There have been many things that have slowed 5G adoption: competing types of 5G, available spectrum, security concerns over Chinese vendors and more. One of the biggest issues, however, may be surprise to some. Evidently, there is a serious shortage of “tower climbers” available, according to VentureBeat.
Tower climbers are the term for individuals who climb cell phone towers to install new equipment or maintain existing components. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation heard testimony from various witnesses “that there aren’t enough workers to actually build the 5G infrastructure U.S. citizens are expecting over the next decade.”
FCC commissioner Brandan Carr said the industry needs “20,000 additional tower climbers and telecom techs to complete the U.S. 5G buildout.” The agency is planning to address the shortage by offering 12-week training programs that will be available at technical schools and community colleges. Earnings potential—for a job that does not require a four-year degree—is more than $70,000 a year.
With that kind of opportunity, it’s a safe bet the FCC will have no trouble coming up with 20,000 climbers.
Audi plans to roll out C-V2X technology, enabling its cars to talk to construction zones and traffic lights, according to a press release.
The technology will initially be deployed in the third quarter of 2020 in Virginia, in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). C-V2X uses spectrum the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside for connected vehicle safety.
C-V2X will be able to provide a countdown at traffic lights, letting the driver know how long they have until the light turns greens. It will also alert drivers to construction, delivering “graduated warning, with the last link being a low-latency, reliable warning to drivers of the workers’ physical presence.”
Eventually the technology could even be used to communicate between vehicles, with cars automatically alerting other vehicles to obstacles, icy conditions or other dangers. The technology is the natural progression and expansion of crowd-sourcing apps like Waze, which allow drivers to alert each other to dangers on the road. Unlike those type of apps, this technology will be in the background, seamlessly sending and receiving updates to nearby vehicles, without requiring driver involvement and the subsequent distractions that can cause.
“VDOT has long supported research into the benefits of connected and automated vehicles, particularly those aspects that have the potential to significantly enhance safety,” said Cathy McGhee, Virginia’s Director of Transportation Research and Innovation. “The inclusion of shorter-range, direct communication in the 5.9 GHz band using C-V2X is exciting, as it can allow us to evaluate this emerging communication option for essential and practical safety and mobility services, including saving the lives of maintenance and construction personnel in work zones.”
“We recognize the immediate value of the spectrum that the FCC proposed to allocate to C-V2X, and we endeavor to show our V2X equipped cars on real roads engaging in how transportation safety and mobility could be jump-started,” said Anupam Malhotra, Director, Connected Vehicle Services, Audi of America. “We are excited about our participation in this pilot deployment as it highlights the broad societal advantages that technology is now poised to deliver through the full 5.9 GHz V2X spectrum near term with far, far more to come as connected and automated vehicle fleets emerge over the next decade.”
Hyundai and Uber made a splash at CES 2020 with a partnership to develop and deploy Uber Air Taxies, according to a press release.
Hyundai made news in late 2019 when it created its Urban Air Mobility (UAM) division. UAM is focused on creating flying cars and other aerial vehicles, and landed NASA aeronautics director Dr. Jaiwon Shin as the division head. Unlike the many startups that have tried to tackle this field, Hyundai brings vast experience mass-manufacturing complex vehicles.
Image Source: Uber
Under the partnership, “Hyundai will produce and deploy the air vehicles, and Uber will provide airspace support services, connections to ground transportation, and customer interfaces through an aerial ride share network. Both parties are collaborating on infrastructure concepts to support take-off and landing for this new class of vehicles.”
As part of their announcement, the two companies unveiled concepts for their first jointly developed personal air vehicle (PAV), the SA-1. The PAV is a 100 percent electric vehicle, with vertical takeoff and landing, cruising altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 feet and a cruising speed of up to 180 miles per hour.
“Our vision of Urban Air Mobility will transform the concept of urban transportation,” said Jaiwon Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Division. “We expect UAM to vitalize urban communities and provide more quality time to people. We are confident that Uber Elevate is the right partner to make this innovative product readily available to as many customers as possible.”
“Hyundai is our first vehicle partner with experience of manufacturing passenger cars on a global scale. We believe Hyundai has the potential to build Uber Air vehicles at rates unseen in the current aerospace industry, producing high quality, reliable aircraft at high volumes to drive down passenger costs per trip. Combining Hyundai’s manufacturing muscle with Uber’s technology platform represents a giant leap forward for launching a vibrant air taxi network in the coming years,” said Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate.
Few things are as recognizable and iconic as Segway’s scooters. The self-balancing scooter is a mainstay of touring companies and police forces. At CES 2020, the company announced its newest addition, the S-Pod: a seated gyroscope-based scooter.
The S-Pod looks like something straight out of science fiction, with Automobile comparing it to the hoverchairs in Pixar’s WALL-E. Unlike the scooters, the S-Pod uses a control knob, rather than leaning, to direct the chair. The control pad can be detached so the chair can be controlled remotely.
According to Autombile, “the S-Pod has a top speed of nearly 25 mph and a range of 43.5 miles on a charge.” With a gyroscopic design that is designed to make it impossible to turn over, the applications are endless. Unfortunately, Segway doesn’t seem interested in making the S-Pod available to the average consumer, and “insists the S-Pod is meant to be used on closed campuses.”
Steve Jobs famously questioned the market choice for the Segway when he was first introduced to the device. “You’re sure your market is upscale consumers for transportation,” Jobs asked.
The S-Pod has tremendous potential to be a widely adopted transportation device—if Segway changes their target market for the device.
Tesla may have made headlines recently when it unveiled the Cybertruck, but it’s not the only game in town. Electric vehicle startup Rivian just announced it has raised an additional $1.3 billion in funding, for a total of nearly $3 billion in 2019.
Although Rivian has yet to produce a single truck, the company has been making waves in the industry, inking deals with Amazon and Ford. Rivian will produce 100,000 vans for Amazon and its technology will be used by Ford in its upcoming electric vehicles.
One of the things that makes Rivian an appealing alternative to Tesla is its more mainstream designs. The Cybertruck’s design have been one of its most polarizing features, looking like it came straight out of a science fiction movie. In contrast, at last year’s Los Angeles Auto Show, Rivian debuted a pickup and SUV that had a much more traditional aesthetic.
