Tech
10 Driving Rules Other Countries Have To Follow That Don’t Exist In The US
When you get behind the wheel in the United States, you’re accustomed to a specific set of traffic laws that have become second nature. For the most part, U.S. traffic laws leave personal responsibility for vehicle maintenance and common-sense etiquette as matters of civil politeness or local ordinance, rather than serious, federally backed violations. This familiar framework, however, is a rarity when traveling internationally, where legal systems take over.
While Americans might scoff at the idea of a ticket for an unwashed car, or a potential jail sentence for riding sober next to a drunk friend, these are the real, punitive stakes involved in driving overseas. From Europe’s ancient city centers to Asia’s strict public decency standards, and the Middle East’s emphasis on immaculate urban aesthetics, drivers around the globe are held to a much higher and more diverse set of legal obligations than just keeping their eyes on the road.
The list below goes over unique international driving laws that American motorists rarely, if ever, encounter at home. What is merely considered good etiquette in the U.S. is often a non-negotiable legal requirement in other countries. If you’re planning to visit any, keep in mind that ignorance of the law is rarely a protection against steep fines, vehicle impoundment, or even criminal charges.
Driving shirtless in Thailand
When you picture a road trip through Thailand’s tropical landscapes, the heat and high humidity might immediately make you want to strip down to your most comfortable, minimal clothing. Hopping into a rental car or onto a scooter while wearing only a swimsuit or going bare-chested to beat the intense temperatures might seem tempting, but it could land you on the wrong side of local law enforcement. This isn’t as wild as many of the strangest US driving laws, but it is still strange.
The Motor Vehicle Act says that all motorists (in cars and on motorcycles) must wear a shirt while operating a vehicle. This applies to both locals and international visitors alike, meaning that regardless of how high the temperature climbs, keeping your torso covered is an absolute legal requirement when you’re behind the wheel or operating a bike on public roads.
These aren’t just in traffic rules; they affect other parts of the country’s legal system. So while traffic laws specifically require a shirt, this idea aligns with general public decency rules. The Thai Criminal Code talks about the act in its misdemeanors section. Section 388 strictly bans public obscenity. It says if you do something disgraceful in public, like undressing yourself, showing your exposed self, or any other obscene act, you could receive a fine of up to five hundred baht.
Splashing pedestrians in the United Kingdom
When you’re driving through a heavy downpour in the United States, you might occasionally, and sometimes carelessly, hit a large puddle near the curb, sending a wave of murky rainwater crashing over an unsuspecting pedestrian on the sidewalk. While this scenario is undoubtedly rude, incredibly frustrating for the victim, and generally frowned upon by society, splashing a pedestrian with a puddle isn’t a specific traffic violation in the US.
Across the pond in the United Kingdom, the law takes a much stricter and more punitive approach to this same situation. If you’re planning a road trip through Britain, you must be acutely aware of how you navigate wet roads, because the country has codified this specific breach of etiquette into its legal framework. Under the regulations set forth in the UK, this act is a highly punishable offense.
Specifically, Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 classifies driving through a puddle to splash a pedestrian as ‘driving without reasonable consideration,’ resulting in fines or points. According to the detailed provisions in the legislation, a motorist is formally regarded in violation of this rule “only if those persons are inconvenienced by their driving.” Being drenched by a tidal wave of dirty street water is clearly recognized as a significant inconvenience under this definition.
Drunk passengers sitting in the front seat in North Macedonia
The idea of a designated driver is a pretty big part of what happens when you go out with friends. When it’s time to head home after having some alcoholic drinks, it is common for drunk friends to just hop in the car, often with one of the most inebriated individuals claiming the front passenger seat. Legally in the US, a drunk passenger can totally ride up front right next to the sober driver, and even drink in some states.
If you happen to be enjoying a night out while traveling in North Macedonia, you’ll need to totally rethink how your group sits before anyone gets into a car. The country’s national traffic safety laws are much stricter and focus more on preventing issues when it comes to where intoxicated people sit inside a moving vehicle. Under its legal framework, anyone who looks like they’re under the influence of alcohol is strictly and legally not allowed to sit in the front passenger seat.
This strict rule is intended to prevent accidents and keep roads safe. A drunk person can be pretty unpredictable, and having them right by the steering wheel, the emergency brake, or even the driver themselves creates an extra risk of sudden distraction or accidental interference.
Always have headlights on in Sweden
When you’re driving back home in America, you’ll find the rules for car lights are pretty standard and easy to understand. The US only says you need to use your headlights at night, or when you can’t see well because of fog or snowstorms. However, if you’re planning a road trip overseas, you’ll have to quickly adjust your driving to comply with strict local laws that leave nothing to chance.
