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Phil Koopman

Podcast: 2023 Predictions for AV and Driver Assist

By Junko Yoshida

Much has happened in 2022 in the autonomous vehicle market.

Among those chasing the dream of highly automated vehicles, Argo.ai dramatically dropped out of the race. Meanwhile, others like Cruise and Waymo are busy doubling down as they tout expanded footprints for their robotaxi operations.

The rest of the auto industry, however, is pivoting hard to the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

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Mike Noonen

Podcast: What’s Next With Mike Noonen

We crossed paths with serial entrepreneur Mike Noonen at the recent Electronica trade fair in Munich. Noonen’s latest venture is Swave Photonics, which seeks to advance holography developed by Imec, a renowned R&D institute in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies (Leuven, Belgium). Swave’s holographic extended reality display technology is aimed at the nascent augmented and virtual reality markets.

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Chris Miller

Podcast: The Geopolitics of Semiconductors

By George Leopold

The military and economic competition between the People’s Republic of China and the United States increasingly focuses on semiconductor technology. The U.S. and its Western allies control much of the technology China seeks or is striving to develop.

In his book, Chip Wars: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, political historian Chris Miller chronicles decades of innovation that have made semiconductors a strategic asset and a new front in a U.S.-China technology Cold War.

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Chuck Murray

Podcast: How the Lithium-Ion Battery Accelerated Electric Cars

By George Leopold

The initial reaction from the publishing world to Charles Murray’s proposed history of the lithium-ion battery was, well, low voltage.

That changed in 2019 when John B. Goodenough, the German-born American physicist won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (shared with M. Stanley Whittingham and Akiro Yoshino) for development of a lithium battery with a cobalt oxide cathode. “Storing electrical energy in batteries is a key factor in solving the world’s energy supply,” the Nobel Committee noted.

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Podcast: Breaking Down VW-Horizon Deal in China

By Junko Yoshida

When news broke that Volkswagen was making 2.4 billion euro investment in China’s Horizon Robotics, Tu Le, managing director of Beijing-based consultancy Sino Auto Insights, told us, “The German automaker has no way to compete with Tesla save by partnering with China.”

Horizon is China’s national champion in AI software and hardware. Was it a good idea for Volkswagen to outsource its software and hardware future to China? The deal could help VW in the short term with its software development in China, but what’s the implication a decade from now?

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Chat with Junko and Bola: Paul McGlone CEO

Podcast: Who Is Seeing Machines?

By Junko Yoshida

Under an exclusive deal, Seeing Machines and Tier One Magna have emerged as co-owners and co-marketers of the hottest technology needed by every carmaker in the world: a driver and occupant monitoring system integrated into a rearview mirror.

Seeing Machines’ driver monitoring algorithms are the foundation of the new mirror, solving a host of design problems while helping to meet new regulatory requirements.

Seeing Machines (Canberra, Australia) may not be a household name yet. It soon will be. Many will realize that Seeing Machines is to the automotive in-cabin vision market what Mobileye has done for the ADAS external vision market.

Launched in 2000, Seeing Machines has had more than two decades to develop its technology. We sat down with Paul McGlone, CEO of Seeing Machines, to discuss the company’s history, technology, business strategy, and, yes, its vision.

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Podcast with Dan Breznitz

Podcast: Technology Innovation and Our Manufacturing Future

By George Leopold

If, as he asserts, “innovation is hope,” then political economist Dan Breznitz remains hopeful we can again find ways to make the things we need rather than relying on tenuous overseas supply lines.

In his latest book, Innovation in Real Places, Breznitz of the University of Toronto explores the causes of our hollowed-out manufacturing sector while demonstrating how regional planners waste billions of dollars seeking to become “Silicon Hyphens.”

Think Foxconn fleecing the state of Wisconsin, Cleveland courting Amazon’s HQ2.

We discussed these and other pressing issues with Breznitz. Listen to our podcast.

Read More »Podcast: Technology Innovation and Our Manufacturing Future