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Tesla Model Y door handles now under federal safety scrutiny

When Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency began wielding its axe at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this year, many believed this was done to weaken the agency's oversight over Tesla. But despite the Tesla CEO's sometimes-close relationship with the Trump administration, it appears there is still some independence left within NHTSA: earlier this week the agency opened a new safety investigation into the door handles of the Tesla Model Y. The timing may not

Sonair built its 3D ultrasonic sensor with robotic safety in mind

As robots increasingly enter human spaces, robotics companies will need to think about safety differently than they did when robots were largely siloed from their human counterparts. Sonair thinks its sensors can help robotics companies reach their safety goals — with a solution that is both better and cheaper than popular LIDAR technology. The Oslo, Norway-based company built an ADAR (acoustic detection and ranging) sensor for robots that uses high frequency sound. These sensors send out ultr

Repeat creepy meat problems at Boar’s Head plants draw congressional scrutiny

"The totality of these issues demonstrate a repeated pattern of food safety negligence that jeopardized Americans’ public health, and sadly, lives were lost," the lawmakers wrote in the letter. While calling the ongoing, repeated problems "appalling," they said they were "less than confident" that the Jarratt plant could safely reopen. "It seems your company continues to show a disregard for food safety and for the public health of the American people," they wrote. The letter was addressed to

OpenAI Is Building a Teen-Friendly Version of ChatGPT

OpenAI announced today that it's developing a "different ChatGPT experience" tailored for teenagers, a move that underscores growing concerns about the impact of AI chatbots on young people's mental health. The new teen mode is part of a broader safety push by the company in the wake of a lawsuit by a family who alleged ChatGPT's lack of protections contributed to the death by suicide of their teenage son. The changes include age-prediction technology to keep kids under 18 out of the standard v

Tesla Faces US Auto Safety Investigation over Door Handles

US auto safety regulators opened an investigation into whether some Tesla Inc. vehicle doors are defective, citing incidents in which exterior handles stopped working and trapped children inside. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday it’s opening a preliminary evaluation of Tesla’s electrically powered door handles becoming inoperative due to issues with certain vehicles’ low-voltage batteries. While the probe specifically focuses on an estimated 174,290 Model Y SUVs,

OpenAI to launch ChatGPT for teens with parental controls as company faces scrutiny over safety

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman walks on the day of a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025. OpenAI on Tuesday announced it will launch a dedicated ChatGPT experience with parental controls for users under 18 years old as the artificial intelligence company works to enhance safety protections for teenagers. When OpenAI identifies that a user is a minor, they will automatically be di

Boeing faces $3.1M fine for door plug blowout, hundreds of safety violations

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday proposed fines of $3.1 million against Boeing for various safety violations related to the January 2024 door plug blowout and what the FAA called "interference with safety officials' independence." An FAA statement said the proposed fine covers "safety violations that occurred from September 2023 through February 2024," and is the "maximum statutory civil penalty authority consistent with law." Boeing, which reported $22.7 billion in revenue and a n

Roblox hit with wrongful death lawsuit following a teen player's suicide

Following her son's suicide, Becca Dallas filed a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit against Roblox and Discord, accusing the platforms of wrongful death. As first reported by The New York Times, the lawsuit recounts the events leading up to Ethan Dallas' death, detailing his interactions with a player named Nate. According to the report, Nate was likely a 37-year-old man named Timothy O'Connor, who was previously arrested on charges of "possessing child pornography and transmitting harmful mate

Safe C++ proposal is not being continued

One year ago, the Safe C++ proposal was made. The goal was to add a safe subset/context into C++ that would give strong guarantees (memory safety, type safety, thread safety) similar to what Rust provides, without breaking existing C++ code. It was an extension or superset of C++. The opt-in mechanism was to explicitly mark parts of the code that belong to the safe context. The authors even state: Code in the safe context exhibits the same strong safety guarantees as code written in Rust. The

California Lawmakers Once Again Challenge Newsom’s Tech Ties with AI Bill

Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a wildly popular (among the public) and wildly controversial (among tech companies) bill that would have established robust safety guidelines for the development and operation of artificial intelligence models. Now he’ll have a second shot—this time with at least part of the tech industry giving him the green light. On Saturday, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 53, a landmark piece of legislation that would require AI companies to submit

