AV

Waymo Won

Please print the following on your Emerging Tech Brew quiz flashcards: Forward progress with autonomous vehicles is a story of fits and starts.

An industry leader is nonetheless celebrating a big first. Yesterday, Alphabet’s Waymo opened its driverless ride-hail service, Waymo One, to the general public in metro Phoenix. 

We’re sticklers for terminology

Automated driving, self-driving, robotaxi, and driverless mean different things. When Waymo says driverless, we won’t reprint it without checking the fine text. Waymo One does have 300+ fully driverless Chrysler Pacifica chariots. A separate testing fleet still has safety drivers riding shotgun. 

The year 2020 truly marks Waymo’s metamorphosis from well-capitalized research gig to fledgling commercial venture. Along with expanding Waymo One, the Alphabet arm has: 

• Raked in $3 billion in external financing from marquee investors
• Scaled Class 8 truck testing on Southwest U.S. routes, as part of the Waymo Via delivery service
• Launched new Waymo Via pilots

Sizing up the competition

Most players are still in pre-revenue land. 

Amazon acquired Zoox earlier this year; Uber is mulling a self-driving strategic reset; Argo is focused on multi-city testing and working with key investors Ford and VW. Aurora is expanding testing, while Nuro and GM’s Cruise are preparing to launch autonomous vehicles built from scratch. 

• I’ll have an update soon from Motional, Hyundai and Aptiv’s AV joint venture. 
• Trucking startup TuSimple has designs for an autonomous freight network. 
• And, of course, Tesla is doing Tesla things. 

Back to Waymo

When you compare Waymo’s revenue to what Google generates in a day from selling ads, it’s still peanuts. But with the forward march of self-driving stacks, that calculus could change. 

Break out the flashcards again: The first regional or national AV fleets are still likely to carry stuff, not people.

+ And now, an ask for our Phoenix readers: If you are planning to try Waymo One (while safely taking the necessary precautions) please let Ryan know how your experience goes. You could be featured in an upcoming Brew…

AI

Live and Learn

“Federated learning.” 
What it sounds like: a government-mandated curriculum. 
What it is: an emerging, privacy-focused form of machine learning.

Google introduced the technique in 2017 to test on Android keyboard suggestions. Using it, smartphones could locally store and process info about which suggestions a user chose and surrounding context. That helped improve the keyboard algorithm without sacrificing as much user privacy. 

• The traditional learning method was to collect user data, upload it to the cloud, then run an ML model. That meant sensitive user data was all stored in one place. (Hello, hackers.) 

Hype cycle: In H1 2020, researchers published more than 1,000 papers on federated learning—compared to just 180 total papers in 2018. Google searches for the term look like . 

The technique is especially useful for sensitive data collected by apps and connected devices, says Ashwin Machanavajjhala, an associate professor and privacy researcher at Duke University. 

• Federated learning allows your iPhone to wake to your “Hey Siri” but not your friend’s. Fitness and health apps are another likely use case. So is vehicle telemetry, where sensors collect data on driver/vehicle performance. 

Looking ahead: As more and more sensitive info is collected about us, we’ll likely see federated learning deployed to try and stem the risks.

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CRYPTO

Off the Chain

Floyd Mayweather Jr., DJ Khaled, T.I., and John McAfee have all experienced the wrath of the SEC for their various crypto exploits. But they were running afoul of general, long-standing securities laws. 

Now, the U.S. wants to more proactively police the use of cryptocurrency, rather than just nab celebs plugging initial coin offerings. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice published Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework, an 83-page strategic roadmap for U.S. law enforcement.

Of note: The U.S. says cryptocurrencies are a potentially transformational technology, but they can be used to willingly circumvent the law. In particular, the U.S. is worried about cryptocurrencies being used for: 

• The buying or selling of illicit goods/services
• Money laundering
• The commission of crimes 
• Shielding legitimate economic activity from tax, reporting, and other legal requirements

Bottom line: Banks and other global financial services players are no strangers to the long arm of American law. The essential takeaway here is that if you’re using crypto for jurisdictional arbitrage, the long arm isn’t going away.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: About 77% of executives are uncertain about the ethics and transparency of their AI systems, according to a 2019 Capgemini survey. 

Quote: “It’s a tough place at the moment with geopolitics so we’ll have to play that very carefully.”—Arm CEO Simon Segars, who told the FT he isn’t expecting Chinese regulators to rubberstamp Nvidia’s proposed acquisition. 

Read: What happens when a self-driving car encounters a bald eagle?

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Tesla disbanded its PR department, Electrek confirms.
• Microsoft laid out a set of “principles” for the Windows 10 App Store. Basically, it’s an anti-App Store/Play Store, because Microsoft lets devs use their own payment systems. 
• Square purchased fifty million dollars’ worth of bitcoin. 
• Qualcomm will launch a Snapdragon gaming phone with ASUS, per Digitimes. Interesting, but in the U.S., marketing and retail distribution are difficult for new phonemakers (just ask Google). 
• Lime is launching a mobility-as-a-service platform for third parties to rent vehicles within its app.
• Google is readying a $129 Nest thermostat that uses gesture recognition technology developed for the Pixel, Bloomberg reports.

GOING PHISHING

Four of the following news stories are true, and one...we made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. A Tesla Model Y turned into a convertible after its roof flew off on a California highway. 
2. Just gonna quote this headline: ”Security flaw left ‘smart’ chastity sex toy users at risk of permanent lock-in.” 
3. Crocs is launching its own cryptocurrency.  
4. An online sportsbook is taking bets on the first U.S. electric pickup to hit the market.
5. NASA is testing a $23 million titanium space toilet. 

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For people smarter than us: Read about Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez, the three Laureates who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Supermassive black hole content incoming.  

For on-demand art: If you’d trade a carnival caricature for a classic self-portrait, try out this neural network. The app uses deep learning to transfer the style of one image (such as a famous painting) to another (your pre-pandemic vacation shot).

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Nvidia’s new AI supercomputer 
• When algorithms run the workplace 
• Q3 recap: Tech tie-ups and tensions 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

Crocs isn’t launching its own cryptocurrency, but if it did, Ryan would probably buy it.