WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google unit GOOGL.O, Ford Motor Co F.N, the ride-sharing service Uber [UBER.UL] and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market. Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co GEELY.UL, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." The coalition said David Strickland, the former top official of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the top U.S. auto safety agency that is writing new guidance on self-driving cars, will be the coalition's counsel and spokesman. "The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards and the coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles," Strickland said in the statement.

In his newly published scan of the literature, expert Thomas B. Sheridan concludes that the time is ripe for human factors researchers to contribute scientific insights that can tackle the many challenges of human-robot interaction. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Sheridan, who for decades has studied humans and automation, looked at self-driving cars and highly automated transit systems; routine tasks such as the delivery of packages in Amazon warehouses; devices that handle tasks in hazardous or inaccessible environments, such as the Fukushima nuclear plant; and robots that engage in social interaction (Barbies). In each case, he noted significant human factors challenges, particularly concerning safety. No human driver, he claims, will stay alert to take over control of a Google car quickly enough should the automation fail. Nor does self-driving car technology consider the value of social interaction between drivers such as eye contact and hand signals.

Global law firm Baker & McKenzie has paired with Euromoney Thought Leadership to reveal what is driving the global financial services industry towards a rapid embrace of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and the implications both for the industry and financial markets as a whole. Ghosts in the machine: Artificial intelligence, risks and regulation in financial markets shows an industry rapidly seeing the potential benefits of AI, while being increasingly concerned about risk and the ability of regulators to keep pace. The survey asked 424 senior executives from financial institutions and fintech companies around the world as well as leading experts in the field for their view on how AI will affect the financial sector, what risks and benefits AI will bring to the sector, what the associated regulatory and legal challenges will be and many more questions. Surprisingly similar views emerged from across the globe, with only a few notable variations, such as AI investment seen as lagging slightly in Asia Pacific compared to other regions and Latin American participants seeing AI as a regulatory tool to combat money laundering first rather than market misconduct, the top choice elsewhere. The results provide some insights into the likely future of the financial sector.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Plaza here is a strip mall with a pet-accessories store, a Thai restaurant and a yogurt shop, an unlikely venue to display the high-tech future. But one Saturday morning in March, Google did just that. A small convoy of its driverless cars cruised into the fading asphalt parking lot to give test drives – test rides, actually – to American mayors visiting Austin's annual South by Southwest tech-and-culture festival. Mayor Richard J. Berry of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was impressed with how the cars dodged pedestrians and fallen tree limbs. Sam Liccardo, mayor of San Jose, California, right in Google's backyard, was impressed that he got to see the cars at all. "These things are crawling all over my city" in tests, "but I had to come to Austin to ride in one," said Liccardo. "This is going to change cities."

The University of Florida held a fully technology-based sport: The world's first brain-controlled drone race. Using their brainwaves, 16 pilots flew drones through an indoor course ten yards long. Both drone-racing and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are not new, but this is the first combination of the two, and it's an efficient method of introducing BCIs to the mainstream eye. BCI is a system that translates brain signals into commands comprehensible to output devices. Most often, this technology is used to allow individuals who are paralyzed to have control of prosthetic limbs.

If you live in a connected home, you've likely spent a great deal of time customizing it for your needs and preferences. That's because the smart home is actually rather dumb, until you've invested some time teaching it: While some smart-home components--such as the Nest thermostat--are capable of learning on their own, there are no connected-home hubs that do. The Klug Home promises to change that. The Klug Home, from Singapore-based Intraix, is a 79 smart hub that plugs into one of your router's USB ports. It's available for preorder on Indiegogo, with delivery expected in October 2016.

In a bid to push forward with plans for self-driving cars, Alphabet's Google has teamed up with Ford and Uber to form a coalition to push for federal action. Sweden-based Volvo, which is owned by China's ZhejiangGeely Holding Group, and Uber rival Lyft also arepart of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will'work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realise the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles.' In a bid to push forward with plans for self-driving cars, Alphabet's Google has teamed up with Ford and Uber to form a coalition to push for federal action. Sweden-based Volvo, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets The coalition said David Strickland will be the coalition's counseland spokesman.

Amy Ingram, the artificial intelligence personal assistant from startup X.ai, sounds remarkably like a real person. The company designed her to take on the mundane tasks of scheduling meetings and e-mailing about appointments. If a bot had access to your calendar and was cc-ed on correspondence, why couldn't it do the work for you? After she made her debut in 2014, users praised her "humanlike tone" and "eloquent manners." But what most people don't realize about this artificial intelligence is that it isn't totally artificial: Behind almost every e-mail is an actual human--someone like 24-year-old Willie Calvin. Calvin, who worked as an AI trainer for X.ai before he said he quit in October, was part of the reason Amy never tripped up, sending the sort of blind response that reveals she's a bot.

Startup Zero Zero Robotics just took the wraps off its eye in the sky, the Hover Camera. The company hasn't set a price but expects the lightweight drone (it weighs in at 240 grams) to cost under US 600. The flying camera is a relatively new type of gadget. It all started about a year ago, when startup Lily Camera came out of stealth with its 500 to 1000 camera drone and argued that it wasn't so much a drone as a simple-to-use flying camera. This March, drone-maker DJI introduced the Phantom 4, with autonomous flying and tracking features that essentially make it that company's first flying camera at 1400.

Soon, software will know how you feel--and will use that data to sell you things. The gig economy will go global (but it's not Uber-take-all). The tech industry will finally be inclusive. AI will achieve something like common sense, and it will be open source too. But that future won't build itself. Actual people (at least for now) have to make these things happen, and they aren't the C-suite hotshots you always hear about. The 25 people in these pages are the unsung creative, technical, and social visionaries working to bring the incredible world of tomorrow to you today. Get to know them now. Welcome to our second annual Next List. Surveillance is about to get much harder for overly snoopy governments. In November 2014 the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp made a big change to its Android app: It encrypted messages so that even Facebook can't descramble them, no matter how many court orders the company receives. But the crypto software wasn't written by a Facebook employee.