The Download Good morning! Here are today's most important stories in emerging technology. Delivery van drone hubs are now a reality. Last year that drone firm Matternet and Mercedes-Benz were exploring the use of vans as distribution hubs for aerial package delivery. Now it's happening: a three-week trial in Zurich will use drone-van combos to deliver goods for Swiss e-tailer Siroop. Drones will shuttle parcels from a distribution center to vans that are parked up at one of four rendezvous points, then a driver will deliver the goods in person. The trial will establish if the process can actually save time and money. Can an app really teach you how to sing? Or learn Spanish? Or play guitar? There are certainly enough teach-yourself apps out there, but truth is they don’t work for everyone. In fact, a certain combo of app features and user traits is required for them to work. . Precision DNA editing removes disease from embryos. that researchers from Sun Yat-sen University in China have for the first time used base editing, a technique that can tweak a single letter in a strand of DNA, to edit disease out of a human embryo. The approach successfully changed a point mutation that normally causes blood disorder beta-thalassemia. The results are . The same Chinese team was the first to apply CRISPR gene editing to human embryos, . Our roundup of today's top tech news to get you thinking and debating. Amazon has unveiled a slew of new smart assistant hardware, including an Alexa alarm clock and a speakerphone that taps your landline. ( ) The International Federation of Robotics says robot sales rose 16 percent in 2016, with the biggest growth seen in the electronics industry. ( ) Toyota is the first automaker to embrace a new laser sensor, that sees farther and in more detail than its competitors, in its driverless cars. ( ) As Zuck and Trump joust over Russian election meddling, Facebook, Google, and Twitter must all now testify to Congress about it. ( , ) Apple has published a white paper describing the security features of its new facial recognition system for unlocking iPhones. ( ) A lightweight take on a robot arm and a shape-shifting machine that can walk, sail, and glide both employ folded structures to do their thing. ( , ) Forget skimmers and fake keypads: hackers are increasingly stealing money from cash machines using good old fashioned malware. ( ) Airports in Britain, France, Japan, and Australia have all found that a software problem has brought many check-in desks to a standstill. ( ) The best nugget from this profile of Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski is that he once founded an AI-based religion called Way of the Future. ( ) “They were telling me to look for jobs ... I kind of ignored them.” — Brendan Greene, the man behind the incredibly popular video game , about the origins of his success. Know someone who needs the Download? Forward it to someone who might like it too. if this was forwarded to you. Please send boarding passes, folded robots, and machine learning prophets to . Follow me on Twitter at . Thanks for reading! — Jamie
Matternet and drone company Mercedes-Benz are to begin a three-week trial in Zurich testing their drone-van combination delivery system for Swiss e-tailer Siroop. Drones will deliver parcels to four rendezvous points, where vans will be waiting to deliver the goods. The trial will look at the time efficiency of the system as well as any cost savings.