Tech Digest daily roundup: Watching TV in self-driving cars will be allowed
People using self-driving cars will be allowed to watch television on built-in screens under proposed updates to the Highway Code. The changes will say drivers must be ready to take back control of vehicles when prompted, the government said. The first use of self-driving technology is likely to be when travelling at slow speeds on motorways, such as in congested traffic. However, using mobile phones while driving will remain illegal. No self-driving cars are currently allowed on UK roads, but the first vehicles capable of driving themselves could be ready for use later this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. BBC
Netflix will roll out a cheaper, advertising-supported version of its streaming platform after it was left reeling by its first subscriber loss in more than a decade. Shares in Netflix crashed more than 25pc last night as it revealed its customer base fell by 200,000 in the first quarter. While some of this was driven by its decision to withdraw from Russia, the company warned it could lose another 2m subscribers in the current quarter. The decline has forced co-founder Reed Hastings into a dramatic change of policy. As well as launching an ad-funded model, Netflix will also start to crack down on password sharing and curb its spending on original films and TV shows. Telegraph
We’ve been hearing about the Pixel Watch for a long, long time, and it seems that it’ll finally be unveiled at this year’s Google I/O. While there’s not a whole lot that’s leaked about it, we’ve had a rough idea of what to expect when it comes to its looks and some of its features. Now it seems that the first official render has leaked thanks to 91Mobiles, and it matches up with some of what we’ve seen already. YouTuber John Prosser previously shared renders of what Google was internally calling the Pixel Watch, giving us our first look at the smartwatch’s overall design. It packs a very similar design to what 91Mobiles reports, with the single crown on the right and the curved display all around. 91Mobiles didn’t share any other images, but the one image shows a step counter, a Fitbit logo, and what appears to be a heart rate monitor. XDA Developers
Everything’s getting more expensive, so perhaps it’s inevitable that the same thing is happening to iPhones – according to a reliable leaker the larger iPhones will have a larger price tag when we jump from the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 14. The leak backs up previous reports that the iPhone 13 mini is not going to make it into the iPhone 14 range. It also predicts the good news that the standard iPhone 14 will be the same price as the current iPhone 13, which is $799, and the iPhone 14 Pro will be the same $999 as the iPhone 13 Pro. But, and here’s the bad news, where the iPhone 13 Pro Max currently starts at $1,099, the iPhone 14 Pro Max will be $100 more expensive. If the same prices carry across to the UK, that means it’ll be £100-ish more there too. T3
Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant can become more “proactive” and expand to be useful in “more places in your life” in years to come, the tech giant’s devices boss says. Dave Limp, the senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon and therefore the man in charge of Alexa, said a key target for Amazon is to free up people’s time by having the smart assistant take on more “mundane tasks”. First launched in the UK in 2016 built into Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, Alexa has grown to become compatible with a wide range of other connected devices around the home, including televisions and kitchen appliances, as well as heating, lighting and home security systems and a voice control tool for smartphones and in cars. Yahoo!
