Tech – Page 10 – shiqiv.com

A New Round of EV/Autonomous-driving Financing

Tesla is the leader in the electric vehicle market obviously, but it may not be the only winner. As technology matures and become more advanced, it will become more of a business competition (assuming design & production generally won’t be a problem in the next decade).

And another round of fresh financing in this field is showing us the future to come, probably with a few leaders in different sub-segments of EV market.

And the self-driving is still a combating ground for companies. Because of its complexity, lots of collaborations and alliances are expected. (e.g. Toyota to invest $500 million in Uber for self-driving cars)

Led by Amazon, the $700 million investments in Rivian, announced on February 15, is the latest move. As the leader in electric pickup and SUV, Rivian will help Amazon to build the next generation logistics network. After all, although amazon is in e-commerce (and other) business, it is also a logistics company (so does Walmart). In the next 15-30 years will have its own (delivery) network & infrastructure, independent of USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc., comprised of (autonomous) airliner, trucks, delivery robots, etc… Yes, Amazon may become similar to the US postal system in the 19th century.

R1T Electric Truck (updated in Jan 2021; previous link broken) | Source: Rivian

R1T Truck expected spec | Source: Rivian

The R1T and R1S will be produced at Rivian’s manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois, with customer deliveries expected to start in late 2020.

Just before that, on February 7, Aurora has raised more than $530 million in Series B financing for its self-driving technology, led by Sequoia Capital and includes “significant investment” from Amazon. [Techcrunch]

The investment was reported in early January [recode] and not a good news for companies like Tesla. The team is led by 3 industry leaders: CEO Chris Urmson, who was the CTO for Waymo, CPO (chief product officer) Sterling Anderson, Tesla’s former head of Autopilot, and CTO Drew Bagnellone, one of the founding members of Uber’s autonomous efforts. Aurora is now valued at more than $2.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Tesla Semi is probably still the most ready and earliest e-truck with auto-pilot. First unveiled in November 2017, Tesla Semi has its prototype traveled by itself (without any escort or accompanying vehicles) for a week to arrive at the J. B. Hunt headquarters in Arkansas on August 24, 2018.

What’s cool is that it was driven across the country alone (no escort or any accompanying vehicles), using the existing Tesla Supercharger network and an extension cord

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2018

Other self-driving companies have started to explore use cases.

Cruise Automation, the self-driving unit of General Motors, is teaming up with DoorDash to test a food delivery service in San Francisco using autonomous vehicles. The pilot will commence in “early 2019.” [Verge]

Nuro, which raised $940 million from Softbank Vision Fund in Februry, is focusing on self-driving bots and has a (pilot) partnership with Kroger.

And Waymo has launched/tested its self-driving ride service in Arizona in December 2018.

And Ford and Volkswagen might join together to bet on Argo AI, valued at about $4 billion, as Bloomberg reported on February 14.

And Daimler and BMW may go into an extensive cooperation in autonomous driving.

First half of 2019 might be the last chance to get into this game if winning the future of cars is expected.

Semiconductor Comparables

Smart Building (2): IoT Startups Roundup

To start with, Siemens made 2 acquisitions in 2018 – Enlightened Inc. and J2 Innovations – before acquiring Comfy, mentioned in the previous post.

Enlightened – Iot: lightening sensors and more

Three main applications: lightening, HVAC system (heating, a ventilation, and air-conditioning), space utilization.

For example the lightening system, built on IoT architecture, consists of a network of LED lights and their patented sensors connected together to form a sensor and analytics platform. Data is collected 65 times/second to detect environmental and occupancy changes and take action on lighting needs in real-time.

J2 Innovations – iot: framework

Created FIN (Fluid INtegration) Framework, an open framework for building automation and IoT applications. It is used as an integration layer and itself doesn’t design/manufacture IoT devices.

According to its website, it employs an applications server technology with tagging and data modeling. FIN is a HTML5 browser based unified toolset optimized for efficient workflows.

View – iot: glass

A dynamic glass company, View raised $1.1 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund in November 2018.

With touch displays available..

Source: view.com/assets/pdfs/wall-interface-brochure.pdf

Yes, it is the Age of Glass…

Kinestral – IOT: Glass

In the same space, we have another company Kinestral raising $100 million Series D in Jan 2019 (two weeks ago).

Latch – IoT: Door

Famous for its early-stage collaboration with UPS – delivery indoor while occupants are out, Latch raised $70 million in August 2018.

Latch + UPS is competing with Amazon Key (then with its $1 billion acquisition of Ring in Feb 2018) in the same field.

Before Amazon’s move, in Oct 2017, Assa Abloy, the $23 billion Swedish lock giant that owns Yale and many other brands — announced that it is buying US-based smart lock maker August Home to double down on new technology. (TechCrunch)

Sigfox – IoT: Platform

Based in Europe, Sigfox is designing a Low Power Wide Area network (Ultra Narrow Band radio operating in the unlicensed bands) for IoT connectivity.

