Tootfinder

Nvidia announces the Alpamayo family of AI models, tools, and datasets for AVs, and details a collaboration with Mercedes-Benz on its first full-stack AV effort (Larry Dignan/Constellation Research)
https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news/i

A look at how Mercedes Benz, Nvidia collaborated on autonomous vehicles
Nvidia outlined its Alpamayo open AI models and datasets to bring reasoning to autonomous vehicles. At CES 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Mercedes Benz with Alpamayo will hit the road in the first quarter. Huang said Alpamayo and its collaboration with Mercedes Benz is its first full-stack effort for autonomous vehicles (AVs). The approach with Alpamayo revolves around reasoning-based vision language action (VLA) models that bring human thinking to autonomous vehicle designs. "Our vision is…

Trump administration to brief members of Congress on Venezuela actions Monday
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5672366-trump-administration-venezuela-operation/

Journalism Funding Partners announces that Google chose the group as a third-party administrator for California's public-private partnership to fund newsrooms (Journalism Funding Partners)
https://www.jfp-local.org/vie…

Journalism Funding Partners Selected by Google as Third-Party Administrator for California Civic Media Program — Journalism Funding Partners
Journalism Funding Partners Selected by Google as Third-Party Administrator for California Civic Media Fund

#CommonplaceNotes: mental models, autonomy, a poem.
https://lbj20.blogspot.com/2026/01/commonplace-book-mental-models-autonomy.html HT

Commonplace book: mental models, autonomy, a poem
Doug Belshaw has a thoughtful post about the financial/work advice often being given to young folks today: The financial guidance given to ...

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan have created
the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots:
-- microscopic swimming machines that can independently sense and respond to their surroundings,
operate for months
and cost just a penny each.
Barely visible to the naked eye,
each robot measures about 200 by 300 by 50 micrometers,
smaller than a grain of salt.
Operating at the scale of many biologi…

Penn and Michigan Create World’s Smallest Programmable, Autonomous Robots
Smaller than a grain of salt, the robots can navigate their environment, measure temperatures and respond autonomously using tiny onboard computers.

Trump administration takes big step toward making it easier to fire 50,000 federal workers (NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-administration-moves-make-easier-fire-50000-federal-workers-rcna257683
http://www.memeorandum.com/260206/p57#a260206p57

Trump administration is failing to address spread of measles, experts say | Trump administration | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/05/trump-administration-measles

A look at Nvidia's Level 2 driving system, set to roll out to more carmakers in 2026, after a ~40-minute drive around San Francisco in a Mercedes-Benz CLA sedan (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/852880/nvidia-autonomous-driving-demo…

I tested Nvidia’s Tesla Full Self-Driving competitor — Tesla should be worried
Nvidia’s new point-to-point automated driving system is coming in 2026. The company hopes to challenge Tesla and Waymo in the race for self-driving vehicles.

The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly demanding tech companies
turn over user information about critics of the Trump administration, according to reports.
In several cases over recent months, Homeland Security has relied on the use of administrative subpoenas
to seek identifiable information about individuals who run anonymous Instagram accounts,
which share posts about ICE immigration raids in their local neighborhoods.
These subpoenas have also…

Homeland Security is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics | TechCrunch
The use of administrative subpoenas, which are not subject to judicial oversight, are used to demand a wealth of information from tech companies, including the owners of anonymous online accounts documenting ICE operations.

While Trump’s attacks on offshore wind have been highly visible,
his administration has also been hobbling solar and wind energy projects on land
by halting or delaying federal approvals that were once routine.
More than 60 large wind and solar farms under development on federal lands, such as are being stymied.
But the administration is also holding up hundreds of wind and solar projects on private land that require federal consultations.
Many projects are f…

Trump Administration Is Delaying Hundreds of Wind and Solar Projects
Federal agencies are delaying approvals for renewable energy projects on both federal land and private property at a time when electricity demand is going up.