In January 2,020 at the event where General Motors automated driving division Cruise took the wraps off the Origin robotaxi, a slide briefly appeared in the presentation showing a version of the vehicle for package deliveries. Today during the General Motors investor day, Cruise CEO Dan Ammann provided more details about the company’s business model and revenue opportunities and showed both a delivery module and a wheelchair accessible version.
Cruise has been providing automated deliveries in partnership with Walmart WMT +0.7% in the Phoenix area since late 2020. Throughout much of last year during the worst early phases of the pandemic in the San Francisco area, Cruise vehicles were used to provide more than 50,000 food deliveries to medical personnel and those in need. Those efforts have all utilized the current test fleet of Chevrolet Bolts which are not optimized for goods delivery.
The cybersecurity world is evolving rapidly — perhaps more quickly than at any other time in its history. It would be easy to attribute the cyber hiccups that many businesses face to the fact that they are simply unable to keep up with bad actors.
The facts are more complicated. While it’s true that new threats are emerging every day, more often than not, breaches result from long-standing organizational issues, not a sudden upturn in the ingenuity of cybercriminals.
The potential for AI to deliver transformative value is almost unlimited. And yet, accessing that value is by no means a given. So how do we crack the code?
As someone who’s been in the business of deploying enterprise-grade AI solutions since the earliest days of AI—from the inside, as a CIO at Verizon, and from the outside, as an advisor to an AI company ASAPP—I know that our job as CIOs is to get transformational value out of transformational technology. And yet as recently as 2,020 McKinsey reported that less than 25 percent of companies are “seeing significant bottom-line impact” from AI.
I believe that there are at least three ways we need to shift our thinking if our organizations are going to mine the full transformational potential of AI:
For more than 20 years, D-Wave has been synonymous with quantum annealing. Its early bet on this technology allowed it to become the world’s first company to sell quantum computers, but that also somewhat limited the real-world problems its hardware could solve, given that quantum annealing works especially well for optimization problems like protein folding or route planning. But as the company announced at its Qubits conference today, a superconducting gate-model quantum computer — of the kind IBM and others currently offer — is now also on its roadmap.
D-Wave believes the combination of annealing, gate-model quantum computing and classic machines is what its businesses’ users will need to get the most value from this technology. “Like we did when we initially chose to pursue annealing, we’re looking ahead,” the company notes in today’s announcement. “We’re anticipating what our customers need to drive practical business value, and we know error-corrected gate-model quantum systems with practical application value will be required for another important part of the quantum application market: simulating quantum systems. This is an application that’s particularly useful in fields like materials science and pharmaceutical research.”
DeversiFi’s faulty bill shows crypto, where “code is law”, is equally vulnerable to costly slip-ups that have no formal resolution mechanism.
“Right now, most of the users of DeFi are true believers in the technology and its potential, and so confidence may persist regardless of these events,” said Hilary Allen, professor of law at the American University Washington College of Law.
“But if DeFi is more broadly adopted by people less committed to the technology, confidence will become more vulnerable — and the potential for panics that can come with damaged confidence should give us pause,” she added.
Elon Musk reiterated Tesla’s commitment to China, stating that the company will continue to invest in the country. Musk made his announcement at a pre-recorded question-and-answer session at China’s Cyberspace Administration’s Global Digital Conference. Musk has hailed the country that is vital to his electric vehicle company for the second time this month, calling it as a “global leader in digitalization.” As per Mr. Musk’s comments made during another pre-recorded webcast at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress less than two weeks earlier, Chinese automakers were the “most internationally competitive.” Musk was enthusiastic in his praise for the nation that is vital to Tesla’s electric vehicle business, and his remarks came as the company works to repair its image in China. Musk stated, “I have a lot of respect for the various Chinese automakers who are driving these (EV) technologies.” Musk stated Chinese carmakers are among the best at software, which he claims will “shape the future of the vehicle industry” during his three-minute speech. “My honest view is that China invests a lot of resources and efforts adopting the latest digital technologies in various areas, including the automotive industry,” Musk said in a recent video. China has become a global leader in digitalization in the vehicle industry.” “Tesla will continue to boost its investment and research and development efforts in China.” However, negative coverage of Tesla has also grown in China over the last year. In one high-profile case, a woman claiming to be a Tesla customer protested an apparent brake failure in her car at the Shanghai auto show in April. Tesla was accused of having an “arrogant and aggressive approach” in China, according to official media, after a video of the incident went viral on Chinese social media. But now, Tesla has been attempting to repair its image in China following a barrage of negative headlines. The corporation has been under governmental scrutiny for its privacy practises, as well as several recalls in China. Some state and military employees are apparently restricted from driving Tesla electric vehicles. Musk emphasized data protection in his speech and outlined the many types of data that are stored locally. “At Tesla, we’re pleased to see a bustle of fresh laws and regulations targeted at enhancing data handling,” Musk remarked. In the past, the corporation is said to have broken ground on a big Shanghai facility. According to Reports, Tesla sold 44,264 Made-in-China automobiles by August 2021. There were 31,379 for export, which marked an increase over July’s 32,968 made-in-China automobiles sold and June’s 33,155 units sold. Local EV firms like Xpeng Inc., Li Auto Inc., and Nio Inc. are also posing a threat to Tesla in China. Last month, shipments of China-made cars to domestic purchasers increased, and exports from the company’s Shanghai factory — largely to Europe — increased. As a result, Tesla’s overall China shipments increased 34% from July to 44,264 units in August. According to sources, Tesla momentarily suspended some tasks at its Shanghai factory last month due to a global shortfall of semiconductors. Because of a shortage of crucial chips, a portion of a production line at the China plant was shut down for nearly four days in August. Tesla created a data centre in China to contain all of the data generated by our businesses there, which include manufacturing, sales, service, and charging. All personally identifying information is kept secure in China and is never sent abroad. Data is only permitted for international transfer in very rare instances, such as spare parts orders from overseas.” Tesla is acting in response to new Chinese government regulations governing how carmakers with cameras and sensors collect and use data. Tesla also said in a statement that it was “glad to hold discussions with industry experts” regarding new data security requirements for automobiles in the country. “Data security in automobiles is critical. Tesla will make every effort to maintain data security by implementing automotive data security management.”
Stimulating STEM Innovation & Securing U.S. High-Tech Economy — Kimberly A. Reed, Fmr President and Chairman Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Kimberly A. Reed just finished up a 2-year term as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM — https://www.exim.gov). She was the first woman to lead EXIM in the agency’s 87-year history, was the first recipient of EXIM’s highest honor, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Award, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 on a strong bi-partisan basis.
Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous driving company, is vague on exactly when semis controlled by its technology will be hauling cargo, without drivers, across the U.S. but has a detailed list of challenges to be mastered first, ranging from rough winds and slick roads, stray pedestrians on the highway and figuring out how robot trucks can deploy safety flares when they have to pull over.
