The Tribune

• The tiny Baltic nation of Estonia is experimenting with the idea of cyberconscription, a move that gives draftees with tech skills the chance to work shoring up their military’s electronic infrastructure, an Estonian defence official said Tuesday.

The experiment involves between 10 and 20 draftees, Estonian defence official Erki Kodar told The Associated Press. It began last summer and will be evaluated after the conscription cycle ends in June.

Estonia’s compulsory military service means teens can serve between eight to 11 months in the military depending on their role on whether they serve as sailors, soldiers or in other roles.

Those accepted as cyberconscripts can expect to pass their time on a help desk or doing programming work, Kodar said.

• The White House is moving forward with plans to give what it describes as a more “diverse group of journalists” a chance to ask questions at briefings.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in his first White House press conference that, beginning later this week, the White House will designate four “Skype seats” in the White House briefing room.

The idea is to provide an opportunity to ask question to a more diverse group of outlets that may not have the resources to hire a Washington correspondent.

The new administration has been discussing a series of potential changes to press operations.

• A study of autonomous driving technology will use electric buses in Reno, Sparks and Carson City.

Regional Transportation Commission electric buses will be equipped with technology to collect data on pedestrians, bikers, vehicles and traffic lights, the Reno-Gazette Journal reported.

The University of Nevada, Reno is collaborating with the commission and other groups on the Intelligent Mobility research.

“If you told me 10 years ago we would be talking about this kind of technology, I would have said it was a 100 years off,” said Richard Kelley, chief engineer in the university’s Advanced Autonomous Systems Innovation Center. “There have been so many astounding advances in this field.”

Commuters increasingly want to avoid distractions, and they want to be riders to that they can focus on other tasks, said David Jickling, the commission’s Director of Public Transportation and Operations.

“This collaboration with the university and other partners on developing safety features with an ultimate goal of perhaps being autonomous with our buses seemed like a natural step for the RTC to get involved with,” Jickling said.

Sensors will be installed on the first bus in the spring.