On 7 May, a Tesla Model S was involved in a fatal accident in Florida. At the time of the accident, the vehicle was driving itself, using its Autopilot system. The system didn't stop for a tractor-trailer attempting to turn across a divided highway, and the Tesla collided with the trailer. In a statement, Tesla Motors said this is the "first known fatality in just over 130 million miles [210 million km] where Autopilot was activated" and suggested that this ratio makes the Autopilot safer than an average vehicle. Early this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told reporters that the Autopilot system in the Model S was "probably better than a person right now."

Robots that slice, grill, assemble and bag 400 burgers in one hour are set to invade California. Momentum Machines unveiled its autonomous grill master in 2012 and recently announced it will be opening a robot-powered burger bar in San Francisco's South of Market. Although this machine can do the work of three humans, the startup is still hiring people to perform other tasks such as payroll and taking out the garbage. According to Momentum Machines job posting on Craigslists, the startup plans to open its restaurant at 680 Folsom street in San Francisco California. According to Momentum Machines job posting on Craigslists, the startup plans to open its restaurant at 680 Folsom street in San Francisco California.

Louis Columbus recently wrote in Forbes, "Machine learning's core technologies align well with the complex problems manufacturers face daily. From striving to keep supply chains operating efficiently to producing customized, built- to-order products on time, machine learning algorithms have the potential to bring greater predictive accuracy to every phase of production. Many of the algorithms being developed are iterative, designed to learn continually and seek optimized outcomes. These algorithms iterate in milliseconds, enabling manufacturers to seek optimized outcomes in minutes versus months. The ten ways machine learning is revolutionizing manufacturing include the following."

The advent of the Industrial Internet has raised the bar for security analysts and data scientists, a workforce whose number is quickly being dwarfed by the amount of connected machines. Now, machine learning and artificial intelligence professionals are teaming with traditional embedded vendors to help suppress the rising tide of cyber threats and Big Data. On their website, cyber security firm Norse Corporation generates a detailed, real-time map of cyber attacks occurring around the world, including the attack origin, attack type, and attack target (Figure 1). Hundreds of attacks are registered in any given minute, which, while disconcerting, pales in comparison with the number of systems being connected to the Industrial Internet. This brief exercise demonstrates a couple of things: 1) the quantity and speed of cyber threats that can be used to attack vulnerable, safety-critical industrial systems; and 2) the growing need for data scientists and security analysts1, as well as tools and technologies to support them as the Internet of Things (IoT) expands.

Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) artificial intelligence Alexa can now place orders on Amazon, making it even easier for shoppers to use the service with more frequency. Alexa is the digital voice assistant inside the company's Echo Bluetooth speakers. It previously could only re-order items that had already been purchased, but now it can order anything that is available to Amazon Prime members, with some exceptions. Users simply ask Alexa for a product available with Prime, she makes a suggestion, reports the price and a simple "yes" buys it. There are millions of items now available for ordering through Alexa and quite a few that are not, including Amazon Fresh, Amazon Prime Pantry and Amazon Prime Now items.

A fatal accident that occurred while Tesla's Autopilot technology was engaged may have a significant bearing on the future of automated driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday that it is investigating the accident, which occurred near Williston, Florida, last month when a Model S crashed into a trailer making a left turn in front of it. NHTSA's investigation does not mean the agency believes the technology contributed to the accident or is defective. But the incident will inevitably raise questions about the performance of the technology and the way drivers treat it. The auto industry will certainly watch closely to see how it may shape regulations and influence the public perception of automated-driving technology.

The Obama administration announced on Friday that the United States has killed a much lower number of civilians in drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia than have been previously estimated by outside researchers. A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that airstrikes (overwhelmingly by drones) killed between 64 and 116 civilians in those four countries from 2009 to 2015. The numbers excluded "areas of active hostilities" such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. The report is the first time the Obama administration has provided official estimates of the death toll in the secretive drone war. President Barack Obama also issued an executive order on Friday that requires the government to deliver an unclassified report on drone strikes each year that includes the number of combatants and non-combatants killed.

The White House has said that up to 116 civilians have been killed by drone and other US strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya since Barack Obama took office in 2009, a figure that has been slammed by watchdog groups as an undercount, which suggests that the real figure could be as high as 1,100. Published by the Director of National Intelligence on Friday, the report said that between January 20, 2009, and December 31, 2015, the US carried out 473 strikes, which killed up to 2,581 "combatants" and anywhere from 64 to 116 civilians. The civilian casualties disclosed in the report were from nations not recognised as "battlefields," and did not reflect US air attacks in "areas of active hostilities" such as Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Watchdog and rights groups have long claimed that the US administration does not know how many civilians it has killed and does not do enough to prevent civilian casualties when carrying out counterterrorism operations. Reprieve, an international human rights organisation, said the US government's previous statements about the drone programme have proven to be false by its own internal documents. It said the Obama administration has "shifted the goalposts on what counts as a'civilian' to such an extent that any estimate may be far removed from reality".

Tesla Motors Inc. and Chief Executive Elon Musk have encountered a rough road in June, capped by a regulators' disclosure late Thursday that the electric car maker's autopilot feature is linked to a death in Florida. The fatality has prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open a preliminary investigation into the autonomous-driving feature. The development follows a series of issues in June that dented the company's winning streak with investors and much of the public. Earlier in June, NHTSA disclosed that it was looking into a separate suspension issue with the Model S electric sedan and chastised Tesla for having buyers sign nondisclosure agreements that could discourage them from reporting possible safety problems in exchange for covering some costs of repair. The Silicon Valley company revised the agreements but not before a swarm of publicity.

The White House said Friday that as many as 116 civilians have been killed by drone and other U.S. strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Africa since President Barack Obama took office in 2009. In its first public assessment, the administration said the death toll was between 64 and 116 civilians between January 2009 and December 2015, which is significantly lower than civilian casualty estimates by various human rights groups. The number of combatants killed in those 473 strikes was between 2,372 and 2,581. Seeking to create a precedent for his successor, Obama signed an executive order that details U.S. policies to limit civilian casualties and makes protecting civilians a central element in U.S. military operations planning. The order requires an annual release of casualty estimates.