The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode with London Stock Exchange Group's Chris Mayo has just been released. Listen here.
Sometimes it is worth reading the small print first:
1Always pay attention while driving and when using Super Cruise. Do not use a hand-held device. Visit Cadillac.com/supercruise or chevy.com/electric/super-cruise for compatible roads and full details.
2Trailering will be available post-launch for the GMC HUMMER EV models and 2022 Cadillac Escalade.
3Automatic lane change is not available while trailering.
4The 2022 Cadillac Escalade is not yet available in dealerships.
5The 2022 Cadillac CT4 will be available in late summer 2021.
6The 2022 Cadillac CT5 will be available in late summer 2021.
7The 2022 Chevrolet Silverado is not yet available in dealerships and Super Cruise will be available in the late 2022 Model Year.
8The 2022 GMC HUMMER EV Pickup will be available in fall 2022.
9The 2022 GMC Sierra is not yet available in dealerships and Super Cruise will be available in the late 2022 Model Year.
10The 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ will be available in the first half of 2022.
11The 2024 GMC HUMMER EV SUV will be available in the first half of 2023.
12The 2022 Cadillac XT6 will be available in the second half of 2021.
13The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV will be available in late summer 2021.
https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2021/jul/0723-gm-supercruise.html
Nice simple patent, Veoneer watch your eyes and if there is a vehicle in your blind spot as you indicate to change lanes it gives more warnings if you hadn't checked your mirror
S2020, the other company that Qualcomm were partnering with was for the parking - I think it was Valeo
https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/tested-ford-bluecruise-hands-free-driving.html
They like it!
"I, for one, embrace our new robotic overlords"
https://www.autonews.com/suppliers/magna-masterstroke-may-signal-bigger-developments-ahead
Seeing Machines have now posted some "news" - read it more than once, it has some clues to the future:
To comprehend the increasingly visually dense environment of a modern aircraft, a pilot must perfect the skill of an instrument scan by employing modern flight instruments. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Instrument Flying Handbook views the first fundamental skill of instrument flying as developing a scan. A scan is defined by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as the “continuous and logical observation of instruments for attitude and performance information”.
A pilot’s scan behavior is regarded as critical to the safe operation of an airplane. As newer models of aircraft see the implementation of new information-rich and diverse instruments, modified scan techniques are required to keep up to date with ever-evolving flight instruments. Such an evolving environment raises several questions about how exactly pilots scan and what training methods can be employed to enhance learning.
Prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Australia’s Qantas Airways invested in Seeing Machines’ eye-tracking technology to form part of its new B787-9 full-flight simulator (produced by L3Harris). This made it the first-ever purpose-built eye-tracker/ simulator combination. Seeing Machines’ eye-tracking technology was fitted within the simulator to explore the complexities of pilots’ eye scan versus performance. The aim of this collaboration focused on improving training and seeking answers to scan questions.
The last 20 years have seen eye-tracking technology improve to the extent that eye trackers can now be fitted to a simulator without obstructing the pilot’s view while allowing the tracked eye positions to be accurately displayed on the instructor’s panel as an additional diagnostic and remediation tool. The eye-tracking/ simulator research is ongoing at Qantas and is planned to be conducted in several phases.
The opportunities for further research continue to evolve with Covid providing a unique opportunity, despite the devasting effect on the global aviation industry. Large numbers of pilots worldwide have been stood down for extended periods and changes in scan behaviour for this group remain unknown.
Interest in the potential of eye-tracking for aviation remains high and the research presently being undertaken at Qantas is aimed at finding answers that may help flight training worldwide.
To read more from Captain Matt Gray follow this link.
https://www.seeingmachines.com/blog/2021/08/02/have-pilot-****pit-eye-scan-patterns-changed/
Since truck mirrors are as aerodynamic as dumbo's ears. I see that in Europe (not legal in US yet) that the current trend towards cameras on stalks on the outside, the with tall thin portrait screens mounted on the A-pillar is the way to go The driver's side screen can easily host the camera and processing. Expect to see these across most truck brands very soon. Our problem is knowing if DMS is included.
The question is - which part is PMG liking?
The first Arriver perception and drive policy software running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride platform has now been demonstrated in-vehicle to potential customers with encouraging initial feedback. To us, this is a true milestone.
