SXSW 2018: Robot-dogs and Empathetic Cars
Swipe took a closer look at the SXSW 2018 experience and tech trends. Prepare for robot-dog encounters and self-driving vehicles, as well as cars with feelings that could also sense your emotion.
SXSW has always been a different experience from other tech events, partly because Austin itself is a special place, partly because the unique melding of tech with the creative industries — namely film and music — provides a more open-minded atmosphere and a diverse range of participants. At the conference this year, the overall tone was pretty sober. It seemed to be common sense that some things in our (digital) world are out of control. What’s less clear is who or what is responsible for the mess, not to mention how to fix it. However, the key assumptions of the digital revolution, including the once common belief that the answer to every problem caused by tech is always more tech, are no longer commonplace. The relationship between humans and machines is delicate and always in need of rebalancing.As Martin Recke, our colleague from the NEXT conference puts it in his recent blog post: “Basically, there are two schools of thought these days. One sees humans as entities that can (and possibly should) be emulated, replaced and superseded by machines that do everything humans can do better, faster, and cheaper. The other school views humans and machines at two opposite ends of a spectrum. As Simon Segars, the CEO of chip-maker Arm, puts it: Computers are very good at things humans are bad at, and vice versa.”
Another strong undercurrent at this year’s SXSW panels was empathy: Bruce Sterling asked in his keynote “Can we reconnect technology with humanity and build an empathetic future?” Can we build products and services that are capable of absorbing human emotions via sensors? E.g. cars that would process these inputs via AI and then respond. This thinking extends to all types of environments, from the personal spaces of the home to shared spaces like cities.
Amazing brand experiences: Sony Wow Studio and Mercedes Me Convention Park
It was pretty obvious this year that the SXSW interactive conference is no longer only a tech nerd event. Around Austin Downtown we found spaces especially designed for consumers to experience latest brand innovation. One of the highlights this year was Sony’s WOW Studio — an “innovation laboratory immersing you in cutting-edge creative and technological concepts”. The studio showed great examples of Sony’s AI and robotics initiatives, like aibo the robo-dog, as well as a performance from Xperia Hello!, a singing mini-robot brigade. The impressive sound experiment “Odyssey” allowed visitors to immerse themselves in music, enabled by a combination of music and Sony’s spatial audio technology. Visitors were taken on a beautiful audio voyage through time and space.
Another great example came from Mercedes Benz: They brought the me Convention directly to Austin this year, with talks, unique panels, and product presentations of autonomous mobility services like Moovel, mytaxi, and Car2Go. The beautiful brand space was located in Palm Park, where visitors could also enjoy a time-out from hectic SXSW with yoga sessions, a food court, a bar and the pool stage. Truly immersive brand experiences by Mercedes Benz.
Emotionally intelligent mobility: Do cars have feelings?
We name our cars. We talk to our cars. The relationship we have with our cars is emotional. With the convergence of affective technology and AI, emotional interactions with our vehicles will become the norm. Concept cars can already understand and adapt to our emotions. Pamela Pavliscak, Founder of Change Sciences, looked at current examples of emotional AI, how the car with a higher EQ could help or harm, and a framework for inventing an emotionally intelligent future. The autonomous car market will become huge, as safety is a huge issue. What if we made human emotional input „machine-readable“ — for safety reasons? What if your car could sense your emotion?
How to create trust in self-driving cars
Self-driving cars will be on the streets, sooner than later. Be it John Krafnik from Waymo or Molly Nix from Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, they both showed great insights of their actual work on autonomous driving. Uber has already rolled out autonomous vehicles in some U.S. cities like Pittsburgh. Self-driving cars have enormous potential to improve society: Save time, save space, save lives. There are many hurdles to overcome to reach this future, but a key challenge is creating a user experience that brings passengers along for the ride. Transparency, control and comfort are critical indicators for Uber to build trust. We think the future will be amazing!
The world’s smartest city
How should tech and politics mix? How do we ensure that advances in technology are utilised for the benefit of everyone in society? On a very personal note the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, opened his moving and thoughtful keynote. He read racist tweets about himself — not to “be portrayed as a victim” or “ask for sympathy,” but to “illustrate that big tech has further to go in making the internet free of hate speech.” In particular, he highlighted the growing power global cities have to help shape the debate about the impact of technology for the better by ensuring it is utilised to improve lives and reduce inequality. His overall message how to deal with the potential (or fear) of new technologies: Overcome dangers and seize opportunities. Don’t regulate innovation, but update outdated laws quickly. Make cities not only smart but fair, equal and inclusive. Everyone should be able to participate in the tech revolution. Watch his keynote on YouTube and help #endthehate.
How tech can enhance humankind’s work in the world
“If we could put all machines to work we could enjoy all the fruits of that prosperity — what is keeping us from doing this?“ asked Tim O’Reilly while offering examples of how tech can enhance humankind’s work in the world.
Technology is interwoven with every aspect of our lives but the promises of digital transformation — we are not there yet. As new technology and opportunities arise, we must tackle human challenges and create better mental models and better outcomes. Right now companies just try to save or reinvent their old economies, instead of building better ones. “Tech can be amazing, but we have to put them to work on all these problems. We are doing the right things for the wrong reasons. We build drones for delivering pizza while we could also deliver emergency drugs and blood into places without health care with the same technology.“
What sets us apart from technology is not rationality, nor knowledge, but the opposite. The challenge is not to add logic or reason; it is to add erratic, inspiring, and surprising experiences beyond conventions and norms. We will explore further on this topic in our next blog post.
Author: Marja Annecke
Thanks to Kristina, Ina and Martin for our daily breakfast sessions full of inspiration and shared insights, many of them you will find in this post.