In Sweden, for instance, traffic rules say your car’s low-beam headlights must be on 24 hours a day, every single day of the year, even when it’s sunny. This is a core part of the Swedish Traffic Ordinance, which sets strict requirements for car lighting to make sure you’re as visible and safe as possible, always. Specifically, the ordinance states that when you’re driving on a road, your car must use its primary beams continuously.
While the law does give you a little flexibility during the day (like letting you use specific daytime running lights instead of regular low beams, which then means your rear and side lights don’t strictly have to be on), some type of approved front light is always legally required whenever your car is running.
Leave your car locked in Austalia
When you park your personal vehicle on a public street in the United States, it just makes sense to roll up your windows, take your keys, and lock your doors before you walk away. However, if you choose to be careless and leave your car completely unlocked with the windows rolled down, no traffic law in the US will penalize you for simply failing to secure your own property.
This is a big change in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, because securing your vehicle isn’t just a strong recommendation there, it’s a strict legal requirement under Regulation 213 of the Road Rules 2014. In Australia, specifically in NSW, you’re legally obligated to close your windows if you plan to walk more than three meters (about ten feet) away from the closest part of the car.
If there’s no one left inside the vehicle, the law mandates that you must immediately lock the doors after stepping away, and you also need to secure the windows right before you leave. The regulations go even further to prevent an unattended vehicle from being easily stolen or joyridden by mandating that, if you’re going to be away for a while, you must switch off the engine.
Sober passengers are not completely safe in Japan
In the United States, getting into a car with an intoxicated driver is definitely a dangerous and foolish decision. However, from a strictly legal perspective, law enforcement focuses entirely on the driver. If a vehicle is pulled over and the driver is found to be over the legal limit, the driver will be arrested. It is even illegal in some states to have an open container.
If you’re traveling to Japan, you should know that the legal situation for driving under the influence is drastically different and goes way beyond just the driver. Under the Japanese Road Traffic Act, the country takes a really aggressive, zero-tolerance approach to drunk driving. It actively criminalizes anyone who is complicit in that violation. Specifically, Japanese law strictly forbids anyone from asking for, relying on, or even getting into a vehicle to be driven by someone they know is under the influence of alcohol.
This means if you’re a sober passenger and you knowingly ride in a car driven by someone drunk, you’re immediately at risk of serious criminal penalties. If the driver gets caught driving in that state, an aware passenger can face consequences like time in prison with hard labor or a fine.
Avoid driving in historic centers in Italy
If you’re planning a scenic road trip through Italy, you might get surprised by a strictly enforced traffic rule called the Zona a Traffico Limitato, or ZTL. It translates to “Restricted Traffic Zones,” and ZTL laws make it illegal for non-residents to drive through certain historic areas. Cameras will automatically fine any unauthorized vehicle crossing the boundary. You’ll mostly find these restricted zones in the historic town centers of Italy’s famous cities and villages.
These automated systems are placed at many ZTLs; they likely capture license plates, compare them with a database of permitted residents, and send out tickets to violators. Basically, no traffic officer ever has to be there, so don’t think about rat-running in this country.
The U.S. usually doesn’t ban driving in city centers purely for historical preservation or use automated resident-only zones. In the United States, you’re used to driving your car right through busy downtown areas, pulling up to national monuments, and parking on nearby streets. Some American cities might have pedestrian-only areas for shopping or use toll zones to cut down on peak-hour traffic, but an outright, camera-enforced ban on non-resident cars to protect old architecture just isn’t a normal part of driving here.
Don’t accelerate too quickly in Switzerland
Unless you’re accelerating into something or someone, or happen to be in a state that gives out many speeding tickets, the US doesn’t have traffic laws that stop you from starting from a fast drive. American driving culture often accepts a loud engine roaring away from a stoplight; however, taking that same aggressive driving style to Switzerland will quickly put you on the wrong side of the law.
In Switzerland, drivers are legally bound by the Road Traffic Act and the Traffic Regulations Ordinance (TRegO) to make sure they don’t cause any noise nuisance they could avoid. The Swiss Federal Office for the Environment points out that individual vehicles making disruptive commotion peaks stand out from regular road noises. This disturbance is easy to prevent if drivers just change their driving style and avoid making noise-boosting modifications to their cars.
Under Articles 42 of the RTA and 33 of the TRegO, Swiss authorities have clearly listed examples of acoustic disruptions that are prohibited. Drivers can’t rev their engines to high speeds while idling, and they can’t deliberately drive in a low gear just to make the engine roar louder. Those satisfying popping sounds from a performance exhaust system are strictly forbidden on Swiss roads. Most importantly, the racket caused by accelerating too quickly when moving off from a stop is legally classified as an avoidable nuisance and is expressly banned.
