Google will use self-driving cars to compete with Uber — California’s proposed regulations for self-driving cars — Z-Wave’s new security protocols

Google will use self-driving cars to compete with Uber — California’s proposed regulations for self-driving cars — Z-Wave’s new security protocols

BI Intelligence

ALPHABET’S SELF-DRIVING CAR PROJECT WILL BECOME INDEPENDENT COMPANY NEXT YEAR: Alphabet’s business plans for its ongoing self-driving car project are becoming clear: the project will spin off next year into its own business, and that business will compete directly with Uber. Rather than selling self-driving cars to consumers, Alphabet (formerly Google) is going to offer a ride-hailing service similar to Uber with its self-driving cars, Bloomberg reported.

Uber has been working hard to develop self-driving cars for its own ride-hailing service. Self-driving cars would drastically lower costs for Uber rides to the point that it would be less costly for many consumers to take Uber rides everywhere instead of owning their own car. Asset management firm ARK Invest estimated earlier this year that self-driving cars would cut the cost of Uber rides to only 25 cents per mile. Uber has even hired a number of former Google employees to help with its own self-driving car efforts.

As Uber and others pour resources into developing self-driving cars, they’re all playing catch up to Google, which has been working on self-driving cars the longest. In the last six years, cars equipped with Google’s self-driving software have driven more than one million miles on the road. That means that Google’s software has more experience handling real-world obstacles and situations on the road than any other company’s self-driving technology right now. So Google is likely closer to delivering a ride-hailing service using self-driving cars than Uber is.

Although this could be bad news for Uber, it might be even worse news for automakers. If self-driving cars make ride-hailing services like Uber as cheap as ARK Invest predicts, it could make auto sales fall off a cliff. A Barclays analyst note earlier this year predicted that ride-hailing services combined with self-driving cars could reduce US auto sales by 40% in the next 25 years.

CALIFORNIA RELEASES SELF-DRIVING CAR REGULATIONS FOR THE PUBLIC: California’s Department of Motor Vehicles released a draft of proposed regulations that would allow self-driving cars to be used by the public on the state’s roads. This makes California the first state to propose legislation that would give consumers the right to ride in self-driving cars on public roads. Tech Insider provided a rundown of the proposed rules:

• The regulations won’t allow fully autonomous cars without a steering wheel: somebody would have to sit in the driver’s seat at all times, prepared to take the wheel if necessary.
• Anyone who wants to drive a self-driving car would have to take additional training beyond what’s included in normal driver’s license exams.
• The public also won’t be able to buy a self-driving car – they’ll have to lease them from the car manufacturer.
• Self-driving cars will also go through additional screening beyond normal safety certifications. Once a car passes the additional screening, it will get a three-year permit to operate in the state. During that three-year term, the manufacturer will need to provide a monthly report on the car’s safety, usage, and performance.

California was early in allowing self-driving car tests on its roadways. Google started testing self-driving cars in Mountain View, California back in 2009. The state is clearly trying to lead the way in becoming the first to propose rules to regulate the use of self-driving cars by consumers. Other states might look to California’s rules as a blueprint for their own self-driving car regulations. However, companies currently testing their self-driving cars in California might find these rules restrictive, and could look to take their self-driving car projects elsewhere if other states create more lenient regulations.

SMART HOME MESH NETWORK Z-WAVE IMPLEMENTS NEW SECURITY FRAMEWORK: Research has shown over the past year that many smart home devices are vulnerable to common cyber attacks. Z-Wave, one of the more popular mesh networks used to connect different smart home devices, is looking to relieve some of these security concerns with a set of new security features in its latest software development kit.

The security protections Z-Wave is issuing will help prevent hackers from compromising IoT devices to infiltrate home networks and steal consumers’ data. Those protections include strong encryption for any data sent over a Z-Wave network and secure exchange protocols that prevent hackers from stealing the encryption keys that protect that data. Without such protections, a hacker could infiltrate the home Wi-Fi network via the hub to steal data such as the homeowner’s financial credentials.

Z-Wave is already installed on more than 50 million smart home devices throughout the world including smart lights, smart thermostats, smart plugs, and hubs. Z-Wave is the second oldest mesh network designed specifically to serve the smart home besides Zigbee, it’s biggest competitor. Earlier this year, security researchers found a vulnerability in Zigbee’s communication protocols that allowed them to steal the encryption keys used to protect data sent over Zigbee networks. Z-Wave could be angling to promote its security as a competitive advantage over Zigbee, which has gained far wider acceptance so far than Z-Wave has.

