Self-Driving Cars & Dark Web Privacy Protection Tips

China orders Apple to remove WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and more the hot new audio app. Lots of people are trying out the wearable that turns your conversations into your own personal chat GPT, Memory Bank plus your tech questions answered. What's going on rich dmiro And this is Rich on Tech. This is the show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I answer your questions about technology. I believe

But now it is just one hundred dollars.

And I say just one hundred, I still think that's too expensive, but I have been testing it out.

It is a sort of hit or miss.

It's good when it works, scary when it doesn't work, and it does do some odd things.

Now just to give you some background.

The first time I got into a self driving car was in twenty twelve Tokyo, Japan. I remember this. I was very scared because even though we were only doing a small circular loop in this Nissan, it had a whole bunch of computers in the backseat. We did have a safety engineer in the driver's seat to take over if something went wrong, but it was a very odd feeling to give up control of that car for the very first time. So there are five levels of autonomous driving.

That is just not true.

And having used this new full self driving supervised, which they've added that word supervised to the self driving, it's because people were getting too they were giving too much trust to the Tesla, and that's how accidents happen. That's how issues happen. So in the Tesla, let me just give you my quick review. In the autopilot cruise control, a lot of cars have. This is traffic aware cruise control, which it just basically matches your vehicle speed to the

That's kind of weird.

And then smart someone will find you in a parking lot so you can know your car will come to you.

I have not tried that yet.

And then the full self driving includes autopilot and enhanced autopilot. It can auto steer on city streets. Yes, I've tried that. And it has the traffic stop sign control, so it knows when the stop signs are there, it knows when the traffic lights change. So it's pretty good at doing these things. Is it perfect?

No?

Do you have to remain in control at all times and very aware at all times?

Yes?

So I think that Tesla has done a really cool thing. But we have to be very careful in understanding that this is not full autonomous driving. So it's a little bit more stressful in certain aspects because you're either in control of the car or you're not.

In this case, you're in some sort of in between world.

Now, I figured i'd go over some of the other companies because this is an inevitability. This is going to happen on almost every car. Are you still going to have the opportunity to drive your own car? Probably, But every major car company is working on some sort of level of autonomous driving. Ford has something called Blue Crews. This is hands free highway driving available on some of their cars. Reduces stress, they say, allows you to connect

Then you've got Weaimo.

Waimo has Weimo Driver and this can navigate roads, which it's doing already in a couple cities including Los Angeles. And this relies on highly detailed maps, all kinds of sensors including LDAR, cameras and radar, plus advanced software to predict the behavior of other road drivers to make the safest route. They've driven this on tens of millions of public roads, billions of miles in simulation, and yes, that's happening on La streets, just not on the freeway. Then

But first we'll take some of your calls.

Triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. My name is Rich Dmiro. You are listening to Rich on Tech. Welcome back to Rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology. The phone line for the show eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four.

To two for one zero one.

So go to Steve in Los Angeles with a comment about the self driving cars.

Steve, you're on with Rich.

Yeah, I work with veterans and a big problem is they a lot of times they have to cancel their appointments, their doctors appointment because they did they have transportation and the ride services are very unreliable. And I was also thinking of our seniors, you know, who tent drive any more. So if somehow these big companies are someone, could you know, donate car because they're not gonna be able to afford

Yeah, this is actually I didn't mention this in my initial talking about these self driving cars. There's another aspect and that's a way moo, and this is accessibility and Waimo is a huge proponent of this. Uh, people with disabilities, limited site, limited movement. Uh, there are these cars will be a huge, huge win for that.

Well they don't.

They won't need to because with something like way Mow, they'll be able to just to just hail it, so you'll be able to just get.

It to pick you up.

And so now Uber and some of these companies they do have like an accessibility where you can hail like an accessibility version of that car where you may have assistance you have a wheelchair or something like that. But I think the next level of especially for someone who has a vision issue or hearing issue or any sort of limited mobility, these things could really be a huge win.

Yeah, because I had one. I had one veteran who the Uber that came for him couldn't accommodate like his his device or whatever the thing is the only other thing I was saying because I thought like if I won the lottery or whatever, man I start my own right service to give veterans right. And then I thought, well, the reason why that probably has been done is because all these billboards you see around will fight for you

Yeah, it's definitely an issue. And I think that obviously we need to take care of our elderly, We need to take care of our veterans who you know, have fought for this country. So I think that's a big area of it. And I think that it's just something that technology will continue to improve people who are you know, in these positions that you know, it's just a little bit different than than everyone else out there. So Steve, thanks for the comment. Appreciate that. Good good point. There,

I have an old iPhone shuffle and I usually go on iTunes or I used to go on iTunes download music, but now I can do that. So is there an half or anything that I can use to downlo music because the shuffle I used and used for swimming at the waterproof. I linked the shuffle about four or five years old.

So four years old, yeah, kind of.

I was going to say it may be older than is.

Someone was telling me that the iPod shuffle it was like a secret that it's like it's water resistant or something.

Is that true?

Yeah, I got some company. I bought it online. I guess they buy them in a retrofit them to make them water resistant. So yeah, it's great for swimming, for doing labs. So any suggestions at all.

The program I know is called Walter Pro, and I'm sure there's other ways of doing this, but the one that I know that's pretty easy for drag and drop is Walter w A l t R pro And I'm looking at the kr Wa LTR pro and it says it supports iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch all generations, iPod Classic, Nano, and Shuffle all generations.

And so this is a paid app.

But as far as I remember using this app, you literally just drag and drop the files onto the app once you connect your device, and it puts them into the right place on that app. So it's been a bit since I used it, but it looks like it's still up to date. It's uh thirty five bucks for the year. So and I like this company, and I'm looking for like an alternative to that. There's probably some sort of open source device that can do or software

Is that the deal?

No, No, it's not interesting.

Okay, well I would plug it in, you know, with the actually the cord.

Yeah. And the other thing.

