Daily Archives: July 1, 2021

Apple’s developer problems are much bigger than Epic and ‘Fortnite’

Posted on by

Near the end of the Epic v. Apple trial, Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers had some pointed questions for Tim Cook on the state of Apple’s relationship with its developers. Citing an internal survey of developers, she noted that 39 percent of them indicated they were unhappy with the App Store’s distribution. What incentive, then, she asked, does Apple have to work with them?

Cook seemed to be caught off guard by the question. He said Apple rejects a lot of apps and that “friction” can be a good thing for users. Rogers replied that it “doesn’t seem you feel pressure or competition to change the manner in which you act to address concerns of developers.”

It was a brief but telling exchange. And one that strikes at the heart of Apple’s currently rocky relationship with developers.

Epic vs. Apple vs. developers

Ostensibly, Epic’s antitrust case against Apple was about the iPhone maker’s treatment of Fortnite and its refusal to allow the game developer to bypass the App Store for in-app purchases. Epic, along with many other prominent developers, has long chafed at Apple’s 30 percent commission, or “App Store” tax.

It’s not just that they see 30 percent as greedy and unfair (Apple recently lowered its take to 15 percent for small developers). It’s that Apple has appeared to treat some developers differently than others. For example, documents unearthed during the trial detail how Apple went to great lengths to prevent Netflix from yanking in-app purchases from its app.

After considering “punitive measures” toward the streaming giant, Apple offered Netflix custom APIs that most developers don’t have access to. It also dangled the possibility of additional promotion in the App Store or even at its physical retail stores. Netflix ended up pulling in-app purchases anyway, but it was illustrative of the kind of “special treatment” many developers have long suspected Apple employs towards some apps.

Meanwhile, game developers have no choice but to pay Apple’s “tax.” Not only that, but Apple’s rules prohibit them from even alerting their users that they may be able to make the same purchase elsewhere for less — what’s known as its “anti-steering” rules.

Friction over these rules is nothing new. But the details of these arrangements, and Apple’s hardball tactics with developers, had never been as exposed as they were during the trial.

“What was great about the Epic trial was that it brought many of these issues to light and into the public dialogue,” said Meghan DiMuzio, executive director for the Coalition for App Fairness, an advocacy group representing developers who believe Apple’s policies are anticompetitive. “I think we saw how Apple more generally chooses to approach their relationships with developers and how they value, or don’t value, their relationships with developers. I think those are really incredible soundbites and storylines to have out in the public eye.”

The case touched on other issues that have been the source of long-simmering developer frustrations with Cupertino, and not just for giants like Netflix. Epic also highlighted common developer complaints around App Store search ads, fraudulent apps and Apple’s often inscrutable review process.

In one particularly memorable exchange, the developer of yoga app Down Dog spoke at length about how Apple’s opaque policies can have an outsize impact on developers. For example, he said Apple had repeatedly rejected app updates for seemingly bizarre reasons, like using a “wrong” color on a login page. Once, he said, an update was rejected because App Store reviewers couldn’t find his app’s integration with Apple’s Health app. He later realized it was because the reviewers were testing on an iPad, which doesn’t support the Health app.

These types of complaints are probably familiar to most developers. It’s not unusual for Apple to quibble over the placement of a particular button, or some other minor feature. These seemingly small issues can drag on for days or weeks, as Epic repeatedly pointed out. But it’s rare for such squabbles to spill over into public view as they did during the trial.

The trial raised other, more fundamental issues, too. A witness for Epic testified that the operating margin for the App Store was 78 percent, a figure Apple disputed but didn’t offer evidence to the contrary. Instead, Tim Cook and other execs have maintained they simply don’t know how much money the App Store makes.

Cook did, however, have much more to say when pressed on whether game developers effectively “subsidize” the rest of the App Store. “We are creating the entire amount of commerce on the store, and we’re doing that by focusing on getting the largest audience there,” Cook stated.

The argument struck a nerve with some. Marco Arment, a longtime iOS developer whose apps have been featured by Apple, wrote a scathing blog post in response.

