If you needed a surprise in the new year, this is it! We are back!! It’s been a longish hiatus. I needed the time to recharge and think about where the industry is headed. We also welcomed a new member to our family, and I have used the time to change over a thousand nappies!!So, what exactly happened in the last year? The AI in Automotive Podcast quietly - literally quietly - turned five. AI went properly mainstream. Like BOOM mainstream! The silicon valley AI CEOs turned into demigods, and everything from your toaster to your kids’ toys turned AI-powered, seemingly overnight.AI was always an important enabling technology in the automotive industry, and this is what we had been covering on the show for the last five years. But the buzz around AI pushed some OEMs to make AI in the car more visible - enter features like ‘ChatGPT in the car’. There are interesting applications for a conversational interface in the vehicle - we covered this in our chat with Matt Anderson from SoundHound, for instance. But for them to have any value to the driver, software-defined vehicles with a coherent EE architecture is a key pre-requisite. We’ve covered this in numerous conversations in the past. With Sarah Tatsis from BlackBerry for instance, or Hemant Sikaria from Sibros.If you look beyond what is mainstream, then the biggest theme that is emerging is the rapid convergence of the automotive and energy industries. We are seeing energy utilities turn into EV lease companies, and automotive OEMs turning into energy companies, thanks to the energy in the batteries of their EV parc. This represents significant opportunities for energy companies, automotive OEMs, fleet owners / operators and hundreds of other players in the automotive and energy ecosystems. Needless to say, AI, as an enabling technology, is a key accelerator of this convergence. This is what we will be covering in future episodes of the AI in Automotive Podcast. As always, I have an incredible roster of knowledgeable experts sharing valuable insights and unique perspectives. I am sure you will enjoy what is coming up.If you feel you have benefited from the content on this show in the past, please do share the AI in Automotive Podcast with your friends and colleagues who might find it valuable as well. I promise you there are no more babies on the way, and hence, no more long breaks!!AI in Automotive Podcast

Alex Roy, founder of Johnson & Roy Advisors and host of the Autonocast podcast, joins to discuss the recent troubles faced by Cruise, including a fatal accident and key executive departures. They unpack the various aspects of the incident, emphasize the importance of company reactions, and explore challenges in the autonomous vehicle industry. They also discuss the lack of imagination in the tech industry, the future of the automotive industry, and the risks of using metrics as a standard for success.

On this episode, CEOs of Luna Systems and EVWare discuss how AI is transforming cities. Luna Systems uses computer vision to make micromobility safer, while EVWare brings high-tech features to vehicles. They explore challenges in large metropolitan areas, the impact of technology on city planning, and the importance of improving safety in two-wheelers.

Vehicle quality issues that lead to recalls and lawsuits cost automotive OEMs tens of billions of dollars in cost and lost revenue each year. Given the explosion of connected vehicle data, one might expect that this data could be leveraged to reduce this cost. Things are rarely that straightforward. Why is that?I invited David Hallac, CEO of Viaduct to the AI in Automotive Podcast to find out more. David’s 5-year old startup finds patterns and relationships amongst billions of connected vehicle data points, and delivers two powerful, commercially sound use cases to automotive OEMs. One, it helps automotive OEMs proactively identify and address quality issues, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in warranty costs and recalls. Two, it helps predict failures, call vehicles in for proactive maintenance, and helps bump up up-time - a god-send, especially for fleet customers. The big penny drop moment for me during my conversation with David was that connected vehicle applications don’t have to be bold, visible and sexy, delivering massive incremental revenue at near 100% margin. In fact, the connected vehicle applications most likely to succeed in the near-term are those that deliver commercial value today, often by way of substantially reduced costs. Viaduct’s quality management and maintenance prediction use cases check those boxes, and how. Listen to my chat with David to find out more.If you enjoyed my chit-chat with David Hallac, please give the AI in Automotive Podcast a solid five stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify - I am always thankful for your support.#ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #machinelearning #unsupervisedlearning #warranty #recalls #maintenance #qualityAI in Automotive Podcast

Autonomous Driving is a big enough paradigm shift. But after years of research and billions of dollars spent trying to get cars to drive themselves, perhaps it is time for a paradigm shift within a paradigm shift. What might this look like?Daniel Langkilde, CEO of Kognic joins me on the AI in Automotive Podcast to discuss exactly this. Daniel and I talk about the current approach to autonomy, which involves breaking down a very complex problem into its components - perception, prediction and planning - and its limitations. Based on a better understanding of how humans actually go about accomplishing the task of driving, we ask if perhaps it is time to take a different approach to delivering autonomy at scale. We discuss a key component of this approach - the world model - or the ‘common sense’ that a machine must be equipped with to make sense of the complex world around it. Daniel also talks about alignment, what it means to steer a system towards accomplishing its stated goal, and its relevance to autonomous driving.I am convinced that we are far from done with solving autonomy. On the contrary, I feel there is a lot of unexplored territory yet, which can dramatically change how we approach this opportunity. I hope my chat with Daniel gave you a sneak peek into what the inception of paradigm shifts looks like, and what it means for the future of autonomous driving. If you enjoyed listening to this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast, do share it with a friend or colleague, and rate it wherever you get your podcasts.AI in Automotive Podcast

