Archiv der Kategorie: Innovation

Fashion Ready for the AI Revolution?

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If artificial intelligence has its way, discounting could disappear, thanks to software that tells retailers exactly what and how many products to buy, and when to put them on sale to sell them at full price. Online shopping could become a conversation, where the shopper describes the dress of their dreams, and, in seconds, an AI-powered search engine tracks down the closest match. Designers, merchandisers and buyers could all work alongside AI, to predict what customers want to wear, before they even know themselves.

In the last few years, a trifecta of cheap, ubiquitous, powerful computing; big data; and the development of deep learning have triggered a revolution in artificial intelligence. The computing devices that now fill our everyday lives generate large data sets, which “deep learning” algorithms analyse to find trends, make predictions and perform specific tasks, such as identifying specific objects in an image. The more data presented to the algorithm, the more it “learns” to do a task effectively.

Earlier this year, in a blog post titled What’s Next in Computing?, Chris Dixon, partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, wrote, “Many of the papers, data sets, and software tools related to deep learning have been open sourced. This has had a democratising effect, allowing individuals and small organisations to build powerful applications.” As a result, AI might “finally be entering a golden age,” he wrote.

No area of life or business will be insulated from AI, in the same way that no part of society hasn’t been touched by the Internet.

These developments have provoked an AI arms race. Companies like Google and Apple are snapping up AI start-ups, and in the last year, milestones in the field have arrived faster than previously expected, such as last month, when Google’s AlphaGo program beat a human champion at Go, a strategy board game considered more complex than chess.

Already, big businesses are using AI — Kensho, a data-crunching AI software, is automating finance jobs at Goldman Sachs, while Forbes uses AI to automate basic financial news stories. IBM’s Watson — a set of algorithms and software that is the company’s core AI product — is available as a cloud service, enabling research teams to rapidly analyse large amounts of data, such as millions of scientific papers, to test hypotheses and discover patterns. By 2020, the market for machine learning applications will reach $40 billion, according to International Data Corporation, a marketing firm specialising in information technology.

“No area of life or business will be insulated from AI, in the same way that there’s no part of society that hasn’t been touched by computers or the Internet,” Kenneth Cukier, data editor at The Economist and author of books including Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Work, Live and Think, told BoF. “Today it seems shocking because it’s new. But in time, AI will fade into the background as just the way things are done.”

By presenting a cheaper, faster way of doing many tasks that companies currently employ humans to do, many predict AI will radically alter industries from transportation, to healthcare, to finance. In fashion, like in other industries, driverless trucks will likely reduce companies’ logistics costs, or software like that used by Forbes could be used to write formulaic text, such as product descriptions on e-commerce sites.

But for fashion, some of the biggest opportunities are in aligning supply and demand, scaling personal customer service, and assisting designers.

Aligning supply and demand

Currently, fashion brands and retailers work with a limited amount of data, to predict what products to order and when to discount or replenish them. If they predict wrong, the result is loss of income due to mark-downs, waste and popular items selling out. By analysing large amounts of data — say, the browsing and shopping history of every single one of a fashion brand’s online customers, as well as those of its competitors — AI can tell a retailer how to align product drops to match demand, and even how to display products in a store to sell as many as possible.

AI’s ability to make predictions like these has particular implications for a trend-driven industry like fashion. Today, the fashion market is visible online: an AI can crawl e-commerce sites to see which products are selling; it can analyse consumer data to learn which colours or materials customers in a specific country — or even city — are buying; and it can scoop up swathes of information from social media to identify trends and microtrends. This data — which was not previously available — could help brands be first to market with styles that are likely to become mainstream trends.

Edited, a data analytics company specialising in fashion, is already doing this. Edited’s software has “learned” to recognise apparel products in images, and natural language processing software, which can classify these products. Edited let this loose on a bank of data on 60 million fashion products, collected from retailers and brands in over 30 countries, in over 35 languages: the result is a searchable database of organised, structured information on each of these products.

“We can process the data in seconds. No one could ever do it manually,” says Geoff Watts, chief executive officer of the company. Brands that work with Edited “usually start by analysing their competitors’ historical pricing and assortment data to make more strategic decisions, ultimately leading to better sales, stronger inventory management and less discounting,” he says.

Ganesh Subramanian, former chief operating officer of e-commerce giant Myntra, and now co-founder of Stylumia, an AI-powered tool for fashion professionals, agrees that AI could stop fashion companies making important decisions in the dark. “A trend is nothing but a movement which has a beginning and a gradual adoption,” he says. Like Edited, Stylumia uses AI to make sense of a sea of data, from videos, e-commerce sites, social media, etc. “We can not only spot trends, but also come out with what is the relevant timing for [brands and retailers] to adopt,” he says.

Scaling personal service

In the days when luxury goods could only be bought in a few physical boutiques, one-to-one customer service was at the core of the industry. The Internet changed that dramatically, giving customers a seamless — but often impersonal — way to trawl thousands of products and purchase without exchanging a word. Could AI deliver that original one-to-one service at scale?