And of course the products to centralize data from big tech companies with Amazon and Google the most aggressive ones.

Smart Building (1): Data + Management Startups Roundup

Smart building is a hot topic and will be at the center of future real estate, a $217 trillion giant industry.

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So what is the core segments of smart building? This blog will provide a roundup of startups in the data + management space.

Comfy (developed by Building Robotics)

Probably most famous for its collaboration with WeWork in 2016, Comfy is an app that lets users to adjust the temperature, lights etc. in the office from smartphones.

Euclid

Euclid is a leading spatial-analytics platform based in San Francisco. With fundings from NEA, Benchmark and other investors, It has built a proprietary analytic offering that uses WiFi signals to understand how space is used without the installation of any additional hardware. It can track the identity and behavior of people in the physical world.

A retailer application of Eculid’s technology | Source: marketingland.com

In Feb 2019 (a few days ago), Euclid was acquired by WeWork (“The We Company”). The blog post from The We Company.

Teem

A maker of office management software, Teem was acquired by WeWork in Sep 2018 for around $100 million. Teem has grown from a conference room management tool to include office space management, (office) room display, visitor management, etc.

BuildingIQ

An energy-efficiency focused startup, BuildingIQ listed on Australian Securities Exchang and raised A$20 million in 2015, with an IPO marketcap of A$85 million.

Back in 2013, it raised $9 million from Aster Capital (backed by Schneider
Electric, Alstom and Solvay), the Venture Capital unit of Siemens Financial Services (SFS VC) and Paladin Capital.

BuildingIQ Mobile App | Source: buildingiq.com/app

Flywheel

Formerly known as SCIenergy, Flywheel is a maintenance (task) & energy management startup based in Dallas. Invested by DFJ, Flywheel raised its latest round in 2014 by a group of energy focused funds, led by Braemar Energy Ventures and joined by the Westly Group and others.

Consolidation is coming faster than most could imagine…

「Video of the Week」Future Cities by Sidewalk Labs

A conversation with its founder, Dan Doctoroff

And a modeling tool (project) by Sidewalk Labs, Replica

Project Sidewalk Toronto and future building/housing

Apple’s Service Bundle

Apple may know well before the investors that their flagship iPhone would face a slowdown and it needs new growth strategies.

Apple has talked about its services for a while and it’s not limited to Apple Care or Genius Bar (“Physical Services”), but more about Distribution Services.

System/Platform Level

I guess the most obvious change happened in 2016 when a new revenue sharing scheme was introduced by Apple – from a 30% cut to a 15%-cut-after-first-year. And other features were included such as “subscription group“… marching into subscription-based services revenue model.

85% net revenue after first year | Source: verge.com

Apple News

Available in Australia, UK, and US, it’s currently a curated display place for publisher subscriptions. It could be developed into a Toutiao-like app for personalization and could be complimentary with Apple’s Stock app.

And it won’t be surprised to me that in the future you can trade stocks through this app – probably by upgrading to a premium version with other complementary benefits (like news/reports).

Apple Music

Anyway, music is where Apple found its turnaround with iTunes and iPod. Plus, it is the most explored region with established companies and new entrants.

Spotify Premium – $9.99 / month

YouTube Music – $9.99/month

Pandora Plus – $4.99/month & Premium – $9.99/month

Apple TV & Streaming Channel

Apple has long reported to be interested in contents distribution especially video. And rumors about an acquisition of Netflix didn’t come from nowhere.

A New York Times report back in March 2018.

A CNBC report in October 2018 – Apple plans to give away original content for free to device owners as part of new digital TV strategy.

Apple has cash and ability for original contents (and can acquire/build a studio). Apple has educated customer base (thanks for Netflix). Apple has introduced Clip for iOS short videos (think about Snapchat and Douyin, plus its ability in music and messaging). Apple has AppleTV and AirPlay.

There are just too many things to do in this space, broadly speaking.

And the competition is fierce. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Youtube TV, Facebook/Instagram TV, Disney/Hulu, AT&T/HBO…

And the AR/VR future…

Let’s see.

Gaming

It might be something new. But Apple could introduce a monthly plan to play most iOS games freely (with some exceptions maybe). Just like what Tencent did with WeChat Read – subscriptions that can read all books on its app.

Let’s see what Steam will do… Steam has subscription-based products, although not a bundle.

A master bundle plan for Apple users in the future? Possible.

「Video of the Week」Singapore, Tech-focused Sustainable City

EHR and HIPAA, A Dilemma

EHR and HIPAA – Overview

Both are essential parts of running a successful business in health care.

An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. (healthit.gov)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets the standard for sensitive patient data protection. Companies that deal with protected health information (PHI) must have physical, network, and process security measures in place and follow them to ensure HIPAA Compliance. (digitalguardian.com)

PHI is any demographic information that can be used to identify a patient. Examples include: names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, insurance information, phone numbers, full facial photos, and health care records, to name a few examples. (compliancy-group.com)

A Short History

EHR Emerging in the 1970s

US federal government began implementing VistA (formerly known as the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program) at the Department of Veteran Affairs. A study by the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) began in the 1980s, and its findings recommended the use of EHRs when they were published in 1991. (readwrite.com)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act introduced in 1996

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed on August 21, 1996, with the dual goals of making health care delivery more efficient and increasing the number of Americans with health insurance coverage. Since its implementation, healthcare organizations have been issued huge fines for non-compliance, e.g. Anthem $16 million HIPPA fine paid in 2018.