The other question people always have is they're wondering, how do I get the music off my iPod? Because Apple kind of made them a one way street. And I guess that was for a reason back in the day, but it was much more like loading stuff onto them. And I feel like the sinc never really worked that well with these things. It went there and then like

But I think that's your best bet for right now. And try it. You could try it out.

You can download it to try it, see if it works, and then if it does, you know, maybe pay the thirty five bucks to do it.

Okay, thank you very much, all right, Rick, appreciate it.

Uh eighty eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one might have heard this. Uh China ordered Apple to remove WhatsApp Threads and other messaging apps, including Signal and Telegram, from the app store in China. Apple said it's doing what it's told it was due to national security concerns. They didn't give many other details, but China is concerned that the apps could be used to spread negative content and called and cause social unrest.

HM.

Now, where have we heard this? TikTok uh?

Oh?

So this is going to be interesting and China, I don't think there was much thought. They were probably just like, let's just do this. They didn't ask anyone, They didn't ask you know, they didn't take a vote. So will this impact TikTok here in the US? Time will tell eighty to eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four ones.

Year a one.

Welcome back to rich on tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology. Joining me now, Laura May Martin, executive productivity advisor at Google and author of a new book called Uptime, A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing.

Laura, thanks so much for joining me today.

Thanks so much for having me so your.

Book really speaks to me because I'm always trying to be more productive. And I think this is kind of new to the mix, this idea of well being, something that might not have been in the conversation until maybe a couple of years ago.

Yeah, I think that some people think of productivity and well being as being two opposite sides, and so they're competing. But the book really talks about that not only is it important to prioritize well being, but it makes you more productive, and so how to integrate it into your overall workflow.

So what's sort of a simple yet maybe effective routine change that people can make to boost their productivity.

So one routine change I talk about is just getting control of your mornings.

So mornings are that way of setting up your day.

So even if you can only take five or ten minutes before your first commitment and wake up and do something that fills your own energy tank, whether that's meditating, journaling, just sitting in silence, drinking coffee, whatever it is, that's one small thing, just a few minutes that carries you into the rest of your day and gives you that big energy boost before you start handing out energy everywhere else.

I don't typically do that on the weekdays, but on the weekends. I really relish being up before everyone else and having that first cup of coffee when everything is just silent, and I really do enjoy that. Okay, So email is one of my biggest work areas. I'm always just overloaded with so many messages, which I love because that's a good thing, but it's also really tough to get through all of those. So what's your top tip for sorting and prioritizing messages? So?

I think you want to first clear out anything you don't need to see. So sometimes people say, I have tens of thousands of emails in my inbox, but most of them I don't need to open. So the first tip is just maybe searching the word unsubscribe and getting rid of things that you don't need to see. In Gmail, you can just do it right within the email and subscribe from list.

Secondly, you want.

To pop out things you do need to see, So emails from your manager directly to you should look important, and you can do that by setting up filters in Gmail and attaching a red label when those emails come in. So now you're visually prioritizing. And then the third step is thinking about how to sort your email. The same way you do your laundry. So you empty your inbox

Okay, I just heard you say to put a red label. So can you have different color labels in email?

You can?

So once you create a label, you can attach it with a filter. So in this case, it would be from my manager to me, always apply this label. And then on the left side in Gmail, when you're hovered over a label name, you'll see three dots, and when you click on those three dots, you're able to change the label color based on how you want to feel when it comes to here in box.

Wow, I love it. I just learned something so very good. This entire interview is worth it. So many people feel guilty taking down time, and there was a point in my life when I felt really guilty doing this as well. But how can scheduling breaks actually make us feel more productive?

So not only does downtime help to prevent burnout and give you that chance to decompress and process everything that you've heard and thought about all day, but Actually, research shows that you're most creative during downtime. So those times in your workout, your commute, on a walk, those are times when you're actually coming up with your best ideas.

It's not in another meeting for the day.

And so if you really think about scheduling, downtime is making you more creative, long term, holistic when it comes to productivity, it's easier to make sure you're prioritizing that as something you need to do to be productive.

I agree.

I always get my best ideas when I'm literally not thinking about what I should be thinking about. And that's why I take a look a lot of notes and then send them to my email and when I get back, I'm.

Like, oh, yeah, that was a good frout perfect.

Smartphones.

We love them, we hate them, where everything in between. They are such a big part of our lives, but they are really addictive. They make us engage at times maybe we don't want to, but we also need them. So what's sort of a practical first step we can take to develop a healthier relationship with this thing that is always with us?

Right, And like you said, technology is so helpful. It connects us in so many ways and it's really just about finding the right way to make technology work for you instead of against you. So that could be as simple as what I do is create a schedule on my phone for my social media apps and things I don't want to open during the workday. I have times when I'm locked out of them until the evening when

I love the idea of putting the phone to bed, like rocking it to sleep, maybe reading it or reading in a story.

Singing in a little song.

I love.

So, what are some of the common signs that we have become too attached to our phone? Is it that kind of last scroll before closing your eyes to sleep?

Is that like the dead giveaway.

I like to say, think of your phone or any work in your home or device, kind of like in laws. You want to create the same type of boundaries you would have if they lived with you, So you would not invite them into your room first thing in the morning, you would not sit with them until the minute you go to bed, and so same thing that you would do with your phone. You want to say, you know, I'm having that healthy tie away from it, or I find myself checking my phone when I don't plan on.

Doing anything about it.

I think that's one of the biggest things, when it's you know, I'm not actively working, I'm not responding to emails right now, I'm just kind of checking to and.

So just giving yourself maybe one evening a week.

I do a challenge at Google called no Tech Tuesday Night, and it's just for six weeks, one evening just saying from dinner to the following morning, try and plugging from your device or putting it in another room and checking it, you know, occasionally if you have urgent things, but in general, finding ways to do hobbies or you know, play a board game or be really present, or just taking one night to see how that feels and how it affects your sleep and the following morning being more.

Productive the next day is actually one of the top feedback from.

That great advice.

Okay, saying no to people and requests and just everything is really really tough.

How can we say no in a nice way?

Yeah?

I think some people say no is a complete sentence,

We're hearing a lot more about work life balance. This probably goes to the well being section of your book. But what's a boundary that someone can set with their employer or maybe the people they work with that you recommend.

