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Amazon's Zoox unit won U.S. approval on Wednesday for limited commercial deployment of its novel steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous ride industry, the U.S. auto safety agency said Thursday. The exemption from ‌National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules requiring human controls, first reported by Reuters, marks a milestone for companies developing robotaxis from ‌the ground up, rather than modifying conventional cars under safety regulations written long before self-driving technology emerged. Along with Zoox, whose electric carriage-style vehicle has two rows of inward-facing seats and ​a top speed of 75 miles per hour, others such as Tesla and Alphabet's...

Gainesville, FL - In an effort to win votes, in the critical swing state of Florida, the Kerry/Edwards team has volunteered to replace fired coach Ron Zook for the remainder of the season. "When I played football as a young man in Vietnam, I did not hesitate to beat the Bulldogs and I won't now. Floridians are tired of this failed Zook administration. They continued to call the wrong play at the wrong time in the wrong game. It's time for them to come clean with this Gator nation." When asked what he would do differently, however, the senator replied...

I just heard reports out of Orlando that Zook is resigning and UF has scheduled a press conference for 3:30 this afternoon. Gator Nation, our long nightmare is almost over.

About 40 of the Ho Ping staff, furious at their being quarantined inside the hospital over the massive SARS outbreak there, skirted a police cordon to stage a protest in front of the hospital yesterday. "Wrong policy," read one banner unfurled the nurses and other workers protesting the government's decision to seal off the hospital Thursday after seven of the Ho Ping staff were suspected of having SARS. They asked the policy-makers to come stay with them in the hospital. "We don't want to contract SARS. Many of us want to jump (to death) off the hospital building, or we...