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GM Eyes Off Driving with AI, Atlas Browser Arrives, and Handy Tech Tips

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General Motors’ headline-making “eyes-off” pledge, OpenAI’s new Atlas browser, a fresh roundup of practical consumer tech tips — and a reminder that the cloud, tape decks and rental cars are all getting a modern makeover: this week’s tech news mixes high-stakes industry pivots with useful, everyday advice for Windows users and ordinary consumers. The announcements and local tips that surfaced on Rich On Tech’s latest show form a clear throughline: AI and automation are accelerating from lab demos into the products you’ll actually use, and that transition brings both compelling benefits and real-world risks we can’t ignore.

A driver in a futuristic car uses a holographic map and AI head display beside the Atlas touchscreen.Background / Overview​

Automakers and tech giants used recent events and launches to show how close we are to both driverless convenience and AI-infused browsing. General Motors used its GM Forward event in New York to map out a future where you’ll be allowed to take your eyes off the road in carefully controlled conditions — a Level 3-style leap beyond today’s driver-assist systems. At the same time, OpenAI launched a browser built around ChatGPT, a product that reframes web browsing as an AI-augmented activity rather than a purely human-led task. Both moves reflect a broader industry push to put advanced AI and new control models into everyday devices, from cars to laptops. GM’s announcements and OpenAI’s Atlas launch are major strategic bets; their details matter for regulators, safety planners and ordinary users alike.
On the practical side, Rich On Tech’s latest show delivered a rapid-fire list of consumer tips — from digitizing old tapes and replacing missing album artwork in Apple Music, to mass-texting tools, password managers and how to de-duplicate a photo library. Those show notes are useful because they tie the big-picture industry moves to the small tasks that many people wrestle with every week, and because they remind readers that the best tech outcomes depend on careful configuration, updated software, and sensible security habits.

GM’s “eyes-off” driving: what they announced and why it matters​

What GM actually said​

At the GM Forward media event in New York, General Motors announced a roadmap that includes (1) the integration of conversational AI into cars starting next year, and (2) an “eyes-off” autonomous driving mode expected to debut on the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028. The company described a new centralized compute platform and claimed it has mapped hundreds of thousands of miles of roads for current hands-free driving and millions of “validation” miles that inform autonomy testing. GM framed the rollout as incremental and safety-conscious: limited to pre-mapped highways and reliant on multiple redundant sensors.

What “eyes-off” means in practice​

“Eyes-off” is shorthand for a conditional autonomy mode that lets drivers divert their gaze away from the road under specific circumstances — typically controlled, pre-mapped highways with robust sensor coverage and system redundancy. That’s a technical and regulatory jump beyond the current “hands-free but eyes-on” Super Cruise implementations. It’s not full self-driving (Level 5) and it’s not immediate: GM’s timetable puts a first consumer release in 2028. The careful language matters: enabling eyes-off requires validated sensor stacks, extensive road mapping, safety audits, and, often, new or clarified legal permissions from regulators.

Strengths, opportunities and the big risks​

  • Strengths:
  • The promise of reclaiming commute time for reading, low-stress work or rest could be transformative for long-distance highway travel.
  • GM’s access to millions of real-world Super Cruise miles gives the company a large dataset for training and validation.
  • Opportunities:
  • Integration of conversational AI (Google Gemini, initially) could let drivers perform tasks without reaching for a phone — reducing one important distraction vector.
  • A centralized computing platform may enable better over-the-air updates and rapid safety patches.
  • Material risks:
  • Human factors: when systems permit eyes-off behavior, transition-of-control scenarios become far more dangerous. How quickly can the system re-engage a distracted human or safely hand control to the vehicle?
  • Legal and liability questions: who is responsible when an “eyes-off” session ends badly — the manufacturer, the driver, or the software provider?
  • Overreliance and mode confusion: drivers might overuse eyes-off features outside the validated envelope, or misunderstanding subtle UI cues could cause catastrophic misalignment between human expectation and system capability.
Regulators and independent safety researchers will want detailed, auditable testing data before allowing wide deployment. GM’s announcements are definitive steps forward, but those steps carry substantial verification obligations.