According to Rivian, Amazon, Ford and funds managed by BlackRock were part of this round of investment.
“Starting with a clean sheet, Rivian has developed its vehicles with adventurers at the core of every design and engineering decision,” according to the press release. “The company’s launch products, the R1T and R1S, deliver up to 400+ miles of range and provide an unmatched combination of performance, off-road capability and utility. These vehicles use the company’s flexible skateboard platform and will be produced at Rivian’s manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill., with customer deliveries expected to begin at the end of 2020.”
Waze, the popular community-driven traffic app, just received a major new feature in preparation for the winter season.
According to a press release provided to 9to5Google, Waze has launched Snow Warning, a feature aimed at helping drivers navigate through dangerous winter weather.
The new feature was created in partnership with the Virginia Department of Transportation and will build on the app’s crowdsourcing feature by allowing users to report snow covered, unplowed roads and icy conditions. This can be especially helpful when dealing with black ice, something that is difficult to detect.
The Virginia DoT plans to use data from Waze to better plan for future bad weather. In the meantime, Snow Warning is now live in 185 countries and can be accessed via Hazards > Weather.
Polte has announced its Internet of Things (IoT) Cloud is now available on the AWS Marketplace. Polte is a Cloud Location over Cellular (C-LoC) provider, offering a patented Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) solution as an alternative to traditional GPS.
According to the company website, “the Polte Cloud provides seamless indoor and outdoor coverage leveraging cloud computing and existing 4G and 5G cellular networks. No need to deploy thousands of Bluetooth beacons, hundreds of Wi-Fi access points, or launch more GPS/GNSS satellites – Polte uses global IoT mobile networks, which already reach 99% of the population.”
Not only is the Polte Location API available on the AWS Marketplace, but the company has also been invited to demo its API at AWS re:Invent 2019.
“Polte’s Cloud Software enhances Amazon’s ecosystem with an easy to use, secure and affordable geolocation offering,” said Ed Chao, Polte chief executive officer. “Polte delivers simply better location, and we are creating new and different opportunities never thought possible. If you make things, sell things or own things, Polte locates all those things.”
“Polte’s disruptive C-LoC technology is a software-only solution that makes it simple for developers to add indoor and outdoor location capability to their IoT applications for supply chain, asset and inventory management. Polte-enabled IoT devices listen to 4G and 5G cellular networks, the tracker sends the data via the open Polte Location API to the Polte Location Engine. The Polte Location Engine uses patented algorithms to determine and provide location data with building, block, neighborhood and city granularity. Polte’s simple implementation process allows developers and programmers to easily access Polte’s API after programming an AT command in an embedded module.
“Polte’s positioning technology can be integrated for use in a variety of industries, including aerospace, appliances, automotive, energy, food & beverage, government, healthcare, hospitality, industrial, manufacturing, retail, smart buildings, smart cities, and transportation-as-a-service for supply chain, asset, and inventory management. Whether tracking containers, pallets, machines, or components, Polte makes finding them easy, affordable and secure.”
Reuters is reporting that German logistics company DHL is planning on debuting an all-electric delivery van in the United States next year.
DHL will debut the Work L delivery van through its electric vehicle subsidiary StreetScooter beginning Spring 2020. The company will initially use the van in two U.S. markets, one on each coast, with full deployment coming in 2022 or 2023.
According to the Centre for Alternative Technology, cities around the world are working to significantly reduce emissions, with “cities such as Oslo, Antwerp, Melbourne and Copenhagen have risen to this bigger ambition and are pushing for 100 per cent greenhouse gas reductions by at least 2050.”
Companies such as DHL, Amazon and others are working to reduce their impact when making deliveries, especially when considering that the transportation industry was responsible for 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2010.
DHL already has a significant head start in this arena, thanks to StreetScooter. According an interview with Ulrich Stuhec, StreetScooter’s chief technology officer, StreetScooter has “the most experience on the road while others are still working on their first prototypes.”
In Amsterdam, Vienna and Germany, “roughly 10,000 of the 12,000 StreetScooter electric vehicles on the road make DHL deliveries.”
StreetScooter estimates their vehicles already save roughly 36,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, per truck.
Despite the many alternatives to fossil fuel, one segment of the market that has struggled to embrace them is manufacturing. Thanks to a company Bill Gates is backing, that may be about to change.
Heliogen is a solar-energy company that is looking to revolutionize manufacturing, thanks to an innovative way of implementing solar panels. By angling the solar mirrors so as to focus all of them on a single point of a tower, they act like a giant magnifying glass, generating ultra-high heat.
According to a press release, the company has achieved a breakthrough: for the first time commercially, a temperature of at least 1,000 degrees Celsius has been reached with solar energy. Previous solar technology had only been able to reach 565 degrees Celsius. The company plans to ultimately reach 1,500 degrees.
As a byproduct of the process, Heliogen can thermo-chemically split water, creating green hydrogen. The company sees it as an additional opportunity for manufacturing companies, as the byproducts can be used for transportation, heavy equipment or resold to a variety of industries.
Until now, fossil fuel alternatives have been more expensive, making it a tough sell for manufacturing to switch over. If Heliogen’s plans are successful, its tech could be the first viable fossil fuel alternative for the industry, not only helping it go green, but saving companies money in the process.
“The world has a limited window to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Bill Gross, CEO and Founder, Heliogen, and Founder and Chairman, Idealab. “We’ve made great strides in deploying clean energy in our electricity system. But electricity accounts for less than a quarter of global energy demand. Heliogen represents a technological leap forward in addressing the other 75 percent of energy demand: the use of fossil fuels for industrial processes and transportation. With low-cost, ultra-high temperature process heat, we have an opportunity to make meaningful contributions to solving the climate crisis.”
“Today, industrial processes like those used to make cement, steel, and other materials are responsible for more than a fifth of all emissions,” said Bill Gates. “These materials are everywhere in our lives but we don’t have any proven breakthroughs that will give us affordable, zero-carbon versions of them. If we’re going to get to zero-carbon emissions overall, we have a lot of inventing to do. I’m pleased to have been an early backer of Bill Gross’s novel solar concentration technology. Its capacity to achieve the high temperatures required for these processes is a promising development in the quest to one day replace fossil fuel.”
