Japan’s Suzuki to Make ‘Flying Cars’ with SkyDrive

The logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. (Reuters)
The logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. (Reuters)
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Japan’s Suzuki to Make ‘Flying Cars’ with SkyDrive

The logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. (Reuters)
The logo of Suzuki Motor Corp. is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2017. (Reuters)

Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with SkyDrive Inc to make "flying cars".

The companies will use a Suzuki Group factory in central Japan to make electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and aim to begin production by around spring next year, Suzuki said in a statement.

SkyDrive will establish a wholly owned subsidiary to make the aircraft and Suzuki will help with preparations for the manufacturing, including securing talent, the automaker said.

Headquartered in the city of Toyota in central Japan, SkyDrive has trading house Itochu Corp, tech firm NEC Corp and a unit of energy company Eneos Holdings Inc among its main shareholders.

The two companies signed a deal in March last year to team up in research, development and marketing of flying cars.



Windows’ Infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ Will Soon Turn Black

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Windows’ Infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ Will Soon Turn Black

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Nearly every Windows user has had a run in with the infamous “Blue Screen of Death” at some point in their computing life. Now, after more than 40 years of being set against a very recognizable blue, the updated error message will soon be displayed across a black background.

The changes to the notorious error screen come as part of broader efforts by Microsoft to improve the resiliency of the Windows operating system in the wake of last year’s CrowdStrike incident, which crashed millions of Windows machines worldwide.

“Now it’s easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster,” Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft wrote in a Wednesday announcement.

As part of that effort, Microsoft says it's “streamlining” what users experience when encountering “unexpected restarts” that cause disruptions. And that means a makeover to the infamous error screen.

Beyond the now-black background, Windows' new “screen of death” has a slightly shorter message. It's also no longer accompanied by a frowning face and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process.

Microsoft says this “simplified” user interface for unexpected restarts will be available later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices.

And for PCs that may not restart successfully, Microsoft on Wednesday also said it is adding a “quick machine recovery” mechanism. This will be particularly useful for during a widespread outage, the tech giant noted, as Microsoft “can broadly deploy targeted remediations” and automate fixes with this new mechanism “without requiring complex manual intervention from IT.”

Microsoft said this quick machine recovery will also be “generally available” later this summer on Window 11 with additional capabilities set to launch later in the year.