Yeah, So whenever you're setting a boundary, I always recommend talking about what you do do instead of what you don't do. So let's say that you're trying to leave every day at five pm to spend time with your children and you know, be present at dinner and maybe you'll check back on later. But instead of saying I don't take meetings after five, you can say I take meetings between eight and five, and then I'm available after

Now. For some it may seem like a long time.

Ago, but a lot of people are still adjusting to that work work from home, that hybrid kind of atmosphere. So what can home based workers do to optimize their productivity?

So, first you.

Want to ask yourself, are you what I call a homebaser, which means you focus better at home, or an outfielder, which means you focus better out And so based on your answer to that, you can start to structure your schedule. It's really just about knowing yourself and setting up your environments. The other cool thing you can do is by picking what I call hot spots. So instead of having everything be done at your desk, if you were working from home, you can say, I always code at my desk, I always.

Answer emails outside on my porch. I always make phone calls on a walk.

And so what that does is it helps your brain associate those spots with those types of activities, and then it's easier for you to slip into that mood. When you go on the porch, you're already thinking email, and so that helps with working from home but still having different places for different things.

Laura may Martin, executive productivity advisor at Google.

Thanks so much for joining me today.

Thanks for having me.

This is great, all right.

The book is called Uptime, A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity.

And well Being.

You can find it anywhere you buy books. I'll put it on the website as well rich on Tech dot TV more rich on Tech coming your.

Way right after this.

Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here talking technology at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you have a question about technology, give me a call. Website is rich on Tech dot TV. Once you're there, you can hit contact to send me an email, and you can also sign up for my newsletter. Let's go to Angie in Los Angeles. Angie, you're on with Rich.

Hi. I just recently found out that my life top has what seems to be maybe of root kit or like a kernel route type of malware loaded on it. And I've been trying to I've done like a regular reset that didn't work. I've been trying to, you know, find where it is, and it does come. Something comes up on my control panel and I'm able to delete drivers related to it. But then as soon as I turn it back on, you know, turn it off, turn on,

A clean install? What? What version of Windows are you using?

Ten?

Okay, you can do a clean install yourself. Have you tried it?

No? I have not. That's probably why I'm a little nervous at doing it myself, but also getting rid of the malware that seems to be embedded that was That's probably the biggest concern of mine is you know, even if I do the reinstall, if I don't get rid of the malware, then I'm still back at square one again.

So, well, did you did you try to remove this with a program like malware bytes or Windows Defender?

You know, I'm in the process of doing that. I was trying to think of a way without connecting to my network of you know, because this is obviously an affected laptop. So I don't want to connect to my network and I need and load it there without any type.

Of uh yeah, the internet.

Yeah, well it's kind of like you catch twenty two and that's.

I hear you, I hear you.

Yeah.

Well, look, I mean, if you want to get a professional to do this, it's it's a quite simple job. So my kid actually got a virus on his laptop a couple of months ago, and you're right. I did disconnect it from the network and I I did a clean install of Windows and it did remove it and

Have you heard of that?

Oh yeah, yeah, I mean there's quite a few of them there.

Yeah, they're they're a little chain, so they will do it. Obviously, the best buys. I'm surprised they don't have the ability to do that. But you can also just look on Yelp for a you know local like you know computer repair clinic or repair shop and they will be able to do it. Like if you want to go more local, right like a locally owned place, you can just search

And this is not my line of work, so I'm kind of wondering. So when you get your reinstall of Windows, how did you get rid of the virus without using your network to load something into get rid of the virus?

Well, I just went into the Windows cleaning. Windows has a way to clean install from Windows. So if you go into your Windows settings, there is a way to reset if you search, like I think they used to call it refresh, but now they call it reset. So if you do that or just type in you know, into their search functionality reset Windows. There's like a bunch of different options, but it has them all kind of

I did the reset a couple of times and it just was right back to where I started, and I need it the whole thing twice, and so it seems to be really embedded, you know, deep in like maybe the firmware or something. I'm not really sure, but it's not white being clean with just a reset alone.

If it is a root kit kind of thing, then yeah, you definitely you should probably get someone that helps. But I would go to you Break I Fixed. They definitely handle this kind of stuff. Again, if you want the local person, you know, go with the local. But most people I hear back from with the U Break experience, they kind of like it. And it's a national chain, so there's always that backing of like a big company. If you want, you know, if you need help or something.

One zero one.

Global smartphone market is actually growing again. So we've been talking about how smartphone sales were down for a while. Now they're back up seven point eight percent growth. In the first quarter of twenty twenty four, Samsung also overtook Apple once again as the top smartphone maker. Now, before you get too excited, let me explain what happened. So last year, at the end of the year, Apple overtook Samsung. Now the first quarter this year, Samsung overtook Apple. But

Probably.

This is all according to IDC, And in the first quarter of twenty twenty four, Samsung shipped sixty million smartphones. Sixty million smartphones, that's a twenty percent market share. We're talking worldwide here. Apple experienced a nine point six percent year over year decline shipping fifty million smartphones and that is a seventeen percent market share. The other brands that are in here is Shaomi. They are big in China, they're coming back very strong. And then there's this company

For as long as humanly possible?

And air Chat this is an app that is taking not so much the world by storm, but so far the tech folks Silicon Valley folks really like this app called air Chat. It's kind of like Twitter, but with audio posts. So I did download it. I did test it at you record your voice, it posts your voice as a little sort of I guess a tweet for not a better word. But it also transcribes what you say, so people can scroll through read what you said, but

That is the new app.

By the way, the guy who started this app, I lunched with him. I looked at my email like almost like fifteen years ago.

I think he was doing stuff back then.

Hey, it only takes one hit, right, and now apparently he's got a hit. Ay to eight Rich one one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here talking technology with you at Triple A. Rich one oh one eight seven four to two four one zero one the website for the show rich on tech dot TV. Once you're there, you can see all of the stories that I do for television.

What else. Oh, you can also see show notes.

