Daily Archives: June 25, 2017

USA TODAY NETWORK Published 12:08 a.m. ET June 25, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago

Are Detroit and the Silicon Valley the hotbeds for driverless car development? Not necessarily, says Brent Snavely of the Detroit Free Press. Video by Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

A self-driving Uber car drives down River Road on Pittsburgh's north side.(Photo: Gene J. Puskar, AP)

The stakes are enormous. Last year, Goldman Sachs projected the market for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles would grow from about $3 billion in 2015 to $96 billion in 2025 and $290 billion in 2035.

In some cities, automakers, suppliers and technology companies are clustering to test their self-driving vehicles. In others, governors and mayors are beckoning the industry by changing laws or touting other inducements.

I think its about being a part of the race, said Alex Fischer, CEO of the Columbus Partnership, a group of top CEOs that helped the Ohio city beat out tech hubs such as Austin, Pittsburgh and San Francisco to win federal grant money through the government's Smart City Challenge.

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States get ready for the self-driving car revolution

Regulators scramble to stay ahead of self-driving cars

Cities are taking different paths to success. In Detroit, for instance, major corporations form the backbone for the emerging technology. In others such as Boston, Pittsburgh and Austin universities with cutting-edge research have spawned talented engineers and start-up companies.

Hereare the nation's hot spots that have emerged as leaders in the race to self-driving cars:

Austin Mayor Steve Adler likes to refer to Texas' capital city as the Kitty Hawk of driverless cars, referencing the site of the Wright Brothers' firstflight in 1903.

That's because Google's self-driving car unit, Waymo, quietly chose Austin for the first fully-autonomous test drive in 2015. Now Austin officials want more.

"We are trying to do everything we can to help promote and advancethe future of this technology," Adler said."We think its the wave of the future. We think it is going to help our city."

The city and the state have put political differences aside to embrace partnerships and legislation designed to attract testing and investment.Austin is a part of a statewide consortium that includes the University of Texas and Texas A&M University to create a network of proving grounds and testing areas.

Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press

In October, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced policies intended to put the city at the forefront.

"Boston is ready to lead the charge on self-driving vehicles," Walsh said in a statement.

Area technology companies are already at work. NuTonomy, a company that emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, is working with French automaker PSA Groupe on a self-driving car.

Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press

In October, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced policies intended to put the city at the forefront.

"Boston is ready to lead the charge on self-driving vehicles," Walsh said in a statement.

Area technology companies are already at work. NuTonomy, a company that emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, is working with French automaker PSA Groupe on a self-driving car.

Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press

Columbus leaders are tickled their city was chosen for $50 million in federal and private funding over seven other finalists.Key to Columbus win was the buy-in of the citys major employers, who have come to view their home citys preparation for autonomous vehicles as part of the companies preparation for profits in the next century.

It combined investments from top local companies, the state of Ohio and Ohio State University to pool more than $400 million for autonomous and electric vehicles.

There are a select group of cities that are going to be a part of the race. And Columbus is in the race, and it always will be," Fischer said. "Some are going to win on certain projects, Columbus will win on others, and collectively the country will win.

Chrissie Thompson, Cincinnati Enquirer

A former industrial site 30 miles southwest of downtown Detroit where Rosie the Riveter worked during World War II is where the Motor City is planting one of its most significant flags in the battle to capture a significant role in the future of self-driving cars.

It is slated to become Michigan's newest testing ground for autonomous and connected vehicles.

What were going to create is ... a lifelike proving ground so we can really exercise these (driverless) vehicles, said John Maddox, CEO of The American Center for Mobility, which is expected to open late this year. No one will have the full scope of what we will have.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra emphasized the company's commitment to maintaining the state's leadership when she announced in December that the automaker will build and test autonomous Chevrolet Bolts in metro Detroit.

Ford Motor Vice Chairman Bill Ford said last year Detroit can be and should be ground zero, for the future of mobility.

Brent Snavely and Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press

Nashville was chosen as one of 10 global cities for an autonomous vehicles initiative launched last year by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute.

