A Canadian man has been charged with dangerous driving for allegedly taking a nap while his self-driving Tesla car clocked up more than 90mph (150km/h).

Police said both front seats were fully reclined, and the driver and passenger were apparently asleep when they were alerted to the incident in Alberta.

When police turned on emergency lights and other vehicles moved out of the way, the Tesla Model S sped up.

The 20-year-old driver from British Columbia is due in court in December.

He had initially been charged with speeding and handed a 24-hour licence suspension for fatigue, but was subsequently charged with dangerous driving.

The incident happened near Ponoka, some 100km south of Edmonton, in July.

“Nobody was looking out the windshield to see where the car was going,” Police Sgt Darri Turnbull told CBC News.

He said that when they put on their emergency lights the Tesla accelerated, with vehicles ahead of it moving out of the way.

“Nobody appeared to be in the car, but the vehicle sped up because the line was clear in front.”

He added: “I’ve been in policing for over 23 years, and the majority of that in traffic law enforcement, and I’m speechless. I’ve never, ever seen anything like this before but of course the technology wasn’t there.”

Tesla cars currently operate at a level-two Autopilot, which requires the driver to remain alert and ready to act, with hands on the wheel.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has said he expects his vehicles to be completely autonomous, with little driver input needed, by the end of the year.

However, he added that there were “many small problems” that would need solving through real-world testing.

New approaches to tracking satellites and debris in orbit are to get a boost from the UK Space Agency.

UKSA is giving over £1m to seven firms to help advance novel sensor technologies and the smart algorithms needed to interpret their data.

Finding better ways to surveil objects moving overhead has become a high priority issue.

With more and more satellites being launched, there’s growing concern about the potential for collisions.

A big worry is the burgeoning population of redundant hardware and junk in orbit – some 900,000 objects larger than 1cm by some counts, and all of it capable of doing immense damage to, or even destroying, an operational spacecraft in a high-velocity encounter.

The projects being supported by UKSA come from a mix of start-ups and more established companies.

The overriding goal is to improve ways to spot, characterise and track objects.

Ultimately, this is information which could be fed into the automated traffic management systems of the future that will keep functioning satellites out of harm’s way.

The funded projects include:

• Lift Me Off: To develop machine-learning and artificial intelligence techniques to distinguish between satellites and space junk.
• Fujitsu: To also develop machine-learning approaches and quantum-inspired processing to improve mission planning to remove debris.
• Deimos and Northern Space and Security: To both develop a new range of optical sensors to track space objects from the UK.
• Andor: To enhance the sensitivity and speed of its camera detector technology to map and track ever smaller sized debris objects.
• D-Orbit UK: To refine the use of recently launched sensors to capture images of, and characterise, objects moving around a spacecraft.
• Lumi Space: The company is developing laser ranging technology to again spot, characterise and precisely track objects in orbit.

“We’ve known for a long while that the space environment is getting more difficult, more cluttered,” said Jacob Geer from UKSA. “Space surveillance and tracking is one of the key things we can do to keep safe those satellites we rely on now, and to make sure certain orbits don’t become inaccessible for future generations because there’s too much debris in them.

“We had 26 proposals come to us and I think we’ve selected a good cross-section of ideas in the seven companies we’re supporting,” he told BBC News.

While a lot of these projects are still at the lab stage, D-Orbit’s work is dedicated to pushing the capability of some of its hardware already in space.

The company recently launched a vehicle to carry and deploy a clutch of small satellites. This vehicle uses cameras to photograph its surroundings and to map the stars for the purposes of navigation.

D-Orbit has the idea of using the cameras’ imagery to also identify passing junk.

“One of the challenges in using star trackers is filtering out objects that are not supposed to be there – obviously, because you’re trying to compare what you can see against a star catalogue,” explained D-Orbit’s Simon Reid. “And, of course, it’s those extra objects which in principal are the things that are potentially debris.”

The funding announcement also coincides with the signing of a new partnership agreement between the Ministry of Defence and UKSA to work together on space domain awareness.