New York City’s traffic signals are going decidedly high-tech, with the rollout of IoT sensors, according to a press release by Transition Networks, Inc. The new system will monitor traffic at some 10,000 intersections and reboot malfunctioning signals.
Transition Networks is working with the NYC Department of Transportation to deploy Power-over-Ethernet (PoE+) switches at the intersections. PoE provides power and data over a single cable, making it ideal for the types of sensors and cameras needed.
“Today, intersections have more than traffic signals. As more transportation agencies look to use actionable intelligence to monitor trends and improve service, they are deploying technology to assess traffic congestion, safety and pedestrian counts. Transition Networks’ PoE solution will connect and power cameras and sensors at over 10,000 traffic intersections that collect this vital information. In addition, key features on the Transition Networks’ switches will save the agency time and costs associated with maintenance.
“Currently, if a device stops working at an intersection, the agency must take multiple actions prior to deploying a repair technician. This includes scheduling a technician to evaluate the issue and deploying a bucket truck to reach the device. Once the technician is at the site, the lane closures cause significant stress and traffic delays for motorists. Many times the fix only requires a reboot of the device. Transition Networks’ Auto Power Reset (APR) feature provides the ability to remotely reboot or manage Transition Networks’ equipment fixing the issue within minutes and eliminating all of the lane closure requirements. This feature alone will save the agency significant costs and lessen traffic disruptions by reducing the need to send a technician to inspect equipment.
“Another key feature is Transition Networks’ Device Management System (DMS) software, which creates an interactive map to see all connected devices, enabling the agency to pinpoint issues and quickly take action. DMS has been an important function for several smart city projects including an installation at New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge.”
According to a report by The Verge, Uber has said it will not share real-time electric scooter data with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and is filing a lawsuit against the department.
The suit revolves around LA’s use of Mobility Data Specification (MDS), a program LADOT developed to monitor dockless scooters that are becoming commonplace in many cities. The data provided by MDS can be used by city planners to evaluate traffic patterns, add needed bike lanes and more. The promise of data that has previously been unavailable has led cities across the country to adopt and contribute to MDS. LA, as well as Austin, Chattanooga, Columbus, Louisville, Omaha, San Jose and Seattle are all making MDS participation a condition for companies to receive the necessary permits to operate.
Privacy advocates, however, are concerned that MDS gives cities unprecedented insight into people’s activity, since every part of a scooter’s route is tracked and recorded. Uber—who acquired scooter company Jump—along with Lyft and Bird have objected to MDS from the beginning and vowed to challenge the legality of the software. In particular, the company is hoping the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA), which became law in 2015, will provide it the legal teeth necessary to challenge LA’s position.
The state’s Legislative Council has ruled that MDS may run afoul of CalECPA, specifically as the law prohibits local governments from requiring real-time data in exchange for an operating permit. The only exception is if a specific rider waves their right to privacy, although it must be waved by the rider, not by the ride-sharing company acting as an intermediary.
Uber and Lyft are trying to get a temporary restraining order prohibiting LA from revoking their licenses. In the long-term, however, the legal battle over MDS will have far-reaching repercussions for privacy-minded individuals and corporations.
Waze has long been a darling among travelers. A smartphone app that notifies drivers of delays, construction, vehicles pulled over on the side of the road or police trying to catch speeders, Waze provides valuable information and alternate routes to road warriors.
For cities, however, Waze and similar apps are often a nuisance, routing traffic through neighborhoods, subdivisions and backroads in an effort to avoid slowdowns on the main routes. This often causes congestion in neighborhoods and results in additional wear and tear on roads that were never intended to handle the extra load. In addition, because mobile mapping apps aren’t always accurate, there have been instances where drivers were directed to streets that were closed or being evacuated, not to mention sometimes recommending illegal turns.
According to the Daily Breeze, at least one major city is trying to tackle the problem head-on. Los Angeles ran a pilot program designed to help control cut-through traffic. The goal of the program was to “develop data sharing agreements” and the city “proposed restricting vehicle routing onto impacted street segments as a condition of entering into any data-sharing agreements.”
Apple Maps, TomTom and Waze were invited. Apple and TomTom were both willing to be part of a pilot program but Waze and, by extension, Google Maps were unwilling to participate. In response, L.A. Department of Transportation officials are looking at changing the L.A. Municipal Code to prohibit navigation apps from rerouting traffic “inconsistent with City street designations.”
Cities around the country will likely be watching L.A. to see what effect any proposed changes have.
Minimalism has transitioned from a trend into a lifestyle, proving it unnecessary to own the things you desire to use to be happy. Although the sharing economy is still in its beginning stages, it provides resources that have helped millions of Americans live to their fullest potential. Let’s discuss how you can maintain a great lifestyle without owning things.
The American Economy is thriving. The national unemployment rate is at a half-century low and nominal wage growth has reached a decade pinnacle – all while the economy continues to sprout. While these economic turnarounds are noteworthy, the standard cost of living has climbed 14% within the last three years – far outpacing wage growth. Consequently, Americans are jumping through hoops to afford a great lifestyle.
From 2017 to 2018, the cost of living hiked by more than 30% in Fresno, California; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Arlington and Austin, Texas; and Columbus, Ohio. In contrast, renters in 13 states typically spend more than half of their net income on necessities. Simultaneously, real real wages haven’t changed in over 50-years. Average hourly wages sat at $20.27 in 1964, converting to $2.50 in 2018-dollars, and $22.65 in 2018.
With stagnant wages and an increasingly costly economy, luxury lifestyles are becoming as fictional as The American Dream.More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 resting in their savings account while 32% have no savings at all. In 2019, 2 in 3 Americans haven’t been able to afford a summer vacation averaging $1,979. This has heavily influenced the general decline of happiness since the 1990s.
Believe it or not, money can buy and influence happiness as it can fulfil your needs and desires, as well as reducing stress when under hardships. Furthermore, it has been reported that your emotional wellbeing increases as salaries rise, providing more comfort in your life, up to $75k per year. Self-reflections become more positive with a higher income, up to $95k per year, as well. However, the key to happiness isn’t just having money, but how we spend it.