One way to do this is through chat bots, which can exchange messages, stories and information with humans. Already, Microsoft’s XiaoIce chatbot is being used by 40 million people on Chinese microblogging platform, Weibo. (Not all attempts to have bots interact with humans have been so successful: when Micosoft unleashed Tay, another chat bot, on Twitter last month, the bot “learned” from other users and rapidly began tweeting offensive messages.)

Machine learning can also enable brands to finely personalise their offerings to each market, or even, each individual customer. Thread, an online personal styling service, combines human stylists with machine learning algorithms. The AI crunches data like what human stylists thinks would suit an individual user, where they live and what the weather is like there, as well as the user’s ratings of products on the app, which items they click, and how customers with similar purchasing habits responded to product recommendations. The AI then trawls through 200,000 fashion products and makes a judgement on what products to recommend.

“Humans are limited in many ways,” says Thread founder and chief executive officer, Kieran O’Neill. Not only can AI process a vast amount of data — it can also “remember your preferences in a way that it’s just not practical for humans to do. A computer remembers everything,” he says. Michele Goetz, principal analyst covering cognitive computing and data at Forrester, agrees: “That’s where I think AI shines, being able to scale insight.”

IBM’s Watson — which is working with over 500 partners in industries including retail — has partnered with The North Face to offer “guided shopping” online. The AI asks shoppers questions on factors such as gender, time of year and technical product details, to deliver tailored recommendations. „Online shopping can be overwhelming. There are so many choices and products from so many different sources,” says Keith Mercier, ecosystem manager of Watson. AI, he says, “can help retailers make sense of massive amounts of unstructured data to improve and personalise the online shopping experience.“

Image recognition apps such as Snap Fashion and ASAP54 are also harnessing AI to build search engines for fashion. In theory, a user can snap a picture of someone on the street wearing a dress they like, or even something as abstract as a painting, and an image-recognition search engine will search a huge database of shoppable products and serve up similar items. When BoF tested these products, the search results were far from perfect, but Kieran O’Neill bets that “in the next three years it will become pretty good.”

AI-assisted Design

„There are AI systems today that compose music, write stories, and create artwork that no one can tell is machine-generated. So fashion design is surely not beyond AI’s capabilities,” says Pedro Domingos, author of The Master Algorithm, which predicts the revolutionary impact of machine learning, “What will likely happen, however, is not that AI will completely replace designers, but will become an indispensable tool for them.“

In the same way that the work of architects like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid relies on computer modelling, “Fashion designers armed with AIs will be similarly able to come up with radical new ideas: AI will amplify their creativity rather than replace it,“ reasons Domingos.

“AI will absolutely challenge and replace designers,” counters Kenneth Cukier. “Let’s get real — lots of design is trial and error or boring, repetitive work. AI can help with both by making more accurate predictions of what designs will work and taking over some of the repetitive tasks.”

Approaching AI now

Some believe fashion brands should strike early and invest. “They certainly need to have in-house AI teams, like other companies, whether by building them from scratch or by acquiring start-ups,” advises Domingos. “Those who wait and see risk falling behind, particularly in a fast-moving industry like fashion, where consumers are the main drivers and tastes are fickle.”

“The old world of personal touch is not necessarily going away, but it’s not the way you’re going to grow your brand even from a luxury standpoint,” argues Michele Forrester. When fashion brands thing about AI, she says, they need to consider the next generation of luxury customers, who were born into a world of social media, and handed at birth the ability to buy anything they want, from anywhere in the world. “They don’t have the patience for a one-on-one relationship,” she says.

Indeed, the next generation of big spenders is already using AI: GPS navigation shapes their driving habits, while algorithm-driven personalised recommendations from Spotify and Netflix influence the songs and shows they consume. “If you don’t have it, you are not aligned with the experiences they’re used to,” warns Goetz.

Others are more cautious. “The top tier brands should resist the temptation to buy into the AI world right now,” says Cukier. “Their business is being good at fashion, not smart at technology… Right now, the most promising technologies are still in the lab or in field trials, like self-driving cars. Big, smart, non-technology companies can afford to wait.”

Others agree that, for the moment, partnering with third party AI specialists is the way forward. “The smartest thing a business can do, is partner with a fashion-focused tech company with AI at its core,” says Geoff Watts of Edited. “Building AI teams from scratch, or acquiring AI start-ups and retrofitting them to have a retail focus, requires a substantial investment of time and money.”

Kieran O’Neill of Thread adds that, rather than dive straight in to AI investment, brands should build a strategy around AI, and work out on what the lowest hanging fruits are for their business. Some of the brands using Thread — such as Burberry, Jigsaw and Topman — signed up to sell on the platform, not because they needed the sales, but “because they really want to be close to the AI stuff we’re doing,” he says.

“Every company in every industry should be paying very close attention to AI,” advises Martin Ford. “There is no limit to how far it can go.”

http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-tech/is-fashion-ready-for-the-ai-revolution

Apple The US giant, 40 years old and looking good, could soon go the dismal way of Sony and Microsoft unless it comes up with something better than the Watch

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FutureProductVisualisernew

Does Apple have another 40 years ahead of it, now that it has 40 behind it? As the world’s most valuable public company hit its anniversary last week, it’s the obvious question, in a world where the pace of technological change, enabled by globalisation and the internet, is faster than ever. And the public pressures, from the row with the FBI over unlocking the San Bernardino killer’s iPhone to its tax avoidance through Ireland, aren’t shrinking either.