 

How self-driving cars will disrupt auto parts suppliers — Can self-driving cars make ethical choices? — Jasper integrates with IBM

How self-driving cars will disrupt auto parts suppliers — Can self-driving cars make ethical choices? — Jasper integrates with IBM

BI Intelligence

SELF-DRIVING CARS WILL UPEND THE AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLY CHAIN: With the rise of self-driving cars on the horizon, traditional auto parts manufacturers will face increasing competition from new suppliers and startups that specialize in components for self-driving cars. This new group of suppliers is already helping companies like Tesla and Google build self-driving vehicles. Here are some of these new suppliers featured in a recent article by re/code:

• Canada-based Magna International sells technology and components for driver assistance features like lane departure warning systems. Those driver assistance features are considered precursors for self-driving cars, and require some of the same hardware components like sensors and radar. Magna has a full vehicle-assembly subsidiary, so it could potentially assemble a self-driving car for Google, Apple, Uber, or other companies looking to develop self-driving cars.
• Velodyne has been producing LIDAR systems for a decade. LIDAR systems help self-driving cars measure the distance between themselves and other objects, like other cars or pedestrians on the road. Velodyne provides parts for the LIDAR systems in Google’s self-driving cars, and produces three different LIDAR systems: an $80,000 unit for trucks, a $32,000 unit, and a recently released “Puck” unit for $8,000. The company expects the two cheaper units will be in high demand as adoption of self-driving cars grows.
• Israel-based Mobileye provides a high-tech camera that can serve as an alternative to LIDAR systems. Tesla uses its cameras, and GM is testing them with new models of the Chevy Volt. The camera is part of a full software and hardware package that provides a 360-degree view around the vehicle and costs less than $1,000.
• Nvidia is the leading supplier of chips that provide processing power for cars right now. Tesla and Google are already using its chips, which can process streaming data from up to 12 cameras, as well as from LIDAR systems and sensors. Nvidia’s automotive unit grew annual sales by 85% in its last fiscal year, although it faces growing competition from other chips suppliers like Qualcomm and Samsung looking to jump on the huge market opportunity in computing chips for vehicles.

AUTONOMOUS CARS AND ETHICAL CHOICES: One of the significant challenges still remaining to the adoption of fully autonomous vehicles is how they will make choices to minimize damage in an accident, a recent MIT Technology Review article said. For instance, if something goes wrong and an autonomous car is about to hit a group of pedestrians, should it swerve out of the way, even if it could hit a wall and kill the car’s occupant? In other words, should the car minimize loss of life by avoiding the pedestrians, or risk the life of the occupant?

This question might seem like a faraway, abstract exercise, but with several automakers lining up to launch self-driving cars over the next few years, it will soon become a real dilemma for automakers and their customers. The question also goes to the heart of how much the public really trusts autonomous vehicles: will they trust them even in life-threatening situations?

It turns out they don’t. Researchers at the Toulouse School of Economics in France asked hundreds of people whether they think an autonomous car should swerve out of the way of 10 pedestrians even if it guaranteed that the car would crash and kill its owner. In general, the respondents said that the car should be programmed to minimize the death toll, even if it killed the occupant. However, the majority of the respondents said they wouldn’t drive themselves in a car programmed to do that.

This is why many industry experts expect that even though self-driving cars will hit the market relatively soon, it will be many years before steering wheels are removed from them. Consumers will want the ability to take control of the car in a dire situation. If consumers want to do that, than automakers will likely require that they keep their hands on the steering wheel when the car is self-driving to avoid liability in the case of an accident, just as Tesla is doing with its Autopilot mode.

JASPER INTEGRATES WITH IBM’S IOT FOUNDATION: Jasper, an IoT platform provider, announced this week that it is integrating its Control Center with IBM’s IoT Foundation platform. This will tie together the Control Center’s device management and task automation capabilities with IBM’s application development, data management, and analytics tools.

This combination will help enterprises bring services for their IoT devices to market much faster by combining all of these capabilities into a single solution. For example, an enterprise could manage a fleet of vehicles using the integrated solution, automating alerts and notifications for predictive maintenance while gathering and analyzing vehicles’ speed and location data to optimize routes and cut fuel costs.

