Toyota and Aurora test robotaxis in Texas

Toyota and Aurora are bringing their robotaxi partnership to Texas roads. TechCrunchreports the two companies are launching an autonomous ride-hailing test in the Dallas-Fort Worth area using modified Sienna hybrid minivans. The project will focus on highways and other high-speed roads, and is already dealing with challenges like high-speed merges, construction and vehicles stopped on shoulders.

The test is small, and the vans aren’t truly driverless. Each vehicle will have both a behind-the-wheel supervisor as well as a monitor in a passenger seat. The Siennas will drive autonomously up to 70MPH, however, and Aurora said it would both grow the fleet and expand testing into more urbanized areas over the months ahead.

Aurora chose Texas both due to an abundance of major trucking routes (to help with its cargo-carrying plans) and the power to develop and test high-priority trips for its Aurora Connect robotaxi platform, such as rides to the airport. The company’s trucks are already ferrying goods for Uber Freight in Texas.

There’s plenty of pressure for Toyota and Aurora to succeed with the test. Aurora bought Uber’s self-driving unit in December 2020 to help speed-up its ride-hailing plans, and it ultimately hopes to plug Connect into Uber and other hailing services. The sooner experiments like this bear fruit, the sooner Toyota, Aurora and Uber can compete with rivals like Cruise and Waymo, both of which are already offering limited rides to the public.

Arizona is the first state to allow driver’s licenses in Apple Wallet

It took several months, but Apple Wallet can finally hold your state driver’s license. Arizona residents can add their driver’s license or state ID to Wallet on their iPhone or Apple Watch. You’re currently limited to presenting the digital cards at certain TSA checkpoints in Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, but this may save you the trouble of reaching for conventional IDs when your phone or smartwatch is at the ready.

Apple is also promising wider availability beyond the eight states already announced. Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Ohio and Puerto Rico have also committed to supporting ID cards in Wallet.

The process remains as involved as Apple mentioned last year. In Wallet on your iPhone, you can add a driver’s license or state ID by scanning the card, taking a selfie and making head movements to prove the identification is yours. When it’s time to present your info to the TSA, you’ll provide consent through Face ID or Touch ID. The TSA will also take your photo to verify cards. You’ll need at least an iPhone 8 running iOS 15.4, while you’ll want an Apple Watch Series 4 or newer using watchOS 8.4 if you want the feature on your wrist 

Apple maintains that cards in Wallet can be more secure than their real-world counterparts. You only share necessary info, and you don’t need to show your device to an official. All driver’s license and state ID data is sent over an encrypted connection, and the requirement for biometric authentication should prevent others from viewing your sensitive details.

Android has had the framework for digital driver’s licenses as of version 11, but it typically relies on third-party apps. Google hopes to standardize these IDs through an Android Ready SE Alliance it formed last year, although that will likely take time as vendors come aboard. For now, Apple appears to have the edge when it comes to digitally stored credentials.

Rocksteady delays ‘Suicide Squad’ game to 2023

You’ll have to wait a while longer to slay Superman. Rocksteady Studios has delayedSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League from sometime in 2022 to spring 2023. Company co-founder Sefton Hill didn’t explain the decision, but promised the extra time would be used to “make the best game” possible.

The title has Harley Quinn, King Shark and other Suicide Squad villians fight mind-controlled superheroes like Superman and The Flash as they cause chaos. Rocksteady hasn’t shown gameplay, but Kill the Justice League will be available for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

This isn’t the only DC Comics game in the pipeline. WB Games Montreal’s open-world RPG Gotham Knights is still due in October 2022. All the same, this could prove frustrating for fans of Rocksteady’s work. The developer hasn’t released a new game since 2016’s Batman: Arkham VR, and the last conventional release was 2015’s Arkham Knight. Players have been waiting several years to see what the company will do next, and the months-long delay won’t exactly quell any impatience.

Android finally lets you delete your recent Google search history

You no longer have to prune your Google app search history by hand if you’re an Android user. Google confirmed to The Verge that it’s rolling out the option to delete the last 15 minutes of search history in its namesake Android app. Tap your profile icon and you should see a “delete last 15 min” if the feature is available.

The option should reach everyone within the “next few weeks,” according to Google representative Ned Adriance. Esper’s Mishaal Rahman and Twitter user Pan Du first noticed the history control last week.

