Issue 1404 37
As we went to press, the
stand-off between Apple and
the FBI was no closer to being
resolved. If anything, the
tension between them had
increased, with several leading
technology companies getting
behind Apple. Meanwhile,
even legal professionals can’t
agree on who’s right, with
different judges coming to
different conclusions.
That’s not surprising, really,
because this is a hugely
complex case. On one side,
you obviously have to
consider everyone’s right to
privacy, as well as Apple’s
right to protect its security
technology and its business.
At the same time, however,
you can’t ignore the need for
national security. And who
would begrudge the families
of those killed or injured in
the San Bernardino attack
the opportunity to get
some answers?
Of course, it would be
helpful if the FBI had done its
job better in thefi rst place (as
Mark Pickavance explains this
week), but what’s done is
done, and I suspect this case is
going to run for some time.
What are your thoughts?
Write in and let us know.Editor
Anthony
Google Car
BashesBus
G
oogle’s self-driving
project is still moving
along, although
perhaps not as
nicely as the company would
have liked. It’s never going to be
a good day when Google execs
wake up to headlines of one of
its cars crashing, but sometimes
these things are unavoidable.
OnValentine’s Day, one of
its self-driving vehicles crashed
into a bus in California when it
pulled out in front of it. While
its vehicles have been involved
in incidents before now, the
significance of this particular
accident is that it’s the first time
that one of Google’s cars seems
to have caused the accident,
rather than being the victim of
someone else’s bad driving.
Thereport filed with the
state’s Department of Motor
Vehicles wrote that the human
driver in the Google car assumed
that the bus would slow down,
allowing the car to continue on
its way, and so didn’t step in to
override the car’s autonomous
mode. As the car set off again
and the bus hadn’t slowed down
to let it pass, they had a bump.Everyone was okay and Google
hasreportedly since altered the
self-driving algorithm to help it
understand that large vehicles are
less likely to back off than other
smaller vehicles might.
You can see how that could be
important, can’t you?W
hile the world
was waiting for
developments in
the court ruling
surrounding the iPhonerelated to the San
Bernardino killings, a US judge ruled ina
separate legal case that the FBI couldn’t
have access to a locked iPhone. The
Brooklyn judge was being asked to rule
whether Apple should unlock an iPhone
belonging to a drug dealer, but the judge
denied the motion put forward by the US
Justice Department.
His conclusion was that asking Apple
to tinker with its own technology in
such a way was walking on very dodgy
ground – our words, not his. Here are
his words, in fact: “The implications of
the government’s position are so far-
reaching – both in terms of what it would
allow today and what it implies about
Congressional intent in 1789 – as to
produce impermissibly absurdresults.”
On the face of it, this would appear
to play into Apple’s hands as the San
Bernardino-related case continues.No injuries, thank goodness
andweapons