Here’s a look at the science on buying happiness. The human mind wanders 47% of the time, often to a dark place, but anticipation and good memories counteract these negative thoughts. Participants of a 2003 study felt happier when anticipating and engaging in a planned experience to later recall on. This provides a sense of self: giving experiences to mention when telling your life story. Participants in a 2012 study feel experiences reflected their identity and values. Sharing experiences is a great way to connect with others since most people despise hearing others speak about their stuff as it could leave you feeling inferior.
The sharing economy promotes peer-to-peer platforms that provide access to shared goods and services down to transportation and lodging. Utilizing the sharing economy is an easy and environmental approach to increasing personal optimism, saving money, and even making money by turning your dormant belongings into extra cash. Discover more about the sharing economy below.
“Scale is the primary driver toward profitability,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “It’s getting big. We’ve got over a billion rides per quarter and we’ve got trips growing at 35 percent on a year on year basis. It’s a combination of growing top-line over 35 percent, technology innovation to delight the customer and take costs down at the same time, and then good old fashioned efficiency, making sure that our corporate costs don’t grow as fast as our revenue. All of those together give you a formula to get to profitability.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber Technologies Inc., discusses how Uber can continue to be transformational and ultimately be profitable in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:
Uber Can Continue To Be Transformational
We have resolved all of the governance conflicts that the company had. There were many legal issues that the company was involved with. We have SoftBank as a partner and you want SoftBank to be behind you and a big partner and a big investor. We have a great investor base. We’ve taken the company public and company’s revenue, gross bookings, have grown 75 percent since I joined. We now have a path to profitability. So while we’ve had bumps on the road, and every adventure has bumps on the road, I like where we are. I especially like the position we are in now for the next two years.
I think Uber (can continue to be transformational over the next decade). Really what Uber has done is brought transportation and opportunity at this point to what we believe is just a small segment of the population. We’ve got over four million driver-partners all over the world which is a huge number. It is unparalleled. But we want Uber to be available to everybody. What we are doing now is going into the next step of introducing other transportation choices to Uber. We’ve always gone with pool, but for example, we are testing busses in Cairo now to even bring the price of Uber down to the next level, a dollar or a buck fifty, etc.
The Rideshare Business Itself Is Turning Quite Profitable
We are introducing bikes and scooters for personal electric mobility. Essentially, anyway that you want to get around your city we are going to be there for you. It will be mostly Uber goods but we will also have other third parties such as transit, such as one of our partners Lime as well. Any way that you want to get around we want Uber to be there. And if you want food, if you want even local commerce which I think we will power or even Uber Eats or some of our other services will be there for you as well.
If you look at our rideshare business, it covered our overhead less than about $100 million. The rideshare business itself is turning quite profitable. We believe that the profits in the rideshare business are not only going to grow top-line but we believe we are going to grow the bottom-line as well. Then there are other businesses, Eats, autonomous, freight, etc. These are extraordinary opportunities that we are funding. I do believe that we are going to prove to our investors that we can take on a serial basis big parts of our business, turn them profitable, and use those parts of our business to fund investments in other areas.
Our Formula To Profitability
I’m very confident that Uber can be profitable. I think the losses that we reported, it was a $5 billion loss from an accounting perspective. If you live in an accounting world that’s a big loss. I live in the real world. Actually, in the real world or EBITDA losses of $656 million were lower than Q1 and were on a good path in terms of our EBITDA losses as well. None of this is going to be easy. All of this is going to take great execution from all of our teams, marketing, technology, etc. We are going to be demanding our employees to be doing even more with less and to execute incredibly effectively in order for us to grow the top-line and the bottom-line as well.
Scale (is the primary driver toward profitability). It’s getting big. We’ve got over a billion rides per quarter and we’ve got trips growing at 35 percent on a year on year basis. We think we can use technology to be much more efficient. For example, instead of you now having to email a call center agent or call a call center agent if you have issues, you can just do it in the app. These are technology innovations that allow customers to have a better experience and at the same time they bring down costs. It’s a combination of growing top-line over 35 percent, technology innovation to delight the customer and take costs down at the same time, and then good old fashioned efficiency, making sure that our corporate costs don’t grow as fast as our revenue. All of those together give you a formula to get to profitability.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Our Formula To Profitability
“Not only do we expect to hit cashflow break-even, but we expect this business to be very profitable at maturity,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “I think that going forward our spending declines as a percent of revenue. So when you’re growing trips 35 percent year on year your spending is going to increase. But we’re going to get leverage on the marketing line and we’re definitely going to get fixed cost leverage going forward.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, discusses the company’s latest quarterly results and predicts that Uber will ultimately be very profitable in an interview on CNBC:
Uber Is Much More Than a Rideshare Company Now
The IPO for us is a once in a lifetime moment. It was a really important moment for the company. Some of what we did like the driver appreciation award, almost $300 million that we put in the hands of over a million drivers globally were really important for us to do. It created a messy P&L from an accounting standpoint. I think it is hiding underlying trends that are actually very healthy for the company. If you look at trends for the company which is going to matter long-term, you have got gross bookings over $16 billion growing 37 percent on a year on year basis. You’ve got trip volume, and trips are units, growing 35 percent year on year. You’ve got audience, monthly active platform customers, now over 100 million, growing 30 percent. The actual revenue growth excluding the driver appreciation award was up 26 percent.
What I did tell our investors is to expect that to accelerate into the back half of the year. The back half of the year you are going to see if trends stay the same, revenue growth in excess of 30 percent. When you look at profitability, we beat our own internal targets and we beat Street targets as well. We came in at a loss of $656 million. It’s still a big loss but the losses are improving and the take rates are improving. If you back out some of those one-time expenses, we went from a loss of $800 million to a loss of $656 million. We got much more efficient on the marketing front. We actually took marketing as a percentage down while we were still growing the top line over 30 percent as well. This is much more than a rideshare company now, it’s a transportation company.
