Consumer Reports on Thursday called for electric automaker Tesla to disable its semiautonomous autopilot mode in the wake of a May crash fatality in which autopilot failed to alert a driver of an oncoming vehicle. "While the exact cause of the fatal accident is not yet known, the incident has caused safety advocates, including Consumer Reports, to question whether the name Autopilot, as well as the marketing hype of its roll-out, promoted a dangerously premature assumption that the Model S was capable of truly driving on its own," the independent, nonprofit organization Consumer Reports wrote in a lengthy blog post. Specifically, Consumer Reports asked Tesla to disable autopilot's "autosteer" system, issue new guidance to drivers about the system's use, discontinue beta releases of semiautonomous technology and rename the autopilot feature. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the cause of the crash that killed Model S owner Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio. In a letter sent Friday to the car company, NHTSA asked for all documentation related to the crash.

A mall in Silicon Valley this week suspended its security robots after a collision involving one of them resulted in a toddler getting a bruised leg--a reversal from children harassing robots at the mall. The accident could reignite fears about evil robots that many robot makers have tried to overcome with cute designs. The robot company, Knightscope Inc., designed its 300-pound machine to protect against malicious humans. Children usually present the greatest risk to robots' ability to get their jobs done, previous incidents showed. Knightscope was the subject of a Wall Street Journal page one article last month.

Consumer Reports magazine is calling on Elon Musk's Tesla Motors Inc. to change the name of its Autopilot semiautonomous driving system and to disconnect the automatic steering feature after a fatal crash in Florida. The magazine said in a statement that calling the system "autopilot" promotes a dangerous assumption that Tesla vehicles can drive themselves. It also said the automatic steering should be disconnected until it's updated to make sure a driver's hands stay on the steering wheel at all times. In an email, a Tesla spokeswoman said that the electric car company has no plans to change the name, and that Autopilot is safer than cars operating without the electronic assistance of cameras, radar and computers. Tesla Motors Inc. has ended its resale guarantee program in North America.

Today's malicious hackers have an average of 312 days to exploit "zero-day" computer software flaws before human cybersecurity experts can find and fix those flaws. The U.S. military's main research agency focused on disruptive technologies aims to see whether artificial intelligence can do a better job of finding and fixing such exploits within a matter of seconds or minutes. This summer, seven finalist teams in the Cyber Grand Challenge the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will do battle with AI systems that can autonomously scan rivals' network servers for exploits and protect their own servers by actively finding and fixing software flaws. The immediate rewards comes in the form of a US 2 million prize for first place, 1 million for second place, and 750,000 for third place. But in the long run, DARPA hopes the challenge results will prove autonomous AI systems have become capable enough to help humans in the never ending struggle to protect computer software and networks.

This week, a relatively young cybersecurity company called Darktrace announced that it has raised an additional 65 million ( 50 million) at a suspected valuation of over 400 million ( 308 million). No other UK tech startup has announced a funding round anywhere near that size since the UK voted for Brexit. We caught up with Mike Lynch -- the billionaire founder of enterprise software firm Autonomy and Darktrace's first big name investor -- to find out why he decided to put his money into the company. "The reason I liked it was that it was a completely new approach," said Lynch during a phone call with Business Insider on Wednesday. "Most of what's out there in cybersecurity is based on knowing what you're looking. So things like anti-virus and that sort of stuff or trying to build a big wall around the outside of your company, a boundary. "The problem is that the world's moved on and the attacks no longer have signatures.

WASHINGTON – Congress passed an aviation bill Wednesday that attempts to close gaps in airport security and shorten screening lines, but leaves thornier issues unresolved. The bill also extends the Federal Aviation Administration's programs for 14 months at current funding levels. It was approved in the Senate by a vote of 89 to 4. The House had passed the measure earlier in the week and it now goes to President Barack Obama, who must sign the bill by Friday when the FAA's current operating authority expires to avoid a partial agency shutdown. Responding to attacks by violent extremists associated with the Islamic State group on airports in Brussels and Istanbul, the bill includes an array of provisions aimed at protecting "soft targets" outside security perimeters. Other provisions designed to address potential "insider threats" would toughen vetting of airport workers and other employees with access to secure areas, expand random employee inspections and require reviews of perimeter security.

FILE - In this Thursday, July 7, 2016 file photo, Dallas police respond after shots were fired during a protest over recent fatal shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, in Dallas. Police in Dallas were the first in the nation to use a robot to deliver and detonate a bomb to kill a suspect, but other law enforcement agencies are willing and able to follow suit, including some that even have trained for the day when they'd have to do so. The killing of Micah Johnson using a robot-delivered bomb ended a night of terror in which he shot 14 officers, killing five of them, and also wounded two civilians.

A mall security robot has effectively redefined the term artificial intelligence after it barreled into a toddler last week at a northern California shopping center, running him over and leaving him with various bumps and bruises. The robot, weighing in at 300 pounds and standing at 5 feet, is typically an attraction for patrons at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. But this time around it was more of an attractive nuisance, the 16-month-old boy's mother told KGO-TV, the local ABC affiliate. "The robot hit my son's head and he fell down facing down on the floor and the robot did not stop and it kept moving forward," said Tiffany Teng said. The runaway robot caused the young boy to experience a sore head, swelling in a foot and bruising on a leg.

U.S. officials covered up the Chinese government's attempt to hack computers used by the nation's banking regulator, Republican lawmakers claimed Wednesday. The report from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology alleges that the Chinese government was spying on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which stores confidential data on the nation's largest financial institutions, over a three-year period starting in 2010. "Even the former chairwoman's computer had been hacked by a foreign government, likely the Chinese," the report claims. The intruders were reportedly seeking "economic intelligence," Reuters reported. FDIC officials allegedly tried to cover up the hack to protect the regulator's incoming chairman.

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