Jasper has already integrated its platform with several other major enterprise IT providers including SAP, Microsoft, and Salesforce to offer device management and task automation capabilities for IoT devices through those providers’ platforms as well. Adding Jasper’s capabilities helps these providers offer a one-stop shop for IoT device, network, and data management and analytics.

Top 5 barriers to IoT adoption — Tesla Model S crosses the US in Autopilot – How the IoT can help emergency responders

Top 5 barriers to IoT adoption — Tesla Model S crosses the US in Autopilot – How the IoT can help emergency responders

BI Intelligence

TOP BARRIERS TO ADOPTION OF THE IoT: The Internet Society, which advocates for public policy and standards that help develop the internet, released a white paper last week detailing the top five barriers to the adoption of the IoT.

• The most significant obstacle to adoption is security, and the paper points out that security vulnerabilities that leave consumers open to attacks will wear down consumers’ trust in the IoT and the internet over time. Studies and hacks by security researchers have demonstrated that IoT devices currently on the market including smart home devices, wearables, and connected cars are rife with vulnerabilities that make them easy targets for hackers. The paper correctly placed the blame for these vulnerabilities at the feet of device manufacturers that often cut corners in regards to security to reduce development costs and get their products to market as soon as possible.
• Privacy is another issue that can damage consumers’ trust in the IoT. Consumers will likely consider data from IoT devices — like health data from medical devices — as very personal, and will want that data to remain private between themselves and their service provider. Additionally, devices like IP cameras or voice-controlled devices could monitor consumers and their conversations without them even knowing it. Legal and regulatory frameworks need to be developed that ensure companies are transparent about what data they collect from IoT devices and how that data is shared with third parties.
• Interoperability is the ability for different devices from different manufacturers to communicate and share data with each other, and it is an imperative if individuals and organizations are to gain the full benefits of their connected devices. The white paper cited a McKinsey study from earlier this year that said that a lack of interoperability would cost trillions of dollars in the potential overall economic impact of the IoT. A number of different companies and organizations are developing different open and proprietary standards that can deliver interoperability between different IoT devices, but these standards have limited adoption right now. Until these standards are more widely tested in the real world and prove themselves technically sound and scalable, this issue will continue to plague the development of the IoT.
• Legal and regulatory barriers still exist to the adoption of the IoT. A good example of this is the lack of standardized regulations around self-driving cars that is inhibiting the development of that technology, as it is unclear who would be liable if a self-driving car were involved in a crash. Data privacy regulations also differ widely across different geographies, making it impossible in some cases to transport certain types of data outside of some jurisdictions. That could make enterprises hesitant to deploy IoT technologies in such jurisdictions if they don’t have the infrastructure in place to locally store and analyze data from their IoT devices.
• The IoT has uniquely urgent applications in the developing world, but economic and regulatory barriers could limit IoT adoption in developing markets. For example, connected cars and connected road infrastructure could help overcrowded cities reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, and smart grids could help cut down on power outages. However, many of these developing economies lack the resources needed to invest in IoT technologies to gain these benefits. Additionally, many developing countries need to improve their internet infrastructure before they can connect billions of new IoT devices.

BI Intelligence agrees that these barriers represent the chief obstacles to the development of the IoT. However, we expect that the enormous economic potential of the IoT will push governments, enterprises, and consumers to deploy billions of connected over the next five years despite these obstacles.

THREE DRIVERS CROSS THE UNITED STATES IN A TESLA ON AUTOPILOT: A trio of drivers set a record for the fastest cross-country trip in an electric vehicle on Wednesday. They drove a Tesla Model S from Los Angeles to New York in 57 hours and 48 minutes, and they drove 96% of the trip in Autopilot, according to WIRED.

The drivers said that they used the Autopilot mode at speeds around 90 miles per hour, which almost led to a couple of accidents. There were a few instances where the car almost spun out and went off the road taking highway bends at such high speeds.

One of the drivers admitted that they set the car’s speed too high, making it difficult for the Autopilot to compensate during turns. However, the drivers also pointed out that the car shouldn’t be allowed to go so high over the speed limit on Autopilot either. The Autopilot software can adjust speed to follow other vehicles at a safe distance, but apparently doesn’t prevent the car from pushing well past speed limits.

Tesla’s Autopilot software beeps at the driver if the driver doesn’t touch the steering wheel every few seconds, and drivers can quickly take back control of the vehicle by turning the steering wheel slightly with both hands. Tesla has also told its customers that they need to keep their hands on the wheel while the car is in Autopilot in an effort to avoid any liability if a Tesla vehicle crashes while in Autopilot mode.