We Expect This Business To Be Very Profitable At Maturity
We are in a situation as far as the network effect of the company where we don’t need to increase the marketing and incentives. We can go in with loyalty plans both for riders and drivers that are going to add to leverage and ultimately profitability of the company. This is a marketplace company that has over 20 percent revenue margins and revenue margins are increasing year on year. Not only do we expect to hit cashflow break-even, but we expect this business to be very profitable at maturity.
I think that going forward our spending declines as a percent of revenue. So when you’re growing trips 35 percent year on year your spending is going to increase. But we’re going to get leverage on the marketing line and we’re definitely going to get fixed cost leverage going forward. I think that this quarter proved that out and we have to keep hitting our marks in the next couple of quarters. It’s a super-competitive marketplace but we are confident. We like what we saw operationally this quarter.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: We Expect This Business To Be Very Profitable at Maturity
“Our partnership with Walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scalability of autonomous vehicles will happen in the B2B short or logistic space,” says Gatik AI CEO Guatam Narang. “Our autonomous vehicles will be moving goods for Walmart from one of their dock stores to their neighborhood markets in Bentonville, Arkansas. Think of our solution as filling the gap. We call it the middle mile. It’s hugely underserved and it’s a huge business opportunity for us.”
Guatam Narang, co-founder and CEO of Gatik AI, discusses their partnership with Walmart to test B2B self-driving delivery vans near their headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Narang was interviewed on CNBC:
Walmart Launches Self-Driving Delivery Vans
Our partnership with Walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scalability of autonomous vehicles will happen in the B2B short or logistic space. That’s what Gatik focuses on. Both of the companies are very excited about this. Gatik is focusing on scaling and commercialization of the autonomous vehicle technology. Think of our solution as filling the gap. We call it the middle mile. It’s hugely underserved and it’s a huge business opportunity for us.
We believe that while operating the vehicles back and forth on known routes we can over-optimize our algorithms to perfect these routes. This is a much more constrained environment. The promise of autonomy can be realized sooner than B2C delivery applications or other applications of autonomous driving technology like passenger transportation. With our application, we are focusing on introducing these vehicles without safety drivers before a B2C delivery application or a passenger transportation application does the same.
Autonomous Vehicles Moving Goods From Docks to Markets
We are actually the first company that is working with Walmart for this particular use case. What that means is we are not delivering anything to the end consumer. Our autonomous vehicles will be moving goods for Walmart from one of their dock stores to their neighborhood markets in Bentonville, Arkansas. With some of the other companies that Walmart is working with the focus is more on B2C deliveries.
Our focus is to move goods between businesses in an urban environment. The whole idea is let’s not try to change end consumer behavior. Let’s try to bring the promise of autonomous vehicles to businesses and help them save on operating cost in the near-term future.
Gatik Is Focusing Their Driverless Tech On the Middle Mile
Gatik is focusing on the middle mile. It’s filling the gap between long-haul trucking and the smaller sidewalk delivery robots. The middle mile is the most underserved segment of the whole supply chain. It is also the most expensive part of the whole supply chain. The reason to focus on this middle mile is to help our customers, which are businesses, help them save a lot on the operating cost. In addition to that, there is a huge shortage of drivers in this segment. With our solution, our customers can help fulfill. For us, it’s a huge validation. Right now all the testing and all the deployment is with the safety driver. The aim of the company is to take the driver off, scale the solution, and commercialize this technology. At scale, we are talking about saving up to 50 percent for our customers. The focus is to operate the vehicles on public roads.
When we talk about operating these vehicles between businesses, there are a lot of constraints that we can introduce. For example, very famously, FedEx and UPS trucks, they mostly take right turns because it’s more fuel-efficient for them. If we have something similar for our solution what that means is we wouldn’t have to worry about changing lanes. We wouldn’t have to worry about solving a very tricky situation in our space, that is unprotected left turns. As a company and as the solution we have a clear go-to-market strategy by installing or introducing some of these constraints. Not taking left turns is just one example, even though the technology stack can handle left turns, lane change, intersections, and traffic light navigation today.
Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO Guatam Narang
For businesses, especially those operating heavily within E-commerce, what do truly sustainable solutions look like? From open lines of communication to central intelligence systems, as the pressure in the shipping and logistics departments mounts, retailers have more to focus on than just creating quality goods and services. Artificial intelligence is changing the game for sustainability in supply chains.
In 2018 alone, eight out of ten customers were unlikely to shop again with a retailer after a poor delivery experience. Setting aside dissatisfaction of products, poor quality, or too high prices, consumer focus on fast and reliable delivery is quickly becoming a top priority. Between 2016 and 2017, E-commerce sales themselves grew by 16%, express shipping air freight volume grew by 9%, and US imports increased 5%. As a result, companies in the US are spending a total of $1.5 trillion on shipping and logistics, and yet, it still may not be enough.
Amazon shipping options have undoubtedly raised the bar for both consumer expectations and E-commerce as a whole. Free two-day shipping, for its millions of customers, is well worth the yearly Prime subscription and keeps shoppers localized within Amazon’s marketplace. Yet, three in four consumers would choose another retailer over Amazon if that retailer offered better delivery options – no small feat.
Perhaps more so than any other department, shipping and logistics come with plenty of unique complications and problematic inefficiencies. Too many inefficiencies and the consumer base is likely to notice. For late and unsatisfactory deliveries 90% of consumers expect a full refund; additionally, their expectations range from notifications, flexible delivery windows, and real-time tracking visibility. This can be tricky to manage for businesses, especially when juggling the existing inefficiencies of transportation of tools, equipment, and even people. Over 2018, empty trucks traveling accounted for 16% of total mileage used by just one US company and unscheduled vehicle or equipment repairs made up 65% of all maintenance costs.
Businesses with huge logistical demands need better solutions than just traditional operations efficiency standards. Now that customer experience and satisfaction is tied so deeply in with shipping and delivery, new standards are required – and smart suppliers are looking to AI. A 2017 study among retailers revealed that 71% of those retailers surveyed found that sharing logistical data like shipment, order, and delivery data, among all departments, was an important step for their business.
While AI steps into the service industry, its presence in the world of e-commerce is more symbiotic and stabilizing. With AI, retailers and manufacturers can have opportunities to aggregate data from all parts of operations, even past data, to help build better and longer lasting solutions. In more board terms, AI is able to predict market demand and shift to help recommend solutions for adjusting inventory and avoiding excess, passing efficiency on to the customer.