“The idea that the App Store is responsible for most customers of any reasonably well-known app is a fantasy,” Arment writes. “The App Store is merely one platform’s forced distribution gateway, ‘facilitating’ the commerce no more and no less than a web browser, an ISP or cellular carrier, a server-hosting company, or a credit-card processor. For Apple to continue to claim otherwise is beyond insulting, and borders on delusion.”

Determining just how many developers agree with that sentiment, though, is trickier. There are millions of iOS developers and for much of the App Store’s history, most have been reluctant to publicly criticize Apple. The company has conducted its own surveys — as evidenced in the Epic trial disclosures — but the findings aren’t typically made public. And even Cook admitted he was unsure if it’s a metric the company regularly tracks.

“There’s not a lot of actual third-party survey on the developer ecosystem,” says Ben Bajarin, CEO of analyst firm Creative Strategies. He has been conducting his own poll of Apple developers to gauge their feelings toward the company.

He says he sees “a pretty big gap” between the smaller, independent developers and the larger businesses on the App Store. Developers with smaller projects, he says, are “simply much more reliant on Apple.” And while they quibble with things like search ads or Apple’s review process, they don’t have many alternatives. “These aren’t developers that have a huge budget for marketing […] they’re entirely reliant on Apple to get them customers.”

The coming antitrust battles

[…]

Source: Apple’s developer problems are much bigger than Epic and ‘Fortnite’ | Engadget

How is it possible that Apple doesn’t know the income from its app store?

Sam Altman’s New Startup Wants to Give You Crypto for Eyeball Scans – yes this is a terrible dr evil plan idea

Posted on by

hould probably sit down for this one. Sam Altman, the former CEO of famed startup incubator Y Combinator, is reportedly working on a new cryptocurrency that’ll be distributed to everyone on Earth. Once you agree to scan your eyeballs.

Yes, you read correctly.

You can thank Bloomberg for inflicting this cursed news on the rest of us. In its report, Bloomberg says Altman’s forthcoming cryptocurrency and the company behind it, both dubbed Worldcoin, recently raised $25 million from investors. The company is purportedly backed by Andreessen Horowitz, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and Day One Ventures.

“I’ve been very interested in things like universal basic income and what’s going to happen to global wealth redistribution and how we can do that better,” Altman told Bloomberg, explaining what fever dream inspired this.
[…]

What supposedly makes Worldcoin different is it adds a hardware component to cryptocurrency in a bid to “ensur[e] both humanness and uniqueness of everybody signing up, while maintaining their privacy and the overall transparency of a permissionless blockchain.” Specifically, Bloomberg says the gadget is a portable “silver-colored spherical gizmo the size of a basketball” that’s used to scan people’s irises. It’s undergoing testing in some cities, and since Worldcoin is not yet ready for distribution, the company is giving volunteers other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in exchange for participating. There are supposedly fewer than 20 prototypes of this eyeball scanning orb, and currently, each reportedly costs $5,000 to make.

Supposedly the whole iris scanning thing is “essential” as it would generate a “unique numerical code” for each person, thereby discouraging scammers from signing up multiple times. As for the whole privacy problem, Worldcoin says the scanned image is deleted afterward and the company purportedly plans to be “as transparent as possible.”

Source: Sam Altman’s New Startup Wants to Give You Crypto for Eyeball Scans

Advertisers Are Selling Americans’ Data to Hundreds of Shady Foreign Businesses

Posted on by

Senator Ron Wyden has released a list of hundreds of secretive, foreign-owned companies that are buying up Americans’ data. Some of the customers include companies based in states that are ostensibly “unfriendly” to the U.S., like Russia and China.

First reported by Motherboard, the news comes after recent information requests made by a bipartisan coalition of Senators, who asked prominent advertising exchanges to provide a transparent list of any “foreign-headquartered or foreign-majority owned” firms to whom they sell consumer “bidstream data.” Such data is typically collected, bought, and sold amidst the intricate advertising ecosystem, which uses “real-time bidding” to monetize consumer preferences and interests.

Wyden, who helped lead the effort, has expressed concerns that Americans’ data could fall into the hands of foreign intelligence agencies to “supercharge hacking, blackmail, and influence campaigns,” as a previous letter from him and other Senators puts it.

