HARDWARE

Make It Make Sense

By the end of this quarter, there should be at least five publicly traded lidar companies—Innoviz, Aeva, Ouster, Velodyne, and Luminar—with a combined ~$29 billion market cap. 

As with any hot technology, there’s a big question to parse: What’s really coming down the 3D sensor pipeline...and what’s just hype? Hayden explored that at a virtual conference yesterday with two panelists. 

Lid-IRL 

In a tech industry word association game, if I gave you “lidar,” you’d probably come back with “self-driving.” 

And you wouldn't be wrong: Lidar helps autonomous vehicles map and safely navigate their surroundings. The use case is top-of-mind for many because it’s futuristic, and it’s big money—a major win at comparably low margins. 

But, but, but: The applications for this tech go far beyond cars. Think: construction, delivery bots, factory automation, and consumer appliances—e.g., anything that could benefit from better human-machine interaction. 

• As lidar becomes less expensive over time, even smart TV makers could trade remote controls for sensor tech, Peter Stern, CEO of lidar startup Voyant Photonics, told us. 

Fantasy v. reality 

“Down the line” is the key phrase in all this, and it’s why there’s talk of smoke and mirrors in lidar. Right now there are hundreds of startups, but no at-scale lidar products. 

• "The current state of the sector—multiple entrants going public with evaluations four years in advance of the revenues that would support those evaluations—is not something we have experience with," says Stern.

Plus: Lidar leaders’ target customer base and market expectations overlap. As Cruise cofounder Kyle Vogt noted, all five target Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or robotaxis as a key revenue driver, offer value-added software for perception, and bank on the fact that lidar adoption will "balloon." 

Dragos Maciuca, executive technical director of Ford, says there is some real, not hype-fueled, promise to multi-sector lidar adoption. But the automotive sector still struggles with the amount of computing power needed to make use of lidar data. 

• In an electric vehicle, for instance, lidar eats up so much power that it “translates directly to reduced range,” says Maciuca. 

Looking ahead: Fifteen years ago, lidar sensors cost ~$40,000; now, it’s more like $4,000. If and when the price tag hits $400, or even $40, says Stern, that could translate to smarter interaction with the machines we’re constantly surrounded by. 

AI

Faces v. Places

In 2020, US Customs and Border Protection used facial recognition technology to scan 23+ million people at entry points, according to its annual report.

Here’s what the tech has to show for it: Zero impostors caught traveling through airports. And fewer than 100 caught crossing by land. 

Big picture 

Since the program launched in 2018, the CBP has scanned more than 50 million faces—and ID’d a total of seven impostors in airports and 285 at pedestrian crossings. 

High stakes: Some argue FRT simply shouldn't exist, no matter its efficacy. And the tech is riddled with concerns, including demonstrated racial and gender biases and privacy issues. 

• On bias: CBP says it found “virtually no measurable differential performance in results based on demographic factors”—and has not released data to certify those findings, reports OneZero. 
• On privacy: In 2019, the Department of Homeland Security found that “CBP did not adequately safeguard sensitive data” after a subcontractor accessed 184k facial recognition images. 

Looking ahead: If you’re left questioning the system’s efficacy, the Government Accountability Office may agree. CBP, for its part, sees FRT as “a vital element of national security and enforcing US immigration laws.” 

SPONSORED BY TYPEFORM

What’s Next for Steven Sole?

If you’ve been following our story this week about Steven Sole—the totally real, larger-than-life shoe brand entrepreneur—you’re probably wondering how his story ends.

Steven’s search for a better way to grow his Simple Soles shoe business started out aimless and daunting—you might say he’d been doing a lot of sole searching.

But thanks to Typeform, Steven was able to start real feedback conversations with his customers, qualify leads using friendly forms, review clear and concise reports, and so much more.

Just today, Steven sent a Typeform survey to customers seeking input on new shoe styles. Turns out, banana-print slippers are the kind of pun-tastic products the people want.

As he sat there chewing the last bite of a banana, we asked Steven what he’ll do now that he’s done it all.

With a wry grin, he replied, “With Typeform, the success story never truly ends.”

Follow in Steven Sole’s footsteps with Typeform today.

DECENTRALIZATION

Tweets, But on the Blockchain

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has taken an interest in creating a decentralized standard for social media, nicknamed Bluesky and first announced in December 2019. 

@jack gave an update on Twitter’s earnings call Tuesday: “You can imagine an app-store-like view of ranking algorithms that give people ultimate flexibility” in terms of what they see, how content is sorted, etc... 

Let’s unpack: Say Twitter builds a decentralized social media protocol. Just like email or the internet, no one entity controls this new, non-proprietary standard. Anyone can build client services, such as interfaces, filters, and ranking algorithms, on top of the protocol. End users take their pick. 

Terms of service, content moderation, and other policy decisions would depend on what service you’ve signed up for. 

• The 4chan and family-friendly options, for example, would offer quite different user experiences. 
• Decentralization would also distribute difficult enforcement decisions from one central platform to many. 

Big picture: Bluesky is still in the early research phase. But as everything from finance to art sales gets decentralized, if Bluesky turns into anything, it will be worth following. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Facebook took down 6.3 million pieces of content tagged as “bullying and harassment” in Q4 2020, up from 3.5 million in Q3. The company says this is largely thanks to advancements in AI systems’ understanding of comments and context. 

Quote: “Most of the people who bought crypto early on — they’re believers in the power of technology to change the world. They’re interested in the ethos of crypto in many cases, and I suspect that they would allocate their capital towards more things in that vein.”—Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, on crypto and existing power structures. 

Read: Emerging Tech Brew’s brand-new guide to flying robots...AKA drones. And here’s that trailer we told you about. 

Input: Asana’s “Anatomy of Work 2021” report is dropping new stats on the latest work challenges—like how 70% of knowledge workers experienced burnout in the last year. Check out the full report.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.} 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Microsoft and VW have struck an automated driving partnership. 
• TSMC and Apple are secretly developing advanced display technology for future AR devices, according to a big Nikkei scoop. 
• Toyota will debut its first mass-market EVs in the US this year. Pivot from Prius?
• The White House has put the forced sale of TikTok to Oracle-Walmart on ice “indefinitely,” the WSJ reports. 
• Epic’s new character creation tool → hyper-realistic digital people. 
• The European Union’s current pro-con list: whether to build an advanced semiconductor factory in Europe. 
• NASA is turning to Fitbit to help #stopthespread of Covid to astronauts and employees.
• Facebook is building a Clubhouse competitor, per the Times. (It’s no coincidence you saw Mark Zuckerberg pop into a conversation there last week.) 

GOING PHISHING

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

1. Players can now sport a Ford F-150 in Rocket League. 
2. The world’s first 3D-printed ribeye steak has arrived. 
3. Rolls-Royce engineers are using machine learning to analyze jet engine data.
4. Dogecoin’s creator says the cryptocurrency’s rise to a $9 billion market cap makes “perfect sense.”  
5. A Texas lawyer joined Zoom court proceedings with a cat-face filter on. 

TECH THROWBACK

Sixty years ago, the first wearable computer came to Las Vegas. Though the debut may have been high-stakes, it wasn’t glamorous: The device, designed to predict roulette, was concealed in its creator’s shoe. 

ICYMI

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

• Study: Apple Watch could flag potential Covid cases a week sooner than PCR tests 
• Facial recognition tech is built on non-consensual personal data, according to research
• Zipline plans to deliver Covid vaccines via drone in April 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

Dogecoin’s creator is actually quite baffled by what’s happening with the cryptocurrency.