When the success of a business hangs in the balance of consumer satisfaction, and consumer satisfaction lies within shipping and delivery quality, smart business leaders make proactive move to streamline operations. Learn more about how AI is making sustainability possible.
We believe the Edge is the next frontier, says HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “When we talk about the enterprise of the future, we see an edge-centric, cloud-enabled, data-driven, enterprise,” notes Neri. “What that means is the cloud is moving closer to where the data is created. That’s driven by the use cases we see around us.”
Neri adds: “Whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, or transportation, everything is being connected. It started with connectivity and then soon after that is the security aspect. One thing is connecting devices and apps and one thing is connecting things to the network. That’s why our Aruba platform is such a unique asset because it provides connectivity and security with AI built-in at the core.”
Driving the Acceleration of the Digital Transformation
I would like to characterize that we had another strong quarter for the company. That’s further evidence that our strategy is working to accelerate the Intelligent Edge and to drive profitable growth in the core segment of the market called Hybrid IT. Because we are continuing to build our portfolio and we see the demand steady, we’re actually very confident to raise our guidance that we obviously beat in Q1. We see the rest of fiscal year 2019 as strong for us and give us the confidence to raise the guidance driven by the portfolio and the innovation we have and in the feedback we get from customers.
We see the demand steady. We have not seen any evidence of a downturn (due to tariffs, shutdown, etc.). Obviously, we are continuing to monitor the uncertainties around the globe, but the reality is that customers are making critical investment to drive that acceleration of the digital transformation. That’s all driven by the fact that the data around us has continued to grow. They need to extract the value of that data much faster than ever before. That’s why we see growth in segments like high performance compute, which for us grew 50 percent. Software around infrastructure grew 70 percent. Also, the connectivity in the Edge grew 20 percent in the wireless business. We see that as a continued trend.
When people ask me what’s going on around the globe with Brexit, for example, our UK business actually grew double digits. When you think about the government shutdown, actually one of the key products we sell in the government is high-performance compute, and it actually grew triple digits. So it has not had the impact, but obviously, we continue to monitor what’s going on around the globe.
Next Frontier: Edge Centric, Cloud-Enabled, Data-Driven
We believe the Edge is the next frontier. When we talk about the enterprise of the future, we see an Edge centric cloud-enabled data-driven enterprise. What that means is the cloud is moving closer to where the data is created. That’s driven by the use cases we see around us. Whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, or transportation, everything is being connected. It started with connectivity and then soon after that is the security aspect. One thing is connecting devices and apps and one thing is connecting things to the network. That’s why our Aruba platform is such a unique asset because it provides connectivity and security with AI built-in at the core.
3 Cs of the Intelligent Edge
Ultimately, it brings that cloud computing closer to actually where the data is created. We think about it as an integrated solution. Obviously, we need to provide customers the tools to be able to protect themselves and be compliant with the new regulatory policies being put in place, like for example, GPI in Europe. We are really focused on that and we actually believe we have one of the best solutions at the Edge today. The data continues to outpace the compute capacity and actually, 75 percent of that data is created at the Edge. That’s very exciting and that’s why I’m bullish about these Edge compute capabilities that the customers need going forward. It’s just physics.
AI is a Big Opportunity for Us
Two years from now we’re going to create twice the amount of data that we created in our entire human history. That data needs to be stored, it needs to be managed, it needs to be compliant, and most importantly, business outcome has to be derived. That’s why we see the need to bring that cloud compute closer to where the data is in a different form factor. We see AI as a big opportunity for us and all integrated with connectivity and security.
Customers are telling us that they are accelerating the digital transformation. We have a saying that the future belongs to the fast. People who can extract insights from the data faster are going to continue to win. We are very bullish about it because we have one of the best portfolios we ever had and our innovation is second to none.
The US is Ahead with 5G
5G is going to be an exciting opportunity for us. The US is ahead and is going to be one of the first countries, if not the first country together with Japan and others, to roll out 5G. We already see evidence of that. Our opportunity with 5G is to provide customers an integrated experience. 5G is a type of connectivity, but it is not the only type of connectivity. You are talking about 5G, talking about wire connectivity, you talk about wired network connectivity or wireless connectivity.
What customers are asking us is give me one integrated experience with one security control play. That’s where Aruba fits perfectly in that we’re going to provide a cloud-based solution that integrates 5G into that experience.
Aurora CEO Chris Urmson says that there is this amazing opportunity to go and take the next step in democratizing transportation. Aurora, an independent autonomous vehicle technology startup, has secured over $530 million in funding led by Sequoia, Amazon, and T. Rowe Price. The inclusion of Amazon in this round raises the prospect that Aurora will help power Amazon’s well-known ambitions to provide autonomous delivery.
“This is a company that is a technology giant and they’re a massive logistics company,” says Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson. “We’re just excited to have them as a partner and we’ll see if we can make them a customer at some point.”
Chris Urmson, Co-founder & CEO of autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora, discussed the most recent investment in the company and the future of driverless technology in an interview with Bloomberg Technology:
It’s Amazing to Have a Great Partner in Amazon
It’s amazing to have a great partner in Amazon. This is a company that is a technology giant and they’re a massive logistics company. We’re just excited to have them as a partner and we’ll see if we can make them a customer at some point. I can’t really speak to Amazon but let me tell you how we think about it. At Aurora we’re building a driver and that driver can move people and ultimately it will move goods as well. We look at Amazon and see this incredible logistics company and we look at an opportunity to help them with that over time.
We’re really excited about the investment in Aurora. That’s an incredible vote of confidence for us as a young company. The folks we have around the table with Sequoia and Amazon and T. Rowe Price is great. We’re going to spend it on hiring great people and bringing it in. This is a big problem and we need lots of people and that’ll be a big part of it.
We’re Building a Driver
We’re building a driver and the idea is you should be able to get in your car and sit back read a book or have a nap and get from A to B. We’ve been at it for about two years now and we’ve got this great group of people who’ve joined us, so we’re about 200 people now. It’s just exciting to see the progress we’re making on the software. We’re still developing it so we don’t have a product yet that we ship to customers, but our test team is out on the roads. We’ve got vehicles on the roads in California and Pennsylvania as well.