The Dilemma

Tough regulations were implemented before the applications (EHRs, etc.) grow into their best format/position in the healthcare system. The regulations made the softwares slow to upgrade/adjust themselves and prevented certain competitions.

EHRs are only an example of healthcare data regulated by HIPAA but a good one. It could have been a program like Apple Health Kit (on patients’ end) in the current era of well-designed apps like uber/gmail/amazon/instagram; but it was limited at the beginning stage and was left no time to refine itself. No wonder most parts are a vivid demonstration of tech/IT system some twenty years ago.

Left-turn Nightmare

Left turn problem while driving, on the one hand, is so common that most people won’t think about it; on the other hand, it is so complicated and “evil” that remains mainly unsolved and avoided.

UPS avoided it

The most famous no-left-turn application is probably demonstrated by UPS. It’s route planner system ORION, based on heuristic algorithm, told UPS drivers not to turn left. Since 2004, turning right, plus other efficiency-optimizing efforts, has saved about 10 million gallons of gas and reduced emissions equal to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year. (UPS)

Accident Rate

According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Association, turning left is a leading critical pre-crash event, and occurs in 22.2 percent of crashes.

Law

The driver making a left hand turn will only have the right of way if they are proceeding on a left-turn arrow.

Otherwise, the driver turning left at a green light must wait until all oncoming traffic is gone or far enough away to allow for a safe and complete turn.

If a traffic light is not present, the left turning driver must still abide by the same precautions. The oncoming traffic will have the right of way and do not have to stop or slow down to allow left-turning drivers to pass.

Drivers making left turns must also wait for all pedestrians and cyclists are safely across the street before they can proceed with the turn.

This is why it is rare to find the other driver at-fault for this type of accident, and can be even more difficult to prove.

However with that being said, like anything, there are always a few exceptions to the rule.

The car driving straight was driving significantly over the speed limit when they were going through the intersection.
The car that is driving straight ran a red light or stop sign.
Unforeseen circumstances may warrant the other driver at-fault for the accident.

According to Price Benowitz blog

Selft-driving & Waymo

Self-driving car prototypes have been known to wait for long intervals at intersections before they finally made the left turn – heavily testing the patience of human drivers stuck behind them.

When a self-driving car hesitates at an intersection, the reason is not a problem with the algorithm but rather that the self-driving car finds that the safety margins for executing the turn are too small in the current situation: the risk is too high. Unfortunately, this problem can not be solved through better algorithms but only by increasing the level of acceptable risk! (driverless-future.com)

The Waymo vans have trouble with many unprotected left turns and with merging into heavy traffic in the Phoenix area, especially on highways. (The Information)

Tencent vs. Toutiao and Tencent’s Core Asset

Just two days ago, one of the most popular growing app China “Douyin/Tiktok” (owned by ByteDance, formerly known as Toutiao) was founded to be blocked to login with WeChat (owned by Tencent) for new users.

The two old king in social apps is fighting the rising new star.

In March 2018, WeChat global MAUs surpassed 1 billion.

Douyin said its global MAUs is over 500 million in July 2018.

Tencent’s WeChat has been on the market way earlier (since 2011). Douyin was launched in Sep 2016 but its growth has been so terrifying that Tencent has adopted several defensive actions, including blocking sharing Douyin links in WeChat.

Tencent has also backed Qutoutiao to combat with Jinri Toutiao (Toutiao’s flagship and first product) and Weishi for Douyin.

Now the war has escalated. Toutiao launched a new social app “Duoshan” to challenge the King and Tencent blocked WeChat login for Douyin.

Things are just getting started. But it reminded me of the 3Q war in 2010 between Tencent and Qihu360. Tencent didn’t have WeChat yet and relied on its QQ platform (the previous King).

Tencent vs. Qihu360 | Source: tech.sina.com.cn

During the war, one particular action by Qihu was seen by Pony Ma (Tencent founder and CEO) as the most threatening and he forced users to log off QQ if they don’t uninstall Qihu.

The key in that situation and in Ma’s mind is the copy of social map. The full connections between almost every relevent Chinese internet user.

This is probably what Ma values most and is one of Tencent’s core secrets.

That is what Toutiao is trying to obtain with Duoshan and Douyin today ina different way than Qihu) – the social map of almost every relevant Chinese (young) mobile users. And those would be the future Chinese internet revenue sources/assets/reserves.

The war will continue to unfold and Toutiao is much more powerful than Qihu. Toutiao is one of the most valued private companies in the world, but it is also taking on Baidu for news feeds and ads – multi-battleground just like Uber.