You only need look at Sony, the famed Japanese company that turns 70 in May (it was founded just after the second world war, in 1946), for an example of how things can go wrong. By its 40th birthday, Sony had invented the Walkman, the compact disc and the Trinitron TV. But the digital world, and then the death of founder Akio Morita, confounded it: despite the success of the PlayStation, it is a shadow of its former self, cutting jobs and struggling to find a space in which it can lead.

The death of Steve Jobs in 2011 was held to be as significant as Morita’s. Five years on, the evidence may not be obvious – but it’s there.

The first is the biggest: the iPhone. The smartphone, as a category, is unique: a computing and communications device that has a potential market of every person on earth. It has only reached about 2.5 billion people so far, but there is an obvious saturation point, even if it is a decade or so away. And analysis suggests that iPhone shipments have already plateaued.

Then, in 2010, the iPad seemed like the next big thing in computing, but in its six-year life it has gone from bang to whimper – twice as quickly as did the iPod, launched in 2001. But at least tablets sell well: the Apple Watch shows no sign of being a hit to compare with either of those, much less the iPhone.

The problem, then, is what Apple does next. Creating a portfolio of products people really want is harder than it sounds. There are well-supported rumours of a car, at some time in the future. So is Apple’s ambition to become the new General Motors? As with the phones and the tablets and the watch, one can only wonder what small slice of the world will be able to afford an Apple car, especially as there have been competitors at all sorts of prices for more than a century.

Cars might also seem old hat in a few years, given the rise of virtual reality systems which overwhelm the senses with new experiences, and artificial intelligence which can outplay the best humans. Maybe travel itself will become outdated. Microsoft (41 years old on Monday) Google (just 18) and Samsung Electronics (47, descended from the even older Samsung) are all making the running here, while Apple seems still to be sitting on the sidelines.

Apple’s power with customers lies principally in its brand, but its executives must avoid the countless dead ends that technology throws up (anyone for 3D TV?) in favour of the deeper streams that can sustain it. Beyond that, it must also stay relevant: Microsoft was once top of the pile, but the rise of the iPhone and Google’s Android left it flat-footed, and it has taken nearly a decade to start finding its way again. If Apple were to miss out on the next wave, whatever that might be, its brand would be tarnished. After that, it’s a long way down.

Chief executive Tim Cook does at least have the reassurance that there are more than 500 million people in the world using upwards of a billion Apple devices. That’s a big audience. The challenge is keeping the show entertaining enough to retain them.

The Aramco float gets stranger and stranger

Get ready for the world’s biggest – and strangest – flotation. Saudi Arabia is to sell shares in its state oil company and its deputy crown prince is prepared to talk dates, which implies seriousness. The public offering will happen next year or maybe in 2018, Mohammed bin Salman said on Friday.

This is part of a hugely ambitious restructuring of the Saudi economy in which the central feature is the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund that will seek to buy non-oil assets. Put a rough value of $2tn on Saudi Aramco – the company’s claimed oil reserves, after all, make Exxon’s look small – and this fund would put equivalent Norwegian or Singaporean versions in the shade. In theory, the Saudis could buy several of the world’s biggest companies, or vast swaths of property in western capitals, and still have spare change.

In practice, life will not be so simple. The Saudis will initially be selling “less than 5%” of Aramco, which is hardly a rushed exit from oil. And, if the state continues to own 95%-plus, whose interests come first? Aramco, remember, accounts for more than half Saudi Arabia’s GDP and it has become entwined in the state’s vast social security programme.

More share sales could follow. But it is hard to believe Saudi Arabia would ever be happy to give up management control of the company, which is what is required if Aramco is ever to be just another investment within the new sovereign wealth fund. The regime, surely, would still want to use its oil to wield political power in its rivalry with Iran.

That is the strange part of the float: investors, in effect, are being offered the chance to be back-seat passengers in a company that, to a large degree, will continue to be an arm of the Saudi state. Wait to see if the flotation documents include fully audited details of the oil and reserves, which have always been kept under close wraps. Only if full disclosure is offered is it really a new world.

Living wage isn’t a step forward for those who miss out

There has been plenty of fanfare around the national living wage. George Osborne went to Asda to highlight what the new £7.20 hourly pay floor means for millions of workers around the UK. It is Britain’s biggest pay rise by the number of people affected and has rightly been welcomed as a step to tackling working poverty, particularly among low-paying industries like retail and restaurants.

But spare a thought for those who will not see their pay packets grow this month. Only over-25s get the new national living wage. So for younger workers Osborne’s new wage merely widens the pay gap between young and old. And while it’s fashionable to demonise big business, the new pay sinners are more likely to be middle-class employers of dogwalkers, babysitters and gardeners. Millions of workers paid cash-in-hand in Britain’s shadow economy also risk missing out.

life virtual 3D teleportation in real-time (Microsoft Research)

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life virtual 3D teleportation in real-time (Microsoft Research) changes meetings, events and private entertainment drastically.