OpenAI’s Atlas browser — AI becomes the browser, not just a sidebar​

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas is arguably the boldest product repositioning in the browser market in years: rather than simply providing an AI companion, Atlas embeds ChatGPT as an integrated browsing layer that can summarize pages, compare results, and run “agent” tasks that proactively gather and synthesize web information. The initial macOS release signals a staged rollout to other platforms. Atlas includes an “agent mode” for complex, multi-step research tasks and gives users privacy controls over memory and data-use settings. Market reaction has been immediate — and disruptive — with analysts calling it an explicit challenge to Chrome’s decades-long dominance.

Why this is important for Windows and power users​

  • Browsing behavior will change: instead of opening multiple tabs, users will increasingly ask an AI to synthesize and act on web content.
  • Reliability matters: AI summarization is prone to hallucination if the system blends facts incorrectly. Users and enterprises must calibrate trust and verify critical information with authoritative sources.
  • Privacy controls will be decisive: OpenAI’s user defaults and memory toggles will determine whether enterprises accept Atlas for sensitive workflows.
Atlas is a strong signal: the browser is being reimagined as an AI surface. That shift could improve productivity — and increase the demand for reliable, auditable AI behavior from desktop and cloud clients.

The AWS outage: a software bug, not an attack — why it still matters​

The basics​

A massive AWS outage in mid‑October 2025 was widely reported to have been caused by an internal DNS/control-plane issue affecting the US‑EAST‑1 region, with DynamoDB endpoint resolution flagged as the proximate symptom. AWS publicly described the problem as a software or internal subsystem disruption; the company and independent analysts emphasized that the outage was not the result of a cybersecurity breach but of a cascading internal failure in name resolution and control-plane dependencies. The incident disrupted many consumer and enterprise services for hours, highlighting systemic concentration risk in cloud infrastructure.

Why the distinction “software bug, not attack” matters — and why it doesn’t solve the underlying problem​

Saying an outage was caused by a bug rather than a cyberattack matters for insurance, legal exposure, and immediate security posture. But the root business lesson is unchanged: cloud-native dependencies concentrate risk. Many global services rely on single-region control-plane primitives. When those fail, retries, backlogs and retry storms can create cascading outages that look like widespread network failures.
Key takeaways for WindowsForum readers and IT planners:
  • Design for multi-region resilience and test failover paths for control-plane dependencies.
  • Avoid single-region critical dependencies for authentication or throttling primitives.
  • Maintain an “offline” workflow for critical operations where feasible, and ensure robust monitoring that doesn’t rely on the same control-plane services.
The AWS event is a powerful reminder that cloud convenience comes with correlated systemic risk. Diversification, resilient caching, and robust error handling are not optional anymore.

Vay and remote-driven rentals: a practical path to driverless cities?​

The German startup Vay — founded by Thomas von der Ohe — has been quietly rolling out a teleoperated, door‑to‑door rental service that brings remote drivers into the loop rather than fully autonomous vehicles. Vay’s model: a remote operator drives vehicles to a user’s location, then disconnects, allowing the user to drive the vehicle themselves; after the rental ends the remote operator retrieves or parks the car. The company has run commercial operations in Las Vegas, trials in Europe, and recently secured major financing to expand its European footprint. The approach sits between traditional car-sharing and a fully driverless future, exploiting regulatory changes in some jurisdictions that permit teleoperation under defined rules.

Why the teledriving model could scale faster than full autonomy​

  • Lower technological friction: teleoperation removes the need for fully reliable stack-level autonomy for every driving scenario.
  • Regulatory tractability: some countries have carved out legal frameworks for remotely operated vehicles sooner than for driverless robotaxi fleets.
  • Labor model: Vay’s remote roles may create regulated, reliable jobs rather than eliminating human drivers outright.

Practical concerns and ethical questions​

  • Safety and latency: teledriving depends on secure, low-latency connections and robust local redundancies. What happens where cellular coverage is patchy?
  • Privacy and surveillance: remote drivers see camera views from inside a user’s vehicle. Clear privacy rules and limited data retention are essential.
  • Labor and displacement: while teledriving creates some new roles, the long-term automation roadmap still threatens many driving jobs.
Vay’s approach is pragmatic, and its partnerships and funding suggest serious momentum. But teleoperation is not a policy-free shortcut — it raises operational, safety and privacy questions that must be addressed before scale deployment.

