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A gust of wind sweeps over bare soil, kicking up enough dirt and dust to cut visibility to nearly zero, and for drivers, the dust storm seems to come out of nowhere. Such conditions resulted in a pileup on Interstate 70 last week in western Kansas involving dozens of cars and trucks that left eight people dead. Blinding dust also prompted New Mexico’s transportation department to close Interstate 25 from the Colorado border southwest to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Hazy or dust-darkened skies have recalled the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when millions of tons of blowing soil buried farms and coated towns across the Great Plains. Lesser storms occur every year, particularly in the western U.S., particularly when farmland hasn’t been planted yet in the spring. Some scientists worry that many motorists don’t take them seriously enough. We have a very low level of public awareness of a dust storm and what damage it can cause, said Daniel Tong, an associate professor of atmospheric chemistry at George Mason University who is among the authors of a 2023 paper on dust storm deaths. Dust storms have a history of causing fatalities The High Plains Museum in Goodland displays a photo of a tractor buried in blown soil in the 1930s, a reminder of the consequences of a severe drought across the Great Plains that came after farming had destroyed native grasses. The fatalities Friday near Goodland were the first in the area in a dust storm since 2014, said Jeremy Martin, the Weather Service meteorologist in charge there. But they came less than a month after an 11-car pileup on I-25 left three people dead, with heavy dust cited as a factor, according to Albuquerque TV’s KRQE. Similarly, a dust storm on I-55 between St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois, in 2023 led to a fatal pileup involving dozens of vehicles. In 1991, 17 people died in an accident involving more than 100 vehicles on I-5 in California’s San Joaquin Valley, blamed on blowing dust. Tong and four co-authors concluded in their paper published in 2023 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that there were 232 deaths from windblown dust events from 2007 through 2017, far higher than the number recorded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association data. In January, he and four colleagues concluded that the economic damaged caused by wind erosion and dust is four times higher than previously calculated and more than $154 billion a year. A cold front carries dust through western Kansas Martin said a cold front moved through the area of the pileup after it had been warm and dry for six hours. Winds that reached 70 miles per hour (113 kph) kicked up dust that then became trapped in the cold front. That’s when you get that classic wall of dust,” he said. As blowing dust cut visibility on the road to almost zero, drivers slowed down, causing collisions, authorities said. A preliminary investigation found that 71 vehicles were involved, said Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April McCollum. Aerial photos showed at least 10 were semis. It was hard to even keep your eyes open outside because there was so much dust in the air, said Jeremy Martin, the National Weather Service meteorologist in charge in Goodland. It kind of stung to even breathe out in it. Similar conditions in eastern Colorado prompted the Colorado State Patrol to warn drivers: Zero visibility due to high winds and blowing dirt. You couldnt see, said Jerry Burkhart, the fire and emergency services chief in Lamar, Colorado. The best thing to do is get way off the road in a parking lot or something like that. A lack of visibility is not the only problem Martin said it’s hard to tell how thick dust is from a distance, so motorists often don’t know they won’t able to see until they’re in it. Weather Service forecasters also said some of the advice for motorists in a dust storm is counter-intuitive. Michael Anand, a NWS meteorologist in Albuquerque, said motorists should pull off the road as safely as possible, turn off all lights and never use their high beams. You dont want people behind you to think youre going in the road, Martin said. That light from your tail light might be the only thing they can see. Theyre thinking the road suddenly curves. High winds make cars harder to control, and a dust storm coats the road with fine particles that slow breaking, and drivers panic, Tong said. He said dust storms are frequent and widespread enough across the U.S. that states should test prospective drivers on what to do in a dust storm on license exams. That could be, actually, a very easy way to educate drivers, he said. John Hanna, Associated Press Associated Press writer Janie Far contributed.