This has been a long time in coming, to put it mildly. Google first announced the 15-minute feature at I/O 2021, and delivered it first to iOS users in July of that year. Android users were supposed to receive the update later that year. It’s not certain what prompted the delay. Still, you’ll likely appreciate the addition if you need to quickly hide a gift shopping expedition or (ahem) risqué searches.

Snap buys a brain-computer interface startup to power future AR glasses

You might one day control Snap Spectacles glasses with your mind. Snap has bought NextMind, a French startup developing brain-computer interface technology (BCI) to help steer wearables and other devices by focusing on virtual buttons. There’s no mystery about the intentions — NextMind will aid Snap’s augmented reality development, including work on Spectacles.

Snap didn’t disclose the value of the deal or outline its exact plans. NextMind will remain in its hometown of Paris while helping the Snap Lab team, although The Vergelearned the newly-acquired company will discontinue its BCI headband for developers.

The purchase isn’t surprising given Snap’s history. It bought WaveOptics, the company behind Spectacles’ AR displays, in 2021. The social media giant also reportedly bought another display firm, the liquid crystal on silicon company Compound Photonics, in January. Snap is clearly interested in advancing its AR glasses beyond the simple designs of today, which rely on physical buttons to do little more than capture photos and video.

There’s also plenty of competition in the space. Meta bought neural monitoring startup CTRL-labs in late 2019, while Valve is exploring the category through a partnership with OpenBCI. There’s even some indirect competition with the brain implants of Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Snap may need NextMind if it’s going to develop advanced, hands-free AR hardware in time to fend off rivals.

Google Home app updates bring simpler controls and improved privacy

The Google Home app should soon be more convenient — and familiar, if you’re an Android user. Google is rolling out updates to Home for Android and iOS that should provide more powerful controls even as they remove some of the clutter. Most notably, you’ll see simpler, Android 11-inspired smart home controls in the main view over the weeks ahead. You can tap devices to turn them on, use sliders to quickly dim lights or raise a speaker’s volume and long-press if you need more control.

Privacy will also improve. As of this week, you’ll find a settings section that lets you manage privacy controls, Assistant data and home activity within the Google Home app. You won’t have to hop between software to set tighter restrictions.

Another update arriving by the end of March will help you parse what’s happening in your household. The home feed will automatically sort events and group anything that happened within a short space of time. You won’t have to slog through multiple status updates if the neighbor’s dog repeatedly set off your Nest Cam, for example. All told, you might have more reasons to delve into the Home app rather than relying on voice controls and notifications.

Eero’s newest mesh routers include a WiFi 6E model

Eero is relatively late to WiFi 6E, but it’s showing up in style — and making WiFi 6 more practical in the process. The Amazon brand has launched two new mesh routers led by the Eero Pro 6E (pictured below). The hardware takes advantage of the 6GHz band to offer up to a 1.3Gbps wireless connection for as many as 100 devices. Each unit has both 2.5Gbps and 1Gbps Ethernet jacks, and should cover up to 2,000 square feet each. Don’t worry if you don’t have the super-fast internet service to do it justice, though, as we’ve had some hands-on time with a more affordable option.

The equally new Eero 6+ (above) is ‘just’ a dual-band WiFi 6 model with two 1Gbps Ethernet ports, 1,500 square feet of coverage per router and a 75-device cap, but it now has access to a 160MHz radio channel that promises faster wireless data. Eero pitches this as the best choice for anyone with reasonably fast internet up to a gigabit.

We’ve briefly tried the 6+, and it works like much you’d expect if you’re familiar with Eero. It has no trouble wringing the most out of a 500Mbps cable internet plan despite the modem and devices living on different floors of a modestly-sized house. The Amazon tie-ins both simplify setup (including reconnecting if you change the network name or password) and controlling the router with Alexa. You can ask the voice assistant to halt internet access for specific users, for instance. Just be aware that this doesn’t have the tri-band wireless some rivals use to lighten the load on a busy network, so you may want to pass if you have multiple heavy users who can’t afford slowdowns.

Eero Pro 6E WiFi mesh router
Eero Pro 6E
Eero

The pricing is in line with the performance. You can buy the Eero Pro 6E now in a $499 two-pack or $699 three-pack. A single unit is available to pre-order for $299. The Eero 6+ is decidedly easier to justify for most people, based on our experience. It’s selling now at a $239 for a two-pack and $299 for a three-pack, with pre-orders open for a $139 one-device kit. And if you don’t mind using 2020-era hardware, the earlier Eero 6 has dropped to $89 for one router, $139 for two and $199 for three.

