Earlier this week, a Tesla car crashed into a tourist bus on a motorway in northern Germany with the driver claiming he had activated the car's autopilot system. But the firm says that autopilot was not to blame for the crash. Instead, it says that the collision was unavoidable because the bus swerved into the vehicle's lane. Earlier this week, a Tesla car crashed into a tourist bus on a motorway in northern Germany with the driver claiming he had activated the car's autopilot system (stock image) The US Department of Transportation may propose requiring all new cars to have vehicle-to-vehicle communication, known as V2V, as early as this autumn. The federal government estimates that V2V connectivity could ultimately prevent or reduce the severity of about 80 percent of collisions that don't involve a driver impaired by drugs or alcohol.

In the early 1990s, Iris Murdoch was writing a new novel, as she'd done 25 times before in her life. But this time something was terribly off. Her protagonist, Jackson, an English manservant who has a mysterious effect on a circle of friends, once meticulously realized in her head, had become a stranger to her. As Murdoch later told Joanna Coles, a Guardian journalist who visited her in her house in North Oxford in 1996, a year after the publication of the book, Jackson's Dilemma, she was suffering from a bad writer's block. It began with Jackson and now the shadows had suffused her life. "At the moment I'm just falling, falling … just falling as it were," Murdoch told Coles.

At the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Rome, in September of 1973, the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erd?s approached his friend Richard Guy with a request. He said, "Guy, veel you have a coffee?" It cost a dollar, a small fortune to a professor of mathematics at the hinterland University of Calgary who was not much of a coffee drinker. Yet, as Guy later recalled--during a memorial talk following Erd?s's death at age 83 two decades ago--he was curious why the great man had sought him out. Guy and Erd?s were in the Eternal City for an international colloquium on combinatorial theory, so Erd?s--who sustained himself with espresso and other stimulants, worked on math problems 19 hours a day, and in his lifetime published in excess of 1,500 papers with more than 500 collaborators--most likely had another problem on the go.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Hoping to turn golden oldies into silver, Nintendo Co. is to relaunch its hit Famicom gaming console, 33 years after the device first gripped the nation. The new version has a similar appearance but is significantly smaller than the original. Named Nintendo Classic Mini Family Computer, it will come loaded with 30 retro games, including "Super Mario Bros.," "The Legend of Zelda" and "Donkey Kong." Launched in 1983, the original sold more than 60 million units worldwide. It was known overseas as the Nintendo Entertainment System and is considered the ancestor of modern-day products such as the PlayStation and Xbox.

It is Friday, Sept. 30. A Mountain View company is teaching robots to make and deliver pizzas. Here's what is happening in the Golden State: The superintendent of Yosemite National Park is stepping down amid an ongoing investigation into allegations of a hostile work environment. Don Neubacher's resignation is effective as of Nov. 1. Kelly Martin, now chief of Fire and Aviation Management at Yosemite, cataloged multiple incidents of alleged gender bias, including sexual harassment, that she encountered in her 32 years of federal service.

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – The European Commission wants to reduce national restrictions on where some types of commercial and health data can be stored, Vice-President Andrus Ansip said on Thursday. BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. software company Salesforce called on EU regulators on Thursday to investigate antitrust issues related to Microsoft's 26 billion bid for social network LinkedIn. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A bill signed into law on Thursday by California Governor Jerry Brown allows a self-driving vehicle with no operator inside to test on a public road, a key step enabling a private business park outside San Francisco to test driverless shuttles. NEW YORK (Reuters) – Unocoin, a Bangalore-based bitcoin startup, has raised 1.5 million in funding from a mix of Indian and U.S. investors, the company announced on Thursday. Silicon Valley is diving into artificial intelligence (AI)and machine learning research, an industry estimated to zoom to 70 billion by 2020 from just 8.2 billion in 2013, according to a Bank of America report that cited IDC research.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

A few weeks ago we suggested you follow 5 topics that cover the more basic aspects of the business of blogging. Today let's focus on something equally important: the life of a blogger. This week I attended MMA SM2 Innovation Summit in New York, which took place during Advertising Week. The lineup of speakers did not disappoint and I gained many new insights. Here are the four that most stuck with me.

Tech companies are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, and touting the financial benefits of AI-powered technologies like robots, virtual assistants and augmented reality, Now, a new study reports that artificial intelligence could dramatically boost economic growth and productivity. The Accenture report looked at 12 countries and found that AI -- or technology that senses the environment, comprehends what's happening and takes action -- could increase productivity by up to 40 percent in 2035. The report also forecasts economic growth in the U.S. could increase from 2.6 percent to 4.6 percent over the same period with the adoption of AI technologies. Among the countries that stand to make the largest gains in productivity from AI in 2035 are Sweden, Finland, the U.S. and Japan. "The impact this has is that it automates a lot of the low-level tasks and gets them done with higher satisfaction," says Accenture's chief technology officer, Paul Daugherty.