for Amazon to develop pneumatic tubes in Manhattan where they could just put a package in the tube and then send it to you you get it really really quickly you guys don't like that idea amazon tube I Jeff your watch the hudsucker proxy because I mean like I see two right all I think I wanted the tubes to fine everywhere I think addy in the chat is a proponent of having us replaced by drones on the show IV the drones are gonna be much better than a way to come paychecks know or just stroke like the paycheck the tongue gets the paycheck doing all the work okay don't go back and get it to make sure its babies are fast rope drug Dave who's got a mortgage to pay yeah going back going back to the uber thing real quick what about a back on accountability what if there's a person in the vehicle who it is misbehaving of sorts let's say is there gonna be kept at a passenger or driver passenger capacity gets in you think all these cars are gonna be have cameras on them now I mean some of them already doing imagine yeah they kind of have to right there right good do you remember they're watched by the system all over again was in there you can't recite the driver of five and like don't tell my girlfriend right oh god yeah yeah you're gonna be watched there's no lodged I mean that's very already being watched are we being watched right now Oh the answer is yeah this is a safe place for privacy no Ben we're not being watched at all there's not like 50 cameras in this room or anything well but what I feel good okay lets me freaking out I couldn't freaked out because my voice was gonna give out there for a second anyway all right that's a good place to stop I think there's a good place to stop Oh everybody really quick Alfred is going to be at Trump Tower I think he's probably at now probably there now yeah so we're gonna check out cnet later today and we're probably going to have more about what happens with the text summon we're expecting Bezos musk notch available by yourself Sarge me uh Sheryl Sandberg facebook yeah yeah I obviously Tim Cook from Apple basically all the the largest tech players gathered in one building right with Trump yeah we'll see you'll see what happened we'll see if they make any announcements or any statement i'm hoping they talk about this publicly but I mean from I don't know how you're Rush's with these copies have been so far but ahead of the round table didn't fairly kg yeah so we'll see most of the time like there aren't a lot of like statements afterwards either Al Gore showed up and then he came out and were just like it was very interesting godspeed Alfred yeah alrighty anyway ok the 359 podcast is available on iTunes tune in citro soundcloud feedburner google play music and of course on cnet com thanks for listening everybody will see you tomorrow tomorrow later you