First FAA-approved drone delivery takes off — Consumers wary of fully autonomous cars – Drones and spyware

First FAA-approved drone delivery takes off — Consumers wary of fully autonomous cars – Drones and spyware

BI Intelligence 

FIRST FAA-APPROVED DRONE DELIVERY TAKES OFF: Australian startup Flirtey completed the first FAA-approved drone delivery in the US last week, carrying a package of medical supplies to a rural health clinic in Virginia. FAA regulations have until now banned such flights, but the FAA granted Flirtey an exemption for a joint venture it’s running with NASA and Virginia Tech university to deliver medical supplies to healthcare organizations in remote parts of the state.

Amazon and other companies have lobbied the FAA for more drone delivery exemptions, arguing that the current regulations are too strict. The regulations prohibit flying commercial drones beyond the line of sight of their pilot or operator.

The FAA is working on less stringent regulations for commercial drone flights that would allow drones to fly beyond their operators’ line of sight. Those new regulations could be finalized within a year, according to FAA officials testifying before Congress last month. Amazon has said that they will be ready to conduct drone deliveries as soon as the new regulations are enacted.

However, Flirtey’s delivery isn’t necessarily a sign that the FAA is ready to allow more drone deliveries. The FAA has consistently granted exemptions for drone uses that promote human health and safety, like inspecting parts of oil rigs that can be dangerous for humans to inspect. Flirtey’s delivery falls in line with this health and safety theme, and we expect that theme to drive more drone use cases in the short term than delivery of commercial products.

US CONSUMERS DON’T WANT FULLY AUTONOMOUS CARS: Only 15% of US drivers would prefer a fully autonomous car, according to a recent survey from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. Two-thirds of the respondents said they would be moderately or very concerned to drive in a fully autonomous car.

The survey of 505 car owners also found that 40% of the respondents said they’d like a semi-autonomous car that can drive itself in certain circumstances, and 43% of the respondents said they want to be in control of their vehicles at all times.

The survey’s findings correlate with our predictions regarding the development of the autonomous car market. We expect self-driving cars that leave it up to the driver whether to take control or let the car drive itself will enter the consumer market by the end of this decade. Fully autonomous cars without a steering wheel will not reach the market for a while longer, as consumers’ consistently show the desire to take control of their car if an emergency arises.

USING DRONES TO DELIVER SPYWARE: Newly translated documents from the much-publicized breach of Italian cyber espionage company Hacking Team reveal that the company was looking into delivering spyware with drones. Military drone maker Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, seems to have asked Hacking Team about delivering its Galileo spyware via Insitu’s ScanEagle surveillance drones, which are used by the US and other countries’ militaries.

Hacking Team assigned an engineer to develop an infection device small enough to be carried by the drones, according to an internal Hacking Team email translated by The Intercept. Usually portable infection devices are deployed via laptops, allowing the user to plug into the network the laptop is using and intercept data sent over that network. For instance, such a device could intercept data on other computers using an open Wi-Fi network at a coffee shop, and infect them with malware. Attaching such devices to a drone would allow the user to spy on targeted computers and networks from a distance, so users don’t have to put themselves in danger by physically being at a certain location.

IoT DEVICES COULD HELP SAVE LIVES ON THE BATTLEFIELD: The US military is looking to equip soldiers with IoT devices that can send data back to medical staff when they sustain a battlefield injury. The Defense Health Agency (DHA) has started a pair of projects that would use such data to better prepare medical staff for treating combat injuries.

One of DHA’s pilot projects deploys mobile devices with applications with troops in the field that allow them to alert medical staff about injuries sustained by their group. Another project is working to develop self-powered bio-sensors that can collect and transmit data about soldier’s heart rate, activity levels, and sleep quality.

Normally this type of data couldn’t be collected until after a wounded soldier arrives for treatment. Using internet connected devices to remotely transmit that data means medical staff will be better prepared to treat the patient more quickly on arrival. BI Intelligence expects that military adoption of IoT devices will be driven by the need to reduce human casualties, eventually leading to robots largely replacing humans on the battlefield.

WOULD YOU PICK UP A HITCHHIKING ROBOT?: A humanoid robot named hitchBOT began a hitchhiking journey across the US last Friday. The hitchBOT is immobile so it relies on strangers picking it up and taking it along. Travelers can pick it up and take it as far as they’d like, leaving it off for others to follow suit.

Two Canadian researchers created the hitchBOT and sent it on its journey as a social experiment to see how people would react to picking up a robot. Robots will likely play a much bigger in people’s everyday lives in the future. For instance, collaborative robots that can work along side humans are starting to enter manufacturing workplaces.

One limiting factor to the growth of robotics though is whether humans will feel comfortable interacting with and being surrounded by robots on a regular basis. So far the hitchBOT has had a good reception: it has already completed a hitchhiking trip in Canada, crossing the country in 26 days.

