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Added on the 20/05/2019 21:02:13 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Jack Ma's Chinese online marketplace Alibaba surged as much as 7% in Wednesday trades. According to Business Insider, the bump came on the news that Americans wouldn't be banned from investing in the e-commerce behemoth. Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent were among a number of Chinese-based companies being eyed by the US Defense Department. The DOD has a list of firms that it believes support China's military, intelligence, and security services. Chinese telecom stocks like China Mobile had been added to the Defense Department list, and trading in the US-listed stock shuttered on Monday.
The top brass of a Chicago marketing technology company must have had quite a shock after its CEO was collared for rioting at the US Capitol. CNN reports Brad Rukstales breached the US Capitol during Wednesday's Trump-fueled insurrection in Washington, DC. He was arrested and charged with unlawful entry. Rukstales apologized for what he called a 'moment of extremely poor judgment.' 'It was the single worst personal decision of my life.' Brad Rukstales
Chinese tech company Ehang presented their FlyTaxi concept at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday which transforms a quadcopter into a giant drone taxi that shuttles single human passengers over dense urban environments. The system will be automated, so passengers will just input the destination and enjoy the ride, although it will be possible to drive it manually.
This super-strong robotic 'dog' will be soon available at your local electronics store. Chinese firm 'Unitree' said it was ready to start selling the robotic companion for $25,000. The robotic four-legged friend, called Laikago, can walk on a variety of terrain and drag heavy objects, moving via remote control and autonomously based on a slew of complex mathematical equations. Laikago, which looks very similar to a robot presented by American robotics company Boston Dynamics several years ago, does use a very limited form of AI.
Global social media giant Facebook has partnered with a Chinese selfie app called Meitu to bring Augmented Reality features to the Facebook camera. The partnership was formed under the banner of Facebook's AR Studio Beta to launch three exclusive camera effects, called Selfie from the Future, Meitu Family and Instant Glam. Since the first Meitu app was released in 2008, Meitu has registered over 1.1 billion unique downloads and records over 500 million active users. The Chinese tech company is valued at over 5.3 billion dollars.
Traffic can be a pain, and is certainly one of the most annoying things about driving in a big city. It can get so bad that people are late to work and productivity goes down. That's why China rolled out 'lane robots' in the city of Shenzhen in a bid to relieve traffic congestion. Remote controls are used to move the central lane barrier automatically, redirecting traffic flow and allowing more space on alternating sides of the highway as needed. Local media reported the 'lane bots' have increased traffic flow by 12.1 percent. The bots operate between 7:30 and 9:30 AM local time, the peak time for morning rush hour in the working week as people hurry on their way to work. The robots look like regular road barriers and appear to be very simple to manufacture and control. It's not exactly clear where the controllers are located, but they are keeping their eyes on the road to monitor changing conditions at all times. Who knew that such a simple technology could have such a big impact on coordinating the flow of traffic? It looks like robots will continue to play a bigger role in society and make our lives easier.