Howdy👋🏾, the pandemic supercharged trends in digital transformation. COVID forced us to adapt to a new cashless world of tablet power checkout systems and real-time payment platforms. Restaurants entering the pandemic quickly discovered that online ordering and delivery would be critical to their survival, forcing them to reevaluate point of sale (POS) systems for modern […]
Weeks after my first ride in a Waymo, GM’s Cruise shut down all of its self-driving cars after a human-driven car knocked a person into the robotaxi’s path. The taxi, knowing it was in an accident, pulled over, driving an additional 20 feet with the person pinned beneath the car as it moved.
This accident is a horrible reminder of the challenging and unexpected edge cases humans deal with while driving. As regulations in self-driving evolve, we have to decide how cars should respond and, in some cases, whose lives the car should prioritize. For those who remember 2004’s I, Robot in the movie, a robot saved the main character over a child because its predictive analysis gave him a higher chance of survival. The problem is the logical decision requires doses of emotion – but even then, those decisions might not be correct.
Cruise pauses all driverless robotaxi operations to ‘rebuild public trust’ | TechCrunch
Cruise has paused all driverless operations, a decision that comes just two days after the California DMV suspended its permits.
Apple put on an uncharacteristic Halloween-themed event to announce new M3 processors that blow any Intel chip out of the water. With it came new iMacs and Macbook Pros, all sporting these amazingly fast chips, but at the same time physically identical to their predecessors. The new chips are a technological advancement that should be celebrated, but somehow, it feels formulaic and unexciting.
The MacBook Pro now supports much more powerful M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Ultra chips that all continue to support mind-blowing battery life, and the iMacs get a speed boost. Weirdly, the accessories have not been updated to support USB-C, and the super powerhouse Mac Studio and Mac have to wait to see a speed bump.
The whole event felt like Apple could have issued a press release with a few videos.
Apple Events
Watch the latest Apple event stream, and check out the archive of special event announcements for our products and services.
Hertz made a huge bet on EVs planning to buy 100,000 Teslas all with lower routine maintenance costs. The problem is maintenance costs might be lower, but repair costs after accidents have come in substantially higher than expected. Several EV owners have found themselves flabbergasted at 20k repair bills, especially when the car’s batteries or destroyed or require repair.
Customers are also still unsure where to charge the things, leading to the EV rental car surprise.
As an EV owner, I love the thing and know it’s without question the future, but at the moment the vehicles are becoming available faster than the infrastructure to support them.
Hertz’s embrace of Teslas isn’t going so well
Hertz is slowing down its rollout of electric vehicles, citing higher repair costs and depreciation due to Tesla’s aggressive price cuts.
The news on EV issues over the last two weeks has been pretty negative, with several prominent car executives admitting that sales haven’t been there. Cost is a huge part of that, with the average EV cost coming in at 54k (down from 65k in 2022), well above what most families are willing to spend. EV first adopters who can afford it leaped, leaving us with an oversupply tied to a skeptical consumer base wondering why they should pay more for an EV.
EVs are the future, but it’s hard to see how the offer is compelling to the everyday customer when the charging infrastructure does not exist, urban environments haven’t adapted, and range anxiety continues to be a real problem. Change is coming, but much more investment in our infrastructure must happen first.
The second issue is cost. These cars are way too expensive, and sadly, the focus continues to move from affordable everyday EVS to massive luxury vehicles with giant price tags that inflation has not helped.
Auto execs are coming clean: EVs aren’t working
From GM to Tesla to Mercedes, execs across the auto industry are tempering expectations on electric vehicles.
Anthropic’s Claude 2 continues to impress, and I’m not the only person taking notice of a Large Langauge Model (LLM). Google just invested 500 million, promising to inject up to 2 billion, just weeks after Amazon offered to invest up to 4 billion. Do yourself a favor and give Claude a try.
WSJ News Exclusive | Google Commits $2 Billion in Funding to AI Startup Anthropic
Google move follows Amazon investment as tech giants place bigger bets on startups racing to develop artificial intelligence.
Last week, Mindgrub hosted AI in Action, the first of many AI events, and we focused on the impacts of AI and tech in healthcare. I enjoyed joining a fantastic panel with Aaron J. Burch, Co-founder of Alterwood Health, Susan FinlaysonSVP at Mercy Medical Center, and Akshay Mani from Johns Hopkins, moderated by Todd Marks, Mindgrub’s CEO. I’m hoping to share […]
Howdy👋🏾, documentaries like Ken Burn’s Civil War humanize epic historical events by mixing the personal thoughts of leaders and everyday humans. To help frame why a decision was made or the thoughts of soldiers on the field, narrators read personal letters, snippets from diaries, and stories passed down. A beloved friend passed away, and I found solace in reminiscing […]
Howdy👋🏾, while my mom, and probably most moms, would disapprove, it finally happened! (👵🏽 Ma, I know that grandma emoji looks nothing like you) For months, I’ve hoped for a chance to sit in the backseat of a self-driving vehicle and have it whisk me away to my destination, and last weekend, it finally happened. […]
Howdy👋🏾. The Baltimore Sun published a well-timed article about ‘AI in A-minor,‘ a first-of-its-kind event showcasing classical music composed by artificial intelligence. If you follow the link, which I highly recommend, you’ll find yourself in one of two categories: those with a Baltimore Sun account and those without. Paywalls are a form of gated content, a […]
Howdy 👋🏾, Apple announced new phones and watches last week and celebrated its environmental accomplishments with a surprise cameo appearance by Mother Nature herself. If you missed the event or want a quick recap Rob Koch, Mindgrub’s Director of Mobile, and I sat down and talked about the event, iOS 17, and hints of what is to come from Vision […]
Howdy 👋🏾, did you get my message? How could you not between the push notifications, app badges, emails, and constant reminders? If this sounds familiar, you suffer from post-notification PTSD. As an Apple Watch wearer, my biggest fear is a new app spamming me repeatedly with useless information. Can we agree that not all info […]
👋🏾 Howdy, if you’re in the US, I hope you enjoyed the long three-day weekend. Monday in the States was Labor Day, a celebration of America’s labor movement and the lengths taken to define many of the rights we hold today, this day also seems to take special meaning with increased fears of AI and […]
Howdy, it’s been a busy week. Last week, I welcomed a group of whip-smart college students from the Word Trade Center Institute’s Albrecht Fellowship to our Mindgrub office for a talk on how AI works and an open panel with several folks on the Mindgrub leadership team. Later that evening, I traveled down I-95 to […]
Howdy 👋🏾, my kids and I left the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore and flew to Disney World for 120% humidity, tons of sun, and a chance to pilot the Millennium Falcon at Disney’s Star Wars Galaxy Edge. Vacation is a great time to recharge batteries, especially after the team and I put on the first AI-composed […]
Howdy, we did it! Last week I stood in front of a packed crowd at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore and presented AI in A Minor, the first AI-composed concert performed by the wonderfully talented musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. On stage, I was also joined by a brass quintet, a string quartet, my incredibly […]
Howdy, Meta is back in favor with investors after the successful launch of Threads, and quarterly revenue is up by 11%. With a rosy report months after Meta’s first quarterly decline, you might be surprised that its Reality Labs, known for Virtual Reality (VR) products like the Meta Quest, brought in $276 million in revenue on […]
