In today’s Bulldog wrapup of life science and technology news:

  • Tesla updates Autopilot software
  • The Zuckerbergs pledge $3 billion to fight disease
  • Charter (TWC) eyes offering cell service
  • Yelp defamation lawsuit update at California Supreme Court
  • South Korea pressures Samsung over batteries

The details:

  • Tesla updates software to improve radar

Tesla Motors customers will get enhanced radar and other features in an over-the-air software update that starts Wednesday night.

The update makes the Model S sedan and Model X SUV rely more reliant on radar than cameras when driving in Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot mode. Teslas made after October 2014 have radar.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the change should help avoid crashes like the one that killed aTesla driver in Florida in May. That driver — who was using Autopilot — crashed into a tractor-trailer that Tesla’s camera failed to detect.

Musk says the update also will allow customers to set a maximum temperature control system to help keep kids and pets safe if they’re left in the car. The system automatically turns on the air conditioning.

  • Zuckerberg, Chan pledge $3B to end disease

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a goal that’s even more ambitious than connecting the entire world to the internet: He and his wife want to help eradicate all disease by the end of this century.

Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are committing $3 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate basic scientific research. That includes creating research tools — from software to hardware to yet-undiscovered techniques — they hope will ultimately lead to scientific breakthroughs, the way the microscope and DNA sequencing have in generations past.

The goal is to “cure, prevent or manage all disease” in the next 80 or so years, a timeframe the 30-something couple are unlikely to live to see. They acknowledge that this might sound crazy, but point to how far medicine and science have come in the last century — with vaccines, statins for heart disease, chemotherapy, and so on — following millennia with little progress.

At current rates of progress, Zuckerberg reckons, it will be possible to solve most of these problems “by the end of this century.” Zuckerberg and Chan have spent the past two years speaking to scientists and other experts to plan the endeavor. In an interview, Zuckerberg emphasized “that this isn’t something where we just read a book and decided we’re going to do.”

Through their philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the commitment includes $600 million to fund a new research center in San Francisco where scientific and medical researchers will work alongside engineers on projects spanning years or even decades. The goal is not to focus narrowly on specific ailments, such as bone cancer or Parkinson’s disease, but rather to do basic research. One example: a cell atlas that maps out all the different types of cells in the body, which could help researchers create various types of drugs.

  • Another big cable company says it wants to do cellphones too

A day after cable giant Comcast said it planned to start selling cellphone service, rival Charter says it wants to have a wireless business too.

That could mean more competition in the cellphone business, where Verizon and AT&T dominate.

Charter Communications became a huge cable operator with the purchase of Time Warner Cable in May. It has about 25.6 million customers; Comcast has more than 28 million.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said at an investment conference in New York Wednesday that Charter has told Verizon it’s interested in activating a deal with the phone company to resell its cellular network.

Comcast said Tuesday that it would launch a wireless service that runs on its own Wi-Fi as well as Verizon’s network by the middle of 2017.

  • California Supreme Court to consider suit over Yelp review

The California Supreme Court has agreed to consider a lawsuit that Yelp.com warns could lead to the removal of negative reviews on the popular site.

The court agreed Wednesday to take up an appeal by Yelp of a lower court ruling. The company is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a court order requiring it to remove posts against a San Francisco law firm.

Yelp says that if the ruling is allowed to stand, it will open the door for businesses to force the company to remove critical reviews.

Dawn Hassell, the law firm’s managing attorney, says the business review website is exaggerating the stakes of her legal effort. She says it aims only to remove from Yelp lies by a former client that a judge determined were defamatory, not just negative.

  • South Korea orders more checks on Galaxy Note 7 batteries

Samsung Electronics on Thursday was ordered to carry out more safety checks of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones before they go back on sale following an unprecedented global recall after defective batteries caused some of the phones to burst into flames.

Under a recall plan agreed to by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards,Samsung’s battery supplier will have to X-ray test every single lithium-ion battery intended for the Note 7 before the batteries are shipped, and Samsung Electronics will also carry out a quality test on every battery when it arrives from the supplier.

“If there are 10 million units, all 10 million will be reviewed,” said Nam Taek-joo, the official at the government agency responsible for product safety and recalls.

Samsung Electronics also agreed to do more for consumers who wish to ditch their Note 7s and get another brand. Consumers who missed a deadline on Monday to get a refund for the Note 7 smartphone, now have until the end of the month to get an iPhone or any similar device from the same mobile carrier in exchange for the Note 7.

The Galaxy Note 7 phone went on sale in August to glowing reviews but has now become Samsung’s biggest crisis in years. With consumers reporting that the high-end phones were overheating and catching fire, Samsung stopped sales on Sept. 2, just two weeks its launch, and recalled 2.5 million units citing a battery manufacturing error.