TECHNOLOGY

Getting data while you drive

CES (Consumer Electronics Show) has long been a showcase for automotive gadgetry and a chance for tech companies to pitch their gear to carmakers. This year, the consumer electronics show is embracing an increasingly valuable byproduct of all this activity: data.
Modern cars roll out of factories packed with cellular connections, powerful processors and growing suite of sensors, including cameras, radar and microphones. That’s turning them into the next information goldmine, rivaling the data-creating capabilities of smartphones.
Amazon.com Inc, Intel Corp, Qualcomm Inc and BlackBerry Ltd are at the Las Vegas conference this week to pitch data-crunching services and partnerships to an auto industry searching for new revenue streams and business models.
“CES will highlight the next big industry transformation that revolves around how this data can be monetised,” said Brian Rhodes, an automotive technology analyst at IHS Markit. “This market is no longer strictly focused on selling hard parts.”
Automakers are trying to control the data generated by their vehicles and avoid being marginalised by technology giants. It’s a challenge because car companies lack deep software talent and are already battling the incursion of smartphones and related technology. Apple Inc’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto software, installed on vehicle dashboard screens, funnel data to and from smartphones and largely bypass carmakers’ systems.
The industry “passed a while ago a very important line in the sand”, said Henrik Fisker, chief executive officer of electric vehicle manufacturer Fisker Inc. “People suddenly felt that their smartphone was more important to their freedom than their car.”

After years of setbacks and delays, Fisker will show off its Ocean electric SUV at CES for the first time. The company wants to generate the majority of its profit from software and services over the long term. Fisker has an app for ordering, lease payments and upgrades that it hopes will generate recurring revenue over the life of each vehicle.
Intel will announce a new automotive tie-up for its Mobileye unit during CES, adding to existing relationships with Nissan Motor Co, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG. The carmakers use Mobileye’s driver-assistance technology and provide the Intel unit with some of the data that those cameras, chips and sensors collect as the vehicles drive around. Mobileye aggregates this anonymous information to create detailed maps that the carmakers use to enhance their vehicle navigation systems.
At CES, Intel showed off a map of Las Vegas created in 24 hours with information from BMW cars that drove around the city over an undisclosed longer period. Intel says such fresh information is more valuable than traditional navigation systems, which use special survey vehicles that collect and send in images and data for updates that can take months. The newer approach has more chance of spotting and avoiding a broken traffic signal or road work. Intel thinks the data will be really useful for other things, too. A utility company could check on infrastructure without sending workers to every site, for example.
Intel predicts the market for such data will be worth as much as US$3.5bil (RM14.35bil) a year by 2030. McKinsey & Co sees a much larger opportunity. A few years ago, the consulting firm said up to US$750bil (RM3.07tril) of value would created from car-related data by 2030. That includes revenue from services like connected maps and targeted advertising, along with the sale and analysis of anonymous information via third parties to reduce costs.
“The value pool includes avoided costs and incremental revenue” McKinsey partner Michele Bertoncello said. “If you monitor a car and you avoid a breakdown or you avoid warranty fraud, you don’t generate incremental revenue, but you avoid a cost.”
On Jan 6 at CES, cloud-computing giant Amazon Web Services teamed up with BlackBerry, owner of QNX, an operating system that’s widely used in cars. The two companies unveiled a new service that helps automakers update security and software features, monitor vehicle health, access data from car sensors, built new applications and apply artificial intelligence models to the information.
Chipmaker Qualcomm announced its first chips and software for fully autonomous vehicles at the CES show. Its radio chips already support cellular links for most of the world’s connected cars. The new offering will be available in coming years and will reduce the cost and power needed to develop and run driverless cars, Qualcomm said. The company also rolled out a “Car-to-Cloud Platform”, a package of hardware and software that lets automakers securely update the software in their vehicles. The system offers a way to charge vehicle owners for updates and other services.
Vehicle-generated data is crucial to Ford Motor Co’s future, chief technical officer Ken Washington said. The company’s commercial business is working with Digit, a robot designed by Agility Robotics that travels with delivery vehicles, unfolds itself, then carries packages from the curbside to the door. Digit will use data from Ford vehicle sensors to find its way. – Bloomberg