California lawmakers pass AI safety bill SB 53 — but Newsom could still veto

California’s state senate gave final approval early on Saturday morning to a major AI safety bill setting new transparency requirements on large companies. As described by its author, state senator Scott Wiener, SB 53 “requires large AI labs to be transparent about their safety protocols, creates whistleblower protections for [employees] at AI labs & creates a public cloud to expand compute access (CalCompute).” The bill now goes to California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign or veto. He has not

Topics: 53 ai companies safety sb

FAA Proposes $3.1 Million Fine Against Boeing Over Door-Plug Horror

The Federal Aviation Administration announced it’s proposing $3.1 million in fines against Boeing for safety violations in late 2023 and early 2024, according to a press release from the government agency on Friday. The safety violations include an incident on January 5, 2024, when a door plug fell out of an Alaska Airlines flight traveling from Portland, Oregon. The door plug fell out of the Boeing 737 Max 9 while in flight, though thankfully nobody was hurt. The door plug was eventually foun

Pilot union urges FAA to reject Rainmaker’s drone cloud-seeding plan

Rainmaker Technology’s bid to deploy cloud-seeding flares on small drones is being met by resistance from the airline pilots union, which has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to consider denying the startup’s request unless it meets stricter safety guidelines. The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision will signal how the regulator views weather-modification by unmanned aerial systems going forward. Rainmaker’s bet on small drones hangs in the balance. The Air Line Pilots Associat

The obstacles to scaling up humanoids

Over the next several years, humanoid robots will change the nature of work. Or at least, that’s what humanoid robotics companies have been consistently promising, enabling them to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at valuations that run into the billions. Delivering on these promises will require a lot of robots. Agility Robotics expects to ship “hundreds” of its Digit robots in 2025 and has a factory in Oregon capable of building over 10,000 robots per year. Tesla is planning to produce 5

Reality Is Ruining the Humanoid Robot Hype

Over the next several years, humanoid robots will change the nature of work. Or at least, that’s what humanoid robotics companies have been consistently promising, enabling them to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at valuations that run into the billions. Delivering on these promises will require a lot of robots. Agility Robotics expects to ship “hundreds” of its Digit robots in 2025 and has a factory in Oregon capable of building over 10,000 robots per year. Tesla is planning to produce 5

Apple’s Big Bet to Eliminate the iPhone’s Most Targeted Vulnerabilities

Apple launched a slate of new iPhones on Tuesday loaded with the company's new A19 and A19 Pro chips. Along with an ultra-thin iPhone Air and other redesigns, the new phones come with a less flashy upgrade that could turn out to be the true killer feature. A security improvement called “Memory Integrity Enforcement” combines always-on chip-level protections with software defenses in an effort to harden iPhones against the most common—and commonly exploited—software vulnerabilities. In recent ye

Bluesky Launches Age Verification in Select States

If you live in two particular states, you'll need to verify how old you are to stay on the site. Bluesky, the funky, semi-decentralized Twitter spin-off, is rolling out age verification systems to comply with new regulations instituted in Europe and parts of the U.S. On Wednesday, the platform announced that it was expanding its verification systems in South Dakota and Wyoming. The United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act created new requirements for platforms that want to operate within its borders

The MechaHitler defense contract is raising red flags

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Ask someone their worst fears about AI, and you’ll find a few recurring topics — from near-term fears like AI tools replacing human workers and the loss of critical thinking to apocalyptic scenarios like AI-designed weapons of mass destruction and automated war. Most have one thing in common: a loss of human control. And the sy

Topics: ai grok musk safety xai

Anthropic is endorsing SB 53

Anthropic is endorsing SB 53, the California bill that governs powerful AI systems built by frontier AI developers like Anthropic. We’ve long advocated for thoughtful AI regulation and our support for this bill comes after careful consideration of the lessons learned from California's previous attempt at AI regulation (SB 1047). While we believe that frontier AI safety is best addressed at the federal level instead of a patchwork of state regulations, powerful AI advancements won’t wait for cons

Topics: 53 ai powerful safety sb

Meta curbed research about VR safety risks to kids, whistleblowers say

is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. A new group of whistleblowers are coming forward to allege that Meta is restricting research into how its virtual reality offerings could negatively impact kids and teens, The Washington Post r

