Wayve to take on US tech giants, Apple iPhone 5s now ‘officially obsolete’
British driverless car champion Wayve is planning to put its cars on the streets of San Francisco, challenging US tech giants including Elon Musk’s Tesla and Google’s Waymo in their own backyard. The self-driving car company, which last month raised over $1bn (£780m) for its technology, is laying the groundwork for deploying its fleet in the US, hiring staff to coordinate its test drivers and safety operators. A Wayve spokesman confirmed the company would soon be putting cars on US roads: “We will be doing data collection in the US to prepare for Level 2 ADAS [advanced driver assistance system] testing in the future.” Telegraph
Ticketmaster owner Live Nation confirmed “unauthorised activity” on its database after a group of hackers said they had stolen the personal details of 560 million customers. ShinyHunters, the group claiming responsibility, says the stolen data includes names, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card details from Ticketmaster users worldwide. The hacking group is reportedly demanding a $500,000 (£400,000) ransom payment to prevent the data from being sold to other parties. BBC
China has landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon to collect soil and rock samples and bring them back to Earth for the first time. The Chang’e-6 craft touched down in a huge crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 6.23am Beijing time on Sunday (11.23pm on Saturday in the UK), the China National Space Administration said. The Chang’e landing module – named after a Chinese moon goddess – will use a mechanical arm and drill to gather up to 2kg (4.4lb) of surface and underground material for about two days. Sky News
Next week, Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, where it will introduce several AI-based tools that will power the iPhone 16 family when the handsets are launched in September. Many of these tools will be available to older iPhones, but only the iPhone 15 Pro will make full use of them. Writing in Bloomberg, long-time Apple watcher Mark Gurman notes that only the current iPhone 15 Pro will be able to leverage the full suite of AI tools. Forbes
Apple today made three changes to its vintage and obsolete products list, involving the iPhone 5s, sixth-generation iPod touch, and an older iMac model.
First, Apple now considers the iPhone 5s to be an “obsolete” product worldwide, meaning that Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers no longer offer repairs or other hardware service for the device. Apple says it considers a product “obsolete” once seven years have passed since the company last distributed it for sale. Apple released the iPhone 5s in September 2013, with its key new feature being the Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the Home button. MacRumors
ISS, a top proxy advisory firm, recommended Tesla shareholders vote against ratifying CEO Elon Musk’s $56bn pay package, calling the compensation excessive in a rejection of the plan set by the electric vehicle maker’s board. In a report sent late on Thursday, Institutional Shareholder Services also recommended a vote against the Tesla director James Murdoch, but backed votes for director Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s brother, and for the company’s proposed move to change its state of incorporation to Texas from Delaware. Guardian
