Who knew in 1993, that VOD would become an app provided by a 3rd-party. The vision was that network provider would have the relationship with the content owners for the delivery of on-demand content. At that time, it was a struggle to get a handle on the technology, much less engage the content part of the business.
As the decade progressed, start-ups were formed to deal not only with the technology part of the business, but the content side of the business. Interestingly, those start-ups that with a focus on working through network operators failed, while two of the start-ups outside the operator-content owner ecosystem became bigger than the entire cable TV industry.
The Maturation of the Autonomous Vehicle Space
The automated vehicle space feels like the Video on Demand space from a couple of decades ago. The technology wizards are making great progress and its obvious the industry is maturing because there are multiple companies addressing both mainstream challenges, as well as corner cases. Still, like video on demand, technology will probably not be the biggest hurdle to autonomous vehicle adoption, but ease-of-use and trust in the technology will probably represent the biggest challenges.
5G or DSRC?
Which radio technology will win the day in the autonomous vehicles of the future; DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) or 5G (or 5GAA (PDF))? As Brian Daugherty, CTO of the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) suggests, these different radio technologies are likely to be complementary, fulfilling different needs.
The eBike Delivery Van
With 600 lbs of payload, a top speed of 18 miles per hour and 18 to 20 miles range, the Truck Trike could be a game changer when it comes to last-mile, urban delivery. Compared to traditional delivery vans, this e-bike with human assist does not have tailpipe exhaust, is much quieter and especially good in tight quarters. Bill Stites, the visionary behind this human-electric hybrid vehicle, explains that UPS is testing these units for a role in their delivery fleet.
Explainer Review of a Explainer Video Creator Tool
The promotion of a recent community event was a great incentive to test an animation tool. GoAnimate is a web-based program for creating “explainer videos”. It comes with hundreds of assets, royalty-free music, allowing one to mix these with narration enabling the non-artist to quickly convey thoughts into moving images. It might be considered a cross between presentation software like Keynote or PowerPoint and a traditional, timeline-based video editing program.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
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Src: Dataxis An obvious thing to write, but the US Pay-TV market is mature, according to data supplied by Dataxis, 78.6% of the Pay-TV market is controlled by four entities.
- #TBT French research firm Leti demonstrating more efficient TV White Space modulation
- 1 billion autonomous electric rides by 2025. Cities need to take bold steps for this type of future, according to Lyft, while Nutonomy is predicting more than 20% of rides in shared autonomous by 2025.
- This is a brilliant way cities of all sizes can adapt to the future with compact building blocks. Will be fascinating to see if this concept can be turned into reality.
The Korner -You See Driverless Mobility in the Near-Future
Beyond safety and improved accessibility, driverless technologies promise a blank canvas for vehicle designers to redefine the mobility experience. UISEE Technologies, a Beijing-based company formed in 2016, is approaching mobility from a fresh perspective that is often difficult for incumbents. Effectively, their goal is what Lauren Isaac and Robin Chase have described as the “heaven” scenario that could be realized using autonomous technology. Or, as Alain Kornhauser has put it, “Share the road, share a ride.” That is, their goal is to provide mobility as a service, as opposed to selling vehicles.
What may be the most interesting part of the UISEE story is that they were able to develop a pilot-ready vehicle in less than a year. Like technology industries of the past (e.g. VOD, broadband), there will be many new players like UISEE pushing the industry forward. As with other technology-driven shifts, only a few of the start-ups will emerge on the other side of chasm, as the mobility industry moves from human to machine-driven and the underlying value-add is more oriented to software and experience-side versus hardware.
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