Zoom’s new animal avatars are like Animoji for meetings

You’re probably more than a little tired of video meetings at this (hopefully late) stage of the pandemic, but Zoom thinks it can inject some life into them. The company has introduced avatars that replace your head with a 3D character that mimics your facial expressions — effectively, it’s Apple’s Animoji for virtual offices and classrooms. Only animals like cats, dogs and foxes are available for now, but Zoom is teasing more avatars in the future.

You’ll need Zoom 5.10.0 or later on iOS, Mac and Windows devices. The company stressed that this doesn’t use facial recognition. The software is just looking for the presence of a face, not yours in particular.

It won’t be surprising if the novelty wears out quickly, as it has for Animoji and other digital stand-ins. However, Zoom suggests avatars could be practical in some cases. Avatars let you avoid showing your real face on camera without removing all facial expressions, the company said. This might also be useful for teachers and pediatric doctors wanting to lift the moods of children. If nothing else, they could provide some much-needed silliness in the middle of a dull business seminar.

Nintendo is winding down ‘Dragalia Lost,’ its first original mobile game

Nintendo’s first foray into original mobile games is coming to an end. As Polygonreports, Nintendo and developer Cygames are gradually shutting down the gacha fantasy RPG Dragalia Lost. The last big content update arrives March 31st, when new characters come to the game. After that, the producers won’t provide new content updates apart from those for “certain quests” and the main story, which wraps up in July.

Dragalia Lost itself will shut down at an unspecified “later date” following the core campaign’s end. There will still be “summon showcases” and event revivals until the full shutdown, the companies said.

The companies didn’t explain the decision. Dragalia Lost wasn’t strictly a failure. Sensor Tower estimated the game earned $146 million in revenue by October 2020, roughly two years after launch. It also had 3.9 million installs across Android and iOS, and in 2019 had made more money than every Nintendo mobile game beyond Fire Emblem Heroes. Dr. Mario Worldshut down sooner, in November.

The title has lately faced stiff competition from heavyweights like Genshin Impact, however. And as Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad observed, Nintendo hasn’t exactly been rushing to expand its mobile catalog — the only release in the past two years was the licensed Niantic game Pikmin Bloom. Nintendo may be consolidating around adaptations of well-known franchises, such as Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

NVIDIA’s more powerful ‘AI brain’ for robots is available now for $1,999

If you’ve been eager to use NVIDIA’s more powerful robotics ‘brain’ for projects, you now have your chance — provided you’re willing to pay a premium. The company is now selling the Jetson AGX Orin developer kit for $1,999. The palm-sized computing device is now billed as eight times more powerful than Jetson AGX Xavier (275 trillion operations per second, or TOPS) thanks to its 12-core ARM Cortex-A78AE CPUs, Ampere-based GPU and upgrades to its AI accelerators, interfaces, memory bandwidth and sensor support.

You’ll have to wait a while longer for production-ready units. They’ll be available in the fourth quarter of the year starting at $399 for a ‘basic’ Orin NX kit with six CPU cores, a 1,792-core GPU, 8GB of RAM and 70 TOPS of performance. To match the claimed 275 TOPS, you’ll need to use a $1,599 Orin module with the full 12 CPU cores, 2,048-core GPU and 64GB of RAM.

NVIDIA is doing more to give robot creators a helping hand, though. It’s launching an Isaac Nova Orin platform that includes two Jetson AGX Orin modules and the sensor suite needed for a robot to detect the world around it. The platform can handle up to six cameras, three LiDAR units and eight ultrasonic sensors. You’ll also get the tools needed to simulate the robot, not to mention support for software that helps speed up mapping, navigation and perception. NVIDIA hadn’t mentioned pricing as of this writing, but it’s safe to presume the extra module and sensors will cost significantly more.

You probably won’t use the new Jetson hardware for amateur projects, but it could have a significant impact on the technology you use or buy. NVIDIA is keen to note existing Jetson users like John Deere (which uses the tech in an upcoming autonomous tractor) and Hyundai Robotics. Orin’s extra performance isn’t guaranteed to lead to more intelligent robots, but it should at least help those robots handle tasks quickly.