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Lidar has long been considered the gold standard of self-driving technology. Most car companies use the technology, alongside cameras, radar, and AI, to fully assess a vehicles’ environment. Except for one notable exception: Tesla. Elon Musk has always had it out for Lidar, calling it a a crutch, a losers technology and too expensive. After experimenting with Lidar in early autonomous driving prototypes, Musk went a different direction. He ditched radar from Tesla’s production models in 2021, against the criteria of his own engineers, opting instead for his camera-based AI Tesla Vision system, which relies on cameras and AI alone. This has proven to be one of his biggest mistakes when it comes to Tesla’s future. Lidar, which works by firing laser beams to capture a cars surroundings in three dimensions as a way to assess its environment, is widely used in the autonomous vehicle industry because it provides precise depth perception, even in poor visibility conditions. Radar is also needed to detect obstacles further away and calculate their speed…and yet, Musk insisted that vision-based AI aloneusing only cameras, like human eyesis sufficient. As of December 2024, Tesla remains committed to its camera-only Tesla Vision system. We are confident that this is the best strategy for the future of Autopilot and the safety of our customers, the company says on its webpage. But as this video by Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer-turned-YouTuber, demonstrates, Tesla Vision may not be the safest option both drivers and pedestrians. Rober designed an experiment inspired by the classic Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons to compare Teslas Autopilot with Lidar-based systems. He created a polystyrene wall with an image of a road printed on it and placed it in the middle of a real street to evaluate the reaction of the sensors in his own Tesla Model Y, which relies only on cameras. For comparison, Rober also tested a Lexus RX equipped with Lidar under the same conditions. In the initial tests, both the Tesla and the Lexus successfully stopped in front of a stationary dummy and another dummy in motion. But the Teslas camera-based system, which struggles in poor visibility, failed when adverse conditions were introduced. It could not detect the same dummy in fog and rain, while the Lexus Lidar identified it without issue. The ultimate test was the painted-wall experiment. In Chuck Jones classic cartoons, Wile E. Coyote often paints a fake tunnel on a wall, making it appear as though the road continues. The Road Runner always escapes by running through the illusion, while the Coyote, baffled, inevitably crashes into the obstacle. Thats exactly what happened to Robers Tesla, which kept driving until it smashed into the wall. The vehicles artificial intelligence trusted what its cameras saw: an uninterrupted road. The Lexus, on the other hand, stopped immediatelyits laser beams detected a solid wall, regardless of the image painted on it. Some have dismissed the test as a gimmick, but it highlights a fundamental flaw: Teslas system cannot reliably distinguish real objects from illusions. It misinterprets reality because it relies solely on optical sensors. As seen in the dummy test under rain and fog, poor visibility leads the cars AI to make dangerous misjudgments. While Lidar scans the environment in 3D regardless of an objects visual appearance, Teslas cameras only process flat images, making them vulnerable to visual deception. This is a well-documented issue in AI systems, as multiple studies have shown. More concerning is that this test was conducted under ideal conditionsbroad daylight, with no rain or fogyet the Tesla still failed to recognize the obstacle, exposing a fundamental flaw in its technology. This technology has not changed since 2022, when sensor company Luminar conducted a similar test with a child-sized dummy, and Tesla failed in poor visibility conditions. Another Musk mistake This isnt the first time Teslas disastrous design choices have called its products viability into question. Elon Musks obsession with only using cameras goes against the strategy of his competitors. As a result, Teslas Autopilot has remained stuck at Level 2 autonomyrequiring constant driver supervisionfor a decade, while Waymo and Mercedes have reached Level 4, and Chinese manufacturer BYD has reached Level 3, meaning their cars can drive autonomously without human intervention. Waymo, Alphabets autonomous vehicle subsidiary, has demonstrated that its self-driving system allows vehicles to travel 17,311 miles between human interventions. In contrast, Teslas misleadingly named Full Self-Driving (FSD) software requires corrections every 71 miles. Waymos cars are not perfect, but they are light-years ahead of Teslas. In 2024, Tesla purchased Lidar sensors from Luminar, leading some to speculate that Musk was reconsidering his stance. But the reality was different. The sensors were only used for reference data collection, not for integration into Teslas vehicles. In fact, Musk recently claimed that Tesla no longer needs Lidar for testing. This confirms that he remains committed to his camera-only approach, despite overwhelming evidence of its limitations. Rather than admitting his mistake, Musk is doubling down. He has been promising full self-driving since 2014, repeatedly claiming the technology would be ready next year. Just months ago, he pitched the idea that Tesla would launch autonomous Cybercab taxis by 2026while Waymo already operates robotaxis in multiple U.S. cities, and brands like Mercedes and BYDhave secured certification for driverless operation on roads in Germany and China. After watching Robers test, the notion that Tesla can catch up to its competitors without using Lidar seems as viable as Wile E. Coyotes plans to catch the Road Runner.