Clean your car in Dubai
Dubai Municipality has a campaign to check on and get rid of neglected cars at its nine vehicle registration and testing centers. Now, you might think this is just about hauling away broken-down or abandoned junk; however, it’s actually about strictly enforcing the emirate’s incredibly high visual standards for every personal car. Dubai’s campaign targets these unkempt vehicles, which, when you get down to it, are just dirty cars.
The local government really values urban beauty, cleanliness, and architectural harmony, officially calling visibly unwashed cars a blot on the city’s beautiful image. If you own a car in this sparkling metropolis, you have a legally enforced civic duty to keep its exterior thoroughly washed, polished, and always looking good. To keep things pristine, authorities actively patrol public parking lots, streets, and municipal centers, giving out physical poster alerts and SMS warnings to owners of cars covered in sand, dust, or dirt.
If you don’t fix the situation within the warning timeframe, you’ll face serious penalties, a fine, and possibly have your car impounded at a towing yard. The government uses the specific phrase “clean vehicle sustainable city” to constantly remind residents that car cleanliness is directly connected to the community’s bigger environmental goals.
You need high-visibility gear in France
When you’re driving through France’s pretty landscapes, you might be surprised to find out that its traffic laws require some emergency equipment that’s way more than what you’d expect in North America. The French Highway Code says it’s completely necessary for all drivers to keep a high-visibility safety vest, you know, a yellow vest, and an advance warning triangle right inside their car at all times.
The law is really specific about what these items should be like and how to use them. For example, the safety garment has to be fluorescent, it needs a European Compliance (EC) marking, and you’ve got to keep it somewhere easy to grab inside the car. The U.S. is still passing laws to make sure others treat these emergencies with caution.
This accessibility is a really important detail because if you have to make an emergency stop, French law says you absolutely must put the vest on before you even get out of your broken-down car onto the road or its surroundings. Once you’ve safely exited the vehicle wearing your reflective gear, you’re required to place the hazard warning triangle, which needs an E 27 R marking, at least 30 meters away from your car to warn approaching drivers. You should also turn on your vehicle’s hazard warning lights at the same time.
OpenAI announced a major reorganization on Friday as the company’s CEO of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, takes medical leave to focus on her health. OpenAI president Greg Brockman will handle the product teams in Simo’s absence. Simo’s previous title was CEO of applications.
Brad Lightcap, the chief operating officer and one of CEO Sam Altman’s top deputies, is transitioning to a “special projects” role. Kate Rouch, the chief marketing officer, is taking a leave of absence to focus on her health. Rouch has been undergoing treatment for breast cancer. When she returns, it will be in “a different, more narrowly scoped role,” according to a note Simo shared with OpenAI staff which was viewed by WIRED.
“As I shared when I joined, I had a relapse of my neuroimmune condition a few weeks before starting the job,” Simo said in the note which was sent in OpenAI’s “core” Slack channel. “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster since, and the last month has been particularly rough health-wise. For my entire time here, I’ve postponed medical tests and new therapies to stay completely focused on the job and not miss a single day of work. I took time off for the first time two weeks before the break for some medical tests, and it’s now clear that I’ve pushed a little too far and I really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health.”
Simo is expected to take “several weeks” of leave according to her internal post.
In his new role, Lightcap will be in charge of the company’s forward-deployed engineers, which embed within enterprise organizations and help integrate OpenAI’s technology, among other duties.
OpenAI will begin searching for a new CMO, Simo said. The company is also looking for a chief communications officer to replace Hannah Wong, who left her position in January. Chris Lehane has taken over as the leader of the communications team in the interim.
“We have a strong leadership team focused on our biggest priorities: advancing frontier research, growing our global user base of nearly 1 billion users, and powering enterprise use cases,” said an OpenAI spokesperson in a statement. “We’re well-positioned to keep executing with continuity and momentum.”
Simo joined OpenAI in August 2025, where she took over many of the company’s consumer-facing products, including ChatGPT, Codex, and the social-video app Sora. She recently shuttered the Sora app and told staff that the company needed to cut side projects and refocus around its core products.
The decision comes as OpenAI eyes an IPO as soon as this year. The company recently raised $122 billion in the largest funding round the tech industry has ever seen, which valued the company at $852 billion.
The two largest Gemma 4 models – 26B Mixture of Experts and 31B Dense – require an 80GB Nvidia H100 GPU to run unquantized in bfloat16 format. Google claims these models deliver “frontier intelligence on personal computers” for students, researchers, and developers, providing advanced reasoning capabilities for IDEs, coding assistants, and agentic workflows.
