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California Loosens Rules for Driverless Cars, Clearing Way for Robot Taxis
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Sometime this spring, self-driving test cars will begin appearing
on California highways, with no people inside, the result of new
regulations issued recently by the state DMV.
The rules, first proposed last October, will also allow ride-hailing
companies such as Uber and Lyft to begin selling rides in driverless
cars, removing expensive human drivers from the equation. Technically,
that could happen this year, although no ride-hailing companies have yet
announced such plans. For now, the California regulations bar driverless trucks, motorcycles,
and cars with trailers. Until now, driverless cars were allowed on
California roads only with a human behind the wheel. The new rules
loosen restrictions on testing and, crucially, set standards to allow
the sale or lease of robot cars and their operation by ride-hailing
fleets. (latimes.com,
2/28/18)
Meanwhile, in an attempt to move driverless car software more quickly into its
cars and trucks, Toyota is creating a separate company and hopes to fill
it with some of the world's best autonomous-vehicle coders. Called
Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, the new Tokyo-based
company will draw on work turned out by Toyota's research labs and
transform it into commercial-ready products. The joint venture comprises Toyota and two of its major parts suppliers;
the trio will invest $2.8 billion. (latimes.com,
3/2/18) And, Google announced that it plans to use Waymo's self-driving trucks to deliver cargo to
Google's data centers in Atlanta. Georgia is now the seventh state for Waymo's tests, joining pilots in
California, Texas, Washington, Nevada, Michigan, and Arizona. Also, earlier
this year, Waymo ordered thousands of new Chrysler Pacifica minivans in
the hope of launching a driverless ride-hailing service sometime this
year. (zdnet.com, 3/9/18)
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Drones to Deliver Packages in U.S. Within Months, Say Feds
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After lagging behind other countries for years, commercial drones in the U.S. are expected to begin limited package deliveries within months,
according to federal regulators and industry officials. The momentum
partly stems from stepped-up White House pressure, prompting closer
cooperation between the government and companies seeking
authorizations for such fledgling businesses. At least 10 FAA-approved
pilot programs for various drone initiatives - some likely including package
delivery - are slated to start by May. So far, regulators in Australia, Singapore, and Britain are among those leading the way on drone deliveries. In the U.S., there have been
numerous studies, advisory panels, and years of debate about the topic,
but relatively little movement to usher in real-world services. (wsj.com,
3/11/18)
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Trump's Message with Broadcom Block: U.S. Tech "Not For Sale"
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With his swift rejection of Broadcom Ltd.'s hostile takeover of Qualcomm Inc., President Trump sent a clear signal to overseas investors: Any deal that could give China an edge in critical technology will be swatted down in the name of national security. The president's order on Monday blocking Broadcom's $117 billion bid for Qualcomm is the latest sign of Trump's tough stance on foreign takeovers of U.S. technology and is part of a broader move to contain China on trade. The Trump administration is considering clamping down on Chinese investments in the U.S. and imposing tariffs on a broad range of its imports to punish Beijing for its alleged theft of intellectual property. (bloomberg.com, 3/12/18)
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5G Cell Service is Coming, But Who Decides Where It Goes?
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5G, which delivers wireless internet at far faster speeds than existing cellular
connections, requires different hardware to deliver the signals. Instead
of relying on large towers placed far apart, the new signals will come
from smaller equipment placed an average of 500 feet apart in
neighborhoods and business districts. Much of the equipment will be on
streetlights or utility poles, often accompanied by containers the size
of refrigerators on the ground. More than 300,000 cell stations now provide wireless
connections, and 5G will bring hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - more.
The prospect of their installation has many communities and their officials, nationwide,
insisting that local governments control the placement and look of the
new equipment. They say that the cell stations could clutter
neighborhoods with eyesores and cost the communities a lot of potential revenue.