Data challenges in the oil and gas sector — Chips for self-driving cars — NASA testing virtual reality headsets with astronauts

Data challenges in the oil and gas sector — Chips for self-driving cars — NASA testing virtual reality headsets with astronauts

BI Intelligence

OIL AND GAS COMPANIES NEED TO OVERCOME DATA CHALLENGES TO LEVERAGE IoT: Oil and gas companies need to make better use of their data to take full advantage of IoT technologies, according to a recent Cisco survey of 50 industry executives and analysts.

• Nearly half of respondents (48%) said that leveraging data for better decision-making was the most common obstacle for oil and gas companies in using connected devices.
• The next most popular answer – cited by 28% of respondents – was the ability to deliver information in real time to the right decision makers.

Many oil and gas companies have already deployed sensors and connected devices throughout their operations, but sifting through the data they get from those devices to find what’s really valuable can be challenging. For example, only 1% of the data was analyzed from an oil rig with 30,000 connected sensors, according to a McKinsey report released last week. To make use of data and analytics in real time, Cisco recommended that oil and gas companies should:

• Leverage fog computing for remote assets like offshore oil rigs. An oil rig loaded with sensors produces at least a terabyte of data, according to Cisco, and it takes a long time to send all of that data back for analysis via a common satellite connection. By the time that data is analyzed, it is often useless. Deploying devices with fog computing capabilities at the oil rig would allow data to be analyzed locally without being sent to a data center. This will open the door to real-time insights.
• Use data virtualization to integrate data on demand. Normally, oil and gas companies rely on manual processes to integrate data from different sources. Data virtualization allows several data sets to be integrated together quickly regardless of how they’re formatted to speed up the integration process.
• Deploy analytics capabilities and link them to specific business processes and outcomes. Insights from analytics tools need to be integrated into everyday operations, and companies need to acquire talent with data science and IT architecture expertise.

HOW CHIPMAKERS NXP AND FREESCALE PLAN TO DOMINATE THE SELF-DRIVING CAR MARKET: Freescale, which will be merging soon with rival chipmaker NXP, has developed a new microprocessor specifically designed for advanced vehicle safety systems that power features like lane departure warnings and automatic braking to avoid collisions. The S32V234 has two image processing engines that enable it to perform cognitive tasks based on data from the cars’ surroundings. The microprocessor leverages Freescale’s S32V stereo video processor that allows the chip to visualize the car’s surroundings to make decisions like stop the car or alert the driver about a lane change.

In the long term, Freescale executives say that enabling these advanced safety actions will lead to powering autonomous driving. Freescale already has a majority of the car market using its 77 GHz radar system for detecting blind spots and adaptive cruise control. Integrating that with the S32V234’s ability to visualize cars’ surroundings and make complex decisions will be a major step toward cars safely driving themselves. BI Intelligence expects that advanced safety features like those powered by Freescale’s chips will lead to the commercial sale of self-driving cars by 2019.

NASA TESTS VIRTUAL REALITY TO ASSIST ASTRONAUTS: NASA’s Project Sidekick will provide astronauts on the International Space Station with a pair of Microsoft HoloLens virtual reality goggles to allow NASA engineers on Earth to better assist astronauts. NASA will stream a live feed from the HoloLens’ front-facing cameras so NASA engineers on the ground can see exactly what the astronauts see as they go about their tasks.

The HoloLens headsets will also allow the engineers on the ground to send images, blueprints, and visual instructions to the astronauts. For instance, if an astronaut is investigating a mechanical problem, the engineer on the ground could a picture of the valve that could be causing the issue to the astronaut’s headset. NASA said that it is experimenting with the headsets right now and plans to provide network connectivity with the headsets by the end of the year so astronauts on the space station can test these functions.

ALLSEEN ALLIANCE BUILDS ON INTEROPERABILITY EFFORTS: The AllSeen Alliance, an open source collaboration to promote interoperability of connected devices, announced a new capability that will allow devices running its AllJoyn software to communicate with connected devices using other interoperability protocols. For instance, developers could connect devices running AllJoyn with smart home devices running the Z-Wave protocol. Microsoft, which joined the AllSeen Alliance recently, contributed the code for the new capability, called the Device System Bridge.

BEAM’S CONNECTED TOOTHBRUSH: Startup Beam aims to bring usage-based insurance to dental insurance with its connected toothbrush. The toothbrush collects data that Beam can use to give its policyholders a premium discount for brushing well and often. Sensors on the toothbrush send the data to Beam’s smartphone app via Bluetooth radio. A software update will eventually enable the app to tell how much pressure the user should apply and which teeth need to be brushed more.

Beam’s insurance plan will launch in August with a nationwide network of 100,000 dentists and will cover usual procedures like cleanings and X-rays. Beam will provide the connected toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss for policyholders. The insurance plan will be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, and Beam says it will be 10-25% less expensive than other plans. The plan is being piloted in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.