safety

It may have thought that its past is well behind it but it may never be free of the ghost of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. Lawsuits, settlements, and media coverage have made any Galaxy Note flagship, or any Samsung flagship for that matter, a prime target for claims of negligence or even outright wrongdoing. That seems to be the case yet again with the first report of a Galaxy Note 9 catching fire in New York, which could set of a chain of reports and claims, each of which can be true or not.

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Toyota is recalling approximately 1 million hybrid cars around the world due to fire risk, 192,000 of which are located in the United States. The Prius vehicles recalled in the US include the 2016, 2017, and 2018 model years; impacted owners will be able to visit their local dealership for a free inspection and, if necessary, repair.

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The thought of forgetting a child in a hot car should terrify any parent. Nissan's latest update to a range of new vehicles addresses just that, with Rear Door Alert. Nissan's Rear Door Alert (RDA) is the first in the industry that "uses the horn, in addition to door sensors and a message display on the center instrument panel, to remind drivers to check the back seat after the vehicle is parked." That's not a combination of alerts you grow used to and disregard.

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Microsoft started in earnest to carve out its own app store platform back in Windows 8 and it was a disaster. Barely anyone paid attention to it, which also left its Windows RT variant devoid of actually useful apps. It tried again with Windows 10 and its Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and had more success. But now it might have a new problem it needs to deal with and fast. With the influx of new apps on its Microsoft Store, the company now has to face the reality that there are some who are ready to game the system to trick users, even to the point of getting them to pay for something.

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Facebook has received a lot of flak recently for its mishandling of the Cambridge Analytica data leak. While that particular case has seemingly died down a bit, the social networking giant is far from being out of the fire. A new documentary from Channel 4 Dispatches puts Facebook back into the frying pan, revealing just how much its promises to protect its users from harmful content might mean squat, especially when such responsibilities are outsourced and offloaded onto third parties that might not exactly share Facebook’s concerns.

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2018 hasn’t exactly been good for Tesla, with the company being embroiled in not a few high-profile scandals. Those range from poor working conditions to low Model 3 production output to, unfortunately, an Autopilot-related death. There has, however, been no report of a rollover crash, especially involving the months-old Model 3. Now there is and, for a change, the incident doesn’t have a grizzly ending except for the Model 3 itself.

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Uber is continuously monitoring drivers for criminal charges, a new report claims. These are referred to as ongoing background checks and they're intended to help improve rider safety, a big criticism that has plagued the company since the beginning. The monitoring is reportedly being done in conjunction with companies Appriss and Checkr.

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There are many things that constitute domestic violence. Right from verbal, physical, mental, psychological, to using modern day technology, a domestic abuser can use a combination of these to harass their victim. Technology-facilitated abuse is new demon in our society that can be used very cleverly by an abuser, without the victim even realizing that they are being played. Imagine being spied at home by your abusive spouse, or them using a smart home gadget, which is controlled by their phone, to harass and abuse.

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A popular extension downloaded more than two million times has been pulled from browser app stores after a major security issue was discovered. The app, called Stylish, was used to modify the design of websites, such as altering images, turning bright backgrounds dark, and altering unwanted elements. Unfortunately, the browser extension was also extensively tracking users' browsing habits and uploading the data to a remote server.

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The FAA has refused to force airlines to offer more legroom, rejecting calls for legal minimums and dismissing concerns that cramped seating in cabins could present an evacuation risk. The Federal Aviation Administration had been forced to reconsider regulatory requirements for airplane seating, after a judge ruled in favor of a consumer group in a lawsuit last year.

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NTSB investigators are looking into a Tesla battery fire that twice reignited, after a high-speed crash caused major damage to a Model S sedan in Florida earlier this year. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the incident required emergency services to extinguish the fire three times in total, after the driver apparently lost control while doing 116 mph in a 30 mph limit zone.

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The safety driver in Uber's autonomous car that killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona earlier this year was watching Hulu on her phone right up to the crash, local police claim. The incident - which grounded Uber's self-driving car fleet as the company began an investigation into the safety of its vehicles - was "entirely avoidable" law enforcement have suggested.

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