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CNN 10
A Partial U.S. Government Shutdown; A Worldwide Women`s March; The Vulnerability of Driverless Cars
Aired January 22, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: A partial shutdown in the U.S. government. That`s what officially started on Friday night, and was still going when we
produced this show. That`s first today on CNN 10.
Congress and the president have to agree on funding for the U.S. government for all of its offices to stay open. They haven`t. Their latest deadline
to do this was Friday night. And though the House of Representatives passed a measure last week to keep the government funded temporarily, that
measure failed in the Senate, and Democrats and Republicans spent the weekend blaming each other for the roadblock.
Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. So, Democrats believe voters will blame Republicans for the shutdown.
But the Republican majority in the Senate is slim. They hold 51 seats to the Democrats` 49, and Republicans believe Democrats will be blamed because
they filibuster. They moved against legislation that would have kept the government open, and there weren`t enough votes in the Senate to overcome
the filibuster.
So, why did Democrats filibuster? Before they approve the budget, they want an agreement to be reached on what happens to 700,000 people who came
or were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Republicans don`t want to negotiate on that until enough Democrats vote to reopen the government
first. So, yesterday afternoon, both sides were dug in.
Most Americans are not directly affected by a government shutdown, but those who are face some uncertainty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Roughly 1.9 million government workers would be considered essential and stay on the job.
Air traffic controllers, security officers, food inspectors, prison guards, Social Security checks would go out. The post office would be open. But
at a steep price to many workers.
MICK MULVANEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: The military will still go to work. They will not get paid, OK? The border will still
be patrolled. They will not get paid.
FOREMAN: Meanwhile many services would be stopped or delayed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would back down its flu tracking program
even as the nation faces the worst outbreak in years. Some senior nutrition programs would be paused. Two hundred thousand passport
applications went unprocessed in 1995. Congress funds much of the scientific research done in this country. In 2013, that meant some
experiments went on hold and suffered costly losses of data.
And in space same year, that same year, for more than two weeks, NASA reportedly stopped monitoring potentially dangerous asteroids. A big one,
by the way, is expected to brush by Earth on February 4th.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Activists and protesters, Hollywood stars and politicians turned out in cities worldwide over the weekend for what`s called the Women`s March.
The first one also a massive event, was held a year ago, on the weekend when U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated. And many of this year`s
demonstrators, like those in the first women`s march protested against the election and the policies of the U.S. leader.
President Trump tweeted that people should march to celebrate America`s economic success over the past year, and the lowest female unemployment in
18 years.
Other issues of the march included sexual harassment. Recently, there`s been a wave of acquisitions against politicians, entertainers and members
of the media. Religious freedom, immigration, women`s rights and equality were also addressed by hundreds of thousand of men, women and children who
marched in America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia.
Most cars on the road today have what level of autonomous technology?
None, partial, conditional, or high automation?
The vast majority of today`s cars are still at level zero, meaning they have no automation and that the driver is in ultimate control at all times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: And that`s even if they have blind spot monitoring or emergency breaking systems.
The manufacturers are moving toward making cars with more autonomy. And one big argument for that safety. The U.S. government estimates that 94
percent of deadly car crashes are because of human error and that driverless cars could significantly reduce that. But what if they`re
hacked?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: We all carry computers in our pockets, and every day machines like thermostats, refrigerator, cameras, and even our cars are connected
online.
Experts call this constant connection the Internet of things. And just like everything else, it`s susceptible to security breaches. The two big
questions that I have: could autonomous vehicles be hacked to hurt us? And how can we be sure that the personal data that we produce in these cars are
protected?
The answers are still not perfectly clear.
BRUCE SCHNEIER, CYBER-SECURITY EXPERT: The Internet of things is going to have enormous benefits that I think we can`t even begin to realize -- the
power of computerizing and networking our environment.
But there are risks also. Here we are creating an Internet that senses things and acts. What we know about computers and software is that they
have bugs, they have vulnerabilities. All computer systems can be hacked. So, you can easily imagine these attacks being used against cars to cause
the car computer systems to crash, or cars being used as the attack vector.
So, as we build autonomous systems that affect the world, in a direct physical manner we risk bad actors doing it. We risk glitches and errors,
causing physical harm.
REPORTER: Using cars as weapons is unfortunately already a tactic used around the world. The good news is that perhaps far into the future,
properly functioning autonomous cars won`t allow humans to hit people. It could neutralize this tactic of terrorism. But if the cars can be
controlled remotely or hacked and programmed to cause harm, it could bring on a whole new set of issues.
To see what`s being done to make these systems more secure, I visited a company that actually started out in the video game industry. Nvidia now
also makes the graphic processing chips that go into driverless cars.
DANNY SHAPIRO, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF AUTOMOTIVE AT NVIDIA: We`ve developed an artificial intelligent brain for the car.
REPORTER: And how they build those chips will have major impacts on the safety of future driverless cars.
SHAPIRO: What we`re building is a computer first and then a car is built around it. We`re essentially building a map of the world in real time
based on what we sense. We had cameras, ultrasonic sensors, radars, Lidar, which is a laser scanner, and each of those sensors are generating a
massive amount of data.
REPORTER: Data collection is crucial for allowing these cars to function. But like security, it also raises questions about how the information
gathered from our personal lives will be used. The new technology has the attention of privacy advocates like Lauren Smith at the Future of Privacy
Forum in Washington, D.C., a group that explores issues with all sorts of home gadgets, like Amazon Echo`s Alexa system, drones, even smart dolls.
LAUREN SMITH, FUTURE OF PRIVACY FORUM: Alexa, are you spying on me?
AMAZON ECHO`S ALEXA SYSTEM: I only send audio back to Amazon when I hear you say wake word.
REPORTER: And now, autonomous cars.
SMITH: It`s important that people start to think about their cars in the same way that they think about their computer or smartphone. So, if you
use a technology like this that relies on connectivity, that relies on data inputs and outputs, you are creating sort of an information trail.
SCHNEIER: Data has good and bad uses. There are some very powerful reasons to collect data about us and our society and put it together so we
can do research, we can data-deliver services. Smart government is the wave of the future. But the same data can be used for surveillance, for
control. I don`t really think any government is prepared for the Internet of things and what it`s going to do.
These are computers that affect the world in direct physical manner. And there are risks to life and property.
Largely, Western governments have taken a very hands-off view to regulation of Internet. The United States is special. And that worked great when it
didn`t matter, when it was data, when it was a spreadsheet, when it was conversation. But when it`s a car and it`s a medical device, when it`s an
appliance, when it can actually do physical harm, that changes everything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: OK. So, let`s pretend a freezer malfunctions and continues making ice long after the tray is full. That might look a bit like what happened
recently in Ohio, except that in this case, the freezer was the Arctic and the tray was Lake Erie.
Ice shoves or ice tsunamis formed when winds blow ice across the lake and into its shores where it files and forms mountains of ice. Some hills here
grew to be more than 30 feet high.
If they`re not fans of "Frozen", the locals better hope it stops or Elsa. Sure, some fans may find it Arendelightful but it`s hard to conceal don`t
feel when a lake shore crystallizes like an icy blast, potentially causing an Olaf of problems. Unless, of course, the cold doesn`t bother you
anyway.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
END