Regulations are still hazy around liability and self-driving cars, with different states setting their own regulations. If an accident occurs, Tesla could still be on the hook, and could have to recall its cars equipped with Autopilot, one legal expert told WIRED. This liability issue is the reason that many automakers that are also working on self-driving cars haven’t released their self-driving technology yet.

HOW EMERGENCY RESPONDERS CAN USE THE IoT: Gemalto announced a new cloud-based platform this week that collects data from IoT devices like sensors and IP cameras to generate insights for law enforcement and emergency responders. Through a mobile app, the platform can provide first responders with alerts about the location and timing of an incident, and continuously update them with more data as they rush to respond.
The platform was developed in cooperation with Intrado, which provides technology solutions for emergency responders, Prodapt, an IT services company, and Commnet, a networking provider that helps connect the sensors and devices back to Gemalto’s platform.

The solution is already being used in parks, where sensor data can provide real-time information on weather conditions and visitors’ location within the park. Visitors can report emergencies to park rangers through SMS texts, and IP cameras can be used to find visitors who are in an emergency or detect trespassers in the park. If someone gets lost or loses their child, geo-fencing technology can be used to help locate them. Additionally, the platform can send real-time updates to visitors about developing emergencies such as a wildfire or approaching storm.

The companies involved will look for more emergency response use cases beyond parks, and as cities begin to connect their infrastructure with sensors and IP cameras, it’s easy to imagine this type of system finding favor with emergency responders in smart cities.

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.

US government drops the ball on IoT — Using Tesla batteries to cut energy costs — Self-driving cars will slash Uber prices

US government drops the ball on IoT — Using Tesla batteries to cut energy costs — Self-driving cars will slash Uber prices

BI Intelligence

HOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS (OR ISN’T) HANDLING THE IoT: Politico released a special report examining how the federal government is beginning to use and regulate the Internet of Things. As the report put it: “It’s not.” The government has no overarching strategy, laws, or instruments to deal with the explosion of connected devices that will take place over the next few years.

Instead, the job of dealing with the IoT is falling to dozens of federal agencies and Congressional committees, and their efforts have had minimal coordination. Some of those efforts include: the Federal Trade Commission handling business practices like consumer privacy in relation to the IoT, the FAA drafting new drones regulations, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration being tasked with regulating self-driving cars. This siloed approach does not suit the ubiquity in computing and access to information that IoT technologies are supposed to provide.

Politico said that this lack of strategy and coordination is troubling for two primary reasons:

The government has a limited window to start influencing the development of the IoT. That window will close by the end of this decade, a White House report issued last November said. If the government fails to act during this window, it will miss the opportunity to impact the security of connected devices through regulation and research, the report said.

The lack of action by the federal government could hurt the US economy as other countries take the lead in IoT development, Kevin Ashton, a former MIT director who coined the term “Internet of Things,” wrote for Politico. US government investment in research and development (R&D) was .69% of GDP last year, the lowest it has been since 1958. This falling investment in R&D, coupled with the lack of a coherent strategy from Washington, will invite other countries to exert more influence over IoT development, Ashton said. That will open the door for those countries’ companies – rather than US ones – to become the next internet giants.

CALIFORNIA WINERY CUTS ENERGY COSTS WITH TESLA BATTERIES: Jackson Family Wines, which consists of six California wineries owned by the Jackson family, is installing solar panels and Tesla batteries. The company expects the installations to reduce energy costs by 40% next year, saving the Jackson’s wineries, including their flagship winery Kendall-Jackson, $2 million.

The company has spent $10 million on solar panels for the six wineries, which retrieve 30-40% of their energy from clean sources. The 21 Tesla battery boxes located across the six wineries (with 8.4 megawatt hours of storage capacity) further reduce the company’s energy costs by decreasing its reliance on grid energy.

Wine making is an energy and water-intensive business, particularly around harvest time, which is August through October in California. During that time, the Tesla batteries will charge and discharge energy from the solar panels when energy usage starts to increase, so the wineries aren’t drawing that extra power from the grid.

Tesla’s batteries have also enabled the wineries to cut their supply from the grid during the afternoon, when electricity demand peaks and grid prices surge. The batteries store solar power throughout the day and release it in the afternoon to avoid higher electricity costs. Tesla’s software will collect data over time on the wineries’ energy use patterns and determine the most cost-effective way to store and release energy to meet their needs.

