Qualcomm is helping address one of the auto industry's most pressing needs - scaling intelligent vehicle technology to meet growing consumer demand for vehicles that are automated, connected and highly personalised.
Architecture can no longer be conceived as an isolated object, detached from the technical networks that sustain contemporary life. This condition calls for new readings and approaches.
On February 28, ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz started appearing on tracking screens in places they couldn't possibly be. They appeared to be sitting on airport runways, parked on Iranian land, and clustered at nuclear power plants. More than 1,100 commercial vessels had their navigation systems scrambled in a single day following US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, bringing a waterway that handles a fifth of the world's oil exports to a halt.
Kinetic's CEO Nikhil Naikal states, 'We have eyes, and when we need to correct vision, we go to an optometrist... In the same way, this is a digital prescription to correct the errors of the car's understanding of the world around it.'
Compact, low-rise villages and cities made sense based on how far people could reasonably travel on foot or by horse. This was true all the way up until the late 1800s. Then came an invention that let people travel incredible distances in seconds, entirely reshaping cities with dense population clusters.
The robotaxi takeover - assuming they take over - will also be a real estate story. As Waymo, Uber, Tesla, and other competitors race to flood the streets with fully autonomous cars, robotaxi operators will need to find places to park, charge, and maintain their vehicles. Voltera, a charging infrastructure company based in Palo Alto that has partnered with Alphabet-backed Waymo, is buying up real estate now to prep for the AV boom.
MicroVision, a Redmond, Washington-based company that has been developing its own lidar sensors, submitted a $33 million bid, eclipsing the $22 million that Quantum Computing Inc. laid out a few weeks ago as the so-called "stalking horse" bidder. (Quantum Computing Inc. had upped its bid to $28 million but apparently was unwilling or unable to go higher.) The sale of Luminar's lidar business will now be subject to approval by the judge in the bankruptcy case.
Footage of the incident, which took place January 15, shows the robot sitting motionless on the tracks, seemingly making no attempt to get out of the way as the unmistakable blare of the train horn gets louder and louder. "Oh it's gonna crush it!" the onlooker taking the video can be heard saying moments before the train, operated by Brightline, flattens the unfortunate bot into the tracks. Sparks can be seen flying from beneath the train before the video cuts off.
Tesla's attorneys filed a complaint alleging the state "wrongfully and baselessly" labeled it a false advertiser, brazenly arguing that "it was impossible" to buy or use the "auto-pilot" software "without seeing clear and repeated statements that they do not make the vehicle autonomous." Yet, their fine-print defense clashes with Musk's failed promises and stunts, such as when he took his hands off the wheel on CBS's 60 Minutes in 2018 and proudly declared he was "not doing anything."