Prepare to be tracked and tested as you return to work

Coronavirus grounded the autonomous-vehicle industry, but data troves could be a savior

The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 05.22.20 Good morning! Today: get ready to be tracked and tested when you go back to the office, and data troves could ride to the rescue for the grounded autonomous vehicle industry. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Some housekeeping: there will be no newsletter on Monday as it's a public holiday. We'll be back on Tuesday May 26th.  Prepare to be tracked and tested as you return to work   A new routine: A day in the life of a Salesforce worker will look very different when they return to the office. They’ll start their day by logging a wellness check online which checks if they have symptoms of covid-19 or have been in contact with anyone infected. If cleared, the app will assign them a 30-minute window arrival time, designed to avoid employee bottlenecks. Employees will have to wear masks as they enter the building, take their temperature and swipe an ID badge. It will also note where they set foot in case they do later turn out to have covid-19. Finally, they’ll arrive at a freshly disinfected desk, where adjacent rows have been removed. There, they can finally take off their mask and get to work. Welcome to the coronavirus-era workplace. Bigger picture: On top of these measures, some employers are offering or even requiring coronavirus testing for workers returning to the office, and employing sensors, dongles, and other tools to ensure they remain a safe distance apart or inform them when they’ve crossed paths with a colleague who later learns he or she was infected.  Not a panacea: The radically redesigned workplaces will raise concerns about employee privacy and may pose legal liabilities when workers do become seriously ill despite the precautions. Read the full story.  —James Temple Coronavirus grounded the autonomous-vehicle industry, but data troves could be a savior The situation: The pandemic spells big trouble for the autonomous vehicle industry. Test cars usually require two operators apiece for safety reasons, and that’s a no-go in the age of social distancing. Real-world testing is the gold standard for collecting data and improving the cars’ ability to operate safely. Unable to get on the road, expensive self-driving operations risked having no path toward fielding a product anytime soon.  Some good news: As it turns out, all may not be lost. Several companies have traded road tests for delving deep into their algorithms and simulators, finding new uses for the countless hours of data they’ve collected. They’re doubling down on efforts like detailed data labeling, 3D mapping, and identifying overlooked scenarios from previous road sessions that can be used to train their systems. A sad reality: No matter how much companies invest in their simulators, though, there’s no getting around the need to eventually get back on the road. But as the US reopens, that’s beginning to happen. Read the full story.  —Hayden Field Listen to the latest episode of our podcast Deep Tech. It’s all about contact tracing and how, to get a handle on how different apps work, we built the Covid-19 Tracing Tracker, a public database that rates tracing apps. Tune in.  We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + These cats could really have picked a better time and place to have a fight.   + You can make chocolate that shimmers like a rainbow at home.   + Brew some mead over the long weekend.   + Some of these unlikely simultaneous historical events will blow your mind.   + Researchers have found a new species of pygmy seahorse the size of a grain of rice. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The US has secured 300 million doses of a potential new vaccine 💉 It was developed at Oxford University and is set to be tested in 30,000 volunteers this summer. (NYT $) 2 Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots They’re getting harder to spot, too. (TR) 3 You’re unlikely to catch coronavirus from surfaces or objects The CDC is trying to get people to stop worrying about the wrong things. (WP $) 4 A study found 17% of Londoners have covid antibodies That figure drops to just 5% in the UK as a whole. (Sky)   + The UK government has announced antibody tests will be available on the NHS. (BBC)   + Only 7.3% of Stockholm had antibodies by the end of April. (The Guardian) 5 How we should prepare for the next pandemic Awful as it is, this one isn’t the “big one.” The next one might be. (Foreign Affairs)   + We’d nearly wiped out polio. Covid-19 might set that back. (Wired $) 6 Covid-19 is unique in how it hijacks cells The result is essentially no brake on the virus’s ability to replicate itself. (Stat) 7 How a couple moved their entire wedding online 🎊💑 The ingenuity on display here is genuinely impressive. (Wired $)   + Quakers are silently worshiping together over Zoom. (NYT $) 8 Facebook is betting big on remote work It plans for half of the workforce to be remote within the next decade. (NBC)   + Mark Zuckerberg explained his thinking behind the shift. (The Verge) 9 Can trolls be...good? An internet satirist who likes to torment Reddit makes her case. (The Guardian) 10 A group of teenage girls in Afghanistan are making cheap ventilators They’re using a design from MIT and parts from old Toyota Corollas. (NPR) The only constant in business is change. Technology changes everything without our consent. To succeed, you must understand and adapt. Join our virtual conference, EmTech Next, for an in-depth examination of the technologies impacting business and industry over the next 12 months. Purchase your ticket today. Quote of the day “I didn’t realize I was this vain.” —Laura White, director of a San Diego nonprofit, tells the Wall Street Journal that video calls have made her self-conscious about her chin.  Top image credit: Salesforce Please send mead to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Technologies driving business Virtual conference, June 8–10 *View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you  Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog subscribed with your email address *Edit email preferences   |   *Unsubscribe from all emails Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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