US roadways could get a lot smarter in the coming years, if the Department of Transportation gets its way. Last week, the DOT released a plan to implement vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, technologies nationwide. The strategy is part of the department’s efforts to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities.

An urgent mission: Some 40,000 people die in traffic crashes in the US each year, and the numbers have been trending upward in recent years. Enter V2X, a technology that enables vehicles, wireless devices, and infrastructure to communicate with each other over a wireless network.

• Using V2X, vehicles could, for example, get alerts about inclement weather conditions, another vehicle veering outside its lane, or a crash ahead.

Where the rubber meets the road: It would also require automakers to continue investing in the connected and automated vehicle tech that the industry sees as a promising new revenue source.

Keep reading here.—JG

Imagine someone having access to all your documents, your photos, and even your browsing history. It may sound like something out of 1984, but using Google’s products can be a nightmare for your privacy.

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A key group in the open-source community is taking a step toward setting the terms of a debate that’s roiled the AI space.

The Open Source Initiative, the organization widely seen as responsible for arbitrating openness standards, published the latest version of its definition of open-source AI on Thursday.

• The document comes after months of consulting with various developers, academics, and other concerned parties on a roadshow of workshops around the world.

While there are still more of those tour stops to come, Ayah Bdeir, a senior advisor on AI strategy at Mozilla Foundation who played a role in the process, said she doesn’t expect the definition to change much between now and when the “stable version” of the definition is presented in the fall.

What’s at stake? The question of how open the components of generative AI models should be has split the tech industry.

Keep reading here.—PK

Tired of waiting for that so-called productivity app to reload? According to a survey by TRG Datacenters, Monday.com, Gmail, and Microsoft Teams saw the most service disruptions over the last year, followed by Slack, Outlook, and Google Drive.

The study, which analyzed the performance of the 30 top work-related platforms, found that such outages had far-ranging impacts.

• Outlook logged the “longest major crashes,” lasting an average of five hours each.
• Gmail disruptions reached 1.8 billion users across the world—or more than 20% of the global population.

Those disconnects add up, as corporate America outsources critical internal functions to third-party applications.

Keep reading here.—KG

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Usually, we write about the business of tech. Here, we highlight the *tech* of tech.

A breadth of fresh air: New UC Riverside research suggests that air could help with all sorts of problems that involve technology with pneumatic (pressurized air) functions. Potential applications include respirators, everyday tasks of managing grain silos, and an IPC sleeve (a device that helps increase blood flow). The name the researchers use for this innovation is pretty great, too: air-powered computers.

Nuthin’ but a G (force) thang: Wired interviewed a roller-coaster engineer about how rides are tested, wood versus metal, and the best places to sit, providing an overview of why we’re still alive today, an estimated 300 trips into our tenure as a lifelong visitor to Six Flags, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Coney Island.