What’s at stake?
Last week’s congressional hearing on autonomous vehicles (AV) exposed the limited knowledge among lawmakers on what automated vehicles are, let alone differences between AVs and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) — which look like disclaimers in the fine print for most people. The hearing could have used more discussion to clarify complex AV issues and elevate the debate beyond the talking points of special-interest groups.
By David Benjamin
“Well, congrats! You’ve just reinvented the subway.”
— Derek Wise, electrek.com
One of Covid-19’s few blessings is that it has spared me the annual trip to Las Vegas for the grind, hype and tedium of the Consumer Electronics Show. I can’t say that I missed CES this month, but I slightly regret a lost opportunity to experience, in person, the unfortunately named Elon Musk Boring Company.
Read More »The Wizard of Oz Comes to CES
What’s at stake?
At CES 2022, the IoT community was giddy over Matter, the new IoT application layer that unites wireless devices in a smart home. While Amazon, Google, Apple and Samsung are Matter’s headliners, who does the plumbing for the Internet of Things? Devils linger in the details.
The interoperability of consumer devices – whether installed in “smart homes” or traditional dumb houses – has long been a tough nut to crack.
Read More »Who Does the Plumbing for IoT?
By David Benjamin
“As someone who doesn’t drive, I am not sure how an AI would handle icy road conditions… Autonomous cars are not going to get angry, commit road rage-related crimes, or panic when suddenly confronted with black ice.” —Johnna Crider, CleanTechnica, Dec. 23, 2021
Like many other folks, I’ve faced the prospect of death a number of times. But in none of those circumstances was I ever palpably scared — until the whole horror was over with and I had a chance to think of how close I’d come to strolling into the sunset hand-in-hand with the Grim Reaper.
Read More »The Inscrutability of Black Ice
Dear Ted,
Velodyne’s recent announcement introducing you as its new CEO didn’t surprise me. You’re the right executive arriving at the right time to correct the course of a vision-challenged company that has lost its way.
Velodyne went public in September 2020 through the dubious mechanism of a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with blank-check company Graph Industrial. Since then, as the corporate board and its largest shareholder have relentlessly exchanged accusations, Velodyne has become best known for its dysfunction.
Read More »Open Letter to Ted Tewksbury, Velodyne’s New CEO
By Bolaji Ojo
The electronics industry is at it again. Notorious for offering bewildering solutions to chronic and possibly unsolvable problems, OEM and semiconductor executives are convulsed with figuring out a fix for the supply shortages that have shuttered some automotive manufacturing plants and crimped sales as global economies struggle to recover from the pandemic.
Read More »JIC is a Poor Replacement for JIT
Dear Zuck,
You can hide behind a rebranding, but you can’t run from your most egregious accomplishment: You’ve delivered, in a most terrifying way, on that infamous slogan of yours, “Move fast and break things.” You’ve broken people, societies and dented American democracy. What you’ve built is nothing less than “a toxic propaganda guidebook for the ages,” according to New York Times columnist Kara Swisher.
Read More »Open Letter to Zuck: Prove to Us That ‘Ethics in Tech’ Is Not an Oxymoron
What’s at stake?
Tesla’s autonomous-vehicle strategy is about to become a playbook for the broader automotive industry on sidestepping the National Transportation Safety Board’s safety recommendations and bending the prior administration’s toothless AV regulations to its will. But when Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta software kills a pedestrian, regulators must do more than say, “Uh-oh”; they must get to the bottom of what went wrong. That requires a deep dive into the software — a task for which regulators today are ill-equipped. Ensuring the public safety requires rewriting the rules and arming the regulators to enforce them.
Draft of a funereal eulogy to be read in the event of Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm Ltd.
So, farewell, Arm Ltd., you were a fine company. You were a child of Cambridge, England, but you only made it to 32 years old.
Nothing lasts forever. But some things and ideas last a long time and become part of the landscape, part of what defines what else can happen. And some things don’t last so long or cease to endure, and can be moved around or taken off the table for commercial benefit.
Read More »Rest in Peace: Arm, 1990 – 2022
By Bolaji Ojo
Technology — specifically semiconductors and software — will drive and power societal evolution and economic growth for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the domination or control of technology innovation and access to the semiconductor supply chain by any country or regional bloc should be anathema to everyone.
Read More »Politicize the Semiconductor Supply Chain and We All Lose
