Today’s big topic: FDM director is surprised by Denmark’s yes to a self-driving Tesla: Saw a serious error
Sales of American electric cars from Tesla are plummeting in Denmark because of the company’s owner, Elon Musk, and his role in U.S. politics. Electric Tesla cars on H.C. Andersens Boulevard in Copenhagen.
What’s happening?
With Danish regulators’ approval of Tesla’s driverless technology, the country’s traffic authorities have taken a »surprising and exciting« step, said Torben Lund Kudsk, political director at FDM, the motorists’ association.
Denmark is the fourth E.U. country to approve Tesla’s self-driving system — which, however, may not be left to drive on its own. The driver must actively monitor that it behaves as it should and be ready to intervene at any moment. FDM estimates that about 30,000 Danish Tesla owners have the required hardware.
»Computers make fewer mistakes than we humans do. But they make mistakes«, Mr. Kudsk emphasized.
Why it matters!
FDM’s concern is that, in practice, Tesla owners will pay less attention to traffic and to the car’s behavior.
»It really, really drives well. And it feels extremely safe. You’ll probably get lulled into a false sense of security because it drives far better than you ever could. But then, out of nowhere, it suddenly makes a serious mistake«, Torben Lund Kudsk said.
That is why he is urging authorities to improve accident statistics so it becomes possible to see whether a driverless car was involved. You can’t tell from the way accidents are reported today.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Google calls it the biggest change in 25 years. And it is causing deep concern
With artificial intelligence as the engine, Google will be able to summarize the news and handle everything from a personalized fitness plan to monitoring ticket prices, without users ever having to leave the platform. The search function has – in Google’s own words – been reimagined with AI. »The intelligent search box puts our most advanced AI tools right at your fingertips and makes it easier to ask your questions«, Google says in its own presentation. That worries the Danish Media Association, Danske Medier, which represents private news outlets in Denmark. A new study shows, according to Danske Medier, that Danes’ time spent on AI services is rising sharply, and that Google’s AI-based search tool, AI Mode, sends zero traffic on to news publishers.
– Social Liberal immigration spokesperson: »It’s astonishing how much attention ends up being focused on those 66 people«
Radikale Venstre is the government’s weak link when it comes to the desire to communicate an unchanged, tough immigration policy. For decades, the party has been the favorite foil of both the right’s original hard-liners and the long-converted socialdemokrater, who have taken turns sneering at the Social Liberals’ naive humanitarians. The man who will be defending the party against many of the incoming shots is 30-year-old Magnus Georg Jensen, a newly elected (RV) member of Parliament who, on Tuesday, was appointed spokesperson on immigration and integration. »My starting point is that we focus far too little on improving integration efforts and far too often end up talking about a handful of criminal foreigners,« Magnus Georg Jensen says.
– Leaked confidential report: Britain’s Treasury served as an »ATM« for gangsters and terrorists
Gangsters, terrorists in the Islamic State, and hostile countries like Russia have, over a number of years, siphoned off 28 billion British pounds from the British Treasury. Much of that money came from foreign aid and the coronavirus relief packages and has, to a large extent, ended up benefiting Britain’s enemies. That is according to a classified government report whose contents The Daily Telegraph says it can reveal. The report was prepared under the previous Conservative government, which decided to keep it secret to avoid political embarrassment, the newspaper writes.
Talk of town: Professor sees several reasons many people will leave the workforce before retirement age
One after another, people who long ago passed the age for the state pension keep working, undeterred. It gives their lives meaning, and employers get to hold on to seasoned staff with deep professional know-how.
Around 100,000 state pensioners are working, according to Jobindsats.dk, and it is especially newly retired pensioners who have not let go of working life. A little more than one in five – 22 percent – of 68-year-olds are employed.
But that is not the whole picture, explains one of the researchers behind the project ’Seniorarbejdsliv’ at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA) and Aalborg University: In 2025, every other wage earner over 50 – 49 percent – »expects« to leave the labor market before reaching the state pension age. The PFA executive expects the retirement age to keep rising for the simple reason that Parliament has approved an increase in the pension age to 70 in 2040.
»But regardless of the increase in pension age, there has also been a long-running trend over recent decades toward Danes withdrawing later from the labor market, and there will probably be greater variation in when we retire«, says Jesper Brask Fischer, PFA’s head of welfare and senior issues.
Read the full article here.
A guide to this year’s Copenhagen jazz festival
It can be hard to navigate a program of more than 1,000 concerts at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Music critic David Dyrholm points to the Danish underground – and far out into space.
Six strings, new tones
Anyone with an Instagram profile and even the slightest interest in the jazz world has probably come across Casper Hejlesen. During the festival, Hejlesen returns ’home’ with a concert at Brønshøj’s new cultural center, Brøk. With new music in the borderlands between free jazz and contemporary composed music – and in a new quartet format with London cellist Benedicte Adrian, Gustav Broman on bass, and the ever-present Cornelia Nilsson on drums.
Casper Hejlesen Quartet. Brønshøj Sommer Jazz, July 4
Musvit in the Meatpacking District
I’ve had a sneak listen, and there’s plenty to look forward to. The band and lead singer Ronja Rose Andersson tumble between diary-like dispatches from life in your 20s, moss-green Scandinavian forest jazz, half-heavy hip-hop, and tributes to both Miles Davis and Lee Konitz.
Musvit. H15, July 9
Diamond rhythms
Drummer and singer Anja Jacobsen, from the noise-metal death-jazz band Selvhenter and Valby Vokalgruppe, has borrowed Alice in Nørrebro for what sounds like a properly spacey evening. She has »developed her own compositional method ... the so-called ’diamond rhythms’ are visual, intuitive structures of colored dots arranged in patterns that can be interpreted from multiple directions.
Anja Jacobsen: Variations – with Lars Bech Pilgaard (guitar) and Anders Bach (percussion). Alice CPH, July 5
Read the full guide here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.