Both have valuable assets and interests in orbit that need protecting. And for the UK taxpayer, this investment was recently deepened with the purchase out of bankruptcy of the OneWeb satellite broadband company.

The UK government is now the part owner of one of the biggest spacecraft networks in the sky. OneWeb has so far launched 74 satellites in its communications constellation, with plans to put up thousands more.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “Millions of pieces of space junk orbiting the Earth present a significant threat to UK satellite systems which provide the vital services that we all take for granted – from mobile communications to weather forecasting.

“By developing new AI and sensor technology, the seven pioneering space projects we are backing today will significantly strengthen the UK’s capabilities to monitor these hazardous space objects, helping to create new jobs and protect the services we rely on in our everyday lives.”

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

New Zealand’s communications security bureau has been called in to help after its stock exchange was hit by cyber attacks for the fourth consecutive day.

The exchange failed to open as planned on Friday due to so-called “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks.

The $135bn (£102bn) market, which is nearing a record high, has said the attacks came from overseas.

The exchange’s website was overwhelmed by the cyber attacks, forcing it to halt trading.

“I can’t go into much more in terms of specific details other than to say that we as a government are treating this very seriously,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in a media briefing.

The stock market operator NZX said its networks had crashed due to the cyber attacks, which originated overseas.

“We are currently experiencing connectivity issues which appear similar to those caused by severe DDoS attacks from offshore this week,” NZX said after the market failed to open at 10am Wellington time.

Trading on the exchange eventually resumed three hours later.

DDoS attacks are designed to knock a website offline by flooding it with huge amounts of requests until it crashes.

Such attacks are relatively simple in nature and rely on their sheer scale to be effective.

Technology Scare tactics

In November New Zealand cyber-security organisation CertNZ issued an alert that emails were being sent to financial firms threatening DDoS attacks unless a ransom was paid.

The emails claimed to be from a well known Russian hacking group called Fancy Bear.

But CertNZ said at the time the threat had never been carried out, beyond a 30-minute attack as a scare tactic.

Other than saying that the attacks were from overseas, NZX has yet to comment on their source or whether any demands have been made.

In June, technology giant Amazon said its online cloud, which provides the infrastructure on which many websites rely, had fended off the largest DDoS attack in history.

The disruptions to trading in New Zealand have come at a particularly bad time for investors as it is currently in a busy company earnings season.

Some of China’s biggest technology firms are expanding operations in Singapore as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing.

Tencent and Alibaba are increasing their presence in the city state while TikTok owner ByteDance is reported to be investing billions of dollars.

Considered neutral territory, Singapore has good ties to both the US and China.

Relations between Washington and Beijing are growing increasingly hostile, particularly over technology.

Tencent announced this week it was “expanding its business presence in Singapore to support our growing business in South East Asia and beyond”.

The new regional office is described as a “strategic addition” to its current offices in South East Asia.

Tencent’s WeChat messaging app is facing a ban this month in the US, along with TikTok, under the Trump administration’s clampdown on Chinese apps and tech firms.

Donald Trump has already imposed bans on Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.

“Given the US-China tensions in tech and the heightening risk of decoupling, it makes sense for Chinese tech companies to separate operations in China and outside of China,” said Tommy Wu at Oxford Economics.

“Singapore would be an ideal location given the city state’s comparative advantage in tech, its geographic proximity to China and as an innovation hub in South East Asia.”

Singapore has always been seen as a regional base for Western firms because of its advanced financial and legal system. Now it’s firmly on the radar of Chinese companies.

The political turmoil in Hong Kong and the introduction of China’s controversial national security law has seen many firms look for a more stable business environment within Asia.

Technology Masking China

But there is another reason why Singapore is so attractive to China, according to Nick Redfearn, deputy chief executive at UK-based consultancy Rouse.

It could explain why the city state has attracted so much foreign direct investment (FDI) compared to other South East Asia countries he said.

“This is usually because regional headquarters, operating on behalf of parent companies, act as the foreign investor in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and elsewhere.