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Germanys would-be next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, won lawmakers approval Tuesday for ambitious plans to loosen the nations strict debt rules for higher defense spending as doubts mount about the strength of the trans-Atlantic alliance, and to set up an enormous fund for investment in its creaking infrastructure. Merz passed a major test as the outgoing parliament voted 513-207 in its final meeting to approve the plans. The decision helps smooth the way for a governing coalition of Merzs center-right Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after he won last months election. But he still faces plenty of work to seal a deal in ongoing talks. Easing off the brake The plans needed a two-thirds majority of at least 489 votes in parliaments lower house, the Bundestag, because they involve changes to Germanys strict self-imposed borrowing rules the so-called debt brake, which allows new borrowing worth only 0.35% of annual gross domestic product and is anchored in the constitution. That forced the prospective coalition partners into negotiations with the environmentalist Greens to get enough votes. The package will exempt from the debt rules spending on defense and security, including intelligence agencies and assistance to Ukraine, worth more than 1% of GDP. It also foresees a 500 billion-euro ($544 billion) fund, financed by borrowing, to pour funding into Germanys infrastructure over the next 12 years and help restore the stagnant economy Europes biggest to growth. At the Greens insistence, 100 billion euros from the investment fund will go into climate-related spending. Whatever it takes The plans amounted to an about-turn for Merz, whose party had spoken out against running up new debt before the election without entirely closing the door to future changes to the debt brake. The Social Democrats and Greens had argued for a reform of the borrowing rules arguing that Germany, whose debt load is relatively low, has room to borrow more. Recent weeks have brought new urgency to efforts to further strengthen Germanys long-neglected military. The outgoing government created a special 100 billion-euro fund to modernize it, which also helped Berlin meet the current NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defense. But that pot will be used up in 2027, and doubts have grown recently about the Trump administrations commitment to European allies. Merz said earlier this month that Germany and Europe must quickly strengthen their defense capability and that whatever it takes must also go for our defense now. On Tuesday, he pointed to the danger from Russian President Vladimir Putins war of aggression against Europe it is a war against Europe and not just a war against Ukraines territorial integrity. He pointed to suspected Russian sabotage and disinformation in Europe. Merz said the prospective German governments move should be the first step toward a new European defense community, which could include countries outside the European Union such as Britain and Norway. The Social Democrats co-leader, Lars Klingbeil, said that Europe stands today next to an aggressive Russia on one side and an unpredictable United States of America on the other side. He said he favors doing everything to maintain indispensable trans-Atlantic cooperation, but we must now do our homework in Europe we must become stronger, we must take care of our own security. Merz acknowledged that many are struggling to digest the wider spending plans but argued that they open prospects for our country that, in the times we are living in, are urgently needed. One more hurdle The package was brought to the old parliament not the newly elected one, which will hold its first session March 25, in which parties that were unlikely to agree have just over one-third of the seats. The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany portrays itself as a staunch defender of the debt brake, while the Left Party opposes it but is skeptical about military spending. A politicians greatest asset is credibility and with this embarrassing action, dear Mr. Merz, you have already squandered yours completely, Alternative for Germany co-leader Tino Chrupalla said. Voters feel cheated by you, and rightly. Ahead of Tuesdays vote, Germanys highest court rejected several bids to block the meeting of the outgoing parliament. The package faces another hurdle Friday in parliaments upper house, which represents Germanys 16 state governments. They are also set to be given more freedom to borrow money. A two-thirds majority will also be needed in the upper house. That initially was uncertain because the parties behind the plans control only 41 of the 69 upper-house votes. But on Monday, the conservative-led governing coalition in Bavaria, which has six votes, also agreed to support the package. Geir Moulson, Associated Press
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