“Few Americans realize that some auction participants are siphoning off and storing ‘bidstream’ data to compile exhaustive dossiers about them. In turn, these dossiers are being openly sold to anyone with a credit card, including to hedge funds, political campaigns, and even to governments,” the letter states.

In response to the information requests, most companies seem to have responded with vague, evasive answers. However, advertising firm Magnite has provided a list of over 150 different companies it sells to while declining to note which countries they are based in. Wyden’s staff spent time researching the companies and Motherboard reports that the list includes the likes of Adfalcon—a large ad firm based in Dubai that calls itself the “first mobile advertising network in the Middle East”—as well as Chinese companies like Adtiming and Mobvista International.

Magnite’s response further shows that the kinds of data it provides to these companies may include all sorts of user information—including age, name, and the site names and domains they visit, device identifiers, IP address, and other information that would help any discerning observer piece together a fairly comprehensive picture of who you are, where you’re located, and what you’re interested in.

You can peruse the full list of companies that Magnite works with and, foreign ownership aside, they just naturally sound creepy. With confidence-inspiring names like “12Mnkys,” “Freakout,” “CyberAgent Dynalst,” and “Zucks,” these firms—many of which you’d be hard-pressed to even find an accessible website for—are doing God knows what with the data they procure.

The question naturally arises: How is it that these companies that we know literally nothing about seem to have access to so much of our personal information? Also: Where are the federal regulations when you need them?

Source: Advertisers Are Selling Americans’ Data to Hundreds of Shady Foreign Businesses

And that’s why Europe has GDPR

Another Exploit Hits WD My Book Live Owners – wipes could be rival hacker groups fighting for botnet control

Posted on by

While it will come as no comfort to those who had their Western Digital My Book Live NAS drives wiped last week, it seems they were attacked by a combination of two exploits, and possibly caught in the fallout of a rivalry between two different teams of hackers.

My Book Live packaging

(Image credit: Western Digital)

Initially, after the news broke on Friday, it was thought a known exploit from 2018 was to blame, allowing attackers to gain root access to the devices. However, it now seems that a previously unknown exploit was also triggered, allowing hackers to remotely perform a factory reset without a password and to install a malicious binary file.

[…]

Analysis of WD’s firmware suggests code meant to prevent the issue had been commented out, preventing it from running, by WD itself, and an authentication type was not added to component_config.php which results in the drives not asking for authentication before performing the factory reset.

The question then arises of why one hacker would use two different exploits, particularly an undocumented authentication bypass when they already had root access through the command injection vulnerability, with venerable tech site Ars Technica speculating that more than one group could be at work here, with one bunch of bad guys trying to take over, or sabotage, another’s botnet.

Source: Another Exploit Hits WD My Book Live Owners | Tom’s Hardware

So is it possible that the authentication code was commented out?!

700 Million LinkedIn Records Leaked June 2021 – again

Posted on by

Things are not looking good for LinkedIn right now. Just two months after a jaw-dropping 500 million profiles from the networking site were put up for sale on a popular hacker forum, a new posting with 700 million LinkedIn records has appeared.

The seller, “GOD User” TomLiner, stated they were in possession of the 700 million records on June 22 2021, and included a sample of 1 million records on RaidForums to prove their claims. Our researchers have viewed the sample and can confirm that the damning records include information such as full names, gender, email addresses, phone numbers, and industry information.

We reached out to LinkedIn for verification and received this official statement from Leonna Spilman:

“While we’re still investigating this issue, our initial analysis indicates that the dataset includes information scraped from LinkedIn as well as information obtained from other sources. This was not a LinkedIn data breach and our investigation has determined that no private LinkedIn member data was exposed. Scraping data from LinkedIn is a violation of our Terms of Service and we are constantly working to ensure our members’ privacy is protected.”

[…]

Is the data the same as from the previous LinkedIn leak?

According to a statement from LinkedIn, the previous data leak contained an “aggregation of data from a number of websites and companies” as well “publicly viewable member profile data.” However, it was not technically a breach since no private information was stolen.

linkedin raw data

This time around, it seems as though the records are, once again, a cumulation of data from previous leaks. However, this could still include information from both public and private profiles. We employ a strict policy of not supporting sellers of stolen data and, therefore, have not purchased the leaked list to verify all of the records.