So if you want to see in real time what I mentioned on the show, just hit the light bulb up the top of the website. And if you want to listen to this show as a podcast later on, you can also do that through the website. Just subscribe on your favorite audio app. Thanks for being here, Thanks for listening. Do appreciate it. We got a lot on the show. This hour, I'm going to talk about a new wearable pendant that will record pretty much all of your life in audio, and then you can search it

Hi.

Rich.

I'm calling because I was checking my Gmail and I decided to play around with the settings, and I looked in the privacy section and I noticed something I'd never noticed before having my Gmail email address for a long time, which is that it gives you the option to search your I think email address in the dark web to find anywhere results, and then it tells you if there are results, it can charge you to find out what those results are and maybe clean it up. I think so.

The dark web.

Okay, well, great, question, And yes, I use the Google Dark Web monitoring for sure. I get alerts when my stuff shows up, which it often does. But here's the number one thing. You cannot get this information off the dark web. No matter who promises that to you, they can't do that. The dark web is not a database that someone maintains that you can say, hey, can you pull my information off of here, and some hacker somewhere says, oh, sure, let me kindly do that. No, that's not the way

Now what Google does. There's two things.

Number one, Adam, do you pay for Google storage or no?

No?

No, I just have the regular basic account.

Okay, so I pay for the Google storage, So I actually can so Google any Google member. Like, if you have a Google account, you can search for your information one time, which is what you stumbled upon, right, So that if you want to find that, you can go to one dot Google dot com and there's a section that says dark Web report and you click try now and then run scan and it will show you the

Thank you, AT and T. So what's the point of all of this.

So the point of all of this is really to be understanding of the fact that this is out there. Google, they will do one thing for you. They will pull your information off of their search results if you ask for that. So there's a difference between your information being out there on the dark web, which is in some sort of database that people are changing hands all the time they're selling this information, and information being in search results.

Now they have them.

Redacted a little bit, but I can tell a couple of those passwords I recognize, and that's really scary.

So I can see.

That I do not want to reuse that password ever again because it is out there on the open web. And then it gives all of my account names that are out there on the web. Most of them are rich DeMuro, which I get. I mean, that's my name, that's what I use, so that's gonna be pretty standard. The other one that this one is pretty a pretty big website. It's called haveiben pned dot com and they

So where does that leave us?

Go to the Google Results about you service. Definitely take advantage of that. You tell Google your information. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but you'd say, here's my phone number, here's my email address, here's my address. If you find this on the web in results, let me know, send me an email. And then I have the ability to say Google, can you take that off the internet, And in nine times out of ten in my experience, they will take that search result down. They don't go to

So two things.

Number one, Netflix says, starting next year, we're not going to provide any updates on our membership numbers quarterly. Why because they understand the market is slowing. They're not going to have these big numbers, these big membership numbers going forward the growth. But what they are going to do potentially price hikes. They're going to crack down on password sharing, They're going to put more of an emphasis on that ad supported membership, tire and more live programming. You are

And have I been pooned?

Let's go to Gus in Morino Valley, California. Gus, you're on with Rich.

Yeah.

Rich, this morning my laptop, I turned it on and it was kind of slow, so I restarted it and when I when he came back, Google Boom was gone, what that will file?

Yeah?

What?

What are you on?

A Mac or a PC?

It's a it's a it's a deal.

Okay, So that's Windows.

So maybe okay, So I actually got an email about this. It's it's there must it's interesting there. I know that Windows really tries to push the Edge browser.

I don't know if you've heard of that one. Is that on your desktop?

The Edge? No?

No?

Okay, well you know what it is? It is? Yeah, it is. Yeah.

So that's Microsoft's version of Chrome, and they really pushed that hard, especially when you try to download Chrome or do anything with Chrome for the first couple of times. So he's like, hey, we're right here, We've got our own version. Why don't you try this out. It's kind of the same thing.

Yeah, I have gotten done with Google Chrome, asking me if I wanted to turn it into my default.

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Microsoft has been I guess after that whole uh you know, that whole anti trust thing back in the nineties. Everyone's forgotten about that, but I it's we're past that anyway.

But here's the thing.

So, can you tap the Windows key on your computer and can you search Chrome?

And does that not come up? Because it made me.

I searched it done and it is like he deleted all the files somehow, really.

Had a lot of information and Google Chrome and portals that I use and everything you've gone.

You know, Google Chrome remembers something password, so way to go. You know, my friend, here is what he did is he reads.

Restore to the system restore.

Oh yeah, sure, sure, he brought did a restore point.

Yeah, so he's doing it. But it's like it's been almost an hour and it's still.

You know, it says please wait, well your windows, well, then setting are being restored.

Well before I would have done that, I probably would have recommended just re downloading Chrome because if you were signed in on Chrome, all of your stuff will come back magically. So okay, yeah, so I would have done that before you Yeah, I would have done that before the restore point, because the restore point is kind of like, if it works, it'll be great, you know, hopefully it will, but it may not bring it back and it may not do everything properly, so.

Uh would be able to stop it.

I would not stop it at this point, no, because if you stop it in halfway, you could have an issue with corrupt files. So I would not do that. But gus, here's my advice. So I would wait, wait till the restore h wait till the restore completes, and see if Chrome is back on there and your computer

All right.

Coming up on the show, We've got Dan O'Dowd now Brace Yourself. Dan has some pretty pretty thorough thoughts about Tesla's self driving and i'll just tell you he does not like it. So it's an interesting interview. Dan O'Dowd is with the Dawn Project and he basically thinks that Tesla's full self driving software is not ready for the street. So he's coming up soon. Before we go to that, let me just tell you about this real quick. This is an interesting idea. It's a pendant that you wear

Oh my gosh, I kind of want it. You're listening to rich On Tech.

Welcome back to rich On Tech.

Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking tech now at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

Joining me now is.

Dan O'Dowd, green Hill Software CEO and founder of the Dawn Project, trying to make computers safer for humanity and a specific interest on banning Tesla full self driving.

Dan, thanks so much for joining me today.

Good to be here.

