Car industry makes a U-turn The history of cars started for good in 1908 when Henry Ford ____ his Model T. The car cost only $300 (an amount a worker in Ford’s factory could earn in just a couple of months) and by 1927 over 15 million Americans had bought it. The process ____ by Ford has ____ ever since. Today, there are about 1 billion cars in the world and it is not uncommon for a single family to have two or even three automobiles. ____, thanks to self-driving cars, history may soon take another turn. Experts ____ autonomous cars into 5 levels. Level 1 offers you only some ____ assistance: your seat will vibrate if you change lanes without using your ____. Things get interesting when we get to level 4: such a ____ does not need a driver at all, but will not take you anywhere. It works perfectly only in well-mapped areas ____ as cities. Level 5, as you expect, will take you anywhere. The biggest players on the market ____ level 4 some time ago. If you buy a Tesla, you can turn ____ the autopilot mode and just occasionally control the cruise. Another example is Waymo, a company operating in Phoenix. Its 600 robotaxis are transporting passengers all around the city, and there is no driver in the taxi at ____. If something goes wrong, or you are afraid ____ the ride, you can just ____ a button and call a human assistant. Level 5 is not far away: a company called Delphi has already made a car that has successfully completed a fully autonomous drive from one coast of the USA to the other. Now let’s ____ some benefits. Cars are not only expensive to buy, but also ____ rarely used. A car in private hands stands ____ for 90% of the time. If all private cars were ____ by self-driving taxis, traffic jams would be gone or become much smaller. What is ____, human drivers account for 80% of the running costs of taxi or trucking companies. Finally, computers never drive drunk, don’t break the speed limits and make fewer mistakes. But there are some dilemmas. We have already seen cases when a Tesla in the autopilot mode had a crash in ____ passengers died or an autonomous Uber taxi killed a pedestrian. Thus, the question ____ - who is responsible for such an accident? Game over for kids Over the last decades, gaming has become much ____ than just a pastime. You had better ____ your seatbelts before you get familiar with the statistics. Worldwide, there are over 2.5 billion players and their activity ____ a market worth over $250 billion (as of 2021). The sector is not only about those who play, but also those who watch others play: the ____ of eSports alone is over 450 million viewers. There are many companies and countries that realize what chances this industry brings and are ____ to join the game. In this light, it may be surprising that the world’s biggest gaming market, China, decided to ____ severe restrictions in this particular area. The Chinese government announced that all minors are forbidden to play online games on weekdays. They will be allowed to play on Fridays, weekends and public holidays, but only for one hour a day. As for Fridays, even the time is ____: playing is legal between 8 pm and 9 pm. How are the authorities going to check who is playing or not?It’s simple. While you create an account in an online game you must use your real name and surname so that your activity can be tracked ____. This is not the first time that China has wanted to ____ how much time young people spend in front of the screen. Back in 2019, they already limited playtime for children to 90 minutes on weekdays and 3 hours on weekends. The new law has many critics: some point out that the country’s economy will suffer ____ this decision, others propose alternative restrictions for younger kids and teenagers. Some parents, not only those from China, disagree with outraged gamers and welcome the change. Games are so attractive to young minds, especially male ones, that few things can ____ with them. That’s why ____ 8.4% of children and teenagers are ____ to games. Can it be changed by law?

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