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Major Pollution Concerns In India And Pakistan; Full-Self Driving Vehicle Is Tested; Female Crab Migration On Christmas Island. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired November 23, 2021 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome. I don`t usually say that on a Tuesday but this is our last show of the week. After today, we`ll be
off until next Monday for the Thanksgiving holiday and I didn`t want a Friday to roll around without you getting the chance to hear that. All
right, let`s get to work.
Last Thursday when we told you about pollution in India, we mentioned it`s not the only place in this region with the problem. About 80 miles
northwest of the Indian capital is the Pakistani city of Lahore. It is frequently near and recently at first place in an international ranking of
most polluted cities. The likely reasons are similar to the ones that cause problems in India.
In the fall after monsoon season ends, the rains and winds die down so there`s less moisture and movement in the atmosphere to sweep the
pollutants away. Meteorologists say winter temperatures can also keep smoke from rising, so more pollutants get trapped near the ground.
Some experts blame farmers for contributing to pollution because they typically burn-off their old crops this time of year to prepare their
fields for new ones. The smoke from that can gather in the air. Others say the issue is caused by low quality fuel that`s used to power cars and
trucks. Industrial pollution also plays a part.
Whatever the reasons are, some residents in Lahore are calling for the Pakistani government to take action. That government says it has, that
it`s told factories and refineries to reduce their emissions. That it`s banned low quality gasoline. That it`s planning to require less pollutive
motorcycle engines and that it`s looking at ways to plant more trees in the city. Will its efforts be enough?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smog, so dense you can only see a silhouette of this building that`s just a few yards away. On the streets, people are wading
through the thick smog. One resident says it`s so bad people are covering their eyes and walking right into traffic. This is Lahore, Pakistan which
regularly ranks among the most polluted cities in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: Now this city which we call the city of flowers, the city of gardens is gripped by smog. It is engulfed in smog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Saturday Lahore topped IQ air`s daily ranking of the world`s most polluted cities again. A rank often challenged by New Delhi.
Residents cough. Everything smells of smoke. According to a paramedic at a local hospital, patients are coming in with sore throats because of the
smog not COVID. As the haze grips the city in a chokehold, residents are getting desperate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: When we all leave the house in the morning, the pollution causes irritation to the eyes. It is hard to breathe. The
government should find a solution for this smog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A local report says anti-smog squads have been deployed across Lahore. They`re identifying and sealing factories that aren`t
meeting the city`s standards. In neighboring New Delhi, smog towers in some areas are sucking pollutants from the air.
Residents are now asking the government to install more as the smog continues to affect people`s health and livelihoods like this rickshaw
drivers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: The whole day I drive around without any passengers.
There`s passengers, they prefer cabs. Ask them, where you going? They say no. There`s too much pollution. We`ll take a cab.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Despite some measures to fight smog, the increasing pollution makes the site of a clear sky still a distant dream.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which inventor is famous for his contributions to the alternating current electrical system? Edison, Marconi, Nobel or
Tesla. It was the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla who discovered the rotating magnetic field in the 1880s`.
As more and more carmakers offer increasingly autonomous modes, which means computer assisted driving. You might be wondering if fully self-driving
cars are just around the corner. On our special on this topic almost three years ago, we said experts
predicted that a city with driverless cars was still decades away. Is that still the case? There`s been several advancements in autonomous
technology. The Tesla Electric Car Company, for instance, is regularly updating its software, but there`ve been a number of accidents blamed on
this as well and a CNN reporter recently found that in some areas the tech has a long way to go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BALLABAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, we`ve got a situation in front of us. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. No. No. No. We`re going on the wrong side of the
road. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Nope. Nope. Nope. It wanted to hit the truck. This is a Tesla Model 3 and we are turning on the full self-driving data.
OK. The car is now officially, technically, sort of driving itself. Whoa. Whoa. That was a really sharp turn, the car just tried to make. Oh, we`ve
got a situation in front of us.
