Uber Crash, it’s the Human, not the Technology
Police released video footage of the incident in Tempe, Arizona, where an Uber self-driving car hit and killed a pedestrian. The video is not conclusive but shows Elaine Herzberg coming into view a number of seconds before the crash as well as the operator behind the wheel looking down on the side of the steering wheel for several seconds while the car was driving itself. Uber autonomous cars remain grounded while the investigation continues.
- This is the first casualty that involved an autonomous car, but sadly I am sure it will not be the last. That said, I hope that logic, and not hysteria, will prevail and what happened will not slow down the advancements in this area.
- As more details are released it seems that even if the car had been under human control it would have been impossible to avoid the lady that crossed the road with her bike in the dark.
- The incident confirms, however, my biggest concern with autonomous cars which is that humans are not computers and human error or disregard for laws and common sense will be difficult to deal with for any computer.
- How can you teach a car that pedestrians are supposed to cross at a light or on a zebra crossing but they can, in fact, pop up anywhere?
- What I do seriously hope becomes a teaching moment from this incident and something regulators will look at going forward is who should be behind the wheels of these cars in these early stages. What I find the most disturbing about the video was seeing how distracted the operator was.
- Putting aside the operator’s background and his criminal conviction – Uber believes in second chances and so do I – I do wonder why was there no engineer or technician behind the wheel? Surely this testing phase will require operators that can report back on what went wrong with the car, what needs to be tweaked…
- There is no doubt in my mind that autonomous cars will result in a lower number of crashes on the road. What happened is sad, any loss of human life is, but there is certainly more good than bad to come from autonomous cars in the future.
- To give some perspective I want to share another piece of news that happened last week in San Jose. A 12-year old girl crossing on a crosswalk was hit by a car. The driver did not even slow down and continued on its way. Luckily the girl was ok. In this case, it was not just about being distracted it is about not having any human decency whatsoever. Let’s hope who is responsible to train these cars has higher moral standards!
Huawei’s Phones to be pulled off the Shelves at Best Buy
This week Cnet reported that Best Buy, the American largest electronics retailer, has ceased ordering new smartphones from Huawei and will stop selling its products over the next few weeks, according to a person familiar with the situation. Best Buy made the decision to end the relationship, the person said. Huawei did not comment on the news other than saying Best Buy is a valued partner.
- It has been one bad news after another for Chinese manufacturer Huawei. First AT&T who was expected to be adding Huawei’s phones to their line up backtracked on their decision to do so.
- That news was followed by the directors of the FBI, CIA, and NSA all expressing their concerns about the risks posed by using Huawei and ZTE’s hardware.
- As I write this, Best Buy also said to be dropping Huawei’s computers and Honor’s phones.
- After his keynote at MWC, Vodafone’s CEO, Vittorio Colao, stated that Vodafone works well with Huawei, a company that is open and innovative. They never found anything abnormal in their hardware or software and if there was something to find they would have found it. After all even Cisco’s kit is made in China.
- I very much doubt Vodafone’s CEO would have made such as statement without being able to back it up. His comment on Cisco might be a little naïve as most hardware is made in China nowadays but of course, not all Chinese companies have strong ties with the government. Yet, I do think that Huawei and ZTE are getting caught up in a trade and technology war that is escalating quickly between US and China.
- A technology war that played a role in President Trump’s decision to stop Broadcom in its hostile takeover of Qualcomm.
- Losing Best Buy is a big blow for Huawei that is now left only with the online channel. This segment in the US only represent a small portion of overall smartphone sales and skews heavily to well-known brands or low-end phones and neither of these fit Huawei’s play.
- I think for Huawei to convince retailers and carriers to change their mind will be hard as no organization wants to go against the government at the risk of losing their business.
- Huawei could, however, try and convince consumers that there is nothing to be concerned but of course this will require plenty of marketing dollars and time.
- Whether or not that is a fight worth fighting rests on whether Huawei’s can become the leading smartphone vendor without breaking into the US market.
Jimmy Iovine will become a consultant for Apple Music from August
After responding to rumors saying that he was leaving Apple entirely, music executive and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine is reportedly transitioning to a “consulting role” for Apple Music this August, according to the Wall Street Journal. Speculations have it that part of the reason has something to do with reconciling Beats’ heritage in being edgy with Apple’s focus on appealing to everyone.
- I always saw Iovine’s primary role at Apple as the link to the artists and creatives. His name brought brand cache to Apple Music and his deep understanding of the music business and how to deal with artists helped with getting some big names to buy into the platform.
- While it is true that Beats under Apple is becoming less edgy, I am not sure hardware design is what Iovine got much involved in before the acquisition. He was much more focused on Beats actual music service and the recommendation engine which also happened to be what Apple really needed to get started with Apple Music.
- It seems to me that rather than speculating on the reasons we should look at where Apple Music is today as there might be a more basic explanation.
- Earlier this year Apple announced that they have 30 million paying subscribers in the US and 36 million globally. This puts them very close to Spotify in the US but still a distant second worldwide where Spotify has 70 million paying subscribers.
- Also, Apple has recently acquired Shazam whose data and expertise will help Apple Music improve its recommendation making the service more appealing and increasing stickiness.
- So it seems to me that Iovine’s decision to be less involved comes at a good time.
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