Wednesday, February 4, 2015

GOOGLE DRIVELESS CAR

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Google driverless car


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States that allow driverless cars public road testing. In addition, a law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing autonomous motor vehicles.
Toyota Prius modified to operate as a Google driverless car driving a test course[1]

The Google Self-Driving Car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for autonomous cars, mainly electric cars. The software powering Google's cars is called Google Chauffeur.[2] Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a "self-driving car". The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.[3] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.[4]

Legislation has been passed in four U.S. states and Washington, D.C.allowing driverless cars. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, after Google had been lobbying in that state for robotic car laws.[5][6] The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehiclesissued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012, to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology.[7] In April 2012, Florida became the second state to allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads,[8] and Californiabecame the third when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google HQ in Mountain View.[9] In December 2013, Michigan became the fourth state to allow testing of driverless cars in public roads.[10] In July 2014, the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics ordinance that includes provisions to allow for self-driving cars.[11]

On May 28, 2014, Google presented a new prototype of their driverless car that had neither a steering wheel nor pedals.[12]

On December 22, 2014, Google unveiled a fully functioning prototype of their driverless car and planned to test it on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in 2015.[13]

Technology

Road testing

Commercialization

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Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Top 6 Tax Mistakes for Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar Drivers

Top 6 Tax Mistakes for Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar Drivers

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Top 6 Tax Mistakes for Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar Drivers

[This is a post written by Derek from SharedEconomyCPA.com. The information contained in this website is meant only for guidance purposes and not as professional legal or tax advice.  Further, it does not give personalized legal, tax, investment, or any business advice in general.

For additional tax resources from Rideshare Dashboard, check out my newly launched online course for Uber, Lyft and Sidecar Taxes!]

I’ve spoken to may Rideshare drivers about their tax situation and realized that there are a lot of misconceptions and false facts that are floating around.  I compiled a list below of the top 5 tax mistakes in a hope to help clarify taxes and make sure Rideshare drivers aren’t overpaying their taxes while being compliant with IRS rulings.

  1. No 1099, No taxes: This is completely not true. Any income you receive as a self employed worker, either cash or deposited into your account, needs to be accounted for. Just because Uber, Lyft and Sidecar may not send you a 1099doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay taxes on what you earned from them. [Note: Uber is sending 1099-K if you have completed one trip, and a 1099-MISC if you have any passenger or driver referral bonuses. It is unknown at this time if Lyft will do the same.]
  2. Misunderstanding of EmploymentStatus: As a Rideshare Driver, you are considered a “Business Owner” from a tax perspective and therefore, every dollar that you earn, you are expected to pay taxes on. Often times, people overlook their employment status and mistakenly think that their taxes are already being withheld – this is not the case and you will have to pay taxes on every dollar you make!
  3. Incorrect Tax Filling: When filling your tax returns, all of your income and expenses should be recorded on the Schedule C of your 1040. People often mistake this and put their 1099 income on different forms. When filling your tax return, make sure to record all of your income and expenses on the proper forms to avoid future confusion and having to amend or redo your tax return.
  4. Missing or Incomplete Business Expense Records: As a 1099Independent Contractor, there are numerous tax advantages that you can take and not keeping track of your expenses has been one of the main reasons that people are unable to save money. A tax deduction reduces your taxable income (i.e. the amount of money that you will ultimately be taxed on). Therefore, when receiving 1099income, it’s important to make sure that you keep clean and adequate records to help save you money.
  5. Not Paying Estimated Taxes:  If you are a Rideshare driver and expected to owe more than $1,000 in taxes at the end of the year, you will need to pay estimated taxes 4 times a year.  If you do not pay estimated taxes, you can be exposed to penalties ranging from 6 to 8 percent. You can see these two posts more for information:
  6. Not Saving for Taxes: Since taxes are not being withheld, many Rideshare drivers are surprised and mortified once they realize how much money they owe in taxes at the end of the year. The taxes due should not come as a surprise if you save for them throughout the year. Make sure to set aside a little bit of money from each paycheck to avoid an end of the year scramble to pay taxes.  If you have not saved for taxes, make sure to keep track of your business expenses!  The easiest app on the market I’ve seen is called Tabby Tax.  Their website is www.trytabby.com and they have a free 30 day trial.  It’s a must download for anyone trying to save money on their taxes.

Is there anything else you want to add? Is there something you forgot that had to pay for later?

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Saturday, January 31, 2015

TRICKS FOR iPHONE

      • 13 Tricks You Didn't Know You Could Do On Your iPhone

         Airplane mode

        If you turn on airplane mode when you're charging your phone (regardless of whether you're in the air or not) your phone will charge almost twice as fast. It's perfect for when you're at a bar and need a quick charge to keep the night going. 

       Letter passcode

      Many iPhone users don't know that they aren't limited to having a 4-digit passcode. By going to Settings > General > Passcode Lock and turning off “Simple Passcode," you can change your passcode to an actual word instead of a number combo. To protect all those selfies even more!

     The compass doubles as a leveling tool

    If you swipe left in the Compass app, you can find a level that will help you accurately hang pictures, etc.  

    • Get rid of banner notifications

      Showing someone a pic on your phone and an embarrassing sext shows up at the top of your screen in a notification? Awkward! If you quickly swipe right to left when the notification appears, it will immediately go away. 

      • Get a domain fast

        When typing a URL into Safari, you can save yourself some trouble by holding down the period key to get a handy list of domains you can select. 

        • Go back fast

          A relatively unknown gesture can save you some time on your phone: in Messages, Mail and Safari, you can simply swipe right from the edge of the screen to go to the previous window you had open. It's easier than hitting your button to go back to the home screen each time to get a new app. It even works in a select few other apps such as Instagram. Nice! 

          • Volume buttons

            You can use the up/down volume buttons on the side of your phone to take pictures! Just make sure your camera app is open. 

            • View timestamps

              Want to know the exact time you got a text from forever ago? By sliding the texts over to the left on the screen of the message, you can do just that! 

              • Invert your screen colors

                If you're browsing your phone in a really dark room but don't want to turn down your resolution, try inverting your screen colors to make it easier on your eyes. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on “Invert Colors" for better browsing. 

                • Use emojis as shortcuts

                  Many of us like to use emojis in our texts but don't like to constantly switch between the two virtual keyboards. By going to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard > Emoji, you can add a new shortcut by putting a frequently used emoji in for a phrase. That way you'll have one less click you have to make. 

                  • Capture photos

                    If you're an iPhone 6 user, you can hold down your capture button to take a series of images simultaneously. When framing the image, hold down the button when framing the image, which will make it ideal to capture a shot you like within the series of images that you take. 

                    • Use iMessage abroad

                      Traveling overseas and figuring out your cell phone situation can be annoying. If you have an iPhone though, even without a data plan, you can text iPhone-using friends through a Wi-Fi connection using iMessage. Make sure you go to Settings > Messages and make sure Send as SMS is disabled, and that iMessage is enabled and you should be set! 

                      • Use Siri wisely

                        Okay, okay, so EVERYONE knows about Siri. However, she actually can come in pretty useful for things you might not think about. If you're laying in bed and too lazy to set your alarm, just tell her to do it and she will!

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