Tesla’s batteries – the Powerpacks for businesses that the Jackson wineries use, and the Powerwall home units – could become a bigger business than its cars. Powerwall batteries are already sold out through the middle of next year.

SELF-DRIVING CARS WILL CUT DOWN FARES FOR CONSUMERS: Self-driving technology will drastically cut down costs for ride-sharing and chauffeur services, so Uber has been quietly building out a self-driving research lab.

• The estimated fare to ride in an autonomous vehicle in 2020 could be as low as $0.25 per mile, according to ARK Research.
• An Uber fare currently costs about $2.15 per mile for its least-expensive car service — UberX. Meanwhile, taxi cabs in San Francisco currently charge about $2.25 per mile.

Uber currently has a robotics research facility in Pittsburgh called the Uber Advanced Technologies Center. The facility has hired away a number of top robotics researchers from nearby Carnegie Mellon University.

Although research data has a direct impact on ride-sharing fares, it can also affect Uber’s other car-related services such as on-demand delivery. Uber has been quietly testing a broader on-demand delivery program recently with merchants. Delivering products in under two hours typically comes at a steep cost to consumers, but autonomous vehicles will help drive down that fee.

WHY THE APPLE WATCH HASN’T HURT FITBIT: Fitbit’s sales declined slightly earlier this spring in anticipation of the launch of the Apple Watch. Since then, Fitbit has rebounded, defying expectations that the Apple Watch would cut into its sales. Fitbit has actually outsold the Apple Watch following the first week Apple released it, according to data provided by Slice Intelligence to Bloomberg News.

Fitbit’s and Apple Watch’s customer bases don’t have much overlap, according to Slice’s data. The Fitbit is in a different price segment altogether: Its devices cost between $60-$250, while the Apple Watch costs at least $350. Less than 5% of people who bought a Fitbit since 2013 have also purchased an Apple Watch, according to Slice’s data. Consumers are also specifically seeking out Fitbit’s products rather than browsing for any wearable or fitness tracker: 43% of Fitbit sales come from the company’s website. Fitbit sales made up 35% of the global wearable device market in Q1 of this year, according to IDC.

ROBOTS WILL MAKE UP 30% OF FOXCONN’S WORKFORCE IN 5 YEARS: Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou told shareholders recently that robots will make up 30% of the company’s assembly line workforce in the next five years. This backtracked a previous statement form Gou, who said in February that robots would take over 70% of its assembly line work within the next three years.

Gou made this statement amid growing concerns over the potential for robots to replace human workers in the near future. However, Foxconn doesn’t think it will lay off any of its 1 million workers in China because of robots. Gou said employees would be transferred to other areas that involve tasks that robots can’t perform. Foxconn is expanding its business beyond making electronics by getting involved in connected car development and data centers. Those new areas could provide new opportunities for employees displaced from Foxconn’s assembly lines.

John Deere’s self-driving tractors — Amazon Echo goes on sale — Soil sensors help farmers waste less water

John Deere’s self-driving tractors — Amazon Echo goes on sale — Soil sensors help farmers waste less water

BI Intelligence

HOW JOHN DEERE IS SPREADING SELF-DRIVING TECHNOLOGY: Self-driving cars might be years away from being sold to consumers, but John Deere is already selling self-driving tractors in more than 100 countries, making it the largest supplier of self-driving vehicles, according to The Washington Post. The technology behind John Deere’s self-driving tractors is far less complex than what is needed for a self-driving car because tractors don’t have to navigate crowded streets and highways.

The tractors feature a satellite guidance system and touchscreen interface, and customers can purchase additional software modules, like auto-steering. Self-driving tractors can costs as much as $20,000 more than the standard variety.

The extra cost is worth it for some farmers, since the self-driving technology allows the tractor to make more precise turns, so it can cover a field in less time with fewer passes. That extra time is valuable for US farmers, who are facing a labor shortage right now as young people from rural areas flock to cities. John Deere says that a driver is still supposed to be behind the wheel of its self-driving tractors, but The Washington Post’s story shares some examples of farmers letting the tractors drive themselves while they do other things.

One of the biggest barriers to selling self-driving cars is the prevalent notion that consumers won’t believe they’re safe. However, if self-driving technology is already showing up in their lives – John Deere sells a self-driving lawn mower too – then consumers could warm up to the idea of a self-driving car faster than expected. BI Intelligence expects self-driving cars to make up 3% of global new car shipments in 2020.

