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Spoilers for Lower Decks, Fissure Quest. It turns out you can have your cake and eat it. The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is an exercise in box ticking for the shows creative team. It does the grunt work of laying the table and raising the stakes for next weeks series finale. But its also the shows last for now chance to wring a gag or two out of all those deep-cut, Extremely Online Trek in-jokes. Its fortunate that while the episode is a little on the thin side, the stuff thats thrown at the wall is charming enough for it not to matter. For the second week in a row, were pulling focus from the lead quintet to catch up on William Boimler. (That, if your memory isnt too sharp, is Bomilers transporter clone, last seen faking his death to join Section 31.) Hes now captain of the USS Anaximander on a secret mission to close up the interdimensional fissures the show has been encountering all season. Boimler, the shows avatar of a Star Trek fan, has been picking up stray figures from the canon during dimension hops. His crew includes TPol, Garak and an EMH version of Dr. Bashir, all played by their original actors.. And yes, Garak and Dr. Bashir are a married couple in this universe, because of course the show has to embrace that piece of fan lore that launched a thousand pieces of slash fiction. The ship picks up an escape pod with Lt. Harry Kim inside, who learns most of the rest of the crew is Harries Kim as well. Hes the only one whos ever been promoted above the rank of ensign, nodding to the rumor that longtime series head Rick Berman said someone had to be the lowest-ranked member of the crew. And / or as punishment for clashing with the production team, as outlined in an interview Wang gave in 2011. They soon encounter an alternate universe Mariner who, unlike our version, is a timid engineer. She, however, has worked out a way to track the vessel thats punching holes in the fabric of the universe. So the Anaximander lays a trap, only to reveal that its an old Enterprise-class ship called the Beagle. Its an exploration vessel with a human and Vulcan crew, led by Lily Sloane. Paramount+ Sloane isnt trying to tear the universe to shreds, their universe just discovered to discover interdimensional travel ahead of warp. Theyve been leaping between universes exploring strange similar worlds, the same life and civilizations boldly examining the differences. Its a mission statement that outrages Boimler, whos gorged himself on fanservice and is now looking for something, anything new to cleanse his palate. Naturally, this is Lower Decks winking toward its own major flaw, given its reverence for 90s era Trek. Ive always found it quite successful in bobbing and weaving around simply milking the audiences memberberries. But that doesnt mean it isnt at least complicit in the concept of serving up the same old crap, again and again. Sloane disagrees, saying her crew looks to explore the ways in which people grow and evolve in different environments. She says shes met several different Boimlers, all of whom have their own Mariner, as their connection endures across the universes. And that exploration isnt just about exploring whats beyond us but finding whats true inside us. Thats a journey that can be just as perilous, and rewarding, as traveling to the furthest edges of the universe. Kim, outraged at his namesakes stalled careers, steals the Beagle with plans to return to his own dimension. The Anaximander pursues, and while the other Kims mutiny and beam back, the Beagle successfully makes a jump but explodes in the process. That sends a huge wave of energy that will wipe out every universe in existence unless its dumped in a single place. Thankfully, Boimler knows where to send it to his transporter twin and the crew of the Cerritos. See you next week for the finale.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-lower-decks-sets-up-its-finale-elbowing-its-own-ribs-140054114.html?src=rss
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Toyota just introduced a new compact electric SUV and dug into the past for inspiration. The new Urban Cruiser EV borrows its name for a car that first came along in the early 2000s and is based on the company's Urban SUV Concept unveiled last year. It looks like it's designed to compete with Volvo's EX30 and much like that vehicle, will come with a number of battery and drive options. To give you an idea of size, the Urban Cruiser will be slightly larger than Toyota's hybrid compact SUV, the Yaris Cross. It'll be built on a new battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform that frees up extra space for the battery and occupants. It'll come with two battery pack options, 49kWh and 61kWh, a bit smaller than the EX30's offerings (51kWh and 69kWh). The smaller pack supports up to 144 HP and 140 pound feet, while the larger pack option ups that to 174 HP and the same torque. If you upgrade to the dual-motor system, you'll see 184 HP and 221 pound feet of torque. Those power levels are far less than the EX30, which offers 268 HP as standard and a wild 422 HP on the twin-motor performance version. Toyota The Urban Cruiser will offer active safety features like adaptive cruise, active collision avoidance and lane-departure warning, along with a 360 degree camera. Inside, you'll get a 10.1-inch infotainment display along with a 10.25-inch driver's display, all in one unit. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be standard. Toyota Price and range have yet to be revealed, but Toyota will be in tough against the much more powerful Volvo EX30 if the sticker isn't substantially lower. The Urban Cruiser is also arguably less attractive as well. It's set to arrive in the UK and elsewhere in Europe in the third quarter next year. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/toyota-takes-on-volvos-ex30-with-the-urban-cruiser-compact-electric-suv-143041000.html?src=rss
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The American Civil Liberties Association (ACLU) is sounding a warning about the use of AI in creating police reports, saying the tech could produce errors that affect evidence and court cases. The nonprofit highlighted the dangers of the tech in a white paper, following news that police departments in California are using a program called Draft One from Axon to transcribe body camera recording and create a first draft of police reports. One police department in Fresno said that it's using Draft One under a pilot program, but only for misdemeanor reports. "It's nothing more than a template," deputy chief Rob Beckwith told Industry Insider. "Its not designed to have an officer push a button and generate a report." He said that the department has seen any errors with transcriptions and that it consulted with the Fresno County DA's office in training the force, However, the ACLU noted four issues with the use of AI. First off, it said that AI is "quirky and unreliable and prone to making up fact... [and] is also biased." Secondly, it said that an officer's memories of an incident should be memorialized "before they are contaminated by an AI's body camera based storytelling." It added that if a police report is just an AI rehash of body camera video, certain facts might be omitted and it may even allow officers to lie if they did something illegal that wasn't captured on camera. The third point was around transparency, as the public needs to understand exactly how it works based on analysis by independent experts, according to the ACLU. Defendants in criminal cases also need to be able to interrogate the evidence, "yet much of the operation of these systems remains mysterious." Finally, the group noted that the use of AI transcriptions might remove accountability around the use of discretionary power. "For these reasons, the ACLU does not believe police departments should allow officers to use AI to generate draft police reports," it said. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/aclu-highlights-the-rise-of-ai-generated-police-reports--what-could-go-wrong-133030452.html?src=rss
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