It certainly doesn't hurt that Nissan's U.S. headquarters is outside the city in Smyrnaand that the Japanese automaker was among the first to predict when it would field self-driving cars for sale 2020.

The citys newly appointed transportation director, Erin Hafkenschiel, wants to see shared electric autonomous vehicles in Nashville that would operate similar to Uber or Lyft. That would help alleviate congestion problems in tandem with major investments in mass transit, sidewalks and bikeways, she said.

The city has been upgrading its traffic signals to be compatible with autonomous vehicles.

Lizzy Alfs, The Tennessean

Northern Nevada has been at the forefront of self-driving car testing since 2011, when it became the first state to adopt legislation authorizing self-driving car testing.

Google was lured to Nevada by the state's dry weather and its wide-open spaces when it ran into early resistance from California. Plus, Tesla's Gigafactory, a massive 5-million-square-foot factory that began pumping out batteries for its electric cars, is on Reno's outskirts. Tesla has been aggressive in developing self-driving vehicles.

Six years ago, we envisioned people buying self-driving cars, said Bruce Breslow, director of the Nevada Department of Business & Industry. Now it looks like the first major push is going to be in fleets for self-driving cars whether it be a taxicab fleet, a transportation network company like Uber or Lyftor even self-driving trucks.

Jason Hildalgo,Reno Gazette-Journal

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey touts a hands-off regulatory environment in aneffort to lure autonomous vehicle testing to his state, and the tactic has led to some high-profile wins.

In December, Uber joined companies such asWaymo and Ford, which were already testing self-driving cars in the state. Uber promptly trucked its self-driving cars to Arizona in December following a registration dispute in California over not having the correct permits.

In April, Waymo announcedit would begin taking applications from Phoenix-area residents who want to be among the hundreds of riders testingan expanded fleet of Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivans outfitted with Waymo's myriad autonomous car sensors.

Ryan Randazzo, Arizona Republic

With talented professionals in the autonomous vehicle space at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania's second-largest city quickly emerged as an attractive base for the world's leading self-driving car companies.

Uber, which recruited many of CMU's self-driving car experts, has located a major R&D facility in Pittsburgh. And Uber made a splash in September when it became the first major American company to offer urban rides to consumers in partially self-driving vehicles, choosing the confusing, pedestrian-filled, bridge-laden streets of Pittsburgh for the pilot program.

But Uber's relationship with the city has soured. Mayor Bill Peduto has publicly assailed Uber for refusing to back the city's application for a federal cities innovation grant and for making a stingy contribution to a philanthropic initiative.

That spat aside, Uber has shown no signs of easing off the accelerator in Pennsylvania. Competitors are fast on its heels. In February, Ford announced it would invest $1 billion over five years in Pittsburgh-based autonomous car start-up Argo AI.

Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY

With Silicon Valley at the heart of developing self-driving cars, California has become a top testing ground.

Google has been letting its high-tech, self-driving cars wheel around the area south of San Francisco for several years. Now, about 30 companies from traditional automakers to upstart tech companies have taken out the paperwork to test self-driving cars in the Golden State.

Silicon Valley is the right place to be doing a lot of this work, says Greg Larson, chief of the Office of Traffic Operation Research for the California DOT. Instead of building a car with a computer, this is building a computer and putting a car around it.

Marco della Cava, USA TODAY

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Cities vie to become hubs of self-driving technology - USA TODAY

Southeast Michigan becomes leader in smart road technology

DETROIT (AP) Southeast Michigan is becoming a leader in developing "connected" roads and traffic signals that will "talk" directly to the next generation of cars.

The features are the building blocks that will eventually guide self-driving cars safely to their intended destinations without anyone steering the wheel, The Detroit News (http://detne.ws/2s0NBhh ) reported.

General Motors Co. is testing a safety feature in Macomb County that warns drivers when traffic signals are about to turn red.

Test cars on a section of Interstate 75 in Oakland County can read high-tech roadside bar codes that communicate when lanes are closed up ahead, and reflective strips on workers' safety vests also contain information that identifies them as people instead of traffic barrels.

