Autonomous ride-hailing service developments have been on the increase in the past few years across the world. The autonomous version of the expansive Toyota Sienna has been introduced as a ride-hailing test fleet conceptualized by Aurora Innovation. The autonomous Toyota Sienna models feature Toyota’s Vehicle Control Interface and the Sienna Autono-MaaS platform.

Aurora’s Sienna Autono-MaaS platform is the backbone for the new ride-hailing test fleet unveiled by Aurora. It was first introduced in prototype form in 2021 and it has undergone several improvements since then. The autonomous test fleet has been on selected Texas public roads so that the Aurora driver system could master the complexities that will be faced in real driving situations. The system is capable of reacting to various aspects of environmental and human uncertainty on the road. It is capable of detecting pedestrians, cyclists, and traffic lights, as well as weather conditions.

A test run of the system was carried out involving Toyota executives who were picked at their Texas facility and driven autonomously through a route that led to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The milestone was celebrated by Toyota North America and Aurora says the system is safe, comfortable, and convenient.

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Uber, the world’s leading cab-hailing service provider, has announced that it is selling its driverless self-driving car subsidiary to Aurora Technologies for $4 billion. Uber is also investing $400 million in the startup for a 26 percent stake.

As a part of the transaction, Uber’s Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi will be serving on Aurora’s board. The startup, headquartered in Silicon Valley with an office in Pittsburgh, will also be acquiring engineers and support staff of Uber A.T.G.

This acquisition deal is expected to get closed in the first quarter of 2021. The sale of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group has been valued at $4 billion, which is much lower than its valuation of $7.5 billion last year.

Although Uber is selling its Advanced Technologies Group (A.T.G.) division, the company says that it remains interested in the field. Going forward, the company will be collaborating with Aurora to launch driverless cars on its network. However, Aurora’s CEO Chris Urmson has confirmed that the startup’s first product won’t be a robot taxi but is likely to be a self-driving truck.

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The driverless technology was a key focus for Uber’s founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick as it could help the company get rid of its biggest expense — drivers. With driver-related expenses reducing, the company was hoping to become profitable, ending years of enduring losses in billions of dollars.

However, the autonomous driving unit of Uber has been involved in several legal matters — from pedestrian death to intellectual property theft. While investors have been long pressuring the company to sell its self-driving unit, the company was finally forced to do so after revenue plummeted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UP NEXT: Evidence of Samsung not shipping the Galaxy S21 series phones with charger surfaces online

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According to the latest reports, China-based technology giant Huawei is currently in talks with Russia for installing a Russian operating system named Aurora 360,000 of its tablets. The devices will be used to conduct Russia’s population census next year.

The source, which was cited in the report, has said that this is a pilot project and Huawei installing the Russian operating system on its tablets is being seen as the first stage. Huawei also confirmed that it is in talks with the Russian Ministry of Communication, but the spokeswoman has not revealed more details.

The report adds that Russia is discussing the use of Aurora OS on 360,000 Huawei tablets by August 2020. It also adds that the owner of Aurora, Russia’s state telecommunications operator, Rostelecom, is the sole contractor for buying tablets to hold the population census in Russia, which has a population of 147 million, next October.

In a statement to Reuters, Rostelecom said: “Various options for collaboration with Huawei are currently being considered with participation of the Ministry of Communications… We don’t disclose details yet, there is an agreement on confidentiality.”

The development comes at a time when Huawei is reportedly seeking an alternative to Google’s Android operating system for its devices. This happened after the United States put Huawei on the “Entity List”, banning the company from doing business with the US-based firms and technology.

However, the Chinese giant has recently been granted another 90-day reprieve from the ban, allowing it to use Android among many other products. While the company has said that it is planning to use Google’s Android as long as it can, but they are getting ready in case the US goes ahead with enforcing the ban.

During the Huawei Developers Conference 2019 earlier this month, Huawei launched its much-awaited operating system named HarmonyOS for the global markets and HongMeng OS in China. The OS works with a wide range of devices, including smart home products, smartwatches, smart TVs, and smartphones, among others. The first HarmonyOS-powered product, Honor Vision TV, has already been launched in China.

(Source)

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The move to full-screen displays means phones with front-mounted fingerprint scanners have to push them to the back or ditch them entirely like the iPhone X. However, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Images of a new full-screen phone has surfaced online but this is different from others as it has a front-mounted fingerprint scanner.

The display has the same 18:9 aspect ratio we have come to see in so many flagships. But even with the smaller lower bezel which has been reduced to billboards for the manufacturer’s name in some other phones, this one manages to squeeze in a physical home button/fingerprint scanner. The top bezel holds a front camera, sensor and earpiece.

The back of the phone is equally interesting. It has dual cameras which are raised, and employs the U-antenna design. While the name on the back reads “Aurora”, some sources say it is the Huawei P11 Plus. Some have also said it is Huawei the Nova 3.

There is no proof that it is any of the two devices mentioned above, so we advice you take it with a pinch of salt.

Apart from the dual cameras and front fingerprint scanner, the phone has a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom. There is also what appears to be an IR blaster at the top alongside a secondary microphone.

READ MORE: Huawei Rolls Out Android Oreo-Based EMUI 8.0 Closed Beta Program For P10 & P10 Plus

If you like phones with full-screen displays but don’t want to sacrifice the front positioned fingerprint scanner, you may want to keep an eye on this device in the coming weeks.

(Via: 1, 2)

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ZTE is known to equip great cameras on its Nubia range of smartphones. The year old ZTE Nubia Z7 flagship features a 13MP rear camera with OIS and dual tone dual LED flash. The unit is capable of even recording 2K videos at 30 fps.

Naturally, the next generation model, i.e. the ZTE Nubia Z9 camera will be upgraded, probably with a 16MP or even 20MP unit. And earlier today, a famous actor from China, Lin Gengxin posted on Weibo a gif which was reportedly taken from ZTE Nubia Z9.

Two days back, a severe solar storm hit the Earth which led to massive sightings of aurora in a number of different countries. It looks like Lin managed to spot one of these beautiful occurrences and took series of images of the aurora and converted it into a gif image. You can clearly see the greenish light in the blue sky. And the Z9’s camera managed to capture pretty sharp images.

Famous actors and celebrities are known to get premium flagship smartphones even before launch and it looks like Lin Gengxin was one of the first ones to use the device. It will be interesting to see the true capability of ZTE Nubia Z9 camera.

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