New law gives driverless cars green light in California as Google moves ahead with development

California governor Jerry Brown signed a driverless car bill into law in the presence of Google's Sergey Brin on Tuesday. The Mountain View company has been developing driverless technology for several years, with Brin claiming the special vehicle could be in car showrooms in the next five years.

The governor of California, Jerry Brown, turned up at Google HQ in a driverless car on Tuesday for the signing of a document to make such vehicles legal in California.

The bill, authored by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, establishes safety guidelines and performance regulations for testing and operating self-driving vehicles on California’s roads and highways.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, reportedly sporting a pair of the company’s in-development high-tech specs, was present at the signing ceremony. His company has been at the forefront of developing driverless technology with its fleet of 12 self-driving vehicles. The company claims to have driven over 300,000 miles in tests, without suffering a single bump – if you don’t count this one in August last year.

Commenting on what a driverless car could mean for road users, Brin said, “It really has the power to change people’s lives, that’s why I’m really excited about it.”

Brin said there are many kinds of people under-served by today’s transportation system who could potentially make use of driverless vehicles, including the blind and those too young to drive.

He added that the driverless car was only a few years away from making a real impact on people’s lives, saying “You can count on one hand the number of years before people can experience this.” Some skeptics will doubtless be wondering if Sergey has discovered a 20-fingered hand somewhere that he hasn’t told us about.

As the Washington Post points out in its report, the new law doesn’t allow Google to begin selling driverless cars. Rather, it puts down guidelines for what steps still need to be taken with the development of the special vehicles, and outlines the kind of testing still required. The California Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, has been given until 2015 to draw up new regulations for driverless cars.

The new legislation does, however, mark another step towards the day when instead of driving your car with your hands, feet and brain, you’ll be able to deal with more pressing matters on the way to your destination, like finishing off that game of Words With Friends or updating your Facebook page with photos from your last vacation.

[Image: Vava Vladimir Jovanovic / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Ben & Jerry’s goes to court over ‘Ben & Cherry’s’ porn movies

Not wishing to have its name associated with the porn industry, Ben & Jerry's has decided to sue a production company for marketing porn DVDs with titles inspired by its popular ice cream offerings.

When Vermont-based ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s heard about the existence of a 10-DVD set of porn movies cheekily entitled Ben & Cherry’s, the company was having none of it.

The set comprised movie titles based on the name of its ice cream offerings, prompting lawyers for the ice cream company to sue for trademark violation.

Though it’s possible the movie titles raised a smile or two with company executives – with names like Boston Cream Thighs (Boston Cream Pie), Chocolate Fudge Babes (Chocolate Fudge Brownie), and Peanut Butter D-Cups (Peanut Butter Cup), how could they not? – they nevertheless instructed their lawyers to take up the matter with the production company, California-based Rodax Distributors, with the aim of getting the porn producer to remove the titles from the market, or at least change the names to something else.

The jackets of the DVDs were reportedly also an issue, as they resembled the packaging of various products made by the ice cream company, with the familiar fluffy white clouds and grazing cows set alongside images of men and women in their birthday suits.

In its complaint, reported by Bloomberg, Ben & Jerry’s said: “The hardcore and exploitive pornographic infringing ‘Ben & Cherry’s’ DVDs” are likely to confuse consumers by “creating an association of the Ben & Jerry’s family of marks and the Ben & Jerry’s trade dress with pornography.”

Precisely how many consumers would get confused between a milk- and sugar-based dessert and a porn movie is open to debate, but one can understand Ben & Jerry’s annoyance at having its firmly established logos and images used by other companies to sell its own products.

The case was filed by Ben & Jerry’s in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. The dessert maker is also seeking monetary damages.

The company (Ben & Jerry’s, that is), set up by friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, started out in a Vermont gas station in 1978. Its large range of ice creams now sold in 26 countries across the world.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com