This used to be my job. They’re not controlling the cars. They’re basically completing real-time CAPTCHAs, telling the car whether the cameras see a stop sign, a bicycle, temporary barriers, etc. If the car can’t identify an object that could possibly cross its path, it pulls over and stops until an operator can do a sanity-check on whatever the car’s confused by. They only need to be able to identify objects on the road, not know the rules of the road.

No. They just end the ride and send somebody from the local depot to drive the car back to the garage.

Source: I was on Waymo’s Fleet Response team for a year doing literally this job that is now outsourced overseas. While the tech exists for full remote steering, NHTSA regulations disallow it, and that’s one of the few agencies that Google actually has to abide by if they want to drive their cars on public roads.

Even with the recent struck child, Waymos are still light years ahead of human drivers in terms of safety. Honestly, the faster we can replace human drivers, the better. Almost all traffic collisions are caused by human error, remove that and the roads will be the safest they’ve been since horse-drawn carriages first entered the scene.

Won’t happen. Google ran YouTube at a net loss for a decade before turning a profit. Very few companies have the kind of money to invest like that. Video hosting is crazy expensive, especially when it’s free.

I have to imagine that anybody savvy enough to make the decision to install a third-party launcher is also savvy enough to immediately uninstall that shit.

Keyword searches with an understanding of search syntax was always king.

Isn’t that only because of the limitations of the available technology only being able to handle simple strings, though? Conversational computing has been a pipe dream since early sci-fi, where characters would talk to their computers as if they were human; George Jetson never spoke to Rosie in keyword queries.

I feel like keyword search syntax being “king” is more of a symptom, than an intentional choice.

Weird timing these bugs seem to have, eh?

More realistic headline: “Here’s a list of things your family can sue the government for after you’re dead, once their GoFundMe goals are met”.

The only rights you have with ICE are made of lead.

I don’t think that was ever any secret.

I have to agree with him, honestly. HL2 was novel for its time, but if you’re playing it for the first time in 2026 then yeah, it really doesn’t hold up to modern game experiences. I also dislike games that end ambiguously or on cliffhangers, and the lack of closure provided from sequel-bait endings like HL2’s can be annoying to people who just want to play a complete story. I want to see it through to the end and get the feeling that my actions had any sort of consequence to the world, and HL2 really doesn’t provide that.

And narratively, the fact that Gordon is a silent protagonist really doesn’t make the player feel like they’re a real part of that world, and rather they’re just going along for an on-rails carnival ride. The player has no real agency to affect anything that isn’t a part of the singular route offered by the game. This would be okay if it was a role-playing game, and the player is intended to use their imagination to fill in the blanks, but HL2 is a wholly linear game where characters just bark commands at you from start to finish.

Honestly, for being a negative review, I think he was very fair about it. It’s an important part of gaming history, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a great experience for modern players.

Cyberpunk 2020 (the original tabletop game) kinda predicted that sort of outcome.

Someone tell the creator of Girls Gone Wild.

I don’t think Joe Francis is going to be the good guy in this scenario.

That’s awfully presumptuous. Maybe Adam over here is getting some dick on the side, you don’t know his life.

Because borders aren’t real. We need border patrol about as much as we need Bigfoot hunters.

It’s not all plagiarism, though. For instance, Embark Studios uses AI to create in-game voice lines for characters in their games. They made their own models with actors hired specifically to train them.

Yeah. Got any more hard-hitting questions?

It’s not like Meta just shut down some random game studios. They chose to get into bed with Meta. This was the most predictable outcome.

Portland’s pretty good about this. The whole city is laid out in a pretty uniform grid, and the busses and trains come frequently and cover a really wide area. Getting around the city is a piece of cake, and the transit pass works the exact same regardless of which vehicle type you ride.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn close!

Why does that coastal freeway intersect with a parking space, tho?

Hey, assholes. That’s STILL not a reason to shoot somebody in the face, you fucking Nazi ghouls.

The DHS has lost the trust of the American people.