Practical consumer fixes and tips from the radio show — a curated checklist​

The Rich On Tech segment covered many daily‑use problems and recommended specific apps and hardware. Below is a synthesized, actionable checklist that pulls those recommendations into succinct guidance.

1) Replace missing album artwork in Apple Music​

  • Recommended tool: Mp3tag — a powerful tag editor (Windows and macOS) that can add or replace artwork, update metadata in batches, and pull from online tag sources. It’s lightweight, widely used, and actively maintained. For bulk fixes, export a list of tracks, clean names with Mp3tag’s regex scripts, and write artwork into tags.

2) Digitize old tapes: practical hardware options​

  • Consumer devices mentioned: Roxio, Elgato Video Capture, and the ClearClick video-to-digital converters.
  • Best practice: Use a converter with direct capture to a modern codec (H.264 or ProRes for archival), then copy the files to redundant storage (local RAID + cloud backup). If audio quality matters, capture to lossless where feasible and run a quick de-noise pass in a non-destructive editor. ClearClick and Elgato are entry-level, user-friendly choices; for pro results, consider a dedicated service.

3) Mass texting and calendar invites​

  • Tools mentioned: SimpleTexting, Textedly, Substack (for newsletters), and Calendly (for scheduling that populates calendars).
  • Practical approach:
  • Use an SMS service (SimpleTexting or Textedly) to blast messages and track delivery.
  • For calendar coordination, create a Calendly event link and include it in the SMS or newsletter.
  • Avoid sending calendar ICS attachments to lists without explicit opt-in — many clients treat unsolicited invites as spam.

4) De‑duplicating photo libraries​

  • Options: Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro, Gemini, or Google Photos (auto grouping and suggested deletions).
  • Tip: Export originals before bulk deletes. Run similarity scans, not exact-match scans, to find near-duplicates (different crops, edits). Prefer tools that show side-by-side previews before deletion.

5) Password manager and robo‑vacuum picks​

  • Password manager: Bitwarden — open-source, cross-platform, auditable and cost-effective. Excellent for both personal and family vaults. Use a hardware-backed second factor where possible.
  • Robo-vacuum: Roborock F25 was the model mentioned on the show; it’s a modern unit with mapping features and multi-floor support. Always match vacuum features (mopping, mapping, suction power) to your home’s needs.

6) Unsubscribing from spam​

  • Practice: use a reputable spam filter and the “unsubscribe” link only for newsletters you may have unintentionally subscribed to. For clearly malicious spam, mark as spam rather than clicking links. When in doubt, use a secondary email address for signups. Vendor unsubscribe flows that request personal information are suspect — treat with caution.

7) Robocall “silent” calls​

  • The silent robocall (audio-less call) is often a probe — if you answer, the call center may verify a live number for later scams. The best response: don’t engage, block the number, and report repeated nuisance calls to your carrier and the government complaint portal. Advanced call-blocking services and network-level filters are worth considering.

TurboTax Desktop 2025 and Windows 11: the compatibility cliff​

Intuit’s support pages and community posts indicate that TurboTax Desktop 2025 will not install on Windows 10 — you’ll need Windows 11 (64-bit) or else use TurboTax Online. Intuit linked this change to Microsoft ending free security updates for Windows 10; the result is material: many households running Windows 10 on older hardware will have to either upgrade their OS, adopt the online TurboTax product, or use a different computer to prepare 2024 returns. For Windows users, this is a practical example of platform lifecycles crossing consumer software needs.
Practical steps:
  • Check PC compatibility with Microsoft’s PC Health Check before attempting an in-place upgrade.
  • If Windows 11 isn’t feasible, plan to use TurboTax Online or prepare returns on an alternate device (library, family computer).
  • Back up your prior TurboTax returns and archives; migration paths exist but can be messy if you wait until filing deadlines.

