Oct 27
Oct 27
Shortly after news broke Wednesday afternoon that its self-driving subsidiary Argo AI would be wound down, Ford CEO Jim Farley joined in on the company’s Q3 earnings call and spoke at length about how senior management came to that decision. “It’s estimated that more than a hundred billion has been invested in the promise of level four autonomy,” he said during the call, “And yet no one has defined a profitable business model at scale.”
In short, Ford is refocusing its investments away from the longer-term goal of Level 4 autonomy (that’s a vehicle capable of navigating without human intervention though manual control is still an option) for the more immediate short term gains in faster L2+ and L3 autonomy. L2+ is today’s state of the art, think Ford’s BlueCruise or GM’s SuperCruise technologies with hands-free driving along pre-mapped highway routes, L3 is where you get into the vehicle handling all safety-critical functions along those routes, not just steering and lane-keeping.
“Commercialization of L4 autonomy, at scale, is going to take much longer than we previously expected,” Doug Field, chief advanced product development and technology officer at Ford, said during the call. “L2+ and L3 driver assist technologies have a larger addressable customer base, which will allow it to scale more quickly, and profitability.”
“It’s taking that investment and putting it towards a business where we think we will have a sizable return in the near term relative to one that’s going to have a long arc,” he added. The company didn’t elaborate on a specific timeframe for when it would potentially be ready, thought Farley did stress that developing the foundational technologies needed for Level 4 will not be won quickly. “We don’t expect a single ‘Aha!’ moment like we used to,” he said.
Farley anticipates updated L2+ and L3 systems to arrive in the coming years alongside the company’s second cycle of EVs in 2023 – 2025. “Ford is completely refreshing it’s EV lineup globally, introducing fully updatable electrical architectures and in-house software development for controlling the vehicle,” Farley noted.
Fields stressed the importance of keeping much of the back end functions of these evolving ADAS technologies in-house. “We will have a core team that can integrate a system, understand its performance at the system level,” he said. “And we will own the software. It is really important that we also own the connection to these vehicles. L3 is a connected technology, so the ability to have a pipeline that collects data and makes the system better and better — we must own that.”
“That’s a problem that actually doesn’t exist in L4 and is a huge opportunity for us to create a Ford experience that’s really unique.” Fields said.
Oct 27
Trump continues to insult the Republican Senate leader but has failed to come close to his level of spending, instead hoarding most of his political money for himself
Oct 27
Tesla Could Face Criminal Charges Under Reported Self-Driving Investigation
Posted in: Today's ChiliTesla may soon have to reckon with a criminal investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice over its Autopilot marketing claims.
Oct 27
It took a while, but the Peloton app is finally available for Android smartwatches. If you’re sporting the Pixel Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch 4/5 and are a Peloton subscriber, check the Play Store to install it.
Oct 27
Megan Thee Stallion Becomes Thee Masked Slasher In Her Hottieween Short Film
Posted in: Today's Chili
It’s no secret that hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion is a huge pop culture stan. Her music videos like for “Sweetest Pie” are filled with horror motifs, she dons anime cosplay on stage and social posts dedicated to her love of genre (she knows her shit). There’s even a horror screenplay in the works from the…
Oct 27
Facebook Segments Ads by Race and Age Based on Photos Whether Advertisers Want It or Not, Study Says
Posted in: Today's Chili
Facebook’s promise to advertisers is that its system is smart, effective, and easy to use. You upload your ads, fill out a few details, and Facebook’s algorithm does its magic, wading through millions of people to find the perfect audience.
Oct 27
FDA Recalls Half a Million Mighty Bliss Heating Pads for Risk of Shocks and Burns
Posted in: Today's Chili
The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not use certain Mighty Bliss heating pads because the devices can cause electric shocks, skin burns, rashes, or irritation. For a product that claims to treat pain, that sure is the opposite of relief, and, while we’re at it, bliss.
Oct 27
Xbox Game Pass accounts for 15 percent of Microsoft’s gaming revenue, says Phil Spencer
Posted in: Today's ChiliMicrosoft’s Game Pass service is profitable and accounts for about 15 percent of the company’s overall Xbox content and services revenue. Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer shared the tidbit of information in an on-stage interview at The Wall Street Journal’sTech Live conference (via The Verge).
“Game Pass as an overall part of our content and services revenue is probably 15 percent,” he told The Journal’s Sarah Needleman. “I don’t think it gets bigger than that. I think the overall revenue grows so 15 percent of a bigger number, but we don’t have this future where I think 50 to 70 percent of our revenue comes from subscriptions.”
Spencer added that Microsoft has recently seen “incredible” growth on PC, with uptake slowing on consoles primarily due to saturation. “… at some point you’ve reached everybody on console that wants to subscribe,” he said. Microsoft announced earlier this week that PC Game Pass subscriptions increased by 159 percent year over year during Q1 2023. The company has also seen people stream more games over its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform. Spencer hinted that mobile would play a major role in the future of Game Pass.
“If you take a long-term bet, which we’re doing, that we will be able to get access to players on the largest platforms that people play on — Android and iOS phones — we want to be in a position with content, players, and storefront capability to take advantage of it,” he said, alluding to the recent disclosure that Microsoft wants to build an Xbox store that’s available on mobile devices.
Spencer was also adamant that the price of Game Pass would go up at some point. “We’ve held price on our console, we’ve held price on games and our subscription,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be able to do that forever.”
It’s not often companies like Microsoft share figures like the ones Spencer did earlier today. They provide an insight into how important services like Game Pass are to the company’s bottom line and where they see the product evolving in the future.
Oct 26
The comedian made the decision to step away from the late-night sketch series after a six-season run.
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