The road is believed to be one of the first "connected" construction zones in the nation.

Macomb County and the state Transportation Department are two of the government units working with carmakers and auto suppliers in testing the life-saving technology. Michigan has established at least 100 miles (160 kilometers) of "connected" highway corridors with roadway sensors for testing in the Detroit metro area, with plans to grow to about 350 miles (560 kilometers).

Numerous automotive suppliers and several automakers with operations in southeast Michigan already are testing autonomous vehicles and automated technology on the state's roadways.

"Smart" traffic signals and sensors in the roadway outside the GM Tech Center in Warren can exchange radio information with Cadillac test sedans equipped with vehicle-to-infrastructure capability. The equipment at the intersections was installed by Macomb County.

"We're just scratching the surface of V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure) with red-light violations," said Steve Martin, a spokesman for Cadillac.

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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/

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Southeast Michigan becomes leader in smart road technology - SFGate

A ransomware cyber-attack is seen on a laptop screen. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA

Concerns over the threat posed by cyber-attacks on power stations and electricity grids is off the scale in the UK energy sector, according to a leading industry figure.

No other country in the world has an energy industry as worried about the risk from cyber threats, such as the WannaCry ransomware attack that recently hit the NHS, the former chief of National Grid told the Guardian.

The UK stands out uniquely on cyber threats. Nowhere else is as worried as the UK about cyber threats: we are just off the scale on our energy system concerns on cyber, said Steve Holliday.

He said the danger posed to energy systems was coming to the fore now because of the trend away from well-protected, centralised large power stations and towards decentralised power, such as lots of small, flexible gas power plants and solar panels on homes.

There were also a growing number of web-connected devices in energy technology, he added.

One obvious target is the smart meters that are being installed in every home by the end of 2020, to automate meter readings. The Capita-run body set up to handle the data, the DCC, is being treated as critical national infrastructure and the companys chief technology officer insists the data is safe.

We dont hold personal information [on energy supplier customers], we dont see any form of sensitive data and we are not connected to the internet, Matt Roderick told a recent industry conference.

Hollidays warning comes as the UK parliament reels from a sustained and determined cyber-attack which left MPs unable to access their emails.

Industry trade body Energy UK said there was a central system for logging threats, to help rapidly counter them. Maintaining the highest level of security against cyber threats is a top priority for the industry, a spokeswoman said.

Security experts from the National Cyber Security Centre and companies including Siemens also recently attended a summit on cybersecurity and energy infrastructure, hosted by Energy UK and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The issue is not just a concern for the power sector, but for oil and gas producers too. BP said recently that we are a target for this activity when asked by shareholders about how seriously it was taking cybersecurity.

Cyber is high on the agenda. It is one of the key risks the company identifies, said Carl-Henric Svanberg, chairman at BP. We were not affected luckily by this [Wannacry] attack, primarily because everybody had followed procedures of continuous updates.

Brian Gilvary, chief financial officer at BP, said the firm did not share specific information on the number of attacks it faced. However, he said the company had a strategy of repelling what it could, detecting what got through and then cleansing when cyber-attackers had breached defences.

The World Energy Council, a global network of energy leaders, said cybersecurity in the energy sector had been high on the agenda of a security conference in Munich earlier this year. The issue was also raised in May by the Scottish parliament.

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently found that 65% of UK businesses were significantly concerned over cyber risks to energy technology. Three in five businesses would switch energy supplier if they suffered a cyber breach, according to a survey of 500 businesses by the professional services firm.

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UK electricity grid cyber-attack risk is 'off the scale' - The Guardian

Mainland China has been shifting the focus of wide-ranging bribery investigations to telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) firms as the industry becomes more important to the economy, according to a joint report released on Sunday.

The report said the TMT sector came under greater scrutiny in 2016 and faced more legal enforcement, alongside the traditional fields such as pharmaceutical and health care, real estate, manufacturing, finance and investment.

In contrast, the fast-moving consumer goods sector has been subject to less bribery investigations.