So first off, give me a little background. Tell me what Greenhill Software does and why you started this Dawn project.

Green Hills Software developed software for safety critical systems such as airplanes and cars are two biggest areas.

And what about the Dawn Project? What is that? What made you start that? And what is it?

So the Dawn Project is a realization that I had some years ago that we are putting computers in charge of systems that people's lives depend on. And it's in small way, but now it's become very large. We're putting them in our cars, We're putting them in the power which we can't live without, and water treatment plants, all these things a large infrastructure people's lives literally depend on.

It.

If they go out, people will die. And yet we're putting software to control those devices. That's the same stuff that we use on our desktops, which fail quite regularly. And the Dawn Project is advocacy group basically get people to realize this and also to say we need to set better standards. We need to test that software and

Now, Tesla just recently lowered the price of their self driving software. So it used to be two hundred dollars a month. Now it's one hundred dollars a month. They call it full self driving Supervised. But the reality is many more people are going to subscribe to this and use it because of this lower price. What does that tell you? What are you worried about that?

Yes, that that people will try it? Now, what we good There is a piece of good news here the product. You can buy it outright for twelve thousand dollars, or you can pay ninety nine dollars a month. It used to be two hundred dollars a month, one ninety nine just until a few days ago. But what we discovered is people who fought this product and put it in their car, they're not using it. Eighty five percent of the time. They were very excited. They heard a hout

How is this allowed to control cars?

Then?

Are there no regulations against you know? Don't aren't there rules for driving? Like I had to go to a driver's z and I had to take a test to drive a car.

How come software is allowed to do whatever? It wants.

Yeah, well, we decided to try that, so we took it out for a d MD test. You got a great video on it showing what happened. It's actually four times it did something that the instructor said, you don't get your license if you if you do that it, yeah, it can't. It can't pass a driver's test. Doesn't know what a do not enter sign is, simply simply doesn't understand it. If you have a school bus, it stops, the rights are flashing, the stop sign is out, the

Do you see any benefit to this full self driving technology or do you think it should be banned entirely?

What they need to do is take it off the market. It needs to be recalled. It needs to be off the market. They need to fix all of these problems before they put it back on.

What Tesla is doing is one thing.

How does it compare to what other automakers are doing in the driving area?

Tesla is the worst by far. They claim to be the leader in automobile, in autonomous vehicles, The truth is there in last place, it is absolutely terrible. You can go right now, you're you're in La. They've got weaymos. You can call up a Weimo in Los Angeles and it will come to you. No driver, pick you up in Los almost everywhere in Los Angeles to almost everywhere else in Los Angeles and drive you there.

So you're not against this idea of cars driving us and you actually think that Weimo does a good job, a better job than.

Tesla a hundred times. It's not even comparable. It's working quite well.

What do you think the difference is? Tesla has a lot of money, They've got a lot of engineers. Weimo is part of Google. They have more sensors on their cars. Is that what it is?

What do you think Tesla needs to do to fix this?

Well, definitely the sensor is an issue, right, They've got they've got the light r and they've got radar and ultrasonic sensors as well that Tesla does not have. That has to contribute. They do say that. I mean, if you ask the people the way of people Google people, they'll say it's essential. You can't think you can that you can build a self driving car without without those without lighter. But Elon Musk personally says that's not true. It's ridiculous. He says I can drive. He says, I

So what is your advice to consumers Tesla owners who see this at you know, the free trial or the ninety nine dollars a month, what's your advice to them?

Try it?

But and I'm just quoting what Tesla says, be like a hawk. You know it's going to try to kill you. You know it's going to try to crash into a parked car or across the yellow line or whatever. You sit there and you have to be watching continuously everywhere. You have to look at the lanes beside you to make sure that they're nobody there because it will do something crazy. You just have to be sitting there waiting

So I'm curious with your Green Hills software.

You said you you super specialize in safety software for different planes and cars. Are you trying to build a world where your software is in the Tesla or they purchased something like some people might say like, hey, don't you have a conflict of interest here because you make this software that can make cars safer.

Well, I mean, you know if you had you know, if you had a vaccine for medicine, would you not tell people that you know that you can solve their problem? I'm not. I actually I was. I've been advertising on Twitter for people to take the free trial. So there's right now a free trial two million. Everybody who has a Tesla can download the full self driving for free

Can you say anything nice about the Tesla that's not related to the self driving? Do you think it's a good automobile and the whole ev movement or no?

Well, I own to eight Tesla's. My roadsters are my favorite things. Driving to work is my favorite activity of the day, and driving home because in the road story, it's the best car ever made in my opinion. My wife's been driving a Model S since twenty twelve. It's the same one. It's over eleven years old. It's the family car, and it works great and we've always been happy with it.

All right, Dan O'Dowd, how can folks learn more about the Dawn.

Project Dawnproject dot com.

Dan O'Dowd Greenhill Software, CEO and founder of the Dawn Project, thanks so much.

For joining me today.

Thank you for having me.

More rich on Tech coming your way right after this.

Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at triple eight Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one, the website for the show rich on Tech dot tv. If you are not signed up for my newsletter, that's the best place to do it. I send out a newsletter every week and it is chock

So let's go to William. Whoops, that's not William. There's William, William and Chino. You're on with Rich.

Hi, Rich, thanks for taking my call.

Yeah, what can I help with?

Well, occasionally we are I'm unable to go to church, maybe due to sickness or whatever, so we live stream it on the TV and we go through a PS four. And what I'm finding is that when we do that, but in an hour's amount of time, sometimes two, three, or even four times, the live stream gets cut off and we have to I have to back up and click on it again, get back into it. And I'm wondering, is it the PS four or could it be my TV?

All.

Yes, But here's the thing. Number one, how are you streaming this? Does this on like a website?

Yeah, we go, I go onto the PS four, I go into the WWW, and then I click on their website and then click on the online button.

So so number one.

So YouTube and Netflix are companies one hundred built around streaming. So they are the best technology for the best technology for streaming known to mankind. So their entire technology is getting a stream to start on almost any speed connection and still be super high quality. So they have built the best technology, and those two companies, specifically YouTube and Netflix, probably have the best streaming technology in the entire world.

