Robots to take over long-haul freights, Apple saves billions by omitting earphones and chargers from iPhones, and Google to roll out a new feature that lets users delete their most recent search history.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Monday, March 21, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Will robots be taking over the trucking industry? According to a new study, robot truckers could potentially replace 500 thousand jobs in the U.S. Bloomberg reported that the robots will be used to tackle the most dangerous and tedious jobs first, starting with long-haul freights. Long-haul trips are easier for autonomous driving systems as the roadways are relatively simple. The conversation is entirely different in city streets, where traffic is much more complex and dangerous. Engineers are contemplating setting up transfer stations in cities that hand off the truck from a human driver to a robot before it hits the interstate highway. The study published in Nature’s Humanities and Social Sciences Communications said that such a system would replace 90 per cent of long-haul truck drivers in the U.S.
A new report estimates that Apple has saved around $6.5 billion by not including chargers and earphones with iPhones. The experts at CCS Insights derived the figure by adding up the additional adapter sales, savings on shipping, and reduced production costs. Apple announced the change two years ago as a part of its initiative to cut carbon emissions and electronic waste. The drive was that many iPhone buyers already owned chargers from their previous purchases. Reusing an older adapter will help reduce their carbon footprint.
Google will finally allow Android users to delete that weird thing they just looked up on their phone. The new feature, coming to Android in the coming weeks, will let users delete their search history in the past 15 minutes. First announced in May 2021, the feature has actually been around for Apple’s iOS devices for almost a year now. But even without it, users were still able to delete their usage history through Google’s My Activity page. This appears to be a quicker and easier way to delete a recent search session. Unfortunately, TechSpot reported that this feature will only work in the Google Search app and not with its other services, like YouTube.
Brewery Heineken has set up a virtual beer launch to poke fun at the hyper around the metaverse. The launch event, which invited real journalists, unveiled a beer that was brewed with binary-coded hops grown by digital farmers. Attendees were given virtual taste cards and presented with a bunch of interactable objects. The company described the event as an ironic launch, and that despite the metaverse’s potential, it isn’t a good place to taste beer.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.