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OpenAI has spent the last few weeks seemingly trying to refocus on using AI for business instead of what execs dubbed “side quests,” dumping its AI video generator and its plans for an adult-themed chatbot. So this week, of course, the company announced it’s jumping into the media business.
OpenAI said it was acquiring Technology Business Programming Network, better known as TBPN, which runs a 3-hour show streamed on weekdays that delves into the biggest topics — and brings in the biggest names — in tech business.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
OpenAI said it added TBPN to “help create a space for a real, constructive conversation about the changes AI creates,” Fidji Simo, CEO of AGI deployment at OpenAI, wrote in a message to employees shared by OpenAI. Simo said the company also wanted to take advantage of TBPN’s marketing prowess. “They have a strong pulse on where the industry is going, their comms and marketing ideas have really impressed me,” Simo said.
TBPN launched in October 2024 and has been compared to ESPN in how it covers tech — two guys at a big desk with news, analysis, commentary and banter about topics such as AI, crypto, startups and the defense industry. The show’s two hosts and co-founders, Jordi Hays and John Coogan, have had some of tech’s biggest names in studio — OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, to name some.
The show is streamed live from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. PT Monday through Friday on YouTube and X from the Ultradome, a studio on a Hollywood film lot. The show has 70,000 viewers daily and looks set to make more than $30 million in revenue this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TBPN co-host Hays acknowledged in a statement that the show has been “critical” of the AI industry.
“After getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right,” Hays said. “Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.”
In an era of fast-moving media consolidation, it’s a fair question — can TBPN keep saying what they really think, even if that ruffles OpenAI’s feathers? In her statement, Simo said OpenAI wants the show to maintain its “editorial independence.”
“TBPN will continue to run their programming, choose their guests, and make their own editorial decisions,” she said. “That’s foundational to their credibility, and it’s something we’re explicitly protecting as part of this agreement.”
Altman, OpenAI founder, echoed that sentiment with a posting on X. also calling TBPN his “favorite tech show.”
“We want them to keep that going and for them to do what they do so well,” Altman posted. “I don’t expect them to go any easier on us, am sure I’ll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions.”
The acquisition prompted some criticism and concern on social media as people wondered whether TBPN could really maintain editorial independence.
“Reporters doing accountability journalism are getting mowed down by mass layoffs & are now almost extinct — while the targets of their accountability reporting are giving hundreds of millions of dollars to pundits,” David Sirota, a longtime columnist and founder of the investigative news outlet The Lever, posted on X. “What stage of the media dystopia is this?”
TBPN will be under the supervision of OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane, who joined the company in October 2024 and is the company’s main strategist in working with government officials. Decades ago, he worked in the White House of President Bill Clinton — helping to handle the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations — and as press secretary to Vice President Al Gore. Lehane also set up a procrypto super PAC called Fairshake that helped defeat anticrypto candidates during the 2024 elections and helped Airbnb battle housing regulations.
HarperCollins is tapping into AI to bring some of its book franchises to life. Specifically, the publisher is teaming up with Toonstar, an AI animation studio, to turn them into digital shows. The first project will be an adaptation of Lisa Greenwald’s “Friendship List” series, which will also be joined by a graphic novel.
You’d be forgiven for being unaware of Toonstar, a studio that received some buzzy early on for simplifying typically complex animation pipelines with AI, but has mostly remained under the radar. Its biggest claim to fame is producing StEvEn and Parker YouTube series, which has amassed 3.38 million subscribers and sometimes has episodes reaching around a million views. It’s not something I’ve heard animation fans speaking about, though. And honestly, it was tough to sit through a few minutes of its sub-South Park animation.
“By leaning into the [AI] technology, we can make full episodes 80 percent faster and 90 percent cheaper than industry norms,” Toonstar co-founder John Attanasio, told The New York Times last year. In that same interview, the company revealed that it uses AI across its production, including having it dub dialog for international audiences, as well as working on storylines.
Toonstar initially pitched itself as an animation studio leaning into Web3 and NFTs, but those technologies seem virtually absent from the company’s presence today. Space Junk, one of its early series, was “put on hold for a variety of reasons,” a representative told Engadget. “It’s possible we’ll resurrect the concept in the future,” they added. Its original domain now points to a crypto gambling site.
“We’re honored to bring Friendship List to life as an animated series,” Attanasio said in a press release. “Our artist-centered approach ensures these beloved characters and stories stay true to the author’s vision, while our Ink & Pixel production technology enables fast, high-quality production at scale which unlocks the ability to meet audiences where and when they enjoy content today.”
