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China car giant BYD says it can thrive without US

BBC News

The recent surge in fuel prices due to the war in Iran has spurred demand for electric vehicles around the world, and Chinese car makers are making the most of the opportunity. China is the world's top producer of EVs, and while its manufacturers remain largely shut out of the major car market of the United States, they are benefiting from an uptick in interest and orders via dealerships across Asia and elsewhere. BYD, which overtook Tesla as the world's largest seller of electric vehicles last year and is expanding aggressively overseas, is at the centre of this shift in focus. We survive and are successful without the US market today, BYD executive vice president Stella Li told the BBC at the Beijing Auto Show. Instead of aiming for US customers, the company says its challenge is meeting increased demand in other regions, including Brazil, the UK and Europe.



'Chemical-spraying' drones reportedly stolen from New Jersey facility sparks fears of 'nightmare scenario'

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Rob Reiner's son Jake shares horrific new details from night of his parents' murders and says it is'almost impossible to process' that his brother Nick has been charged with the killings Bloodbath on the streets as millions of dogs are'massacred' by firing squad ahead of the World Cup Tucker Carlson's secret heiress sister reveals bitter feud over family fortune: He says'I don't know her'... but trove of photos tells a very different story Lesbian sex secrets of Kristi Noem's ICE leader: Ex lover claims jealous rages over men, screaming through hotel walls... and vile tight bodysuit demand Hidden cameras at NYC's live animal markets expose filthy conditions, disease risks, and brutal treatment of chickens, ducks, rabbits and sheep MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Dark indisputable Michael Jackson truths Hollywood STILL covers up. His own daughter reportedly now thinks he was a pedophile, so why's this so hard to say? Scandal after high-ranking female prison officer gave birth to twins... as shocking rumor spreads about identity of their father My senior government source has told me why these scientists may REALLY be going missing. This is so serious even the President is being kept on a'need-to-know basis': KENNEDY Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow announces tragic news of dad's death after battle with Parkinson's in heartbreaking post Reclusive Athina Onassis, heiress to $2.7billion fortune who stepped away from public life after humiliating heartbreak, breaks cover at Barcelona Bridal Week in rare public appearance Sam's Club just launched a perk that targets Costco's biggest flaw Disappointed customers reveal the most'overrated' chain restaurants... do YOU have good taste? Woke author who boasted about shoplifting from Whole Foods flies into foul-mouthed RAGE when confronted outside her $2.2m Brooklyn brownstone Sherrone Moore's ex-mistress reveals pregnancy as she details night fired Michigan coach came to her apartment Troubling past of'father of the year' who murdered son, 11, in airport bathroom... as grieving grandpa reveals warning sign that something awful was about to happen US threatens to'review' UK claim to Falklands Islands and ban Spain from NATO as punishment for failure to back Iran War'Chemical-spraying' drones reportedly stolen from New Jersey facility sparks fears of'nightmare scenario' An alarm has erupted after 15 powerful agricultural spray drones were stolen in a suspected coordinated heist in New Jersey last month. A report from The High Side claimed the FBI is investigating the theft amid fears the machines could be used to disperse dangerous materials.


'Look, no hands': China chases the driverless dream at Beijing car show

The Guardian

A t the world's biggest car fair, which opened in Beijing on Friday, there were hundreds of manufacturers, more than 1,000 vehicles, hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts - and hardly anyone behind a wheel. China's car companies have cornered the domestic electric vehicle market, and are increasingly visible on the global stage . Now they are turning their attention to what they are betting is the future of mobility: autonomous driving. At the Beijing Auto Fair, a huge industry event that covers 380,000 square metres on the outskirts of the capital, the country's carmakers showed off a range of intelligent driving technologies. In China's cut-throat domestic market, nearly every big carmaker is investing heavily in the software and computing power needed to make "hands-free" driving a reality as they compete to offer additional perks and find new ways to generate revenue.



On the Global Convergence Rates of Decentralized Softmax Gradient Play in Markov Potential Games

Neural Information Processing Systems

Softmax policy gradient is a popular algorithm for policy optimization in singleagent reinforcement learning, particularly since projection is not needed for each gradient update. However, in multi-agent systems, the lack of central coordination introduces significant additional difficulties in the convergence analysis. Even for a stochastic game with identical interest, there can be multiple Nash Equilibria (NEs), which disables proof techniques that rely on the existence of a unique global optimum. Moreover, the softmax parameterization introduces non-NE policies with zero gradient, making it difficult for gradient-based algorithms in seeking NEs. In this paper, we study the finite time convergence of decentralized softmax gradient play in a special form of game, Markov Potential Games (MPGs), which includes the identical interest game as a special case. We investigate both gradient play and natural gradient play, with and without log-barrier regularization. The established convergence rates for the unregularized cases contain a trajectory dependent constant that can be arbitrarily large, whereas the log-barrier regularization overcomes this drawback, with the cost of slightly worse dependence on other factors such as the action set size. An empirical study on an identical interest matrix game confirms the theoretical findings.