The report was jointly released by the China Institute of Corporate Legal Affairs, Netherlands-based information services provider Wolters Kluwer, and mainland law firm Fangda Partners. It was based on a survey of 302 companies on the mainland in January and February.

Chinese authorities have pursued several high-profile bribery cases against companies in recent years.

The rising compliance focus on the TMT sector shows that the government is paying closer attention to the fast growing sector

Kate Yin, partner, Fangda Partners

In 2014, a mainland court fined British pharmaceutical juggernaut GlaxoSmithKline a record 3 billion yuan (US$439 million) for bribery.

Bribery investigations accounted for 70 per cent of all types of corporate compliance probes carried out in the pharmaceutical and health care industry last year, the highest level across all sectors. They were trailed by TMT firms, which say 38 per cent of compliance related investigations were for anti-bribery reasons.

It might not necessarily mean the sector is rife with irregularities, but it indicates the authorities are expanding their radar and beefing up scrutiny of the so-called new economy.

The rising compliance focus on the TMT sector shows that the government is paying closer attention to the fast growing sector, said Kate Yin, the main author of the report and a partner at Shanghai-headquartered Fangda Partners. It reflects the TMT sectors growing significance to the economy amid its increasing interaction with other industries thanks to disruptive technologies.

About 20 per cent of the firms that took part in the survey were state-owned enterprises, nearly a third were private businesses, and 50 per cent were multinational companies or joint ventures.

While receiving heavier scrutiny, the TMT industry needs to play catch-up to cope with the changes in the direction of the crackdown, as 15 per cent of respondents in the sector said their top management havent paid enough attention to compliance. That was higher than the average of 10 per cent across all sectors.

New technology firms are now seeing the growing benefits of boosting their compliance capabilities, partly to answer to investors needs and partly to deal with strengthened regulatory actions, said Yin.

A step-up in scrutiny of bribery against companies have been widely felt, the survey found.

Earlier this year, China posted a draft amendment to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, reflecting a stricter approach to corporate compliance. The present law came into force in 1993 and is widely seen as not having kept pace with changes in the market.

Excerpt from:

China broadens bribery crackdown to technology firms, says report - South China Morning Post

MJ Shoer

This weeks column comes to you from the Emerald Isle of Ireland, where I am vacationing with my family. As we travel the country, Ive been taking notes of various uses, or lack thereof, of technology and thought this would be an interesting perspective to share.

My first impression of Irish technology was not exactly impressive. We flew Aer Lingus from Boston to Dublin and while we were encouraged to download the Aer Lingus mobile app for our trip, it turned out mobile boarding passes were not allowed for our flight. This was the first time I had to print a boarding pass in more years than I can recall. To top it off, when we got to the airport, we learned the boarding pass we were asked to print at home was not valid for the flight. We had to get a boarding pass printed at the airport. To board the aircraft, anyone with a boarding pass printed at home needed to see the gate agent and have it reprinted. An odd process.

Once we arrived in Ireland, the use of technology became far more leading edge. You may book tickets for just about any venue you would like to tour online and when you arrive your tickets are waiting for you.

I have noticed extensive use of technology is in restaurants, primarily in the major cities like Dublin. Waitstaff carry small tablets, mostly Android tablets from what I was able to tell. When you order at your table, your server enters your order into the tablet, which immediately sends it to the kitchen. When the time comes to pay your bill, your server brings the credit card terminal to your table where you insert your chip card, enter your PIN and pay your bill. No signature required. Europe, in general, remains far ahead of the United States in terms of payment card technology, security and ease of use. Paying by card is a much faster process than at home.

As we travel around the country, we have been renting homes in many locations. At our most recent stop in Doolin, in western Ireland, our rental agent met us at the house with her iPad. She confirmed our booking, checked us in and processed our payment, all from her iPad. Connectivity is everywhere. Even on the Aran Islands off the coast near the Cliffs of Moher we had LTE service.

Renting a car in a foreign country, especially one where they drive on the left-hand side of the road, can be a bit daunting. Its been made quite a bit easier by Waze, the navigation app I use all the time at home. Its made driving the Irish countryside almost easy, if you remove the narrow roads and fast moving trucks that come at you with no hesitation. Waze has been flawless. If you have not used it, download it for free and check it out.

