Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, January 23

• Amazon's Dash button goes online: Amazon.com Inc has put its popular Dash button on its website and mobile app, making it easier for shoppers to buy their favorite items such as peanut butter, detergent and paper towels. The online retailer launched its thumb-sized Dash button in 2015, allowing Prime members to re-order products such as Tide detergent, Huggies diapers and Gillette products by pushing a button. Prime customers can create virtual dash button on "millions" of Prime eligible products on Amazon, the company said in a video. The online retailer said that it was also automatically creating virtual Dash buttons for products that are frequently purchased by customers.

• Tesla rolling out Autopilot to cars built since October, will limit Autosteer to 45 mph: Tesla is rolling out its Autopilot software to Model S and Model X cars built since October, which are equipped with second-generation Autopilot hardware, according to a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The cars have been without a litany of safety features that are available in many older Tesla cars. The Autopilot software is being deployed to eligible Teslas over-the-air, and owners will not need to do anything special for the software to be downloaded. However, new Teslas still will not have all the Autopilot and semi-autonomous features that older Teslas have. And some cars, Musk says, will need to have their on-board cameras adjusted by Tesla’s service department for Autopilot to work correctly. Cars with Gen 2 Autopilot hardware will now have a speed-limited version of Autosteer, the feature that most owners consider to be “Autopilot.” It will work at speeds below 45 mph, and is meant for use on highways with clear lane markings. It helps maintain position within the lane in slow-moving traffic. It works with the traffic-aware cruise control system (TACC), which is also rolling out with the update. TACC allows the vehicle adjust its speed based on the car ahead, decelerating or accelerating as needed. TACC is currently limited to a maximum speed of 75 mph. Previously, cars with second-generation Autopilot hardware only had basic cruise control. Vehicles are also gaining Forward Collision Warning (FCW), where the car will alert the driver when there is an object in your path and a collision is likely. The system will sound a chime and give a visual warning on the instrument panel. The car will not have Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), where the car can apply the brakes in an attempt to avoid or reduce the severity of a crash.

• Uber Hires Google’s Former Head of Search, Stoking a Rivalry: Uber and Google have long been bitter rivals in the race to build the autonomous vehicles that appear integral to the future of transportation. Soon, Uber will have a bit of help in that effort from a man who has played a key role in Google’s history. Amit Singhal, a 15-year Google veteran and a former senior vice president for search at the company, said on Friday that he planned to join Uber as senior vice president for engineering. At Uber, he will work to build out the software and infrastructure that are the foundation of the company’s ride-hailing services. In his new position, Mr. Singhal will report to Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, and will lead the company’s mapping division as well as a unit that runs the dispatching, marketing and pricing of Uber cars. Mr. Singhal will also advise Anthony Levandowski, who runs the company’s self-driving automobile efforts. The hiring of Mr. Singhal, who left Google last year, is a coup for Uber, which has publicly stated its intention to fight Google’s substantial head start in autonomous-vehicle research. Uber has poached multiple high-level employees from Google over the past seven years, including Brian McClendon, a mapping expert, and Mr. Levandowski, a veteran of self-driving-car research. Hired by Google in 2000, he was the company’s 176th employee, and he rewrote many of the original search algorithms created by the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Mr. Singhal is credited as one of the engineers who built the smarter and faster search engine that gave Google what proved to be an insurmountable advantage in web search.