Rivian held a three-day press event in Colorado last week where a number of journalists, including TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec, were able to take the R1T electric truck for a spin. Today, the embargo lifted and we’re able to hear about their experience.” An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from Korosec’s report: On its first try, Rivian produced the Goldilocks of pickup trucks. The Rivian R1T electric truck is neither too big nor small. It handles rock crawling and off-camber trails with ease, can zip from zero to 60 miles per hour on a dirt road in just a few seconds without the typical back-end slippage — although there is an option to provide that drifting effect — and it can crank through winding mountain roads, pushing the edge of each corner without body roll. It’s loaded with the kind of interior and exterior touches that put it firmly in the premium zone — and yet the Rivian R1T is no delicate flower.

The company’s designers and engineers helped the truck steer clear of pretension by combining form and function from tip to tail. Some of the added surprises — the location of functional details like tie-downs, an air compressor and outlets — suggest that numerous Rivian employees tested the truck in real-world conditions, including camping, mountain biking and even more mundane tasks like grocery-fetching. The result is a vehicle that feels right for all seasons and ready for anything. And, importantly, it’s a joy to drive.

On a press drive over three days, a near-production-spec R1T proved to be the electric truck none of us knew we needed. That’s not to say every choice landed perfectly. There are a few hardware details and elements on the software user interface side of things that could use a nip here and a tuck there. I’m looking at you, odd notch that is maybe a pen holder, but certainly the soon-to-be dust collector by the wireless charging pad. To be clear, far more time and miles are required to provide a full review. Still, as a total package, the Rivian R1T impresses. [Continue reading to hear about Korosec’s thoughts on the nuts and bolts, circuit, handling and performance, user interface(s), and hardware accessories.] For a technical in-depth review of the Rivian R1T, Quinn Nelson from Snazzy Labs has produced an excellent video explaining his thoughts on the driving dynamics, vehicle functions, user interface design, and more. Fair warning: it’s nearly 30 minutes long.

Further reading:
Autoblog: 2022 Rivian R1T First Drive Review: An Electric Truck Is a Better Truck
Car and Driver: The 2022 Rivian R1T Electric Pickup Embraces Duality
Business Insider: Rivian R1T: Hitting the Trails In the New Electric Pickup
Fox News: Test Drive: The 2022 Rivian R1T Electric Pickup Is a Game-Changing Truck

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – The First Reviews of Rivian’s R1T Electric Pickup

AltMachine writes: U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo wants the U.S. to work with Europe to slow China’s innovation rate, while at the same time accusing China of ripping of western intellectual properties. “America is most effective when we work with our allies,” Raimondo told CNBC’s Kayla Tausche in an exclusive interview. “If we really want to slow down China’s rate of innovation, we need to work with Europe. They’re ripping off our IP, they are not playing by the rules. It’s not a level playing field. And so we need to hold their feet to the fire to make sure that they do that.” Raimondo invokes the ideological divide to justify the push. “We don’t want autocratic governments like China, writing the rules of the road. We together with our allies, who care about privacy, freedom, individual rights, individual protection, we need to write the rules of the road,” Raimondo said.

Similar to innovation history of the U.S. which evolved from apprehending IPs of other countries before turning into a technological innovation powerhouse, China has in recent years greatly accelerated its R&D spendings and fortified IP protections. Of the more than 1,600 cases analyzed, IP owners won more than 80% of the time and permanent injunctions were issued by the Chinese courts in more than 90% of the cases. As noted by Judge Gang Feng of the Beijing IP Court in 2016, foreign corporations had a 100% win rate before that court in 2015. “We have to work with our European allies to deny China the most advanced technology so that they can’t catch up in critical areas like semiconductors,” Raimondo added. “We want to work with Europe, to write the rules of the road for technology, whether it’s TikTok or artificial intelligence or cyber.”

Further reading: China’s Growing Power Crunch Threatens More Global Supply Chain Chaos

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – US Attempts To Slow China’s Innovation Rate

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs On Security: The new $30 AirTag tracking device from Apple has a feature that allows anyone who finds one of these tiny location beacons to scan it with a mobile phone and discover its owner’s phone number if the AirTag has been set to lost mode. But according to new research, this same feature can be abused to redirect the Good Samaritan to an iCloud phishing page — or to any other malicious website. The AirTag’s “Lost Mode” lets users alert Apple when an AirTag is missing. Setting it to Lost Mode generates a unique URL at https://found.apple.com/ and allows the user to enter a personal message and contact phone number. Anyone who finds the AirTag and scans it with an Apple or Android phone will immediately see that unique Apple URL with the owner’s message.

When scanned, an AirTag in Lost Mode will present a short message asking the finder to call the owner at at their specified phone number. This information pops up without asking the finder to log in or provide any personal information. But your average Good Samaritan might not know this. That’s important because Apple’s Lost Mode doesn’t currently stop users from injecting arbitrary computer code into its phone number field — such as code that causes the Good Samaritan’s device to visit a phony Apple iCloud login page. The vulnerability was discovered and reported to Apple by Bobby Rauch, a security consultant and penetration tester based in Boston. Rauch told KrebsOnSecurity the AirTag weakness makes the devices cheap and possibly very effective physical trojan horses.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Apple AirTag Bug Enables ‘Good Samaritan’ Attack