Toonstar has certainly proved it can make “content” for YouTube. Can it actually produce an enjoyable animat edshow? That’s another question entirely.
Iranian strikes have reportedly knocked out key AWS availability zones in Bahrain and Dubai, leaving parts of both regions effectively offline for an extended period and forcing Amazon to urge teams and customers to shift workloads elsewhere. “These two regions continue to be impaired, and services should not expect to be operating with normal levels of redundancy and resiliency,” an internal Amazon communication memo reads. “We are actively working to free and reserve as much capacity as possible in the region for customers, and services should be scaled to the minimal footprint required to support customer migration.” Big Technology reports: With the war now nearing its sixth week, Iran has made Amazon infrastructure in the Gulf an economic target and is now eyeing its peers. Amazon’s Bahrain facilities have been hit multiple times, including a Wednesday strike that caused a fire. And its facilities in the UAE also sustained multiple hits. The IRGC is threatening multiple other U.S. tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple.
Amazons infrastructure in Bahrain and Dubai each have three ‘availability zones’ or clusters of compute. Both Bahrain and Dubai have a zones that are “hard down” and and “impaired but functioning,” per the internal communication. “We do not have a timeline for when DXB and BAH will return to normal operations,” the internal post said.
Researchers have determined that Microsoft’s LinkedIn is scanning browser plug-ins and other information without permission, building user profiles using data that the company did not get permission to take.
Safari
A European advocacy group claims LinkedIn is probing browser extensions through its website code. Fairlinked e.V. published its “BrowserGate” report alleging LinkedIn detects installed browser extensions by probing for known identifiers through JavaScript. The group says the technique reveals personally identifiable information.
Safari users are less likely to be affected by this specific mechanism, based on how extension detection typically works across browsers. Apple’s browser model limits fingerprinting surfaces, which reduces how much information sites can infer from installed extensions.
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Revel is heading into AXPONA 2026 (April 10-12) with a clear focus: the debut of its new Performa4 speaker series, expected to fall between $2,000 and $7,000 per pair. Under the HARMAN Luxury Audio Group umbrella, which also includes Arcam, JBL Synthesis, Lexicon, and Mark Levinson, Revel isn’t going after statement pricing here. Performa4 is aimed at the part of the market where most serious systems are actually built, and where the competition is crowded, well established, and not particularly forgiving.
Revel Performa4 Speaker Series
Revel’s Performa4 Series is a new loudspeaker line built on the company’s established approach to acoustic design and measurement. It reflects three decades of engineering focused on controlled performance and consistent results in real-world listening environments.
Revel’s Performa4 Series consists of two floorstanding models (F346 and F345), two bookshelf speakers (M146 and M145), a center channel (C245), and a powered subwoofer (B140). With multiple configurations available, the Performa4 lineup can be used in both two-channel music systems and multichannel home theater setups.
“At Revel, science is at the heart of everything we do. The Performa4 series represents the culmination of thousands of hours of research, development, and real-world testing. With our new 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide and advanced DCC and MCC transducers, we’ve raised the bar for what’s possible in this class,” said Jim Garrett, Senior Director of Product Strategy and Planning at HARMAN Luxury Audio.
Acoustic Lens Waveguide, DCC and MCC Transducers Explained
The Performa4 series uses Revel’s Deep Ceramic Composite (DCC) and Micro Ceramic Composite (MCC) drivers, developed to improve stiffness while keeping mass low and reducing unwanted coloration.
Woofer and midrange drivers are built on cast aluminum frames designed with Finite Element Analysis to optimize airflow, control resonance, and maintain structural stability. Each driver also uses an inverted surround and integrated trim ring, which simplifies the front baffle and keeps the layout clean.
Revel’s 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide is paired with a 1-inch DCC dome tweeter to improve integration with the midrange driver. The waveguide is designed to control dispersion more consistently across the listening area, while also supporting higher efficiency and lower distortion, including at off-axis positions.
Revel Performa4 Industrial Design
The Performa4 series adopts a clean, modern design that builds on Revel’s established cabinet approach without adding unnecessary complexity.
All models use magnetically attached grilles for a flush, hardware-free front panel, along with black accent detailing that keeps the visual profile consistent across the range. Cabinets are internally cross-braced to improve rigidity and reduce unwanted vibration.
Curved side panels are finished in real wood veneers, available in Natural Walnut and Black Walnut, offering a straightforward aesthetic that fits into both traditional and contemporary spaces.
Revel Performa4 Models
F346
The F346 is a 3-way floorstanding loudspeaker and the top model in the Performa4 series.
It uses three 6.5-inch (165mm) MCC woofers, a 6.5-inch (165mm) DCC midrange driver, and a 1-inch (25mm) DCC dome tweeter paired with Revel’s 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide.