Whoa. OK. What we just had in front of us was a UPS truck coming onto our lane. We had a guy in front of us with a cargo bike, to avoid hitting the
guy on the bike the car seemed to want to put us straight into a giant UPS truck.
I would prefer not to hit a UPS truck today. So, I took over. It does seem to need an interruption every couple of blocks or so. Sometimes the
car`s hesitating a little bit. I have to intervene. You also have to be ready to take over at any time. Now this is challenging. Oh, nope. Nope.
We`re going on the wrong side of the road. We`re not trying to make this car screw up. We`re not trying to have a laugh at Elon Musk`s expense.
That`s not the point. We`re really just trying to see how it handles driving in the city. So
far, it`s going OK. We`re going down a pretty, just straight normal road. There`s not a lot of pedestrians here, and when you`re going down a
straight road with not a lot of pedestrians. The cars actually seem to be doing OK.
We`re doing right around the speed limit. You know, we`re not hitting anything. The car can see cones. The car can see trucks. The car can see
even pedestrians on the other side of the street. Seeing might not be totally the issue here, it`s knowing what to do in challenging situations,
stuff that experience teaches you.
We`re driving down Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn where thousands of drivers drive every day, human drivers that is. It`s a main artery through
Brooklyn, commuters, trucks, people going to their jobs, a lot of human drivers do this every day. So, a car should be able to handle it just
fine.
Oop, but we`re stopping in an intersection. No. No. We`re going again. Hey, how about that? And, no we`ve got a -- we`ve got a green light and
the car hesitated. It says no right turn but we can go straight and that`s where we want to go. We want to go straight. I stand at the ready to
intervene. Hopefully I can do it fast enough.
Now this will be challenging. We have a fence in front of us. Whoa. Whoa. Car almost hit the fence just there. It had blocked off a turning
lane, but the car was supposed to move into the next lane anyway because we`re going straight and it didn`t.
It was pretty much headed right for those fences. So, I had to take over there. This is officially not truly ready for public consumption. A lot
of people have issues with this being called full self-driving. First and foremost, it`s not fully self-driving. I have to sit here. If it was fully
self-driving, as promised, that would let you take a nap while you`re driving along.
Whoa. But we just slammed on the brakes there and now this big truck is going to go. We`re going to see if we`re going to go around the big truck.
I`m just going to give it a little -- a little gas. Nope. Nope. Nope. It wanted to hit the truck. So, we`re going to just use a human driver
rather than the truck. I don`t drive a Tesla every day. I am a little skittish. I`ll fully admit that.
So, I am taking over more than someone who is used to how the system performs and because of that maybe I`m skewing things a little bit, but
that is the observer effect. Because it`s a little like teaching a teenager how to drive and you`re always watching. You`re always waiting.
You never know when it might try something new and that`s where the anxiety comes from. You know, it does seem to be making other drivers upset. It`s
-- the people behind us. It`s the people honking. Now I`m not saying a truly fully autonomous car will never happen, but I think at this point
we`re still years away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: On a small island in the Indian Ocean, an annual migration has residents seeing red and feeling "crabby". It`s the rainy season on
Christmas Island and so many crustaceans make their way from the forest to the sea this time of year, that authorities built a special bridge so they
don`t become road kill.
Each female crab can produce up to 100,000 eggs. Twas five weeks before Christmas and all across that island, red crabs were traversing the
lowlands and highlands. With bridges to cross and barriers to breach, nothing could stop their sideways march to the beach.
It`s a sea of red crawling the ground in slow motion. Their goal, not the "pole" but the distance "crustocean". You don`t have to tell us that
others are "shelleous" while they may grace plates these crabs get the applause of trivia hoarders and media reporters who root for them on their
"route" to "Sandy Claws".
That wraps up our show for the week. Want to give a shout out to Furness High School. Thanks to our viewers watching in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Our You Tube Channel is the place to go to request a mention for your school. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We look forward to
seeing you again next Monday. I`m Carl Azuz and that`s CNN.
END
