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China startups reined in by common prosperity initiative Xi Jinping

China’s ‘Common Prosperity’ Campaign Backfires

By George Leopold

What’s at stake?
China’s Communist Party launched a wealth-redistribution campaign last year, cracking down on overseas security listings ostensibly in the name of data security. It hasn’t worked, and Chinese financial regulators appear to be in tactical retreat.

President Xi Jinping effectively erased more than one-third of Chinese technology companies’ market capitalization after launching a crackdown on U.S. stock market listings, according to a U.S. economic security assessment.

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Japan Visa

The Tortuous Road to My Mother’s Funeral

By Junko Yoshida

This is a story in development. As I write it, I still don’t know how it will turn out. Uncertainty is the name of the game.

It started last weekend, with my mother’s death. Kiyoko Yoshida survived many trials in her life — including, when she was a teenager, the A-bombing of Hiroshima. She endured the death of my big sister, Mariko, and stoically took over the job of raising Mariko’s two sons, though she was over 60 at the time. She survived the passing of my father, and ultimately, she even outlasted Covid-19. Finally, she just quietly withered away at the age of 93.

Because of pandemic protocols imposed by the Japanese government, the last time I saw my mother was November 2019.

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land mines in Ukraine artificial ignorance and AI Putin

Putin’s Brainstorm: Artificial Ignorance

By David Benjamin

“Older types of land mines typically explode when victims accidentally step on them or disturb attached tripwires. But the POM-3’s seismic sensor picks up on approaching footsteps and can effectively distinguish between humans and animals…”

— John Ismay, New York Times, 6 April

It doesn’t take long for my friend Wilhelm “Bombs Away” Bienfang—the world’s foremost “idea man”—to latch onto an embryonic technology and turn it into a veritable goldmine.

Within hours of learning that Russian soldiers, fleeing the carnage they had wreaked in Ukraine, had left behind a garden of seismically activated land mines, Bienfang had a potentially lucrative product on his drawing board.

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decision time for congressional negotiators on CHIPS Act

‘Labs vs. Fabs’: It’s Decision Time for CHIPS Act Negotiators

By George Leopold

What’s at stake?
Push comes to shove later this month when House and Senate conferees roll up their sleeves to reconcile sharp differences in proposed legislation aimed at reviving U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Among other decisions will be allocating $52 billion in federal subsidies in ways that address supply chain concerns while advancing technology innovation.

The direction of U.S. investments in semiconductor technology and revived manufacturing will be determined in coming weeks as congressional conferees hammer out a compromise needed to overcome conflicting visions for boosting American competitiveness.

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infrastructure funding for ports supply chain

Infrastructure Funds Target Supply Chain Rebuild

By George Leopold

What’s at stake?
Infrastructure and Jobs Act Funds are beginning to flow in a rebuild of key logistics and distribution components of the sclerotic U.S. supply chain. The challenge is quickly dispersing funds where they are needed to help unsnarl the American ports and freight railways that are the lifeblood of the nation’s logistics network.

The Infrastructure and Jobs Act, signed into law last November, includes $1.2 trillion for rebuilding bridges, roads and rails, along with modernizing port and other facilities. Of that total, $17 billion is earmarked for port infrastructure and waterways.

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Is Haviv Ilan Set to Succeed Templeton as TI’s CEO?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake?
After 42 years at Texas Instruments, Rich Templeton may be ready to hand over the reins to a new CEO. The Ojo-Yoshida Report believes COO Haviv Ilan is in line to succeed Templeton, but the hard question is whether a new CEO will make drastic changes at the analog and embedded-processor giant.

Texas Instruments Inc. early in December named Haviv Ilan to its board of directors, potentially moving the senior executive into the pole position to succeed Richard Templeton as president and chief executive officer in as little as months or at most a couple of years from now.

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highway driving

L3 Cars: Unsafe at Any Speed?

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake?
The automotive industry is opening another can of worms with its push for hands-free driving. Some argue a traffic jam pilot system — hands-free driving in steady highway traffic (60km per hour) — might be safely deployed. Perhaps. But what if a car had to stop suddenly in traffic because a human driver did not respond promptly to the car’s takeover request? Carmakers are sliding their definition of hands-free driving, hoping to deploy to higher speed motorways and city streets. Innovations are welcomed, but where are the safeguards?

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Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot

Let Go of the Wheel, But Watch Your Back

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake?
The auto industry is promoting hands-free highway driving as the next best thing to self-driving cars. But is it, really? In the aviation industry, it’s widely known that even well-trained professional pilots experience “mode confusion,” when there is a shift in the balance of driver control versus automation. At issue here is carmakers’ rigorous system engineering. The auto industry must prove that conditional automation will not place human drivers at risk.

Leading carmakers are increasingly infatuated with “hands-free” driving, a phenomenon that reveals their fascination with automation for automation’s sake. The hands-free push is another step along the path to the automakers’ perpetually promised, but still undelivered, vision of highways teeming with fully autonomous vehicles.

Read More »Let Go of the Wheel, But Watch Your Back