Radars have been evolving at a really rapid clip, helped in no small part by innovative companies like Arbe Robotics. On today’s episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast, I am talking to Ben Rathaus, VP of AI and Perception at Arbe.Ben talks us through the history of radars, and how and why they found their way onto cars. We discuss how Arbe’s silicon and software is creating an order of magnitude improvement in the resolution and performance of automotive grade radars. We talk about the composition of radars, and their output - a mapping of the free space around the vehicle - an absolutely key building block of AD and ADAS algorithms.Ben and I started at cosmology and ended up at what the humble radar might look like in the future! Just another fascinating conversation that allowed me to understand the past and future of radars a lot better, as well as the very important role they play in making our cars smarter and safer. I think of them as the invisible, unsung heroes - working away diligently in the background, making everything around them work a lot better.If you have ever wondered whether future radars can wholly replace cameras on the car… well, you will find out at the end of my chat with Ben. So go have a listen, and if you like what you hear, do share the AI in Automotive Podcast with a friend or colleague.#ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #radar #sensors #sensorfusionAI in Automotive Podcast

Connected cars have been around for a while, but in-car services have strangely not really taken off. I learnt in my chat with Todd Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer at AiDEN Auto that there’s a good reason. Or four. Todd spoke to me about the evolution of the modern car to become a more mature connected device from its current state, and in the process we unearthed some real gems of insight. After today’s chat with Todd, I have a much better understanding of what connected vehicles 2.0 might look like, and why we may just be at the cusp of an explosion in true in-car services, many of them powered by AI. I am also convinced that the way we interact with our cars is going to undergo a significant shift, substantially changing our relationship with our cars. It’s going to be an exciting next few years in this space. Subscribe to the AI in Automotive Podcast to stay in touch with the technologies shaping our industry’s future.AI in Automotive Podcast

Designing a car is hard. 🚙 🏎️ 🏁It involves solving a series of multi-dimensional problems under a variety of constraints. I am oversimplifying here, but a problem with 8 dimensions and 5 values for each dimension will have 390,625 combinations to be experimented with. Real-world problems are usually way more complex, and testing every unique combination of inputs in an experiment is often not viable. So what is the solution, and what role does AI play? Gary Brotman, CEO of Secondmind, joined me on the AI in Automotive Podcast to share the answer to that question, and talk to us about the role of AI in accelerating the automotive design process. Think of Secondmind’s platform as a co-pilot for automotive engineers. It uses the power of AI to help them design the right experiments to solve complex multi-dimensional problems of the sort they encounter in their day jobs. This focuses their limited resources on a subset of the problem space, and gets them to the optimal solution in the most time-efficient and resource-efficient manner, accelerating the design process.This is a fascinating conversation with one of the most experienced and knowledgeable blokes out there when it comes to AI in Automotive. I hope you enjoy my chat with Gary as much as I did. And if you do, go ahead and rate the AI in Automotive Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.#ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #engineering #designofexperiments #machinelearninghttps://www.ai-in-automotive.com/aiia/305/garybrotmanAI in Automotive Podcast

Have you ever thought about how autonomy came to be? What were the origins of the idea of autonomous vehicles? Have you ever wondered what is next for autonomy, and how will this space evolve in the future?Well, wonder no more. On this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast, I am delighted to host an OG member of the autonomy gang, whose connection with autonomous driving goes way back to the heady days of the DARPA Grand challenge almost two decades ago. Bibhrajit Halder, Founder & CEO of SafeAI joins me to share how the idea of autonomy originated, how it evolved from 1.0 to 2.0, and how it might evolve in the future to 3.0 and 4.0. We also talk about the application of autonomous driving in the mining and construction industries, and how SafeAI is using AI to seriously disrupt the mining industry.I never thought I would be discussing mine economics on this show, but we did, and it was so much fun! I hope you enjoy my chat with Bibhrajit, and if you do, why don’t you go ahead and share the AI in Automotive Podcast with a friend or colleague who carries an interest in this space.AI in Automotive Podcast

In the world of autonomous driving, high-compute GPUs are all the rage. So I was incredibly delighted to learn of a company that is taking a very counter-intuitive approach to the perception stack. These guys have identified a number of use cases that do not require the 100% accuracy that autonomous driving demands, and are focused on making their vision perception stack work on smartphones you can buy for a hundred dollars.In this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast, I am pleased to host Jorit Schmelzle, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Peregrine Technologies. This is such a wide-ranging conversation, covering topics from sensor fusion, to understanding the automotive perception stack, and how ordinary smartphones can deliver interesting use-cases for the vision and perception stack.While the world of autonomy started with the desire to make a fully-autonomous vehicle that would then power a fleet of robotaxis, the way the space has evolved has created some very compelling use cases, even if full autonomy is still a few years away. Peregrine Technologies is at the forefront of delivering real value today, while also inventing the technology of tomorrow.I am sure you will enjoy my chat with Jorit, so can I ask you to please share the AI in Automotive Podcast with your friends and colleagues who carry an interest in AI, or the automotive industry.#ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #perception #selfdriving #autonomousdrivingAI in Automotive Podcast