Yeah, I want to relay an exasperating experience that I had over at Walmart involving Mobile X, which was featured last week on your show. Essentially, the departments are abandoned of store personnel. Everything is behind plexiglass fee through but can't.

Touch Yep, that's happening.

There is no indication that Mobile X is being promoted. And I had to track down a staff personnel to basically find out about Mobile X. And apparently the only thing that they have, and it's locked behind the counter, a full box of SIM cards for Mobile X. They don't carry Mobile X phones. They don't carry unlocked phones that would be appropriate for the SIM card. I asked the person, I have a locked phone from another carrier. Would it be possible to install the SIM card in

Oh? Absolutely so.

The first one I'd probably recommend is Now, are you buying this in a store or are you buying it online?

Do you want to go to a store.

Well, basically, I am an old time shopper and I prefer to look at the merchandise.

Okay, so I understand that, so I think the best I think the best like unlocked phone out there is probably going to be something like the Google Pixel seven A. But the problem is Google is coming out their new phone very soon, the AA that's going to be announced probably May fifteenth.

So I would I would hold off.

You're going to buy a Pixel, but I would say a phone like that is going to give you the least amount of issues with the software and the hardware, like if you want a nice phone that's going to last for a very long time and not give you a lot of And by the way, the software on these phones are updated for like almost I think Google announced seven years last time, really, but we have to wait for the for the eight A, not the seven A.

I was told about the Motive phones is that they simply don't operate there or they don't update they're operating.

And that's very often. Yeah, that was my issue.

So I think if you want that, I think the Google Pixel like this, the a lineup for the Google Pixel is going to be your best bet. Or you can even get the Pixel eight on sale at a decent price. And again you can keep that for seven years, so that's a long time, and they update the software on a regular basis.

Now real quick.

With respect to the whole Walmart and Mobile X, this is the issue with saving money on your phone line like this. With these mv and os, there are many of them that are a lot cheaper. The problem is it is mostly deiy which means you're doing everything yourself. There's not a huge customer service component unless you're interacting with these companies online. Eighty eight rich one O one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.

Very excited for our interview this hour.

Rosi Okamura, also known better known as Rosie Irl.

She is a voice.

Actor and content creator. She does something really fun. She does these videos where she prank calls scam callers, and since she's a voice actor, she does some really fun things. These videos get pretty wild and she just messes with these people to waste their time, and she also offers people tips on how to stay safe. So we will talk to her later this hour. Very excited for that. Let's go to Edward in Tampa, Florida. Edward, you're on with Rich.

Yeah.

Rich, it's great to hear.

I always listened to your show every Saturday. And excuse me if I mentioned this, but since I'm wasn't working, I had to. I did the cheap, cheap way of get in the new battery at Battery Plus. But I have a iPhone, etc. And your producer will tell me obviously there's upgrade SCS. What is your recommendation if I want to stick.

With se.

Okay?

So the first thing I do is I go to the mac Rumors Buyer's guide.

So this is a have you heard of this website?

No?

No?

Okay, So this is a great site, which what they do is they log all of the different Apple products, so every iPhone, every maccomputer, every iPad, because pretty much every product that Apple makes is on a certain cycle until they come out with the new product. So I'm gonna go to that macro's Buyer's Guide dot MacRumors dot com. Before you buy any Apple product, you should always consult this because you don't want to buy a product and then three weeks later or four weeks later, they come

Yeah?

If I had a guess, I'm gonna say it was twenty twenty.

Okay, So you have the original se So this is the this is the second version of it, and it's a great little phone. It's it's still got the fingerprint reader. It's it was about I think it was four hundred and twenty nine dollars. It's got the latest chip in it, or the latest chip at that time, five G. But here's the thing, it's been seven hundred and seventy four days since they came out with that phone. The average release time between iPhone ses is seven hundred and twenty

Se run that WebCAT again for me, because I want to write this. I got something to write on.

Sure, it's Buyer's Guide dot dot mac rumors, MacRumors dot com, and of course I'll link that up on my website, rich on tip dot tv. But that is a you know, are you not wanting to go with the face ID with the standard iPhone or what?

No, I don't need all the fancy stuff. So I'm pretty satisfied. Which is the basic gadgets in it?

Yeah, okay, because they are, you know, if you want to get if you do decide that you want to go, get a little bit of an upgrade with a face ID, which I actually do really think is handy. The iPhone thirteen. Apple is still officially selling that. It starts at five ninety nine, and so the main thing is that you know that phone is also a couple of years old. I'm trying to see the processor inside that phone.

Let's see here. I can't. I don't see it. Off the top of this website right here. Oh, here we go.

iPhone fourteen let's see here. Okay, so there's still a lot of them are still using that A fifteen Bionic and they're up to the A seventeen. I think that if you don't mind the you know, slightly older iPhone, you know you're going to be just fine. These things are still that the processors that Apple has put out in the last couple of years have been incredible.

So yeah, the good needs to be a sure thing is thought. That would be working at a hospital job, so obviously with that's going to be helpful, I'll have an option to do the older then, so that's going to great. Could be patient's all.

Yeah, I would say be patient if you still want to go with that. Se I would not buy the one that's currently available, just because it seems like any day now there will be a new one, so I would just wait. Yeah, yeah, okay you patients is key Edward, Thank you so much for the call today. Appreciate it. Uh. If you've opened up your Instagram this weekend, maybe you've noticed something new on the search bar when you go to your message area. It now says in the search bar,

What can you ask it?

Well, pretty much anything that you would ask chat ebt you can ask. It's given me suggestions here tips for home renovation, five cross country road trip tips. Screenwriting advice that must be local for the LA folks.

I kid you not.

I was in a coffee place the other day, one of the fanciest coffee places I've ever been, and I was doing a story, and I kid you not, I saw the stereotypical person writing the screenplay in Hollywood at the coffee shop, and I just had to laugh to myself because here we are in La and everyone, you know, everyone's a creator here. Everyone's a writer here, and I

You can try it.