“This can help Chinese companies avoid the appearance of Chinese investment,” he said.

South East Asia overtook the EU to become China’s largest regional trading partner in 2020, according to Mr Redfearn.

Technology Global footprint

Rui Ma, a Chinese tech expert and investor, added: “You’ve seen Western companies (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and many more) make it their Asia Pacific headquarters for a while now, so it’s natural Chinese companies also consider it for the same reasons.

“I think the recent US-China geopolitical tensions only make it even more attractive, but that’s not the only or primary reason.”

She says globalisation is another driving force. “If Western companies can be global, why can’t we?

“Chinese companies are very much willing to invest for the long term and are not going to be content to be left behind when it comes to future opportunities.”

In the battle for tech supremacy between the US and China, America has “dropped the ball” in funding for basic research, according to former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

And that’s one of the key reasons why China has been able to catch up.

Dr Schmidt, who is currently the Chairman of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, said he thinks the US is still ahead of China in tech innovation, for now.

But that the gap is narrowing fast.

“There’s a real focus in China around invention and new AI techniques,” he told the BBC’s Talking Business Asia programme. “In the race for publishing papers China has now caught up.”

China displaced the US as the world’s top research publisher in science and engineering in 2018, according to data from the World Economic Forum.

That’s significant because it shows how much China is focusing on research and development in comparison to the US.

For example, Chinese telecoms infrastructure giant Huawei spends as much as $20bn (£15.6bn) on research and development – one of the highest budgets in the world.

This R&D is helping Chinese tech firms get ahead in key areas like artificial intelligence and 5G.

Dr Schmidt blames the narrowing of the innovation gap between the US and China on the lack of funding in the US.

“For my whole life, the US has been the unquestioned leader of R&D,” the former Google boss said. “Funding was the equivalent of 2% or so of GDP of the country. Recently R&D has fallen to a lower percentage number than was there before Sputnik.”

According to Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a US research institute, the US government now invests less in R&D compared to the size of the economy than it has in more than 60 years.

This has resulted in “stagnant productivity growth, lagging competitiveness and reduced innovation”.

Dr Schmidt also said the US’s tech supremacy has been built on the back of the international talent that’s been allowed to work and study in the US – and warns the US risks falling further behind if this kind of talent isn’t allowed into the country.

Technology Tech war

“This high skills immigration is crucial to American competitiveness, global competitiveness, building these new companies and so forth,” he said. “America does not have enough people with those skills.”

The US has been embroiled in a tech cold war with China and in recent months has stepped up its anti-China rhetoric.

This week it revoked the visas of 1,000 Chinese students it claims have military links and accused Chinese tech firms of acting as agents for the Chinese Communist Party – claims Beijing and these companies reject.

The Trump administration has also taken steps to block Chinese tech firms like Huawei and Chinese apps including TikTok and WeChat, saying they pose threats to national security.

Beijing has said this is “naked bullying”, and Dr Schmidt says the bans will mean China will be even more likely to invest in its own domestic manufacturing.

Dr Schmidt says the right strategy for a US-China relationship is what is called a ‘rivalry partnership’ where the US needs to be able to “collaborate with China, while also competing with them”.

“When we’re rivals, we are rough, we are pursuing things. We’re competing hard, we’re trying to get advantage – real competition – which the US can do well, and which China can do well. But there’s also plenty of areas where we need to be partners.”

Ever since China claimed success in the secretive launch of an experimental spacecraft, experts have been pondering over what it could be and what it did in space.

The spacecraft – mounted on a Long March 2F rocket – was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China on 4 September and safely returned to Earth after two days in orbit.

“The successful flight marked the country’s important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research and is expected to offer convenient and low-cost round-trip transport for the peaceful use of space,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said on 6 September in a brief report.

But unlike recent Chinese high-profile space missions, very few details have emerged about the vehicle and no visuals have been released.

Technology Mysterious vehicle

Chinese authorities have been tight-lipped about the nature of the short-duration excursion and what technologies were tested.

The exact launch and landing times were not revealed, nor was the landing site although it is thought to be the Taklamakan Desert, which is in northwest China.