Anthropic endorses California’s AI safety bill, SB 53

On Monday, Anthropic announced an official endorsement of SB 53, a California bill from state Senator Scott Wiener that would impose first-in-the-nation transparency requirements on the world’s largest AI model developers. Anthropic’s endorsement marks a rare and major win for SB 53, at a time when major tech groups like CTA and Chamber for Progress are lobbying against the bill. “While we believe that frontier AI safety is best addressed at the federal level instead of a patchwork of state reg

Topics: 53 ai policy safety sb

Google Gemini dubbed ‘high risk’ for kids and teens in new safety assessment

Common Sense Media, a kids-safety-focused nonprofit offering ratings and reviews of media and technology, released its risk assessment of Google’s Gemini AI products on Friday. While the organization found that Google’s AI clearly told kids it was a computer, not a friend — something that’s associated with helping drive delusional thinking and psychosis in emotionally vulnerable individuals — it did suggest that there was room for improvement across several other fronts. Notably, Common Sense s

Attorneys general warn OpenAI ‘harm to children will not be tolerated’

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings met with and sent an open letter to OpenAI to express their concerns over the safety of ChatGPT, particularly for children and teens. The warning comes a week after Bonta and 44 other attorneys general sent a letter to 12 of the top AI companies, following reports of sexually inappropriate interactions between AI chatbots and children. “Since the issuance of that letter, we learned of the heartbreaking death by

BMW and Qualcomm announce jointly developed driver assistance system

Qualcomm's driver-assistance system Snapdragon Ride Pilot will debut on the BMW iX3 electric SUV, offering hands-free highway driving, automatic lane changes and parking assistance. The jointly developed software stack announced today will be powered by Snapdragon Ride system-on-chips and will make its first formal appearance at IAA Mobility 2025. Snapdragon Ride Pilot is a Level 2+ driver-assistance system, not self-driving, which means drivers will still be responsible for supervising the veh

Do Self-Driving Cars Need Windshield Wipers?

Donald Trump is all about propping up big businesses (small businesses, not so much) and cutting regulations. Lately, his administration has decided to dispense with certain long-established regulatory precedents for the sake of making things a little bit easier on the blossoming self-driving car industry. On Thursday, Trump’s Transportation Secretary, Sean P. Duffy, announced that, next year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be rolling out three new rules designed to “mo

Tesla Makes a Huge Move to Appease Regulators

Tesla appears to be bending to the will of regulators. In a visible sign of its shifting posture from daredevil innovation to cautious compliance, Tesla this week relocated its robotaxi safety monitors, employees who supervise the autonomous software’s performance and can take over the vehicle’s operation at any moment, from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat. Tesla’s Robotaxi service represents one of the company’s most ambitious and long-delayed projects. First teased by Chief Executiv

What Tech Jobs Don’t Drug Test? That Might Depend

Workers who live in states where cannabis is legal often face a conundrum. Can they continue using a substance deemed by lawmakers to be fit for public consumption, even if they may have an employer who might drug test? Or do they avoid it all together, because they don’t know what their employer’s drug policy is? And does that policy include only “hard” drugs like cocaine, opioids or methamphetamines, or does it test for cannabis too? These days, the answer is a lot more flexible than it was

Massive Recall Doesn’t Affect 15% Leap in Company Share Price

The stock price of a company that is in the middle of a major recall still managed to see a 15% gain by the time the market closed Friday. That recall has been issued for nearly 760,000 power tools following reports of explosions and fire hazards. The move is one to watch because some companies in the power washer market are beginning to integrate into their devices. These AI-powered pressure washers can analyze the surface being cleaned and optimize their own performance to provide a better r

Global movement to protect kids online fuels a wave of AI safety tech

Spotify, Reddit and X have all implemented age assurance systems to prevent children from being exposed to inappropriate content. The global online safety movement has paved the way for a number of artificial intelligence-powered products designed to keep kids away from potentially harmful things on the internet. In the U.K., a new piece of legislation called the Online Safety Act imposes a duty of care on tech companies to protect children from age-inappropriate material, hate speech, bullyin

I put my Shokz away within seconds of testing these bone conduction headphones

Suunto Wing 2 bone conduction headphones ZDNET's key takeaways The Suunto Wing 2 is available for $179 in black and coral orange. The fantastic audio quality, new voice prompts, and long battery life combine to make this a compelling headset. The lights are mounted on the top of the headset, so if you have long hair or wear a hat, they could be obscured. View now at Suunto I need music when I work out. Specifically, classic rock. It motivates me to keep going, so having a headset paired with