Small but useful: MP3Tag, Duplicate helpers, and bits of consumer hardware​

  • MP3Tag is an essential tool for anyone who manages a local music library — it supports batch image embedding, multiple tag formats, and scriptable renaming. If your album art is missing across many files, Mp3tag is often the fastest fix.
  • Duplicate photo detectors vary in aggressiveness; by default, run a conservative pass first and export a snapshot so you can undo mistakes.
  • For VHS and camcorder tape transfers, consumer bridging devices (ClearClick, Elgato, Roxio) are inexpensive and can produce acceptable digital copies; for archival-level preservation, use a specialist service.

Security and safety in the age of embedded AI​

Two threads run through recent news: (1) AI is being embedded into everyday endpoints (cars, browsers, in-car assistants), and (2) platform lifecycles (Windows versions, cloud dependencies) are forcing real migration decisions. Those trends converge on a single theme: trust boundaries must be explicit and auditable.
  • For vehicle autonomy and teledriving, insist on clear safety guarantees, human‑factors testing data, and transparent fallback behaviors.
  • For AI browsers and in-car assistants, insist on clarity about training data, memory and retention settings, and the ability to revoke or audit agent decisions.
  • For cloud reliance (AWS outage lessons), insist that vendors publish post-mortems and that your architecture assumes partial failures as normal.
Where details are still emerging, treat vendor claims about safety or novelty with healthy skepticism and demand measurable evidence. The tech is promising, but verification matters.

Critical analysis: strengths, trade-offs and the policies we need​

The recent announcements demonstrate progress on multiple fronts: better in-car assistants, the plausibility of teleoperated fleets, AI-augmented browsing, and an abundance of pragmatic consumer fixes for common problems. But these advances bring trade-offs that must be managed explicitly.
  • Strength: The integration of AI will boost productivity and convenience across many scenarios, from browsing to driving to personal organization.
  • Trade-off: Convenience often increases systemic coupling (e.g., cloud, centralized control planes, single-vendor AI stacks), which in turn raises resilience and privacy concerns.
  • Policy gap: Regulators are playing catch-up. Clear rules for how and when automated driving modes may be used, auditing requirements for AI summarization and data retention, and safety standards for teleoperation are all required to avoid preventable harm.
  • User responsibility: Individual users must maintain strong security hygiene (password managers, two‑factor authentication, cautious sharing of calendar invites and files) to lower risk as systems become more automated.
In short: imagine a future where your browser composes an email, your car drives you home, and a teleoperated car waits outside to be used — it’s compelling. But it’s only safe when companies transparently publish validation evidence and users and regulators demand verifiable controls.

What to do this week — a short action plan for WindowsForum readers​

  • Confirm TurboTax plans: if you still use Windows 10 and intend to run TurboTax Desktop 2025, either upgrade to Windows 11 or plan to use TurboTax Online. Back up your 2024 returns now.
  • Harden cloud dependencies: if you run services that depend on a single cloud region, map fallback routes and test failover procedures.
  • Reclaim space and sanity: run a duplicate-photo pass with conservative settings, export originals, and then delete duplicates.
  • Archive analog media: if you have tapes, capture them now — consumer converters are inexpensive, but consider a pro service for heirloom-quality preservation.
  • Try an AI browser cautiously: if you install OpenAI’s Atlas or similar, treat its summarizations as drafts — verify facts against primary sources before acting on legally or financially important information.

Conclusion​

The mix of announcements from automakers, AI labs and startups illustrates a clear pattern: the technologies that once lived in research demos are moving rapidly into everyday products. That speed promises major gains in convenience — and brings hard questions about safety, resilience and oversight. For Windows and consumer‑tech users, the immediate priorities are practical: confirm software compatibility (TurboTax and Windows 11), back up and digitize fragile media, and apply basic security hygiene (password managers, verified unsubscribe practices, cautious interaction with robocalls).
Industry claims — from GM’s eyes-off roadmap to OpenAI’s Atlas browser and Vay’s teleoperated rentals — deserve careful scrutiny and independent validation as they enter consumer hands. The coming months will test not only the technology, but our systems for verifying safety, auditing AI behavior and protecting everyday users. In the meantime, pragmatic steps — small backups, prudent upgrades, and sensible tool choices — will keep data safe and the promise of these advances within reach.
Source: Newsradio 600 KOGO GM’s eyes-off driving, digitizing old tapes & remote-controlled rentals (14 | Newsradio 600 KOGO | Rich On Tech
 

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