A Computer of Genius from the Greeks
Writing my book on the Greek computer, The Antikythera Mechanism (2021), opened the doors to the fascinating and gorgeous world of Greek science, art, and civilization. The Antikyhera Mechanism is, perhaps, its foremost example. The “computer” is dated from the second century BCE. It’s a mind-boggling specimen of scientific technology:...
Disruption and Resilience
Enabled by advances in technology, the automotive industry has entered into an unprecedented era of disruption and transformation. The industry is changing at a faster rate today than at any time in the past 100 years. While previous waves of innovation were largely focused on design and manufacturing, making cars...
Communications in a Driverless World
Late nights, as I drive home after teaching Cognitive IoT at Stanford Continuing Studies, my loyal companion on the road is a fleet of Google’s self-driving cars, now known as Waymo. They drive defensively at 25 mph, and with a human at the ready to take control if the car...
Big Data and Your Driverless Future
Early in 2016, GM invested $500M in ridesharing company Lyft and reportedly paid close to $1 billion to acquire Cruise Automation, a 40-employee, Silicon Valley-based, venture-funded startup that was developing driverless vehicle technology. A few months earlier Toyota had announced that it would invest $1 billion on artificial intelligence research,...
Autonomous Driving: How Safe is Safe Enough?
My thoughts here reflect on findings from a few key research projects that we and our partners have been conducting this past year at Toyota Research Center (TRI). To provide a bit of context, TRI’s mission is focused on Artificial Intelligence and includes four goals: First, to greatly enhance vehicle safety and...
Toyota’s Concept-i
Cars aren’t what they used to be—and they certainly aren’t what they’re going to be. Which means we find ourselves at a hinge in automotive history. Just how far and fast that hinge swings is a matter of debate, but what’s not subject to debate is the unprecedented coming together...
Intelligent Cars
A car commercial of the future shows a driverless minivan tearing around the curves of an unfamiliar, mist-shrouded mountain road, its front seats notably empty. Children sleep trustingly inside as the minivan confidently steers itself around a sharp bend. Suddenly, a dark object drops out of the air and plummets...
BMW’s i Inside
Is the ultimate driving machine set to become the ultimate lounging machine? With visions of an autonomous driving experience—complete with built-in bookcase, 4K video monitor, and on-demand services courtesy of BMW’s Connected Cloud architecture—BMW’s i Inside Future exhibit at CES 2017 suggests this isn’t your father’s BMW. The exhibit was also...
Today’s Self-Driving Car Revolution: What’s Hype and what’s Reality?
There has been much progress in self-driving technology in recent months, yet these advances may be leading the public to believe that the self-driving revolution is much closer to reality than it actually is. In fact, Mitch Bainwol, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, recently penned testimony...
BMW Concept X7 iPerformance
BMW’s Concept X7 iPerformance, unveiled at the IAA Cars 2017 show in Frankfurt, adds an intriguing mobile dimension to the concept of the “Third Space.” Related concepts as locality, landscape, and environment take on new meaning in the context of motion. While the exterior features are both elegant and forward-looking,...
