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Sky backs Oculus Rift in CNET UK podcast 399

Self-driving cars are coming to UK roads, and Sky is throwing money at virtual reality -- but would you watch telly in a helmet?

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology

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Richard Trenholm

July 31, 2014 5:21 a.m. PT

2 min read

Watch this: Sky backs Oculus Rift in CNET UK podcast 399

38:32

Fasten your seatbelts, because we're hitting the road with Britain's first driverless cars, learning to speak Chinese with Cortana, and discovering why Sky is backing virtual reality -- plus we find out who really was the world's wackiest racer.

Sky has chucked a few quid into a company developing 360-degree video for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, but would you actually wear one to watch telly? What kind of TV shows would work best in all-round Knightmare-vision?

Self-driving cars are hitting UK roads in January next year, but there's still a few questions to answer -- like who's responsible in an accident? -- which means fully autonomous automobiles still face a long road.

Also coming to the UK is Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated personal assistant for Windows Phone. Will Cortana catch on, or will Microsoft be sorry it messed with Siri?

Copyright infringing websites may well be sorry they messed with movie studios and record labels as anti-piracy police replace adverts with stern warnings.

And the matchmakers at OKCupid are messing with our hearts as they experiment with the algorithms that match potential lovebirds, proving the course of true love doesn't always run smooth.

We also solve a long-standing sporting mystery as we find out which daredevil daffy driver actually won Wacky Races, according to official Formula 1 scoring. The answer might surprise you.

After that, we hear you in our feedback section. Keep telling us what you think of the show and the rest of the week's technology news in the comments below.

The podcast team are taking a break in the next couple of weeks to debug our servers, recompile our code and drink sugary drinks out of hollowed-out pineapples. But we'll be back in three weeks -- with episode 400, no less!

Sky backs Oculus Rift in CNET UK podcast 399

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