Would you inject artificial blood if your life depended on it? Would you put your children on a self-driving bus? Can you trust AI CEOs that love being part of the World Economic Forum? Show Notes WEIRD CORNERS Clinical trial on artificial blood cells to begin in Japan Common wild amphibians banned from Yahoo auctions Train travels all day long with corpse aboard in Tokyo area SOCIETY 5.0 JR West now has giant robots performing maintenance work via VR-goggled operators Utilizing AI to realize demand forecasting and plan optimization for the global manufacturing supply chain Prime Minister Kishida announces that autonomous driving will be implemented at 10 locations, eliminating the need for a driver Self-driving buses move smoothly through tunnels in Hokkaido's Kamishihoro town Kawasaki City to begin demonstration experiment of self-driving buses that cross prefectural borders, the first in Japan, from January next year, aiming for "driverless" by 2027 Tier IV, whose president is an autonomous driving engineer, is ranked "No. 1 in Japan" in fundraising! Survey conducted from January to June 2024 Nissan-backed China's self-driving WeRide applies for IPO in U.S. Denso-affiliated J-QuAD sees second consecutive quarterly profit increase due to "special demand" caused by autonomous driving development? Toyota's research and development expenditure hits record high of 1.3 trillion yen! Will it be used for "Autonomous Driving" and "Woven City"? NEXCO Central conducts demonstration experiment of self-driving snowplow on Shin-Tomei Expressway SUPPLY CHAIN WARS Chinese takeover of European seaports: EU turned a blind eye on security risks for years, experts say - Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism Linked by Russia, North Korea and Belarus vow ‘new era’ of bilateral ties Japan devising support plan on trade, decarbonization for Central Asia Uber, China’s BYD, form partnership to deploy 100,000 EVs in EU and Latin America Taiwan is readying citizens for a Chinese invasion. It’s not going well.