My first ride in Google’s self-driving car was, all at the same time, thrilling, fascinating and a little disappointing.
The car was in Washington DC where Google (, Fortune 500) representatives met with groups like the AARP and the National Council for the Blind, groups which might have an interest in cars that that could act as chauffeurs for those who, for one reason or another, can’t drive themselves.
I got to ride along on a loop around several DC blocks with two Google engineers in the front seats. Google’s "self-driving cars" must always have someone seated at the controls, whether in Nevada — which recently licensed Google’s cars — or anywhere else.
The drive was thrilling and fascinating because, come on, the car drives itself. In traffic! Disappointing because it’s clearly not going to be ready for public use for years and years.
For now, at least, the car only drives routes it’s been trained to drive. My ride in Washington DC was along a route that Google engineers had driven with the car earlier. Google refused to allow the car to be driven anywhere beyond this well-studied environment, at least not with the media tagging along.
Still, that doesn’t mean it was a cake walk.
No Google engineer taught the car that a bunch of kids on a field trip would march out in front of it at an intersection. It stopped and waited for them on its own. And no-one told it that, right after that, another car would run the four-way stop sign right in front of it. It handled that, too, avoiding a collision all on its own.
At first, those interactions seemed boringly normal to me until I remembered… no-one was driving! The car had done that all itself while the man in the driver’s seat sat passively watching.
All of this is made possible by an array of sensors that would make a spy satellite jealous. The Google car has three GPS antennae, radar systems, cameras to read street signs and traffic lights and it’s topped with fast-spinning laser eye that looks like something out of a cheap ’50s sci-fi movie. That all-seeing eye scans for cars, pedestrians and obstacles.
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Google doesn’t make cars or sensors, though, so the part the California tech company is really interested in is the software that ties all this together to let it make — we hope — safe and rational driving decisions.
Since the Google car only just got its learner’s permit, it drives accordingly faxless cash advances. During our test loop, it stopped a few times for phantom threats, like a parked truck that was just a little wider than the cars around it. Then there was the jerking halt on a side street caused by a car that stopped a little abruptly almost two car lengths ahead.
When it wasn’t sure what to do, the car would hand control back to the driver, announcing it was doing so in a friendly female voice. (The driver can always take control at any time by just by moving the steering wheel or touching the pedals, even slightly.) "Self driving" was resumed by pushing a big green button on the Prius’s center console near the even bigger red "kill switch."
Surprisingly, one thing the car can’t do all on its own is use the turn signals. The driver still has to do that.
"That’s been on our to-do list for a long time now," said the engineer riding shotgun.
Back-seat "driver": I had to ride in the back. A second Google engineer rode in the shotgun seat with a laptop computer. On his screen was a triangle — representing us — surrounded by a vast army of colored boxes, representing cars, people and stationary objects, all sliding across a black screen. It was reminiscent of the old arcade game "Tank Commander," minus the explosions.
Times when the car lost its nerve and let the engineer take over, such as when it encountered an on-coming car on a narrow street and wasn’t sure there was room to get around it, weren’t just useless glitches, I was assured. The data from each situation would be ingested and analyzed so the car could learn what to do in the future. Those lessons could, hopefully, be applied to a broad range of driving conundrums.
Before Google realizes the dream of a truly "driverless car" there are many steps yet to be taken and some of those steps remain far off. The first will be allowing the car to stray from routes that it has been specifically trained to drive. Until then, this is all just baby steps.
But the biggest step will be to create a car that will let me just sit in the back seat with no-one at all in the driver’s seat. That step still seems — to me — many years off. If Google can get there before a major automaker beats them to it, I’ll be really impressed.
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U.S. stock market futures are basically flat ahead of the government release of April employment data.
Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 4 points at 13,147. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 1.17 to 1,387. Nasdaq 100 futures are gaining 2.75 points to 2,694.75.
In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 index, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 are all down, as traders waited for the U.S. jobs figures and fretted ahead of weekend elections in France and Greece that could impact Europe’s debt crisis instant payday loan. Earlier Asian markets were mixed, with the Nikkei in Tokyo gaining, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s Kospi both ended down.
U.S. stock to watch include Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle reports quarterly results after the market opens.
Iraq began loading crude oil Friday from a second offshore export terminal in the Persian Gulf, part of a major project to boost Iraq’s income.
Also Friday, the government agreed to allow ExxonMobil Corp. to continue working in one of Iraq’s biggest oil fields.
Dhia Jaafar, the head of State-run South Oil Company, said that the pumping started late Thursday from the terminal when a ship with a capacity of 2 million barrels docked near its platform to be loaded with oil.
The crude is being pumped from the terminal at a rate of 35,000 barrels an hour.
The new terminal is the second of five that will eventually handle about 5 million barrels a day. They will help Iraq to bring in sorely needed cash for reconstruction after decades of war and international sanctions.
With the opening of the two terminals, Basra export capacity has been raised to around 3.5 million barrels a day, he said.