Source: Exclusive: 700 Million LinkedIn Records Leaked June 2021 | Safety First

Microsoft exec: Targeting of Americans’ records ‘routine’

Posted on by

Federal law enforcement agencies secretly seek the data of Microsoft customers thousands of times a year, according to congressional testimony Wednesday by a senior executive at the technology company.

Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, told members of the House Judiciary Committee that federal law enforcement in recent years has been presenting the company with between 2,400 to 3,500 secrecy orders a year, or about seven to 10 a day.

“Most shocking is just how routine secrecy orders have become when law enforcement targets an American’s email, text messages or other sensitive data stored in the cloud,” said Burt, describing the widespread clandestine surveillance as a major shift from historical norms.

[…]

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, called for an end to the overuse of secret gag orders, arguing in a Washington Post opinion piece that “prosecutors too often are exploiting technology to abuse our fundamental freedoms.” Attorney General Merrick Garland, meanwhile, has said the Justice Department will abandon its practice of seizing reporter records and will formalize that stance soon.

[…]

Burt said that while the revelation that federal prosecutors had sought data about journalists and political figures was shocking to many Americans, the scope of surveillance is much broader. He criticized prosecutors for reflexively seeking secrecy through boilerplate requests that “enable law enforcement to just simply assert a conclusion that a secrecy order is necessary.”

[…]

As possible solutions, Burt said, the government should end indefinite secrecy orders and should also be required to notify the target of the data demand once the secrecy order has expired.

Just this week, he said, prosecutors sought a blanket gag order affecting the government of a major U.S. city for a Microsoft data request targeting a single employee there.

“Without reform, abuses will continue to occur and they will occur in the dark,” Burt said.

Source: Microsoft exec: Targeting of Americans’ records ‘routine’

Virgin Orbit successfully launches its first commercial payloads to space

Posted on by

Virgin Orbit had a successful first commercial launch, meaning there’s now officially another small satellite launch provider in operation with a track record of delivering payloads to space. Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket took off from its carrier aircraft at around 11:45 AM EDT today, and the spacecraft had a successful series of engine fires and stage separations to make the trip to low Earth orbit.

On board, Virgin Orbit carried seven payloads, including the first-ever defense satellite for the Netherlands, as well as cubsats developed by the U.S. Department of Defense for its Rapid Agile Launch initiative. The initiative is seeking to test the viability of flying small spacecraft to space on relatively short notice on launch platforms with increased flexibility, which Virgin Orbit’s provides thanks to its ability to take off horizontally from more or less conventional runways.

Virgin Orbit also carried two Earth observation satellites for Polish startup SatRevolution, and it will be delivering more in future flights to help build out that company’s planned 14-spacecraft constellation.

Source: Virgin Orbit successfully launches its first commercial payloads to space | TechCrunch

High Court disallows Dutch Filmworks forcing ISPs to give out personal details of potential movie downloaders

Posted on by
As expected, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in cassation by Dutch FilmWorks. The highest judicial body follows the motivation of the Prosecutor General, who previously issued advice on this. DFW announced in 2015 that it would take enforcement action against people who illegally download films. The matter was widely publicized. DFW wanted to address individual users and possibly even fine them. It engaged an outside company to collect the IP addresses. The distributor also received permission for this data collection. However, in order to address these users, DFW had to have their name and address details, which are only known to internet providers. Ziggo refused to provide that information. Dutch Filmworks was rejected by the court and the Supreme Court also sees no reason to annul the earlier judgment.

Source: Zaak Dutch Filmworks strandt bij Hoge Raad – Emerce

Russian Jets Armed With Anti-Ship Missiles “Harassed” Dutch Frigate In The Black Sea

Posted on by

The Royal Netherlands Navy has now confirmed that its De Zeven Provincien class frigate HNLMS Evertsen, which has been sailing in the Black Sea together with the U.K. Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender, was harassed by Russian fighter jets last week. The announcement comes after Russia and the United Kingdom entered something of a war of words last week when the Type 45 destroyer HMS Defender conducted maneuvers in an area close to Russian-controlled Crimea. Both of these ships are currently part of the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth’s multinational strike group, also known as Carrier Strike Group 21, or CSG21.