Celebrities can join at remote locations with a fraction of the cost of a normal setting, enabling more flexibility in their time-schedules.

holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed, and transmitted anywhere in the world in real-time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in their physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face to face communication.

Most Cars Will Have Automatic Emergency Braking Standard By 2022

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In a significant move, 20 automakers have agreed to make automatic emergency braking standard on their cars by September 1st, 2022. This was announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today. The announcement mentions that these automakers represent “more than 99 percent” of the auto market in this country.

Automatic emergency braking systems have long been hailed as effective measures for preventing collisions. Cars are equipped with forward-looking sensors which detect the risk of crashing into the car in front and ping the car to automatically brake should the driver not take any action.

 

These systems were initially only available in expensive luxury vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class but have since trickled down the cars you and I can afford. This agreement will go a long way in ensuring that mass market cars feature this technology which can prove to be the difference between life and death in such unfortunate scenarios.

Keep in mind though that this is an agreement and not regulation so there’s nothing compelling car manufacturers from abiding by this agreement. The fact that major car manufacturers in the country have decided to sign their names to the document shows their willingness to work together to bring the benefit of this system to as many people as possible.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-regulations-safety-idUSKCN0WJ27E

Google and Facebook Team Up to Open Source their Data Centers

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Half a decade ago, Jonathan Heiliger compared the world of Internet data centers to Fight Club.

It was the spring of 2011, and the giants of the Internet—including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—were erecting a new kind of data center. Their online empires had grown so large that they could no longer rely on typical hardware from the likes of Dell, HP, and IBM. They needed hardware that was cheaper, more streamlined, and more malleable. So, behind the scenes, they designed this hardware from scratch and had it manufactured through little-known companies in Asia.

This shadow hardware market was rarely discussed in public. Companies like Google saw their latest data center hardware as a competitive advantage best kept secret from rivals. But then Facebook tore off the veil. It open sourced its latest server and data center designs, freely sharing them with the world under the aegis of a new organization called the Open Compute Project. “It’s time to stop treating data center design like Fight Club and demystify the way these things are built,” said Heiliger, then the vice president of technical operations at Facebook.

Google was the first company to rethink data center design for the modern age.

With the Open Compute Project, Facebook aimed to create a whole community of companies that would freely share their data center designs, hoping to accelerate the evolution of Internet hardware and, thanks to the economies of scale, drive down the cost of this hardware. That, among other things, boosts the Facebook bottom line. It worked—in a very big way. Microsoft soon shared its designs too. Companies like HP and Quanta began selling this new breed of streamlined gear. And businesses as diverse as Rackspace and Goldman Sachs used this hardware to expand their own massive online operations. Even Apple—that bastion of secrecy—eventually joined the project.

Two big holdouts remained: Google and Amazon. But today, that number dropped to one. At the annual Open Compute Summit in San Jose, California, Google announced that it too has joined the project. And it’s already working with Facebook on a new piece of open source hardware.

The announcement reaffirms the power of Facebook’s big idea. Google was the first company to rethink data center design for the modern age. For years, its technology was well ahead of anyone else. And when Heiliger complained of that Fight Club mentality, Google was surely top of mind. But through the Open Compute Project, Facebook has pushed the rest of the industry forward. And market forces have pushed Google to share its secrets in new ways. “The community and Google have inched closer and closer together,” says Jason Taylor, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure.

But Google’s move also points to other changes inside the big Internet players. That joint open source project from Google and Facebook relates to the rise of deep learning, an artificial intelligence technology that is rapidly reinventing so many parts of the modern world. Both companies see AI as a key part of their future, and both believe they’ll get there faster if they share and collaborate on some of the core technologies that drive these neural networks.

Happy to Share

Google’s Urs Hölzle—one of the company’s first employees and the engineer most responsible for what is probably the world’s largest and most advanced computer network—doesn’t see today’s announcement as a big change. He points out that Google has openly discussed its internal hardware designs in the past.

“I know that historically in the press, there has been a tendency to position it as Open Compute Project versus Google. But it has never been like that,” he says. “Over the past ten years, we have shared many, many things with the industry. This is the latest one.”

Indeed, Google revealed some of its server designs in 2009. And last year, it lifted the curtain on its seminal approach to computer networking hardware. But typically, Google reveals its designs only after it has moved on to something else. And it doesn’t open source its gear a la Facebook. But now Google and Facebook are actively working together on hardware they intend to open source, which highlights the ever evolving priorities of both companies.

More Power to You

Together, Google and Facebook are developing a new data center server rack—an enclosure for massive numbers of computer servers. This new rack can deliver about four times more electrical power to all those machines, jumping from 12 volts to 48. As Hölzle points out, as we pack more and more hardware into smaller and smaller spaces, data center racks require more and more power, and this need has only increased with the rise of graphics processing units, or GPUs, inside the data center—a rise occasioned by the increasing importance of deep neural networks.

Companies are seeing that the best path toward improving their AI includes openly sharing their tech.