Jaafar also said ExxonMobil Corp payday advance. will continue working in the 8.6 billion-barrel West Qurna Stage 1 field in Basra province, even though it has been banned from bidding on developing gas fields next month.
Iraq said that Exxon is not allowed to bid in the May auction of 12 exploration blocks nationwide because of its refusal to abandon its deals with the self-rule Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
The Texas-based Exxon signed six deal with the Kurds last October to search for oil in six areas, bypassing the Baghdad government, which maintains that it must ratify all such contracts.
“ExxonMobil has given assurances that it will sort out its problems in Kurdistan,” Jaafar explained. “Therefore, the government allowed it to continue working in West Qurna.”
Iranian and European officials expressed confidence in the results of Saturday’s negotiations on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program as it was announced that the two sides will meet again in Baghdad on May 23.
The very fact that there will be another round adds to a growing sense among diplomats that the two sides were making notable progress in talks that have grown increasingly tense as the West has tightened sanctions on Iran and Israel has threatened a pre-emptive military strike on the Islamic republic.
But the challenges in the next round could be far more significant. That’s when the six powers will likely seek further commitments from Tehran to reduce concerns that it could use its uranium enrichment program to make the fissile core of nuclear missiles.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called Saturday’s talks in Istanbul constructive and said future talks will be guided by the “principle of a step-by-step approach and reciprocity.”
That indicates the international community is ready to reward Iran if it moves to alleviate fears that it intends to weaponize its nuclear program _ rewards that could include delaying or easing some sanctions.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili said his team “saw a positive approach (from the other side) and we consider it a step forward.”
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, and Ashton said Saturday that Tehran has a right to such a peaceful program. At the same time, she added, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty must be the “key basis” for future talks.
Iran asserts that it has not violated the treaty, and that it has a right under that agreement to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Asked about the making the treat the basis of the talks, Jalili said, “We expect that we should enjoy our rights in parallel with our obligations.”
Iran is under four sets of U.N. sanctions for refusing to stop uranium enrichment _ which can be used both to make reactor fuel and the fissile core of nuclear warheads _ and the international community continues to demand that Tehran stop the activity.
But the last set of nuclear talks broke up without result more than 14 months ago after the Iranian team had refused to even discuss enrichment.
The six countries negotiating with Iran _ the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany _ came to Saturday’s meeting with modest expectations.
Diplomats said before the meeting began that even general Iranian readiness to accept the need to discuss its enrichment program would be considered enough of a success to warrant a follow-up round.
Earlier Saturday, one of the diplomats, who like the others demanded anonymity because he was sharing confidential information, said the Iranians appeared to be moving toward that readiness, engaging in discussion about the peaceful use of nuclear energy and the nonproliferation treaty.
He said the Iran’s team had mentioned Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “fatwa,” or edict, prohibiting nuclear weapons for Iran, in the course of the plenary discussions.
With just five days to go for nations to put forward nominees to lead the World Bank, there are few signs the United States has finalized its choice to lead the global development lender.
The United States has held the presidency of the Bank since its founding after World War Two, while a European has always led its sister institution - the International Monetary Fund.
But Washington has yet to publicly identify a candidate and some observers think the delay could signal that the White House is having a hard time convincing possible candidates to take the job. The White House and Treasury Department have declined to comment.
Sources with knowledge of the administration’s thinking say the hope was to convince a woman to enter the race to replace Robert Zoellick, who has said he will step down when his term expires at the end of June.
Naming a woman could go some way to address calls from emerging-market nations for a change in the status quo. A woman has never led the bank.
Two sources said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was a leading contender. However, it is not clear she wants the job. Rice’s name often surfaces as a possible candidate to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
When asked last week how she would help South Sudan if she was president of the World Bank, Rice replied: “Ridiculously hypothetical.”
Senator John Kerry and PepsiCo’s Indian-born CEO Indra Nooyi had also made an Obama administration short list, according to a source, although Kerry has publicly ruled out the job and another source said Nooyi was no longer in contention.
Another short-list member, Lawrence Summers, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and a one-time Treasury secretary, has declined to comment. He told Reuters he would leave the selection process to the officials in charge of it.
LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN
The delay in identifying a U.S. nominee could leave the door open to a dark-horse candidate from the United States. It has also given other nations time to consider their own nominees.
“It wouldn’t be the first time in history that the White House had to scramble a bit,” said Whitney Debevoise, a former director to the World Bank board.
“I think they have lost the opportunity to put a name out there early and make it uncontested,” he added. “Usually … if the U.S. puts a name out there, then nobody else wants to put their name up because they know they don’t have a chance.”
Emerging and developing countries have been pushing to have more say at both the World Bank and IMF, and have said the decision on Zoellick’s successor should be merit-based.
Developing and emerging market economies are currently in consultations on putting forward names of non-U.S. candidates. The dilemma for developing regions, however, is finding candidates willing to come forward in a race in which the outcome is felt to be pre-ordained.
