NHTSA says driverless vehicles have entered active emergency scenes, blocked ambulances and firefighters, and missed lights, flares, smoke, fire and cones. In a July 8 letter, the agency called the pattern a “functional insufficiency” and ordered an immediate fix. The warning came days after a separate Waymo recall covering 3,871 automated-driving systems that entered freeway construction zones. NHTSA plans to meet with developers by the end of July and says enforcement remains possible.

Freenet was built to let people share files with greater anonymity. A law-enforcement version of the software, called Freenet Roundup, can receive and log file requests, compare them with known child sexual abuse material, and estimate whether the sender originated or merely relayed a request. On July 7, the First Circuit held that using Roundup on Eric Johnson's low-security Opennet activity was not a Fourth Amendment search because his computer voluntarily sent the request information to strangers. The court left Freenet's more private Darknet mode undecided.

In Supplement 06, Plain Thinking explains how Roundup works, what the First Circuit decided, what it left open, and what prosecutors should preserve when the tool becomes part of a case.