You can also try this on the website Meta dot Ai, but here's the cool thing that I think you should try before you do anything else. Go to the website Meta dot ai. This is very different from any the other AI out there. They have an image generator image generator called Imagine, and what's so cool about it is that all the other image generators you have to type something in and wait for it to generate that image. But on Meta AI, it regenerates the image as you type.

Rick on Thousand Oaks, what's up, Hi?

My mother recently moved and her shelf service is really really body and bad, and I was wondering, is there a website where you could enter her address and it would tell you the cell sites closest to your house and the carriers on it, so you can kind of make a intelligent decision on which carrier you choose.

There's a couple websites that do this.

I can't say that they all work perfectly, but I think that it can give you an idea. Now, number one, there's only three cell carriers in the US three major carriers. Okay, you've got T Mobile, You've got Verizon, You've got AT and T. All of the other carriers or most of the other carriers run on those three networks. Now I'm just generalizing here. Yes, there are some smaller carriers out there,

Tell you kind of like wow.

It goes all the way back to twenty eleven, so you can see who's been on top, and they go through overall performance, network reliability, network accessibility, network speed, data performance, call performance, and text performance. So again, couple good places

It's just or go.

What network does cricket run on? For Cricket, it's AT and T. For min it's T Mobile, And then that will give you the network that you should be investigating at your house. So, rick, there's a couple of suggestions for you. Hopefully one of those will work. I thought this was interesting. Logitech is launching a mouse with a dedicated chat GPT button, so AI is taking over everything.

I just actually switched to a new mouse. And I'm not kidding.

If you have problems with your arm, Like if you're on the computer as much as I am and your your elbow is hurting, or your wrist is hurting, or your her shoulder is hurting, I just switched to the Logitech Lift. Oh my gosh, game changing my hand in shoulder and arm hurts less than ever before. It's kind of like a mouse that's on its side, so check it out. Logitech Lift doesn't have the chat GBT button.

Help.

Coming up next, we're going to talk to Irl Rosie. You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here talking technology with you website for the show rich on Tech dot TV. Very excited for my next guest. Perhaps you've seen her videos online.

I R L Rosie.

Rosie Okamura does videos where she calls scam artists and gets them at their own game. She is a voice actress, so she's really good at coming up with interesting and fun voices.

Rosie, Welcome to the show.

Hi, thanks for having me.

By the way, I mentioned to my kid that you're gonna be on my show and he's like, oh my gosh. I've seen her videos on social media and it's so exciting. And he was like, there's no way. I didn't think that was real, and I said, yeah, I think it is. So explain to me what you do.

First off, So I do what's called scam bating, and it's where I call the scammers in order to waste their time for as long as possible. And sort of educate the public on what to look out for if and when those videos go viral.

Let's play a little clip. I've got a little clip from your YouTube channel. Let's hear a couple of seconds of how you do this?

Oh babe, the babe put your finger on your teeth and say, how I'm on? I'm charlel. Thank you for holding it, don't make no sense.

Congratulations, you've been directed for a one hundred dollars Walmart gift card.

In order to contact your Walmart gift we will need to transfer you to a live representative. Thank you for holding the trials, hoping you claim the reward today.

Can I get you?

Yeah?

It's Diria d I.

PA MTZ.

All right, So, oh, I gosh, that's funny.

So what inspired you to start prank calling scammers and turning it into this sort of educational content.

I got into pranking scammers a few years ago after my mom fell victim to one of those tech pop up scams. So, for example, excuse me, For example, you know you're browsing on the computer and you get a pop up from Windows or Apple saying that you have a virus and to call this number and it looks legit because they use the same logos and they will usually use some sort of eight hundred number, and so my mom thought that it was real.

She called them.

They offered her a lifetime subscription of their services anti virus software, and it was about four ninety nine, four hundred and ninety nine dollars that is. And in order to help remove the viruses from her computer, they gained access remote access to her computer, which you know has all of her auto saved passwords, bank logins, you know, notes and stuff in her computer, with her social Security number, the whole nine yards, And.

So she gave them access.

They stole her information and they got her out of five hundred dollars. Luckily, I was able to call the bank in time and get that reversed.

But I wasn't done.

I asked my mom for that phone number that she called, and I called them back that same day, and I went on a Facebook live stream so that my mom could watch it. This is before there were a lot of live stream options on different platforms.

So I went on.

There and prank called this guy with like a Kin Kardashian type impression voice, and I had this guy on the phone for an hour and forty five minutes.

Oh my gosh, which was wild.

It went by really fast somehow.

And after that, you know, my inbox blew up with a bunch of friends and people that were watching, Hey, can you call this number? Oh my mom falled it for the same kind of scam? Can you call them? And I just yeah, tossed a couple of videos up on YouTube and some random person posted it on Reddit and it blew up, and so did my YouTube channel, and I was like, I.

Guess I'm doing this now.

So you know, during that, I learned a lot about scams, and there's new scams every day, and I've just yeah, kind of been riding that way ever since.

Well, your irl Rosie channel on YouTube has one point four million plus subscribers, so clearly you're doing something fun and interesting. Tell me about, like a memorable or outrageous scam call that you know you were involved with.

Oh boy, one of the first videos I did that went viral. I did a Britney Spears impression and it was a scam that revolves around they call you and tell you you've won a gift card, one hundred dollars gift card to Walmart or Target, and in order to receive it, you just have to pay you know, three dollars in shipping. And then they asked for your debit card information, so then you give that to a complete

And I told them that they were on a prank.

Show with celebrities, similar to like crank Ankers on MTV, and they believed me. The guy was breaking out and totally starstruck, and I wasted about an hour of his time and got to teach people about gift card scams.

So your idea is that the more time you waste of these people, the less they are able to scam other people.

Exactly, the longer they're on the phone with me, the less time they have to call someone who doesn't know better.

And then it's very entertaining in the meantime.

Now you're a voice actor and uh you know by trade here in Los Angeles, content creator as well improv comedy skills, all that good stuff. So can you do a voice like what like, let's let's I'll be the person that's calling. I'll be like, yeah, I'll be like, hey, I need your you've won a gift card. I need your personal bank information so we can deposit this to your bank account.

