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SAIC and Chinese Internet Retailer Alibaba Unveil ‘Internet Car’

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Chinese Internet retail giant Alibaba-often called the Amazon of China-has unveiled its first car, which they are calling their “Internet car.”

The car, an RX5 sport utility vehicle, was built by China’s biggest automaker, SAIC, and will run on YunOS software developed by Alibaba.

In addition to being able to connect with other devices, the OS’Car RX5 will offer premium alibaba-internet-car-interiorinfotainment features such as finding parking spaces and nearby gas stations, and even making restaurant reservations.

What’s more, multiple passengers will be able to log in to their individual Alibaba accounts to access music, shopping and more.

Industry analysts are already calling the OS’Car RX5 a strong contender when it comes to competing with the likes of Google, Apple and Blackberry, who have been working on infotainment systems like Android Auto, Apple Play and QNX, respectively, for years.

“Smart operating systems become the second engine of cars, while data is the new fuel,” Dr. Wang Jian, chairman of Alibaba’s Technology Steering Committee, said in a statement quoted by Alizila.

“It’s moving from the mobile smart phone connectivity to full-car connectivity to the internet,” said Steven Crumb, executive director of Genivi, an open-source infotainment cooperative, to AFR.com. “Even though you’ve got Google and others working on the autonomous vehicle, the way to get the autonomous vehicle is through the connected car. That’s the stepping stone to get where we are today to fully autonomous.”

The car will reportedly retail for 148,800 yuan, or $22,300 U.S.

 

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New Self-Driving Olli Shuttle ‘Talks’ with Passengers

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Burney Simpson

Another firm joined the autonomous vehicle world today as Local Motors rolled out its Olli self-driving shuttle that comes with IBM Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

The electric-powered vehicle carries up to 12 passengers and was designed by Edgar Sarmiento. It is manufactured by Local Motors at its headquarters in Chandler, Ariz., and comes with more than 30 embedded sensors.

The Olli was officially launched in Oxen Hill, Md., in suburban Washington, D.C., at a new Local Motors outlet.

Local Motors is a tech firm that created the Strati, a 3D printed car.

The Olli is designed for multi-passenger transit, and resembles a similar autonomous, electric vehicle from France’s Navya Technology.

Plans call for the Olli to operate on some Washington-area roads, and operate later this year in Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas.

Local Motors says that Olli is the first vehicle to utilize the cloud-based cognitive computing capability of IBM Watson IoT giving it the capability to analyze and learn from transportation data.

The vehicle also uses four Watson developer APIs — Speech to Text, Natural Language Classifier, Entity Extraction and Text to Speech – so passengers can talk to the vehicle as it is moving.

IBM reports that the shuttle can “understand and respond to passengers’ questions as they enter the vehicle, including about destinations (“Can you take me downtown?”) or specific vehicle functions (“how does this feature work?”).”

Olli will also give recommendations on restaurants or places to visit.

“Cognitive computing provides incredible opportunities to create unparalleled, customized experiences for customers, taking advantage of the massive amounts of streaming data from all devices connected to the Internet of Things, including an automobile’s myriad sensors and systems,” Harriet Green, an IBM Watson general manager, said in a press release.

Local Motors lists a number of partners on the Olli, in addition to IBM. They include German engineering firm Roding, driving system provider Paravan, composite manufacturer Forward Engineering, autonomous-vehicle company Meridian Autonomous Systems, and others.

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20 Billion ‘Things’ Will Make Up ‘Internet of Things’ by 2020 (Including Cars)

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Six billion things are currently connected to the Internet-and experts say that number will climb to 20 billion within the next four years.

According to Motley Fool, the “Internet of Things” (IoT) is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today, transforming countless industries such as transportation. If that pace keeps up, IoT is expected to be a $3-trillion industry by 2020.

It’s not just connected cars that IoT is changing, either-the phenomenon touches nearly every aspect of the transportation industry. In the airline industry, the technology is being used to help make airplanes more efficient. Motley Fool explains that General Electric’s Flight Efficiency Systems software has helped AirAsia save more than $50 million in fuel costs over the past five years by analyzing flight data and using it to plan better flight schedules and make other efficiency adjustments.

Other similar programs by GE are used to do much of the same for public buses and railway cars for public transportation systems, and to plan logistics for shipping companies.

