【推荐2】Baidu, a Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm, announced its latest electric autonomous driving vehicle, Apollo RT6, on Thursday. The new vehicle is a fully electric vehicle with a steering wheel (方向盘) that can be removed when not required. It will cost ¥250,000 per unit.

“The steering-wheel-free design allows more space for extra seating or other additions and the massive cost reduction will enable us to put tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles into operation across China,” Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said at the firm's Baidu World Conference Thursday. “We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.”

Baidu already runs Apollo Go and Apollo Moon, taxi services using self-driving robotaxis with safety staff seated in the driver or passenger seat. They have been in operation in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, although the service is limited to specific areas. The new vehicle will soon join those robotaxis.

The RT6 has reached the industry's Level 4 out of five possible levels of technology. That means its systems can operate without a driver but must be pre-loaded with a detailed map, thus limiting the areas where the vehicles can operate. Lower levels of self-driving technology have been available for decades. For example, many Level-3 vehicles allow hands-free highway driving. Other kinds of self-driving robot vehicles are already widely used in factories warehouses and other tightly controlled settings.

Compared to previous generations where the technology was mainly used on conventional vehicles, the Apollo RT6 was designed specifically with fully autonomous driving in mind.

Baidu is best known for its search engine and online advertising services, but in recent years it has invested heavily in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence technology, including automated personal assistants and AI chips.

【推荐3】We have researched and found some of the most interesting and fun facts about technology that everyone will like.

 The first cell phone call

The first mobile phone call took place on April 3, 1973. Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher, had the mobile phone connected to a base station, which then connected to the landline system of AT&T. Cooper called his biggest rival at AT&T, Joel Engel. He simply told Engel he had made the call from a bona fide mobile phone.

 The first computer ever

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) made history as the first computer in the world. It was built during World War II by the United States. ENIAC was something less than the dream of a universal computer. Designed specifically for computing values for artillery range tables, it lacked some features that would have made it a more generally useful machine.

 Original name of Microsoft Windows was “Interface Manager”

In 1981, Microsoft began development of a programme called “Interface Manager”. Most people won’t recognize that name because Interface Manager became Windows in 1983. Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in 1985, and it’s now the most common operating system in the world.

Interface Manager perfectly describes what Windows would become. In the marketing department, making that name sound interesting or useful would have been impossible.

Everyone recognizes Windows. Interface Manager should be considered something best left in the past.

 What was the first Apple logo?

Everyone recognizes the Apple logo today, which is unsurprisingly an apple. Ronald Wayne, Apple Computer Co. co-founder, designed the original Apple logo when started the company.

In the 1970s, Apple’s logo featured Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head, hence the symbolism of the logo.

A quote from William Wordsworth lined the frame of the Apple logo. Apple has since adopted its more common “bitten-apple” based logo.

【推荐1】Hunan province in Central China is also home of many influential and talented celebrities, including thought leaders, artists, inventors and political figures, Yuan Shenggao reports.

Located in Central China, Hunan province boasts a splendid history and abundant cultural heritage.

Six exquisite, five-color glazed porcelains, presented at a news conference of the province in Beijing in late July, drew the attention of the media. The conference was held to brief the media on a series of events launched by the province in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on Oct 1.

Four of the six porcelain vases were collected by the National Museum of China and the other two were to be kept by the museum in August, said Shen Bin, an inheritor of the technique of five-color glazed porcelains in Liling city of Hunan.

Shen described the products as “white as jade, clear as a mirror, thin as paper and sound like chime”, which can display the oriental elegance to the world.

The technique of five-color glazed porcelains, listed among national intangible cultural heritage, can be traced back to more than 1,700 years ago and was invented at Liling Kiln.

In the early 20th century, the technique was improved in the company founded by Xiong Xiling, an industrialist and educator from Hunan, who employed top ceramists and introduced the most advanced manufacturing equipment.

The technical upgrade enhanced the quality of porcelains and enriched the colors of the products, improving their artistic and utility value.

Now Liling has become one of the biggest ceramic products export cities in China. In 2018, the import and export of the city totaled about $480 million, of which roughly 60 percent was contributed by local ceramics, according to official figures.

Besides the five-color glazed porcelains, Hunan is closely linked with many celebrities.

【推荐2】By our very rough calculations, Reader’s Digest has published some 35,000 articles in nearly 1,200 issues. These small pages have held some very big names, including U.S. presidents, world leaders, sports legends, and, indeed, the biggest contributors of all, everyday Americans with a story to tell. These are some of our proudest moments.

This first article in the first issue highlighted inventor Alexander Graham Bell and his belief in lifelong learning: “The first essential of any real education is to observe. Observe! Remember! Compare!” It was an appropriate beginning. reflecting our self-educated founder’s endless curiosity.

The morning of a family funeral, an acquaintance shows up unannounced and says, “I’ve come to clean your shoes.” He spends the day quietly shining every pair in the house. The writer ends with: “Now, whenever I hear of an acquaintance who has lost a loved one. I try to think of one specific task suiting that person’s need. And if the person says, ‘How did you know I needed that done?’ I reply, ‘it’s because a man once cleaned my shoes.’”

A miner spends days camping in the Alaskan wilderness, working hard to earn the trust of a mother wolf stuck in a trap before she and her four pups starve to death. Eventually, he is able to free her. Four years later, he encounters a wolf in the same meadow. Yes, the same wolf. When we shared this classic on rd.com in 2019, it went viral and it has now been read by many millions online and in print.

Our famous “wallet drop” set up the ultimate test of honesty: If we left wallets in cities around the country, how many would be returned? Well over half, it turned out—67 percent. The most honest city? Seattle, whose upstanding residents returned nine out of ten wallets.