The Royal Netherlands Navy today released a statement highlighting the events that occurred last Thursday, June 24. That was the day after Russia claimed to have dropped bombs and fired warning shots to ward off HMS Defender, which Moscow claimed had violated the Russian maritime border around the Crimean Peninsula. The Kremlin seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, an annexation that neither the Netherlands nor the United Kingdom recognizes as legal.

Royal Netherlands Navy

A pair of Russian Navy Su-30SMs fly over the Evertsen.

According to the Royal Netherlands Navy’s account, HNLMS Evertsen was “southeast of Crimea” on June 24 when Russian fighter jets “created unsafe situations” in the Black Sea. No further details are provided of the warship’s location at this point, although it seems, at least, the Dutch vessel did not follow the same course as HMS Defender.

A series of photos released by the Royal Netherlands Navy today shows a pair of Su-30SM multirole fighter-bombers, likely from the Russian Navy, flying low over the warship, with at least one of the aircraft armed with a pair of Kh-31 (AS-17 Krypton) supersonic anti-ship missiles under the engine nacelles.

Vitaly V. Kuzmin/Wikimedia Commons

A Kh-31 missile.

In what the Dutch Ministry of Defense describes as “repeated harassment,” between around 3:30 PM and 8:30 PM that day, the Su-30SMs flew “dangerously low and close by, performing feint attacks.” Su-30SMs were also involved in last week’s incident with HMS Defender, with at least one example seen shadowing the warship in an official Russian Ministry of Defense video. These Russian Navy jets are assigned to the 43rd Independent Naval Assault Aviation Regiment based at Saki in Crimea.

Royal Netherlands Navy

A Su-30SM armed with Kh-31 missiles passes alongside the Evertsen.

The Dutch account describes the Russian aircraft being armed with bombs (not immediately visible) and air-to-surface missiles. The jets also used their onboard electronic warfare systems to disrupt electronic equipment onboard the Evertsen, according to the Dutch. The Su-30SM is equipped with an internal Khibiny-U electronic warfare suite that includes powerful jammers to blind and confuse adversary radars.

Source: Russian Jets Armed With Anti-Ship Missiles “Harassed” Dutch Frigate In The Black Sea

Draken Becomes The Next Red Air Private Contractor To Acquire F-16 Fighter Jets from the Netherlands

Posted on by

one of the world’s largest private tactical jet air forces, is now set to add F-16A/B fighters to its roster after the Dutch government announced it had agreed to transfer 12 of the jets to the North American company. Draken will join fellow private contractor Top Aces in operating F-16s for “red air” adversary support, which is now in great demand, especially to fulfill the U.S. Air Force’s mammoth adversary air contract.

In a letter published today, the Dutch Secretary of State for Defense, Barbara Visser, confirmed that an agreement had been reached for the sale of a dozen ex-Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) F-16A/Bs plus associated unspecified items.

U.S. Air Force/Sgt. Richard Andrade

A Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16AM taxies down the flight line at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

“Draken International has been contracted by the U.S. government for years to take on the role of the enemy in U.S. Air Force and Navy exercises,” the letter explains. “These aircraft will be used exclusively on the basis of government contracts for support tasks during (inter)national exercises and training on American territory.”

The F-16A/Bs are becoming available as part of the RNLAF’s planned phase-out of the jet, or End Life of Type (ELOT) program. The 12 jets in question are due to become surplus next year, as deliveries of F-35A stealth fighters to the RNLAF continue.

[…]

As well as the 12 Vipers earmarked for Draken, the Dutch government has announced an option for the same firm to acquire another 28 examples, which are planned to be retired from RNLAF service by the end of 2024. Should that follow-on deal be taken up, Draken would end up with a fleet of 40 Vipers, compared to the 29 ex-Israeli F-16A/Bs that were acquired by rival Top Aces.