Dual rear-firing ports provide low-frequency extension, while dual 5-way binding posts support bi-amping or bi-wiring. The cabinet is fitted with solid aluminum feet and includes optional floor spikes for added stability.
The F346 is rated for a frequency response of 30Hz to 40kHz (±6dB), with 88dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power ranges from 20 to 250 watts.
F345
The F345 is a 3-way floorstanding loudspeaker that shares the same core design as the F346, using smaller drivers in a more compact cabinet.
It features three 5.25-inch (130mm) MCC woofers, a 5.25-inch (130mm) DCC midrange driver, and a 1-inch (25mm) DCC dome tweeter paired with Revel’s 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide.
Dual rear-firing ports support low-frequency output, while dual 5-way binding posts allow for bi-amping or bi-wiring. The cabinet includes solid aluminum feet with optional spikes for placement flexibility.
The F345 is rated for a frequency response of 36Hz to 40kHz (±6dB), with 87dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power ranges from 30 to 225 watts.
M146
The M146 is a 2-way bookshelf or standmount speaker positioned in the middle of the Performa4 lineup.
It uses a 6.5-inch (165mm) MCC woofer paired with a 1-inch (25mm) DCC dome tweeter and Revel’s 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide.
The crossover network incorporates air-core inductors, and dual 5-way binding posts support bi-amping or bi-wiring. Optional MFS4 floor stands are available for proper placement and listening height.
The M146 is rated for a frequency response of 43Hz to 40kHz (±6dB), with 86dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power ranges from 15 to 200 watts.
M145
The M145 is a compact 2-way bookshelf speaker and the smaller option in the Performa4 lineup.
It features a 5.25-inch (130mm) MCC woofer paired with a 1-inch (25mm) DCC dome tweeter and Revel’s 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide.
Like the M146, it includes 5-way binding posts for flexible connectivity and is compatible with the optional MFS4 floor stands for proper positioning.
The M145 is rated for a frequency response of 54Hz to 40kHz (±6dB), with 85dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power ranges from 15 to 150 watts.
C245
The C245 is a dedicated center channel speaker designed for use in multichannel systems with other Performa4 models.
It features dual 5.25-inch (130mm) MCC woofers flanking a 1-inch (25mm) DCC dome tweeter, paired with Revel’s 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide for consistent dispersion across the front soundstage.
The C245 is rated for a frequency response of 55Hz to 40kHz (±6dB), with 86dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power ranges from 15 to 200 watts.
B140
The B140 is a powered subwoofer designed to integrate with the Performa4 series in both two-channel and home theater systems.
It uses a 10-inch (250mm) fiber-composite woofer driven by a 750-watt RMS Class D amplifier, with up to 1,500 watts peak output. The design targets low-frequency extension down to 26Hz.
Rear-panel controls include a variable low-pass filter (50–150Hz), LFE input, phase adjustment, volume control, and auto on/off functionality. A rear-ported enclosure using Revel’s Constant Pressure Gradient design is intended to reduce turbulence and maintain cleaner low-frequency output.
MFS4 Floorstands
Revel also offers the optional MFS4 floor stands for the M146 and M145 bookshelf speakers.
Constructed from extruded aluminum and steel, the MFS4 stands are designed to position each speaker at an appropriate listening height. They include built-in cable management and optional spikes for use on carpeted surfaces. The stands are sold in pairs.