I think our approach is probably similar to the way that Google is approaching it. They’re building a driver and they’re integrating that. They’re buying vehicles from people and then doing what they’re going to do with it. Our model was to do the thing that we can be the best in the world at, and we think that is building that driving capability. Then we go and work with companies like Volkswagen and Hyundai and ultimately with other companies in the transportation sector. What we’re really excited about though is that we’re actually an independent player. So people that are working with us have confidence that we’re going to be supporting them and their interests.
Aurora is Democratizing Transportation
What we’re seeing is this technology that has an incredible opportunity to save lives and make the roads more efficient and make it less expensive and more accessible to get around. Like anything that’s going to be transformational, it takes a while. It’s a new technology and it’s bridging between two industries, between the technology industry and the automotive industry. Anytime you have that level of complexity it takes a while to figure it out.
We look at it and we see this incredible green field. There’s this amazing opportunity to go and take the next step in democratizing transportation. We’re going to be there with our partners and we think there’s lots of room for others to play too.
Heart of the Technology is Anticipation
I think the heart of the technology is really anticipating how others are going to drive on the road. Our vehicles today do a good job of seeing other people, whether it’s a pedestrian or cyclist or another car, and then it’s anticipating what they are about to do next. Are they about to step in the road? Is that vehicle about to make a lane change in front of us? If you can do that well then you become what we talk about as a defensive driver and you avoid these kinds of catch-22 situations.
There are subtle cues. As a car’s driving along, even if it doesn’t turn on the turn signal, if it starts to drift in the lane it might be about to make a lane change. If you’re approaching an intersection it might be that some car wants to make a move over. Part of the magic of this technology is getting to the point where we’re picking up those subtle cues in the software and then reacting to them safely.
Car makers are recognizing that this is an important technology. They see this as part of their future. For many of them, they’re going to move from being car makers to companies that provide mobility. The key ingredient to that is having a driver in their system and that’s what Aurora brings to them.
Aurora is Democratizing Transportation, Says Aurora CEO Chris Urmson
Autonomous is an enormous technology, says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Following the unfortunate accident that happened last year in Arizona, Uber took a retreat from autonomous vehicles. However, Uber has taken that time to rebuild how they are building that product.
“It will bring huge strides in safety, and huge strides in making transportation available to more people around the world,” says Khosrowshahi. “Anytime you have a technology that is as earth-shaking as autonomous, it doesn’t come easy.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, discusses their short-term retreat from autonomous vehicles and the growth and profitability of Uber going forward in an interview on CNBC at Davos 2019:
Autonomous is an Enormous Technology
We certainly took a retreat (from autonomous vehicles) based on the accident that happened that last year. We took that opportunity to really rebuild how we built product. But I do think that autonomous is an enormous technology. It will bring huge strides in safety, and huge strides in making transportation available to more people around the world. Anytime you have a technology that is as earth-shaking as autonomous, it doesn’t come easy.
If there’s one thing that Uber is about it’s about innovation risk. I don’t think it’s a have-to, it’s we want to be at the forefront. We want to be at the forefront of building out autonomous technology in a live network. We don’t need to build it for every single circumstance. We don’t need to build it for bad weather. We don’t need to build it for if they’re accidents, etc. We can build autonomous and launch it for simple situations one step at a time.
I think that the timeline (of launching autonomous) has proven to be more difficult than we thought. I think that regulation is going to play a big part in that introduction. I do think that because we run a live network the problem that we’re solving for us is going to be simpler than than anyone else. We are completely open to partnering with third-party autonomous because ultimately we believe in the technology. We want to be a part of it. It’s a great opportunity, but ultimately we think this will be good for society.
We Want to Build Sustainable Profitable Growth
What we want to build is sustainable growth that can be profitable. Sometimes near-term, for example, if you look at one of our largest and fastest growing businesses UberEats, home delivery of food. It delivers from over 200,000 restaurants in under 30 minutes. It’s a magical experience.
We have had cities in which the Eats product has become profitable. but essentially once we saw that program working we’re accelerating city launches and early cities early on are unprofitable. But we know that the model is sustainably profitable over a long period of time. So we think about near-term growth with long term profits.
Growth Now in Concert with City Regulators
I think that one area that we can control is making sure that our growth is now in concert with regulators the cities in which we operate. I think that in the past, and to some extent was a strength, but it’s not something that is sustainable, we grew just purely based on consumer demand.
We didn’t necessarily take the time to have a dialogue with society, with regulators, and with cities as to growth that serves all of the constituencies. We’re having that dialogue now. It sometimes causes complexity in our model and sometimes causes us to pause, but it creates a lasting model.
What’s special about Uber is we’re part of life in the cities. Were a huge labor force etc., so we have got to take that time and have that dialogue. In the majority of municipalities, their goal is to improve life for their citizens and life with Uber, life with UberEats, life with Jump Bikes is better. It’s really a question of how we can achieve our goals but be respectful of some of the limits that they put on us.
This Isn’t About Privacy, These Are People’s Lives
What was happening was that my teams and operating teams, the folks on the ground in Mexico, in Brazil, and in the US, they all came to me and said, “Listen with the numbers getting this big and with our platform getting as large we have to take responsibility for the platform.” I’ve got to give credit to my operators. This wasn’t like the moral CEO coming down.
This isn’t about privacy, these are people’s lives. We’ve got to invest in safety even if it causes short-term pain and growth. We came together as a team and we’re building technology, we’re making sure that the background checks, etc., all of that is being done. We have a 911 button just in case something happens. There’s a whole host of activity going into safety and it came from the team.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg says that 5G is much more than just your typical mobile network speed improvement. 5G is a transformative technology that will power the Fourth Industrial Revolution and dramatically change society in the process. Like the three Industrial Revolution’s before this one, the innovations that are enabled by 5G are what will define this technology advancement.
Last year Verizon launched the first 5G network with 5G Home. There is so much to come from 5G this year and the years to come. 5G will change everything. The pace of technology change that we have seen in the last decade has been fast. The only thing we know for sure is that the pace of change is going to be faster in the future. We are going to see technology changes that are going to transform people, businesses, and society.