GPUs were originally designed as a way of rendering images for games and other graphics-intensive applications. But as it turns out, they’re also well suited to running deep neural nets, the AI technology that now helps companies like Google identify images, recognize commands spoken into smartphones, target ads, generate search results, and so much more. “Power density is going up,” Hölzle says. “GPUs are something that accelerates this—or amplifies it.”

Today, at the Open Compute Summit, Facebook is also open sourcing the designs for the GPU-based system that drives its neural networks. Hölzle indicates that the new rack standard that Facebook and Google are working on could help drive this kind of system.

It’s not news that deep neural nets have become a crucial part of our largest Internet services. Like Google and Facebook, so many others are moving toward an infrastructure in which AI plays a central role. What’s interesting is that so many of these companies believe that the best path toward improving their AI includes openly sharing their tech with the larger world instead of keeping it secret. This past fall, Google also open sourced TensorFlow, the software engine that drives its neural networks.

No More Fight Club

Why, exactly, is Google doing all this? Part of it that the academics who drive AI research believe that such sharing can accelerate research—that true progress comes from widespread collaboration. That’s the main reason Google open sourced TensorFlow. But the company is also looking for some good will. The new server rack project is a good example.

Google already uses a similar rack inside its data centers. If Facebook and others adopt this as a standard, it can potentially drive down the cost of this hardware. Economies of scale and all that. “We all benefit from an ecosystem that agrees on at least a few things,” Hölzle says. But in the end, he plays down this effect. He indicates that the company is really just trying to help others out. And when it comes right down to it, that generates good will—a circle of mutual benefit.

In the past, Google was mostly a company that offered Internet services to consumers. But now it’s intent on transforming itself into a cloud computing company, inviting a world of businesses to build and run their software on its vast online infrastructure. That means Google is also interested showing the world what it has built inside its data centers—and currying favor among the larger tech community.

In short: the rise of AI and cloud computing have put an end to Fight Club. The first rule of data centers is now: let’s talk about our data centers. A lot.

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/google-facebook-designing-open-source-data-center-gear-together

The Evolution of the BatMobile

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batman-documentary-carsWarner Bros Online

It takes more than martial-arts training and a cool cape to protect Gotham City. Over the years, Batman has relied on an evolving series of vehicles to help bring down his most infamous enemies.

The Batmobile has changed a lot since the 1941 original. It now has a more imposing, military-influenced design, as seen in „The Dark Knight“ trilogy and the upcoming „Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.“

Read on to see how the Batmobile has kept pace with Bruce Wayne’s quest to keep Gotham safe:

The first car to be referred to as a „Batmobile“ appeared in Detective Comics No. 48 in 1941. It was far more subtle than any of its successors. The car, which appears to be inspired by the Cord Roadster, had a small gold bat on the hood.

The first car to be referred to as a "Batmobile" appeared in Detective Comics No. 48 in 1941. It was far more subtle than any of its successors. The car, which appears to be inspired by the Cord Roadster, had a small gold bat on the hood.

DC Comics

The first drivable Batmobile came from Adam West’s 1966 live-action „Batman“ adaptation. Based on the Lincoln Futura, legendary designer George Barris dreamed up the car in 15 days.

The first drivable Batmobile came from Adam West's 1966 live-action "Batman" adaptation. Based on the Lincoln Futura, legendary designer George Barris dreamed up the car in 15 days.

Jennifer Graylock/Ford Motor Company

Source: Business Insider

Rather than the red and black of previous iterations, the Batmobile from the 1970s „Super Friends“ series was blue and black, with yellow details to highlight the more prominent bat insignia.

Rather than the red and black of previous iterations, the Batmobile from the 1970s "Super Friends" series was blue and black, with yellow details to highlight the more prominent bat insignia.

YouTube

Frank Miller’s „The Dark Knight Returns“ (1986) is an important evolution. The Batmobile was overhauled to appear as a redesigned tank. Prioritizing weapons and defense was important to the much more stark version of Gotham in the comic series.

Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" (1986) is an important evolution. The Batmobile was overhauled to appear as a redesigned tank. Prioritizing weapons and defense was important to the much more stark version of Gotham in the comic series.

DC Comics

Tim Burton’s live-action adaptation of the Batmobile from 1989 is very cool. It’s sleek and imposing, and the jet-black exterior and polished finish really give off a sense of wealth, tying together Bruce Wayne and the Batman persona.

Tim Burton's live-action adaptation of the Batmobile from 1989 is very cool. It's sleek and imposing, and the jet-black exterior and polished finish really give off a sense of wealth, tying together Bruce Wayne and the Batman persona.

Warner Bros.

The 1992 debut of „Batman: The Animated Series“ began a new era. It featured the voice of Kevin Conroy as Batman and debuted the updated sleek Batmobile design seen in the later „Justice League“ spin-off.

The 1992 debut of "Batman: The Animated Series" began a new era. It featured the voice of Kevin Conroy as Batman and debuted the updated sleek Batmobile design seen in the later "Justice League" spin-off.

Warner Bros/YouTube

The Batmobile in „Batman Forever“ (1995) is one of its flashiest appearances, with an almost rib-cage-like design. Its shape is also vaguely reminiscent of the 1989 version.