- Doesn't state which vehicle
We are ALSO proud to announce that Volvo XC40 Recharge, which runs the current generation of Arriver software, was picked as "Top Safety Pick+" by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the United States. To us, that is another proof point that we are on track to create a leading global challenger for Active Safety systems and software.
- So this is probably Arriver running on NVidia but without DMS?
Jonny,
https://bglivemedia.blob.core.windows.net/microsites/3636/20210701102719_iit-valuation-300421.pdf
Valuation as at 30 April 2021
Seeing Machines Ltd AU0000XINAJ0
Holding 100,000,000
Market Value (GBP) 11,000,000
On second thoughts the Red, Green and Blue filters that are used in the camera to separate out the colours for a pixel are all transparent to 940 nm infra red light, so the IR appears almost equally in each sensor - hence the perfect grey with varying intensity as the video catches in switching on and off.
I can sleep tonight now that I have worked that one out!
I don't trust my eyes, so I tested the pixels from a few snips and the LEDs are showing as varying intensities of grey (111,111,113) and (144, 144, 146) Now LEDs don't come in grey! So either it is a dim white LED, or the camera is redistributing the intensity across the board to avoid a colour cast.
Nice car - I did notice that he was reticent to put his sunglasses in one of the cubby holes - either they aren't suitable for sunglasses, he needed them but was removing for filming, or he has a history of leaving sunglasses in hire cars
Magna to build vehicle mirror plant in S.C.
The $31 million plant will supply high-tech mirrors to BMW, Mercedes and Volvo.
May 27, 2021
Canadian auto giant Magna International Inc. is building a $31 million plant near Spartanburg, S.C., to manufacture vehicle mirrors.
Magna Mirrors, a unit of the world's third-largest auto supplier, says it expects the planned 170,000-square-foot factory to employ about 300 people. The operation in Duncan, S.C., is set to begin production in early 2022.
*It will produce more than 1.75 million mirrors annually to start. The mirrors will incorporate a number of technologies Magna is developing, such as cameras and sensors*.
The company broke ground on the plant in March, but additional construction started this month.
It will supply BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, a Magna spokeswoman confirmed. Magna currently operates five other plants in South Carolina, which is home to BMW's U.S. assembly plant in Spartanburg and Volvo's factory in Ridgeville.
https://www.autonews.com/suppliers/magna-build-vehicle-mirror-plant-sc
Well, what a well lit office they have!
Surely they could make better use of the pixels if they used a lens that introduced some warping, so they can get more pixels into the centre of the picture rather than have to crop the view out of the "windows".
Interesting to see a slab of flapjack (in clear wrapper) is identified as food not a phone - wonder if a slab of chocolate in the dark could be identified as food or phone.
I suppose that for a long time we thought that Seeing Machines made driver monitoring systems. It turns out that Aptiv have stolen that away from under our noses.
How could we let that happen?
Well don't worry, their claims for making a DMS - step one get signal from driver monitoring sensor. Step 2 compare with some thresholds and other stuff.
This is like a recipe for boiled eggs that says, first get some boiled eggs then put them on a plate with a slice of toast. Keep an eye on them JC!
Air Traffic Control operations
Airservices Australia has 29 air traffic control towers and two air traffic control centres based in Brisbane and Melbourne. Australia has two Flight Information Regions which are managed by these centres. All airspace to the north of the dividing boundary (YBBB) is controlled by Brisbane Centre and all airspace to the south of the boundary (YMMM) is controlled by Melbourne Centre. These centres cover the whole of Australia with the exception of Perth and Sydney Terminal Control Units as well as the towers at major airports. In addition, Melbourne Centre is responsible for managing traffic handovers from South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia and New Zealand. Brisbane Centre manages traffic handovers from neighbouring flight information regions including East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and United States.
En route controllers located in Brisbane and Melbourne are responsible for all aircraft flying at upper levels above 25 000 ft. (7620 metres). These controllers are responsible for the majority of air traffic over the Australian mainland and on oceanic routes within Australia's flight information region.
In 1999, the agency commenced using The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS), a computerised air traffic control system covering all sectors of Australian air space.
...