But telecommunications companies, hoping to cash in on what is predicted to be $250 billion in annual service revenue from 5G by 2025, are pushing to build the system
as quickly and cheaply as possible. And they have the federal government
on their side. The companies say that the equipment will be safe and
unobtrusive, and that it's needed to support future applications like
driverless cars. Dotting them throughout neighborhoods is necessary for
full coverage, they say, because the new 5G signals do not travel as far
as the radio frequencies now in use. The telecom firms have lobbyists
working Congress and state legislatures, advocating laws that restrict local
oversight of 5G. The FCC, under the leadership of Ajit
Pai, has strongly encouraged weakening regulations to accelerate the
deployment of new 5G technology - including reducing the role of local
governments. Recently, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr announced details of a plan to streamline the
environmental and historic review process for 5G infrastructure, saying
it could cut costs by 80%. Meanwhile, AT&T executives said officials in California had delayed deployment of small cells by
800+ days because they scrutinized antenna designs, radio-frequency
exposure, and effects on property values, among other things. (nytimes.com,
3/2/18)
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20% of U.S. Adults Now Have Access to Smart Speaker: Study
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Nearly one in five U.S. adults today have access to a smart
speaker, according to new research from Voicebot.ai.
That means adoption of these voice-powered devices has grown to 47.3
million U.S. adults in two years.
In comparison, it took 13 years for televisions to reach the 50
million mark, versus 2 years for smart speakers, 4 years for
internet access, and 2 years for Facebook. (techcrunch.com,
3/7/18)
Meanwhile, in a recent article, Sebastien Szczepaniak, a former Amazon executive who now heads
e-commerce for Nestlé SA, predicted that in the next five
years, half of searches on the web will be done via voice. And Graeme Pitkethly, CFO of Unilever PLC, said, "Of all the disruptions that are taking place in all the things
technology is bringing into our space, voice is among the most disruptive. In digital
investment this is our biggest focus." (wsj.com,
2/27/18) Also, Amazon has started another accelerator program to find startups focused
on voice technology. The $100 million Alexa Fund comprises venture
capital funding to fuel voice technology innovation in the categories of
smart home, entertainment, finance, enterprise, communications,
automobile and transportation, health and wellness, connected learning,
connected devices, hardware components, and other enabling technologies.
(mediapost.com,
2/26/18)
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LA VC Firm Adds Diversity "Inclusion Clause" in Term Sheets
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Los Angeles-based venture capital investor Upfront Venturesvrecently
said that it's including a new clause in its term sheets to companies,
which asks them to formally require that a woman, or a "member of a
population currently underrepresented within the company" be interviewed
any time there is an open executive position at the startup. According
to Upfront's Mark Suster, the VC firm has open sourced the legal language it has been
inserting into its term sheets, in hopes that other VC firms will also
adopt those requirements in their own investment offers.
(socaltech.com, 3/9/18)
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Paul Allen Invests $125 Million to Teach Computers Common Sense
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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is investing $125 million to teach
common sense to computers, commiting the money over the next three years
to the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, known
as AI2. The funds will go toward multiple AI2 projects, but specifically will be
used for the new Project Alexandria that will try to bring together various technology elements used
in AI, with the goal of creating a system imbued with good sense and
judgment. Currently, AI systems can scan and "read" text, interpret some
pictures, and play board games. But they can't react to unexpected
situations or tell you, say, which way water would flow on a hill.
Project Alexandria aims to teach AI to answer questions such as, "What
would you typically find in a trash can?" or "If I put my socks in the
drawer, will they still be there tomorrow?" In some ways, an AI system
is smarter than the average child - it can read and store massive
amounts of scientific research, for example. But it's lacking the common
sense that most children have, Allen said. (seattletimes.com,
2/28/18)
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Ransomware for Robots is Next Big Security Nightmare
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Researchers at security company IOActive have shown how they
managed to hack the humanoid NAO robot made by Softbank and infect one
with custom-built ransomware. The researchers said
the same attack would work on the Pepper robot too. After the
infection, the robot is shown insulting its audience and demanding to be
"fed" bitcoin cryptocurrency in order to restore systems back to normal.
But, if a robot becomes infected with ransomware, it's almost impossible for the
user to restore it to normal by themselves. If the alternative for a
victim of robot ransomware is waiting for a technician to come to fix
the robot - or even losing access to it for weeks if it needs to be
returned to the manufacturer - a business owner might view giving into
the ransom demand as a lesser evil. The solution to this issue is for robotics manufacturers to think about cybersecurity at every step of the manufacturing process from day one,
according to IOActive. (zdnet.com,
3/9/18)
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