In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • Tesla plans upgrade to its Autopilot system
  • Plus: Watch a video from Wire about how Autopilot really works
  • Facebook under fire for Trending changes
  • Apple sets aside billions for U.S. taxes
  • Congress may act after Apple tax issue
  • iRobot CEO discusses our robot future

The details:

  • Tesla planning upgrade to semi-autonomous Autopilot system

Tesla Motors is planning improvements to its semi-autonomous Autopilot system after a fatal crash earlier this summer.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in a tweet Wednesday that a software update will be released in a few weeks. Musk says a software update will make “major improvements” to Autopilot, including more advanced processing of radar signals. Software updates are delivered over the air to Tesla owners.

  • Video: From Wired, see how Autopilot actually works at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiOxUcDgsa8

Tesla’s Autopilot system can maintain a set speed, keep the car within its lane and brake automatically. Radar helps the car see things that may be blocked to cameras in bright sunlight or bad weather.

  • Facebook changes to Trending Topics questioned after blunder

Facebook’s changes to its “Trending Topics” section are being questioned after it featured a false report about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

The story posted Saturday falsely claimed Kelly had been fired by Fox because she secretly supported Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Another topic trending was #McChicken, which took users to stories about a video of a man using the McDonald’s sandwich in a sex act.

Facebook announced Friday that an algorithm would select trending topics in place of humans but human editors would still screen them.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook has apologized for the Kelly story, telling CBS News its editors mistakenly thought it was legitimate before realizing the error. Facebooksays that the McChicken topic doesn’t violate its content policy and that anytrending topic that reflects a real-world event may be featured.

  • Apple says several billion dollars set aside for US taxes

Apple’s chief executive says the company has put aside”several billion dollars” to pay tax liabilities in the United States as overseas earnings are repatriated.

Tim Cook told Irish state network RTE in an interview broadcast Thursday that repatriation should occur next year as profits from 2014 are repatriated.

His comments came after the European Union ordered the U.S.-based firm to pay $14.5billion in back taxes to Ireland plus billions more in interest.

The tax dispute is part of an ongoing fight over whether America’s largest global corporations pay adequate taxes throughout the world.

Apple plans to fight the EU order, which Cook characterized as unfair. He told Irish television that the EU’s findings are “maddening” and that the company had not received special treatment from Irish authorities.

  • Treasury Secretary: Apple’s tax fight could spur congressional action

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Wednesday criticized a European ruling that Apple owes more than $14.5 billion in back taxes. But he said the decision may spur Congress to finally address the stalled effort to reform America’s corporate tax structure.

Lew said that while the Obama administration has failed in its efforts to get tax reform through Congress, he believes the unhappiness expressed by both Democrats and Republicans following Europe’s announcement on Tuesday could push Congress to act.

He said he is “hopeful that we will see action, probably not in my tenure, but early in the next administration.”

  • iRobot CEO says vacuum cleaners clear path to robot future

The clash this year over the future of iRobot pitted visionar yrobotics against the retail success of the company’s Roombas, the circular-shaped domestic helpers that have cleaned millions of living rooms around the world.

Colin Angle said he never imagined when he co-founded the company 26 years ago that it would change the way the world views vacuuming. But the chairman and CEO of iRobot also said it’s a misconception to think he’s running a vacuum cleaner company.

Automated vacuums are the “beachhead of practical robotics in the world today,” an important step on the path to the smarter homes to come, Angle said in a recent interview with The Associated Press at the company’s headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts. The mapping software that helps the latest Roomba model remember where it’s already picked up dirt could be the building block for future devices that can fetch a glass of water or adjust the lights when a human walks into a room.

“What iRobot is going to be most appreciated for is not going to be vacuums, it’s going to be allowing people to live independently longer so that we can maintain our standard of living as a society,” Angle said. “That sounds big and grandiose other than the fact that it’s a freight train coming down the tracks that we’re going to need to address.”

After spinning off iRobot’s lagging and volatile military robot division in April and fending off a disruptive proxy fight in May, Angle said he’s excited about a new chapter for the company that revives its original 1990 goal: building the kind of useful, everyday robots we’ve spent generations imagining in books and movies.