Revel Performa 4 Comparisons
| Revel Model | F346 | F345 | M146 | M145 | C245 |
| Speaker Type | Floorstanding | Floorstanding | Bookshelf | Bookshelf | Center |
| Price | $6,999/pair | $4,999/pair | $2,999/pair | $1,999/pair | $1,499/each |
| Speaker Configuration | 3-way | 3-way | 2-way | 2-way | 2-way |
| Tweeter | 1-inch (25mm) DCC Dome Tweeter with Acoustic Lens and 7th-Generation Waveguide | 1-inch (25mm) DCC Dome Tweeter with Acoustic Lens and Waveguide | 1-inch (25mm) DCC Dome Tweeter with Acoustic Lens and Waveguide | 1-inch (25mm) DCC Dome Tweeter with Acoustic Lens and Waveguide | 1-inch (25mm) DCC Dome Tweeter with Acoustic Lens and Waveguide |
| Midrange | 1 x 6.5 in (165 mm) Deep Ceramic Composite (DCC) Cone Driver | 1 x 5.25 in (135 mm) Deep Ceramic Composite (DCC) Cone Driver | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Woofer | 3 x 6.5 in (165 mm) Micro Ceramic Composite (MCC) Cone Woofers | 3 x 5.25 in (135 mm) Micro Ceramic Composite (MCC) Cone Woofers | 1 x 6.5-inch (165 mm) Micro Ceramic Composite (MCC) Cone Woofer | 1 x 5.25 inch (130 mm) Micro Ceramic Composite (MCC) Cone Woofer | 2 x 5.25-inch (135 mm) Micro Ceramic Composite (MCC) Cone Woofers |
| Enclosure Tuning | Bass-Reflex via Dual Rear-Mounted Ports | Bass-Reflex via Dual Rear-Mounted Ports | Bass-Reflex via Rear-Mounted Port | Bass-Reflex via Rear-Mounted Port | Bass-Reflex via Rear-Mounted Port |
| Nominal Impedance | 6 Ohms | 6 Ohms | 6 Ohms | 6 Ohms | 6 Ohms |
| Sensitivity @ 1m, 2.83V | 88 dB | 87 dB | 85.5 dB | 85 dB | 86 dB |
| Recommended Amplifier Power | 20-250W | 30-225W | 15-200W | 15-150W | 15-200W |
| Frequency Response +/-6 dB | 30 Hz – 40 kHz | 36 Hz – 40 kHz | 43 Hz – 40 kHz | 54 Hz – 40 kHz | 55 Hz – 40 kHz |
| Crossover Frequency | 275 Hz / 1.7 kHz | 350 Hz / 2.1 kHz | 1.7 kHz | 1.8 kHz | 1.8 kHz |
| Dimensions | 44.4 x 14.1 x 16.3 inches
1127 x 357.33 x 414.48 mm |
40.9 x 11.9 x 13.9 inches
1038 x 301.86 x 352.46 mm |
14.1 x 9.7 x 12.7 inches
359 x 245.56 x 322.57mm |
11.6 x 7.9 x 9.6 inches
294 x 200 x 245mm |
7.1 x 23.4 x 10.9 inches
181 x 594.5 x 277 mm |
| Product Weight | 87.5 lbs / 39.7 kg | 64 lbs / 29.1 kg | 24.3 lbs / 11 kg | 15 lbs / 6.8 kg | 27.1 lbs / 12.3 kg |
Revel B140 Subwoofer
| Revel Model | B140 |
| Product Type | Powered Subwoofer |
| Price | $2,999/each |
| Driver | 250mm (10-inch) Coated Fibre Composite Cone Driver in a cast-Aluminum frame |
| Amplifier Type | Class D amplifier |
| Power Output | 750W RMS (1500W peak) |
| Enclosure Tuning | Bass-Reflex via Rear-Mounted Port |
| Controls | Auto Power, Crossover, Level, Phase |
| Inputs | RCA LFE/Line Level, 3.5mm, 12V Trigger |
| Frequency Response +/-6 dB | 26Hz – 150Hz |
| Crossover Frequency (Variable) | 50Hz – 150Hz |
| Dimensions | 14.8 x 16.9 x 17.2 inches (376.2 x 429.28 x 436.37 mm) |
| Weight | 61.3 lbs / 27.8 kg |
The Bottom Line
Revel’s Performa4 series is a calculated move into one of the most competitive segments in loudspeakers. The combination of DCC and MCC driver materials, the 7th-generation Acoustic Lens waveguide, and consistent cabinet engineering across the range points to a focus on controlled dispersion, tonal consistency, and predictable in-room performance; areas where Revel has historically been very disciplined.
The lineup is clearly built for flexibility. It can anchor a straightforward two-channel system or scale into a full home theater without mixing and matching across different voicings. That matters for buyers who want system coherence without overthinking every component swap.
What’s less clear is how much separation there is between models beyond size and output, and whether the subwoofer’s pricing will make sense for buyers building out a full system. There’s also no indication of built-in room correction or system-level integration features, which are becoming more common even in passive speaker ecosystems when paired with modern electronics.
This is for listeners who want a complete, measurement-driven speaker system in the $2,000 to $7,000 range without stepping into five-figure territory. Not entry-level, not cost-no-object—right in the middle where most serious systems live.
At AXPONA 2026, the F346 will be demonstrated with an Arcam SA45 integrated streaming amplifier and CD5 CD player, which should give a clear sense of how the top model performs with both streaming and physical sources.
Pricing & Availability
The Revel Performa4 series begins shipping in April through authorized Revel dealers and custom installation installers. All models are available in Natural Walnut and Black Walnut wood veneer finishes.