We are facing multiple challenges on this earth, our daily work life, things around us, climate change, and we are heading into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Think about all of these challenges and the Fourth Industrial Revolution together with 5G. Together with all the new technology acronyms like VR, AR, AI, and more. All of that together is really what we are talking about when it comes to the technology change that is inevitable that we are going to see in the future.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution Will Be Built on 5G
For us here we are on the cloud. It’s really to see that we are using this change and shape it in a direction that is actually transforming and doing good. The next area of technology advancement is going to be built on 5G. Most importantly, this is a different industrial revolution. The first one was the steam engine. The second one was electricity and the third one was digitization. All of them have a general purpose technology as a base. Then you innovated tremendously on it.
The steam engine, of course, on steamboats connecting continents, trade resulting. Electricity changed everything. Then of course, with digitalization that brought out all the PC computers, the internet and all of that. These were enormous transformations. The general technology for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is actually the total connectivity that 5G can bring. That’s what I see as a huge opportunity for all of us and our society to use in the next era of technology transformation.
5G is a Quantum Leap Compared to 4G
So what is 5G? 5G is a promise of so much than just an increase in wireless technology. From the beginning we had the 1G, the 2G, the 3G, and then the 4G. They were sort of leaps of differences when it comes to speed and throughput. When we think about 5G we think about 10 gigabits per second for throughput. We think about 10x improvement in latency. We think about 1,000 times more data volume to the network. It’s just radically different. It’s a quantum leap compared to 4G.
We have already done some real type of examples. We had an Indianapolis 500 driver that had blacked out windows driving extremely fast with 5G. Latency was so low you could actually drive it.
https://youtu.be/Dw2GT95Vyxc
Those type of things require innovation. Innovation requires a lot of different people and constituencies working with us. When I think about technology I also think a lot about how that can do good for our society. We are entering an era of more challenging things around the world and technology is one of the most important things that can transform it and make it sustainable. At Verizon, we call that human ability. We coined that word because we think about the human in the middle of technology to do right.
The Eight Currencies of 5G
When I think about 5G one of the big differences when we started developing 5G it was thought about giving a new type of solution for industry and for society. Ultimately consumers will have it. The capabilities of earlier wireless technology usually have speed and throughput assets as a different capability. We have eight capabilities in 5G. I call them the eight currencies.
The Eight Currencies of 5G
With the eight currencies of 5G you can do a service on them, you can monetize on them, you can build on them. This is very different than any previous wireless technology. There’s the Peak Data Rate and Mobile Data Volume, but it’s also the Mobility. It’s also how many Connected Devices that you can have. It’s Energy Efficiency and Service Deployment. And then, of course, it’s Reliability and Latency. There are eight currencies that 5G can give to the user. Whether it’s a device, a person, or an industry, that depends on how we are going to innovate on that.
It’s important that we have already started on a journey. Verizon started years ago to start building a network because you need a lot of fiber and you need a lot of dense networks to build these eight currencies. You need real estate to do mobile edge compute. Not only that you need spectrum. In some cases you need millimeter wave spectrum that is giving you enormous throughput and bandwidth.
Peak Rate and Thoughput
What I’m excited about is what innovation can we do on this currency? Let’s talk about the currencies that we have here. The Peak Rate and the Throughput are extremely important when it comes to doing things with speed. The first thing that comes to mind is how quickly can you download a movie on 5G. Today on 4G it takes 3 to 4 minutes with a 90-minute movie. It’s going to take you 10 seconds when you have ultra-wideband. So that’s a use case, but that’s really to limit yourself with what you can do with it.
There’s so much more that you can do when you have that type of Speed and Throughput. It’s a quantum leap compared to what we have today. It’s about rethinking how you can use the increased speed and throughput when you talk about speed at 10 gigabits per second and throughput probably 1000 times more than today. I’m excited about those two currencies, but there are other currencies.
Mobility and Connected Devices
Two other currencies are Mobility and Connected Devices. Mobility or mobile connections, that’s how it’s actually measured in speed. In a 4G network today you can basically capture a radio signal up to 350 kilometers per hour. In 5G it’s roughly 500 kilometers per hour. Why does that matter? Think about high speed trains. Think about things that are going to move extremely fast in the future that are going to bring efficient transportation. With 5G you can captures that.
When it comes to IoT and Connected Devices, one of the limitations of wireless technology today is that you can roughly connect 100,000 devices per square kilometer with 4G. With 5G you can do 1 million. Suddenly you can have massive IoT in order to transform big cities, industry, or behaviours where we need to address challenges that we have today. These two currencies are also very different and address different business cases.
Service Deployment and Energy Efficiency
Let’s talk about two other currencies or capabilities, Service Deployment and Energy Efficiency. Service Deployment is a little hard to explain, but what it’s really about if flexible service deployment where you can match your software with specific customer needs. Think about if you want to do a virtual classroom with five different cities and you want them to have the same software. Today on the 4G network that would take me weeks or even months.
The promise of 5G is that can go down to minutes where we can spin the new service based on the software demands of the customer. These are enormous changes. We just need to think how can we innovate on that?
Now there is of course Energy Efficiency. Here the world is facing the challenges of climate change and our industry needs to think about all of the equipment we are using and that everything we are using is improving how much CO2 we are doing. There are a lot of things coming out but we just need to continue and we need to do that collectively.
5G is promising to reduce up to 90 percent of the power usage that we have with 4G. This is about making the Fourth Industrial Revolution a positive change. The first and second industrial revolutions produced a lot of CO2 emissions because they were the steam engines and electricity. Here we have a chance together to actually power and uniquely address those two as well.
Latency and Reliability
The last two currencies are Latency and Reliability. On the latency side today in the mobile networks we can get to 100 milliseconds or 50 milliseconds. In 5G we will go down to 10 milliseconds. Why is that important? Everything realtime, AR, VR, needs to come down to at least 20 milliseconds in order to avoid delays. There are so many other use cases you can do as well.
Latency and Reliability are very important in the network. It comes down to how we can innovate. It’s just so dramatic how much difference with what you can do things with 5G than with the previous technology cycles.