AMAZON ECHO NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE: Amazon announced yesterday that its Echo smart home assistant and voice-controlled speaker would go on sale to the public on July 14 for $179. The device had previously only been available by invitation to select Amazon customers. The Echo had previously been priced at $99 for Amazon prime members, and $199 for non-prime members.

The Echo is Amazon’s answer to the smart home hub. It can control smart lights and switches from Philips Hue and WeMo, so users can adjust their lights with voice commands. It can also play music from Pandora and Amazon Prime Music, make Amazon orders by voice command, and provide voice alerts for news and weather updates.

CROPX LOOKS TO PREVENT WATER WASTE FROM FARMS: Startup CropX sells a package of soil sensors and cloud-based software that helps farms manage their water better while growing more food. The CropX package tells farmers exactly how much water a tract of land needs at any given time.

Most farmers today water their fields uniformly, but different fields need less water than others based on their topography and soil structure. CropX’s sensors gather data on those factors and send it to the cloud for analysis. CropX then shares the analysis with farmers via a smartphone app, telling them exactly how much water each piece of land needs at any given time. CropX claims the system can help farmers cut their water use by 25%.

Preventing farmers from over-watering their fields also boosts yields, which will be important for agricultural areas facing water shortages, like California and part of South Asia. Farmers in these areas will need to increase production while using less water since demand for food is set to climb with the world’s growing population, even as water becomes scarcer because of weather changes and overuse.

FORD UPGRADES ITS CONNECTED CAR EXPERIENCE WITH SYNC 3: Ford is launching an updated version of its connected car software, called Sync 3, in the 2016 Ford Fiesta and Escape, which are set to roll out this summer. Fast Company reviewed the new system, and noted several improvements over Ford’s old connected car system, MyFord Touch:

• Touchscreen: Sync 3 features a new touchscreen interface that allows users to swipe and pinch to zoom in or out like on a smartphone. MyFord Touch had a resistant screen that users had to press.
• Voice Recognition: Sync 3 has enhanced its voice input to recognize familiar instructions, so it can pull up driving instructions to past destinations (like the drivers’ favorite restaurant) more quickly.
• Smartphone Connection: Ford’s AppLink, which allows users to sync apps on their smartphones with their car dashboard, wasn’t available with MyFord Touch, but it is with Sync 3. This means that iPhone and Android owners can pull up Spotify or Google Maps on their dashboards via a USB cable. AppLink only supports a small number of apps right now, but its integration paves the way for Ford to include Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto, which it says it will do with future models. Sync 3 also lets users issue Siri commands to their iPhones through Bluetooth so they can make Siri requests without picking up their phone.

IoT DEMAND DRIVES GERMANY’S LATEST SPECTRUM AUCTION: Germany’s spectrum auction wrapped last week with total bids topping €5 billion (equivalent to $5.65 billion), significantly surpassing the auction’s reserve price of €1.5 billion and industry expectations of €4.4 billion. Unlike the US’s most recent spectrum auction, the German auction had just three bidders: Vodafone Germany, Telefonica Deutschland, and Telekom Deutschland. The unexpectedly steep bidding prices were mostly fueled by intense competition for paired frequencies in the 700 MHz band.

Notably, this spectrum auction aimed to create a nurturing environment for Germany’s connected device market. The 700 MHz blocks that commanded such a high premium have previously not been bid on by telcos anywhere in Europe, but are crucial to connecting Germany’s industrial factories. The 700 MHz band is a low frequency that can be used by telecoms to reach rural and industrial regions with mobile broadband, as noted by The Wall Street Journal. The auction of this spectrum was mandated by the German government to better equip Germany’s industrial sector to compete against US tech firms, which are outpacing Germany in terms of connected devices like cars and Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are necessary to make smart factories.

While spectrum is still a white-hot commodity for telecoms to improve data networks for mobile consumers on smartphones and tablets, IoT industries are increasingly vying for frequencies to enable the connection of smart devices. Ahead of the 2016 incentive spectrum auction in the US, the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM) published a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asking that the auction rules allow any qualified bidder to place bids on any spectrum up for auction; the FCC has the power to reserve certain portions of spectrum for certain industries. The FCC is scheduled to publish a proposal for the incentive auction rules this week. We’ll keep you posted.