“There are many firsts in this launch. The spacecraft is new, the launch method is also different. That’s why we need to make sure there is extra security,” a military source told South China Morning Post (SCMP).

An official memo circulating on social media also warned staff and visitors to the launch site not to film the lift-off or discuss it online, according to SCMP.

The launch of the vehicle may have come as a surprise – there was no official announcement prior to the launch – but China has been working on such technology for the past decade. Three years ago, China said it would launch a space vessel in 2020 that “will fly into the sky like an aircraft” and be reusable.

A reusable spacecraft – as the name implies can undertake multiple trips to space – thereby potentially lowering the overall cost of launch activity. A traditional one-off spacecraft – costing tens of millions of dollars – is practically rendered useless after a single mission.

The experimental vessel reached an altitude of about 350km, which is in line with China’s previous crewed flights. The spacecraft also released an unknown object into the orbit before returning to Earth.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, says the aim of the mission was likely to test out the vehicle’s systems such as power, temperature, stability and to prove it could re-enter and land correctly.

Once the testing is complete, such a vehicle could be used to launch and repair satellites, survey the Earth, as well as take astronauts and goods to and from orbit, possibly to a planned future Chinese space station.

Technology Comparisons to US’ X-37 space plane

The Chinese craft’s size and shape remain unclear but it is widely believed to be some sort of uncrewed space plane similar to the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle operated by the US Air Force.

The recent mission could be linked to the Shenlong – or divine dragon – space plane project, which has been in development for some time, according to reports. A second Chinese reusable space plane called Tengyun, or cloud climber, is also in the works.

If confirmed as a space plane, China would become only the third country to have successfully launched such a vehicle into orbit after the US and the former Soviet Union.

The European Space Agency is working on its own reusable orbital vehicle called Space Rider, while India is also said to be developing a space shuttle-like craft.

The X-37B, resembling a miniature space shuttle, has been in orbit since late May following its launch on its sixth assignment. Very little is known about the X-37B’s missions, prompting speculation that the planes could be used for spying activity or testing space weapons.

Similarly, the lack of publicity has given rise to speculation that the Chinese spacecraft could also possibly have some military use.

“The secrecy, I am sure, is just because it is a military project,” adds McDowell, who has been closely following the mission.

There is little distinction between China’s civilian and military space programmes which fuels suspicions about Beijing’s space ambitions.

“It is reasonable to assume that what’s being tested has some military applications, probably new satellite equipment and spying technologies,” notes Bleddyn Bowen, a space policy academic at the University of Leicester.

“We’ll have to wait and see how many future flights like this China may conduct to see whether it will match the scale of X-37B,” he told the BBC.

China’s state-run outlet Global Times, citing observers, did say that the country should have the capability to strike anywhere on Earth within half an hour, just as the X-37B does.

Technology China’s growing space ambitions

Whatever its purpose, the reusable system marks yet another milestone for China’s ambitious space programme, and comes weeks after the launch of Tianwen-1, China’s latest attempt to reach Mars.

China has poured significant funding into its space efforts, and last year became the first country to send an uncrewed rover to the far side of the Moon.

President Xi Jinping has also thrown his support behind the country’s space endeavours and the Chinese state media regularly cast the “space dream” as one step in the path to “national rejuvenation”.

Earlier this year it also completed the network of satellites for its BeiDou navigation system, an alternative to the US GPS system. China is also working toward sending astronauts to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.

“If this really is a space plane, and not just a reusable capsule like Dragon, then it represents a big step forward in China’s space technology as winged re-entry is really hard to do,” notes McDowell.

“China was way behind in space but has been gearing up its space programme on all fronts and is now catching up fast. The spacecraft launch is just another reflection of that.”

Bleddyn Bowen adds the spacecraft launch is “just another part of China becoming a comprehensive space power that utilises space technology for the purposes of war, development, and prestige like all others”.

BBC Click’s Paul Carter reports on some of the best technology news stories this week including:

See more at Click’s website and @BBCClick