The business-to-business (B2B) industry will also benefit greatly from the rise of IoT, the Huffington Post says.

“IoT systems can take the guesswork out of product development by gathering data about how products-including capital goods-actually function and how they are used, rather than relying on customer focus groups,” economist and author Jerry Jasinowski, said in Huffington Post Business on Monday.

Of course, personal communication is already a huge industry, and is growing even bigger with IoT technology. Verizon’s revenue has increased 18 percent year-over-year thanks to IoT, Motley Fool reports.

IoT is allowing planners in the creation of “smart cities,” and the idea is spreading rapidly across the country.

“[Verizon] is considering new cellular plans just for IoT devices,” Motley Fool reports. “The unlimited, flat-rate plans will make it easy and affordable for more cities to expand their IoT solutions, and it’s a clever move on Verizon’s part. Smart cities are expected to bring cost savings and revenue of $1 trillion by 2019.”

Agriculture is another industry that will be transformed by IoT solutions. Monsanto’s “FieldScript” software program allows farmers to connect their fields to the internet and, through the software, see useful analytics that tell them when, where, and how much they should be planting.

What’s more, “John Deere offers a Field Connect system that allows farmers to monitor air and soil moisture levels, wind speed, solar radiation, humidity, rainfall, and even leaf wetness. By analyzing this information, farmers can make better-informed irrigation decisions, saving time and money on watering costs,” Motley Fool explains.

For investors, IoT certainly seems to be a gold mine as well-and the financial experts at Motley Fool say the $3 trillion-by-2020 estimate may even be on the conservative side.

“For investors looking for the ‘next big thing,’ the Internet of Things certainly looks like a good option. Tech companies, conglomerates, agricultural companies and wireless providers alike all see the value in the Internet of Things — now it’s time for investors to get on board,” they report.

 

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SanDisk Unveils SD Flash Card for Connected Cars

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Here’s one creative way to customize and upgrade your car’s connectivity features-insert one of SanDisk’s new automotive SD flash cards.

SanDisk recently announced the debut of its new product, which the company says will allow advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), better infotainment and 3D mapping, among other features, to be loaded into compatible cars.

SanDisk’s move is being called a strong one by industry experts, as transportation advances are heavily shifting focus from hardware toward software to keep up with the growth of the “Internet of Things (IoT),” reports ZDNet.

Likewise, tech companies previously only known for their Web, phone and email services, like Google and Apple, are now ranking among major auto manufacturers like Ford, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz when it comes to auto innovation.

Richard Robinson, director of Strategy Analytics’ Global Automotive Practice, noted in a statement that “in-car tech is becoming as important as 0-60 and MPG ratings for car manufacturers, if not more so,” reports InfoStor.

SanDisk agrees.

“The ‘Internet of Things’ is the most dynamic force to impact the automotive and industrial markets in a decade, driving exciting new opportunities for connectivity as well as new challenges for how to store, process and manage the data it creates,” Oded Sagee, senior director of connected solutions at SanDisk, told ZDNet.

ZDNet reports that samples of SanDisk’s new automotive SD flash card will be released in March, and that SanDisk has plans to add the automotive card features to its Industrial and Industrial XT SD card products for IoT.

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IBM Raises Profile on IoT and Connected Cars

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Big Blue is hitting the accelerator on connected car technology.

IBM is sending its executives to appear at conferences a month after releasing a cloud-based service for automakers that is designed to use the Internet of Things (IoT) so cars can communicate with their owners.

IBM’s IoT for Automotive product will gather data from sensors installed in the vehicle, analyze the information, and let the owner know she needs to change the oil, or communicate with a third-party like a garage or a parking lot, IBM announced.

IBM has been working for several years on connected-vehicle communications systems with German-based auto-technology provider Continental.

Next month, IBM will be presenting at the Connected Fleets USA Conference in Atlanta, discussing the Smart City and its impact on fleets.

Calvin Lawrence, CTO of analytic solutions at IBM, will discuss Smarter Cities for Smarter Infrastructure. In a press release Lawrence says, “(A)s citizens themselves continue to be more socially capable and mobile - their expectation is that the cities in which they live will be fit for purpose. This is especially true for the fleet industry which relies on the efficiency of cities to keep logistics running.”

The connected fleets confab is put on by TU-Automotive and runs Nov. 16-17 in the Grand Hyatt.

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