[…]

Source: Draken Becomes The Next Red Air Private Contractor To Acquire F-16 Fighter Jets

Skyborg AI Computer “Brain” Successfully Flew A General Atomics Avenger Drone

Posted on by

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has announced that its Skyborg autonomy core system, or ACS, successfully completed a flight aboard a General Atomics Avenger unmanned vehicle at Edwards Air Force Base. The Skyborg ACS is a hardware and software suite that acts as the “brain” of autonomous aircraft equipped with the system. The tests add more aircraft to the list of platforms Skyborg has successfully flown on, bringing the Air Force closer to a future in which airmen fly alongside AI-controlled “loyal wingmen.”

The Skyborg-controlled Avenger flew four two and a half hours on June 24, 2021, during the Orange Flag 21-2 Large Force Test Event at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Orange Flag is a training event held by the 412th Test Wing three times a year that “focuses on technical integration and innovation across a breadth of technology readiness levels,” according to an Air Force press release. You can read more about this major testing event in this past feature of ours.

The Avenger started its flight under the control of a human operator before being handed off to the Skyborg “pilot” at a safe altitude. A command and control station on the ground monitored the drone’s flight, during which Skyborg executed “a series of foundational behaviors necessary to characterize safe system operation” including following navigational commands, flying within defined boundaries known as “geo-fences,” adhering to safe flight envelopes, and demonstrating “coordinated maneuvering.”

[…]

The Avenger’s flight at Orange Flag was part of the AFRL’s larger Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experimentation (AAAx), a program that has already seen the Skyborg ACS tested aboard a Kratos UTAP-22 Mako unmanned aircraft. The AAAx program appears to be aimed at eventually fielding autonomous air vehicles that are low-cost enough to operate in environments where there is a high chance of aircraft being lost, but are also reusable.

As part of that goal, the Skyborg program is developing an artificial intelligence-driven “computer brain” that could eventually autonomously control “loyal wingman” drones or even more advanced unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). The AFRL wants the system to be able to perform tasks such as taking off and landing, to even making decisions on its own in combat based on situational variables.

The Air Force envisions Skyborg-equipped UAVs to operate both completely autonomously and in networked groups while tethered via datalinks to manned aircraft, all controlled by what the AFRL calls a “modular ACS that can autonomously aviate, navigate, and communicate, and eventually integrate other advanced capabilities.” Skyborg-equipped wingmen fitted with their own pods or sensor systems could easily and rapidly add extended capabilities by linking to manned aircraft flying within line-of-sight of them.

After the program was first revealed in 2019, the Air Force’s then-Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper stated he wanted to see operational demonstrations within two years. The latest test flight of the Skyborg-equipped Avenger shows the service has clearly hit that benchmark.

The General Atomics Avenger was used in experiments with another autonomy system in 2020, developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program that sought to develop drones that could demonstrate “collaborative autonomy,” or the ability to work cooperatively.

Brigadier General Dale White, Skyborg Program Executive Officer says that the successful Skyborg ACS implementation aboard an Avenger demonstrates the Air Force’s commitment to remaining at the forefront of aerospace innovation. “This type of operational experimentation enables the Air Force to raise the bar on new capabilities, made possible by emerging technologies,” said White, “and this flight is a key milestone in achieving that goal.”

[…]

Source: Skyborg AI Computer “Brain” Successfully Flew A General Atomics Avenger Drone

Flying car completes test flight between airports

Posted on by

A prototype flying car has completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.

The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.

Its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, said it could fly about 1,000km (600 miles), at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m), and had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.

It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.

‘Very pleasant’

The narrow wings fold down along the sides of the car.

Prof Klein drove it straight off the runway and into town upon arrival, watched by invited reporters.

He described the experience, early on Monday morning, as “normal” and “very pleasant”.

In the air, the vehicle reached a cruising speed of 170km/h.

It can carry two people, with a combined weight limit of 200kg (31 stone).

[…]

“I have to admit that this looks really cool – but I’ve got a hundred questions about certification,” Dr Wright said.

“Anyone can make an aeroplane but the trick is making one that flies and flies and flies for the thick end of a million hours, with a person on board, without having an incident.

“I can’t wait to see the piece of paper that says this is safe to fly and safe to sell.”

Source: Flying car completes test flight between airports – BBC News