Indeed, the two most talked about names among developing countries are former World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, now Nigeria’s finance minister, and Trevor Manuel, the South African national planning minister pay day loans. Former Indonesian finance minister and current World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Mexico’s central bank governor Agustin Carstens have ruled themselves out.
World Bank board sources said there were also talks under way about possibly appointing a candidate from a developing or emerging economy to head the Bank’s private-sector lender, the International Finance Corp. IFC CEOs have mainly been European.
The World Bank’s 24-member board, which represents all of the institution’s 187 member countries, has set a deadline for Friday for nominations to lead the Bank, and has said it would decide on the next president within a month.
ONE MAN RACE
U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, is the only formal candidate to have emerged so far. He has been formally nominated by Bhutan and a cluster of developing countries including East Timor, Jordan, Kenya, Namibia and Malaysia.
“Jeffrey Sachs is a good economist and a very good candidate, but we expect to see the rest of the names and what follows in the process,” Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Sunday.
Last week, 27 lawmakers wrote to President Barack Obama to “strongly” encourage him to nominate Sachs. Sachs, whose self-proclaimed candidacy aims to challenge what he sees as a history of political appointments by the White House, acknowledges he lacks the Obama administration’s support.
“They’re not talking to me,” he told Reuters.
With his early nomination, Sachs has had a head start in lobbying for support among developing countries where he has a proven track record on issues such as education, health, climate change and fighting poverty.
“I have spoken with at least a couple of dozen leaders around the world in the last week and believe I have strong worldwide support in every region of the developing countries, and a lot of support in Europe as well,” Sachs said.
“For the European countries, they are not surprisingly saying that they are overwhelmingly likely to defer to the U.S. nominee and that they are waiting for that,” he added.
Sachs said while the United States was still likely to determine who gets the job, a desire among developing countries to end tradition suggested that was not a sure bet.
“I don’t think it is automatic because of feelings that this is an important institution and an important moment, and I don’t think the U.S. has simply the green light to choose anybody.”
Officials argued that it is important for the United States to retain the presidency of the bank, otherwise political support and funding for the institution could erode, given that Congress is focused on budget cutting.
The United States is the World Bank’s largest donor.
(This version of the story has been corrected to fix the date in the dateline)
India banned all cotton exports on Monday, causing U.S. cotton futures to surge and igniting fears of another jump in prices for cotton goods.
India decided to immediately impose the ban because it’s worried about a possible supply crunch in the country. One reason: India’s cotton exports may have overshot government targets last year, its Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a statement.
U.S. cotton futures jumped 4.5% — the most allowed in a single day of trading — to 92.23 cents per pound following the news.
"This India development really caught the entire cotton industry and traders off guard because it came with no warning," said Phil Flynn, senior market and commodities analyst with PFG Best.
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Flynn said the market reaction to India’s move reflects concerns that it could start a new rise in cotton prices that mirrors last year’s rally.
Cotton prices hit an all-time high of $2.27 a pound last March due to a global supply crunch for the commodity.
Cotton clothing manufacturers responded to that steep price jump first by raising prices for consumers and eventually using less cotton and more blended fabrics such as poly-cotton.
Flynn said cotton prices cooled off toward the end of last year and reached as low as 84.35 cents a pound.
"We’re in March again. Could we potentially have another big rally like last March? Maybe," said Flynn. "A void in the supply chain from India’s action could cause a price spike."
It would be deja vu for consumers, too.
"Cotton clothing prices have been coming down since last year as supply caught up with demand. But that could change now," he said.
Greece’s international creditors have spelled out the austerity measures promised by Athens that have to be put into practice before it can receive new bailout cash, totaling more than euro2.5 billion ($3.31 billion).
Those budget cuts include:
_ euro1.076 billion ($1.43 billion) to be cut from the country’s pharmaceuticals spending
_ euro300 million ($397 million) in military budget cuts
_ euro270 million ($358 million) to be slashed from regular government expenditure and election-related budgets
_ euro190 million ($251 million) to be trimmed from subsidies to people living in remote areas
_ euro400 million ($530 million) in public investment budget cuts
_ euro300 million ($397 million) in budget subsidies to pension funds
Vancouver displaced Sydney as the least-affordable housing market after Hong Kong among large English-speaking cities, as home prices rose faster than incomes, a study of 325 metropolitan areas worldwide showed.
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Billionaire investor George Soros said a fracturing of the euro area would have
The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank promoted its information technology chief to the bank’s No. 2 post under the institution’s new president, Esther George.
Kelly Dubbert, who has worked at the Kansas City Fed since 1986, will be first vice president at the institution and its chief operating officer, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
George took the reins at the bank in October after long-time hawk Thomas Hoenig retired. George’s personal views on monetary policy are not widely known.
Dubbert would participate in discussions at the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee if George were absent business card design.
Dubbert has a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Advanced Management Program and the Wisconsin Graduate School of Banking. He had headed the Kansas City Fed’s information technology division since 2006.
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