Suggested retail pricing is as follows:
- F346 Triple 6.5-inch Floorstanding Speaker – $6,999/pair
- F345 Triple 5.25-inch Floorstanding Speaker – $4,999/pair
- M146 6.5-inch Bookshelf Speaker – $2,999/pair
- M145 5.25” Bookshelf Speaker – $1,999/pair
- C245 Dual 5.25” Center Channel Speaker – $1,499/each
- B140 10-inch Powered Subwoofer – $2,999/each
- MFS4 Floor Stands – $699/pair
The Revel Performa4 series will make its official debut at AXPONA 2026, April 10-12, at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Chicago, IL.
For more information, visit www.revelspeakers.com
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French fries are delicious, but notoriously unhealthy. A research team at the University of Illinois, however, has developed a deceptively straightforward method to keep the satisfying taste and crunch without requiring as much oil.
The cooking method combines traditional frying and microwave heating. Adding that microwave step could reduce the amount of oil used in the process, meaning you would absorb less fat with each bite. All the secrets to being able to cook fries in this way have been laid out in two studies published in Current Research in Food Science and The Journal of Food Science.
French Fries and Health
Although popular, fried foods contain high levels of fat, which is linked to several health problems, including obesity and hypertension. “Consumers want healthy foods, but at the time of purchase, cravings often prevail,” says Pawan Singh Takhar, author of one of the two studies. “The high oil content adds flavor, but it also contains a lot of energy and calories.”
It’s precisely with the goal of helping consumers make better food choices without feeling deprived that researchers have been trying to figure out how they can cook healthier french fries, achieving lower fat content without altering their taste and texture.
One of the main difficulties in frying, as the studies explain, is preventing the oil from penetrating the food. In the early stages of the french fry process, in fact, the pores of the potato are filled with water, leaving no room for the oil.
As cooking continues, however, the water evaporates, creating empty spaces that allow the oil to be drawn in by negative pressure. Much of the frying process takes place under that negative pressure, which essentially increases the tendency of the oil to be sucked into the fries
A New Wavelength
In the new study, therefore, the researchers tried to figure out how to extend the time in positive pressure and reduce the period under negative pressure. “When we heat something in a traditional oven, the heat transfers from the outside to the inside, but a microwave oven heats from the inside to the outside because the microwaves penetrate everywhere in the material,” Takhar says.
Specifically, microwaves cause water molecules to oscillate, resulting in increased vapor formation and thus shifting the pressure profile toward positive values that prevent the oil from being easily absorbed.
Microwave frying alone, however, would not produce the desired texture. “If only microwaving is used, the food turns out mushy,” says Takhar. In order to achieve crispness, frying and microwaving should be combined.
To achieve the right balance, the researchers carried out an experiment in which they specially designed a microwave fryer, monitoring temperature, pressure, volume, texture, moisture, and oil content of the chips. “We propose to combine the two methods in the same device. Traditional heating maintains crispness, while microwave heating reduces oil consumption,” the study concludes.
Microsoft is expanding its roster of in-house AI models, releasing a new speech-to-text system and making two existing models broadly available to developers for the first time.
The moves by Microsoft AI (MAI) are part of a broader effort by the company to expand its proprietary AI capabilities beyond its partnership with OpenAI, giving Microsoft more control over its own destiny in the competition against Google, Amazon, and others.
Microsoft announced MAI-Transcribe-1 on Thursday, a speech-to-text model that it says is the most accurate currently available. The company also released its existing voice and image generation models, known as MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-Image-2, for broad commercial use.
It’s Microsoft’s first major model release since a March reorganization, announced by CEO Satya Nadella, in which Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman shifted away from day-to-day Copilot oversight to focus on frontier model development and superintelligence.
Suleyman told The Verge that the transcription model runs at “half the GPU cost of the other state-of-the-art models.” He told VentureBeat that the model was built by a team of just 10 people, and that Microsoft plans to eventually build a frontier large language model to be “completely independent” if needed.
Microsoft also recently hired former Allen Institute for CEO Ali Farhadi and other top AI researchers from the Seattle-based institute to further bolster Suleyman’s team, as GeekWire reported last week.
MAI-Transcribe-1 is designed to handle noisy real-world conditions such as call centers and conference rooms, and Microsoft says it is testing integrations with Copilot and Teams. Microsoft says it offers the best price-performance of any large cloud provider, competing directly with OpenAI’s Whisper and Google’s Gemini on the FLEURS benchmark.
In a blog post, Suleyman called the model “not just the most accurate but also lightning fast.”
MAI-Voice-1 generates natural-sounding speech and now lets developers create custom voices from short snippets of sample audio. MAI-Image-2 ranks in the top three on the Arena.ai image generation leaderboard and is rolling out in Bing and PowerPoint.
All three are available on the Microsoft Foundry developer AI platform and MAI Playground.
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