The Batmobile in "Batman Forever" (1995) is one of its flashiest appearances, with an almost rib-cage-like design. Its shape is also vaguely reminiscent of the 1989 version.

Christopher Polk/Getty images

„Batman & Robin“ (1997) was panned by critics, but its Batmobile isn’t the worst ever. It has a similar shape to previous live-action Batmobiles, but is black instead of the eerie blue glow of the 1995 design.

"Batman & Robin" (1997) was panned by critics, but its Batmobile isn't the worst ever. It has a similar shape to previous live-action Batmobiles, but is black instead of the eerie blue glow of the 1995 design.

YouTube/nismogropo

The live-action „Dark Knight“ trilogy from director Christopher Nolan introduced the Tumbler, an all-terrain, military-inspired version of the Batmobile. It could also be seen as a realization of the Batmobile in Miller’s „The Dark Knight Returns.“

The live-action "Dark Knight" trilogy from director Christopher Nolan introduced the Tumbler, an all-terrain, military-inspired version of the Batmobile. It could also be seen as a realization of the Batmobile in Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns."

REUTERS/ Toby Melville

In a first for the popular „Arkham“ video-game series, players take control of the Batmobile in the quest against Scarecrow’s fear toxin. Heavily inspired by Nolan’s Batmobile, the game also featured un-lockable „skins,“ which changed the vehicle’s appearance to match other famous Batmobile iterations.

In a first for the popular "Arkham" video-game series, players take control of the Batmobile in the quest against Scarecrow's fear toxin. Heavily inspired by Nolan's Batmobile, the game also featured un-lockable "skins," which changed the vehicle's appearance to match other famous Batmobile iterations.

WB Games

Finally, the upcoming „Batman v Superman“ will usher in a new era for the Dark Knight. Ben Affleck will take on the role, and we’ve already gotten a close look at the new Batmobile, which weighs over 7,000 pounds and, in the film, can drive up to 205 mph.

Finally, the upcoming "Batman v Superman" will usher in a new era for the Dark Knight. Ben Affleck will take on the role, and we've already gotten a close look at the new Batmobile, which weighs over 7,000 pounds and, in the film, can drive up to 205 mph.

Kirsten Acuna/Tech Insider

In real life, the car can reach a speed of 90 mph.

In real life, the car can reach a speed of 90 mph.

Kirsten Acuna/Tech Insider

 http://www.businessinsider.com/batmobile-evolution-2016-3

tug-of-war over who controls and profits from the stream of user data in self-driving cars

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SAN FRANCISCO/DETROIT—Google’s self-driving car team is expanding and hiring more people with automotive industry expertise, underscoring the company’s determination to move the division past the experimental stage.

The operation now employs at least 170 workers, according to a Reuters review of their profiles on LinkedIn, the business-oriented social network. Many are software and systems engineers, and some come from other departments at Google.

More than 40 of the employees listed on LinkedIn have previous automotive industry experience, with skills ranging from exterior design to manufacturing.

They hail from a wide range of companies, including Tesla Motors Inc, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

For a look at the composition of Google’s self-driving car team, Google has not disclosed details about the size or composition of its self-driving car team, and Johnny Luu, spokesman for Google’s car team, declined to comment.

The team could have additional members who do not publish profiles on LinkedIn.

Google has said previously that it intends to ready the technology for a marketable self-driving car by 2020, but it may never manufacture vehicles itself.

The tech giant is more likely to contract out manufacturing — much like Apple does with iPhone — or to license technology to existing car manufacturers, automotive industry experts said.

Licensing would follow the model Google has used with its Android operating system for mobile devices.

In the past four weeks, Google has advertised nearly 40 new positions on the team, and many are related to manufacturing.

The team currently has six people with such experience, including purchasing, supplier development and supply chain management.

Hires with manufacturing skills could help Google find and coordinate with a partner to build a vehicle, said Paul Mascarenas, a former Ford executive who is president of FISITA, the International Federation of Engineering Societies.

Google is also engaged in discussions with federal and state regulators about how to revise motor vehicle safety standards to accommodate autonomous cars.

The competition for technical talent is intensifying as tech and automotive companies race to build driverless vehicles.

Beyond Google, the players include Tesla, established car makers such as Daimler AG and GM and, and technology companies such as Apple Inc and Uber Technologies Inc.

Google’s team is being assembled by John Krafcik, an industry veteran who previously headed Hyundai Motor Co’s  U.S. operations and is an expert in product development and manufacturing. Krafcik joined Google in September 2015.

Another senior executive with previous automotive experience, Paul Luskin, was hired last month as operations manager, according to his Linkedin profile.

An engineer with stints at Jaguar Cars, Ford and Japanese supplier Denso Corp, Luskin most recently was president of Ricardo Defense Systems, a unit of Britain’s Ricardo PLC, according to the Linkedin profile.

Google hired industry veteran Andy Warburton in July to head the vehicle engineering team, according to his Linkedin profile.

Warburton spent two years as a senior engineering manager at Tesla and 16 years as an engineering manager at Jaguar.