Microsoft ends Windows 7 support

CYBER-security experts are urging Windows 7 users to upgrade their operating system.
Microsoft is going to stop supporting Windows 7 from this week so that it can focus on “newer technologies”.
As a result, Windows 7 users will no longer receive the all-important security updates and patches that keep their machines safe.
One in four Windows users is running Windows 7, according to statistics website StatCounter.
What does this all mean?
It means that Microsoft is ending the cat-and-mouse game with hackers seeking to exploit software bugs in the Windows 7 operating system.
If perpetrators find a flaw in Windows 7, Microsoft will not fix it.
Without continued software and security updates, Windows 7 machines are more likely to be infected with viruses and malware, Microsoft wrote on its website.
“Running an unpatched machine means that the flaws in the code will never be fixed and as exploits for those flaws become known and widespread, your chances of being successfully attacked grow very rapidly,” said Rik Ferguson, vice-president of security research at Trend Micro.
David Emm, a senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, added that people need to move to a supported operating system as soon as possible.
What are the risks?
Hackers use malware to invade, damage or disable computers.
It can be used to steal personal and financial data, spy on other users without them knowing, and to hold companies to ransom until a payment is made.
In May 2017, the NHS was hit by the WannaCry ransomware attack.
A government report in 2018 concluded that the attack could have been avoided if NHS Trusts had updated their computers and applied the necessary security patches.
Hackers exploited weaknesses in unpatched versions of Windows 7, as well as to a lesser extent the earlier Windows XP, which Microsoft had stopped supporting.
What should you do with your Windows 7 PC?
Computers running Windows 7 will still function after Tuesday but they will become less and less secure.
Microsoft is urging people to move to Windows 10, a newer operating system that it sells for £120.
“Going forward, the best way for you to stay secure is on Windows 10,” it said. “And the best way to experience Windows 10 is on a new PC.”
It is possible to install Windows 10 on old PCs but Microsoft warns that it may not run smoothly.
In order to run Windows 10, PCs must have a 1GHz processor, 16GB of hard drive space, and 1GB of RAM memory.
“While it is possible to install Windows 10 on your older device, it is not recommended,” Microsoft said.
That said, Windows 7 users do not need to upgrade if they use their PC offline. -BBC

Cars to talk to pedestrians

ON Jan 12, the Tesla co-founder and CEO published a video to Twitter demonstrating Tesla cars’ upcoming ability to talk to pedestrians via external speakers.
Instead of having to roll down the window during the brisk months of winter to talk to pedestrians and other people outside the vehicle, Tesla owners will soon be able to speak to them through a set of external speakers.
Company CEO Elon Musk demonstrated this upcoming tool in a tweet published on Jan 12 showing a red Tesla saying “Well, don’t just stand there staring. Hop in!” Commenting on the video, he also stated “And, of course, your car will be able to [fart emoji] in their general direction.”
Though no information was provided explaining how the tool will work or when it will be available, it appears as though Tesla owners will be able to select between not only standard sound clips made to comply with EV sound requirements, but also between absurd and amusing (and possible fart) clips for the driver out there with a Musk-like sense of humour.
The feature is said to be coming “soon”. – AFP Relaxnews

Would a robot conductor change orchestra music?

THE Kunitachi College of Music in Tachikawa, Tokyo, and the University of Tokyo have launched a unique research project to determine whether a humanoid robot can conduct an orchestra and elicit a performance with artistic expression.
The robot conductor has been paired with a student orchestra in a study of the communication that takes place between a conductor and the performers, and the significance of the conductor’s role.
Researchers from both universities held a press conference at the college on Jan 11.
Alter 3, the robot being used in the study, was developed in January 2019 by the University of Tokyo and Osaka University. With cameras for eyes and software that enables it to move autonomously, the robot can move in response to the movements of others.
The primary goal of the study is to determine whether robots can execute autonomous commands and gestures to create emotional performances for humans. The study is expected to last until March 2022.
The college will introduce a special course on conducting by Alter 3 in April, and has been carrying out experiments to increase the robot’s repertoire of songs it can conduct and other areas. The study is tracking its growth process.
“Unlike ordinary robots, [Alter 3’s] movements change by interacting with humans. The performers were initially skeptical but have gradually been getting used to it, ” Prof Takashi Ikegami of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, who was involved in the development of Alter 3, said at the press conference. – The Japan News