AM signals: threat score, job predictions, autopilot, cellphone safety

GM continues to face legal problems related to defective ignition switches used in Cobalt and related vehicles. Mike Spector in the Wall Street Journal writes that the company is headed to trial today just as it prepares to take the stage at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The current trial relates to a May 2014 crash of a 2003 Saturn Ion.

Weston Phippen at National Journal takes a look at recently release Bureau of Labor Statistics predictions. The good news is that the U.S. is expected to add 10 million jobs by 2024; the bad news is that most will be low-paying. Among the high paying are jobs in software development. Employment in that area will grow 18.8% by 2024; they now pay a median salary of $95,510. Most jobs, however, pay little. Positions in home health care, for example, will increase 38.1% by 2024 but now pay only $21,380. Phippen quotes Jonathan Bowles, executive director for the Center for an Urban Future, as noting there are very few jobs offering wages between $32,000 and $60,000.

Tesla is restricting the use of its autopilot feature in residential areas, according to the Wall Street Journal. Writes Mike Ramsey, “Chief Executive Elon Musk said during a third-quarter conference call that the company would likely update the software in its autopilot system after drivers posted dozens of videos of themselves doing unsafe things, such as getting into the rear seat while the car was operating or reading a book.”

Steven T. Corneliussen, a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics, takes a look at inconsistent reports on cellphone safety in Physics Today. Media sources ranging from the New York Times to the Breitbart website have addressed confusion arising from policy confusion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the effects of low-level nonionizing radiation.

Police are turning to datamining to determine threat scores. Justin Jouvenal in the Washington Post reports that police in Fresno, CA, used Beware software to calculate a suspect’s potential for violence. “The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest reports, property records, commercial databases, deep Web searches, and the man’s social-media postings,” Jouvenal writes. “It calculated his threat level as the highest of three color-coded scores: a bright red warning.” Civil libertarians express concerns over privacy.