Yeah.

Usually I will use an elderly lady voice and her name is last name Gersh. Her name Ierma, so the scammer is forced to say iermash, which just makes me laugh.

So she talks a little like this. Her voice is lower and shaky and a little bit of a certain next there and make your say I'm a little bit sweeter when she's talken. And then sometimes she asks Siri for a little bit of whop and we will go booda.

I'm sorry, I didn't get that.

Sometimes they get an argument and she can't figure out her Siri and then yeah, it's like a hole silly back and forth between Urma and Siri, or sometimes you know Alexa, which is a little bit more human sounding, but still you know robotic.

Do these people hang up on you or do they are they laughing?

Like?

What and where these people located a lot like do you get the sense of like are they out of the US or in the US.

These scammers, I've.

Had scammers from all over. The gift card scammer was US. It was US based.

Uh you know, a lot of them come from India, Nigeria. But you know there's scammers everywhere. Unfortunately. Uh So it gets pretty pretty crazy. And they have hung up bopping before, just because after a while they realize I'm wasting their time. Sometimes they catch on to the joke and they're bored at work.

Work work, they're board you know over.

There in the scam call center, and they sometimes will have a little bit of fun with me. They will sometimes push the limit and get.

A little you know, weird, which you know, I.

Have to hang up the phone sometimes and I could just call someone else back instead. But yeah, they do hang up. They have laughed, they do go along with it once in a while. So it's all different kinds. It's different every time I call.

Has anyone ever seen their video go viral and kind of contacted you? Like these scam artists to say anything.

So sometimes they can tell that I am at least a YouTuber just based on you know, we we sort of we're all friends with each other, right, and we all share the numbers together and we call them all at the same time.

And the scammers are like, what's your YouTube channel?

Like, I know that you're just live streaming me and you're wasting my time and I.

Hope you get a lot of views on your YouTube.

Being all mad about it.

Sometimes they get excited.

They're like, oh, you're the Alexa girl, Like you're the theory, You're the Seeria girl.

I'm a fan of your videos.

Like then why do you still work there? But sometimes they will recognize me or or know what's going on.

But it's always very entertaining.

Okay, what's what's the advice you would give to someone who suspects they're being targeted by a scammer? And how do you even tell? Sometimes like what's your what do you what's your big takeaway from all this?

And what do you want to impart on people?

My big takeaway and the biggest thing I say is you don't first of all, don't answer the phone.

Who answers their phone anymore.

If you have a bank or a service calling, you just hang up and call the number back that's the official number from the website, because sometimes these scammers can spoof the actual phone number. So even if it does show up as well as Fargo or US Bank, or even if you type it in while they're on the phone, it don't check, that could still be a scammer. So I always tell people just hang up and call back and just deal with the whole times. Even when it's

So my big thing is hang up, even if.

It's like an emergency and it sounds like someone you know, hang up and just call them back right away with the number that you have on your end, just because spoofing is so scary. AI is like out of control. And then you know, when it comes to things on your computer or weird text messages from a fake shipping company, just don't click on anything.

Don't click on.

Anything, dot into the phone, you know, always hang up and call back.

All right, Rosie Okamura, voice actress and content creator, thank you so much for joining me. I'm gonna let you take us to break So can you just let people know where they can find you and you know, online, and then say you're listening to rich on Tech, but do it in one of your fun voices and take us.

To break here.

Sure, thanks for listening to rich on Tech.

Next we have a nice commercial break, and don't forget to follow me on all platforms at IRL.

Rosie, great, welcome back to rich on Tech. What a great interview. Oh my gosh, that was fun. Welcome back to the show.

I'm going to get to the feedback segment in just a second, but first let me just get through a couple things in a lightning round here. First off, Amazon, apparently we're removing it's just walk out technology from their Amazon Fresh stores in the US, So if you use this at the grocery store a couple locations in the LA area and other cities in America, apparently they're getting rid of that, but they're not giving up on the technology.

I knew that wasn't the case.

Google is getting rid of their Google one VPN for their Google one subscribers, but the Pixel VPN will remain, so I guess nobody's using the Google one VPN, but if you have a Pixel you'll still have that. Charter is trying to fight back against the Fubos of the world and the YouTube TVs. They are now introducing their own streaming TV package. It's got up to ninety channels

Really really good.

Like I'm very, very impressed, and the price is pretty good, one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars Nothing. I love this company. It's a funny name, but they do some really great stuff. I love their phone that they came out with, the Nothing phone this year. Nothing too. Now they've got earbuds. And when I put earbuds in my ears and they just sort of lock into my ears and they don't feel like they're gonna fall out, and they sound good. That is a winner in my book.

Haha?

Sort of kidding, Not really, there is I looked it up. There's a consent mode on the AI recorder, and I guess the first time it hears a new person's voice, it will say I need to hear their consent before I'll record them.

I don't know.

That sounds pretty wild. John says, I heard you talk about a clean install I don't need it now, but I'd like to be knowledgeable for the future. I have three laptops with Windows. Can I clean install without being connected to the Internet, and do I have to reinstall applications?

Thanks?

John, I listen every Saturday on KFI. Yes, a clean install you will have to reinstall your applications. That's the whole point of the clean install that it doesn't keep anything on there. Can you do it without the Internet?

Yes? I believe you can.

I know that Windows really tries to push the Internet connection when you're connecting and setting up, but you should be able to do it without the Internet. Michelle says, Hey, Rich, I'm embarrassed to ask this question. I have several Gmail addresses. Do I need to purchase and own the domain name from the registrar company for the Gmail address?

Example?

Do you need to purchase an annually pay to new richdemuro dot com from a registrar company for Richdemuro at gmail dot com. Well, you're asking two different things that don't really go together. So an email address at gmail dot com you do not need to purchase any sort of anything. You can just you know, use that. But if you want your email address to be Rich at richdemuro dot com, which I do have, you would need to purchase the registration for that domain. Now to get email.