A third auto veteran, Sameer Kshisagar, joined Google in November as head of global supply management on the self-driving car team. Kshisagar is a manufacturing expert who previously worked for GM, according to his Linkedin profile.

Luskin, Warburton and Kshisagar did not respond to requests for comment.

Google’s self-driving car group also has tapped people with experience beyond the auto industry, including aerospace (Boeing, SpaceX, Jet Propulsion Lab) and electronics (Intel, Samsung, Motorola), according to LinkedIn profiles.

Krafcik and Chris Urmson, director of the car team, have said they want to forge partnerships with established automakers and others to build vehicles. Krafcik made a public pitch for alliances at an auto industry conference in Detroit in January.

However, Google may have to look farther than the auto industry to find a manufacturing partner, said Raj Rajkumar, a Carnegie-Mellon University professor who advises companies on self-driving car development.

The tug-of-war over who controls — and profits from — the stream of user data in self-driving cars is „an inherent and fundamental conflict“ between Google and traditional automakers, Rajkumar said.

Instead, Google may choose to build its own engineering and design prototypes, then partner with a Chinese automaker or an Asian contractor such as Hon Hai Precision Industry’s Foxconn Technology Co that wants to enter the automotive field, several experts said.

Michael Tracy, a Michigan-based auto manufacturing consultant, said Google sees the potential of several different revenue streams from its self-driving technology, including licensing its mapping database and vehicle control software, as well as an integrated package of software, sensors and actuators that would form the backbone of a self-driving vehicle.

The least likely prospect is that Google will manufacture its own vehicles, Tracy said, due to the massive expenditures required and the stiff competition from established automakers.

http://www.voanews.com/content/googles-self-driving-car-team-beefs-up-auto-experience/3217805.html

Bugatti’s $2.6 million Chiron is the fastest car in the world

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You might think the super-wealthy have it pretty easy, what with their private islands, private jets and the ability to buy just about anything. But there’s been one thing they’ve not been able to buy in a while: an all-new Bugatti.

In fact, it’s been more than 11 years since the Veyron first went on sale. Can you imagine driving the same Bugatti for a decade? I can’t even.

Thankfully, that more than decade-long nightmare is over; there’s finally an all-new one. It’s called the Chiron. Along with the illustrious French moniker (yes, Bugatti is French), it boasts a 1,500-horsepower 16-cylinder engine, room for two very lucky passengers and a base price of just more than $2.6 million.

W16
Let’s not mince words here. Granted, simply based upon its price tag, the new Bugatti Chiron will be the chariot of global glitterati. Though, it’s more than a coupe from an elite brand. It hits the roads as the most powerful and fastest production car ever.

That impressive title is thanks to the 8.0-liter W16-cylinder engine mounted in the mid-rear of the car. If you’re not familiar with a W16, that’s OK. Only Bugatti uses such an engine. Imagine two V8s intertwined into one shape. That’s a W16. Imagine two V8s intertwined into one shape. That’s a W16.

Along with two-stage turbocharging (a new Bugatti development), the Chiron’s W16 produces 1,500 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. That, along with a very stout all-wheel drive system, allows it to go 0 to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, and on to a limited top speed (it could do more) of 261 mph (although the speedo goes up to 310 mph). To put that into perspective, a 747 lifts off the ground at 180 mph.

Understandably, to be able to safely keep the car on the road, and, you know, bring it to a stop once in a while, Bugatti engineers had to go to great technical lengths. That meant they had to develop both a chassis and a braking system as stout as the most advanced and technically complex race cars in the world. Moreover, the tires were tested to aerospace tolerances, which makes sense, given the speeds this thing can hit.

Understandably, a huge, fuel-thirsty engine like that produces a lot of tailpipe pollutants at full throttle. Accordingly, the catalytic converters (the devices that clean the exhaust gases as they pass through it) in the titanium exhaust system are six times larger than catalytic converters fitted to a mid-size sedan.

According to Bugatti, if you dissected the Chiron’s catalytic converters, you’d find surfaces — when the many layers are spread out flat — larger than the area of 30 soccer fields. And that’s just in one single car.

Electromagnetic
Of course, in creating the Chiron, Bugatti couldn’t spend all its technical energy on performance. After all, the car needs to be as opulent as it is fast.

Accordingly, Bugatti engineers created a new instrument cluster with three TFT digital screens as well as an analog speedometer. Cleverly, the faster you drive the Chiron, the more the information displayed falls away. The dedicated infotainment screen fades, as the miles per hour climb in order to limit driver distraction.

Between the driver and the passenger is the signature illuminated C-bar, which is the longest light conductor in the automotive industry. What’s more, its surrounding bezel is machined from a single piece of aluminum. Certainly, this isn’t especially techie, but it is stunning.

Effectively, the Chiron can withstand electromagnetic interference and disruption as well as a military vehicle. This means that the passengers as well as their electronics are about as safe as you can get from electronically harmful electromagnetic waves.

The Chiron effect
Of all the astounding things we’ve just discussed about the Chiron, they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

For example, the front 3D Bugatti logo is covered in gemstone. The cabin sound system was created specifically for the Chiron by the elite German audio system company “accuton” (no, I’ve not heard of it either). And the exterior has been fashioned entirely from carbon fiber.