To keep safe while using a navigation app on my phone while driving on the wrong side of the road, it was critical the phone be mounted close to my line of sight so I did not have to take my eyes off the road. This is where Scosches Magic Mount comes to the rescue. I use this in my car with the dash mount at home. This is a suction cup mount that needs no adhesive to stay on the dash. Its a magnetic mount, so you place a slim metal plate on the back of your phone and it effortlessly stays in place. For travel, I carry the Magic Mount Vent, which attaches to the air vent in the dash. This is how I kept my phone mounted high enough so I could see the map without taking my eyes completely off the road. Its worked perfectly.

When traveling with several people in the same car, keeping everyones devices powered up is key to maintaining family peace. I did not want to deal with the constant battle for the charger to keep five or more phones charged at all times. This is where the RapidX X-5 charger is invaluable. This unique charger plugs into the power port in the car. The piece that plugs in has two USB ports and a five-foot cable that leads to another section with three USB ports and a clip to attach to the seatback pocket behind one of the front seats. This way, people in the front of the car can charge their phones while three people in the rear can charge as well. The ports deliver up to 2.4 amps of power, enough to charge a tablet as well.

Technology is everywhere and by and large its use makes our lives better. Let me know what you see for technology in your travels this summer and google Scosche and RapidX to find gadgets that will make your travels by car much happier.

MJ Shoer is chief technology officer of Internet & Telephone, LLC, a provider of first-class Service for customers voice and data needs, with offices in Boston and Methuen, Massachusetts and Portsmouth. He maintains a blog about business IT issues atwww.mjshoer.comand may be reached atmshoer@itllc.net.

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Taking technology on the road - Seacoastonline.com

Senate Bill 148, signed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Thursday morning, adds personal delivery devices as a class of vehicle subject to regulation in the state. The bill also outlines rules for those robots' speed and weight, and dictates where precisely they can go (sidewalks and crosswalks only).

An Estonian company called Starship Technologies, launched by the creators of the teleconferencing tool Skype, is one of the forces that has been pushing for the legislation. Starship been testing its small, black-and-white robots throughout Europe and in some cities in the U.S over the past year. The two-feet-tall, six-wheeled rovers are essentially self-driving cars on a tiny scale: They come with a sophisticated array of sensors for navigating along sidewalks, zipping around obstacles and crossing streets.

The bill is the third of its kind in the country: Starship has already worked with legislators in Idaho and Virginia on legislation that passed in those states. For SB 148, Starship has confirmed that it worked with authors Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, and Rep. Mike Kuglitsch, R-New Berlin, on the measure.

The delivery robot industry is gaining momentum, wrote Allan Martinson, the companys CEO, in a press release from the company.

Kapenga said that as the owner of a technology company hes the president of the Milwaukee software firm Integrated Time Systems he enjoys working on measures like SB 148.

Its fun for me to see things like this, where in government, we can make sure were walking side by side with technology, said Kapenga.

He said he hopes the bill will signal that Wisconsin's friendliness to emerging technologies.

Kuglitsch, who is also an advocate for driverless cars in the state Legislature, wrote in an email to the Cap Times that he, too, hopes the measure will bring business to the state.

I hope personal delivery device companies take this opportunity to partner with Wisconsin businesses to grow local delivery options and speed for e-commerce in the state, said Kuglitsch.

Safety and the job-loss potential are two concerns that Starship and others have been navigating as they try to promote the robotic delivery technology. Starship says that so far robots have yet to cause a collision or pedestrian injury in the extensive testing logged. It also asserts that its technology wont replace workers in the delivery business, and that its robots would fill in gaps in service.

The law means that any maker of such an electronic device could operate in the state, so long as it's less than 80 pounds and stays under a 10 mph limit. As a blogger with ReCode points out, at least one of Starships competitors, Marble, would not meet those standards.

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Explained: Delivery robots get the green light in Wisconsin - Madison.com