OneSky
Since 2015, Thales Australia has been contracted to provide a replacement for TAAATS. The program will be a joint civil-military air traffic management system, called OneSKY, based on the Thales TopSky system.[9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airservices_Australia
https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/wp-content/uploads/OneSKY-Brochure-Detailed-Overviewp-web.pdf
Thales Australia and New Zealand chief executive Chris Jenkins described Onesky – which will be based on the company’s TopSky system that is currently used in 130 air traffic control centres around the world – as a “critical piece of national infrastructure”. https://web.archive.org/web/20190526162306/https://australianaviation.com.au/2015/02/work-on-onesky-to-begin-as-airservices-signs-forward-services-contract-with-thales/
How often have you been asked to go back and turn off the light because you were wasting electricity? When you were growing up, electricity was “free” and there was a power station supplying the power so what was the problem? But, if you left your torch on then you knew that you would need to buy new batteries and you would be without your torch until then – that hurt a bit, so you always turned your torch off.
Fast forward to today, the range of your car is limited by the charge in your battery but that is not the only constraint in automotive. Components need to last a very long time in automotive, especially in safety systems, there are temperature issues and constraints in cooling, so reducing the time that a component is used and the keeping its power consumption down is crucial. So turning down the brightness and turning off a little LED that illuminates your face so that the DMS camera can see your eyes is a tiny thing, but also a massive thing. If the life is compromised they need to add more LEDs, if the cooling is compromised, they need to add more space around the component, more space in a constrained ****pit constrains design never a good idea in a class A surface that is literally in the face of the driver at all times!
There is one other place where power consumption (and heat) is even more relevant – mobile devices, this patent is also applicable to eye and face tracking on a mobile phone, tablet (or any other screen).
LOW POWER EYE TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHOD (Thanks JC)
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/inpadocPatentFamily?CC=EP&NR=3042312A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=4&date=20160713&DB=&locale=en_EP
https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP14842026&lng=en&tab=doclist
Just to show how important this is, the original Australian patent was applied for in 2013. The European patent application was submitted in 2014 – it was only granted a few months ago.
Now that the patent is granted, does that open the door for licensing Seeing Machines in mobile devices?
Are any of our competitor’s now liable for some license fees for infringement? Or is this just one of the many moats that is protecting our position?
Incidentally, I used to worry about abandoned patents, but now I am more pragmatic. The original Aussie application is only used to show Priority in later patent applications in the major regions. Once an application is granted in one of the major regions, there is less need to progress in every region as automotive is global, there are costs to develop and time to bring to market. A potential infringer may see that the patent is not valid in one or more regions, but knows that they are limiting themselves geographically. If you try to infringe on more than one patent, often with different geographical footprints your wriggle room is tiny - yes you could sell your car in Australia and Africa, but not in any major market.
Your right, we can sell them FFS for their flying cars!
Shallwe, I expect there will be multiple product lines
Car rearview mirror with DMS/OMS, no data upload (but recoverable physically after an accident)
Truck side mirror (trucks don't normally have a central rear view mirror because they have no rear window!) with potential for upload to central monitoring.
In between, above and below there are options for extra expansion with selfie mode cameras, extra external video feeds (forwards and backwards and interior)
So the tender was published on Saturday and will slam closed on Friday 2nd. This was published just as CAE get clearance to buy L3Harris's military wing, open just long enough for them to submit.
We already have a MoU with L3Harris and work with CAE, we have Simulators from both companies with our eye tracking kit and software running
Such a shame that experienced companies like Smart Eye with their US office don't have any suitable partnerships. Perhaps, Smart Eye Pro v9.2 isn't what the USAF is looking for.
Wonder how many sims the US has?
"Military Simulator Census 2020 | Report | Flight Global" https://www.flightglobal.com/reports/military-simulator-census-2020/141458.article#:~:text=Simulation%2Dbased%20training%20is%20a,the%20devices%20in%20use%20 worldwide.
"The USA (military) is by far the dominant customer for simulation-
based training equipment, accounting for 54% of all listed devices: some 1,515 units."
CAE have retained L3H US offices and appointed some ex-Generals to that board. (if I can find that link...) They now have highest clearance required for that segment of the company. It is as though the military industrial complex has pre-approved everything
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/f5768deb#/f5768deb/131 from PMcG and Seeing Machine's LinkedIn posts 2 weeks ago https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paulamcglone_vol-27-iss-2-activity-6809088642225704960-rsDr
I don't think this is a "new" story for us - that may be to do with "Al-Bahar has launched new Cat excavator machines in the middle east".
He quotes https://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-40130-cat-facial-recognition-tool-tracks-driver-fatigue from 2016 - but he has adjusted the number of trucks globally from 38,000 to 50,000