Perhaps the most astounding thing of all, though, is the fact that — despite the years of development and painstaking attention to detail that went into its creation — Bugatti only plans to ever build 500 Chirons.

Since Bugatti is owned by the Volkswagen Group, I’d like to tell you that some of the tech and features of the Chiron will trickle down into a VW or Audi you can buy in a few years. Truthfully, if it does, it won’t be the stuff you want, like 1,500 horsepower or a gemstone-covered front grille emblem.

Instead, your future car will likely be blessed with lessons learned from Bugatti’s painstaking attention to quality, reliability and precision. That’s because, in order to build a car that can be both the world’s fastest and finest vehicle, it has to be quadruply over-engineered.

That said, I encourage you to still admire the Chiron from afar. Or, better yet, see the latest Bugatti as an aspirational vehicle. Either way, the Bugatti Chiron is going to make the lives of the super-rich very lovely indeed and your future car that much finer.

2017 Bugatti Chiron

http://mashable.com/2016/02/29/2017-bugatti-chiron

 

Amazon is already after its next $400 billion opportunity

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During Amazon’s most recent earnings call, Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian asked two questions to Amazon CFO Brian Olsavky: one about Amazon Web Services‘ margins, and another about the chances of Amazon expanding its own shipping logistics services to other companies.

The first one got answered promptly, though Olsavsky had to stop mid-sentence because the operator accidentally jumped in early. Still, Olsavsky made it a point to get back and finish his answer.

The second question never got answered.

„If he wanted to talk about it, he would have remembered to answer,“ Sebastian told Business Insider. „Either way, I think the answer is that Amazon doesn’t talk about potential or future services.“

Amazon’s notoriously secretive about its future plans, so it’s not too surprising that Olsavsky skipped Sebastian’s question.

But when you’re going after something as big as the logistics and shipping market, it’s hard to keep your plans under wraps — and a growing amount of evidence suggests Amazon may indeed be going after the delivery and logistics market, which Sebastian pegs as a $400 billion market opportunity.

Next $400 billion opportunity

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a series of reports speculating Amazon’s plan to establish a bigger in-house logistics service that will allow it to potentially bypass its current delivery partners, like UPS and FedEx.

That includes:

Serbastian believes this all points to Amazon building up its in-house logistics delivery network. He envisions Amazon first starting out with its own deliveries, but eventually opening up the service to other companies, putting it in direct competition with the likes of UPS and FedEx.

„Among other opportunities, Amazon has ‚powerhouse potential‘ in the large transportation and logistics market, dominated by global enterprises such as DHL and UPS,“ Sebastian wrote in a recent note.

„Amazon’s cloud technology expertise and increasingly complex fulfillment, logistics and delivery network seem to be obvious foundation to offer third-party services, with an incremental $400-450 billion market opportunity.“

A worker gathers items for delivery from the warehouse floor at Amazon's distribution center in Phoenix, Arizona November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Ralph D. Freso Thomson ReutersWorker gathers items for delivery at Amazon’s distribution center in Phoenix

Project Dragon Boat

Perhaps the strongest indication of a bigger Amazon logistics ambition was disclosed last week in a report by Bloomberg’s Spencer Soper.

The report, citing a 2013 Amazon document, revealed an internal project called Dragon Boat, which is intended to become a service that controls everything from picking up the product at the factory in China to delivering it to the end customer in the US.

It said the document described Project Dragon Boat as a „revolutionary system that will automate the entire international supply chain and eliminate much of the legacy waste associated with document handling and freight booking.“

„Sellers will no longer book with DHL, UPS, or FedEx but will book directly with Amazon,“ the report said.

When Amazon’s Olsavsky was asked about its logistics plan again by another analyst during earnings call, he simply shrugged it off as a complementary service, saying it’s intended to supplement, not replace, existing delivery companies.

„What we found in order to properly serve our customers at peak, we’ve needed to add more of our own logistics to supplement our existing partners. That’s not meant to replace them,“ Olsavsky said.

Next AWS

Werner Vogels, Amazon.com chief technology officer, speaks at the AWS Re:Invent conference at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada November 29, 2012. REUTERS/Richard Brian Thomson ReutersVogels, Amazon.com chief technology officer, speaks at the AWS Re:Invent conference at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas

But don’t expect Amazon’s logistics business to expand overnight.

If anything, it’s going to take a few years to fully ramp up and establish itself to become a viable delivery option for other companies, according to Sebastian.

„They will start small, mostly to add capacity for their own business, but then, over time, as they gain more expertise, they will offer extra capacity to other companies,“ Sebastian told us.

In that sense, it could follow the path of Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing service that’s now generating almost $8 billion in annual revenue.

Amazon built AWS out of the infrastructure it had created to support its own operations, but it’s now become one of the most widely used cloud computing platforms, used by everything from small startups to big companies like Netflix and GE.

„I think it’s like AWS,“ Sebastian said. „But it took 10 years for AWS to get as large as it is.“

http://www.businessinsider.de/signs-of-amazon-getting-into-logistics-2016-2