Waymo made a virtual human driver to improve its robotaxis, Seattle will impose a year-long ban on large data centers, and Kalshi will require employment info for some bets

**Engadget** (0:00)
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**Engadget** (0:33)
Waymo made a virtual human driver to improve its robo-taxis.
Seattle is close to approving a year-long ban on large data centers.
And Kalshi will require employment info for some bets as an insider trading precaution. It's Wednesday, June 10th, and here's a quick look at some of the news happening in and around tech this morning from Engadget.
What is it that makes human drivers better than autonomous systems? Well, Waymo is trying to figure that out with a new cognitive system called RED, which stands for Reference Driver, that models the way people stay safe on roads. Now, the aim is to test this virtual human driver against its own robotaxis to improve accident avoidance. Waymo Safety Chief Mauricio Pena said that evaluating AV safety is multifaceted and understanding how a human handles conflict is a critical piece of that puzzle. By establishing this reference model of a competent human response, well, the company hopes that it will help the industry move toward a shared scientifically grounded approach for evaluating collision avoidance behavior.
Waymo developed the RED model in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and published the findings in a Nature research paper. The company likened the system to a behavioral crash test dummy designed to avoid crashes in the first place. Now, RED is based on a neuroscientific concept called active inference, which posits that people are always trying to minimize surprise. It expands on Waymo's previous models by simulating how a careful and competent human driver updates their beliefs as a situation evolves, manages uncertainty about other road users' intentions, and selects the evasive maneuver, whether that is braking or swerving, or a combination of the two. The model fuses several human traits. Looming judges threats based on how fast an object grows in its field of view. Traffic norm filters for actions that fall outside of law-abiding behavior to devise a plan if something goes wrong. It even accounts for single-foot driving by creating a two-tenths of a second pause between gas and brake application. Red also does something many of us were taught by our parents or driving instructors. Assume something will go wrong. The Waymo team explained that Red can model proactive avoidance, showing how a competent driver anticipates potential risks to avoid entering into a conflict in the first place. Waymo is working with other researchers along with safety organizations and regulators to help perfect a model that reflects a careful and competent human driver. To accelerate that, the company will make Red open source available under an academic non-commercial license.
The Seattle City Council has unanimously approved a moratorium on the construction of new large AI data centers for one year. Mayor Katie Wilson has yet to sign it, but according to the Seattle Times, she was looking forward to doing so. Wilson had vocally supported a ban after the Times reported back in April that five large data center project proposals in the city would consume up to a third of Seattle's current demand for electricity. The city's residents also raised concerns about the center's potential water usage and noise pollution. Seattle's greater metropolitan area serves as home to Microsoft, while Amazon's headquarters is in the city itself. Google and Meta have offices in the city as well. As Geekwire noted, the tech giants do not actually operate data centers within Seattle, so the moratorium will mostly affect developers and providers. The moratorium puts a temporary ban on the development of large data centers that use more than 20 megavolt amperes of energy, which can power thousands of homes. It could be extended for six more months. In addition, the council approved a bill that requires the city to study the impacts of AI data centers on Seattle's electricity and water usage, utility rates, land use, local jobs, and public health to gather the information needed for permanent regulations. One council member added an amendment to the bills, differentiating traditional data centers from AI hyperscale facilities. Once Mayor Wilson signs the moratorium, Seattle will join the growing list of cities and counties that have put either a temporary or permanent ban on new data centers, including Denver, New Orleans, and Minneapolis.
Kalshi is taking a new step toward preventing insider trading on its platform. For certain bets, the prediction market will require users to disclose where they work. The new rules will be rolling out in the coming weeks and are expected to be applied to topics such as company performance and national security, although the exact guidelines have not been disclosed yet. A rep for the company told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on this change, that Kalshi would typically confirm the employment information if it finds suspicious activity connected to an account. Insider trading has been a recurring problem for prediction markets. Kalshi has already had multiple high-profile cases on its watch, including an employee of YouTuber MrBeast and three political office candidates, one of whom tried to spin it as a campaign promise for prediction market regulation. The most recent instance saw insider trading allegations made against former congressman George Santos. Considering how willing prediction market users have been to flout the rules, it's hard to guess whether this policy will substantially curb insider trading, or whether people will simply find new ways to orchestrate lucrative wins. While several states have attempted to sue prediction markets and regulate them as gambling platforms, the federal government has intervened and claimed sole jurisdiction for the sector, under the US. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. International efforts to curb the businesses have gained more traction, such as a ban in Spain, while the domestic leadership investigates how to regulate them.