News roundup: Shared self-driving cars, stopping climate change, Facebook’s video dreams
IBM’s take on this week in news
This week in brief
- Autonomous vehicles: one for all
- Governments clean up for climate change
- No cricket for Facebook. But its video dreams are real
Numbers of the week
Autonomous vehicles: one for all
A car with no steering wheel or pedals? That’s one vision of future transportation — and it will go on display next week at IAA 2017, the world’s largest auto show in Frankfurt, Germany. Daimler’s Smart Vision EQ Fortwo is a 100% autonomous electric car designed for sharing and interacting with people.
The idea of shared cars is nothing new. But in the future, autonomous cars will not just come to you—but be shared. Swarm intelligence will send you the nearest car, which will flash a greeting on its front grille during pickup. Once selected, the car can find a fellow rider who not only shares your travel plans, but your interests. Based on your profiles, it can also display shared hobbies or favorite TV shows — like a gently nudging matchmaker.
The Angle:
- Daimler’s autonomous vehicle concept has been called the “closest thing we’ve seen to a true product designed with automated mobility in mind.” [1]
- With car-sharing worldwide expected to grow five-fold to 36.7 million customers by 2025 and autonomous vehicles to be a $42 billion market by 2025, [2] companies will focus on how the physical and digital space of cars can provide a new level of customer experience. People’s digital personas will be interchangeable between vehicles.
- With drivers becoming riders, or users, the fundamental interaction between cars and people will change, demanding new business models. Other industries, like government, insurance, or retail, have become more interested in autonomous cars, either to exploit a new market segment or for regulatory reasons.
- Video, audio, voice, and text — along with sensor data — are all part of the foundation of information needed to personalize and operate autonomous vehicles.
- Artificial intelligence can analyze massive amounts of data to personalize experiences, coordinate with other connected “things,” and improve on human decisions.
- According to an IBM study, more than 60% of auto executives believe that AI technology is market-ready and their industry is ready to adopt it.
Climate change catalyzes governmental clean-up efforts
The one-two punches of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean have highlighted the dire impact of climate change — and countries around the world are looking for ways to mitigate that impact and reduce pollution.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel doubled funding to help German cities fight pollution with cleaner transportation infrastructure. [3] Germany has yet to set a date for phasing out fossil fuel-powered cars, as Britain and France have vowed to do by 2040.
Bolivia — where 70% of pollution comes from vehicles — mandated a nation-wide car free day in 2011. [4] The “positive citizen takeover of the streets” also gives their famous cebritas, volunteers who dress as zebras and direct traffic, a break from taming the torrent of vehicles. [5]
The world’s toughest ban on plastic bags went into effect this August in Kenya, [6] which joins 40 other countries that have partially or fully banned plastic bags. That’s a smart move considering a recent test showed billions of people are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles — with 83% of samples tainted by pollutants. [7]
So what can governments do to reduce pollution? Harness technology, for one.
Buildings — the largest contributor of GHGs — release 1/3 of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Optimizing building energy consumption can have a significant impact on the environment. IoT technologies can analyze real-time data from sensors and use that information to manage energy efficiency and generate insights about how people use a building.
Artificial intelligence allows for more sophisticated forecasting software to provide predictions for the air quality index up to 10 days in advance using data on weather, traffic and land use, as well as real-time pollution. [8] Beijing has used artificial intelligence to analyze data from social media and IoT sensors. The city not only identified exact pollutants and their sources, but also took steps to reduce pollution. [9]
No streaming cricket games for Facebook, but its live video dreams are real
It may have been outbid by 21st Century Fox to livestream cricket games, but Facebook’s larger ambitions are clear — an aggressive expansion into live video, particularly sports. Along with the launch of Watch, its hub for episodic shows, Facebook has shown that it’s willing to invest in content and video distribution to compete not only with other social platforms but also Netflix, Hulu, and other media companies. Facebook has previously stuck its livestream toe in college football games and Mexico’s top soccer league. But with NFL games livestreaming via Yahoo and Verizon’s $1 billion contract coming up — the question remains: who will win and for how much.
Facebook is willing to spend money upfront on sports — as its $610 million bid for the cricket livestream signals — to “create anchor content” and be a destination for premium content that will keep viewers glued to its platform for longer, thus boosting ad revenue. [10] That’s a smart move as video will make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2021, up from 73% in 2016. Facebook says that 90% of its content will be video-based by 2018. [11]
For media and entertainment companies, that means providing consumers with the personalized experiences they seek across multiple channels and devices. It also means effectively leveraging customer profile data to contextualize customer experiences or provide personalized service and proactive recommendations. Artificial intelligence can generate metadata from video, and help companies deliver customized content to viewers.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/smart-autonomous-vehicle-concept
[2] http://europe.autonews.com/article/20170901/ANE/170909984/smart-previews-self-driving-city-car-for-sharing
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/merkel-doubles-funding-to-help-german-cities-fight-air-pollution
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/03/bolivia-car-free-day-pollution
[5] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/zebras-in-the-streets/513836/
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/28/kenya-brings-in-worlds-toughest-plastic-bag-ban-four-years-jail-or-40000-fine
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals
[8] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/microsoft-ibm-eye-big-business-opportunity-china-s-air-pollution-n487001
[9] https://www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2016/05/21/how-beijing-is-using-big-data-from-social-media-and-iot-to-improve-air-pollution-management/2/#41a5601b1325
[10] http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-indian-premiere-league-cricket-streaming-rights-bid-2017-9
[11] https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/08/15/can-facebooks-watch-become-an-effective-competitor-to-youtube/#2dcf4187c66b
